... could have just let this part be implicit.
i was already drawing the same conclusion when i read Odin's thoughts about having his own daughter as his executioner.
interesting parallel of the Fire Lords with the three Japanese Emperors. i never thought about it like that, though in my defence my history knowledge about Japan is spotty at best. one correction though, all the three Fire Lords from Sozin were wholly bent on conquering the world, Ozai just took it a step too far.
I actually wrote this informal essay back forever ago, to illustrate the social contracts in Avatar the Last Airbender, it's parallel to Japan and even how war and peace are perpetuated by a cycle of Avatars who are either born in peace or war, and whose actions shape the era to follow.
First time released to the public aside from my facebook friends!
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Avatar the Last Airbender: Breaking Social Contracts
An Informal Essay
(one I wrote a long time ago, but wanted to share due to my sudden re-interest in the series
:3)
Avatar the last airbender is really the story of social contracts been abused or destroyed entirely.
To begin with, let us examine the civilizations the four nations obviously parallels. The Fire Nation represents Imperial Japan, the Earth Kingdom represents China, the Water Tribes represents the Inuit, and finally the Air Nomads represents Tibet, or specifically, the Monastic Order of Tibetan Monks and Nuns.
The Fire Nation's Firelords parallels that of the Japanese Emperors.
Fire Lord Sozin (Emperor Meiji), Fire Lord Azulon (Emperor Taisho), and Fire Lord Ozai (Emperor Showa). The reign of Fire Lord Zuko is similar to the reign of his counterpart, the current Japanese Emperor Akihito (Emperor Heisei once he dies), the only one that was at peace with the rest of the world.
The King of Ba-Sing-Se represents the Emperor of China. The Earth Kingdom is the single largest sovereignty and with a tremendous population, they had to weather the invasion by the Fire Nation for a hundred years, paralleling the encroachment of Japan onto Chinese sovereignty since the turn of the 20th century.
The Avatar, most obviously, represents the Tulkus of Tibet, very specifically the Dalai Lama, although much more like the Avatara of Hinduism.
Now that some backgrounds are established, we'll examine the series of linked violations of social contracts that culminated in massive suffering for mankind and the rest of the world.
To begin, let us examine the immediate four Avatars before Avatar Aang.
Avatar Yangchen: Although she was an Air Nomad, she was forced to pursue extremely aggressive and violent policies to stamp out injustice and imbalance. So successful was her actions that no threats of war occurred for an entire generation after her death. This is a tremendous accomplishment, but a peace enforced through the continued fear of the Avatar would not last.
Avatar Kuruk: An Avatar's purpose is to maintain balance between the physical world and the spiritual world, and between human beings. Deprived of that purpose, can an Avatar be an Avatar at all? Avatar Kuruk lived in the peace that followed Avatar Yangchen, and as a result, had nothing better to do than fool around. His tale is one of tragedy however, his fiancée was stolen away by Koh, the Facestealer, and he pursued him into the spirit world to be never seen again.
Avatar Kyoshi: The peace of Yangchen wore off, and Kyoshi was faced with Chin the Conqueror and his attempted conquest of the Earth Kingdom. She ended up killing him and creating the Island of Kyoshi in the process. She also created the Dai Li (the Earth Kingdom secret police), but unfortunately they became corrupt. The Dai Li is named after the real life Republic of China intelligence officer, Dai Li.
Avatar Roku: Despite the ambitions of Firelord Sozin, Roku was incapable of bringing himself to kill Sozin, pursuing a pacifistic course of action and sparing Sozin his life. This action would not have been approved of by Avatar Kyoshi nor Avatar Yangchen.
Finally we have Avatar Aang.
Avatar Roku and Firelord Sozin were best friends. Sozin violated the contract of friendship by betraying and murdering Roku indirectly.
Then, with the Avatar out of the picture, he began his conquest of the rest of the world. The Fire nation violated their contract with the other nations.
Then they exterminated the Air Nomads in an attempt to kill Avatar Aang before he could mature to stop him. Throughout the rest of the war they continued to regard the Avatar as an enemy of the state. This is identical to declaring the entire world as your enemy. What sane man would declare the world their enemy? Yet that is exactly what the Fire Nation have done.
Many times, the Fire Nation have shown their blatant disregard for the Spiritual world. They regularly transgress against nature, anger the spirits and sought to kill the Avatar, the most powerful spirit in human form. This is a violation of a social contract against the entire spiritual world, against nature.
Back to a microcosmic scale, Firelord Ozai is a particularly despicable example of a social contract violator. He had his father, Firelord Azulon murdered. He exiled his wife. He scarred and exiled his son after abusing him his entire life. He manipulated and raised his daughter to be a sociopath, and finally, he showed absolutely no brotherly compassion towards his brother, Iroh. As a Father, Husband, Son and Brother, he utterly and completely failed. He is incapable of Filial Piety. This disharmony and tyrannical treatment of his own family would mirror his outward policy towards his own country and the rest of the world. A Bad Father is a Bad King.
All of these social contracts lead to a world in disharmony.
It was only through the heroic and compassionate actions of Avatar Aang that balance was restored and social contracts put back in their place.
Fire Lord Zuko did much to alleviate the crimes committed by his family. He befriended the Avatar, restoring the lost faith between Avatar Roku and Firelord Sozin. He restored peace with the other nations, and finally he chose not to execute his father and sister, which speaks much much better for his Filial Piety and therefore, his capability as a King.
Today, in our own world, conflicts and disharmony abound.
There is the violation of social contracts between:
Nations and Nations or War
Rulers and Subjects or Tyranny/Anarchy
Parents and Child or Abuse/Neglect
Husband and Wife or Divorce/Infidelity
God and Man or Sinfulness
Nature and Man or Environmental devastation
Animals and Man or Factory Farming
Man and Man or Conflict
Men and Women or Gender Inequality/violence
What can we do, to restore balance?
What lessons can we learn from Avatar: The Last Airbender?
Edit: apologies for the false alert, word count was higher than I realized- I'LL MAKE IT UP TO YOU, I SWEAR.
REAL TALK- taking inventory of the story thus far, please critique
Okay, real talk time folks. Time to take inventory on what I am doing.
It's time to examine just what we have done in the past 14 chapters, talk about likes, dislikes, major trainwrecks that you feel might be imminent, problems, what I am doing right- the whole nine yards.
Spelling and grammar issues I need to pay attention to, dialogue vs action, do I do justice to First Person narration?
Cosmology stuff- too complicated? Just right? More explainations in narrative, or handwave it (it's in the background, but not super necessary to understand for the comic style action and flow).
Flow of the story- of particular concern is Chapters 12 (Taylor VI) and 13 (Carlos I). Do you feel that the whole thing involving Bjorn's family went by too fast? Would a rewrite be necessary?
Mixture of MCU and Worm elements- do you feel that too much worm is in there, or too much MCU is in here- what would be an ideal balance?
The way I see it, the rest of the universe is unknowable, vaguely MCU, while on Earth, things are Worm, with a dash of Indiana Jones styled "ancient civilizations and ancient gods were here" vibe. That's the angle I want to go for.
Anyway, go nuts with the critique, I need to hear it before I can safely proceed. So far I am writing backwards, developing later chapters to put off having to commit to the fulcrum in the middle which is coming up and is vital.
I think I'd of liked Bjorn's family (or at least more of them) to survive, but that doesn't seem like its fits the story you seem to be going for? Maybe they would live longer but in the end they seem to need to die for the child to trigger? Not sure on that one.
I love the mix of MCU, Worm and actual religion that you use to fill in the gaps. The amount of cosmology sits just right for me as well. However, I do have a weekness for good cosmology and seeing my gods in new and living stories, even through the lense of the MCU, so I might be biased.
I would have much preferred the death of Bjorn`s family be his fault for mistrusting Taylor's pure intentions, and her starting to resent the prejudice she faces from all those inferior races.
Regarding the mix of MCU, Worm and religion I have simply to say that I love what you are doing there.
I would appreciate a bit more of Hela, if simply because her viewpoint is so refreshingly and deservingly condescending to everyone not wielding godly power, but that's just a personal preference.
Edit: and more Taylor drugfuled badassery is always appreciated.
I like the story. The action scenes are good, to me the cosmology is either interesting or small enough that it doesn't matter and I find the characters engaging.
The only two parts I don't like are "I'm A Space Nazi" and Eidolon.
Space Nazi first. It is rather obvious that the current universe isn't healthy to Dark Elves. It poisons and burns them. As a race, doing something about it makes sense, and honestly, when it comes to racial survival, in most cases when it comes to personal survival, "screw the other guy" is understandable. Add the lovely horns on Bor's headgear of choice...
