BREAKER OF INFINITIES 1-5
Chapter: 1
“Here is a useful fact: inside every man is his death, wearing him like a thinning skin. Eventually his death will hollow him out like an old glove and replace him. It is no shame to release a man’s death, but rather an honor. His death is a much more permanent shape than he will ever take in life.
Regard each death with respect, all you dead men. Otherwise you will forget yourselves.”
-Jantris, Storm-born
You burn a thousand innocents as an opening move and you desire the death of all that lives, and yet we’re to pity you because you’re sad and broken, pity you enough to hand you victory?
Many of us are sad and broken, Red God. We don’t go around murdering. Get fucked, you great violent baby.
Scene : Baron Munchausen & company meet the god Vulcan
in his Volcano-Workshop Domain.
Berthold : “What’s This ?” ( Taps an ENORMOUS MISSILE )
Vulcan : “Oh THIS – is our prototype, RX Inter-Continental, Radar sneaky, Multi-Warheaded, Nuclear Missile.”
Baron Münchhausen : “Ah……………………………..!
– What does it Do ?”
Vulcan : “Do….? Kills the enemy.”
Baron Münchhausen : “ALL the enemy ?”
Vulcan : “Aye – all O’ them. All their wives, all their children, n’ all their sheep, n’ all their cattle, n’ all their cats n’ dogs,
– all O’ them. All of them. Gone for good. “
Sally : “That’s HORRIBLE !”
Vulcan : “Ah……. well, you see, the advantage is….
you don’t have to see one single one of them Die.
You just sit comfortably thousands of miles away from the battlefield and simply….PRESS the Button.”
Berthold : “WELL WHERE’s the Fun in THAT ?”
Vulcan : “OH….We cater to ALL Sorts here….
– You’d be SURPRISED.”
~The Adventures of Baron Münchhausen 1988
Directed by Terry Gilliam
Ha! A blast from the past. And one of Gilliam’s best work, if I may say so myself.
I wonder what sort of relationship Gog-Agog and Jadis had before the latter’s encapsulation in their special box? Gog looks like she’d be trying to get a hug from Jadis if the box wasn’t in the way.
I generally don’t trust Gog-Agog’s facial expressions but here my thought was “What is Jadis telling them that makes them seem so worried?”
Gog-Agog loves to talk and Jadis looks to be an excellent listener. I suppose of all the Great Worm’s various parasitic relationships (both literal and figurative), this one could be the most balanced and wholesome.
It is interesting that Gog Agog seems scared, one would not expect this of a composite being with a hive mind or swarm intelligence, and a key. And interesting too that she goes to Jadis as her comfort blanket.
The Mind and the Body
Maybe she’s just listening to Jadis for some story spoilers – or at least the ending to her entrance “hhhhh”.
Gog wants to hide in the box too
I’m sad that neither of them will have their own books. Looks like Abbandon rushed things to end it all sooner.
In fact there are other places, people and events that are mentioned but never developed. For places, Aesma’s Spine and Ogam’s Mistake are very intriguing, but never really showed up aside from being on throne’s map. The Circular Kingdom of Au Vam, and the King itself, we never saw it. Even Maya (my favorite character) is underdeveloped. I doubt we’ll see any of this in the last book.
So close, Solomon, but so far. Yes, you could sort this by talking to the scared little boy inside the man inside the omnicidal monster; but screaming orders and insults at him won’t work. That’s what made the monster in the first place.
I don’t believe Solomon’s doing that, though—rather, this is Solomon David lashing himself firmly to the idea of The Law, to the system that he’s embodied since he founded the Empire. He’s not screaming orders at Jagganoth so much as he’s doing the proper rituals that make what he wants to do—whip out ten-point Ki Rata strikes and flense a pound of Red God flesh for every dead Rayuban, take tearful and bloody vengeance on the dead man—Right and Proper. It’s what Solomon feels like he has to do, in this moment, or his fury will make him a monster.
It’s folly, yes, but the Law is Solomon’s last crutch, the pillar of a drowning god.
Well observed. I agree with your interpretation. Still think it won’t help with defusing J.
