[ It eats at him, for a time. Cybernetics, ceramics, magic nullification, animal husbandry, Egyptian mythology. Cybernetics, ceramics, Egyptian mythology. Cyberneticsceramicsegyptianmythology. He had voiced his concern to Byleth, in the moment - questioning Aetós's interest in his divine kin and kind. What could he be plotting to do? And then, because he is not foolish, he begins to wonder: what has he already done?
So, it is to Claude he goes. The sense of him on the approach within their Communal space like a most indelicate thundercloud, sleek and dark and crisp. He pummels at the edge of Claude's consciousness, demanding attention an audience. If ( when ) granted, he leads with no formalities, only a demand in the form of a question: ] What happened to Adelfoúla, after she led you to Vander? Where did she go?
[Communion with Claude is more like a warm breeze; light, insubstantial, just as easy to brush away as a wave of the hand. He deliberately tends to make himself as inviting as possible even to a presence like Set's, but underneath that is the kind of muted restraint of someone who does not want to share very much of his stray thoughts or feelings in this shared space, and by now he has more than enough practice at it.]
Hello to you too. [He responds drily. Maybe gods think themselves above such courtesies, but no matter. Set's question interests him more than nitpicking.] Aetós destroyed her -- or at least, that body he had put her in. Why do you ask?
I did not say 'hello'! [ Claude, are you hearing things?
He bullies his way further into the Communion, a thundering force of dense soul and sharp attention. It is the equivalent of a determined creature planting hands upon the arms of whatever seat someone might be lounging in, and getting in their face — though his attention lacks the edge of violence customarily found clinging to him. Instead, he's rife with a single-minded focus. ]
So, she is gone? I had a question to ask her, about her creation. The tomes Aetós had left behind — they could have pertained to her. She was made of ceramic, after all. And I am, trying to discern the intentions behind studying my kin. 'Egyptian mythology'.
Funny you should say that, because I've been trying to figure out exactly the same thing.
[It's hard to say if Set is best placed to answer that question at all. There's an actual god, and then there's writings about gods and their surrounding legends, and Claude knows full well from his experiences with Fódlan's scriptures that the gulf between the two can be massive.]
Amos found a piece of her shard back in the Zoo. From what he's told me, it seems like she's split across many pieces of shards that Aetós created. And from what I've read, given your peoples' emphasis on spells around the dead, the afterlife, and reanimation... Maybe the latter was particularly interesting to them.
Beyond the trappings of the soul, I am concerned they could have brought another god through the timestream, another like me, to use in an aeternae.
[ If anything, the writings about a god may differ from the god's experience. What is written is interpretation, the human desire to make sense of archetypical beings that have human traits, but are undeniably inhuman. What Set can offer is insight, his reality, and what Claude might do with it? Well, that is the domain of free-spirited humans! ]
You read it.
[ Said in the same mildly-scathing tone someone who has just had, like, their diary read. ]
Honestly, it would be no wonder if they sought to emulate our model of life, death and rebirth. The soul is the summation of multiple parts, and all together, they make the complete identity of the individual. If Aetós was reliant on the parts of a single soul, then — perhaps it would explain why she was the way that she was.
[ deadpan weird ]
So. Did the tome satisfy you?
Edited (shifts words around oops sorry) 2023-05-01 18:28 (UTC)
[There's a feeling of assent, as if Claude agrees with his theory. They'll never know for sure without hearing from Aetós themself, but it seems like the most likely explanation.]
Satisfy me? Yes and no. It was fascinating, but the more I learned the more questions I had.
[So it's perfect that Set reached out to him. He probably shouldn't push his buttons on any sensitive topics right away, so he opts for some more straightforward things.]
Is it true that there's a Heliopolis in your land, too? I wonder if the first Meridian to settle in Springstar were from your world. Of course, here, they revere the Meridian itself instead of a sun god, though.
[ Everything is a sensitive topic, to him......... ]
Yes, Heliopolis, Jwnw, the House of Ra. When I arrived here, and found the name of my home being used by those who do not even pay homage to her? The audacity of it. Cyrus did say that Meridian's power is that of the light, pure and scourging all the same — not so far from the divinity of the sun's domain.
[ He sounds reluctant to discuss it, but — it is not a poor question. Plenty of pantheons have a central sun deity. Quetzalcoatl is one, after all, but for Meridian's might to be that of the light, the sun, and its center to be called Heliopolis? ]
— sometimes, I do wonder if my world was lost long before the Tree woke me. If it was built into this.
It's possible. Things don't exactly get yanked out of the Timestream in a linear fashion, right? And with things the way they are, I guess not even the gods would have the power to know it was going to happen.
[Maybe they'd spend less time on all that messy drama and more time on the important stuff if so??? ...Then again, all the messy drama in Kenos with gods and mortals alike indicates not even the end of the world will prevent that.