Bor didn't know in what regard they held Auðumbla, which, since Heimdallr knows, indicates severe overconfidence or incompetence. (I doubt this)
Bor comes from a culture where such an act is not insulting and cannot conceive it being insulting. (I doubt this as well.)
Bor is seeing how far he can push them, but doesn't intend to push them into declaring war. (Maybe this)
Bor is actively trying to get them to declare war. (What Annette thought and what I consider likeliest)
... and the beliefs the Dark Elves had / have and I don't think Annette could have seen her race as Nazi's. Screwed over, passed by, time is done or things like that, yes. Nazi's no. And she told her stories to Taylor. She taught Taylor. So Taylor seeing herself as a "Space Nazi" descendant just doesn't feel quite right either. Others seeing her like that sure. She seeing herself like that not really. (Now, how Annette sees Malekith is a different matter and would be passed along to Taylor with the stories and lessons. Arrogant overconfident **** probably being the nicest. With **** being the worst word she knows.)
Eidelon. Firstly please keep in mind that my opinion of the character Eidolon as a person is not good, the opposite in fact, and that affects how I saw his chapter. Him not being collected by Cauldron doesn't make sense, whether to try and regenerate him so he can regain his power or to ensure he doesn't talk. Or perhaps to try amd clone him. (Clairvoyant & Doormaker before he lost his power or Clairvoyant & Doormaker or Contessa after he lost it.) Him being taken in, him being kept despite the fact that he doesn't want it, the personal attention of the Ancient One... She didn't want to take Dr Strange in the movies, I can't see why she would take Eidolon. It just feels like the most forced chapter you have. As to Eidolon actually being useful in time... Dr. Strange was strongly implied to be very gifted intelligence wise, he studied constantly, even when he was "sleeping" and his profession would have required skill at learning.
I like the space elf primordial darkness thing, and also the mythology whatsits, and my only disappointment is that this story will probably not feature Kid Loki (from before he became real Loki again), but that's only because I liked him. He wouldn't fit.
Also Space Elf Nazis may have Done Nothing Wrong*, or at least been somewhat justified, but they were still dicks on an almost Fëanorean scale. Fuck 'em. Taylor can team up with the local BJ Blazkowicz to kill them all (again) if they come back, then go clean up Brockton.
What else... oh! The Doctor Strange stuff is cool. He's cool. But you should know that I'll be reading Eidolon's lines with a bit of Doctor Orpheus voice going on.
A/N: Brace yourself, this chapter is DIFFERENT. Which is why it required a Q&A at the end.
Thanks to Atheist Jew and The Literary Lord for beta reading, spellcheck and grammar and suggestions. Thanks to Centergg for drawing my attention to a major issue that I had thought over in detail to make sure it was justified. Thanks Baron Steakpuncher for beta reading and your encouragements. All Beta readers, please note that MORE things were added and tones of voice were changed in this update for proper characterization. If you want to know specifically what I had added, aside from your edits, please message me and I will be happy to clarify. As an aside, this chapter may be the last chapter of this arc, or close to it.
Taylor VII
The army of Jotuns stood across from me, on the other end of the bridge. I guess seeing a big bad space elf blocking their way wasn't what any of them were expecting when they tracked the refugees this way- or did they? They must have looked over the bodies I left behind me at least.
It took them awhile to get here though- I was honestly worried my last dosage would be expunged from my veins before they arrived. In which case there wouldn't be a fight, I would just be dead.
I gave them a friendly, exaggerated wave.
"Hey assholes; come and get me!"
Insult Jotuns, get a rise out of them. Classic really. Don't fix what ain't broke and all that. I clutched my bag tightly however; I was going to die after all- burying my fear with sarcasm could only do so much. This was probably going to hurt too.
But I had to do it. If a hundred Innocent people and Gwen could survive because I bought them a little more time, then this was the right thing to do.
The Jotuns turned to each other and muttered between themselves- finally, one stepped forward.
"Dark Elf! You are brave, I'll give you that. You have slaughtered many of my close friends in glorious combat."
Ah, he must hate me a lot then. Well then, come and get me. Bring all of your buddies in a huge wave, clumped nicely together so I can throw black holes everywhere and kill us all, while blowing up the bridge to bury any survivors underneath it.
Come on, Jotun, come to papa!
"And so I challenge you to one on one combat! It would be the honourable thing to do." The Jotun suddenly crashed my line of thought.
God fucking dammit. I'm trying to trigger a trap on a time sensitive gambit here! And I am dying to do it to boot- why did a Jotun have to find their sense of fair play at a moment like this?
Time to change the formula then.
"Fuck you and your honour. And the Universe too. I am happy Malekith tried to kill you all- you inferior beings don't deserve to exist." I said.
I did a Dark Elven salute. This, disturbingly enough, was vaguely Nazish. If you added a mudra to the end there instead of an open palm. Always found that weird, but Roman salutes were pretty normal in many cultures.
"Hail the Darkness! Death to all life!"
Yeah. I went there. Playing up to stereotypes was shameful, but I had few options to work with at the moment.
The Jotun's face scrunched up in anger and he roared. He gestured to his soldiers. "Eviscerate that little shit- I want her intestines draped around my neck as a trophy!"
First of all, Ew.
Second of all, yes, YES- thank you!
A hundred or so Jotuns roared and charged across the bridge towards me.
I threw the grenades. They hurled through the air and detonated, creating a kaleidoscope of singularities that tore limbs from bodies, crushed torsos and sucked in Jotuns' wholesale.
What was once a snow covered bridge was now a broken mess- craters lined the roads as did errant limbs. I was out of black hole grenades at this point, so I lifted my pistol. Best I could do really.
The Jotuns near the back faltered from the barrage, now cautious.
Come on cowards, keep on charging! Don't a grow a brain now and retreat!
And then I heard it.
The thump, thump, thump of massive air pressure being created through the air.
I looked up towards the sky. My mouth went dry.
A great winged beast descended from the sky, well below the aerial shield. It landed on the bridge, right in front of the now invigorated Jotuns.
The Dragon was covered in a thin layer of frost. His scales twitched and ice shards peeled off and littered the frozen streets below its clawed foot.
I suddenly realized that the glacier I had seen the Jotuns pulling out of the portal to Jotunheim was where they had thawed this monstrosity out of.
On the dragon's back sat a tall and regal looking Jotun.
"Dark Elf. Fancy seeing one of your kind. Laufey shall be a hero, Laufey shall end your despicable race. All shall proclaim Laufey greatest King of the Nine Realms. Not even Great Odin had fought a Dark Elf!"
Laufey? LAUFEY!? Fuck. And yet, sadly, my mouth moved before I could stop myself. "So, the almighty Laufey refers to himself in third person, does little man Laufey need help with growing up?"
"I was being poetic, Dark Elf!" Laufey said.
"I was being literal." I aimed my particle pistol at him and squeezed the trigger, whilst shouting. "Grow up and die!"
"What?" Laufey asked, confusion on his face.
I wasn't actually being literal- no matter how well I shoot, I couldn't make him grow up. Fact. But trolling your opponent was magical.
Beams of red light scattered across the air between us...and bounced off his skin to ricochet off the ground, the mist and even a broken light pole.
Laufey examined his naked torso- noted the complete lack of damage and snorted.
"Pathetic." He said.
Well, so much for Dark Elven technology. I guess Laufey- being King of Jotunheim- had special privileges in the powers department. It was like a rule among gods that their leaders were always ludicrously overpowered.
Laufey raised an arm, and a spear of rune etched ice materialized in his hand. Ah, it was probably broken in the power levels. I played enough RPGs to know that. If it had runes on it…. damn. Game over.
People expected great heroes to have a great final showdown, especially if they planned to die while doing it. God, I wished I could have killed a hundred Jotuns, standing knee deep atop a mountain of corpses while hurling insults at the survivors- then shooting them in the face. A dragon's wrecked corpse thrown through a couple of skyscrapers and Laufey's head held high in my hand as I screamed in triumph.
Metal. So metal. Maybe in the movies they would hopefully make about me, assuming humanity survived, that might be the creative license the director takes with the film. I gave this hypothetical filmmaker my blessings.
But in real life, being martyred could be quite lowkey. Heroic Self-Sacrifice didn't necessary lived up to the hype.
And I couldn't stop a flying dragon anyway. I did my best with a missing arm, a broken arm, a drugged up body and my fraying mind.
The dragon surged forward on all four legs- Laufey stabbed me through the mouth and up towards my skull and my brain went sploosh. I fell to the ground. He didn't stop the dragon, it just keep on charging across the bridge, like I wasn't even an obstacle.
Before my mind went blank, my fading eyesight saw the Dragon took flight and into the air.
