Seeker of Thrones 2-11
Chapter: 2
“Listen Enyis, and listen well. For though her breast be scaled about with thickest iron, the fastest way to a monster’s heart is through a mirror.”
– The blind antiquarian (Enyis and the Boar King, Act 2, scene 3)
Aw, he cares.
He Wants, at least.
Alas, Cio is not the Yabalchoath he Wanted.
Perhaps that’s why he’s taken to mingling human flesh with devil masks.
Trying to find another way to bring back what he has forever lost.
“You know what he does to girls he fancies.”
So we have an angel who is too human yet denies their humanness, to a degree. And we have a devil who is willingly less of one and accepts that.
Ones designated role is so limiting is it not?
labels are fragile things, boundaries and containers even more so.
=//=
SOME BREAK MORE EASILY THAN OTHERS!
Revelation is a piece of shit, imo.
I was once told by my great grandfather and teacher that every name is both curse and blessing and this is especially true of the black name all we devils seek. In the case of the black name, both curse and blessing are the same; the truth of I.
The appearance of the Great Enemy is never to be welcomed.
So, how do devil grandfathers work, what with you being made from masks and black fire?
I’ll admit that I’m no expert on the life cycle of non-blood inheritors.
Great grandfather in a spiritual sense. It is not too unlike the case of adoption with humans, since of course, we devils have no blood kin.
Only for those fool enough to forget the greatest art of YISUN.
Not once it’s revealed it was a setup.
Even if the koan that leads you to enlightenment was constructed in malice, there is no healing the scar left by a blade of Truth.
you mean realization.
Revelation is on the long list of things I’ll run from.
It simply keeps getting better.
So Cio and her husband had something approaching affection in their relationship. I wonder what happened to change that.
On a separate note, I wonder why the Demiurges consider the angels (collectively) to be so much of a threat that they leave the Red City alone. I mean, Auntie Maya took one of the most powerful angels around out with about as much trouble as I’d use to swat flies; how much less trouble would one of the Seven, with literally a seventh the power of God themselves, have with the angels?
Preem Nand had loved Yabalchoath as dearly as devils do it seems, but in the end it is Ciocie to whom he is married now, and nothing changes a relationship more than a change in livery and the perspective gained from it.
It is not in respect of the angels that the Demiurges do not claim the Red City, but out of fear of each other. They could not decide how to partition the city, so they, by default, treat it as neutral territory, and empty throne awaiting it’s king.
more than a change of livery; a change of perspective is a powerful thing
=//=
SHE’S SHORT NOW. THEY DON’T SEE EYE TO EYE.
Auntie Maya is the sole pupil of Meti, and the most skilled swordsperson currently living. I think she is an exception.
Actually this is a lie. Abbadon has confirmed that Meti has had more students than just Maya. Of course, that is a lie too.
Keep in mind that Maya happens to be a disciple of Meti and heavily implied to be a former demiurge herself so she’s no slouch at combat. As for why the 7 don’t mess with the angels on Throne, it’s quite likely that fighting them all would be too much of a hassle to be worth it when they can just go around them and use Throne’s laws against the angels.
@your first musing: maybe he had affection, or something, for the glorious monster that Cio had been. When she came back tiny and violently opposed to what she’d been, maybe he felt his months fixing her mask had been wasted and so wasn’t especially fond of the (now not terrible) person his wife had become.
Just my idea, but eh~
It would be more trouble than it’s worth, taking on all the angels.
They might not win, but they’d put up one hell of a fight. Too much trouble for so little reward. Better to play nice in the Red City, just as they play nice among their own kind. None of them (save Jagganoth, of course) wants to rekindle universal war. They made that pact to put an end to such nonsense, so they could get on with their business.
And meanwhile, the angels continue to keep the peace, which as far as the Demiurges are concerned is just fine. The old deities may be dead, but the Status Quo is god.
“part” of why the Demiurges consider the Red City neutral ground. The balance of power between them is delicate, especially since Jagganoth received his invulnerability and his mandate. If they don’t act in unison, then any investment of power by one sufficient enough to break us would both leave the offending Demiurge vulnerable to attack from the others, and justify such as an attack, as who but one intending to rule all of Throne would dare take control of the Red City?
