This update talks about how every relevant faction had plans to (X) eternity, but funny how this one is the only one that might actually last, especially if we succeed in killing Morpheus? (Retroactive influence too?)
Last Light of a Dark Age (Warhammer 29K/Disco Elysium)
- Thread starter Cetashwayo
- Start date
- Sci-Fi
So, remembering to vote!
Going to avoid voting on strategy until like, five minutes before it closes when I'll edit it in, to avoid swaying anyone inadvertently. Which realistically means I'll probably forget.
[X] Our Sister of Supreme Mercy. This is an idealization of your axiom The Witch they Wanted, reframed as a protection of the weak against the strong.
This feels like such a great endpoint for The Witch they Wanted, given it's about our experience of being a Hylic.
[X] The Caprices. Gods, in a human shape. Ever-passionate, ever-spiteful monsters, too-caring, too-interested, their hands on the lathe of fate, their intentions malice, evil, cruelty. The Immaculates, the Prime Souls, the Titans.
Gods walking in human shape? So cringe!
Going to avoid voting on strategy until like, five minutes before it closes when I'll edit it in, to avoid swaying anyone inadvertently. Which realistically means I'll probably forget.
[X] Our Sister of Supreme Mercy. This is an idealization of your axiom The Witch they Wanted, reframed as a protection of the weak against the strong.
This feels like such a great endpoint for The Witch they Wanted, given it's about our experience of being a Hylic.
[X] The Caprices. Gods, in a human shape. Ever-passionate, ever-spiteful monsters, too-caring, too-interested, their hands on the lathe of fate, their intentions malice, evil, cruelty. The Immaculates, the Prime Souls, the Titans.
Gods walking in human shape? So cringe!
Strange9
hdellaverson@gmail.com
- Location
- Los Angeles, CA
[X] All-Or-Nothing. A massive, sweeping operation, aimed at the very center of Phalanx Hypnos. An antifragile strategy - if Morpheos is there, the whole of the Witches will fall on him - but if he is not, he must choose between having the center of his phalanx cut off from his illusions by your null fields - or face you head on.
[X] Use the Auratic Thread.
[X] Our Sister of Supreme Passion. This is an idealization of your axiom Blackstar, reframed as a position of overwhelming passion for the pain of others.
[X] The Colossi. Gods in an inhuman shape. Alien, structural forces, indifferent, grinding, uncaring, that define time, define history, define creation, by their brutal, impersonal design. The suns, the seasons, the sea.
[X] Use the Auratic Thread.
[X] Our Sister of Supreme Passion. This is an idealization of your axiom Blackstar, reframed as a position of overwhelming passion for the pain of others.
[X] The Colossi. Gods in an inhuman shape. Alien, structural forces, indifferent, grinding, uncaring, that define time, define history, define creation, by their brutal, impersonal design. The suns, the seasons, the sea.
[X] Our Sister of Supreme Mercy. This is an idealization of your axiom The Witch they Wanted, reframed as a protection of the weak against the strong.
[X] Use the Auratic Thread.
[X] All-Or-Nothing. A massive, sweeping operation, aimed at the very center of Phalanx Hypnos. An antifragile strategy - if Morpheos is there, the whole of the Witches will fall on him - but if he is not, he must choose between having the center of his phalanx cut off from his illusions by your null fields - or face you head on.
[X] The Colossi. Gods in an inhuman shape. Alien, structural forces, indifferent, grinding, uncaring, that define time, define history, define creation, by their brutal, impersonal design. The suns, the seasons, the sea.
[X] Use the Auratic Thread.
[X] All-Or-Nothing. A massive, sweeping operation, aimed at the very center of Phalanx Hypnos. An antifragile strategy - if Morpheos is there, the whole of the Witches will fall on him - but if he is not, he must choose between having the center of his phalanx cut off from his illusions by your null fields - or face you head on.
[X] The Colossi. Gods in an inhuman shape. Alien, structural forces, indifferent, grinding, uncaring, that define time, define history, define creation, by their brutal, impersonal design. The suns, the seasons, the sea.