Mom. Dad. Emma. Gwen. I am sor-
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"What is that thing, crazy woman?"
"David, stop calling me that." She admonished him before turning back to look at me.
She held up the oil lamp to my face with one hand, an orange holographic mandala in the other hand.
"I think that's a god." She said. "Not a demon, or a hun or po. Definitely not a real cow."
The other man snorted. "She looks like a mutant cow."
Moo? A cow?
"Looks can be deceiving." She said before turning back to me. "Begone Rūpadhātu Deva, we do not worship you, nor require your power. My idiot apprentice botched a simple summoning."
"Hey!"
She held up two fingers and waved it-
And I was flung away across infinites.
I drifted through the void. Then something bright glowed in the distance. It burned with an overwhelming orange light. I felt entire body tingle and I responded by walking towards it.
The world around me seemed to collapse and fold on itself until everything was a thin brightly orange horizon that then expanded into-
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I stood in a landscape, a vast plain stretched before me. It vaguely reminded me of Australia, except everything casted a longer shadow than was possible, both the Sun and Moon were not visible- the light was omnipresent.
Giant honeycombs could be seen orbiting the world.
Strange towering titans stalked through the land, their head in the clouds. Their naked bodies were painted with all kinds of white swirls and designs that moved and jumped. They reminded me of something.
A memory slithered into my mind.
Ah, Australian Aboriginals. The titans looked like Australian Aboriginals.
Where am I? More importantly, who am I?
A rattlesnake flew across the air and disappeared into the mist. On the horizon silhouettes walked in the sun, like a panorama of figures. I couldn't make out any details except that they were human.
Nut!
My skin crawled- literally, rippling and bursting into black smoke.
Nut!
I held up my hands and watched my fingers de corporealize and became stalks of the night sky with stars and galaxies swirling inside.
What was this?
Nut!
Suddenly the call was irresistible, I answered. I turned and ran in towards the voice and the landscape pulled away from me, rippling, changing and twisting into mist and shadows.
I stood before another plain, tall grass surround me. The savannah reminded me of…. of...Africa...the sky was purple and dark. I could see the stars in the heavens above.
A single large acacia tree stood before me- rooted in the centre of the infinite savannah, its branches were dark and hazy- and changed its length and thickness from moment to moment.
Then, for a moment, the tree extended beyond the world- to all worlds- becoming a great ash tree. I saw a squirrel running up it's trunk, a great Eagle roosted upon the uppermost branch, and a snake gnawed at the roots that glowed orange.
Then the vision vanished, and I saw an acacia tree once more.
I approached slowly, my hooves staking through the grassland and presented myself before the tree and the beings resting upon it.
A black panther lazed on a thick branch, one paw hanging low and its tail twisting back and forth. It opened its eyes and stared back at me.
It was the Lioness that spoke first. I jumped briefly in shock when it slithered into existence next to the panther.
"Nut. You actually showed up." The Lioness said, her accent thick and tinged with hidden violence and martial authority.
"Excuse me? Who is Nut?" I asked, honestly confused.
"You are Nut." A Crocodile waddled into view from behind the acacia tree. His voice had a reptilian chitter to it. "Did you forget your name?"
The Panther suddenly spoke, her foreign voice rumbled with displeasure. "Many moons you have ignored the summon to council. That is unbecoming of a god."
"I am sorry, I am not Nut."
Crocodile growled. "Look at your reflection in the pool!"
I looked down at my feet, and the soil pulled away to reveal a hole that immediately filled with water. It was clear and under the light of the stars I saw myself.
I wore a stylized cow head mask, all ergonomic angles and straw hair, complete with curved horns that twisted downwards. My fake eyes were wide and unblinking- it glowed with a dim yellow haze.
That doesn't seem right.
My skin was as black as night, smoky and hazy near the edges, important details like my fingers and genitals were entirely missing as if I was a half-formed painting.
I had four limbs- two arms and two legs. Something about that doesn't seem right.
On my right hand, embedded in my palm, a THING OF POWER shone brightly in a deep bright red, made more eerie by the cool colours around me.
"You are Nut." The Lioness confirmed. "You looked like Nut. Therefore, you are."
"But I am really not." I protested. I was growing frustrated. How could they know who I was, if even I don't even know who I was?
The Panther watched me closely, and then her eyes widened in surprise.
"You are not Nut! Astounding!"
"What." Crocodile deadpanned.
The Lioness narrowed her eyes into slits "What have you done with the Night Mother?" The large cat crouched on the branch, growling, her eyes became flaming suns that seared a heat into the surrounding area. There was howls, yowls and screeches of monkeys and the cry of hyenas.
"I am sorry, I don't know what's happening!" I cried out in fear, falling onto the grass and dirtying my behinds. My hands stretched out in front of me, in a protective gesture of fear. My palm then unexpectedly shone with a deadly red light and there was instantly shocked silence from the Beasts in front of me.
The Lioness flinched upon seeing the stone in my hand, the Panther's hackles raised, and the Crocodile retreated back behind the tree.
"That is…. you are definitely no Nut." The Panther said. "But you are perhaps a Nephthys."
"A who?"
"A daughter." The Panther exclaimed.
Daughter?
I was someone's daughter?
Vaguely, a long-forgotten memory drifted into my mind- literally, carried by a wind from the East and I gasped.
"Annette! I am Annette's daughter!" I cried out.
But wait, who was Annette's daughter?
"Taylor! I am Taylor, daughter of Annette!" I cried again, this time with joyous triumph at remembering my name.
The Panther and the Lioness looked at each other.
"Interesting. You are not Nut, but you are in the shape of Nut. Has something happened to Nut?"
Did something happened to my mother?
"I think she's missing." I said, voice quiet. I looked around, as if expecting to find my mother lying in wait in the long grass. "Yes, she was taken from me."
"What. The Night Mother was taken?" The Lioness growled in fury.
I was equally furious- no, I was angrier than even the talking Lioness! My mother was taken from me. She was taken from me. Shewastakenfromme!
Streams of fire exploded from the nostril of my cow-mask and I felt my horns grow white hot with power.
"Peace! Nut's daughter! Calm yourself." The Panther cried out in alarm.
I took a deep breath and forced myself to relax.
"Where am I?" I finally asked, looking up and seeing memories still scattered everywhere and floated through the air. I wonder what was in them. Maybe something important, like what a Nut was- and how it could be both me and my mother.
"You are in the Spirit World."
"The what world?"
The Panther looked down and pointed with a paw at the THING OF POWER resting in the soil- my sight pierced through the shifting earth and into the roots of the tree. THE THING OF POWER glowed orange and its web extended throughout the ground and to the very edges of the world.
"What is that?"
"A THING OF POWER. It is the source of the spirit world. All that is of the forms and colours have a spirit here in this realm. All dreams and archetypes given enough energy can thrive here. Even people's beliefs about the world tree is made manifest despite its nature in reality."
"Forms and colours. Dreams. I don't understand." I really didn't.
"Beings of thoughts- of the colours and forms, but not of the flesh, of the world. Entities like you and I."
"But I have flesh- I am of the flesh." I denied.
"Nonsense- if you are of the flesh, how are you here, then?"
How was I here?
I tried to remember. Like a gravity well- the memories floating in the sky was swept by an unseen wind that send a scrap of distant remembrance slithering into my ear.
"Oh. I died." I said, with sudden sadness. Then with horror. "I-I was killed."
"Being killed is terrible. What were you killed by? Some sorcerer? Another god?" Crocodile cackled excitedly.
"By something. Beings of ice and frost- of heat eating and malice."
The Panther spoke. "Sounds like a Frost Giant. Where were you, that there were Frost Giants?"
"The human world." I said, confident of that much at least. "Was the human world full of ice and snow? Because that's mostly what I had recalled."
"Some parts of it." Crocodile said. What he had said made sense. Although I cannot remember why.
The Lioness growled. "Those lowly deities dared to invade the Geb's World?"
"Lowly?" I asked, confused. The frost giants that killed me seemed fairly godly to me.
Panther snorted. "The gods of ice and snow are wordly deities, they are not spirits- they are of flesh and blood."
"I too am of flesh and blood." I stared at my smoking hands. "At least, I thought I was."
"Wasn't Nut of flesh and blood?" Lioness asked Panther, who had a strange look on her face.
Finally Panther nodded her head in ascent. "Yes. She was. By day she was a worldly god- but at night, in her dreams, she ascends to the Spirit World and takes her place as Nut, the Night Mother."
"Mother." I said with a reverential tone. "Who was my mother? What is a Nut? Who are you animals that could speak like Man?"
Panther laughed. "We are the Gods of Lost Wakanda- we are of neither male nor female."
