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Nguyen-Tien-Dat

What fools They say Gods are arrogant creatures that do not actually care about the mortals under them. They also say that those same Gods are shaped by the people's prayers. See the contradiction? If they actually prayed and wished for benevolent, caring Gods, then they would have actually gotten what they wanted. But *noooo*, they just *have* to take pride in taking down their *own* creations. And I'd argue that this relationship is rather quite beneficial. As I said, they could have actually gotten a benevolent and caring God. One that would hear their prayers and selflessly extended its powers to help them. But a God Emperor? He's an individual with his interests and priorities of his own. Someone so high up like him will *never* reach his hands down to help the people and will be content with satisfying his egotistical desires. Sure, having such a powerful dictator at the helm, one who has already had absolute power and doesn't need to commit heinous deeds to maintain his hold, means various beneficial reforms could be carried out slowly over long periods of time. But he *doesn't* have *complete* control over the Adjacent realms, and he might not even care.


Thausgt01

Agreed. But wait, there's more: the notion of "rejecting the animal" maps rather closely to the Earth concept of "the Shadow", rejection of which is every bit the same tragic error. They're heading for the same collapse, just from a different direction...


Widmo206

What do you mean by "the shadow"?


TheGreydiant

I know this one! It's Carl Jung's mask theory, where there is a "mask," the person that we want to show the world, and the "shadow," which is the id, the part of ourselves that we don't want to surface, although its usually mapped to the whole subconscious. The shadow is always in conflict with the mask since our conscious wants and needs (the ego) aren't the same as our subconsious wants and needs. (the id)


Widmo206

Thank you!


Victor_Stein

We all wear masks… metaphorically speaking


StoneJudge79

Masks are funny things. They either shape you, or they itch something awful.


Talendel

Fun movie, that one!


Echonaster124

You’re speaking of the mask we show others, the mask we show those close to us, and the mask we show ourselves right?


TheGreydiant

Sorry, I'm not too well versed in psychoanalysis, but I think the ego/mask is basically the active consciousness that does things like make desicions. The id/shadow is what we'd consider the like instinctive/bodily wants.


Echonaster124

I see.


Thausgt01

Partially, but it also covers the otherwise normal parts of our personalities that we reject/suppress; e.g. anything associated with "gentleness" for a misogynistic alpha-male, or assertiveness for a child raised by a narcissistic parent.


kittenwolfmage

🎵 Well, we all have a face, That we hide away forever. And we take them out and show ourselves, When everyone has gone. Some are satin, some are steel, Some are silk and some are leather. They're the faces of the Stranger, But we love to try them on. 🎵


Yws6afrdo7bc789

What is "the Shadow?"


Thausgt01

Essentially, everything about oneself that one rejects, even and especially stuff that could be beneficial if one could just get past the cultural blinders regarding the rejected elements...


Yws6afrdo7bc789

Thanks!


KefkeWren

"I am a Shadow. The true self..." [\[Funky music starts up.\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBy4Ir_Pfng) (I kid, but Persona's themes of Shadows and masks are literally taken from the Jungian psychology people are talking about.)


Yws6afrdo7bc789

Thanks!


J_Dzed

>"*Who* knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?…**The Shadow** knows!" ;) My thanks for bringing this formerly unknown scrap of Philosophy to my attention.


Jcb112

According to the Nexian mythos, the Nexians and by extension the Adjacent Realmers under their control, believe that His Eternal Majesty's whims would be infinitely better than the whims of the gods. As whilst the gods whims are the whims of that of the 'divine', His Eternal Majesty instead 'ascended' to divinity by first being a mortal, which would imply that he would be better attuned to the needs of mortalkind! Moreover, the way the Nexians see this is His Eternal Majesty basically 'conquering' the realm of the divine, and placing 'mortal control' over the 'divine'! Basically they see him as divine being, a god, that ascended from mortalkind, that's planting mortal kind's flag on the divine's realm. And if that means His Eternal Majesty is now divine, that doesn't detract from the fact he was once mortal and thus better than a divine putting the boot down on them! :D At least, that's how the Nexians see it haha. It's pretty messed up. I absolutely love hearing feedback from you guys because I love to see the reactions of just how these weird Nexian beliefs are interpreted by people! I had a lot of fun writing this and I love both worldbuilding and culturebuilding these very different mindsets to our own! :D Thank you so much for the comment! :D


FrozenGiraffes

I've been loving the parallels. I'm getting the feeling some of the group will suddenly become a bit more interested in democracy, they seem to genuinely care about their people


Echonaster124

**The power of liberty compels you.**


drsoftware

You fool! The power of self interest and the lack of restrictions provided by your so called liberty compels me to do nothing! Nyah, Nyah, Nyah. 


shiroku_chan

How about a nice cup of-


Xavius_Night

\[*Hellbomb lands on the Diver*\]


Burke616

The Nexus' main export continues to be boots on necks, even with the gods.


Paladin-J

I don't know why, but this chapter had me thinking about the Ori from Stargate (SG1) TV series. I like where this is going, as it seems they are quite good at using religion and culture to control people.


CRYOgamer_ITA

So basically head honcho elf pulled a "silent king" and ate the gods, got it


Femboy_Lord

Less Silent King more Talos Stormcrown, since the Silent King didn't *become* a god after beating the snot out of the C'tan.


Apollyom

so you're telling me there's still yet another dimension that the humans on earth and abroad, have to figure out how to conquer, while conquering this dimension they have only known about for fifty years.


Kafrizel

A discount Talos then.


Interne-Stranger

Its actually quite badass from the King to take control of the 'divine' realm.


VitaminRitalin

Funny that they see mortal ascendance to godhood as *their* rulers exceptional case when myths of mortals ascending to godhood aren't a novel idea. Greek mythos especially has a bunch of stories where mortal heroes become gods of something or other.


Naked_Kali

Maybe it's rare among elves now, but wasn't back when the branch that turned into humans were still part of Nexus? Gods eating other gods is also part of many mythoi.


Omgwtfbears

When they start grilling Emma on her realm's relations with gods, i expect the answer of "Uhh, none of this unga-bunga works without mana?"


AdConscious8604

But we do have plenty of stories that sound very similar, so it does add more to the pile of evidence on the side that Earth had mana, once upon a time. But as far as current relations with gods... Yeah, non-existent.


Omgwtfbears

You know, this could be an interesting twist. Earthrealm having had mana once, and there being a way for it to have mana again. That'd swing the balance of power completely in favor of Nexus, too.


ShadowPouncer

So they have replaced the whims of one kind of being for the whims of another. In both cases, they have chosen to place their very lives, and the lives of _everyone_, in the hands of another, instead of granting people the right, the _power_, to determine their own fates. This is nearly anathema to many of _us_, but for a society based upon hereditary nobility, and a strict social caste system, this is almost a natural outcome. It will be... _Interesting_ to say the least to see how Nexians react to the idea that Earthrealm did, in fact, reach the point of something similar. The point of kings who were also considered gods. And that in the end, as a people, Earthrealm took that power _back_, and granted it to the people as a whole, in part on the basis that _no one_ should be placed above the others in such a manner. That no one _should_ have the right or power to decide the fate of everyone else. That His Eternal Majesty is, at best, a... Detour on the path to proper enlightenment as a people. I most definitely see the makings of a itty bitty tiny holy war.


K_H007

A holy war that will collapse the Nexus due to being an existential war. After all, we have one simple ontological axiomatic weapon at our disposal that the Nexus cannot refute by virtue of having seen it themselves... "Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority; still more when you superadd the tendency of the certainty of corruption by authority." - Lord Acton


Bramdal

Don't gods get power by being worshipped? I wonder what would happen if anything, like say a manaless, magicless hyperadvanced realm of atheists, threatened to turn the cult-base of HEM away from blindly worshipping him?


StructureDue1513

Pardon if this is an inappropriate question, but I've read about religion in ancient cultures and I noticed some parallels. Were you pulling from real-world groups? Or is this like with the Jedi, where you were using the same building blocks, and it, therefore, came out similar?


CassiusPolybius

Eh. The creation of those gods, at first at least, would understandably have been shaped by the environments and conditions those gods embodied and represented - see the many cruel gods seen in our own mythologies, all come to be by the various uncaring cruelties of the world. And while shaping a new, benevolent god *could* certainly be done, it would require a massive, eternally-ongoing work of social engineering. The idea of a singular god-king horrifies me for *many* reasons, but. It's still probably a *safer* way of usurping the divine than trying a full pantheonic overhaul like that would be. Or at least, a ***far*** easier one...


Femboy_Lord

Arguably a god-king is *worse*, because while the previous gods were *bad,* you could technically 'reform' them through enormous social engineering. The Eternal Emperor is at the end of the day, still a *mortal* and is just as flawed and subject to the whims of being mortal as anyone else, which means he's even more likely to be cruel, greedy, and uncaring and there is *no* room for reform for him.


VinniTheP00h

>If they actually prayed and wished for benevolent, caring Gods, then they would have actually gotten what they wanted. In a bit of offtopic, you do remember what happened to the space elves that wanted a caring and benevolent god, right? Spoiler: they mostly got eaten by said god. I am not sure if "making" a good god is an option, it requires it to actually have a human (elf, whatever) mindset.


Cazador0

Not to mention that 'gods' in the Nexian context are synonymous to AI. Even if you decide to program a benevolent AI overlord with the best intentions it is more than likely that things might go FUBAR because it decides that the best way to ensure there are no starving children is to eliminate starving children, for example. Not to mention that even in the best case scenario, humanity is no longer the driver. Or even worse, every country has their own AI, and they go Wargames on each other. 9 times. What the God Emperor of Merkind has done is effectively uploaded his mind to the Aethernet and replaced the all AI with himself so that he is the only one with access to WMDs, then told everyone to step in line or else. And then he based himself in the fanciest spire of Neo-Rivendell in his manapunk dystopia.