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- Pronouns
- She/Her
So what do we pull out of the Obsidian Butterfly stuff?
[X] All-Or-Nothing. A massive, sweeping operation, aimed at the very center of Phalanx Hypnos. An antifragile strategy - if Morpheos is there, the whole of the Witches will fall on him - but if he is not, he must choose between having the center of his phalanx cut off from his illusions by your null fields - or face you head on.
[X] Use the Auratic Thread.
[X] Our Sister of Supreme Passion. This is an idealization of your axiom Blackstar, reframed as a position of overwhelming passion for the pain of others.
[X] The Colossi. Gods in an inhuman shape. Alien, structural forces, indifferent, grinding, uncaring, that define time, define history, define creation, by their brutal, impersonal design. The suns, the seasons, the sea.
[X] Use the Auratic Thread.
[X] Our Sister of Supreme Passion. This is an idealization of your axiom Blackstar, reframed as a position of overwhelming passion for the pain of others.
[X] The Colossi. Gods in an inhuman shape. Alien, structural forces, indifferent, grinding, uncaring, that define time, define history, define creation, by their brutal, impersonal design. The suns, the seasons, the sea.
LuciDreamer
Maliciously Incompetent
- Location
- United States
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Much of it seems shrouded in the lore of the Oblivion Witch and the Fifth Sun, which remain mostly obscure to us.
Butterflies have been mentioned before, but only ever as ancient, dead creatures, or as Carnosans before their fall. One could extrapolate a metaphorical purpose behind each of these portrayals—the butterfly is beautiful, fleeting, preserved only in memory—but that might be stretching given what little we have.
It seems to be related to spirals, and infinities. There is something called a Pure Land that Event Horizon seems to want us to approach. To dare to touch. And be trapped forever? It seems to be the opinion of the Obsidian Butterfly that there is a seed of truth in the false-doctrine of progress that is Gnosis, and that this truth is a key to enlightenment.
Somehow, love is involved. Between the Mother, Sympathy, and her Daughter, Harmony. It will be an "end to the cycle." A falsehood? There is no end to infinity. A metaphor? An "end," as in an acceptance that there is no such thing?
The Nail is involved. So is the Eater, so are the Locks, so is Gen, and the Shapes, and the Organelles, and the Snakes. There's probably a pneumatic cabal or seven twisted up in all these spirals, too.
It's interesting that the only insight we get from the Fifth Sun comes from EVENT HORIZON, the sole organelle that the shape explicitly cannot percieve. Is it impossible for dreamshapes to reckon with infinity? Why?
It just occurred to me that in the past throwing everything you have at a prime soul has never once worked even when battlefield conditions were much better than they are now. Further, assuming that a master illusionist would be at the center of his army, for all we know that could be an illusion, to choose between a head-on fight or having the center of his army cut off, the actual center could be somewhere else, appears to have the greatest risk of failure in the form of the most witches getting tangled or their lives pointlessly spent. All the prime soul would have to do is not appear and the witches are screwed because he can take them down at range while they are all in one place. While the conservative attrition plan may not be flashy, targeting assets is the type of thing Sympathy has done in the past and that worked somewhat against Eleusia who was excellent in avoiding direct attacks. In fact, a direct attack seems like the exact type of plan an egophage would be prepared most against don't you think?
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Cetashwayo
Lord of Ten Thousand Years
- Location
- Across the Horizon
You will find out soon.
As for the Obsidian Butterfly: I would cross reference it with what the shape says in 11.10.
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UmbraofChaos
Freedom Lets Go
- Pronouns
- They/Them
It is absolutely a gamble. But one of the fundamental assumptions regarding the witches is that it's basically just them, Sympathy, and Penitence that can actually engage with the Prime Souls meaningfully in the case of the Progeny. One of the baselines of the thread is that it's relaying what the witches are transmitting, which inherently presumes their capacity with their null fields to not immediately be thrown completely off course by the illusions. I doubt they'll be entirely nullified, but I don't think we're in danger of being so totally hoodwinked that the entire course of action collapses inwards.