Lioness rumbled in agreement. "We are the Spirits of Shapes and Colours- of the mind."
Crocodile. "We are the scions of the Ennead, now Orisha- the ancient, the lost."
Panther completed the introduction. "We are the self-shining gods, the get of Ra."
They all seem to know who they were. I wish I knew who I was. A memory fell from the sky and entered my mind, skittering its way across my incorporeal brain.
"Oh!" I exclaimed. "I remembered now. My mother was a Dark Elf!"
"A child of the Cosmic Cow, a primordial of the night sky." Panther nodded her head. "Your mother honoured her primordial ancestress by wearing a Cow Mask when she took her place as one of the Ennead- the nine great gods of the Children of the Nile."
"Egyptians." I said, nodding my head. "My mother was an Egyptian Goddess?"
"Your Mother was Nut. You are Nut."
"But I am not." I protested once more. "I am not Nut."
"This again!" The Lioness growled. "Enough! Why are you here?"
"Uh, I died." I deadpanned.
Panther laughed. "Sekhmet, don't be pedantic- she was just confused."
She looked at me with curiosity. "I think I know what is happening. You are older than life- but younger than me. You are as old as this spirit world- and yet younger than its youngest spirit."
What was she talking about?
"I don't understand."
"Like calls to like." The Panther pointed at THE THING OF POWER in the heart of the tree and spoke again. "You are a THING OF POWER and naturally you became attracted to another THING OF POWER. Similarly, your mother was Nut. And so of course, in this world, you assumed her astral form."
"A THING OF POWER?" I said, the term itself echoing with a mystic weight to it.
"One of Six. The Heart of the Spirit World is the Soul of the Universe. You are its counterpart- Reality."
Reality.
I was Reality.
"I am Reality." I said.
I held up my palm and stared at the Red Stone, glowing brighter.
"I. Am. Reality." I said again, this time with awe.
"You are its container." Panther clarified.
Memories fell one by one.
Reality.
The Reality Stone.
Aether.
"I am the Aether." I declared, knowing this to the be truth from the depths of my being. But, how? The Aether was a fluid like substance, floating through the void.
It was certainly no stone.
And absolutely could not have been a living being.
My thoughts must have leaked, because the Panther responded immediately.
"The Accursed God changed the Reality Sone into a fluid. That fluid is your soul. Here in the Spirit World however, Reality is anchored in its original form- or as close to original as it could be- a stone."
"A gem." The Lioness said, eyeing my hand with sudden interest. "A weapon."
Crocodile shuffled his feet nervously. "You could change reality. You are dangerous. Very dangerous. Bast!" He called to the Panther. "We should tell her to go away and never come back!"
I frowned- that was rude of him!
Panther growled. "Shut up Sobek! She is Little Nut, a Child of Nut. She is a Goddess of Wakanda, we have lost too much, we cannot just exile a member of the surviving Ennead!"
"Wakanda? You keep saying that term, but I have never heard of it."
The Panther dipped her head in sorrow. "Wakanda was the Nation of my most recent worshippers. It was destroyed in a single night by some unseen terror from the stars, and its people killed and reduced in power- and we gods along with them, as forgotten as the rest of the Egyptian Ennead, that of Ra's get."
"If that wasn't tragic enough, what survived of the few secret cults that worshipped us around the Sahara has been supplanted by that." The Lioness pointed towards the horizon with a paw, claws out.
I turned and watched a cloud of twisting darkness creeped through the grass, sending flocks of birds flying away in fear. Grass rotted and trees shrivelled and died as she passed. Her head was a fearsome skull of some reptilian beast.
"What is that?"
"Moord Nag-Aasdier."
That name sounded familiar. A memory fell and entered my mind, whispering in my skull.
"Ah! The African Warlord!"
"Yes. Murder Night and the Scavenger. The Predator."
Moord Nag turned to stare at us, judging us- then decided we were not prey to tangle with. She turned and continued her path.
"How is she here?" I asked.
"Her representation is here." Panther clarified.
"The Parasite!" Lioness gnashed her sharp teeth in anger, glaring at the skull-shadow-beast as it stalked through the savannah.
"The thing from the Heavens." Crocodile whispered, terror in his voice.
I shuddered. Another memory fell- then another and another.
"Parahumans." I said.
"Yes. The mortal godlings." Panther said. "A curious development. One I would have welcomed had it not also doomed the Wakandan people and splintered the world into fractals."
"Fractals?"
"There was one world. Now there are many. This was not natural."
And I could almost understand that.
Suddenly I looked up and saw a falling meteor burning through the purple clouds.
"Ah, your memories." Panther noted. "The bulk of it has arrived."
I panicked and started running away from the Tree as the meteor chased me across the sky- before it suddenly fell on me.
The sparkling memories swirled around my head before entering my eyes, mouth, and ears.
And then I remembered. The memories falling into place, one by one.
My name is Taylor Anne Hebert. I was a Dark Elf. I was the Daughter of Annette, she who was Nylarka.
And I was dead.
Standing back up, unharmed, I looked at my hand again.
The Aether. The Reality Stone.
"How?" I asked myself.
How was any of this possible? Was I not a Dark Elf? Was I not of the Darkness?
What am I?
A strange pressure suddenly fell upon the world, and down my spine, I looked up, the purple sky had darkened as if all light had been sucked out of it. Above, from whence my memories came, a black shadow descended from the stars.
The sky darkened dramatically.
Panther growled. "Child of Nut! Come back- something dark comes this way!"
I hurriedly ran back towards the acacia tree, to take protection under its branches. The sky cackled with an ominous glow and the Reality Stone burned hot in my palm.
The long shadows of every grass, tree, rock and stalking animal blurred and thickened. They begin to bleed together.
Crocodile scrambled up the tree- somehow- in his terror. I almost wanted to do the same, but I was petrified- whatever was coming was ominous and its aura was oppressing.
My body screamed, and my hand burned in pain- I looked at the Reality Stone again and it was melting, becoming fluid.
"What is happening!?" I cried out in fear and agony.
"He comes. The Accursed." Panther growled at the sky, then looked down at me. "Your other memories are intricately tied to the Aether. There's a direct connection because He was once the Living Aether, as you are now. Here in the Spirit World- the realm of dreams and mind, of shapes and colours- your darker aspect has taken form."
She paused. "And he is old and powerful. Whilst you are young and weak. Brace yourself, Child of Nut who is Nut!"
"The Accursed is a forgotten God- he shall cower beneath my claws!" Lioness roared, eyes blazing with bloodlust.
"Fool!" Panther snapped at her companion. "He is the memory of the Aether itself. He draws upon its power- here in the Spirit World inside the Soul Stone, where nothing in Reality resists any attempts at transmutation, he is nearly omnipotent."
Panther looked down at me, staring me in the eyes.
"Child of Nut, only you can defeat yourself."
"He comes!" Crocodile cried fearfully, clutching onto his branch tighter like a frightened kitten.
The Night sky fell upon us and there was howls and screams- birds flew from every tree, chirping in terror. The stars fell from their paths and burned, setting fire to the horizons.
Panther suddenly grew into the size of a mountain and she swapped at the darkness, but screeched as she was pushed away and out of the world, disappearing behind the mass of darkness that enveloped the world.
I saw what looked like Crocodile's spine disappearing into the sea of night. Lioness roared above me- and for a moment the darkness flinched back before surging forward- it rushed over the tree and surrounded me. I saw Lioness struggling to stay aloft as she was carried off and away.
No- it was I that was being carried away. The Darkness was separating me from the Tree!
Then suddenly every light extinguished at once. And then all sound- every chirp, and howl, every growl and flutter of the wind- was sucked away to create only damning silence.
The Tree was gone. The Soul Stone and the root it rested within was gone.
Panther, Lioness, and Crocodile was gone too.
I was alone.
I could feel it- I was very very far away from everything else in this world. I was in a dark and shadowy corner of the Spirit World, where nothing grew, nothing changed, nothing becomes- I was where no light could persist.
A finger, cold to the touch, stroked my cheek.
I had a cheek instead of a mask. I was a Dark Elf again, returned to my own body, whole, but naked. I had not burns on my face, this I knew.
I shuddered.
"Thief." The voice whispered, full of malice. "Spawn of my Nylarka. Avatar of my Aether."
I bristled in fury at his daring to imply that either my mother or I could belong to anyone- and for a moment the presence was pushed away before it enveloped me once more, tighter and darker than before.
"Thief. Look at me."
My body nearly obeyed, but I forced myself to be still. I refused to turn my head.
"Look. At. Me." The voice commanded.
"N-no."
The fingers grasped my jaw, gripping it so tightly I gasped in pain.
