original - fic: working title "Shadow Ringer," background religion notes
Original fic is weird for me. I spend too much time charging down the road of sloppy writing and too much time retreating to the side to write meta and lick my wounds where the plotbunnies decided to scratch me and promptly dissipate into ether.
Here, have some ridiculous tl;dr "religious theory" that I composed for a particular universe I've been playing with for the past... oh, five years at least. :V
The highest power is the collective hearts of everything that is. It is non-sentient and sentient at the same time--it knows all and sees all because it knows and sees all that its pieces knows and sees. Therefore everything that has a heart is a part of it and it is part of everything that has a heart.
In the part of the world where the girl has grown up, they call it "Core." In other parts of that world, it is called everything from "Most Beloved" to "All-soul." There is a place that calls it "God," but gods are petty beings in this world and so that particular monotheistic sect is a minority. They have never met any of the petty gods that make all others call the highest power something other than a god. Core is an entity of light. Some think the sun in the sky is Core's real body, but others disagree. How could the sun possibly care about all under its keeping? No, the sun is not Core. Core is a collective, and when the last being that has a heart dies, so will Core. That is why each life possessing a heart--that is, a "soul"--is sacred. No one may kill.
There are those not under Core's keeping. Those possess no hearts--ones who commit evils knowingly symbolically cut out their "heart" and burn it, turning themselves over to the power that rules over the places a heart's light does not reach. This is the power that rules despair, knowing cruelty, and hatred. This is the power that rules prejudice also, though no one remembers its name. It is nameless because no one remembered, for the Core Collective, a select few powered by the emissaries of Core, sealed away its name for fear of its power growing. A name has power. To speak the name is to grant its bearer power, and so the nameless power's strength grows as its nameless nature is named, though less because it is not its true name spoken in words.
Under Core's keeping are emissaries of light, granted physical shape by the collected energies of pure-hearted wishes. These emissaries are often called angels, but they are made of pure energy. When this energy is exhausted they dissipate permanently, their soul energy sent back to Core. The Core Collective gains authority based on the approval of these emissaries. Occasionally an emissary may be deceived by an agent of the nameless power and turned to the opposing side. These "fallen emissaries," as they are known, then become what are commonly referred to as "demons." They retain their properties of being composed purely of energy, but demons tend to last longer than their good counterparts due to a reduced expenditure of the energy that composes them.
Demons often bond themselves to hosts or locations, siphoning energy from either their chosen host or the visitors of such locations. On occasion a demon will find a host and a location to haunt, thus creating for themselves an opportunity to grow exceptionally powerful. Such demons often gain the power to grant immortality to their chosen hosts, thus ensuring that one of their chosen energy sources does not run out.
Those who choose to grant immortality to their hosts often lose it themselves, for true "immortality" is unattainable. However, they may greatly extend their host's lifespan by exchanging the powerful, mortal energy of the host for their own weaker component energy. The mix of mortal energy and emissary energy is extremely potent, allowing both the host and the demon a much longer lifespan. As long as the demon is around to continue this exchange the mortal will continue generating mortal life energy for the demon to harvest without shortening his or her own mortal lifespan in the process. At the same time the mortal energy briefly triggers a regeneration of the Core-bound energy that composes the emissary's form.
In the event that the energy exchange was made recently, however, for a short period of time immediately following the exchange the emissary is vulnerable to things that mortals would normally find hazardous--for example, weapons and fire. Attacking the emissary during this time will not kill it (emissaries may not be killed except by things that bear the influence of Core or the nameless power) but will severely weaken it, possibly beyond the point of being able to harvest energy. During this time, should its host flee beyond its reach, the emissary will eventually dissipate provided no one else comes along to become a replacement host.
There was more, but I have to find where I wrote it again. :V
Here, have some ridiculous tl;dr "religious theory" that I composed for a particular universe I've been playing with for the past... oh, five years at least. :V
The highest power is the collective hearts of everything that is. It is non-sentient and sentient at the same time--it knows all and sees all because it knows and sees all that its pieces knows and sees. Therefore everything that has a heart is a part of it and it is part of everything that has a heart.
In the part of the world where the girl has grown up, they call it "Core." In other parts of that world, it is called everything from "Most Beloved" to "All-soul." There is a place that calls it "God," but gods are petty beings in this world and so that particular monotheistic sect is a minority. They have never met any of the petty gods that make all others call the highest power something other than a god. Core is an entity of light. Some think the sun in the sky is Core's real body, but others disagree. How could the sun possibly care about all under its keeping? No, the sun is not Core. Core is a collective, and when the last being that has a heart dies, so will Core. That is why each life possessing a heart--that is, a "soul"--is sacred. No one may kill.
There are those not under Core's keeping. Those possess no hearts--ones who commit evils knowingly symbolically cut out their "heart" and burn it, turning themselves over to the power that rules over the places a heart's light does not reach. This is the power that rules despair, knowing cruelty, and hatred. This is the power that rules prejudice also, though no one remembers its name. It is nameless because no one remembered, for the Core Collective, a select few powered by the emissaries of Core, sealed away its name for fear of its power growing. A name has power. To speak the name is to grant its bearer power, and so the nameless power's strength grows as its nameless nature is named, though less because it is not its true name spoken in words.
Under Core's keeping are emissaries of light, granted physical shape by the collected energies of pure-hearted wishes. These emissaries are often called angels, but they are made of pure energy. When this energy is exhausted they dissipate permanently, their soul energy sent back to Core. The Core Collective gains authority based on the approval of these emissaries. Occasionally an emissary may be deceived by an agent of the nameless power and turned to the opposing side. These "fallen emissaries," as they are known, then become what are commonly referred to as "demons." They retain their properties of being composed purely of energy, but demons tend to last longer than their good counterparts due to a reduced expenditure of the energy that composes them.
Demons often bond themselves to hosts or locations, siphoning energy from either their chosen host or the visitors of such locations. On occasion a demon will find a host and a location to haunt, thus creating for themselves an opportunity to grow exceptionally powerful. Such demons often gain the power to grant immortality to their chosen hosts, thus ensuring that one of their chosen energy sources does not run out.
Those who choose to grant immortality to their hosts often lose it themselves, for true "immortality" is unattainable. However, they may greatly extend their host's lifespan by exchanging the powerful, mortal energy of the host for their own weaker component energy. The mix of mortal energy and emissary energy is extremely potent, allowing both the host and the demon a much longer lifespan. As long as the demon is around to continue this exchange the mortal will continue generating mortal life energy for the demon to harvest without shortening his or her own mortal lifespan in the process. At the same time the mortal energy briefly triggers a regeneration of the Core-bound energy that composes the emissary's form.
In the event that the energy exchange was made recently, however, for a short period of time immediately following the exchange the emissary is vulnerable to things that mortals would normally find hazardous--for example, weapons and fire. Attacking the emissary during this time will not kill it (emissaries may not be killed except by things that bear the influence of Core or the nameless power) but will severely weaken it, possibly beyond the point of being able to harvest energy. During this time, should its host flee beyond its reach, the emissary will eventually dissipate provided no one else comes along to become a replacement host.
There was more, but I have to find where I wrote it again. :V