Well look at the story. Mammon didn’t have to clean up his mess personally. He hired the angels to do it. They helped maintain the balance between the Seven particularly some of the necessary heavy lifting and other duties that were beneath the Seven to do personally. It is utility not fear which maintains the power of the angels in this realm.
And some angels were in themselves powerful and foolish enough to overturn that balance by being instrumental in the making of Jagganoth’s 30 nails. I will say no more of that.
I would suspect: He remained ambitious.
And it is only /part/ of the reason. Though certainly an army is greater than the sum of its parts, Maya is quite exceptional, and Juggernaut Star was caught off guard. The combined might of the Angels would certainly be a problem for any one of the Seven, though perhaps not an insurmountable one.
That was one woman, and one angel, who had already had the ash knocked off of it by another, better angel. The angels, like the devils, outnumber the stars in the sky of every world, and when they work in concert their power can shake the bones of Heaven itself. They cannot dethrone a Demiurge, true, but such a distraction would be costly in treasure and blood, and even a Demiurge cannot afford to be distracted in such a way when they have six other blood-hungry rivals to contend with.
>> They cannot dethrone a Demiurge
Where’s it say that?
If it were easy, Michael and Jugs would be done doing it by now.
The foremost student of the Sword Master, whose Manual forms the backbone of a full quarter of Throne’s guilds-martial, and whose hand wields the Maybe Sword, could defeat a single angel distracted by two-score other foes united against him as the greatest threat in the room. Not least of which the Ill Timed Crate of Teacups, mark you.
Consider the root philosophy of the Thorns, o Watcher. Angelic flame is not easily won to arguments through passion, but rather through reason, strange though their reason may seem to others.
Their purpose, their reason for being, is known to each of them. Not for them the existential crises beloved of Men and Servants! They exist to uphold the Law, cold, pure, and infertile.
And at some point, it was reasoned that the slaughter all of Throne’s mortals would entail less violation of the Law than any previous attempts to maintain their vigil.
Understand that the Speaker for Thorns must, necessarily, have designs on the lives of each of the Seven: they are the foremost obstacle in accomplishing this goal. And that the reason the ranks of those that follow him swell is that in the eyes of his followers, those designs are entirely plausible.
Well, ol’ Jagg seemed to treat a thorn knight as not much more than a toy.
Nadia/Mottom/Mudda Om didn’t have a problem soloing one either.
And you already pointed out Maya.
But those were all 1v1. Real talk, world of difference between 1v1 and 2+v1: Being able to fight and beat one guy isn’t the same as being able to win when one guy spear tackles you and another starts kicking you in the head after you and tackler go down. Much less having a bunch of dedicated and coordinated warriors striking at the moment of their choosing.
But you’re forgetting the most important thing:
METATRON LIVES
METATRON LIVES
Glory to the new flesh!
None of us are angels, why are we involved in this tomfoolery?
I haven’t been able to chant a pseudo-religious battle-cry AT THIS VOLUME since I discovered the phrase HAIL MAMMON
METATRON LIVES, MOTHERFUCKER
METATRON LIVES
I dunno if I’d say 6 Juggernaut was “taken out”, it’s more like a temporary incapacitation. She destroyed his armor but he just exploded instead. He didn’t die in the angel sense, so he doesn’t need to wait for reincarnation, all he needs to do is get a new set of armor.
Also: Maya had to bring out the big guns to cut 6 Juggernaut. Normally she uses no blade, but for that job she brought out a broken blade and a hairpin (idk if she used the hairpin though lol).
No king rules alone. No king can fight his wars alone, extort his tax alone, or build his ruling city alone. Angels are many, organized, and individually powerful in excess of most disposable muscle. Angels stand in the way of a kings ability to delegate.
Organized? We used to be organized. Now, the putrescence of the Petal Knights has corrupted our order while the Thorns seek violence.
The Concordance of Angels is broken.
Huh.
I would have called you for a Petal to be honest.
Do you have any allies among the Concordance?
T’would be the same as fighting a nuclear missile capable submarine with a depth charge. Sure, you win; but when it explodes if you’re around… Well, it tends to get messy.
They may just be avoiding messes.
What an ironic twist in the myth that would be.
Eh… Nuclear detonators don’t generally work that way.
