Maybe that’s the prison Zoss accidentally made; by mastering the Wheel (which involved recombining all the formerly split power of the gods) he created an immutable whole again and has as a consequence done a lot of bad things to the concept of free will, and is using his last bit of non-mastery (since he didn’t just remake Al-Yisun, after all) to make the choice to savescum over and over until someone messes up hard enough to break everything again. So the demiurges don’t just feel trapped by self-made prisons, they’re actually trapped in one made by Zoss, forced to repeat the same time loop over and over, unknowingly, just to spit on Mottom’s dying words.
And this would be what Jadis sees and knows, but she alone is one truly trapped by Zoss rather than her own doing (well, the glass block was kind of her fault). Or maybe her knowledge is incomplete, since she saw the shape of the static wheel and can’t comprehend the fluid nature of the last few drops of free will that Zoss so desperately wants to use to trigger a domino effect and topple the fixed causality he made in his arrogance.
A metaphor for what Jadis knows is water on a rock. If you see a rock with water on it, you know what the rock looks like and where the water is. But if the rock is taken away, you can still recall the shape of the rock as it is, wherever it was taken to. The water, though? You couldn’t answer that question the moment you looked away.
This theory is somewhat supported by Jadis’s prophecy being wrong. She calls Allison a ‘he.’ Unless Zaid does actually fill his part of the prophecy; we could very well be double juked thanks to Princess and Vigilant Gazes.
Allison has yet to be pushed in just the right way by Zoss (currently the only free agent) as to take a truly free action (we can see Jadis still reading her just fine), which was probably the case for all the former heirs. Jagganoth comes into play here as well, as despite being a brute player, he is the source of the ruin that Zoss sees the no-free-will worlds always spin to. Jagganoth can’t accomplish the reforging of the multiverse as he might be incapable of the divine suicide that Yisun undertook, so his unification and annihilation of everything literally ends with him being the only thing left, and he can’t do anything. No free will is slightly tolerable, but no free will quickly ushering in the complete doom of the multiverse is… less tolerable.
tl;dr: Zoss fucked up and broke free will by becoming too strong.
If we presume that Jag is right though, and Zoss is somehow resetting time (how far back???) and choosing a different successor each time, then it feels like he’s found some kind of a loophole or alternative to the set and scripted events.
Is it up to Alison to rediscover that same loophole? “She is not shaped by the world but instead becomes the shaper” – Zoss
Six Juggernaught is apparently the only being other than Metatron to fully understand Zoss power and dominion which he used to enter Throne and destroy all angels in their most powerful, original forms, before he ever had a “key”.
Does he have some kind of Ground Hog Day ability to repeat events as far back as he likes until they come about exactly as he desires?
“in all possible worlds” – the key here. Although each lives in their own here and now, the possibilities that extend from that here and that now are numerous. The whole may be fixed, but specific paths can be chosen, as each makes their way. In short, Jadis seems paralyzed by knowing everything, but may actually be taking steps to promote her preference of future.
(Like locating the best path for Joe Doe, that does not also harm many others. Then insulting him in passing one time, and twisting the verbal knife the next time, thus shifting his focus and path from a soon-to-occur doom to a different focus and a much more distant doom.)
If you see all, then you also see how each choice that you could make will influence both the short-term and longer-term outcomes. Like the old lady and the cookie and Neo. Would he have tried to catch the impossible and fight the unbeatable, if he hadn’t heard what he heard?
Please Jadis, your brain is still only working in three dimensions, it’s physically incapable of understanding the motion of bodies in time. Of course it looks like an unmoving object when you look at it from outside – that’s exactly what we theorize it would look like to us.
It helps to think about dimensions we can actually understand. If we imagine a two dimensional world that’s only got width and length, to creatures living there it would be impossible to perceive a third dimension. If you stick your fingers through it, they can only see intersections of those objects – five separate circles. The idea the circles are part of the same structure that connects in a higher dimension might not be outside of their imagination, but if they were raised through height so they could see it it would certainly be impossible for them to understand it, like you could imagine looking at a sequence of intersections of a CAT scan of a human body without any context for how they fit together in a single shape, it’ll pretty much just look like an animation of a growing flower. And if they tried to poke it, they’d find they don’t have the power to move it, or even touch it in a place it could feel
Then extrapolate: Just because you have seen it doesn’t mean you understand it. And Allison’s power is infinite.
What is, is.
So reality is still an immutable, perfect whole?
Was YISAM’s division all for nothing?
Maybe that’s the prison Zoss accidentally made; by mastering the Wheel (which involved recombining all the formerly split power of the gods) he created an immutable whole again and has as a consequence done a lot of bad things to the concept of free will, and is using his last bit of non-mastery (since he didn’t just remake Al-Yisun, after all) to make the choice to savescum over and over until someone messes up hard enough to break everything again. So the demiurges don’t just feel trapped by self-made prisons, they’re actually trapped in one made by Zoss, forced to repeat the same time loop over and over, unknowingly, just to spit on Mottom’s dying words.