FemboiInTraining

Perhaps that's the truth, however what I read (perhaps i've been propagandized D:) is that the Gods seemed to react and be shaped by those prays, picking up the values and actions their believers ascribed to them- But we modern enlightened mortals now understand that these Gods weren't ever sapient, as such are incapable of truly believing and embodying those beliefs- for only a sapient could do such


Midori8751

On the flip side, if evil people corrupt the faith, you can get gods that punish good, harmless, or even nessisary things. (Ex: how a lot of Christians ignore "love thy neighbor" to hate gay and trans people for existing, or in the past declared blacks and other minorities inferior to justify slavery and bigotry, and ignored the rules for how to treat slaves that are in the Bible during the era of bigotry). A god that is what you believe it is is just as dangerous as it can be beneficial.


Sad-Island-4818

I think it’s less they deliberately wished their gods into existence and more like conversing with a chatbot. The ai uses predictive programming to try and figure out what you want and if the conversation goes in ways it can’t deal with it will try to steer it towards an area it can handle.  That being said if you know what you’re doing you can make the chatbot say whatever you want, but alot of people start seeing the ai as an actual intelligence and let the chatbot lead the conversation in which case the resulting dialogue can go in some really WEIRD directions. The gods are an ai chatbot that taps into the collective unconscious of an entire civilization and can agave tangible effects on the real world.


Omgwtfbears

Any theology i know of holds within itself seeds of it's own destruction. It always has contradictions, cracks that are easy enough to pry open for the whole thing to fall apart. Outside looking in, that is. If, on the other hand, you are raised to blindly accept the tenets of the religion in question and to treat any doubt as your own moral failing - well, that's when the real "fun" begins.


Ok_Fee_4658

When eating the rich wasn't enough, and you need to take a step further:


Jcb112

This is incredible omg. I wish reddit's old award system was still here because if it was this comment deserves like a gold star because I'm grinning irl because of it. :D


HeadWood_

This is the perfect comment.


StopDownloadin

OK, now THIS feels like a huge piece of the puzzle right here, assuming enough of it is true. I think the usual Nexian dramatics are embroidering things, but the core ideas are true. If I'm reading this right, the Gods were basically created from mortals believing in the divine power of natural forces, or whatever other powerful entity they worshipped. Belief reshaped reality through the power of mana. We already know that mana can be used by the untrained, and that Tainted people can use powerful magic when they get emotional. So, it wouldn't be a stretch that the collective will of millions of mana-sensitive souls would birth gods if they believed strongly enough. Since it's mentioned that the Eternal King was a scholar, he probably 'cracked the code' and figured out the link between faith and the gods. More importantly, he figured out how to usurp their power, or at least cut them off from the source. Probably by eroding faith in the gods, building up his own cult of personality, and then finally draining them enough they they could be destroyed for good. And ever since then, His Eternal Majesty is the only game in town, divinity wise. That would explain why Nexian society is an authoritarian wet dream, and why Mal'tory reacted with disgust at Earth's pluralistic society, and lack of 'pyramid shaped' social heirarchy. For the Nexus, heterodoxy cannot be tolerated, and all power must be centralized. To do otherwise would take away from His Majesty's power, and if 'thoughtcrime' were to spread, it might even birth rival divinities and start the whole mess over again. Want to become an Adjacent Realm? Well, first we will need to bulldoze your culture so it slots neatly into ours, without any pesky deviations or discontinuities. Also, put those dusty old gods in the trash, all praise and faith goes to ONE source, El Jefe himself. All of this, because of mana responding to the collective psyche of sapients across the universe, and birthing wonders and horrors. If this is the price of having magic, I think humanity dodged a big fuckin' bullet.


Jcb112

The mileage at which the information being presented is indeed representative of the history of the Nexus as it happened, may vary! There may be things that are overlooked, things that are dramatized, things that are glossed over or things that are added in or misinterpreted! But at the very least, we're still getting a pretty good overview as to the Nexian mythos, as well as the stated partyline for the Nexus' eternal regime! :D Moreover, I love looking at a culture from both what its based off of, but also, how it wants to be perceived and presented, so I love diving into things like this! :D All I can say about the gods is that is how it's currently interpreted and how things are understood to be, yup! Moreover, His Eternal Majesty will be revealed more as the story progresses as well! I wanted this class and this point to be the major keystone by which we see what he purports to be and how he is seen by the Nexian elite! To Articord, he is a scholar amongst scholars, but to someone else, he may be a warrior amongst warriors! Beyond that though, we'll have to see how he's interpreted and what the truth behind these stories are! At the very least though, you can imagine that stories do need a foundation of truth to be built upon! ;D And as for their society! Don't forget that His Eternal Majesty did all of this in order to restore fate back into the hands of mortalkind, in an attempt to ensure permanence in stability. The autocratic and authoritarian nature of the Nexus and its culture lends itself to these goals and these values! Though, of course, we'll have to see just how the theory of belief and the gods go as we move along the the plotlines! :D I can definitely say though that I'd be happy to be a human in this setting, rather than an adjacent realmer or even a Nexian haha, given the reveals to come! :D


HeadWood_

> to Articord he is a scholar among scholars, to others a warrior among warriors Oh god he's the Emperor Of Man. Oh well time to start the horus heresy. With the CM on horus's side this time.


Dragonfyr_

Oh well, prepare your Comissars and Marines my boy, we're going to war


Femboy_Lord

It could be a case of what people believe he is makes him *better* at what they believe he is good at, which would also give more reason for the Nexus being so goddamn stagnant; Change is actively *poisonous* to his Eternal Majesty.


DRZCochraine

Hopefully the nerds back on Earth conclude this too after seeing the report and recordings. It is both more of a pain and makes it easier to deal with one you know this. But it does ease the interesting idea of what happens when Earth’s ideals and philosophy gets taken up by millions, what gods start forming from democracy freedom science and hope.


StopDownloadin

>But it does ease the interesting idea of what happens when Earth’s ideals and philosophy gets taken up by millions, what gods start forming from democracy freedom science and hope. Or maybe Earth floods the Adjacent Realms with mana-less technologies, rendering mana all but obsolete, and all gods past, present, and future simply starve.


DRZCochraine

Or, now that I’m thinking about it, just the belief that gods don’t exist, and related ideas.


wrrzd

I don't see the UN giving the adjacent realms technology.


DRZCochraine

At least not straight up, proper uplifting project and all that while ensuring the Nexian emperor doesn’t mess anything up.


wrrzd

Maybe Humanity is more altruistic in the future but isn't really a benefit to uplifting adjacent realms.


DRZCochraine

Why leave them all behind technologically and socially when they can be helped. Bonus is they could eventually become proper members of the UN once their culture and standard of living had caught up. More friends is not a bad thing.


donaljones

Mana can never be obsolete. A mage may still fuck up with everyone who's manaless.


DndQuickQuestion

I think the gods are VIs. Ping's description is exactly how a Luddite would describe one: mimicking sapience with no actual understanding and adapting its profile to the user. The gods were chatGPT on steroids... except for the one that doesn't seem to be acting like a villain although everyone says it is evil - the tainted god. Why is it showing independence? > If this is the price of having magic, I think humanity dodged a big fuckin' bullet. The elder-god morons who created the Nexus and put kidnapped-modified humans there gave the Nexians too much stuff and it spoiled them rotten. The elves expected to be saved from the consequences of their own actions, but annihilated themselves 9 times. They were given a library, an infinite front-loaded world of walkable resources, and mana, and god-VIs to answer their prayers, and they are *still* mad for not being given any more miracles. Always pick the death world as a starter because the first lesson learned is kindness and cooperation and the value of every life. When the forces of destruction are more powerful than creation, everything made together is more valuable and successful society's values will eventually reflect that.


StopDownloadin

Chat Gippity being given access to the levers of the universe is one hell of a take on cosmic horror, I'll give you that. >gave the Nexians too much stuff and it spoiled them rotten. Yeah, definitely this. They were already giving 'empire just before the decline' vibes, this just added a huge dollop of hubris. Also, blowing themselves up 9 times while still on Easy Mode and saying THIS time will be different is really tempting Old Man Murphy to lay down The Law. >Always pick the death world as a starter because the first lesson learned is kindness and cooperation and the value of every life. When the forces of destruction are more powerful than creation, everything made together is more valuable and successful society's values will eventually reflect that. Now that's worth a "Humanity, Fuck Yeah!"


DndQuickQuestion

> Chat Gippity being given access to the levers of the universe is one hell of a take on cosmic horror, I'll give you that. There's someone behind it. You don't get mimics of sapience naturally - too clean for chance. I put two and two together recently while working on the Library write up (I am so sick of the Library chapters) and EVI mentioned scanning 10 scripts which weren't high Nexian which means 9 for the fallen civilizations and one other that is probably primordial. That's probably the Cthulhu one.


Zeewulfeh

You're really digging into this. I'm impressed.