Anyway--]
There's another name I recognised in there. Sopdet? She has another name, Sothis. I don't suppose you know her personally?
Of course not. My own existence must be nonlinear, I do not walk a direct line between past and present as a human might. In Kenos, I must follow the same path — but, I know in my heart that I do not. Time is a cycle, after all. What lives, will die.
[ Even gods!
Anyway, he does perk up — curiously, when Claude brings up two names. One, he vaguely recognizes ( maybe ) and the other is one he had heard more recently. ]
Byleth mentioned Sothis. She is the goddess that resides within him, as I recall. Sopdet... as I know her, is a minor goddess of no renown, [ in his era of knowledge, that is how he recalls her! ] She spent the last several centuries cowering with the rest of them while I ruled. Tsk.
[ now that claude has mentioned it, though — instinctually, he knows that sopdet-sothis is a connection. it's that funky divine syncretism at work! ]
[There's a moment where Claude is taken aback by that. The Byleth of this world never told a soul except Claude, but he supposes here, with a chance to talk to another god, he might be more open about it.
He just hopes he doesn't tell the wrong people, gods or not, but that's a problem to worry about later.]
The book says she's the goddess of the brightest star in the night sky. In my world, that's what Fódlan calls the Blue Sea Star, the star she came from before she descended on Fódlan.
He sprung her name upon me, upon learning I was a god.
[ Claude's reaction is mild, innocuous. Likely made of concern for Byleth, and it still stings. To Set, it comes with an overtone of judgment. Why you? ]
That does explain why he asked if I 'had a star', as well. 'Sothis' being another name of Sopdet is also not surprising, we often have many names associated with us, dependent on our humans. If anyone knew anything about a goddess of some star, it would have been Nut. She is the embodiment of the sky and all that resides in the heavens. Stellar goddesses would be under her authority.
[ A pause, before. ]
She probably got tired of being a two-bit side piece in Egypt and crossed liminality to become some hot shot in Fódlan.
[Imagining the reaction of some of the Church faithful to that description of Sothis actually gets a laugh from Claude.]
Hah! Sure, we can go with that theory. In Fódlan, she went on to create many children who founded their own civilisation. The story got changed over time, though, and to humans, she became revered as a progenitor goddess that supposedly created Fódlan itself, and all the life in it.
Which is nonsense, by the way. My homeland and plenty of other places have people and nature in them too, even with or without the influence of Fódlan's goddess. It'd be like you having a few kids and suddenly people are being convinced they should compare you to Ra.
[ Surprise, Claude! Set doesn't like mortals OR gods, and is equal parts disdainful and blasphemous toward everything.
The Church of Seiros would weep. ] There are other pantheons in my world, as well. I have contact with a number of them, their people and their gods alike. It is — different, maybe, than what you think of when you hold the existence of a god of some domain alongside the domain itself and compare the two.
In Egypt, I am the desert. I am the shape you see before me, and I am simultaneously the land itself. There is no question of 'influence' or 'which came first'. Were I to visit your homeland, and there were a desert there, the authority would belong to the your desert-god. If I did not exist, the deserts of Egypt would decay and cease to exist as well. It is not nonsense, to me.
communion; during pt 2 of the seeds of unrest event
So, it is to Claude he goes. The sense of him on the approach within their Communal space like a most indelicate thundercloud, sleek and dark and crisp. He pummels at the edge of Claude's consciousness, demanding
attentionan audience. If ( when ) granted, he leads with no formalities, only a demand in the form of a question: ] What happened to Adelfoúla, after she led you to Vander? Where did she go?no subject
Hello to you too. [He responds drily. Maybe gods think themselves above such courtesies, but no matter. Set's question interests him more than nitpicking.] Aetós destroyed her -- or at least, that body he had put her in. Why do you ask?
no subject
He bullies his way further into the Communion, a thundering force of dense soul and sharp attention. It is the equivalent of a determined creature planting hands upon the arms of whatever seat someone might be lounging in, and getting in their face — though his attention lacks the edge of violence customarily found clinging to him. Instead, he's rife with a single-minded focus. ]
So, she is gone? I had a question to ask her, about her creation. The tomes Aetós had left behind — they could have pertained to her. She was made of ceramic, after all. And I am, trying to discern the intentions behind studying my kin. 'Egyptian mythology'.
no subject
[It's hard to say if Set is best placed to answer that question at all. There's an actual god, and then there's writings about gods and their surrounding legends, and Claude knows full well from his experiences with Fódlan's scriptures that the gulf between the two can be massive.]