And this would be what Jadis sees and knows, but she alone is one truly trapped by Zoss rather than her own doing (well, the glass block was kind of her fault). Or maybe her knowledge is incomplete, since she saw the shape of the static wheel and can’t comprehend the fluid nature of the last few drops of free will that Zoss so desperately wants to use to trigger a domino effect and topple the fixed causality he made in his arrogance.
A metaphor for what Jadis knows is water on a rock. If you see a rock with water on it, you know what the rock looks like and where the water is. But if the rock is taken away, you can still recall the shape of the rock as it is, wherever it was taken to. The water, though? You couldn’t answer that question the moment you looked away.
This theory is somewhat supported by Jadis’s prophecy being wrong. She calls Allison a ‘he.’ Unless Zaid does actually fill his part of the prophecy; we could very well be double juked thanks to Princess and Vigilant Gazes.
Allison has yet to be pushed in just the right way by Zoss (currently the only free agent) as to take a truly free action (we can see Jadis still reading her just fine), which was probably the case for all the former heirs. Jagganoth comes into play here as well, as despite being a brute player, he is the source of the ruin that Zoss sees the no-free-will worlds always spin to. Jagganoth can’t accomplish the reforging of the multiverse as he might be incapable of the divine suicide that Yisun undertook, so his unification and annihilation of everything literally ends with him being the only thing left, and he can’t do anything. No free will is slightly tolerable, but no free will quickly ushering in the complete doom of the multiverse is… less tolerable.
tl;dr: Zoss fucked up and broke free will by becoming too strong.
Look Allison, a bagel
she has depression
If we presume that Jag is right though, and Zoss is somehow resetting time (how far back???) and choosing a different successor each time, then it feels like he’s found some kind of a loophole or alternative to the set and scripted events.
Is it up to Alison to rediscover that same loophole? “She is not shaped by the world but instead becomes the shaper” – Zoss
Six Juggernaught is apparently the only being other than Metatron to fully understand Zoss power and dominion which he used to enter Throne and destroy all angels in their most powerful, original forms, before he ever had a “key”.
Does he have some kind of Ground Hog Day ability to repeat events as far back as he likes until they come about exactly as he desires?
“in all possible worlds” – the key here. Although each lives in their own here and now, the possibilities that extend from that here and that now are numerous. The whole may be fixed, but specific paths can be chosen, as each makes their way. In short, Jadis seems paralyzed by knowing everything, but may actually be taking steps to promote her preference of future.
(Like locating the best path for Joe Doe, that does not also harm many others. Then insulting him in passing one time, and twisting the verbal knife the next time, thus shifting his focus and path from a soon-to-occur doom to a different focus and a much more distant doom.)
If you see all, then you also see how each choice that you could make will influence both the short-term and longer-term outcomes. Like the old lady and the cookie and Neo. Would he have tried to catch the impossible and fight the unbeatable, if he hadn’t heard what he heard?
The purpose of life is to live. That’s it.
Why do I get the feeling she’s trying to get Allison to give up? (Also, does anyone know how to make a permanent account with an icon here?)
“Oh no, not this determinism thing again…” -Zagreus, Hades 2018
I want to hold sad nihilist mommy
so; how long til that whole thing gets shown to be BS?
taking all bets~
IT’S ME GIRL I’M THE OMNISCIENT OBSERVER OF ALL THINGS
SPEAKING TO YOU FROM INSIDE YOUR BRAIN!
Listen to me girl…. leave your friends, we don’t need them!
Come with me and play my games, we’ll have kung fu monk times… in space!
Doo doo do, yeah! You NEED me girl, your free will is an illus-
It’s me, girl, I’m the omniscient observer!
Speaking to you from inside your BRAIN!
Listen to me, girl… leave your friends, we don’t need them.
Come with me and play my games, we’ll have lesbian polycule times in… space!
Doo doo do doo, yeah! You NEED me, girl, your free will is an illus-
I dunno, seems kinda sketch
“When nothing remains, everything is equally possible.”
I do wonder where this can be going, in terms of the story and otherwise.
Jadis: “NOWHERE.”
I can’t wait for Allison to surprise her.
Then one must forge the amber into a chain.
Please Jadis, your brain is still only working in three dimensions, it’s physically incapable of understanding the motion of bodies in time. Of course it looks like an unmoving object when you look at it from outside – that’s exactly what we theorize it would look like to us.
It helps to think about dimensions we can actually understand. If we imagine a two dimensional world that’s only got width and length, to creatures living there it would be impossible to perceive a third dimension. If you stick your fingers through it, they can only see intersections of those objects – five separate circles. The idea the circles are part of the same structure that connects in a higher dimension might not be outside of their imagination, but if they were raised through height so they could see it it would certainly be impossible for them to understand it, like you could imagine looking at a sequence of intersections of a CAT scan of a human body without any context for how they fit together in a single shape, it’ll pretty much just look like an animation of a growing flower. And if they tried to poke it, they’d find they don’t have the power to move it, or even touch it in a place it could feel
Then extrapolate: Just because you have seen it doesn’t mean you understand it. And Allison’s power is infinite.
but you see, amber can burn
Nihilism born of absolute determinism begets little good, this I know.