Also, SD still thinks he has the full support of 5 demiurges, which he doesn’t. J thinks he still has the full support of Incubus, which I’m starting to doubt. And maybe Incubus overestimates his influence on Allison?
The Sword King of the Middle Army has just snicked his blade from its sheath, ready for the backstabbing no doubt. One also noticed he was standing almost directly behind Solomon…
One can always count on Incubus to be a scheming, nasty little goblin boy!
On an unrelated note, I love the character in the little inset shots of the Seven. You can see the wheels turning in their heads. I imagine it’s something like this:
Incubus: “Fuck it. Time to put my plans in motion. I’ll show them all why they should never have scorned me.”
Mottom: “The fools. They never listened. And now Solomon, far too late, calls him to account? Pah! But I’ll do what I must…”
Gog-Agog: “Aw, man, just when it was gettin’ fun! I had schemes to win with words and worms alone! Stupid jerks always going to fights when I’m not ready! But I’ll show ‘em…”
Jadis: “Perhaps it approaches at last. The hour of my death. The time of prophecy. I will see the true heir mount the Wheel, and finally be released…”
Jagganoth: “Come now, girl. Give me the power. Let this mistake called ‘existence’ be sniffed out at last.”
Solomon: “I will not weep. Not in front of him. Nor will I rage. I am the law, and the law is not mocked. I am not your murderer this way, Yaun ten Jantris, I am your EXECUTIONER…!”
Mammon: “…Good HEAVENS, young Jagganoth is being VERY RUDE! D: He blew up the whole stadium! You aren’t…You aren’t supposed to DO that! It’s EXPENSIVE!! And now he’s being very insulting, oh, and he murdered all those nice subjects of Solomon’s! WELL. We’re going to have to do something about this! Bah! What a nasty boy! Nothing like that nice young lady Allison. She’s polite! Maybe I should chat with he—oh, no, Incubus is getting his sword out, it’s fight time.”
Secondary observation: with Incubus’ mind powers and Allison’s compassion, maybe they could talk to Yaun-within-Jagganoth, the Yaun that isn’t a dead man or bearer of the Word ‘BLADE’.
I don’t think anyone else could reach him, nor that he wants to be reached. Omnicides rarely do.
So Incubus the shit is the one demiurge who needs to survive to sort this. *Face-palm* He’s the one I most wanted to see dead. I don’t care much whether the other six live, die, or take up line dancing.
Imagine chiselling out the lower half of Jadis’ body so she could line dance. That’d be a story to tell the grandchildren.
Alas, Goblin Boy Incubus is the dude with the mind powers, and mind powers are probably the order of the day when it comes to Mr. Pankrator here.
But there’s hope! Maybe Allison can absorb his mind powers either during or prior to Inevitable Treachery!
I don’t think Solomon is talking to Jagganoth, not really. That statement is a rallying cry meant to remind the rest of the seven of their duty. I think Solomon is deeply afraid that any of them could turn sides or form their own side. He is trying to cement allegiance by reminding them all of the pact.
In passing, I wonder if the gift of the angel feathers is invincibility of will rather than metaphysical invulnerability in battle. In a contest between gods, the strongest will surely wins the fight, as we saw with Aesma and the Red King. With his purpose secured, nobody can dissuade Jagganoth by debate. But can they talk to his inner selves?
Clearly Alison needs to infiltrate his mind-palace and convince him to smooch his otherself. It worked for her, after all.
Alyisun: No
So he really is Yaun, some readers back than were observant. I find it quite satisfying; and wait impatiently for the development of this new & peculiar twist. Jagganoth was long ago pronounced by author to be the most interesting among the Seven, so I hardly can wait to percieve the astonishing truths. *hoping they aren’t goung to obliterate me like Jadis*
Apart from this, really like that initial frames make the general impression among these lines:
Solomon: You went too far. We’ll banish you.
All other demiurges: …is he even serious?
“I need your clothes, your boots, and your Key of Kings.”
must be spoken with an Austrian accent
Behold, the true Face of the Red God!
A broken man.
Sorrowful is the one who holds power so that others may not seize it, for they are the prison, the prisoner and the warden all in one.
