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