More importantly, even if we accept Attrition is strategically effective against Koinon, I don't think that actually puts us in an ideal position to kill Morpheos. By that point there will be no surprises. He will be entirely aware that the thread allows accurate telemetry to the rest of the forces, including Sympathy, of reality. It gives him time to consider alternatives or at least exercise a degree of caution. I think you need to gamble to get the big payout in this case. The reveal of the Progeny's blood sorcery into the death of a Prime Soul could utterly arrest Koinon's momentum.
And you are right. The Prime Souls are incredibly powerful, and by nature represent intense concentrations of power that warp the war effort around them. Fighting that head on is difficult. But Harmony did almost strike Theia, even with all her foreknowledge. If for a short time, even partially, the hylics could have evaded her sight and truly existed in a blind sight, I think she might have cut down a god. That's the advantage that an all or nothing approach nets us. For a brief time, Morpheos' greatest strength will be weakened and he will have no clue. He wouldn't have nearly the same time to piece it together.
Like I can't say for certain because all the Prime Souls are incredibly powerful and we won't have full details until the update, but I am sure one of the huge benefits of his information control is the most powerful pneumatic on the field against him has to be incredibly careful. If Sympathy falls for any bait she could probably atomize a ton of Koras and fail to even hit him. She is probably being restrained from full engagement while Morpheos is free to act. I really want to preserve the element of surprise that Attrition may lose because I don't think we'll get another chance to catch him off guard again.
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- Location
- Burgundian Netherlands
[X] Our Sister of Supreme Mercy. This is an idealization of your axiom The Witch they Wanted, reframed as a protection of the weak against the strong.
[X] Use the Auratic Thread.
[X] All-Or-Nothing. A massive, sweeping operation, aimed at the very center of Phalanx Hypnos. An antifragile strategy - if Morpheos is there, the whole of the Witches will fall on him - but if he is not, he must choose between having the center of his phalanx cut off from his illusions by your null fields - or face you head on.
[X] The Colossi. Gods in an inhuman shape. Alien, structural forces, indifferent, grinding, uncaring, that define time, define history, define creation, by their brutal, impersonal design. The suns, the seasons, the sea.
[X] Use the Auratic Thread.
[X] All-Or-Nothing. A massive, sweeping operation, aimed at the very center of Phalanx Hypnos. An antifragile strategy - if Morpheos is there, the whole of the Witches will fall on him - but if he is not, he must choose between having the center of his phalanx cut off from his illusions by your null fields - or face you head on.
[X] The Colossi. Gods in an inhuman shape. Alien, structural forces, indifferent, grinding, uncaring, that define time, define history, define creation, by their brutal, impersonal design. The suns, the seasons, the sea.
Aliya
Someone I might become
- Location
- Kazakhstan
- Pronouns
- They/She/It
[X] Use the Auratic Thread.
[X] All-Or-Nothing. A massive, sweeping operation, aimed at the very center of Phalanx Hypnos. An antifragile strategy - if Morpheos is there, the whole of the Witches will fall on him - but if he is not, he must choose between having the center of his phalanx cut off from his illusions by your null fields - or face you head on.
[X] All-Or-Nothing. A massive, sweeping operation, aimed at the very center of Phalanx Hypnos. An antifragile strategy - if Morpheos is there, the whole of the Witches will fall on him - but if he is not, he must choose between having the center of his phalanx cut off from his illusions by your null fields - or face you head on.
From what we learn in Red Sun, Koinon possessed less complete words of Logos than Kora did (and both have vastly less than Dreamspace ofc), but they definitely had some. Obviously even trying to work out how many Words or how much "grammar" another pskyer-state might possess is an exercise sort of akin to like, modern intelligence analysts trying to work out how many nuclear warheads another nuclear-armed state has. Except probably instead of spy satellites there are literal magic mirrors involved, and the other guy's analysts can make your eyeballs turn to to plasma if they catch you looking.
