-Overflow- for 24 - Autumn Reception

[godsoffortune]

Who: Everyone!
What: Autumn Reception
When: September 30, 6 PM
Where: The Gods' Meeting Hall
Summary: The Heavens are throwing a formal party! Old and new gods alike are invited, so put on your nicest outfits and some good dancing shoes, and come see what this shindig is all about.

Continuing from HERE!

Comments

[revolutionfalcon]

Is that what choosing them means in your world? [From what Shun's heard from her before, her world seems to align in vague points with Norse mythology, but he might as well ask for the confirmation since there's enough differences that he can't be sure.]

[nibelungvalesti]

Those I choose become Einherjar, and once I have trained them adequately, I send them to Vahalla to become gods. [True and literal gods, in all senses of the word, if perhaps weaker ones than the natural Aesir.]

[revolutionfalcon]

[That gets a faint snort out of Shun, though there's no humour in it.] So basically what's going on here, but with more steps.

[He can't imagine everyone here would want to be gods in death any more than they do right now. Some people just don't really consider themselves fitting for the role, chosen or not.]

[nibelungvalesti]

There are certain parallels. If shinki became gods as a matter of established course, it would be remarkably similar.

[Why would anyone not wish to be a god? Besides, whether or not they consider themselves fitting is irrelevant: it is the gods' purview, manifested in the Valkyrie, to decide worth.]

[revolutionfalcon]

But it only happens randomly. [So that's certainly not something to rely on. Still, he remains somewhat unimpressed.] It's the kind of ascension plenty would be ready to turn down, anyway, if this place is any sign.

[A good chunk of them don't want to be here, or serve their role only out of obligation to innocents rather than to the Heavens.]

[nibelungvalesti]

The act of losing memories on becoming a shinki is a painful and unnecessary complication. [She shakes her head, utterly unhesitating to scorn the way of this world.] I understand its reasoning, but I believe no one can argue that it costs less than it gains.

[revolutionfalcon]

I don't think anyone would argue with you about that part. But I meant that most of the gods here don't want to be gods.

[He's straightforward about it, because that's the general attitude he's gotten out of his time here - either they don't want to be gods, don't think they're worthy to be gods, or aren't to be trusted in a position of power.]

[nibelungvalesti]

[The slight pause speaks volumes. The Valkyrie requires her composure to respond to his point.]

The 'gods' here have been given the name of gods and certain powers and abilities to go along with that. It is much the same as naming someone a knight and giving them a sword. Their inner nature is no different.

They have not become gods. They are not gods. Their flesh remains mortal, their essence physical. They have not die, been Chosen, been trained, or been ascended.

[revolutionfalcon]

[Composure or not, Shun looks derisive of the notion almost as soon as she starts speaking.]

Do you think extra steps are going to change anything? If someone doesn't want to be a god in life, waiting until they're dead and telling them they're chosen isn't going to do a damn thing, and neither is training someone who doesn't want to be trained.

[It probably helps that Shun doesn't buy into the idea that gods and humans are inherently different, considering the "true gods" here really aren't giving the mantle a good name.]

[nibelungvalesti]

[That is an understandable perspective, but a difficult one to argue when the Valkyrie exists in a fundamentally different fashion from a human. Nowhere is this more apparent than the Near Shore, where she must physically manifest a body from divine energy to interact with anything there. Knowing that is a prime reason she can confidently state the difference.]

Most certainly it does. Everyone who fights has a reason for fighting.

[revolutionfalcon]

A lot of people who have a reason for fighting aren't fond of being told what they should do with it from on high. [He himself basically lost his faith in any kind of higher power before coming here as a result of what he had to fight for with his own two hands. If he'd died in the struggle and some god came down to tell him he was chosen now, he'd be more tempted to beat their ass back to wherever they came from.]

[nibelungvalesti]

Do you truly believe that is so? I do not tell people why to fight. I show them where someone must fight. [From that point, the reasons usually handle themselves, in her experience.]

[revolutionfalcon]

It depends on why you think it is they "must" fight there. Not everyone would agree. [Regardless of other factors, all beings have some kind of bias. The old gods here have proved, if nothing else, that gods aren't beyond that.]

[nibelungvalesti]

Preventing the end of the world is usually a good motivation. Whatever people fight for, it tends to rely on a world existing for those fights to have any meaning. And Ragnarok is inevitable.

[revolutionfalcon]

So you're asking them to prevent something you say is inevitable. [He puts that in a somewhat dry tone, because he imagines the very concept of an impending doom that's inevitable would be enough to have many people turning that position down.]

[nibelungvalesti]

[His comment elicits the faint confusion from her that is the Valkyrie's equivalent of great surprise.]

Ragnarok cannot be prevented. But it can be won.

[revolutionfalcon]

And how many people die anyway in the crossfire? [There's some bitterness from Shun at that. A conflict that can't be prevented, but only won doesn't sit right with him given his history, and he can't imagine he'd be the only one.]

[nibelungvalesti]

...Ideally, none. If the Aesir are strong enough to contain the Vanir and their Jotun allies, it is likely Midgard would know nothing of the battle. Should we fail, however...

[revolutionfalcon]

Then people start dying. [Shun doesn't know a great deal about Ragnarok, but even if he might have the end of the world in the general sense wrong, it certainly sounds like losing it means that end.]

[nibelungvalesti]

To put it mildly. Existence ends. Creation collapses. People cease existing.

[Very few people consider that a goal not worth fighting to prevent.]

[revolutionfalcon]

So people would want to fight. But not necessarily as gods.

[Because the root of the problem was, really, that not everyone is going to want to be "ascended" after their death, regardless of training.]

[nibelungvalesti]

Be that as it may, they have no other options. As we are discussing dead people, either they ascend to Valhalla to live and eventually fight as gods, or I remit them to Hel's domain, where they can do naught but wait, powerless.

[revolutionfalcon]

Then it sounds like whoever started that system cares more about appearances than actually winning.

[Like a certain other Heaven he can think of. He might not be versed in matters of heavenly bureaucracy from his world, but he's starting to pick up a pattern here.]

[nibelungvalesti]

Perhaps in a more ideal world, the Aesir and Vanir would never have been opposed to begin with. [She does not shrug, but her tone means she doesn't really need to. The point is academic.]

[revolutionfalcon]

No world is ideal. [Shun's already reconciled himself with that, so he does shrug at the notion.

He's been in one place a bit too long here, though, and he's not particularly fond of that in a crowd like this, so he starts to turn away now that it seems they've come to some kind of consensus.]

I've got more old gods to keep an eye on. [Or an ear on, particularly.]