The TNT implosive charge can be detonated, but if the assorted plutonims, uraniums and hyrogens inside aren’t arranged in preparation for the Final Moment, it’s just a big wad of TNT.
It’s almost like their creators were afraid one of these might get set off by accident.
Because to kill a legion of angels in your home is to uncork a legion of nuclear bombs inside your home. It makes such a mess.
Perhaps my memory of canon is hazy, but I don’t recall that being stated anywhere. Maybe you could point to the page?
Oh, it’s today’s mouseover text. I’m an idiot
I didn’t interpret his actions as affection …
Not Cio. Yabalchaoth. The more that’s explained, the more they seem like different people with the same memory. Something drastically changed when her mask was reforged.
Yes, her name.
Its hard to love what isn’t there. She is not what he wanted. And devils care not for love itself, as much as want. He wants a monster at his side. A monster she isn’t.
One should not underestimate angels simply because one was defeated by “Murder the Gods and Topple Their Thrones” Maya of the Knigts Mediciant, conquerer of 20,000 worlds and student of the great swordmaster Meti.
He exhausted tremendous resources trying to bring back his lost wife, but the person he got was simply…
…someone else.
That had to be uncomfortable for both of them. Man, this really is frighteningly familiar territory.
Yes, one of the seven could destroy many angels…but they balance each other, and the angels are powerful enough to help stabilize that balance.
Hmm. From a certain point of view, the Cio we know is not the same person as the old Yabalchoath, but a new construct made in the image of the dead Ebon. How many times do you have to replace chunks of your mask before you’re no longer the same person?
For devils I believe the answer lies in how powerful their will was, how high they ascended, how free they were. In this case, I have no doubt a very careful reassembling the mask helped siphon more of her from the infinite black flame than a hasty job with some tape would manage. I also doubt finding the pieces was a simple matter. My kind have a tendency to be…enthusiastic…when disposing of dangerous debris.
A Mask of Theseus, in a sense.
Coming from the essence that is YIS in the same way that Angels embody the the essence of UN, Devils do not truly die but return to the essence that birthed them to await reincarnation. As Angels change through the process of reincarnation, so do Devils, producing a new permutation of the original essence that is almost, but not entirely, unlike their former selves, such as can be described. To dwell too deeply on this conundrum, one must accept the great Lie and renounce the paradox of their own extant nonexistence, for all that both Is and Is Not YISUN.
We devils are always changing, so the question is in some ways moot. Consider this, though name and mask may mold us, it is only the true black name unique to all devils and known only to them which determines whether or not we are the same person, and this name is itself a product of the circumstances. Ciocie ceased to be Yabalchoath not as a consequence of Pramand Nand’s craftsmanship, but as a consequence of her own choice. She chose not to be that devil, and now she never shall be again. By names she has cut herself into a new form.
Though you do know well that even the ebon name that is your own is not of your choice, for the essence of YIS holds no names. By names are you bound to form, but for only the one who still remains Nameless. Thus, the only true name that you may choose of your own volition is no name at all, and as such you will no longer be bound.
Even if two devils were forged from the same mask split evenly, the same flame, and given the same name by their binder, the black name known only to them would still be different. It is this name which ultimately defines us as individuals, giving us our sense of self and shapes the animistic flame into intelligence. Vatra do not have the power to define this, it is a product of the binding and all subsequent bindings, each change in livery that comes as we lop off the names and draw closer to understanding it. Were Cio now to reclaim her true name, even were she once more known as Yabalchoath, she would not be the same devil, both because of what she knows now, and because of the choices she will make or would make in pursuit of that form. Even devils may wield names.
I think Ciocie understands just how powerful AL-YIS-UN truly can be.
I think I understand why a demon would pledge to make a young heiress into a hero.
She wants her own successor to be more worthy of the power than she was.
There’s a huge difference between the two. AL-YIS-UN has the Key of All Kings because Zoss thinks she deserves it. Yabalchoath stole a fraction of that power and was killed in the aftermath.
All the Inheritors of YISUN are slave to the same vices.
To cease to be a Peasant and become the Wielder of Names, Alison will need to learn from the experience of her mentor.
Cio wielded but a fraction of a copy of the True Key, and that power destroyed her.
“It was a wicked and wild wind
Blew down the doors to let me in
Shattered windows and the sound of drums
People couldn’t believe what I’d become
Revolutionaries wait
For my head on a silver plate
Just a puppet on a lonely string
Oh who would ever want to be king?”