But yeah, it's a plausible desperation move in extremis if someone's back is against the wall. Although of course attempting to use Logos in desperate or stressful circumstances with less preparation raises the risks tremendously. High Kur may have used it as they fell to Koinon, come to think...
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Cetashwayo
Lord of Ten Thousand Years
- Location
- Across the Horizon
Command words are super duper rare among humans and also rare is the ability to use them at scale.
That requires a terrifying level of power. You can know a command word, like dreamshapes do, and still be beaten. What is important is to do it through a medium that projects it and enforces it. The Progeny did it through the root network, the Benefactor through the psychic shield, and the dreamshape within you is doing it inside your own psyche. But you can see how that command word is much weaker than the Benefactor's and Kora's - both rhythms and the Sea Captain could resist it for a time, though you could never actually escape the pull.
They are a supreme psychic technique but are not unbeatable.
That requires a terrifying level of power. You can know a command word, like dreamshapes do, and still be beaten. What is important is to do it through a medium that projects it and enforces it. The Progeny did it through the root network, the Benefactor through the psychic shield, and the dreamshape within you is doing it inside your own psyche. But you can see how that command word is much weaker than the Benefactor's and Kora's - both rhythms and the Sea Captain could resist it for a time, though you could never actually escape the pull.
They are a supreme psychic technique but are not unbeatable.
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At this point, the use of the thread and attrition have taken a substantial lead over the other options presented. Personally, I think that is fine considering how the all-out option would rely on power and the hit-and-run option would primarily rely on mobility, both of which the hotwire lacks. I think that QM wanted us to think tactically about which option would work best with the newly enhanced augment, which I think is attrition for the reasons previously stated.
Edit: Looks like Sister of Supreme Mercy is in the lead. I second the fear that this will fuel a victim mentality, but I do love how this option may contribute to a second schizomachia. On an unrelated side note, did you know that Curze named his blades Mercy and Forgiveness and no one inuniverse knows why? I like to think he did it half as a joke and the other half because he understood that death in Warhammer can be considered a mercy. A mercy Harmony has become very good at bestowing.
Edit: Looks like Sister of Supreme Mercy is in the lead. I second the fear that this will fuel a victim mentality, but I do love how this option may contribute to a second schizomachia. On an unrelated side note, did you know that Curze named his blades Mercy and Forgiveness and no one inuniverse knows why? I like to think he did it half as a joke and the other half because he understood that death in Warhammer can be considered a mercy. A mercy Harmony has become very good at bestowing.
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LuciDreamer
Maliciously Incompetent
- Location
- United States
- Pronouns
- He/Him
There are many paths Our Supreme Sister's "Mercy" can take, and I imagine many of them will take after the same twisting of logic as the Immaculates' penchant for "Education" and "Forgiveness" and "Sisterly love."
(I wonder if there are Habits in this world. We know there are Cassocks, as they are they appeared as a field uniform for Monad during The Proud Tower.)
An interesting form of Harmony's "Mercy" could be to free others from suffering. The road to purgatory is paved with good intentions and self-righteousness can be just as interesting a concept to play around with as tyranny. After all, if one is persecuted and suppressed then surely there is some leeway in what actions may be employed to fight against oppression and free others from suffering? So many possibilities indeed.
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UmbraofChaos
Freedom Lets Go
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Well again, I think it's important to consider the indirect elements of the wire. The wire doesn't innately provide power, certainly, but information control limits and dictates how the Progeny can leverage their power. If you risk eviscerating your own units while they're attacking each other or restraining your might out of fear that you'll slaughter each other in Morpheos' designs that is an effective limit on their capacity to leverage their strengths that is more effective the less warning Morpheos gets. Simply, if we can see Morpheos, and we can ensure everyone else can see him and grasp the actual shape of the battlefield, and he is unaware of this until the fatal moment, then we can hit him harder.
