Last time, I know I promised to put something about Space Outlaws and politics up, but I won't. As I mentioned deamons and their possessing humans to achieve some goal in the last post, and as a comment on a post over at my main blog, Valkyrie Diaries, this forced me to think about why the deamons, and more specifically why the Chaos Gods do what they do.
In the stories about the Space Outlaws, this is never mentioned, more or less on the premise that it has little to no bearing on the goals of the protagonists. To sum up, all the Eds and the others needs to know is that deamons have fed on human minds for as long as Humanity has existed and it is their duty to kill the Immaterial beasties for the betterment of Mankind.
To be able to understand where I want to go with this, we have to know a little about the nature of deamons and the place where they come from: the Warp aka the Immaterium.
As the Space Outlaws is a semi-cross-over involving the Ed, Edd n Eddy show's characters and the "physics engine" of Warhammer 40'000, this means that most things in WH40k translate more or less directly over to the Space Outlaw universe. That which doesn't, gets tweaked to fit. This is the case with the origins of deamons, but not their nature.
In Wh40K, as well as in the Space Outlaws, deamons feed of human emotion, or more specifically, our dreams. And it is not only humans, it is any self-sentient creature, essentially. Self-sentient creatures, such as humans (and I'll use us as example in the rest of the essay), are multi-dimensional, or at least weakly so. Through our dreams and emotions, we enter another plane of existence, essentially. The Eldar, for example, have better control over this and can practically enter this dream-world through their own will.
This dream-world, known amongst humans as the Warp, is home to other, immaterial, but just as sentient creatures, deamons. Deamons feed of dreams and emotions, as said, but they are essentially gluttons, and will suck onto a particularly "strong" human presence and devour it all if given the chance. The bi-product of this is possession of a human mind, usually a psyker, as they are naturally strong presences in the Warp. The end result is that the human "soul" or personality is replaced with that of the deamon, which gains a material form which it can use and abuse as it pleases, the human mind gone.
And as deamons are immaterial creatures, they cannot comprehend the laws of physics (and anatomy) that hold the Materium's living creatures together, and rampant mutation is the result.
Now, this explains the why to deamons. They are not inherently evil, nothing in the Space Outlaw universe is actually, but from a human perspective, and a humanity slowly but surely becoming more "psychically aware", this is a danger to our very existence, hence the Imperial Inquisition's hate of renegade psykers and it's hunt for the same.
The origins of deamons and consequently the Chaos Gods can be traced back to a time when pretty much teh C'tan were the only sentient creatures in the Universe.
The C'tan are referred to as Star Gods at times in Wh40k. They aren't multi-dimensional like humans and Eldar in WH40k; they are purely Material. They get their names from essentially being sentient light, fly in the face of most established physics. I say most, there might be a possibility of this if string theory is to be believed.
Anyway, the Wh40k definition of C'tan does NOT apply to the Space Outlaw universe. In the Space Outlaws, the C'tan are multi-dimensional, self-aware creatures just like humans and Eldar, which they created. They are a species of master genetic engineers. And after having engineered themselves into immortality and multi-dimensional awareness, they set about making slave species to serve them, to cut a long story short.
Somewhere along the line, but before the creation of the Eldar (no I do NOT support Creationism, this is to be seen as a satire on it), four C'tan brothers, known as the Warrior, the Architect, the Destroyer and the Libertine, attained a fairly high level of multi-dimensional awareness, a level that made them potentially dangerous to the rest of C'tan society.
The other C'tan punished them for this perceived crime (being more powerful than any one else) by robbing them of their material bodies and banishing them to the Immaterial Realm that they coveted so much, forever.
Of course, the four wanted back to material world, and have wanted that since day one. But the only hosts fitting for their minds are other C'tan, and since other C'tan are aware of the four brothers, they had no other choice than to try to adapt to their new home.
As Jean-Paul Sarte once said, "Hell is spending an eternity in the company of your friends", the brothers soon started to hate each other, each one manifesting perversions of their major character traits, in what can be called a severe case of prison psychosis.
As they still were aware, and still C'tan, they started, with the onset of new, but "lesser" sentient beings in the Material Realm, to create creatures in the Immaterium to correspond with those in the Materium, like a twisted mirror. These creature were what is called deamons in the Space Outlaws.
Also, the names of the four brothers; Khorne, Tzeentch, Nurgle and Slaanesh, are most likely perversions over the years of their original C'tan names. But the names are old, very old. Older than the oldest of Eldar records of history.