Okay, that’s a strange tactic.
he looks pretty trustworthy Alloson, help the man out!
The divine suicide of god. In truth it was both destructive and creative. A glorious union of opposites. But the shortsighted student soon asks:
“Why was it not purely destructive? Most death is.” The true question is revealed: “What makes a suicide divine?”
In nature, no death is purely destructive.
Well spoken. Jaganoth surely must know this as well. He cannot be so shortsighted as to suppose that omnicide would result in oblivion. I suspect he craves a transformation. Perhaps a new divinity forged in violence and tempered in blood. Your thoughts?
I have no idea what Yuan wants or believes, but I suspect we will soon find out.
Reach heaven through violence.
Perhaps he wishes everyone to become royalty
Every edge is a test – when you reach the boundaries of one thing, you may find its limit, and there is an edge. BLADE will test Allison, and she will find it wanting. BLADE needs guidance or it cuts everything, including itself and its holder.
Remember that MAJESTY (Allison’s key) is not mere blazing GLORY (the art of display), but the art of *command*, the art of *influence*. The DIAMOND of law would bend even to that will, were it to create sufficient light! TRUTH is the only thing BLADE cannot cut finer than itself, and Allison could guide BLADE to TRUTH if she knew how. It takes a *transmutation* to change truth, however – FLAME should know how, but envy leads to theft rather than originality, and fire is only one way to create change. But Allison is learning the art of change from an embodiment of change (devils are owned by chaos, one might suppose, as angels are owned by law in this place).
Thus she needs wisdom… and for that, the patient route is best, it seems. Jadis was broken by impatience, after all, and was dispossessed from mortality as a result. BEAST is owned by its urges, and thus lust is the result, leading to addiction; it cannot teach Allison patience, but it *can* teach her not to hesitate when the moment comes to act. That said, she already loves action; wisdom trains its urges, teaching them what to do when they come – and she has shown the shield of the TOWER already as an instinctive act.
Greed leads to emptiness, but Allison has compassion. Mammon’s isolation and doddering will not be her fate.
So now she faces fear and depression, the hidden faces of wrath, for anger is a tool of defense and of action, a way to cover up these eaters of the soul… but not to be rid of them.
Whatever will she do?
Perhaps her companions hold the answer.
inb4 Juggy is secretly a good guy
Like Solomon, he likely thinks he is doing the right thing. Others are likely to not agree. It is then in the proceeding of his plan over the objections of all other stakeholders that you stumble into villainy.
Jagganoth is doing the Smooth Criminal lean in the penultimate panel.
you’ve been hit by
you’ve been struck by
JAGGANOTH
Get a good look at that Jagganoth bulge boys and girls, we’re gonna be seeing a lot of it this book. Christ, his member must be the size of a Great Dane.
That’s curious. As I recall, Jagganoth was of the extinctionist faction, wanting to kill everything and everyone so something better may take it’s place. Saving lives was not, to my knowledge, on his agenda.
I suspect his offer is less about actually saving lives and more about avoiding “needless suffering”.
You know, using the One Power to end all extant life and restart the universe in a single instant, that sort of thing.
Except the Red God, for all we could witness, is not great on the concept of “restart”. Mottom, for one, is pretty convinced that Jag’s desire is to shut down the Wheel’s PC and destroy the power cord once and for all.
For all we have been presented, Jag thinks being dead is kind of a mercy. He is, unless proved otherwise, an multiversal ominicidal nihilist. I believe he should be snuffed hard. Being sad is never an excuse.
Which may be, after all, not that much of an issue.
It’s implied that Zoss might, possibly, have gotten his hands on the Wheel instruction manual, and may have become familiar with the “save” and “reload” functionalities.
If Jag seems to be about to do something really problematic, I believe that Zoss, even “dead”, won’t find it difficult to press the F9 key.
Wisely noted—*if* he intends a restart, which isn’t guaranteed, as you note, I suspect it’s a multiverse that isn’t the Wheel and has none of the current occupants in it.
He may also just intend to cut the power for good.
I suspect if old Zoss intends a proverbial reload from save, though, it’s in Allison’s hands; he can only show her how to do it.