"LOOK AT ME!" He roared in my left ear, bursting my eardrum. I screamed and fell to my knees.
"No!" I shouted, trying to cover my ears and my eyes, but my body would not move- could not move.
I can't look. I shall not look. If I looked at the billions of years worth of memories of myself, of my entire race, it would consume me wholly.
Taylor Hebert was so young. She was barely even real. Malekith would consume me like I was air- I would cease to be.
The pressure on my jaw eased and softened. Another stroke of my cheek.
"Oh child, I didn't mean to frighten you." He said, kindly. Softly.
He lies, I told myself. He lies.
"Together, we can do anything."
From the shadows, a shape took form. I saw my mother before me suddenly. She smiled at me.
"Taylor." She said, her voice- oh god her voice- was full of fondness and pride. "I missed you so much. And I am so proud of you."
"Mum." I said, tears flowing down my face.
"We could bring your mother back- imagine, when darkness expands across the Universe, wherever your mother was, she'll immediately transform into an omnipotent god, more beautiful and terrible than anything you could imagine. Whatever chains bind her will fall- whatever cage that holds her would be rendered impotent. An Elder Darkness cannot be constrained by anything, not even death."
I could see it- my mother, vaster than galaxies, more beautiful and terrible than anything mortals could imagine. She would be eternal.
I would be with her forever.
"It was all I ever wanted- to free our people. To give liberation." He whispered from my other ear. "I wanted to free you- to free us. To free your mother. We could be immortals, all of us."
He grabbed the back of my head.
"Look at me."
I started to turn my head-
"Do not do so, Taylor Anne Hebert!" A female voice cried out from the darkness.
I looked straight ahead and saw a wisp of light moving towards us, the darkness receding from where she threaded.
"Abomination!" The Darkness hissed from behind me.
The light coalesced into the shape of a lithe woman, naked and dripping with freshwater. Seaweed wrapped around her legs and waist as she walked forward on legs whose feet danced upon the surface of the world. He hair was light blonde and shone like the sun and her eyes glowed with power.
Her pointed ears gave away her identity. A light elf.
"I am Nimue, daughter of Danu!" She announced. "The Lady of the Lake, Guardian of Avalon!"
Like, Nimue from King Arthur? That Nimue?
"Exactly so." She responded to my thoughts. I was starting to suspect that thoughts and speech were one and the same inside the Soul Stone.
"Release her, Malekith. You have no hold over her soul." Nimue demanded, one arm thrusted out imperiously, as if ready to cast a spell.
"I am her soul. She is mine!" He hissed in my ears again. "Look at me, child! Turn your head and behold your glory!"
"Do not listen to him, Taylor, daughter of Annette/Nylarka/Nut." Nimue intoned, her eyes to me, drawing me in. My anxiety gave way peace as if I was falling under an enchantment. The Darkness seemed to draw back and the pressure it exuded dimmed in intensity the longer I stared into the elf's eyes.
"He could give me back my mother." I choked out. Who was this elf- what would she know of my pain? I closed my eyes and broke eye contact with Nimue. Instantly the presence of the Darkness increased a dozenfold.
"Yes." Nimue said. "It is true what the Accursed One says."
So it was true. He did not lie. I prepared to turn my head, to see my mother, to become one with my kin-
"What of your father?" The question cut through the space between us.
Dad.
Dad, cooking breakfast. Pushing up his glasses. Grinning at some humour we made, a stern frown as he admonished me.
"Your sister?"
Emma. Laughing with her, walking hands in hands with her, doing everything together. We had a bond tighter than blood. Traitor or no, those memories were real. The memories in my skull jumped and danced.
"Carlos?"
Carlos? The boy stood before me in my mind's eye. Carlos. Aegis. The one who acknowledged that I was a hero.
And the others. Gwen. Doctor Kravitz. Bjorn. Lindsey. Gertrude. The Refugees!
The few people I know. In my mind's eye and in the space in front of me- there was no distinction, just shapes and colours I realized- I saw the Planet Earth, a view from Space. I saw all the fractals of it; a kaleidoscope of hopes and dreams, love and sorrow.
I saw life itself.
All that I had known. All that I had loved and lost.
The Reality Stone blazed crimson in my palm and I turned to Malekith, beholding the form my nightmare had taken in this realm. He was a terrible horned Bull of absolute blackness- so dark it was if all light had been sucked away inside him- like a black door opening into the abyss before me- his nostrils flaring with fire and hatred. The Darkness that trailed behind him- billions of years' worth of memories and more, stretching back to the beginning- surged forward like a tide to consume me.
"Fuck off, jackass!" I screamed at him. I punched him in the face and the darkness slammed up against an invisible wall of pure power before surging up like a giant tidal wave- so high that it reached high into the sky and drowned out even the night.
The lightless world grew darker somehow. Malekith the Accursed reared up, and charged forth with tusks of night.
I roared and pushed against him with all of my will.
I pushed against the raging Bull of Darkness before me.
I pushed and pushed. A act of will, not strength- for in this realm, I realized such a thing did not exist.
I wanted to see Mom, Dad, and Emma. I want to see Gwen and Carlos. I want to see all of mankind and all of their hopes and dreams. I want to laugh and cry with them.
I wanted to live.
I pushed and pushed- and then something give way. Like a pressure valve being turned and all steam being released at once, Malekith was violently blasted away towards the sky, trailing across the night- where he flew across the celestial sphere, the darkness peeled back with him and light returned to the world.
I saw him diminish in the horizon, becoming a banished shadow smeared across the edge of the world. He would always be there, at the back of my mind, at the root of my soul. But he would never haunt my memories again.
I was free from the monster lurking in my unconsciousness.
The Sun shone brightly above- the purple sky becoming red.
I stood before a familiar acacia tree, all three animal gods stared down at me with awe. Looking at my pitch-black hands and the smoky fingers, I see that I had once more donned the paraphernalia and mask of a Cow.
My palm tingled, and the Reality Stone shone brightly there, even as the Soul Stone shone beneath the roots of the tree in the earth, as if with joy.
"Well, done." Nimue said.
Panther grumbled in approval. "An excellent battle."
"I was disappointed at the lack of blood and tearing of limbs." Lioness criticised. "But good fight, cub."
I looked at Nimue- the actual Lady of the Lake, and asked something I was curious about.
"What would have happened, had Malekith consumed me?"
"With the Reality Stone, he could have made himself real- memory made flesh. He could have overwritten your body to suit his own- or the memory of his own anyway, and began his mad scheme anew. And the Universe would suffer for it."
I shuddered. "He was...so...so vast. And ancient."
"In the Spirit World, all Dark Elves are vast and ancient- when you entered this world, the memories sprang forth from the Aether in your blood."
"How had I even won- if he was so old and I was so young, how did I overcome him?" I asked. Honestly, Malekith was a real god there, how could I have defeated him?
Nimue smiled. "Because you are the Aether. He was only a memory. Like a bad dream- if you force yourself awake, the nightmare fades. Although no easy task, in the end, the spiritual Malekith is only as powerful as you choose to let him be."
One hell of a bad dream then.
I suddenly remembered something important. I was dead. I held up a hand. "Could I, um, return to life? I mean, if a memory could do it, why can't I?"
I hoped I could return to the living world, there's a refugee group that needs me! God, how much time had passed even?
"Of course! I could even show you the way." Nimue said. "But first, I need a favour. I would like to conduct a bargain for a one-time use of your reality altering powers within the confines of the Soul Stone."
She turned and started to walk away. I could only follow. I waved goodbye to the Ennead lazing above the tree- Crocodile was trying to get down, but looked like he was afraid of the height- and ran after Nimue.
In moments, the landscape twisted and turned around us, and we stood before a lake, in what looked like some European coast. The heavens were blue and it was noon.
It reminded me vaguely of the United Kingdoms.
In front of a large fruit tree, an armoured corpse laid still, sleeping beneath its roots, resting next to the steady orange glow of the Soul Stone. He was perfectly preserved, his skin pulled taut over his frame- they were translucent and glowed dimly.
"Artorius. King." Nimue explained. "A part of his soul anyway, trapped here to prevent it from decaying further. His actual corpse lies buried deep in Glastonbury Abbey."
I sucked in a breath.
I had suspected as much. And yes, I was absolutely fangirling. I was standing in front of King Arthur.
Nimue continued talking. "I would like you to complete his metempsychosis into an Alf Lord, for me. It couldn't be done normally because of Le Fay's geass in the fatal wound Mordred dealt him at Battle of Camlann. The Pendragon Spirit must be released."
What?
"Excuse me?"
She sighed. "Help me reincarnate King Arthur into a light elf, so he can rise to defend humanity against the gods of other worlds."