-Coldplay, “Viva La Vida”
Such is the lot of the conqueror who tempers her ambitions. She peaks — enjoys a year or two of hedonistic bliss, wine that is 60% blood by volume, posing for statues and recreational atrocity — stagnates — and is crucified twice, once before the Court and once in her own skull. All mortal power follows the same principle; from the lowest Guild peon ever given the authority of middle-management to the Seven themselves, a lack of hubris consistently begets Nemesis.
There is one solution: relax only once you are unequaled under the sun and master of reality in its totality, and rule fairly, because you need not use the crude cudgel of cruelty to assert your terrible and majestic Will.
In other words, go big or go home.
Solomon David is that you?
Broken Mask? She was unbound,
Yet husband wanted her around.
For her actions, a price was paid,
But where came the names that changed her shade?
I’ll bow to thee, oh bottles fine.
but my aim is to speak in time.
We bend our tongues to speak in rhyme.
greed made beverage
inspires a devil’s name
quite adequately
From those he likely paid to bind her back into a whole and ebon being. Names broken from other words. Words that evoke a new identity born from the old. Maybe names he called her in endearment.
That one is simple.
Having seen the person Yabalchoath was when she was free of lesser names, Cioelle saw to it that she was shackled with some.
I doubt that Praman Nand ever understood.
My guess was right in that she’s chosen to stay as a blue demon for moral reasons. +1 goodness for Cio, in my book anyways.
The discipline of devils is to SLICE
away their false names and discover their true one.
If you pare yourself down,
…then you may gain power! But in exchange, you barter away flexibility, knowing that what was cut away may not be easily reattached.
Our dear chronicler had once solved her equation – carved away at the stone of herself until the form within was revealed – but now has been given a chance to see that form from a detached perspective. A chance, should she so desire, to carve differently than she did before.
That sort of second chance is pretty rare. It’s good she’s taking advantage of it!
When ur husband turns into a dog and uses u as his secretary
Threats to the Red City! They’re such a serious matter, but I’ll admit to… awaiting them, in a sense? It’s good to be prepared. But it’s also… good to move in concert with one’s brothers, and know for certain we’re doing something that will have a real effect. If it mobilises a lot of us, chances are it’s something important. Something we can actually act on, and not have things resume, exactly the same, just as soon as we’ve moved on to another task.
That’s a dangerous feeling to have.
I know for sure I’m not waiting for such a threat.
Working with Thorn Knights irks me the uttermost.
They’re all fire and no Law.
Yes. You have other dangerous feelings to set yourself to, don’t you?
Which is superior?
To yearn for change and chaos.
or to alloy yourself with the stillness of the void?
Both are equal in madness.
And so you let him take control of you and others in the same you way you used to?
See the adaptive potential that a brush with mortality will bestow upon a being.
Never see the need to belittle perceivers as a race again.
“Story direction misinterpreted by artist in stunning display multitasking mismanagement!!”
“In last panel: Cio gazes remorsefully at White Chain”
Even an Oni can become a Buddha.
Viva la Vida, baby.
I didn’t know demons called themselves persons or people.
wow racist
Even white devils have enough sense of themselves to say “I want.”
I think “people” means “us”. A demon/devil/chupacabra/monkey considers him/herself to be people, and humans to be “humans, but not people”.
Kinda.
That’s kind-of racist isn’t it, to assume that all demons are racists?
That’s somewhat unfair. Some people are animals, but even an animal in a man’s skin is capable of reason. Demons, chaotic as they may be, are capable of reason. If one has reason, why let them have a sense of self, of identity.
Please don’t hit me.
Aye, what heady days those were! Wealth and excess! More slaves than thy could eat in a day!
But, of course, money is the universal mistress. More beautiful than even our Thief-Queen.
At last the Devil sees reason. Mammon always wins.
I quite like Yabalchoath!
Overindulge! Regret nothing! Ask no forgiveness!
It’s as if the story needed a bad guy turned good but it already happened
Fiendishness and great remorse.
Scream until your voice is hoarse.
Learn to chart a better course.
The angels seem much more stalwart in Ciocie’s reminiscence.
How long ago was this?
So Cio is the demon of Theseus?