I'm fairly open that more than anything I want to try and land a decisive blow that also lets Harmony attack and dethrone god more than any other objective. Attrition has many strategic applications, potentially some superior to the other two options with Kora sacrificial magic in play, but I don't actually think it gives us the critical advantage to secure the kill here.
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Valid points one and all. I just think that Morpheos is a very slippery fish and that it is unlikely that a master illusionist would hide himself at the center of his army. Yes, attrition greatly lessens the element of surprise and is a slower approach but there is the possibility given the nature of the wire, his ego, or that his illusions have worked so far that he won't fully discover what it is capable of until it is too late. I will admit that a part of why I switched to this plan was because I like the image of turning a massive dark forest into a trap riddled with indestructible wires when the target has insufficient time to prepare defenses.
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Just wanted to say that this is possibly the best typo ever, it is absolutely 100% thematically and descriptively on point haha.
Cetashwayo
Lord of Ten Thousand Years
- Location
- Across the Horizon
Schisomachia is in fact a pun on schizomachia, I just didn't want to make it a direct pun since it'd feel a bit distasteful to make it so up-front.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Here's a late but big reaction and thought post to 12: Tomorrow Belongs to Me.
The only thing I have to say on the Grey is its creepy.
A Dream In Yellow was a nice and sweet (albeit tinged with grief) respite filled with Sympathy and Harmony bonding. A much needed reprieve from the hopelessness left by 11.10: Cold Fusion. But it's not one that'll last long, however. Concluding with the tregic tale of Obisian Butterfly, whose crimes have barred her from the pure land.
What are these visions Sympathy is sharing with Harmony?
Huh, adding more spiral imagery onto your skin in the last sentence, I see Sympathy. While quoting an incantation from the Fifth Sun manuscript In order to help Harmony sleep is on the one hand wholesome. But on the other, I'm sure this won't influence anything that's going to happen.
Harmony seeing Cube Malachite for the first time and immediately hating it's stifling, out of this world, panoptic grandeur is something.
Of course the moments of Harmony and Sympathy here are touching. Yet filled with an edge that propels Harm to force Sympathy into actually confronting the Conclave for more power. Leading to a hope for Tomorrow. A glimmer of hope that's later crushed.
Beatific Dolorous Harmony (a beautiful name BTW) is extremely possessive/obsessive over Sympathy and retains a great degree of resentment from the copse. Which I suspect is going to come into play later, if she does indeed "die." Based on what @Da Boyz and @IToadlyFrogot have speculated about, of Harmony absorbing Sympathy's soul. Which I'm increasingly coming to conclude is a distinct possibility. (Although the words of RELIQUARY from 4: Puppet Love and the AXIOM Love's long downward spiral might suggest otherwise). For what else would compel her to implant a staple other than a separation (probably) caused by Sympathy's (apparent) demise? Perhaps by Harmony's own hand. Out of a desperate desire to ensure Sympathy will never leave her. After the Conclave tries something that drives Harm over the edge.
A Dream Bleached White is bleak, Harmony is having to face the material limits of the Progeny, while dealing with the unwillingness of its core cities citizens to fight. Of the proud and mighty Titanagalbat being worn down, unable to keep pace with Koinon. Of High-Kur's dream crashing down like Carnosa's was. Yet It doesn't compare for what is to come, emotionally. With the revelation that the Conclave betrayed Kora and inflicted a fate worse then death on her akin to the Golden Throne. Reminds me a little of the set-up with Lillith from Evangelion under Nerve. Violating Her, making Her into a thing. Using Her as a battery for witchery, for the warping of reality and history that utilizes Sympathy as a transceiver. Who if I'm reading this right can have her will be overridden or merely be coerced into compliance though mass death of Koras. Is a searing psychological blow, in this lies a mockery, a perversion, and an undermining of everything Harmony and Sympathy have ever been taught to believe about the Progeny.