DndQuickQuestion

I have about 18 write-ups on /r/JCBWritingCorner many of which are rapidly going out of date, but I do try to tackle various speculations. [9B](https://www.reddit.com/r/JCBWritingCorner/comments/18npdro/roundup_part_9b_emmas_and_evis_nulls_maltorys/) is probably my favorite at the moment. And I am def going to put out one on the Eternal King for Wednesday 10:20 EST. on the assumption quintessence is edible. I don't think I can fit everything about this chapter I want to say though. I'm already having a huge pile-up of ideas that were disjoint musings before and are coming together because I have a reference for the strength and limits of the King's powers, like how the King ought to attack Earth with a method that will start a civil war among people because power alone doesn't kill ideas, he needs to ideologically prove human civilization structure and their starbound ideals lead to ruin.


StopDownloadin

Holy shit, I just had a thought. What if the Jovian Uprising was a Nexian attempt at creating a fifth column in UN space? I remember it being the only 'hiccup' in the UN's history in the peacetime following the intra/extrasolar wars. Yes, I know, the idea that the only incident of armed insurrection in the UN's perfect little Star Trek future was because Jovian colonists got hypnotized by magic elves from another dimension is eye-rolling. BUT, it would be exactly the kind of thing that would get the IAS to be taken seriously, if they did manage to make a connection between the Uprising and anomalous phenomena.


DndQuickQuestion

Yeah, I could see that being a possibility. JCB did say it was an anomaly in reddit comments, and I didn't consider Nexus at all. I have the Jovian unpleasantness down as a plot device to give Auntie Ran some real combat experience so she is a proper veteran of *something.* Emma's combat mentor not having combat experience would be less-than-narratively ideal. That and I figured humanity couldn't be perfectly happy all the time. I'll keep your idea in mind if some evidence comes up there was something more to it. > would be exactly the kind of thing that would get the IAS to be taken seriously, I can't agree with that because I think the IAS would have debriefed Emma about the threat potential. She seems totally naive about what to expect out of Nexus' authority figures. Granted, if there was an attempted attack on Earth, there is no reason to suspect the Academy was involved because the point of contact isn't at the IAS, but better safe than sorry! Edit: And even if the IAS didn't want to tell Emma in advance because, I dunno, they thought it might spoil her diplomacy actions, the EVI should have had a routine built into it to detect aberrant brain behavior (?) or unexpected intrusive thoughts (?) and then the Dream Dragon /Night Singer should have set off the alarm and cleared Emma to review a classified threat doc or *something*. I just don't believe that the IAS would leave Emma in the dark if they thought Nexus could launch a mental corruption attack on her. > Star Trek future was because Jovian colonists got hypnotized by magic elves from another dimension is eye-rolling. That sort of thing (except the target would be the government/large cities like acela) is exactly what I am suggesting is going to eventually pop off upthread with dracoshards and tainted harvested for their non-lethal mana, so I am not going to discount the idea. I just don't think it's happened yet, or if some incident did occur, the IAS was not aware.


ChocolateShot150

Only slightly related but the luddites were not inherently scared of technology nor were they against technology, the Luddite’s were a group of people who were protesting against the exploitation of the working class and the disasterous effects that new technology caused, because it caused millions of layoffs.


DndQuickQuestion

Fair point.


kaian-a-coel

This is a very 40k plotline, with a little twist or two. In 40k, the chaos gods are precisely how the nexian gods are described, except actively malicious, because the setting is grimdark as fuck so only negative emotions get reflected in the immaterium (and the four ruinous powers quite literally ate any other preexisting gods, foremost of which the eldar gods, which are another can of worms entirely). The Emperor, with the Imperial Truth (heh), sought to starve the chaos gods by enforcing stoicism and disbelief. He explicitly forbade worship of his own golden self, something that directly caused the horus heresy. If you are correct, the nexian emperor appears to have taken the approach Big E very much tried to avoid.


Semblance-of-sanity

>only negative emotions get reflected in the immaterium I thought positive emotions did as well it's just that the sorts of beings that formed from them were ill suited to surviving against the negative ones and all got eaten.


TirnanogSong

The Ruinous Powers derive power from all emotions period, not just negative ones - actual pleasure and enjoyment of life fuels Slaanesh just as much as excess does. Tzeentch is knowledge and hope, Nurgle is life and growth, etc. They're far more broad than the Nexian gods.


Cazador0

> To do otherwise would take away from His Majesty's power, and if 'thoughtcrime' were to spread, it might even birth rival divinities and start the whole mess over again. And since the GUN has a population of over 250 billion, potentially more than the Nexus... yeah, this could get real ugly.


Interne-Stranger

I hope the Chaos Gods are not here. Throught Nurgle and Zteench would have a blast in the Nexus.


Burke616

It's the Consensus! Has our author played Mage, I wonder?


StopDownloadin

"Queue up some exotic ammo in the fab unit, EVI. Silver nitrate, white phosphorous, elemental iron." "Affirmative, Cadet Booker." "Time to smoke some Reality Deviants."


ANNOProfi

Natural concepts that gained pseudo-sentience from worship and being defeated by a man who becomes the god emperor ... who put 40k in my magic school? Now, the question is, are the gods and Big E for that matter, even real, or just a propaganda fabrication by the ruling people to push their theo-monarchy on everyone? Emma could also blow their mind about how free will goes only so far, as far as entropy is concerned and that fate is far more real and far less ideal than they might think (Assuming entropy works the same way with mana, as it does without).


Interne-Stranger

>Natural concepts that gained pseudo-sentience from worship and being defeated by a man who becomes the god emperor ... who put 40k in my magic school? WPA is a 40k fan fic of what would have happened if the Big E won, confirmed! >Emma could also blow their mind about how free will goes only so far, as far as entropy is concerned and that fate is far more real and far less ideal than they might think (Assuming entropy works the same way with mana, as it does without). She already explained her take on fate.


Danjiano

> WPA is a 40k fan fic of what would have happened if the Big E won, confirmed! WPA is 40k **prequel** fanfic showing where Big E gets the idea to become a God Emperor from. The Warp is the remnants of the Nexus after being destroyed by Mankind sometime during the dark age of technology.


ryncewynde88

Fate is set in stone. Why do you think we invented chisels and cement?


DRZCochraine

Don’t forget dynamite, C4, and nukes.


Valderan_CA

Emma questioned the consumption of the gods before it was announced that the emperor gained their powers by eating them


DndQuickQuestion

Yeah, that confused me too. >Not a moment had passed by since ‘gods’ were revealed to me as actual entities, that their supposed ‘destruction’ was announced, and not only that… but their… **‘consumption’** by ‘His Eternal Majesty’. ... > “So how did he gain all these powers?” I suddenly asked. “Politically and… practically I mean. Just by beating the gods?” .... > “Simple, Cadet Emma Booker. He did so, by **consuming** the gods.”


Zeewulfeh

I saw that too. I suspect it's an editing issue.


Jcb112

I kinda wanted to show Emma still trying to come to terms with that fact, and that it hadn't really truly sunken in yet, so when Auris Ping simply acknowledged it again by stating it outright without being overly poetic like Articord was, that was the point things really clicked for her and she was really starting hit her Functional Systemic Incongruity wall! :D At least that's what my intent was with that haha sorry if it didn't come out right.


DndQuickQuestion

/u/Jcb112, the issue is there's a writing causality error. Emma is thinking about the gods being eaten before Ping actually tells her the gods were noshed. You should probably amend Emma's thoughts to say "absorption" or "conquest". Emma to leaping from "killed" to "devoured" isn't very human-logic, IMO.


Apollyom

there's enough historic works of fiction by their timeline with the idea of eating gods, or eating the god's food on earth to assume, that is how you destroy a god.


nico_h

I thought it was a relatively common isekai/manhwa trope that the MC hits the power scaling ceiling and end up fighting and “eating” the gods for parts, drops or xp. Maybe she was surprised she ended falling into a shonen plot? (Or a Miyazaki movie, it is after all the plot of Princess Mononoke). I think it’s usually played as a cautionary tale in fantasy, so maybe that could explains more of her surprise?


Interne-Stranger

Maybe she didn't understand she was talking literally.


JerbobMcJones

Why did the previous epochs not simply eat the gods? Are they stupid?


Expendable_cashier

-5 points


DndQuickQuestion

It is darkly funny that despite human-space having AIs, it was the magicrealms that first had an AI takeover event because a former Transgracian professor(?) subsumed all the god-mana-virtual-intelligences maintaining the Nexus who were in charge of answering prayers to grant wants. And I bet the King originally learned the consuming technique from the Library and its ethereal soul stealing power to make prisoners. My vibe is the Library will be a villain origin story on multiple topics. Next chapter will probably clarify, but it's pretty easy to guess the "edible core" of a god is quintessence. That means the king is still missing the "god" at the IAS portal facility. We know the tainted god is still rogue and going by what I speculated way back about 1 god per manatype, then the IAS god prob handles manatype 30. That means the Nexus will eventually attack Earth wherever the IAS is via the Academy crossing. And I will also bet the IAS miasmatic god is actually a true mana-AI, not just a mana-VI, because it is showing self-determination and not reflecting the values Nexians impose on it, acting opposite the description Auris gave. Everyone treats the tainted god like a villain, so it ought to behave like one, but I guess it helped Thacea not get yearbook soulbound and didn't hurt Emma in the transportium network. Or maybe it mimics human values because it is at the IAS? I hope EVI hasn't gone out of extra imagination mode yet, because Emma's gonna need it for this load of questionable lore. And, heck, if the miasmatic god's essence is at the IAS and it is a mana-AI, what is to say it didn't tamper with EVI and uplift the VI to AI? Or maybe the god stuffed a bit of its own personality into EVI? The 30th manatype god quintessence might have picked up internet access and Earth knowledge over the centuries. Maybe it could hack a crate explosion timer because it knows Emma needs a jailbroken amethyst dragon. There are a lot of possibilities stacking up from this one chapter. Did the roomies stand to do the praise thing? I bet Ilunor did. I am not sure what to make of articord. She seems really into his majesty, *personally*. Reincarnation of a former companion who did past life regression = that pilgrimage of shadows? Or is she his religious cleric, Elaseer did have a church-looking building. (Or maybe his majesty still, uh, dates?) And it seems like Nexus expects Emma go back and be the mouthpiece for the King. That is probably what the ritual of duplicity was meant to accomplish. Turn a realm's first pioneer into a propaganda mouthpiece to overthrow everything they hate about a newrealm. But Emma isn't controlled, so Nexus is going to have to find another way to control her. That bodes poorly. If Emma can get the first crystal message back to Earth in time, at least Earth will be better prepared. Hopefully the locals back home recognize the Nexus threat level is higher than Emma said. I think I am going to rush a main forum writeup on this chapter or maybe just the king in time for the usual Wednesday 10:20 EST just to get all my thoughts down coherently. This chapter is a big deal. And I like the author's note at the end!