I wonder what power Zoss did truly forfeit when he inflicted his key on Allison.
He was the one to torture the names of God out of Metatron, and create the Master Key from scratch. I don’t think he forgot those names. What he did once, we should assume he may be able to replicate.
I’m highly dubious that his “technically dead” status changes anything significant about his abilities, and I wouldn’t be surprised at all if this was not his first attempt to pass a Master Key to someone else and see what happens.
Which would certainly be possible, but he makes explicit reference to the saving of lives here.
Why?
The salvation is temporary. Save their lives now, save him effort later.
I thought it was only omnicide of all life ON THE WHEEL OF THROUN.
Not everywhere.
Honestly, smashing all the gates might be for the best.
Oooh! I wonder if Incubus still has access to Alison’s key, if so Jaggy may be in for a really nasty surprise.
And just like that, I have a new favorite Demiurge.
This is… Weird.
All we’ve heard of Jagganoth up to this point implies that he wants to end all of existence, so why does he tell Allison that she could “Save many lives”?
If his goal really is to destroy everything, than he wouldn’t even make such an offer, because he’d be playing a zero-sum game.
Destroy everything could just as easily mean their pact and rulership over their Domains. All we really have is mottom’s word on it and she’s not exactly a reliable narrator. Jaggy may just want to kick them off their thrones, free Metatron and/or put Alison on the throne, kick everyone out of Throne and keep the wheel turning. This is bad in other ways (perpetuating the endless cycle.) but it’s possible he doesn’t have all the cacklingly evil motives the self pitying turbo bitch said he does.
Agreed. Surprising words from Jagganoth.
Too bad he didn’t try to charm her over to his side earlier.
Can you imagine ?
“Come to my Ultra-Fortress, we’ll have tea ! And then I’ll tell you why my way is the ONLY WAY !”
It occurs to me that Allison has previous to this moment interacted with Mottom, Incubus, Mammon, Gog-Agog, and Solomon David. She’s heard them give their own view of things, and gotten to observe them. She’s also had the benefit of White Chain and Cio’s views of the Black Kings. Until now though, she’s had no interaction with Jadis – or with Jagganoth, either in person or with their agents or emissaries.
Once, the Seven Black Kings were a force for maintaining the Status Quo. Keeping things as they are. Then they fractured into Six, and then ( secretly ) into Five.
Of the Agents for Change I can count Zoss, Incubus, Allison, The Thorn Knights, and Metatron.
Zoss has kept this cycle repeating – each time searching for a different outcome. I assume he hopes for a positive outcome.
We have heard the stated change agenda for Metatron and the Thorns being a purging the universe – to restore YISUN.
I’d assumed that Jagganoth himself and his forces were to be very active in bringing that about. Now I wonder if Jagganoth is simply wanting to take a more direct route. Acquire ALL the keys, and then focus that power to achieve Finality.
Incubus I count amongst the Agents of Change – though he’s motivated by resentment. By encouraging Jagganoth to make a move, Incubus helped create this chaotic moment.
Allison and the key she carries is the wild card that tips the balance of power. This Jagganoth confirms, though I wonder about whose lives and suffering would be spared and how.
Jadis’s vision might be fragmentary, but it would still be something for Allison to go on – if she had the benefit of it.
Jag: Give it to me.
Ally: You didn’t say ‘please,’ so no.
Jag: Give it to me
Ally: But you didn’t say the secret word
Jag: NOW
The Alt-text for today’s page suggests that Jaggy wants the Key as a shortcut to destroy everything. No mercy, but destroying 777,777 universes is a LOT of work and he’s very, very tired.
YOU THERE. GIRL.
HOW DO YOU HOPE TO OUTRUN ME WHEN etc. etc.
The Red God desires the Strength of the chosen new King be given unto him as he needs it.
“For the sake of saving many lives here”
Does he mean to give it to him to wield, or to give him her strength in opposing and slaying him?
It doesn’t matter.
In any which way you look at it, the words are all the truth and the same result occurs.
I’m so down this rabbit hole that an entirely literal statement reads like an Angelic shitpost. Damn.