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.

On the Nature of Evil part 1; or The Reason for Treason

Okay, so my second Space Outlaws essay, and I kick off with a really heavy and hard subject: Bad guys!

In any adventure story, you need bad guys. Heck, you need bad guys (and girls), aka antagonists in any story. Otherwise, how can your hero/heroine show off their heroics?

So, of course the Space Outlaws have bad guys. It honestly have more bad guys (and girls) than goodies. Hereafter I will refer to them as antagonists and heroes, respectively.

The first ones the Space Outlaws encounter are the rather faceless Genestealers. These are your ordinary bug-monsters, with a bit of Ridley Scott's Alien thrown in. They are gribbly, clawed monstrosities with little reason or tactics. On an ice planet. In this first part, the Eds are greatly aided by the Sisters of Battle (who in my current opinion didn't show what they truly can do!) In short, the Genestealers were, and are, portrayed as dumb animals. Rather sad, in a way. They have greater potential and a short story featuring some 'Stealer hunting in the Armageddon underhives would make for intense reading. Maybe I should add that to Memories? Ah well...

The threat of Xeno species was upped a bit with the entry of the Kanker sisters possessed by the Hive Mind that controlled the bugs. Yet still, the Eds/Space Outlaws were only facing puppets, weren't they? And I felt this myself. These opponents weren't really worthy of what the Eds (and later Commissar Rolf Yarrick) were capable of taking on. Right?

Things took an interesting turn, in my own opinion, when the Eldar turned on the Imperials by thermo-bombing Saim'Hann and leaving the Secondus system without a word. This enigmatic behaviour is something I personally feel should be checked out further, and I probably will in future stories. The Eldar are jokers, in the sense that you never know exactly where you have them.

But the real antagonist is, and always will be (HammerFall reference W00t!), Lord Kevlinn, in all his incarnations. All in all, Kevlinn has four (4) incarnations: Captain Kevin Poole, Lord Kevlinn, Lord Kharn and Deamon Prince Kharn Fleshtearer. Strictly speaking, the last one is not Kevlinn himself, but the point is coming across, I think. He is the constant antagonist, the constant evil. He is opposed not only to the Space Outlaws but also to both Yarricks (Rolf and Sebastian) as well as McGranth and Charleston (not McKenzie, see further down) not to mention the Emperor and the whole of the Imperium. If the Space Outlaws where Star Wars he'd be Darth Vader. If it was Doctor Who, he'd be a combination of the Daleks and the Master. The BIG bad guy!
As such, he needs a well fleshed out character in the same manner of the heroes. And he has. Matter of fact, I think Kevlinn has grown more than Rolf Yarrick and the others combined. Why? He started out as a card-board villain (think Dr. Claw in Inspector Gadget) and has since gotten a depth I think few antagonists lack. He has a true "Reason for Treason". In short, this is based on his resentment of McGranth and his outlawhood. For yes, Kevlinn is a Space Outlaw too. He and his 8th Assault Company of the Death Angels Legion was outlawed after an incident unheard of in the history of the Death Angels Legion. They took the name the Berzerkers and the rest is, as they say, history. His treason culminated in the slaughter of Imperial refugees on Armageddon after they had raided an Eldar Craftworld to save said refugees. On that Craftworld, he acquired what came to be known as the Axe of Khorne, a powerful deamon weapon and he also stared down into the Well of Time, after having slain the Eldar Phoenix Lord residing with the Craftworld. Some would say that Kevin Poole lost his mind to the Well of Time, but as he still seems to have some grasp of tactics, maybe the opposite is true: maybe he is more clear-minded than ever?
Anyway, it was after this that Levin Poole became Lord Kevlinn and turned his back on the Throne and the Emperor.
All in all, Kevlinn's evil lies in his destructive power. He is powerful as an antagonist because he is a sort of personification of destruction. He doesn't build up anything. He corrupts it. This is all very dry, I know. But pulling an engaging character apart like this and looking at him, scrutinizing him, is a dry business.

Apart from Kevlinn, the other big antagonist was Metallix, the General of the Necrontyr. An army leader. Completely and utterly driven by one purpose: domination of the human species. And if that failed, he'd destroy them in the process. The Necrons, having a lot of the Dr. Who Cybermen about them, were his slaves, and the human species once had been. Metallix was a C'tan, a star child and demi-god. And he was not alone. His "side-kick" was the scientist, Damien. As both Damien and Metallix were designations that humans had applied to them, their true names remain a mystery. Just as the Emperor's true name is shrouded in mystery. He is referred to as Sorn'henai, which is Eldarain for Eagle Eye, and sometimes even as Sigismund, but his true name is unknown.
In pure power, Metallix came to measure up and surpass Kevlinn, at least in the latter's human form. As a deamon, Kharn/Kevlinn is still unsurpassed.

As I mentioned earlier, McKenzie's main antagonist is not Kevlinn. Instead, he has his own brother, George "grimjaw" McKenzie as his opponent. The reason these two don't get along is in the main because of George's jealousy of his mentally powerful as well as Space Marine brother. George was an ordinary man in almost every respect, except for his ability to understand mechanics. So, to be able to measure up to his big brother, George started to experiment on himself. Somewhere along that line, he lost his sanity. And killed his own family in an attempt to find a "cure" to the McKezie family curse of mutation.

So far I've talked about true antagonists, like Kevlinn, Metallix, and George McKenzie as well as the Kankers and touched the Eldar. But whereas these people are originally good ones turn really bad, what about those that never were good, like the Deamon princes? or those who strictly speaking still are good, but only have slighted our heroes? These last ones are of course minor characters, but they should be brought up to give a wholler picture, but they are the subject of next time.

Why next time? This blog entry is very long... :P