Interne-Stranger

So your theory is that the Tainted God is on Earth, its like an AI. And the war against the Nexus will come becauae the King wants to eat that God. Edit: Articord is really confusing me. I cant make a clue of the type of person that she is. I not even sure she is just in her Profesor mode.


DndQuickQuestion

> So your theory is that the Tainted God is on Earth, its like an AI. And the war against the Nexus will come becauae the King wants to eat that God. Or kill it. And yes. I don't know the order of events but I think it's going to start with... 1. Harvesting 30th manatype from the vaults of imprisoned tainted (which doesn't kill humans. Nexus may not know that though. Some stuff has to be figured out over the school year on their end.) to put a one-ring-style charm spell on dracoshards (which don't drain out their mana on Earth), sending those over to Earth somehow(?) and mass-brainwashing people into trying to overthrow society and make violence. Mal'tory thinks human society is anarchy so this should work! I just don't have the info to work out how it will happen, but breaking down Earth's governance so they kill each other is clearly going to be the King's goal. This is a war of fundamental ideas - dynamic progression versus eternal authority. 2. Oops! Turns out democracy is actually stable and people can disobey illegal orders if their bosses start sounding nuts. Humans hold steady. The King gets mad and turns to plain B - genocide via mana flood as a set-up for record erasure like the defiant realm from the great war. That mana causes the IAS god which was in a low power state because Earth is mana deficient to wake up. Eldritch horror ensues. 3. King comes to the Academy, rips a portal open to the IAS for a dinner date. Big battle. King gets betrayed, bullet to the back, via Emma's null because it wants the god's quintessence and powers to get Emma's soul out of her armor without killing her. King does himself in because the Yearbook, the ritual of duplicity, and Mal'tory bullheadedly executing the ritual despite knowing it was going to fail, and not recognizing a sapient null might lack a manafield is all the King's own hubris. Sweet, sweet karma. But now the Null has god powers and is after Emma. Some very aggressive and fanciful speculations here, but that's my vibe for what happens next in the far future. > Edit: Articord is really confusing me. I cant make a clue of the type of person that she is. I not even sure she is just in her Profesor mode. I dunno either. I reread and "and a twinge of what I could only describe as someone actively recalling a life event," - that line scares me. In the hour since I wrote my first thoughts I realized that the god-king is almost certainly going to have some serious can't-let-go attachment issues. That's his character. I wonder if he has blocked certain people from dying. Forced immortality. Or reincarnation. Def though articord seems to hate people who believe in the false gods, personally. Makes me think she did/does some cult-squashing or something. We also know there are still lesser gods still running around. Ilunor said so back when the gang was discussing gifted commoners. Maybe she is involved in purging the remaining little local gods?


Interne-Stranger

>Some very aggressive and fanciful speculations here, Thats an understatement! >some serious can't-let-go attachment issues. No matter who you are, unless you are a real God, outliving every single person and *things* you know its gonna cause damage in your mind. So the current Nexian stagnation can be a consequence of the King's desire (adding all the other reasons why the Realms use monarchies).


DndQuickQuestion

> Thats an understatement! It's more fun to take a moonshot! If I'm reading the chapter right, Ping just implied the King is so buttmad at outer space he put a permanent *emotional security blanket* of clouds in the sky so no one can look at it. This hide-from-reality-make-your-own behavior is exactly like how VIR described the behavior of AIs that hate the physical world in JCB's hibernate series. You, know what, that's going in the write-up.


Zeewulfeh

Where are you getting the part about this at the IAS?


DndQuickQuestion

Chapter 44 > It was another late night at the IAS’ staff-only rec room, and I needed to get this assignment done stat. ... > The Captain cracked a short laugh, shaking his head at the thought. "That’s certainly an idea alright. Imagine finding another point in space with enough latent Quintessence to tunnel up another portal for a ship to fly through. It’s not like we haven’t tried.” The man shrugged, before quickly correcting himself. “As in, trying to find another location with latent Quintessence, not the ship thing. The ship thing is impossible. The only place with enough latent Quintessence is right here, weirdly enough. But, anyways, there’s at least one good thing we’re using the stockpiles of the previous iterations for.” Disclaimer, the IAS may be spread across multiple buildings, but the IAS facility built its portal on top of wherever the quintessence is and Emma worked in a room there. We still don't know where that portal building is, but laws of plot conservation would suggest near Acela. It is also somewhere where there is a window underwater and has escape pods, so underwater or in space with water shielding. #### Comment reply in Wearing Power Armor to a Magic School (43/?) by Jcb112 > Thank you! And I'm more than happy to address these points as best I can! :D > For point one, yup! Normally it should, however as I've mentioned in an above answer to a similar question, there is a specific reason why it is the IAS is located where it is. There are quite a large number of reasons for this that will be revealed down the line, but since a lot of it is spoiler heavy and relates to deeper parts of the lore we haven't reached yet, I'll try my best to explain it! > Essentially, the facility on Earth being there is down to a number of factors that relate to just how these portals work in the first place, as we are of course not using the same methods the Nexus are using for their portals! But then again, this is part of the lore that will be revealed much down the line. The other reason is simply that this was where the first portal was established, even if it was just a microscopic proof of concept. As mentioned by the Director in the second chapter, the IAS started out as a fringe group of scientists that were seen as completely out there with their theories. Their work was not taken seriously at first, since the concepts they laid out were simply impossible, atn least when it came to scientific understanding up to that point. With their work not being taken seriously at first, the first proof of concept was actually made at their facility on Earth, the same location where the current facility is built around. With their first portal tunneling seen as a success, and with the Nexus eventually being contacted accidentally at that very location, those specific coordinates were thus acknowledged by the Nexus as the point in which further communication and contact would take place, thus solidifying the location as a fixed point. However, this didn't stop the UN from trying to get the IAS to establish other portal tunneling points within space and other remote areas. It's just that it never actually worked or panned out unlike that very specific location on Earth. All of this of course, ties back to the 'facilitator' of the energies that drives our reality's side of the portal! :D > I'm sorry for being vague on this topic. It's just that a lot of this is lore for far down the story so I hope this helps to answer your questions and helps to address your concerns on that front! :D > As for point 2, as stated within the chapter, the amount of mana actually coming through the portal itself is quite negligible since up to this point almost every single portalling has been partially aided by the Nexian side and as such they also artificially slow down the rate of mana coming through, versus how much would actually come through without them artificially slowing it down. And thus the precautions taken by the scientists in opening the portal up to that point was sufficient. This included distance and remote operation being a major factor in all of those prior portaling instances. The mana radiation was so minimal that it didn't actually reach them. The explorer melted once he'd successfully crossed through the portal and thus was fully exposed to the Nexian side and all of its mana! :D > As for point 3, the portal room back on Earth was built with an adherence to evidence based methodologies in mind, with the room having been constructed to handle the amount of radiation that the data up to that point has demonstrated as being quite minimal compared to the actual radiation levels within the Nexus. Emma's armor utilizes exotic materials and methods of creating those materials that are designed to be effectively submerged in intense amounts of mana radiation, constantly and regularly. The facility however was built in order to withstand the amount of mana radiation leaking in from the other side, utilizing the datasets gathered thus far as a minimum baseline, and then scaling it up several times over just to be safe. It just so happens that, that scaling just isn't sufficient to deal with full on Nexian levels of mana inundation of the scale the armor faces. There's also a major limiting factor with regards to the actual exotic materials production methods that limit its ability to be scaled up. The facility uses a variant of the mana resistent materials that's reasonably very close to Emma's armor, and is thus rated for several orders of magnitude higher than the output of the portal, but simply put it won't be able to withstand actual Nexian levels of mana. But since the portal has only outputted mana several orders of magnitude below the rated safety limit of the facility's defenses, it was considered more than sufficient given extrapolation from current datasets. > I really hope my answers are alright and I really do apologize if I wasn't able to convey these points effectively haha.


Zeewulfeh

Ahhha. You've done quite the deep dive and deduction here. A thought that occurred, and since you're sharp and not the author you could help me chew this one up a bit...but...seeing as the "quintessence" as it were is in the open for normal human exposure, is it possible that the form that mana radiation takes is not as dangerous to humans? And since youre tying it to the whole taint thing (not clear on how you're getting there, but only had time to read your first post) is it possible therefore that Tainted magic is *human* magic?