This history/theory also explains why the Emperor, being C'tan, can resist deamonic possession, quite neatly.
I hope this has cleared up something as to the nature of Deamons and Chaos gods.
Next time, it'll be politics and the Space Outlaws. We'll also take a trip down memory lane and go back to explore sci-fi baddies and the stereotypes involved in this.
Wednesday 20 August 2008
Saturday 2 February 2008
One the Nature of Evil part 2
(Okay, that took me three months to finish. Shame on me for being sloppy.)
So far, I have mainly dealt with "The enemy beyond and the enemy without", that is to say deamons and aliens. But the Imperium of Mankind harbours many dark secrets within itself.
A good example are the traitors. True, in the Space Outlaws, these are quite few, but if you look at it, the main antagonist, Lord Kevlinn, is a traitor. He was once a loyal Space Marine and is now the unholy King of Berzerkers. How he became what he is I have already dealt with. But there are others, more minor traitors and heretics, the dreaded "enemy within" which the Imperial Inquisition is forever at war with.
As has been recorded at several places in the stories, the main strength of humanity is its ability to adapt and its free will, which the Imperial Scholars claim sets humanity apart from most of the alien species and the deamons of the Warp.
This strength is of course a weakness too. By being able to go wherever they please with their minds, humans leave themselves open to the whispers of the Warp-beings. It is quite a roundabout, but by possessing the one thing deamons lack; free will, humans can easily become prey to deamons. Which nicely illustrates the very nature of the Space Outlaw universe and why it at times comes across as so dark and bleak.
So how do deamons lure otherwise true and loyal humans over to the "dark side"? By that most human of emotions: greed. Many are those, even in the Space Outlaw universe, where deamonic possession is a very real thing indeed, who cannot resist the promise of power, be it personal or political power. Deamons usually go in for a combination of both, as this is the easiest way of baiting as many humans as possible.
And once they have baited on weak-willed heretic, more are sure to follow as the word spread.
Heretics as such are, perhaps mercifully, quite few, in relation to how many citizens there are in the Imperium, but they are good at organising themselves and thus pose a very real threat. In terms of how they appear in the Space Outlaws, so far, the deamonically possessed heretics have been minor characters with close to little impact on the story line or they have only been mentioned fleetingly. Why this is, I cannot really say; maybe because I do not wish to take the focus from the major heretic and traitor Kevlinn.
And speaking of traitors: there have been a few, haven't there? Commissar Holt, Governor von Strab and George McKenzie to name a few. What sets these out from your ordinary heretics? Well, a traitor does not necessarily have to resent the Emperor. In the case of heretics, it is sort of a pre-requisite. Both Holt and von Strab can be branded as traitors on the premise that they put personal power and goals over the goals of the Imperium. George McKenzie lost his mind dabbling with bio-technology and trying to improve the human species. But he never really turned from the Emperor's light. His brother Edward would probably say he never was in it. Maybe so.
So, what is evil then? How do we define evil? How do they define evil in the Imperium? Yes, there is a difference. Surprised? It is rather alarming if you are, at the same time that it is reassuring.
Evil as we define it, and as I perceive it, is when we hurt other people. Not necessarily physically. There are many ways to hurt people. Thusly, it is also evil when we hurt people even when we try to do good.
Not so in the Imperium: there the ends justify the means. Always. This means that Edward McKenzie, although being a Hero of the Imperium in every way, can justify to kill hundreds of unsanctioned psykers and mutants if he finds that it works for the betterment of the Imperium. This is why Commissar Rolf Yarrick can shoot cowardly troopers with no qualms (although he did not do that much even in Tracks of the Wolf) as it works as deterrent for the other soldiers.
A normal human being of Earth, that is us, would consider these people cold-hearted at best. So it is quite clear that we have a different set of moral values from the Imperials. Yet still, in the stories, I have to make these people come across as likeable, for no other reason than that they are the heroes of the show.
And they do come across as heroes. Why? Because the only prerequisite is that you as a reader accept the moral and ethical moors and manners of the Imperium as the norm to judge these people by. It is the famous "suspension of disbelief" that is so often talked about in Science Fiction and Fantasy literature, the former to which the Space Outlaws belong quite clearly.
If you feel a bit put out having been so horribly fooled by my writing this, consider why you feel irked by it before replying or formulating a scalding message. Is it because of me being a tricky vixen or that you didn't see it coming and thus are angry with yourself, when it comes down to it.