Ah, right.
That could be useful.
"Uh, how could I do that?"
"The Reality Stone can alter reality itself. But it required great willpower and experience to wield. It already conferred upon you greater strength and resilience than any Dark Elf have a right to. In fact, Half-Dark Elves are an impossibility Taylor. You don't have souls the way other Light Beings have- if not for the Aether being a breathing violation of the laws of physics, you would not exist here at all. But you have the Aether in your blood as well- and this is why you could exist. Because you believed you are a half-dark elf, the Aether has adapted to this belief."
"I thought the Aether only changed matter to dark matter. How could it possibly alter reality?"
"Malekith was singularly unimaginative." She scoffed. "He transformed the Reality Stone to the Aether- which is specialized in its function, but weaker in general when it come to altering other aspects of reality."
"Okay, but how does that bring back King Arthur?"
"Here in the spirit world, where reality is somewhat less tangible, what control you do have is enough to overcome the geass casted on the Pendragon Spirit. He is already decaying. You're my only hope- the Aether still retained its general reality changing powers- you can do this!"
What. Uh, that was my soul we're talking about- I knew it was before my time, but hearing that Malekith had changed my soul from a rock to a fluid was just...bizarre.
"Bizarre that you are. I have never heard of an Infinity Stone being contained within a living being before your mother created you."
You mean, she gave birth to me, right?
"That came later. Your mother did not created you on the first try, let me assure you. You had many many failed predecessors. Some of them were Kings of Man. Others were mythological monsters."
What.
Nimue looked at me now, pity in her eyes. "I think she originally intended to recreate Malekith or some kind of a Dark Elven Deity powered by the Aether- but for whatever reason, decided to create a much more innocent and mundane creature. Perhaps moonlighting as a mother goddess to the humans had brought out her more nurturing side. I do not know her ultimate intentions."
Okay. Wow. I was trying to process this- it's not working. Also, Nimue seemed to know a lot about my mother.
"We were acquainted- she helped me seal away Merlin, after all."
Ah, I wondered about that part of the stories. Wouldn't Merlin be useful against the Jotuns right about now? Why did Nimue had to lock away a perfectly useful uber mage?
"It's complicated." Nimue said, annoyance in her voice. "I was tired of his sexual advances."
Okay.
"It's more complicated than that."
I get that, not going to pry further. None of my business, totally not judging. She had her reasons, I get it. Merlin, big man in power who abused his authority over a maiden. Recipe for disaster and a lawsuit.
"Quite so."
This thought-speak thing was useful. It's like speaking was a placebo or something and spirits spoke because it seemed normal?
"So, I have siblings?" I was really curious about that. What kind of beings could my mother have created? Was I related to Egyptian Pharaohs- the actual Osiris maybe? Or a Sphinx? A Djinn or two?
"In a manner of speaking. Most of your mother's explorations in gene-science involved kidnaping humans to experiment on. She and I were the reality behind numerous legends of Fairy Hills, Changelings and Alien Abductions."
Holy shit. Mom! You were the Roswell Grey? I could see how the Dark Elven Mask looked like a little grey man if the abductee was drugged up and under fluorescent lights- the mother goddess aspect probably helped explain Frederick V. Malmstrom's mother hypothesis regarding Roswell Greys.
Nimue herself definitely lend credence to why some people saw aliens as angels or whatever. She was…. beautiful was an understatement.
I hoped to God neither of them had sex with the abductees.
Nimue smirked at me and winked.
Oh my god.
Nimue walked over to the water's edge and reached in. She pulled out a mundane looking gladius. In the pommel, notably, was an empty socket that looked like a jewel once fitted there.
She stared at the blade lovingly, her eyes seemingly lost in ancient memories. I could kind of- sort of- see- feel?- what she was remembering. Forts, knights, dragons, demons, gods and magic.
A time of legend and myth.
She turned and held out the sword in two hands.
"Take the sword." She said.
She placed the blade in my hands. My hands trembled with excitement and awe. I mean, sure, objectively, me being the Aether was more valuable and mind blowing than the sword. But...but this was Excalibur.
I remembered reading Le Morte d'Arthur by myself in the corner by the school entrance, while all the kids were playing outside during recess.
"Resurrect the Once and Future King" Nimue said with a grin. "And I'll let you borrow this sword to fight against the Jotuns, Taylor Hebert."
She paused and glanced at the dead King. "At least, until Artorius can physically claim the blade for himself once he arrived in Australia. It's a loan, not an exchange, just so we're clear."
Like any sane person, I said "Hell the fuck yes!"
Other teenagers mow the lawn for five bucks. I, being magnificent and fortuitous would resurrect an ancient King for Excalibur. Suck on my pointy e- er, cow horns.
I waved it around like an idiot for a couple minutes before she pointed at the half-alive Elf Lord.
Right.
I figuratively rolled up my sleeves and got to work. There were people I needed to save, and the gratitude of a legendary King was no small thing.
_____________________ Edit: Changed Rose to Anne. I messed up her middle name.
_____________________ Pre-emptive Q&A
Where was the heroic last stand!?
The Doylist Answer: Too soon for that emotionally, besides, she lacked sufficient witness. And I can't do anything on the par of Skurge's sacrifice.
The Watsonian Answer: She was crippled and tired. And the other guy had a Dragon.
Wait what, Spirit World?
Part of the Soul Stone. Some partitions of the selves or spirits reside in this world- or were made to exist in this world by the Soul Stone. Too much we don't know about it. In the Comics, the Soul Stone has a pocket dimension in it.
Talking Animals?
Gods of Wakanda- see references below.
King Arthur!? Why is he in this story, why is he an Light Elf?
I had to. King Arthur was in Marvel comics- the Knights of the Pendragon (Pendragon Spirits reincarnated in modern humans).
Olaf Geirstad-Alf (the legendary Norwegian King) became an Elf after he died. Likewise, Arthur would rise as an Elf in my fic. There is a Scandinavian sacrificial holiday towards the end of Autumn known as Alfablót "Sacrifice to the Elves", further evidence that Elves were the spirits of dead humans. There is also Dísablót, dedicated to female spirits or Valkyries.
The Aether reality altering powers- wouldn't that break the setting?
As the Aether, it's inclined towards dark matter transmutation- other effects are harder to achieve unless Taylor can return the Aether to a Stone- but doing so might kill her. Taylor is not omnipotent. The limitations to her ability would be extreme in the waking world, but she now understands her true nature. And Infinity Stones can easily be removed from their containers by those who know what they're doing. So she better watch her back.
Why can't Annette be contacted in the Spirit World?
She may too "far" away even for the spirits here. All of the locations Taylor visited in the Soul Stone are so far tied to Earth religions. Of course "distance" may be subjective here, as the soul stone is seemingly in every tree Taylor has seen thus far. It's also possible that because the Soul Stone is currently housed in Africa, that only the spirit world of Earth is manifest.
How come Annette's historical stint as Nut, the Fey, and the Roswell Grey weren't detected by Asgard?
Those were really subtle actions. It wasn't like she conquered the entire planet and declared herself it's supreme deity. There are entirely too many deities and people for Asgard to watch them all.
Is Malekith alive?
Who knows? What Taylor faced was his/her own memories in the Aether. This is because Malekith was the one who transformed the Reality Stone into the Aether, and is tied to it. This means that Taylor is also Malekith's reincarnation.
Wakanda!? Black Panther?
Wakanda was destroyed an unspecified while back. Although some of its people survived. The cults of Panther, Lioness, and Crocodile were subverted by Moord Nag.
_____________________ References
Soul Stone: An Infinity Stone. In this fic (and possibly MCU), is the source of the Wakandan Spirit world. In the Comics, the Soul Stone has a pocket dimension where it keep the souls it has stolen from people.
Reality Stone: An Infinity Stone. The Aether's original form. Malekith did something to it and turned it into a fluid that can bond symbiotically with a living being. And apparently can substitute for the Soul of a Dark Elf.
Power Stone: An Infinity Stone. In this fic, was once contained within Excalibur. Whereabouts unknown.
Ennead: The Egyptian Pantheon, one of the nine chief deities, whose membership changes from era to era. There were potentially many Enneads at the same time.
Orisha: African deities of the Yoruba religion. Somewhat similar to Kami or Shen. Orishas comprises many different kinds of beings, including humans. They exist in a spirit world (òrun) and physical plane (ayé). Possibly comparable to Numen.
Bast: Wakandan Panther God. Same entity as the Egyptian Bastet. National God of Wakanda.
Sekhmet: Wakandan Lion God and Psychopomp. Also Hathor, the cow goddess. In Egyptian Mythology, she murders a lot of people on orders of Ra. Ra was horrified by her bloodlust. Is the same entity as the Egyptian Sekhmet. In MCU, King T'Chaka told his son about Sekhmet, who also acts as the spirit that brings people to the Wakandan afterlife.
