On Taxonomy of the Imperial
Feb. 1st, 2020 11:44 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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jennafansDisclaimer: This is like, 100% spurious bulls-t but I was asked politely to compile my thoughts on the subject for public consumption and SOMEHOW I have a dreamwidth and not a tumblr.
There are similarities between different splats or species of Imperial or near-Imperial entity! Some of these similarities are named and seem to correlate to some shared conceptual genus! Some of these aren't named but I'm going to name them anyway! It is my semi-sincere belief that examining these commonalities can lead to a greater understanding of the Imperial beings in question and my completely sincere belief that it's fun to talk about.
The best-attested genus of Ymera is the Angels. The text is pretty clear that an Angel is descended from the fire that kindled in Heaven at the beginning of Creation, whether they be, you know, regular Angels or the Fallen. This categorization is very neat, very textual, and I am going to f-k it all up by asserting that Warmains are also Angels. Listen:
The Excrucians were born when Heaven looked up into Ninuan and saw its own death-- and while Strategists, Mimics, and Deceivers are born of worldly things (you know, sort of), Warmains were born of Ninuan, were born of that moment. They are vast and glorious the way Angels are glorious (Creature of the Light was considered a Warmain arc for a while!). They are the deathly reflection of the fire of Heaven, and in this way are the same sort-of-thing as Angels and Devils are.
Common characteristics of Angels are a very weird idiosyncratic love for things of Creation usually expressed through terrifying violence, Creature of the Light, and a strong shared connection to a certain place.
The other named taxon is the Magisters. Darklords, Lightlords, and Wildlords are Magisters, as are Chuubo's-era Strategists (and, I contend, Nobilis-era Strategists as well). What a Magister actually is is less clear. They seem to be divinities rooted in the Imperial nature of humanity, before Eden's fall, and that nature seems to involve the original Ninuanni nature of death. This obviously scans well for Light and Darklords and is fairly applicable to the eternally-dying Strategists as well. The relationship Wildlord have to death and humanity is... less clear. I think Wildlords defy classification by their very nature but their roots in Ninuan and their rattling of the chains that stop them from sliding back into the dream-fugue of Ninuanni death seems to cause them to quality.
Magisters are a very broad taxon; commonalities are a fixation with death, powers that come from their own failings and inhumanity, and making me uncomfortable.
Then: There seems to be a genus of divinities who are born instead from life, which is not yet named. These include the True Gods of Earthly life and the Aaron's Serpents of the cosmic life-principle that is the Ash. I suspect these also include many of the weirder and more localized world-gods, though information on those is thin on the ground. I am not convinced that I'm not bullsh-ting this category into being, either, but in the interests of self-indulgence I will call these Wiggly Things.
Wiggly Things are very large, have Called Away and Child of the Ash, do not appear human the way the other splats usually do, and wiggle.
As an interlude I would like to refuse to classify Actuals or Mimics. Actuals are prions, they are un-alive things with life-like characteristics, which reproduce by strange crystallization rather than the traditional way by which things are born. Mimics are virii; they are structurally similar because this structure suits their ends, but they are more closely related to the taxon they're derived from than to each other.
Listen:
There are un-Imperial powers that challenge this order. There are human demigods who scramble their way to the society of the divine. There are entities that are less a rolling world-law in themselves and more clever magicians with fast and obvious miracles, who play with their divine nature rather than embodying it.
These are the Powers, obviously, but these are also Zu and Deceivers. These are humans, or, people at least, who have attained the divine nature. There's obviously cause to lump Strategists into this category as well, or to exclude Decievers from it, due to their weird Ninuani/Creational dual backstory thing, but I am asserting that Strategists belong with the death gods and Deceivers belong with the people who borrow power from others and define their own nature.
It's hard for me to actually explain why I see this through-line, why this is a matter of essential nature rather than convergent evolution, but this is my post and I'll say whatever the hell I want on it. These three splats have a sort of strange kinship; they're essentially presented as knowable in a way that the other splats aren't.
(Okay, Zu are presented as extremely mysterious, but the existence of a mystery implies that, if we only knew, we could understand.)
Nobles define their Estate through will and practice. Deciever pStates relate exclusively to themselves. Zu cultivate their inner magic through practice and discipline. They are masters, then, of their own nature. It is something they enact rather than embody. This is where Strategists fail to fit the pattern; Strategists are cursed with their nature, tangled up in it, sick with it, in a way that the other formerly-human gods aren't.
I shall call these Kung Fu Dudes.
Kung Fu Dudes are recognized by their origins, their relative approachability even if they can be kind of a bag of d-ks, their having Star Quality, and their bevy of miraculous abilities that kind of seem like just Really Strong Magic.