What I want to put across is simply that Good and Evil are no absolutes. To my younger readers, this might be an extremely hard concept to grasp at first, but you will understand it in time. If nothing else, it will make you all aware that there are always several angles of lighting to view the truth in.
And speaking of that, next time, I'll be talking about the Outlaw universe and politics. That is going to be a blast.
So far, I have mainly dealt with "The enemy beyond and the enemy without", that is to say deamons and aliens. But the Imperium of Mankind harbours many dark secrets within itself.
A good example are the traitors. True, in the Space Outlaws, these are quite few, but if you look at it, the main antagonist, Lord Kevlinn, is a traitor. He was once a loyal Space Marine and is now the unholy King of Berzerkers. How he became what he is I have already dealt with. But there are others, more minor traitors and heretics, the dreaded "enemy within" which the Imperial Inquisition is forever at war with.
As has been recorded at several places in the stories, the main strength of humanity is its ability to adapt and its free will, which the Imperial Scholars claim sets humanity apart from most of the alien species and the deamons of the Warp.
This strength is of course a weakness too. By being able to go wherever they please with their minds, humans leave themselves open to the whispers of the Warp-beings. It is quite a roundabout, but by possessing the one thing deamons lack; free will, humans can easily become prey to deamons. Which nicely illustrates the very nature of the Space Outlaw universe and why it at times comes across as so dark and bleak.
So how do deamons lure otherwise true and loyal humans over to the "dark side"? By that most human of emotions: greed. Many are those, even in the Space Outlaw universe, where deamonic possession is a very real thing indeed, who cannot resist the promise of power, be it personal or political power. Deamons usually go in for a combination of both, as this is the easiest way of baiting as many humans as possible.
And once they have baited on weak-willed heretic, more are sure to follow as the word spread.
Heretics as such are, perhaps mercifully, quite few, in relation to how many citizens there are in the Imperium, but they are good at organising themselves and thus pose a very real threat. In terms of how they appear in the Space Outlaws, so far, the deamonically possessed heretics have been minor characters with close to little impact on the story line or they have only been mentioned fleetingly. Why this is, I cannot really say; maybe because I do not wish to take the focus from the major heretic and traitor Kevlinn.
And speaking of traitors: there have been a few, haven't there? Commissar Holt, Governor von Strab and George McKenzie to name a few. What sets these out from your ordinary heretics? Well, a traitor does not necessarily have to resent the Emperor. In the case of heretics, it is sort of a pre-requisite. Both Holt and von Strab can be branded as traitors on the premise that they put personal power and goals over the goals of the Imperium. George McKenzie lost his mind dabbling with bio-technology and trying to improve the human species. But he never really turned from the Emperor's light. His brother Edward would probably say he never was in it. Maybe so.
So, what is evil then? How do we define evil? How do they define evil in the Imperium? Yes, there is a difference. Surprised? It is rather alarming if you are, at the same time that it is reassuring.
Evil as we define it, and as I perceive it, is when we hurt other people. Not necessarily physically. There are many ways to hurt people. Thusly, it is also evil when we hurt people even when we try to do good.
Not so in the Imperium: there the ends justify the means. Always. This means that Edward McKenzie, although being a Hero of the Imperium in every way, can justify to kill hundreds of unsanctioned psykers and mutants if he finds that it works for the betterment of the Imperium. This is why Commissar Rolf Yarrick can shoot cowardly troopers with no qualms (although he did not do that much even in Tracks of the Wolf) as it works as deterrent for the other soldiers.
A normal human being of Earth, that is us, would consider these people cold-hearted at best. So it is quite clear that we have a different set of moral values from the Imperials. Yet still, in the stories, I have to make these people come across as likeable, for no other reason than that they are the heroes of the show.
And they do come across as heroes. Why? Because the only prerequisite is that you as a reader accept the moral and ethical moors and manners of the Imperium as the norm to judge these people by. It is the famous "suspension of disbelief" that is so often talked about in Science Fiction and Fantasy literature, the former to which the Space Outlaws belong quite clearly.
If you feel a bit put out having been so horribly fooled by my writing this, consider why you feel irked by it before replying or formulating a scalding message. Is it because of me being a tricky vixen or that you didn't see it coming and thus are angry with yourself, when it comes down to it.
What I want to put across is simply that Good and Evil are no absolutes. To my younger readers, this might be an extremely hard concept to grasp at first, but you will understand it in time. If nothing else, it will make you all aware that there are always several angles of lighting to view the truth in.
And speaking of that, next time, I'll be talking about the Outlaw universe and politics. That is going to be a blast.
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