The Second Coming
Meeting of the Pantheon of the Teragen - February 2008
Orzaiz: Well, I believe that concludes our—
Divis Mal: All due apologies for my late arrival.
Mathematician: Divis …
Mal: Yes, hello. A pleasure to see you again. Most of you, anyway.
Mathematician: But …
Mal: Fortuitous, isn’t it, that I should emerge on the eve of this meeting? I did not know it then, but I must have felt your call, your need for guidance. The time is now, as they say …
Manus Aequitas: Pedro, it was his right to preside over this meeting! Why didn’t you tell us had emerged from Chrysalis?
Scripture: Because he did not know, Manus. Only I knew. But I understood his need for us to speak. To find our own voice for Mal to hear, cacophonous and befuddled as it is.
Mal: Spoken like one who knows truth uncommonly well. And that, beloved Jeremiah, is both a blessing and a curse as you well know. Calm yourself Manus, I have come at last. Not because the way is lost, but because the path is now clear. I look across this table at the Pantheon of the Teragen. Some Marvels, some Portents, some Monsters – but all of the One Race.
To date, you have wandered through the forest of uncertainty, novas drowning in a sea of mediocrity. Some run blindly, cower in the shadows and wait for night to devour them. Others, shackled by their perceptions, stagnate and become like the trees around them – tall, proud and potent, but unmoving, rooted in time, in understanding and in place. Destruction is but another birth. In the fires to come our numbers will diminish, but our strength will grow manifold. The world has yet to witness the One Race’s true potential. Some of you counsel war. Some of you counsel patience. Some of you counsel baseline genocide. Some of you counsel the establishment of a novarchy over the nulls.
And all of you are certain that you see the true way. And yet we know, don’t we, that this cannot be the case. I must confess some small disappointment at this situation.
Manus: Divis, we—
Mal: I asked for dragons and thunder and raging seraphim. And I get petty, unkind, backstabbing children who snivel and squall when they don’t get their way. I do not want sniveling, squalling children. I do not want toadies. I do not want worshippers. ‘What does he want?’ you ask. ‘Oh dear, scurry scurry scurry, what could it be what does he want? What does Divis Mal want?’
I want equals. You repay your teacher poorly if you remain always students. You think that it lies in the power, and it does not lie in the power. It lies in the understanding. It lies in the enlightenment. Of which only Jeremiah Scripture and the Solitaire appear to have attained any modicum. You are not the equals I have been waiting for. You are baselines with undeserved power and boorish, petty natures. When will you speak to the angels with me? WHEN?! Is this all riddles to you? I cannot speak in a language that you can comprehend. Perhaps, it isn’t meant to be. [Sigh] I am understating things when I say that this is not what I had hoped to find upon my emergence.
Sin-Eater: Mal, we-
Shrapnel: What would you have us do? Utopia is hurting now. The zips respect us again. To fight against the oppressors-
Mal: Sharp-tongued Shrapnel, I would have you turn your perceptions inward and seek what is godlike within yourself. I am getting tired of this role. I am a visionary, a warrior and a lover of life. But unlike my father, I do not enjoy the role of teacher.
Orzaiz: Divis, you know I am the first to recognize you for what you are, but before you left we were a young movement. I do not deny the fact that I still think the Null Manifesto jumped the gun, but now I understand why you did it. It brought us together. Before the Manifesto, before Colombia, I would never have envisioned a gathering like this at all…
Mal: This is why I am here, Raoul. This is a celebration, the glorious culmination of events that began years ago. I do not expect you to understand everything just yet, but let trust be the bridge that gets you across.
Orzaiz: And that’s the problem. You ask us to trust, and we do, but I foresee a slight problem here. The Teragen was once more than you and the Null Manifesto. It had no leader, no cohesiveness, and no hope for growth. But you’ve given us direction and solidarity. You are the heart of the Teragen, but you are also the linchpin that keeps us going. In your absence, we lose our focus. I fear that our direction and solidarity begin and end with you.
Manus: Mal IS Teras. He embodies our potential. Look at him! You each see him differently because he is what we have to become! You want the Teragen to part from Mal, Orzaiz? We are NOTHING without Mal. You know it. Everyone does. Mal, are you going to sit and let a monkey like Orzaiz talk like this?