Afterwords, the way Karuna left, (for justifiable and principled reasons) is heart breaking. The furthering hardening of Harmony's heart as a result was ugly and sad to read. Besides the "And by the strength of a word, you are doomed." Which combined with the words of Event Horizon from 6: Our Secret War. Very much implies a tragic fate for these two, which we know from 9: War Without Reason and 11: Red Sun, but hurts all the same. Poor Sympathy and Harmony.
Now, onto more speculative thoughts that aren't also reactions.
Now onto the cryptic hylic esoterica, that lends credence to @Da Boyz's and @IToadlyFrogot's speculation of Harmony and Sympathy entirely (or at least partly) fusing together. Bear in mind this is me using previous thread speculation as a lens to interpret what is going on with the esoterica in this paragraph. The Answer; the Gate; the key; the ying and the yang, the latter two we've seen the Mother and Father depicted as such in 4: Puppet Love. The Answer IDK what exactly it is, but something gnosis related? Learning a piece of crucial information through joining MONAD? The Gate "the weeding gift" might be whatever initiates the process, perhaps whatever Sympathy is supposed to find that will secure eternity for Harmony mentioned in 8: These Strings on Me. The key "the true meaning behind monad" referring to the act of fusion. Culminating with the yin and yang, the hylic and pneumatic; blank and psyker fully fused/linked together? This describes a rather involved process, maybe when/if Harm wakes up she'll need to do some stuff to complete/finalize it. An "Eternity, in the spiral of an awakened third eye," perhaps?
Presuming this interpretation is in anyway on base.
Not sure how this relates with the auto-fail from 3: For I Have Tasted the Fruit for trying to discern the original Kora's face and body. Why does D5h care enough to censor this? It must have caused some trouble for it, but how?
IDK what to vote for here other then the character-perception and God perception votes. Might vote later for the battlefield options.
[x] Our Sister of Supreme Passion. This is an idealization of your axiom Blackstar, reframed as a position of overwhelming passion for the pain of others.
[x] Our Sister of Supreme Mercy. This is an idealization of your axiom The Witch they Wanted, reframed as a protection of the weak against the strong.
[x] The Colossi. Gods in an inhuman shape. Alien, structural forces, indifferent, grinding, uncaring, that define time, define history, define creation, by their brutal, impersonal design. The suns, the seasons, the sea.
Seems like a word is missing in the bolded pat of the sentence, perhaps a "time" or "way" maybe?
The "that" at the end lacks the t. Thou it would be funny keep it.
Might be me, but is "telelog analog" written as intended?
Is the word matching supposed to be written twice? Because it feels unintentional and unnecessary to repeat it twice.
There is no space between "refine" and "tactics." Slowing down reading time and is a little disorientating to look at, for me.
Probably written as intended, but the bolded sentence seems off personally, as if "didn't" should be "doesn't" maybe? Unless it's deliberately in the past tense.
Might be written as intended, but it feels to me as if there is a missing word or words here, maybe? For example "She planned to replace them"
Shouldn't "are" be the word "have" here?
Read's to me like a word is missing somewhere in the bolded sentence. Like maybe a "would" between "you" and "have," maybe?
The only thing I have to say on the Grey is its creepy.
A Dream In Yellow was a nice and sweet (albeit tinged with grief) respite filled with Sympathy and Harmony bonding. A much needed reprieve from the hopelessness left by 11.10: Cold Fusion. But it's not one that'll last long, however. Concluding with the tregic tale of Obisian Butterfly, whose crimes have barred her from the pure land.
What are these visions Sympathy is sharing with Harmony?
Huh, adding more spiral imagery onto your skin in the last sentence, I see Sympathy. While quoting an incantation from the Fifth Sun manuscript In order to help Harmony sleep is on the one hand wholesome. But on the other, I'm sure this won't influence anything that's going to happen.
Harmony seeing Cube Malachite for the first time and immediately hating it's stifling, out of this world, panoptic grandeur is something.
Of course the moments of Harmony and Sympathy here are touching. Yet filled with an edge that propels Harm to force Sympathy into actually confronting the Conclave for more power. Leading to a hope for Tomorrow. A glimmer of hope that's later crushed.
