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.
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leicesters) wrote2022-12-06 08:26 pm
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.