Mal: Of course I am, my brother. Because he is right. You are my children, but to become my equals I must let you grow beyond me. You have blossomed magnificently. For the nonce, all that you need from me is my presence and my words. The time for trimming and channeling is yet to come.
But our adversaries move against us, and we come to a crossroads. The gyre is widening, the world spins on, and soon we will outgrow our role as slaves and problem solvers. The baselines will, in time, feel they have no choice but to strike at us. The essence of our future is struggle. And neither the sensual sweetness of Narcosis nor the grasping tentacle of the Kraken will avert this. The Null Manifesto was their first warning, a warning that has been ignored or grievously misunderstood. My intervention in Colombia was their second, and yet the nulls persist in their oppression, as I knew they would. And the good Hand of Justice provided a third warning at Bahrain. And this too has produced only fear and more violence. We Terats must demonstrate to all, nova and baseline alike, the path our race must take.
We start with Utopia.
Members of the so-called Dominion, you have my blessing to carry on. Create a promised land. Be my terrible angels, and deliver my wrath to those showing insufficient respect to the One Race. Seek out the missing Geryon, if you can, for in his durance he has surely learned much of Nature and Control, much that he can teach to others. You are our strength, the Harvesters of our future. In time, it will fall to you to reap what we have sown. And know this: it is better to be a monster to be a slave, but it is far better to be a god than a monster. Monsters can only destroy, while gods can destroy and create. Do not so worship the monster in yourselves that you misplace the seeds of your godhood. It would be a shame to miss your apotheosis.
Gravitas, Pedro, Raoul and Kraken, and others who would live among the baselines: take care in your next actions. Take care that your Accord with the nulls remains strong, for it will be their last defense against my judgment. Build a body of law for our people, if you must, but do not mistake the laws of baselines for the celestial laws of the One Race.
Raoul, continue to be the sharp point of the wedge. Get them accustomed to honoring us. Walk among them, charm them with wit and humor, and allay their most ludicrous of fears.
Narcosis, sweet, sensuous Narcosis, telegenic angel, misunderstood and ridiculed. Take my message to the masses. Have them worship you and, through you, me. Make them love the One Race more than they love their own, and the battle will be won before it even commences.
Hell Kraken, continue to make yourself a baron of their industry. Build them toys and tools, and let them labor on your behalf. Let them feel secure with their weapons, comforted in the belief that such slings and arrows have meaning before a god. If Raoul cannot assuage their fears and Narcosis cannot win their love, than their reliance on you will make them weak.
Solitaire, you are as constant as the North Star, and the guardian angel of the lost. Let your Houses shepherd the One Race to safety. You are my sword, and understand me best. Listen for the word, and be ready when it comes.
And you, Manus Aequitas, shall be the shield of the One Race. Its Champion against oppression and my Prophet upon the Earth. Judge not in swiftness, and give the Accord time to realize that their experiment must end in vain.
Jeremiah, Sin-Eater, Leviathan, it is to you and your Sanctified that others come for guidance. Give it freely, but know that I am back. Know that I will be there, watching you from above, and that you may make the pilgrimage to meet me if you find yourself in need of further guidance.
Leviathan: In the sky?
Mal: No, young Leviathan. Upon the moon. Were I too near, this Pantheon would rely upon me when it should be focused upon its own apotheosis. Were I too far, the baselines would become emboldened and believe themselves capable of oppressing with impunity. Upon the moon, I shall contemplate the song of the stars and be able to visit the earth whenever I wish. And all the world will know that their Angel of Destruction looms near.
Today, we are all brothers and sisters, novas and fellow Terats. Tomorrow a new day dawns. Those who do not have the conviction will fall as victims. There will come a time when sacrifices are needed. Only the selfish will hide. Some among you have forgotten what Teras truly means and where it leads. You now have a chance to find your way back onto the path. If you do not, you will lose more than your way.
No one masters the One Race. Those who betray the movement or falter in their faith have no place among us. Look around, to the Terat before you, to the Terat beside you and to the Terat wihin you. Know that in the years to come, friends will become foes, foes allies and the Teragen stronger for it.
This is the essence of Teras: the strong must prevail, the wise muse preside, and the enlightened must guide us onward.
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OOC: I've modified the speech from page 80-82 of the Teragen book to fit our canon.
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:55, Mon 16 Sept 2013.