Sobek: Wakandan Crocodile God. Same entity as the Egyptian Sobek.
Nut: Egyptian sky goddess (originally just of the night, later the entire sky, day or night). Mother of a bunch of other gods with Geb (Earth). Represented by a Cow that covers the world. Or star covered nude woman bended over the world. Is a pre-Hathoric deity. In this fic, is also Annette's astral form, who took on the cow motif to honour the Norse primeval cow, Auðumbla.
Wakanda: An advanced North-East African civilization. In this fic, now destroyed.
Nimue: Also Viviane. The Lady of the Lake. Merlin's Apprentice. Aided King Arthur a couple of times, including giving him the sword, Excalibur. When Arthur was dying, he ordered Sir Bedivere to throw Excalibur into the lake. Sir Bedivere failed to do this until the third time. When he actually threw it for real- Nimue took the sword back.
Caliburn: Welsh Caledfwlch- "Hard Breach". Also Excalibur. Is either the sword in the stone, the sword in the lake, or both. Linguistically, they seem to be the same. Has both been the primary weapon of King Arthur.
Geass: Celtic idiosyncratic taboo, obligation or prohibition, vow. Spell that prohibits action, defines a rule, an inviolable prophecy, etc.
Pendragon Spirits: The spirits of the Knights of the Round Table in Marvel comics.
Metempsychosis: Greek for "Reincarnation." Associated with the Orphic Religion. Plato/Socrates give a detailed account of the rebirth process- far beyond the usual Hades account- in The Myth of Er (which is eerily similar to Eastern myths with similar philosophical overtones regarding choice and consequence).
Rūpadhātu Deva: In Buddhism, a Deva of the Form Realm. Have a subtle body (made of subtle matter), are asexual, are born spontaneously like a caterpillar to a butterfly. Is fixed in space (have a location). Ie, the spirits in the Soul Stone are something like this.
Worldly God: In Buddhism, refers to a kāmadhātu Deva. "god of the Desire Realm". A Deva closer in nature to human beings (who are also of the Desire Realm). Have a flesh and blood (?) body, requires food and drink, need vehicles to fly in, are born from the womb, have sex for reproduction, etc. Much more reliant on tools than intrinsic power. Are of male and female. Ie, the Aesir and the Vanir.
Gods of Colours and Shapes: My poetic way of describing the Devas of the Form Realm. And that's what the Gods of Wakanda and most of the spirits in the Soul Stone are. Some kind of a thought-form based deity. Annette can manifest an astral projection of such a being despite herself possessing a worldly body.
King Arthur!? Why is he in this story, why is he an Light Elf?
I had to. King Arthur was in Marvel comics- the Knights of the Pendragon (Pendragon Spirits reincarnated in modern humans).
Sooo.. you made a dark elf cowgirl goddess super space dark magic wizard, who punches people with reality.
Who is all so a ship captain, gunslinger ninja commando chucking around black hole nades.
And don't think I don't see that shit with Saber coming up. That said, I'm not even mad. That's amazing.
Soo... my reponse to basically this entire chapter was:
Also, very sad that Taylor didn't have the foresight to pull the whole Star Wars sthick of 'Strike me down now and I will become more powerful than you can ever imagine.' I mean, yeah, she had no way of knowing that, but if there was ever a time for the application of that quote...
"Taylor? You're back!? You, uh... look pretty good for somebody who just survived a last stand."
"Ugh, don't remind me, Carlos. The Jotuns finally got on the scoreboard. It's hard to count with the black hole grenades, but I think I'm up to nearly 300, and they just got their first point."
"So you... died? And now you're fine. Got your arm back and everything. Part of your power?"
"Well, it turns out that I'm a bit of a goddess, the end result of my mother's hobby that produced a fair chunk of Earth's mythology."
"'It turns out?' You just discovered this?"
"Yeah, right around the time I fought dark elf space Hitler for the fate of reality."
"You were only gone for like an hour!"
"Yeah, and most of that was waiting for the Jotuns to show up. If my drugs wore off it would have been an even sadder last stand than it was. Oh hey, check it out! The Lady of the Lake loaned me Excalibur in exchange for resurrecting King Arthur!"
"About those drugs..."
"Oh god..."
"What?"
"Remember what I said about mythology? My mom and Nimue were always picking people up, like the Roswell Grays were actually just them having a good time."
"So..."
"So I just realized my mom was probably really into butt stuff."
Can I ask, what was intended with this chapter, the basics, because I think it doesn't mesh too well with what came before in story. Is it just to show Taylor's defeat, to show that Taylor is the container of the Aether (or could perhaps be considered to be the incarnation of the Aether) and to have Taylor gain a weapon of power? No need to answer, just something to think about for future stories, because sometimes stories get too complicated. Too many tangents, philosophies and layers that at the end of the story went nowhere or where unneeded.
How Taylor's (not really a) last stand goes from start to finish is really believable and very well done.
Taylor being the container of the Aether, which was the Reality Stone isn't a problem. Hiding the Aether on earth seems stupid but isn't. (All that would be needed to have hiding it instead of keeping it securely locked away in a vault in Asgard make sense is Malekith almost getting to it once, when it wasn't even the secondary objective. Those who knew how to get to it then dies in the war.) Annette finding it after however many years, especially if she was looking for it, using information the Aesir did not have, also makes sense. Using it to "give Taylor life" is great.
Eidolon. Like I said previously, I don't understand why the Ancient One would be teaching him. Neither do I understand why she would teach an unwilling student. The best I can get is useful and understandable prophesy. Which I dislike as it leads to a number of questions that require in universe answers in stories, answers that generally are not given or do not make sense. (Such as if why real prophecy exist and can be used it isn't and wasn't used and used and used by every major group, Dark Elves, Jothun, Aesir and more. Which leads to questions about why threats weren't exterminated before they became threats.) And then there is the question as to why he hasn't been collected yet or just shouted that he needs a Door. I really hope we get a chapter that clears things up regarding the above.
The Egyptian Gods though. Why? We've already got the various Norse races / deities, so why add more? Are the new deities going to be relevant at a later date? If not, why use them? If yes, think about what effect it has on the world of your story that there are multiple terrestrial pantheons running around. (Because if the Egyptian, why not the Persian? If the Egyptian, why not the Greek? If the Egyptian, why not Chinese? And so on and on and on.) Of course, these deities (Egyptian and others) may just be useless in terms of affecting anything except the spiritual, in which case the question is why bother with showing them?
Annette as a part time goddessess. A part time disembodied goddess. Sorry, but why is that needed? Goddess isn't that much of a problem really since immortality (or close enough from a mortal's perspective) and sufficient personal power is enough to make one a god or goddess from certain points of view, but such a being has to be public and a large number of powerful beings want dark elves dead. Actually joining (or creating) a pantheon seems less than smart. So why did she do it?
Annette's relationship with the Light Elf / Alf. Why were they friends? Her original response to the "Light Elves" was very negative. After the war a large number of powerful beings wanted the dark elves dead. Actually getting involved with a Light Alf doesn't seem probable or smart and the circumstances that kept the initial meeting from going south would have needed to be quite difficult.
King Arthur. Why resurrect him? Because King Arthur is cool? Not for a Norse story. Why do I say that? Because King Arthur isn't a standalone figure. He drags a whole myth cycle with him. Which makes it even more of a mix.
More than that, in story it wasn't shown as "dead humans becoming Alf's", it was shown as Dark Elves's using dead humans to survive in a universe hostile to them. If their personality and maybe memories basically were overwritten enough that using the human counts as the human being resurrected I don't really see it as something a decent number of individuals would do.
"Yes, our earliest histories indicated that we traveled from Svartalfheim to Alheim, where we settled down and became the myriad Elven races of today. The light of our soul were drawn from the partitions of those who have perished or been crippled in Midgard- for every Midgardian, there is an Elf. Is that not a valid way to bypass the Diminishing?"
Most of the above basically comes down to whether the various additions (Egyptian gods, Annette the public goddess, the Light Alf and King Arthur) are needed and are realistic in terms of the story as given so far.
Lastly, this isn't a whine to rewrite the story the way I want it. (I really dislike people who do that.) I've been following a story where that happened and I really do not want to appear to be somebody like that. This is an attempt to show things that I think are examples of things that appear in stories and reduce them. And I can be wrong. Easily.
I was not expecting this, It's still fucking awesome though. I'm really interested to see where you take this concept, I mean, I suspected the Aether thing, King Arthur came out of nowhere and I'm down for that. I'm very hyped for the next chapter, can't wait to see Taylor off more jotun with Excalibure, it's gonna be metal as hell.