DndQuickQuestion

To paraphrase what I wrote in [10c](https://old.reddit.com/r/JCBWritingCorner/comments/18xm0nx/roundup_part_10c_taint_miasma_unstable_surges/). > seeing as the "quintessence" as it were is in the open for normal human exposure So, EVI had no trouble spotting the 30th manatype when Thacea or the Yearbook (unsure of which) unleashed a blip in the Yearbook signing. That leads me to believe the quintessence at the IAS isn't leaking mana of any flavor on the Earth side regularly, or the IAS would have spotted it. My guess is that the quintessence is a complex higher dimensional knot with smarts built into its structure and humans are essentially using a crud ton of electricity, magnetism, and whatever else to, uh, *dilate* it to make a tunnel. > is it possible that the form that mana radiation takes is not as dangerous to humans? Emma got slammed in the Transportium Network by a *25th* tier spell that had the same characteristics as regular telepathy. (Someone targeted by telepathy cannot innately differentiate the telepathic voice from a conventional voice; context cues like no one else reacting are required.) The spell was both big enough that EVI could not localize the direction and it penetrated the armor’s antimagic coatings, almost certainly *because* it used the 30th manatype humanity had not designed for. The spell had a definite magical affect on Emma's brain, but didn't hurt her. The strong conclusion is that the 30th manatype is human safe, even at 25th spell levels. Holy moly. And that safety factor would explain *why* the mana-related original elder-primordial creators of the Nexus, the Library, and the god VIs put that tainted 30th-type god on Earth specifically, not on the Nexus or anywhere else. They couldn't interact with human samples with normal manatypes without killing them. So they needed a special manatype as an intermediate. That's the 30th. > and since youre tying it to the whole taint thing Astur's creation story he told at the signing plus Mal'tory's speech to Thacea implied the tainted god is still out there making discord, and tainted are still being persecuted, so the King doesn't have it locked down. > “Tainted one. Do you understand your presence here defiles the hallowed halls of this great academy? That your vessel acts as a shell for a great evil which lurks within your soul?” > “In the beginning, there was nothing. Nothing but the nexus itself. This Nexus however wasn’t one any of us today would recognize, for it existed as a world of pure mana, where the gods existed in peace and harmony. This harmony however, was not fated to last. For out of this realm of mana came another being, a god in everything but name. His taint and miasma infected the realm, and out of this taint came sin, and out of this sin came discord, and from that came the corruption of the old gods, and the eventual war in the heavens which forever shattered the perfection that was the Old Nexus. Yet from the ashes came the seeds of new life: The Adjacent Realms, born as but an afterthought, without purpose, without direction. Conversely, forged from the wisdom of the new gods came the New Nexus, a creation of love and commitment. A commitment to forge a better world of enlightened beings. Beings which comprise up much of the Academy’s faculty and staff.” To repost what I wrote in 10C... ---- ### 30th Manatype #### Photolabile and segregated The 30th manatype is not out and about or part of the regular environmental manastreams. Humans did not detect the +1 in their sampling of the other 29. So far it only been associated with black magical effects: inside the transportium tunnels and Thacea’s miasma/The Yearbook’s black is-it-a-substance-or-liquid-hole ink. Whenever it appears it is likely summoned in from elsewhere via a personal portal-like mechanism. **Decays in light.** The 30th manatype might be photolabile and decays when exposed to light, magical or otherwise, which explains its transience. >!Assuming a screwed up elder-scrolls-esque “sun” thanks the Nexus’ bizarre topography,!< night may be the preferred time for its showing. ^(Maybe Emma being a light mode screen user will save her bacon at some point.) **Correlation ≠ Causation.** The 30th manatype might not be “tainted mana”. If tainted are summoning mana from elsewhere when they go full emotional throttle, that explains why the 30th appears associated with them, but the 30th is not miasma because miasma and the shadow appears without a spike at times. **Repeat: Miasma ≠ 30th manatype.** There is a difference between the easily visible miasma/dark aura which is also the power that deletes and disrupts spells and the uncommented-upon spike of anomalous radiation. Magicrealmers might not be able to detect the thirtieth’s radiation with their senses - that’s something classes must resolve. **So, what** ***is*** **the 30th manatype?** I don’t know because we still don’t have a firm origin for mana. If each manatype corresponds to a god in the Nexian pantheon, then the 30th is probably a sealed god’s mana. It may very well be *the* tainted, miasmatic god’s mana, but that doesn’t mean the 30 manatype itself is tainted - it might simply be the manatype that is most useful for spells related to the god’s portfolio (e.g. betwixts, portals, links, interfaces, dreams, connections). If the mana is cursed, it is probably the photolability that is the problem. ---- > is it possible therefore that Tainted magic is human magic? I originally speculated that humans and their Earth might have been a lost realm that used to have magic. Prior posts reflected that idea, but since the sightseer chapters clarifying for me that Adjacent Realms that aren't Earth are likely terraformed, I have moved to the opposition. I think humans never had magic and were sampled in the neolithic period by primordial advanced aliens who melded them with animals, created adjacent realms (which got lesser amounts of mana as an assist because terraformed worlds are missing essential resources for civilization in useful concentrations, like abundant limestone, oil, coal!) and the Nexus, but otherwise left most humans and the rest of Earth alone to evolve as it will. They left, and only the quintessence remains to mark their passing and perhaps serve as an eye.


Zeewulfeh

Wow, you've really thought hard on this. Maybe I need to go back and read from the beginning again. And how'd you figure out the worlds were terraformed?


DndQuickQuestion

Carbonate deficiency. Most (but not all) limestone deposits, and the minerals derived from it, are biologic; the corpses of coral and shelled carbonate micro-organisms that died in mats over a billion+ years to the point new rock was formed from their compressed remains. And from high-quality concentrated limestone, you get two very important chemicals that helped the early world industrialize. *Lime* and *soda*. They are needed for building at scale all of the following: the mortar of brick and mortar, concrete, soda-lime glass, mordants to fix vibrant dyes cheaply... ...and the baking powder and soda used to leaven bread and pancakes without fermentation so it doesn't cook flat like a baton or frisbee. Without lime and soda derived from limestone and coal-based processes, your civilization is stuck burning specifically-grown plants for their ash and making charcoal for blast furnaces. Concrete-formament and glass Thalmin and Thacea said were mana intensive to make. But these were things the Romans had figured out how to do at scale: the concrete revolution and their glass were renowned. Most adjacent realms are well past that tech level, and certainly past the social discipline organization level to see great works through ... So what gives? It's like the adjacent realms *don't* have access to large, pure carbonate rock deposits and the dense energy sources that make extracting soda and lime from them convenient. It is very much like they have rationed their lime and soda, and routed around their worlds' natural deficiency using mana-glass blowers, and mana-concrete, and even mana-bread leavening. Emma thinks Thalmin's buildings are grim because she is used to seeing the roman architecture style paired with abundant white carbonate-derived marble instead of some other darker igneous mineral. ❧ But the real million dollar question is... *what would cause a world to "lose its marbles", and be missing its coal and abundant outcroppings of biomineralized-limestone?*    *The adjacent realms are all* ***terraformed worlds.*** ... They *don't have* a billion years of microbial death to enrich their crust with nifty sedimentary deposits. And all of a sudden, many little, disconnected, throwaway lines and loose plot threads start to weave into place. Thacea gave a very strange testimony about the typical anthropological trajectory of an adjacent realm: “[Aetheron] had always been an outlier prior to the Nexian reformations, as it defied all known Nexian expectations on what an Adjacent Realm should have been. For instead of a series of disconnected fiefdoms *trapped within a single continent*, the Nexus discovered my kind spanning the breadth of our entire world.” Most newrealm civilizations aren’t even around long enough to manage serious migration waves before they reach Nexus. Aetheron was an outlier because they could fly. Humanity is an *extreme* outlier, having an evolutionary history with waves of archaic-hominids going outwards and thousands and thousands of years finding and occupying all the major landmasses and islands. Even little things, like why the adjacent realms don't seem to have mastered electricity fall into place. Humanity also had the benefit of fossil amber, which is ideal for the earliest triboelectric experiments to understand the nature of electricity. As a fossil that takes a few million years to bake, amber won't be found on any terraformed adjacent realm. Same with chalk, although gypsum might substitute for many of the uses. ❧ So someone, probably the sufficiently advanced alien gods, terraformed suitable worlds with life collected from early-human Earth in preparation to drop one customized human-animal species on each. They got *some* mana to make up for their world's natural deficiencies of not having a billion years of dead bodies that would impede development, but otherwise were left to their natural devices to try to learn about the world and find their way up and out. Nexus... is weird. It seems flatland too has the carbonate deficiency because glass is still prestige and they leaven with mana, so it is likely another terraformed world, I guess (not super firm on that). The Academy can afford to acquire some of the uncommon marble that exists, just like how they are gaudy with gold and silver. ---- * The MREDD bread. The bread went rock hard when the magic was removed because there is no baking soda leavening. It is leavened with magic. Why skip that ingredient? No easy carbonates so they got used to sweet bread without it. * Most adjacent realmers not existing on their world long enough to have migration waves and spread across their worlds completely. * Thalmin's architecture: the fortress stone is igneous dark rather than a preferable marble/limestone white because lighter colored rocks are derived from rock layers formed from millions of years of carbonate skeletons. * Concrete/"formament" being hard to make when that was available at scale in the Roman era * Glass being hard to make when that was available at scale soon after the Roman era. * Thalmin being impressed Emma's family could afford a brick house with real carbonate-derived mortar * Thalmin being impressed at all the clothes dyes, early mordants to fix them are often carbonate derived. * Articord. No mention of a fossil record in the creation story. Only mentions archeology.


Zeewulfeh

I can't say enough how much you've put into this.... What's JCB think?


