Let us explore a thing that I know to be true, but the details between now and then have been either lost or obscured. Magic and Dreams in Devidica are "Gifts" and/or bindings from the Angels. Specifically THE Angel we just had a meta analysis of. Let's delve into this a bit.
The Origin: What they knew of what happened. As we learned, Tahi was actually fairly enamored with humanity and civilization for a small blip of existence. Somewhere in this affectionate admiration of the simplicity of humanity, the loving angel gifts humanity with MAGIC! We know that the first type of magic was runic magic: Magic that physically mimics the parallel (See the blog for meta-physical explanation of magic working) ON the priority, instead of somewhere in between with magical what-not.
But wait, we say. Magic is very NOT Balanced, even with the nice exchange between where it comes from and where it ends up. Magic is bad for balance! Luckily, Tahi is prepared! Somewhere in the same time as gifting humanity with magic, Tahi instated dreams. This I can explain without plugging the wiki: dreams are essentially a big metaphorical playground of infinite play where people with the potential to break the laws of existence and play infinitely instead of playing so hard they actually break the laws of existence.
So in essence, a loving angel gifted people with magic during the dawn of civilization by teaching them how to draw really well? Oh, and to ensure they wouldn't get in trouble for crossing lines they didn't know were there, she gave them the ability to dream. There's a good chance Tahi told them what dreams were for, and it started out as an important religious point in their worship of Tahi and the other angels that came after.
So where did it all go wrong?
The Ether: Somewhere during the foundation of the first legitimate empire of humanity, we get human curiosity asking things like the laws of existence (Since we've learned our whole lives not to break them, what are they?) and where Tahi came from or where she resides. Humanity is exposed to, or rather the exposure reads critical mass, that Tahi was created by Coris and Morivair. Uh oh! You mean this extraordinarily beautiful being we've been worshiping for an indeterminately long amount of time is NOT the top dog?
After some time of this setting in, Angel Worship is outlawed by whatever king or person is in charge of the empire in an effort to show the proper respect for the people who really deserve it. If Angels are already unaffected by people's worship or lack thereof, the deities who created this world have even less need or even care for this silly worship stuff. After all, they created you all before religion existed, why would they need your worship now? Lesson to take away, this wasn't necessarily a bad, or consequential, idea for any divine beings. The spurned Angel's being above ideas like vengeance don't react to the temples we already learned they don't care for getting destroyed. The dieties just plain don't care about anything going on down there.
Unfortunately, the mundane world does not take complete religious upheaval very well. In addition to the social upheaval involved with the known world being told they're doing their religion wrong, there are several non-human players involved who don't take kindly to being told not to worship the glorious angel Tahi (Or any of the others).
Civil religious wars and stuff ensues. A good comparison would be all the fragments of Almighty God's worship here on earth. How many times has some guy stood up and said "you're doing it wrong! Do it this way instead!" Then wars break out over who is more right, even though they've lost the point long ago. Unlike Earth, eventually Devidica gets over their shit, and angelic worship is reinstated.
The Meta: How do we view this now? From the folklore of the blessing of magic and dreams to the big holy(ish) wars that re-wrote history and standards. Tahi likely already became an emotionless doll before any of that garbage, since her appearance to us is based on more than just what happens "in the now". However, we do lose Tahi in a sense. The relatable, nice and almost affectionate Tahi was likely scrubbed from history during the...reformation...rebirth of Angelic Worship? I repeat, no one knows Tahi is just a big sweet lover-girl anymore except the other angels. Rather, mortals perceiving her simply can't see her as anything else, while the angels can see/perceive her for what she truly is. Pardon me while I scream like a fan-girl imagining a sweet, smiling and giggling Tahi.
Don't worry, I remember this is about Magic and its journey of remembrance. But we need to know how the view of Tahi changed over the years in order to know what do people know and write down in history now. No one remembers or even knows of Tahi being nice. So the idea that she just gave us magic and dreams because she likes us sort of fades to nothing. So why now did their all powerful, emotionless arbitrator of laws beyond your understanding give them magic as a gift? Was it a trial? Part of her duty? People simply don't know, but in story and religious creation myths it will still try to be explained. For those few people who have the right idea that Nice Tahi gave them magic then became Blah Tahi due to humanity's stupidity: congratulations you will be laughed off stage for being so obviously wrong about Tahi's obviously one-dimensional (lack of) personality.
I really want to flesh out the world with folklore and stories, so this kind of introspective look at what happens and the wheres and why helps to find the creative roots for the stories that are within my story. This is getting super meta....
No comments:
Post a Comment