(Please suggest better splat names to me, Wiggly Things and Kung Fu Dudes are jokes)
There are similarities between different splats or species of Imperial or near-Imperial entity! Some of these similarities are named and seem to correlate to some shared conceptual genus! Some of these aren't named but I'm going to name them anyway! It is my semi-sincere belief that examining these commonalities can lead to a greater understanding of the Imperial beings in question and my completely sincere belief that it's fun to talk about.
The best-attested genus of Ymera is the Angels. The text is pretty clear that an Angel is descended from the fire that kindled in Heaven at the beginning of Creation, whether they be, you know, regular Angels or the Fallen. This categorization is very neat, very textual, and I am going to f-k it all up by asserting that Warmains are also Angels. Listen:
The Excrucians were born when Heaven looked up into Ninuan and saw its own death-- and while Strategists, Mimics, and Deceivers are born of worldly things (you know, sort of), Warmains were born of Ninuan, were born of that moment. They are vast and glorious the way Angels are glorious (Creature of the Light was considered a Warmain arc for a while!). They are the deathly reflection of the fire of Heaven, and in this way are the same sort-of-thing as Angels and Devils are.
Common characteristics of Angels are a very weird idiosyncratic love for things of Creation usually expressed through terrifying violence, Creature of the Light, and a strong shared connection to a certain place.
The other named taxon is the Magisters. Darklords, Lightlords, and Wildlords are Magisters, as are Chuubo's-era Strategists (and, I contend, Nobilis-era Strategists as well). What a Magister actually is is less clear. They seem to be divinities rooted in the Imperial nature of humanity, before Eden's fall, and that nature seems to involve the original Ninuanni nature of death. This obviously scans well for Light and Darklords and is fairly applicable to the eternally-dying Strategists as well. The relationship Wildlord have to death and humanity is... less clear. I think Wildlords defy classification by their very nature but their roots in Ninuan and their rattling of the chains that stop them from sliding back into the dream-fugue of Ninuanni death seems to cause them to quality.
Magisters are a very broad taxon; commonalities are a fixation with death, powers that come from their own failings and inhumanity, and making me uncomfortable.
Then: There seems to be a genus of divinities who are born instead from life, which is not yet named. These include the True Gods of Earthly life and the Aaron's Serpents of the cosmic life-principle that is the Ash. I suspect these also include many of the weirder and more localized world-gods, though information on those is thin on the ground. I am not convinced that I'm not bullsh-ting this category into being, either, but in the interests of self-indulgence I will call these Wiggly Things.
Wiggly Things are very large, have Called Away and Child of the Ash, do not appear human the way the other splats usually do, and wiggle.
As an interlude I would like to refuse to classify Actuals or Mimics. Actuals are prions, they are un-alive things with life-like characteristics, which reproduce by strange crystallization rather than the traditional way by which things are born. Mimics are virii; they are structurally similar because this structure suits their ends, but they are more closely related to the taxon they're derived from than to each other.
Listen:
There are un-Imperial powers that challenge this order. There are human demigods who scramble their way to the society of the divine. There are entities that are less a rolling world-law in themselves and more clever magicians with fast and obvious miracles, who play with their divine nature rather than embodying it.
These are the Powers, obviously, but these are also Zu and Deceivers. These are humans, or, people at least, who have attained the divine nature. There's obviously cause to lump Strategists into this category as well, or to exclude Decievers from it, due to their weird Ninuani/Creational dual backstory thing, but I am asserting that Strategists belong with the death gods and Deceivers belong with the people who borrow power from others and define their own nature.
It's hard for me to actually explain why I see this through-line, why this is a matter of essential nature rather than convergent evolution, but this is my post and I'll say whatever the hell I want on it. These three splats have a sort of strange kinship; they're essentially presented as knowable in a way that the other splats aren't.
(Okay, Zu are presented as extremely mysterious, but the existence of a mystery implies that, if we only knew, we could understand.)
Nobles define their Estate through will and practice. Deciever pStates relate exclusively to themselves. Zu cultivate their inner magic through practice and discipline. They are masters, then, of their own nature. It is something they enact rather than embody. This is where Strategists fail to fit the pattern; Strategists are cursed with their nature, tangled up in it, sick with it, in a way that the other formerly-human gods aren't.
I shall call these Kung Fu Dudes.
Kung Fu Dudes are recognized by their origins, their relative approachability even if they can be kind of a bag of d-ks, their having Star Quality, and their bevy of miraculous abilities that kind of seem like just Really Strong Magic.
(Please suggest better splat names to me, Wiggly Things and Kung Fu Dudes are jokes)
