shitposting rave 2, electric boogaloo

I'm... I'm very sorry?

Home is a complicated subject.

 

*sighs* Yeah. Sorry. It just feels weird, you calling the dimension I might've came from my home, when I haven't even been there and I don't even know if Ford is right about it.

 

Well...yes, but you have to know what kind of entity you're dealing with, or discussing.


For instance, there are very powerful beings, often worshipped as gods--a purely functional definition of 'god' would be 'a being people have worshipped'--who actually need to be worshipped the way organic beings require food and water and air. Without this energy, they lose first their power, then their internal coherence (which can help them gain new worshippers) and finally, if hardly anyone thinks of them, they cease to exist.

Obviously, a being like that may grant wishes or solve problems in return for worship, but it is not a god in the sense of being immortal, or having the ability to create new worlds. Most such beings are, unfortunately, not benevolent; a lot of them are parasites at best.

Many people also worship elemental spirits, or a genius loci.

There are a lot of 'gods' in the multiverse, but I don't feel that many of them should be worshipped. My personal inclination is to save my worship for the Inimitable, the life of the Multiverse itself, the Power above and beyond the spheres, paths and sheaves, that breathed in to make room for it all...

and also in my wife, and in my lover, because it is through union with them that I feel the Presence and communion of that ultimate creative power, so that it flows through us into our children, our students, and our work.

That may not be the answer to the question you asked, but there are many so called gods who are little more than vampires.

 

That makes sense to me. Ford said something about you or your ancestors being... kidnapped? Am I remembering that right?

 

Well, you came from a similar place, probably not the same one.

 

Yeah, basically.

 

That's why I said "the dimension I might've came from," not "Altar" there.

 

My brother the space hippie.

I don't know why Dad always said I was just like our mother when YOU are the one who is always spouting this dippy mystical bullshit.

At least I know what I'm selling.

 

Dad said that because he was a fucking asshole and both of you constantly lie. Never mind that telling the truth would have gotten you hit even harder.

I didn't change when I moved out West as much as you think. I started doing what I wanted to do, including everything our father would have disowned me for if he'd known.

I always thought if anyone got thrown out it would be me, not you.

 

*tilts head thoughtfully* None of the being variously called gods in my sheaf quite fit those classifications. Many of them require worship in order to be able to have any significant amount of influence on the mortal sphere - as if being more known to the material plane makes them more real to the plane - but none of their lives depend upon that worship. My goddess was unknown for a millennium, but she didn't cease to exist in Altar - she just lost her ability to communicate with and grant spells or blessings to the material plane. Imported gods, like Nelethinir, seem to have somewhat related limitations. Powers like the sea-drakes... I honestly do not know.

I find myself weirdly uncomfortable with the depiction of world-creation being a divine trait. :/

 

...a question:

A being of questionable lifespan exists. In the early part of its existence, whether by power or personality or achievement, it becomes known, trusted, and expected to achieve beyond the normal capabilities of other beings of its time. The being either dies, vanishes, or hides so well that knowledge of it as an individual fades from public knowledge, and in becoming a legendary figure also becomes an object of worship-- perhaps one so far removed from the original being that it might not even recognize its own likeness, were it exposed to the modern mythology.

What is this being called, in Stanford's lexicon?

 

I'm not Ford, but that sounds like a legend. Dunno about what kind of being, but that's the kind of story it sounds like.

 

That depends on the current state of the being.

If the being has died and moved on into another state of existence and is completely unaware of the mythos, then the being was a mortal, but if there is proof that the idealised version of this being that people are worshipping has the power to communicate with worshippers and possibly grant requests, that is a thought-form. If the being has remained present after death and retained ties to its worshippers, it may very well be an ancestral/tribal deity. If the being has not died, and has become immortal, it may have become a more powerful being. If the being has not died, and is in Dimension 1i18-23 shacked up with a massage therapist playing jattak' for a living...it's a mortal being, and people continue to have vivid imaginations.

 

Intriguing. The thorough answer is appreciated.

A more specific question:

Parsing "immortal" as "will not die of age-based afflictions" rather than "incapable of being killed," what if the being in question was already immortal? The "questionable lifespan" qualifier of my initial statement was intentional. Would this affect Stanford's assessment of the being in question, or would it then fall under the final qualifier without... whatever the dimensional specifics mentioned lining up?

 

No. Organics die of age-based afflictions because we have glitches in our genetic code that we can hopefully reverse at some future point in time. The same mechanisms which allow us to purge our bodies of cells that no longer work or improperly differentiated cells such as cancer often cause the body to destroy itself over time. I don't believe this is inherently unfixable, but it will be a neat trick; you wouldn't want to be an immortal blob of cancer or Endymion, aging and aging but never dying.

Presumably mechanoids could endure much longer as long as parts are replaced when necessary? I can't speak to that.

But there's a big difference between "won't age to death" and "unkillable".

"Unkillable" implies sufficient force of Will to go on existing and reform the body even if the body sustains massive amounts of damage.

 

So, would I die if I got massive amounts of damage and didn't wanna survive it enough?

 

Why?

Technically, it is thought that the Inimitable, the Ain Soph, breathed in, and then breathed out the universe, but...you don't have to believe that the Big Bang, for instance, was planned. In my dreams I've seen the Big Bangs at the hearts of dimensional sheaves, rolling out in layers, a sphere for each of the ten cardinal dimensions, four emanations of each tree of spheres, but...I don't think that was a plan. Yet it was creation.

Lise and I don't know what the kits will be like, we didn't plan their genetic makeup--she was planned, but she chose not to go that route--but we created them through a physical act. The ability to create is one of the things we share with anything worth calling a divinity, isn't it?

 

It's possible. If you wanted to die, why couldn't you? I'm not sure why you would want that but people so frequently do.

 

hey, look, this isnt ANY more fun for me than it is for you. i dont particularly like havwing a vwhole bunch of mes running around and screwving up my image EITHER. it cheapens me. but its not like i can DO anything about it.

vwell, there being other mes in general. i can make sure they stay in line.

 

... I wouldn't even have to sustain massive damage first?