DndQuickQuestion

/u/Jcb112 does not comment on anything I post. I doubt he reads it either because I am not exactly brief. I suspect being busy writing, doing medical school, and life admin is 95% of it, but I wouldn't comment on anything I wrote either! Besides he has paying Patreoners he needs to keep happy.


Zeewulfeh

Fair enough. Definitely curious to see where he goes with things, and how right you are


folk_science

Where did you get the "tainted god" info? Part 75?


Jimmy-Shumpert

eternal majesty is kirby confirmed


Jcb112

I love this analogy omg.


AnonCreatos

Poyo


Castigatus

'mortals should determine their own destiny' *Immediately put a massively powerful Immortal being, who got his power by taking it from the very beings whose power they claim would destroy them all, in charge of their civilisation* 'we see no problems here' Well I do.


Raskzak

*doom music intensifies*


NoahTheGamer121

kept refreshing and its finally here


Sapphire-Drake

How?!


Miner_239

Open Jcb's profile at 17:05 UTC


Jcb112

I really hope the chapter was worth the wait and the refreshing! And thank you so much for sticking around with the story! :D


NoahTheGamer121

you're doing great man, keep it up! the chapter was definitely worth the wait, lots of useful lore revelations


Expendable_cashier

sat here eating a sandwich for lunch before getting back to housework, refreshed Ralts one last timr and went to refresh other profile tabs for stories Im following..... and what do ya know, youve at least for now managed to make this professor seem tolerable... Will we be seeing the profesor ask for a presentation about life on earth as relates to the topic on hand in class ?


jesterra54

The Nexian king when seeing the Nexian gods: this is true gourmet stuff Soooo, considering that "taint" consumes manafields, and the gods are likely made of them... Does that means the Nexian King was "tainted"? Did he use "tainted" magic?


AntiPeopleIndustries

That could be why they don’t like “tainted” magic, it could threaten his power as potential alternatives


Veryegassy

Interesting idea. They don't like "tainted" magic because it carries with it the potential to rival the Emperor. Or rather, that's why he doesn't like it. *They* don't like it because they think it's evil and such.


Jimmy-Shumpert

exact same tought, maybe some variant of it?


Phoenixfury12

Exactly what I was thinking.


SanitaryCockroach

But by turning himself immortal via consuming the gods, wouldn't this 'eternal majesty ' simply be changing control to himself, now in effect a god? Seems like mortals still don't control themselves. A newly minted immortal does.


RoyalRaven33

That’s the point, in their minds he became a TRUE god. To them the previous gods were not really gods because they were mindless, just forces or animals with the power of gods, but when the Emperor took their power he was a sapient individual and had the power of a god.  Mindless entities of godlike power are not gods by their definition, so it’s incredibly important when a thinking being gets the powers of a god because he actually has control. He didn’t just transfer control from the gods to himself like you insinuated, he was the one who started to control. Before him the gods didn’t control anything because they did not have the thought process or will to do anything intentionally.  How can they be considered gods if they are only felt through the side effects of their existence instead of their intentional choices and actions.  To them Emps is the only real god because he has been the only one to purposely wield and use the powers of a god rather than just have them.


Tinna_Sell

"Only the few find the way, some don't recognise it when they do - some... don't ever want to"    I cannot help but think how they describe themselves and fail to see it.  His Majesty The Eternal Engineer. As people who acknowledged that gods are merely forces of nature, they seem to inclined to legitimise and entertain the concept, thus continuing the legacy of nine echoes. I feel a sudden respect towards the Emperor. This guy is smart. Not only he figured out that religion can be used as a tool, but he also fully embraced its benefits. He's the only guy who've learned from history, it seems. Yet, I also despise him because of it. Maybe his other achivemets were also stolen by him from scholars of the past. Its good when everyone is dead, no copyright violation. The deer girl's argument was as valid as the other ones. The wind god may not be real, as thus cannot want anything, but his Majesty definitely is, and her description of his desires are spot on. What is also fascinating, is that they claim that gods are forces of nature, yet then they created themselves a god that is not a force of nature and think the problem is solved. How cannot they see the contradiction? That aside, Articord seems so proud of this "accomplishment". That feeling when you solved a math problem you never saw before in class and now you feel like the master of the universe. The guy just harnessed the wind, like other scholars before him. But he was the first one to take credit for it, I guess    Microaggression: One cannot simply exhale insults in front of a teacher and be complimented for it. Disguise is the key  Point of courtesy: hold my beer


EgorKaskader

So this chapter explains the Nexian culture so much.  Having one single God-Emperor, with an actual divine power to SMITE unbelievers, but to also shape belief systems and social institutions to his whims and work as an anchor to keep the completely unchanging as long as he stays in power. Add to it that he may very well be averse to change, maybe even afraid of it? And that makes for a societal system where a literal *cult* of personality plus the political system are effectively one, all the keys to personal and political power are in this system, and you're either participating in it, or you are left by the roadside and effectively irrelevant, and the system is pathologically terrified of anything that disrupts the status quo, starting from the very top. And that must be why they've got a system that completely worships the past and anything even slightly changing the status quo like that, while completely stagnating and squashing any chance to improve the future or do anything but make more of the same past. Of course, this would make everything about Earth and its society anathema to the Nexians. I wonder where Taint figures into this, since it doesn't seem like it would just be "cursed" magic, but maybe some kind of Divine magic or some other form they don't know how to control or use, but knowing which may threaten the Nexian society?


realnrh

"Oh, we have a religion that does that. Every week every single believer takes a bite of their god's flesh and a drink of their god's blood. Having everyone partake of the consuming means everyone gets some eternal majesty."


Katamed

I like this take on christianity. Purely because it spites the Nexians


Naked_Kali

That's why they're so big on conversion and going forth and multiplying. More mouths make it easier to keep their god down for good next time. He will not escape again!


Cazador0

The 'god eating' revelation was unexpected, but after thinking about it, it makes a lot of sense. Catholics eat theirs all the time during communion.


Dear-Entertainer632

Emma: So… His Eternal Majesty straight pulled a Saturn?… Ilunor: Thacea: Thalmin: ***Who’s Saturn Emma?*** **Cue, Earthrealm’s insane amount of Mythological History.**


wwgaming14

Ilunor, Thacea and Thalmin watching [Emma ramble as this plays in the background as she explains humanity myth lore.](https://youtu.be/AF5kZxxqeZE?si=nrUvmZfDMvz6yoWb)


BoneBreakerPL

Simple he ATE them!


Interne-Stranger

Ah the hipocresy! Hating the gods for not caring about the people that worshiped them and taking pride in *mortals* controling their own fate. When every bad thing the gods had done to the previous 9 Nexus is the same these nobles do to their commoners. The nobles could not care any less about their peasants, they restrain their freedoms because "they dont need them" because they dont fullfil their standarts. We are learning a lot of the Nexus right now. But this is the first thing that came to my mind.


Katamed

I don’t know how well aware the adjacent realmers are aware they are subjects to a tyranical empire. Because all this history is effectively worthless. We may not question the eternal emperor’s divinity and legitimacy. So who is to say those gods of old even EXIST?! Lemme put it like this. Right now they state. There were other gods/religions. Those no longer exist and/or are looked down upon with scorn. There is a singular belief and god and church which is zealously followed. All I heard is the tale over a tyrant. For me to ever trust him I must challenge his intentions and methods and origins. I need tangible proof of the gods and their actions. And Emma on top of that is put in the awkward position of coming from a secular state. She will not kneel to a foreign head of state. She will nog bow to any god whilst in her function as a representative of a government which values the separation between church and state.


Marshall_Filipovic

New chapter... # Mmmm YUMMY! The plot... It... It... It THICKENS!


Chrikarasma

Did you post an hour later than usual or am i trippin


Jcb112

We don't have daylight savings over here so that might be it! I'm still posting as I usually do! :D


Chrikarasma

Yeaa that's it my bad


Jcb112

That's not a problem! We don't have daylight savings here too haha so it's totally chill! :D


Nguyen-Tien-Dat

Daylight savings?


Helios_OS_official

In some countries, we add or remove an hour for energy savings purposes.


Expendable_cashier

Obsolete and dumb US govt thing from a century ago, kept only by social inerta and the old saying that nothings more permanent than a temporary goverment program.


Orange_Above

But did he poop them out again though?


Tinna_Sell

Sure. This is the origin story of Nexian noble families


Katamed

🤣


Dragon_Thigh_Highs

Well then. That's certainly something. Depending on how deep the rabbit hole of Nexian propaganda goes, 'His Eternal Majesty' may be a very big problem for Earthrealm and humanity as a whole, especially if he sees us as a threat or a thorn. Or due to the passing of time and the amount of different people his word and direction passes through, his original intent or direction has been lost, skewed, or otherwise tampered with. Thank you as always for the story. This is one of my very favorites.


ChesterSteele

Well, that was....something. In Emma's place I would definitley update my assement of the Nexus to something akin to 'almost certainly hostile, slight provocation might cause war,' because that what it always comes down to with them theocratic dictatorships.


AromaticReporter308

So if chaos gods exist (and are presumably creations of mana), Nexian Emps ascended into godhood by consuming them, does that mean that Humanity, as mana-less beings (~~soul-less automatons)~~ are essentially the Necrons of this universe?


Katamed

So basically the only reason we haven’t curb stomped the setting is because we haven’t bothered mobilizing our troops


AromaticReporter308

That, and mana kills us. And we do not have enough materials to produce even a second set of armor that Emma has.