Amos found a piece of her shard back in the Zoo. From what he's told me, it seems like she's split across many pieces of shards that Aetós created. And from what I've read, given your peoples' emphasis on spells around the dead, the afterlife, and reanimation... Maybe the latter was particularly interesting to them.
no subject
[ If anything, the writings about a god may differ from the god's experience. What is written is interpretation, the human desire to make sense of archetypical beings that have human traits, but are undeniably inhuman. What Set can offer is insight, his reality, and what Claude might do with it? Well, that is the domain of free-spirited humans! ]
You read it.
[ Said in the same mildly-scathing tone someone who has just had, like, their diary read. ]
Honestly, it would be no wonder if they sought to emulate our model of life, death and rebirth. The soul is the summation of multiple parts, and all together, they make the complete identity of the individual. If Aetós was reliant on the parts of a single soul, then — perhaps it would explain why she was the way that she was.
[ deadpan weird ]
So. Did the tome satisfy you?
no subject
Satisfy me? Yes and no. It was fascinating, but the more I learned the more questions I had.
[So it's perfect that Set reached out to him. He probably shouldn't push his buttons on any sensitive topics right away, so he opts for some more straightforward things.]
Is it true that there's a Heliopolis in your land, too? I wonder if the first Meridian to settle in Springstar were from your world. Of course, here, they revere the Meridian itself instead of a sun god, though.
no subject
Yes, Heliopolis, Jwnw, the House of Ra. When I arrived here, and found the name of my home being used by those who do not even pay homage to her? The audacity of it. Cyrus did say that Meridian's power is that of the light, pure and scourging all the same — not so far from the divinity of the sun's domain.
[ He sounds reluctant to discuss it, but — it is not a poor question. Plenty of pantheons have a central sun deity. Quetzalcoatl is one, after all, but for Meridian's might to be that of the light, the sun, and its center to be called Heliopolis? ]
— sometimes, I do wonder if my world was lost long before the Tree woke me. If it was built into this.
[ arrogant of him, maybe????? ]
no subject
[Maybe they'd spend less time on all that messy drama and more time on the important stuff if so??? ...Then again, all the messy drama in Kenos with gods and mortals alike indicates not even the end of the world will prevent that.
Anyway--]
There's another name I recognised in there. Sopdet? She has another name, Sothis. I don't suppose you know her personally?
no subject
[ Even gods!
Anyway, he does perk up — curiously, when Claude brings up two names. One, he vaguely recognizes ( maybe ) and the other is one he had heard more recently. ]
Byleth mentioned Sothis. She is the goddess that resides within him, as I recall. Sopdet... as I know her, is a minor goddess of no renown, [ in his era of knowledge, that is how he recalls her! ] She spent the last several centuries cowering with the rest of them while I ruled. Tsk.
[ now that claude has mentioned it, though — instinctually, he knows that sopdet-sothis is a connection. it's that funky divine syncretism at work! ]
no subject
[There's a moment where Claude is taken aback by that. The Byleth of this world never told a soul except Claude, but he supposes here, with a chance to talk to another god, he might be more open about it.
He just hopes he doesn't tell the wrong people, gods or not, but that's a problem to worry about later.]
The book says she's the goddess of the brightest star in the night sky. In my world, that's what Fódlan calls the Blue Sea Star, the star she came from before she descended on Fódlan.
no subject
[ Claude's reaction is mild, innocuous. Likely made of concern for Byleth, and it still stings. To Set, it comes with an overtone of judgment. Why you? ]
That does explain why he asked if I 'had a star', as well. 'Sothis' being another name of Sopdet is also not surprising, we often have many names associated with us, dependent on our humans. If anyone knew anything about a goddess of some star, it would have been Nut. She is the embodiment of the sky and all that resides in the heavens. Stellar goddesses would be under her authority.
[ A pause, before. ]
She probably got tired of being a two-bit side piece in Egypt and crossed liminality to become some hot shot in Fódlan.
no subject
Hah! Sure, we can go with that theory. In Fódlan, she went on to create many children who founded their own civilisation. The story got changed over time, though, and to humans, she became revered as a progenitor goddess that supposedly created Fódlan itself, and all the life in it.
Which is nonsense, by the way. My homeland and plenty of other places have people and nature in them too, even with or without the influence of Fódlan's goddess. It'd be like you having a few kids and suddenly people are being convinced they should compare you to Ra.
no subject
The Church of Seiros would weep. ] There are other pantheons in my world, as well. I have contact with a number of them, their people and their gods alike. It is — different, maybe, than what you think of when you hold the existence of a god of some domain alongside the domain itself and compare the two.
In Egypt, I am the desert. I am the shape you see before me, and I am simultaneously the land itself. There is no question of 'influence' or 'which came first'. Were I to visit your homeland, and there were a desert there, the authority would belong to the your desert-god. If I did not exist, the deserts of Egypt would decay and cease to exist as well. It is not nonsense, to me.