A holographic dove Sympathy had in the copse. Her bad joke on the resemble of a certain configuration of the Melta Cannon in 10: Blackstar. The spy Raven's in the cube, the Progeny's minds and Sympathy seem to have a thing for birds.
Poor Sympathy, seeing herself as a walking corpse (possessing some of Her memories it turns out). While fundamentally unwilling to truly face the Conclave on her own.
Beatific Dolorous Harmony (a beautiful name BTW) is extremely possessive/obsessive over Sympathy and retains a great degree of resentment from the copse. Which I suspect is going to come into play later, if she does indeed "die." Based on what @Da Boyz and @IToadlyFrogot have speculated about, of Harmony absorbing Sympathy's soul. Which I'm increasingly coming to conclude is a distinct possibility. (Although the words of RELIQUARY from 4: Puppet Love and the AXIOM Love's long downward spiral might suggest otherwise). For what else would compel her to implant a staple other than a separation (probably) caused by Sympathy's (apparent) demise? Perhaps by Harmony's own hand. Out of a desperate desire to ensure Sympathy will never leave her. After the Conclave tries something that drives Harm over the edge.
The relationship between Harmony and Karuna is adorable and the adventure in King-Landing fun. Yet in light of what will happen (see the initial map from 1: A Nightmare Called Today) this modern jazz-like city, filled with delight. Whom those two had a day of joy in, as they had known it. Will likely be gone forever, after a sack and/or take-over by Koinon. Sorrow can't help but follow wherever Harmony treads.
A Dream Bleached White is bleak, Harmony is having to face the material limits of the Progeny, while dealing with the unwillingness of its core cities citizens to fight. Of the proud and mighty Titanagalbat being worn down, unable to keep pace with Koinon. Of High-Kur's dream crashing down like Carnosa's was. Yet It doesn't compare for what is to come, emotionally. With the revelation that the Conclave betrayed Kora and inflicted a fate worse then death on her akin to the Golden Throne. Reminds me a little of the set-up with Lillith from Evangelion under Nerve. Violating Her, making Her into a thing. Using Her as a battery for witchery, for the warping of reality and history that utilizes Sympathy as a transceiver. Who if I'm reading this right can have her will be overridden or merely be coerced into compliance though mass death of Koras. Is a searing psychological blow, in this lies a mockery, a perversion, and an undermining of everything Harmony and Sympathy have ever been taught to believe about the Progeny.
Afterwords, the way Karuna left, (for justifiable and principled reasons) is heart breaking. The furthering hardening of Harmony's heart as a result was ugly and sad to read. Besides the "And by the strength of a word, you are doomed." Which combined with the words of Event Horizon from 6: Our Secret War. Very much implies a tragic fate for these two, which we know from 9: War Without Reason and 11: Red Sun, but hurts all the same. Poor Sympathy and Harmony.
The bolded here made me cry, again. I'll expand that to say everything to do with Diligent Elegy and the Night Witches in 12: Tomorrow Belongs to me, is tear inducing.
Now, onto more speculative thoughts that aren't also reactions.
I think the Deep that every hylic null field in Last Light is connected to, is based off/inspired by the Abzu of Mesopotamian myth, especially from the use of the name (I presume what D5h called the Father in specific) Ea, which then makes "the Cost." An "Apkallu" equivalent? Since "the Cost" seems to hold a connection with it. Considering the manner of which it mocked Superior Humility in 10: Blackstar. And hmm, a "breathless god." We know the abyss has the shadowed thing courtesy of the un-selected null field vote Dread back in 5: Ethics of Greed. And here comes a mention of a "breathless god" also connected with it. I think they are likely one and the same entity.