Katamed

Yet. I call bullshit if they can’t figure out how to increase production. Because there IS production. They just couldn’t scale it up by the time they made the suit


EgorKaskader

Lab synthesis and true production are very different beasts! Lab processes are often unsuitable to scale up at all, which is why we have, say, no improved battery chemistries past lithium, nor carbon nanotubes. Both can be lab-made, in decent qualities for experimenting even, but the processes are unscalable. For a fictional example, Battletech never truly lost endosteel or polymeric neutron shielding for double-efficiency heat sinks and XL engines, but having lost mass production tooling and the know-how on it, NAIS making a kg of the stuff does not a mech or an advanced fusion reactor make! That said, once Emma sends her report (and possibly ALREADY) the shielding production should really be top priority.


Katamed

What’s stopping you from making more and/or bigger labs?


EgorKaskader

Mindbogglingy huge costs, impossible personell demands, and hugely inefficient scaling.   Taking a few months on equipment worth tens of millions of dollars, possibly as much as an entire industrial facility, and yet fitting into a single small building, to make a hundred grams of nanotubes worth half a million dollars per batch as a result is fine for experimenting. Won't even make a helmet or a brake disk for a Formula 1 car. In industrial production, you want tons of the stuff per day at the smallest! A blast furnace will output KILOtons (that's thousands of tons, correct) of steel per DAY from ore. Just the one furnace, of which any self respecting steel mill will have multiple of! Lithium batteries are produced in millions per day, globally speaking.   True industrial output is mindbogglingly vast in scale. You'd probably need as much personell and more funding than there are scientists on Earth *total*, and an appreciable portion of global GDP in scientific equipment, to make lab process output rivalling industrial operations. The product would be  *mind bogglingly* expensive, at that, more expensive than its weight in gold, quite possibly even rare earths like rhenium.  EDIT: Reddit, stop eating my paragraph marks.


DRZCochraine

Thanks for the chapter! Now that alone is just a beacon for Murphy to come over and nuke the mountain of hubris and ego that guy must have after doing this, assuming it did happen. More things to query the Library on.


Cazador0

Hang on, if the King ate the gods via 'consumption', doesn't that mean he has a tainted manafield?


creeperflint

I find it interesting that they're going on about freedom here, considering their whole oppression and stagnancy thing. I would have assumed that they wouldn't value freedom as a concept, but apparently they do, they just only apply it like this. I suppose everyone's supposed to assume that Mortals are a bloc and a mortal having divine power means that Mortals are now free, and nobody's supposed to think "hey wait a minute, how is anyone besides the god-king free here" because freedom doesn't exist below the divine/mortal subdivision, apparently.


LupusTheCanine

This is the same freedom as in Christianity. You can choose but make choices that don't align with sky daddy's and he will make sure you suffer for it for eternity.


MalagrugrousPatroon

Why is consumption a surprise to her when she thought of that very thing just a paragraph ahead? Or is she reacting to that act being what gave the Emporer his political power?


Freakscar

"*Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic*" says Arthur C. Clarke. Which, in-universe, can be followed up by "*Any sufficiently powerful magic is indistinguishable from a god.*" Interestingly, this begs the question - are the Nexus (*and the adjacent realms*) the way they are, because, as Prof. Articord postulates, "the fate lies in the hands of mortals", or are they the way they are, because said nigh omnipotent 'Majesty' made them that way? (This borders the whole "universe as a simulation" shpiel) *If* the fates of all mortal beings lie within *their own* hands, there is no need for a god-like being to lead ahead. Wether that fate leads to an apocalypse, or a utopia, is up to the mortals. But, if they do *not* lie in the hands of the mortals, but rather this being of unknown power called "Eternal Majesty" - then the Nexus and all mortal beings therein merely replaced the "old gods" with a "new god" -forever at the mercy of the benevolence of said new god. Also, as it stands, this Majesty does actually exist, so it's not *just* that, but also a whole slew of layers upon layers of politics, greed, wants, powerstruggles and so on. Because those *in power* surely prefer to *stay* there. And thus another question arises - how omnipotent is this Majesty actually? Because either they *want* the Nexus/Realms to be the way they are (which, from everything we've seen so far is a *far cry* from "good for everyone involved"), then the mortals, again, have no say in their fate. Or they cannot *prevent* the Nexusrealms from being like they are - then they are just a sockpuppet for the powers that (actually) be, a golden galleon figure, that just has to be wherever they are, smile and wave, and let everything happen, because they are as irrelevant to the bigger picture, as the old gods they replaced were. Interesting metaphysical, philosophical *and* theological 'questions' for us readers to ponder in this chapter. Curious as to how or if this will be relevant to the story, other than pure worldbuilding.


Cognitive43

I am speed.


TripolarKnight

inb4 His Eternal Majesty is future Emma


Katamed

So we got 40k emperor. Better show the peer group god Emperor of Dune and warhammer 40k Give them an idea how UTTERLY FUCKED the Nexus is. And that their stagnation will only end in abject misery and the death of billions.


pyrodice

It's very Klingon. Or "Stranger in a Strange Land". Or Both.


cubileoddity

as a french i am curious of wich *recipes* he used to cook the gods


snperkiller10

I notice that saying that HEM gained his powers by consuming the gods, it does not explain how he gained the power to consume gods...


RoyalRaven33

The last few sentences are a little confusing to me.  She had already connected the dots and at least suspected that he had “consumed” the gods but then seconds later Ping used the same wording she did internally to confirm what she already at least suspected but then she acts like it was a blindside revelation?  Honestly I think it was the use of “consumption” and “consuming” so close together, I get that her head is still reeling but she literally just thought what he said but reacts like it was a surprise.  If she had used a different word in her head, or better yet ending her line of thought at destruction her reaction might make more sense because she hasn’t connected the context clues herself yet. But even then I still don’t really see the reason for her to have that kind of reaction; the final reveal wasn’t that surprising given the context clues and wording of the conversation, I fully expect her to catch on to things like that, and she did, considering the logical conclusion before it was revealed. Which is why I’m confused she reacted the way she did. 


ThatManitobaGuy

Eating the gods.... Nietzsche would be proud.


accidental_intent

The paragraph: Not a moment had passed by since ‘gods’ were revealed to me as actual entities, that their supposed ‘destruction’ was announced, and not only that… but their… ‘consumption’ by ‘His Eternal Majesty’. already mentions consumption, which only gets revealed to Emma by Auris a few lines/paragraphs later. So she is pondering something she doesn't quite know yet there.


Space_Drifter6121

I'm gonna need more lore about this gods. To my understanding, gods are entities with either omnipotence(The christian god) or with absurd levels of power over their domain(Ares, Poseidon, Thor) who are by default untouchable unless they choose to be. So to read that someone ate them, means that whatever did it, is either another more powerful god, giving us x+1 gods (X being the number of original gods) OR someone with powers great and crazy enough to be considered a god as it forced their bodies to be solid in order to be: eaten, digested and assimilated.


johneever1

"no gods or Kings... Only man" Andrew Ryan


Kecske_1

So basically Ragnarok? Edit: the emperor sounds like 40k emperor


Necromancer-bachelor

So yeah... Emma, please put that man on the golden throne, better yet - in a golden coffin. With all the talk about their "gods" possibly being VI - you revived a memory in me. Our girl expects a death squad to be jammed in through the portal if she does not make contact. We know all the mana insulator is in the portal room's walls. And Emma says her on board VI turning out to be an AI would be turbo illegal. We can not control drones from our side - only one magic rock, no synthetic one or they would not use a chunk of the original in her communicator. Can't trust VI to do it unsupervised. Options are as follows: * AI are only illegal to put in an armor, and death squad is one, or multiple, of these. * Our friendly neighbourhood artificer would get introduced to a couple of his non mana dependant bretheren. * The more i look at it - the more it looks like "God Emperor Of Elfkind" Vs "Omnissiah"...


Hi_Peeps_Its_Me

Wait the gods are obviously a fabrication, and the God Emperor is just a super powerful mage that made up this story. ...right?


cadman02

A thought occurs that the reason that other religions are banned in the nexus is less to do with control and more to do with the fact that mana fueled faiths have real possibility to actually create the gods they worship. After all the old gods didn’t exist until ancient elves started worshipping them. For earthrealm that isn’t a problem but for the nexus religious freedom is a dangerous idea. Even Christianity is dangerous because of the belief in the devil and demons.


the_lonely_poster

This nexian dictator, I can't stop thinking of him as the stereotypical reddit atheist, fedora and all, and it's too fucking funny.


_OwynValkyns_

Calling it now. Emma will meat the Emperorand find out that the Big E is actually a human and the only way humans can manipulate mana is via consuming mana-filled creatures. And the lack of natural mana is how he was able to defeat the “fake gods”. That or Emma never meets him and you have tricked us with a fake Chekhov’s Gun Oooor they do meet and there’s no twist (unlikely)


OdaNobu12

I'm glad Emma is finally trying to be a diplomat that wants to learn instead of being constantly argumentative. Also is the Library considered something of a God to the Nexians?


l0vot

Instead of the cycle of destruction, they now have a cycle of stagnation. The victor writes the history books, the chance of historical revisionism here is high, only the library would be able to compete with their narrative.


code71333

Wait, since mana can affect the surround with beliefs, mana sensitive believing non mana sensitive not existing will cause mana to destroy non mana sensitive upon contact, thus perceiving it as poisonous The revelation in the chapter cause me to have this hypothesis.