Can I ask, what was intended with this chapter, the basics, because I think it doesn't mesh too well with what came before in story. Is it just to show Taylor's defeat, to show that Taylor is the container of the Aether (or could perhaps be considered to be the incarnation of the Aether) and to have Taylor gain a weapon of power? No need to answer, just something to think about for future stories, because sometimes stories get too complicated. Too many tangents, philosophies and layers that at the end of the story went nowhere or where unneeded.
It was to introduce a deeper part of the cosmology, to reveal the Soul Stone and the Reality Stone, to resolve Taylor's apparent theological impossibility (really? she was half-dark elf? She was of light and darkness? Doesn't make any sense in my cosmology). And to tie it further to MCU.
If yes, think about what effect it has on the world of your story that there are multiple terrestrial pantheons running around. (Because if the Egyptian, why not the Persian? If the Egyptian, why not the Greek? If the Egyptian, why not Chinese? And so on and on and on.) Of course, these deities (Egyptian and others) may just be useless in terms of affecting anything except the spiritual, in which case the question is why bother with showing them?
King Arthur. Why resurrect him? Because King Arthur is cool? Not for a Norse story. Why do I say that? Because King Arthur isn't a standalone figure. He drags a whole myth cycle with him. Which makes it even more of a mix.
This ISN'T a Norse Story. This is an Indo-European centric story (which includes the Celtic Myth cycles). I even introduced The Goddess Danu in the Annette Chapter. It was hinting at this. King Arthur is an integral part of it. Since we already have real life Kings becoming Elves in death and people worship elves as ancestors in Scandinavia, it wasn't a stretch to work "resurrection" into this whole Elven mechanic. The reason why Thor was relevant was because the Germanic Religion is one of the oldest forms of the Indo-European religion. Norse Mythology alone can explain the rest of them with ease. Thor is Zeus is Indra. There won't be Greek Gods, because the Greek Gods are just the Norse Gods by another name.
More than that, in story it wasn't shown as "dead humans becoming Alf's", it was shown as Dark Elves's using dead humans to survive in a universe hostile to them. If their personality and maybe memories basically were overwritten enough that using the human counts as the human being resurrected I don't really see it as something a decent number of individuals would do.
Like Malekith said, the Light Elves do not have any darkness in them. They objectively do not have the same soul as the Dark Elves. Instead, they have human souls and only human souls. The text indicated that the "light" of mortals was drawn over time to an elf. As the mortal diminish, the elf shines. The transformation is complete when the mortal dies and the elf is "completely alive." Imagine a space bridge siphoning your soul into a new form/body in alfheim. Before Nimue became a light elf, she was a human girl who slowly died. Of course, from the humans perspective, she slowly became a goddess.
The light of our soul were drawn from the partitions of those who have perished or been crippled in Midgard- for every Midgardian, there is an Elf. Is that not a valid way to bypass the Diminishing?"
This is not a problem, because these beings don't have weird holdups about mind = soul. People can have any number of souls. If the Light Elf has a mind of their own and a human soul, there's no problem here, it's just two partitions. In the Annette chapter, I noted that the Norse belief in multiple souls include the "Skin"- the body. The body is also a soul. Once you wrap your head around it, you'll see that it's very fluid and the Light Elves would not be bothered, but Malekith was, because he attaches "ethnic identity" to the Essence of Darkness. For him, there can be no partitions, only the Darkness. If he could, he hates the skin he is in.
References Psychological Organs/Partitions of the Self Hamr: Skin (shape, physical body- hamramr "of strong skin", is important to skin changing "skipta hömum")
Hugr: Thought (as in Huginn, Odin's raven), similar to and/or part of Vörðr (warden, spirit, astral projection).
Fylgja: Familiar, after-birth spirit (follows a child into the world and dies when it's host dies)
Hamingja: Luck/Skill. Reincarnates amongst families, especially relatives who bear the same name, sometimes act of their own volition. Alf/Elf: "White". Seems to be a universal term for bright spirits, psychological organs, etc. Causes illnesses, can be worshipped. Ancestral spirits(?). Sometimes conflated with godly races, especially the Vanir. And also with dwarves, etc. As a side note, Dark Elves ARE Dwarves in Germanic Religion.
First issue: aether ownership. When did Annette/Nylarka get her hands on the stone? Why would she use it in a freaking DIY project rather than hoarding it and growing powerful? And, if Malekith used to own it, how did the Dark Elves ever go into decline in the first place?
It was canonical in MCU that Malekith was able to change the Reality Stone into the Aether. In the Dark World prologue, we see Malekith ready to use it during the convergence- but did not actually bond with it before it was taken from him. In the Annette chapter, we see that Malekith was searching for the Aether- implying he had previous ownership of the Reality Stone and he changed it to the Aether and he LOST it- possibly millions of years ago- and it was found by Bor. And the war was Malekith's attempt to recover it and use it for the next convergence.
Annette may have gotten her hand on the stone the way Jane Foster did- she stumbled into it's resting place. Alternatively, she may had it all along, since the war, possibly inheriting it from Malekith. Malekith's present status- and that of any of the other Dark Elves are unknown. We simply don't know why Annette has the Aether.
Annette couldn't really use the Aether. Assuming she could even master it, what would she do with a universal scale dark-matter converting substance? Even if she could master it, at most she would be as powerful as Thor. Thor would just come down anytime and kill the Darkie trying to conquer Midgard with a few good whacks of his hammer. Game over.
She could wait until the Convergence and then attempt to omnicide the Universe- but I think alot of other beings would have a problem with that and kill her before she could ever pull it off. Dear old Nimue might even shank her before we get to this point.
Second issue: Annette's backstory vs her personality. In the first few chapters, she came across as quite a limited and xenophobic character, who only overcame her distaste for all things Light because the alternative was dying alone.
Why, then, would she take a part-time volunteer job as a goddess for humans? Why, having been a goddess, would she drop back to being an English professor? Even if she needed Danny's genetic material, why would she and Taylor stay with him afterwards, if the birth was all part of some grand plan?
Why would she ever open channels of communication with the Light Elves? Wouldn't she be revolted by dealing with (from her perspective) the possessed corpse of a Dark Elf? Wouldn't she fear betrayal to Asgard?
It feels a bit like you're name-dropping awesome deities Annette could have previously been without really thinking through the consequences for the character.
Is Annette in communication with the Light Elves? She's in communication with Nimue- who is a Light Elf- but that's all we know. Nimue was also IN the spirit world. Which implies all kinds of oddities (of course Nimue, like Annette, have astral projection powers via their magical expertise).
Annette doesn't have a part time job as a goddess- she IS a goddess. However, she took the mantle of Nut in the spirit world, the night mother. And that's how most humans know of her. Justice Bao was believed during his lifetime to descend to the Underworld in his sleep to judge the souls of the Dead as one of the Yama Kings. Bao was such a famously judicial and honourable figure, peasants believed that he judged the living during the day and judged the dead during the night. This is kind of what Annette is. By Day she is a Dark Elf. At night, in her dreams, she is Nut, the Egyptian Sky Goddess.
Pantheons and gods are human divisions. Annette can be part of any Pantheon she chooses- walk up and join them! Nobody is going to stop her.
It seems like there's so many gods and religions, but really there's just: The Indo-European Gods (which are the same for every Aryan religion more or less). And the Orisha/Enneads (African gods who used to be Egyptian). And we saw some hints of the Australian Dream Time. The Celtic Mythology is still part of the Indo-European religion, Nimue is a light elf, daughter of Danu (who was introduced in the Annette chapter), and now so is King Arthur, who is going to transform into an Alf, which is an actual Nordic and Scandinavian belief.
The Ennead's origin are unknown, they are the first example of the (close to) Semitic gods that we have seen, but we KNOW one of their oldest members was Annette herself. And we know that the Egyptian pantheon no longer exists, but it's survivors rebranded themselves as Orishas and reside in Wakanda, before Wakanda was also destroyed.
I am demonstrating the fluidity between the different religions and deities- with some support from real life AND from Marvel Comics (the Wakandan gods really were Egyptian gods).
Edit: In real life, in Asia, we have Dharmic, Chinese, Indigenous and Greeks gods all being worshiped side by side in the same cosmology.
I'm confused. Not a bad thing. I'm also bored. Not a fan of this spiritual weirdness direction everything is going in. Are chapters going to be like this from here on out?
Well, Taylor isn't going to die and end up inside an Infinity Stone every chapter. The religion, mythology, comic-tie-ins, and epic history thing is going to continue, but we'll get back to good ol' action soon enough.
:3)