Now onto the cryptic hylic esoterica, that lends credence to @Da Boyz's and @IToadlyFrogot's speculation of Harmony and Sympathy entirely (or at least partly) fusing together. Bear in mind this is me using previous thread speculation as a lens to interpret what is going on with the esoterica in this paragraph. The Answer; the Gate; the key; the ying and the yang, the latter two we've seen the Mother and Father depicted as such in 4: Puppet Love. The Answer IDK what exactly it is, but something gnosis related? Learning a piece of crucial information through joining MONAD? The Gate "the weeding gift" might be whatever initiates the process, perhaps whatever Sympathy is supposed to find that will secure eternity for Harmony mentioned in 8: These Strings on Me. The key "the true meaning behind monad" referring to the act of fusion. Culminating with the yin and yang, the hylic and pneumatic; blank and psyker fully fused/linked together? This describes a rather involved process, maybe when/if Harm wakes up she'll need to do some stuff to complete/finalize it. An "Eternity, in the spiral of an awakened third eye," perhaps?
Presuming this interpretation is in anyway on base.
D5h tried to find something it noticed within Sympathy's eyes. What's so special about it, that makes it interested and distinct from what is going on with the Immaculates? While I did guess about the eye thing as having something to do with the shard of OG Kora merged/implanted within her. Yet D5h didn't interrupt the memory when Command Word: Root appeared, like earlier in 12. Suggesting to me, that it's (likely) not directly related to OG Kora. But instead emerges from what Sympathy has done to herself after reading the esoterica written in the Fifth Sun manuscript, as D5h only saw a glimmer of something immediately after Sympathy quoted an Incantation from it. Which, if that is the case then, why does the initial instance of her eyes being peculiar take place well before Sympathy ever acquired the manuscript in the first place? Unless if Harmony does indeed absorb (at least a piece of) Sympathy's soul. Then the Sympathy within Mental Samsara could (at times) be the "real one" or at least an interactive "psychic impression" playing along. Either projected from the nail with Sympathy's spirit having been unknowingly dormant inside for the last 18+ years, or from a mental link created through applied Fifth Sun lore. To a still physically "living" Sympathy. Who is reliving the memories alongside Harmony, explaining why Sympathy at several points calls Harmony "Miss Normal" sometimes despite it being MONAD's naming scheme. Its always striked me as strange that Sympathy would call Harmony that. Normal compared to what the hideous edifice of Illuminatan society?
Not sure how this relates with the auto-fail from 3: For I Have Tasted the Fruit for trying to discern the original Kora's face and body. Why does D5h care enough to censor this? It must have caused some trouble for it, but how?
The parallel's here are too much here for this to be a coincidence. How does implanting GEN and erasing her memories create a mental sarcophagus (a talent of the Conclave) for Harmony? Makes me inclined to believe that if this wasn't entirely self-inflicted, she must have been somehow manipulated into getting GEN in the first place, post war. Even if the act of implanting GEN was in of itself "voluntary."
IDK about this other then maybe Sympathy will "die" and then be later resurrected somehow? With Sympathy miraculously emerging out of Harmony's nail (if she does get fully absorbed body and all included) like the rose that grew from Harmony the 1st's, forehead in the movie back in 7: The Name of the Rose. Becoming Harmony's spectral jojo stand? For what else could "Something beautiful will happen" be to Harmony other then Sympathy's return? Also did Sympathy tell Elegy about the Fifth Sun in the background? Because where is she getting this info about a void cocoon from? The voices in Elegy are from Illuminata's nanite filled sea, not the prescient infinity of Event Horizon.
IDK what to vote for here other then the character-perception and God perception votes. Might vote later for the battlefield options.
[x] Our Sister of Supreme Passion. This is an idealization of your axiom Blackstar, reframed as a position of overwhelming passion for the pain of others.
[x] Our Sister of Supreme Mercy. This is an idealization of your axiom The Witch they Wanted, reframed as a protection of the weak against the strong.
[x] The Colossi. Gods in an inhuman shape. Alien, structural forces, indifferent, grinding, uncaring, that define time, define history, define creation, by their brutal, impersonal design. The suns, the seasons, the sea.
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I actually first spelled it as Schisomachia but replaced the s with a z because I did not go back and check the spelling. That just goes to show you should usually stick with what spelling you first think is right.