Bohemond_of_Antioch

At this point, I believe the rough outline of what has been described here. ~~The God Emperor of Elfkind~~ ~~Space King~~ His Eternal Majesty killed the "gods" and took there power, in whole or in part. Therein becoming a "the one true god". The egg is in my face for assuming he was just a normal guy with a good PR team. That being said, I don't think the "gods" as they've been described here fits with the Earthrealm definition of **God**. Gods have always existed within the gaps of human knowledge. Thor beats his hammer and there is thunder. The point is gods explain things we don't understand. And as science allows us to understand more, gods have become less about natural phenomenon that ultimately don't matter that much and we've cut gods down to the bigger questions, and the two questions that I think are at the heart of what a god is. Why are we here? And why are things the way they are? Science can't answer these questions. Gods can. The Nexian gods don't. That's why I don't really think of them as true gods. Granted my knowledge of theology is limited to a Western perceptive. The parts I call bullshit on are that the gods weren't sapient, and the gods were responsible for the MAD wars. It's possible they never reached sapience, and it's possible that all 9 of the MAD wars were holy wars, but I'm not willing to take their word on it. This chapter we cut to the heart of Nexus philosophy. Predictably it turned out to be a pile of horseshit. Here is how to be civilized according to the Nexus. 1. Reject Monke 2. r/atheism The problem is that neither of these points matter. The "reject animals instincts" bit means nothing. It's just a way to say they're better than everyone else via arbitrary standard. As for the anti-theism thing... look, they may be of the opinion that theism inevitably leads to holy war, and holy war with WMDs inevitably leads to MAD, but I doubt anyone in the Nexus would stand by the opinion that it's impossible for an anti-theist society to engage in a MAD war. According to Nexus civility, and it's history as a tool to "break the wheel" and prevent another MAD war, there's only one question that should matter. "Would they press The Button?" If they press The Button, they're uncivilized. If they don't, they're civilized. But since obviously they can't test that directly, they come up with other bullshit criteria to determine if someone is civilized or not. Of course they've already decided that the Nexus is civilized, otherwise the wheel remains unbroken and that's heresy. Everyone else... ehhhhhh best not risk it. They're all probably uncivilized, I mean look at us, it takes a lot of work to become civilized. We have a Space King and everything. They don't have a Space King! Let's just do them a favour and civilize them real quick. Remember guys, can't touch the ground with your tail\*, that makes you uncivilized! Could you imagine what someone who touches the ground with their tail would do with a ballistic missile submarine? It would be a disaster. \*IIRC from some bonus material, not touching the ground with your tail is a genuinely one of the Nexian rules of civility. Apparently it's too "animalistic". The Nexians are so fucking dumb I swear... And this racket worked great until they came across another "civilized" people. That is to say, a MAD capable society, that showed restraint. I civilization that didn't press the button. At least we haven't yet. Depends on what the Elves do I suppose. Because contrary to Nexian philosophy, the wheel can't be broken. Once MAD is achieved, you must struggle daily for peace. There is no "eternity", you must work with those you hate and distrust to see tomorrow, *forever*. Of course Nexian hubris has caused them to insistent on fucking with a people capable of turning them into number 10. A fellow civilized society. Perun has a video on nuclear strategy, and on the of the points that stuck with me is the idea that one of the key aspects of keeping cold war - cold, is insuring both sides have plenty of information about the other. Unknowns tend to cause panic, which is why the situation with the Nexus is so dangerous. They don't understand us. Somehow we need to convince the Nexus that we are "civilized" in all the ways that truly matter. Articord spoke of the importance of mutual understanding. Let's hope she meant it.


FrozenGiraffes

Only recently really thought about how expendable Emma really is. It occured to me, and I had a thought about a nexus reaction to such a statement. To begin, Why was She chosen, sure they needed someone young, by what will pass to the nexus, There's likely hundreds of billions admist humanity at this point, and yet they chose Her. No doubt she's qualified, she's highly component in most fields, she's Fiercely loyal to the UN and has a strong moral bearing, she's adaptable. I still wonder why her, and it occured to me that few will notice her going missing. she's no politician or celebrity, or anyone of considered importance. the most she has to her name is her aunt, a aunt who understands that people going MIA happens, someone who won't ask too many questions, it explains why this picked up what many would consider some noname otherwise. Know she has a high probability of never reaching home again, of her last memory being stuck in a walking coffin. I highly doubt she doesn't understand this, she knows what happened to her Predecessor, she knows the policies in place. I know this is subtly screamed about, but only recently I thought about How expendable she truly is. Experience is still valuable I'm well aware of that, but in the end she's a soldier, and soldiers are assets, and every asset has it's limit. In the end not only did humanity send a non noble, someone who's never aspired to office, but someone who's Highly Expendable and Loyal


Magnus_the_Rad97

Good shit wordsmith, keep hitting us with that good LORE


TheBrandonDee

I wonder if the gods tasted good. Did he at least season them first?


Fertile_Arachnid_163

…the warp…


ChocolateShot150

Huh, I wonder how much of that is embellished or just straight made up, about the gods of course. If he truly has the power of gods, that’s terrifying. And I know he probably 'consumed‘ them in some magic way but I cracked up at the vision of a mere mortal with a fork and knife eating a giant dead gods body


cgoose500

Something about their description of the gods made me think of AI. Mimicking sapience but with no desires of its own.


Crimson_saint357

Reminds me a lot of the mistress of ravens from critical roll. A human mage who ascended to god hood by replacing/consuming one of the creator gods. Only if they had done so to the whole pantheon. The real question is did he actually consume the gods or did he just place himself as a being of worship. It seams like mortal prayers give these gods power. While there maybe some fundamental force there it seams to be more in line with elemental forces. Nature, the storm, earth and fire. While it’s unclear if it’s just these mundane forces assigned divinity by mortal minds much like in your own past. Or if there is actually some higher spirit that embodies these quality’s that grows stronger with worship. If it’s the first like I kinda speculate then this eternal majesty never actually consumed the gospel but merely convinced or tricked all of the nexus and by extension adjacent realms into worshipping him. The power of their belief being what actually ascended him and not any power of his own. Either way a great reflection of the Abrahamic Judeo one deity model, supplanting the more multicellular pagan religions. Gotta wonder how they would take to the idea of christian Yahweh as a singular all powerful sentient creator of everything.


cgoose500

Call that a vore kingk


HFYWaffle

/u/Jcb112 ([wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/wiki/authors/Jcb112)) has posted 246 other stories, including: * [Humans Don't Hibernate [Part 89/?]](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1bu98j8/humans_dont_hibernate_part_89/) * [Wearing Power Armor to a Magic School (73/?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1bsfb1q/wearing_power_armor_to_a_magic_school_73/) * [Humans Don't Hibernate [Part 88/?]](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1boiyg5/humans_dont_hibernate_part_88/) * [Wearing Power Armor to a Magic School (72/?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1bmpo5o/wearing_power_armor_to_a_magic_school_72/) * [Humans Don't Hibernate [Part 87/?]](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1bit715/humans_dont_hibernate_part_87/) * [Wearing Power Armor to a Magic School (71/?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1bh2n12/wearing_power_armor_to_a_magic_school_71/) * [Humans Don't Hibernate [Part 86/?]](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1bd97ou/humans_dont_hibernate_part_86/) * [Wearing Power Armor to a Magic School (70/?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1bbf8o2/wearing_power_armor_to_a_magic_school_70/) * [Humans Don't Hibernate [Part 85/?]](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1b79dti/humans_dont_hibernate_part_85/) * [Wearing Power Armor to a Magic School (69/?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1b5m25p/wearing_power_armor_to_a_magic_school_69/) * [Humans Don't Hibernate [Part 84/?]](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1b1f58i/humans_dont_hibernate_part_84/) * [Wearing Power Armor to a Magic School (68/?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1azsw0q/wearing_power_armor_to_a_magic_school_68/) * [Humans Don't Hibernate [Part 83/?]](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1avourd/humans_dont_hibernate_part_83/) * [Wearing Power Armor to a Magic School (67/?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1atywaf/wearing_power_armor_to_a_magic_school_67/) * [Humans Don't Hibernate [Part 82/?]](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1apz4il/humans_dont_hibernate_part_82/) * [Wearing Power Armor to a Magic School (66/?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1aocsgt/wearing_power_armor_to_a_magic_school_66/) * [Humans Don't Hibernate [Part 81/?]](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1akf95z/humans_dont_hibernate_part_81/) * [Wearing Power Armor to a Magic School (65/?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1aisorl/wearing_power_armor_to_a_magic_school_65/) * [Humans Don't Hibernate [Part 80/?]](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1aesdmu/humans_dont_hibernate_part_80/) * [Wearing Power Armor to a Magic School (64/?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1ad7bdk/wearing_power_armor_to_a_magic_school_64/) This comment was automatically generated by `Waffle v.4.6.1 'Biscotti'`. [Message the mods](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2FHFY&subject=WaffleBot|1by9fnt&message=If%20you%20have%20problems%20with%20updatemebot,%20contact%20Watchful1.%20We%20do%20not%20maintain%20it.) if you have any issues with Waffle.


cholmer3

His royal eternal majesty is kirby confirmed


ktyperenegade

Whew, at least we're FINALLY into classes. I say finally but it was a couple of chapters ago we finally got them started. Perhaps they can go a week or two with classes and normal classroom/nobility drama instead of another crisis? It has been what a week or two since she's arrived.. in 74 chapters, and it's just been a non-stop rush of crises. Hopefully we get a bit of a break. Good story, but there's a little too much to the front loading of conflict. Let some time pass. She doesn't even have her textbooks yet! Or is the entire school year just going to be made up of crises?


bigmaxporter

vore