Lucifer and the Personae
Mar. 30th, 2011 02:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
unrecumbentSo Lloyd and Lucifer have been having this back-and-forth about the personae for some time now, and something Lloyd said in this post made me realize that there are some really special things Lucifer is doing in his miiiiind regarding the personae.
Lucifer knows certain facts about himself that influence his perspective on the personae. He is aware that he is (was) the lord of Hell, that he is really, really powerful, that he has been around since before time, that he participated in Creation, and that he has a deep sense of responsible possessiveness toward his Creation. (what he doesn't know is that the Creation Death is talking about in one memory and the Creation he is trying to protect from the Basanos are two different Creations, but hey.) He has the built-in Samael perspective--being God's Will isn't something that just goes away because he doesn't remember it and isn't seated in his power, it's literally what he is. He now also has a more complete memory of the House of Windowless Rooms, which is Izanami's hell, and in which he isn't waving his power-cock around. (At that point he doesn't have any real particular power-cock to be waving (hur hur), but even if he did, he wouldn't have been.) It is important to note that HoWR is Izanami's creation, her seat of power, and within it, he is following and subject to her rules, even though her hell is only a teensy comparative corner as hells go, and she's an old, non-dominant-but-still-existing-god. He also remembers her children, who are also gods, but who are much, much weaker than Izanami herself. It is their home, they are gods, but it is not their seat of power.
So. Two different kinds of gods. One has god-like power, the other is a Maker, who is responsible for a Creation. In Aather, Lucifer considers himself a Maker outside of his Creation. What's the significant difference? Somewhat a level of power, but mostly a level of perspective. When one has Created something, one has a very different perspective on it than if one is just tromping around in it, even if one is very powerful. As Lucifer sees it, Beauty brought the knights and heroes in to restore Aather because it is hers and she wants it fixed. The fact that the process stole them from their own lives and removed their memories and abilities means to him that she is all right with stripping them of self. This means that they are tools to her. He doesn't have a problem with that on an intrinsic level--manipulation to achieve your own greater ends is okay with him, as long as it's done properly. But her handwringing loses legitimacy in his eyes because she's already done the horrible thing, and is failing to follow through to achieve her ends. This is part of why he has such an issue with her. But the sum of it is that his perspective is that of course a Maker isn't going to approach them as individuals--the individual is important, but focus in general is on responsibility to the whole.
A thing he has been doing lately is poking lightly to see if the personae know who he really is. He is assuming that Beauty must, since she brought him there, but he has so far gotten the idea that the rest don't. Between that and the fact that it's Beauty (and now also Mal) who are bringing people in and who the rest of the personae seem to more-or-less defer to/be intimidated by, Lucifer has made the assumption that Beauty and Mal are different than the other personae. He is assuming that they are not just possessing of godlike power, but that they are Makers--that Aather is their Creation. He has no problem with the concept of Beauty being 'good' and Mal being 'evil' or the idea of dual Makers, because of how the Creation story was explained to him in his memory (Yahweh made Samael and Michael, Samael and Michael shaped Creation).
There are several reasons he isn't properly articulating this. One, he thinks it's obvious that Beauty and Mal are different than the other personae. Two, he is reluctant to explain who and what he is, because he's fairly sure it'll end up being really tiresome. Three, he is conflating power and perspective. It would be really helpful for him to get Elaine's Yahweh Dance back as a memory, because it highlights the perspective change. Part of the reason he doesn't want to explain himself is because it getting out that he's Satan/a demon/Lord of Hell/whatever is likely to be annoying, the other part is that it really changes the power dynamic between both him and everyone else and the personae and everyone else if Beauty just up and snatched a Maker, wiped his memory, stole his powers, and dumped him in with everyone else.
I mentioned somewhere that this is what is very likely an epic misconception that will keep Lucifer chill in Aather indefinitely. This is because he will naturally follow the constraints of what essentially amounts to inter-god politeness regarding the use of godpower in other people's houses. He doesn't, as a rule, go swinging his power-cock around unless someone pushes his buttons, and is actually kind of surprisingly accommodating on that account even when it would be faster and easier for him to just godmode his way through. This pretty much applies to dealing with other gods, though. So as long as he thinks that Beauty and Mal are Aather's Makers, he will be more or less respectful of their house and their toys. (I personally suspect that they are more like the bickering little daughters of Aather's Makers that accidentally burnt the house down while their parents were out.)
Lucifer knows certain facts about himself that influence his perspective on the personae. He is aware that he is (was) the lord of Hell, that he is really, really powerful, that he has been around since before time, that he participated in Creation, and that he has a deep sense of responsible possessiveness toward his Creation. (what he doesn't know is that the Creation Death is talking about in one memory and the Creation he is trying to protect from the Basanos are two different Creations, but hey.) He has the built-in Samael perspective--being God's Will isn't something that just goes away because he doesn't remember it and isn't seated in his power, it's literally what he is. He now also has a more complete memory of the House of Windowless Rooms, which is Izanami's hell, and in which he isn't waving his power-cock around. (At that point he doesn't have any real particular power-cock to be waving (hur hur), but even if he did, he wouldn't have been.) It is important to note that HoWR is Izanami's creation, her seat of power, and within it, he is following and subject to her rules, even though her hell is only a teensy comparative corner as hells go, and she's an old, non-dominant-but-still-existing-god. He also remembers her children, who are also gods, but who are much, much weaker than Izanami herself. It is their home, they are gods, but it is not their seat of power.
So. Two different kinds of gods. One has god-like power, the other is a Maker, who is responsible for a Creation. In Aather, Lucifer considers himself a Maker outside of his Creation. What's the significant difference? Somewhat a level of power, but mostly a level of perspective. When one has Created something, one has a very different perspective on it than if one is just tromping around in it, even if one is very powerful. As Lucifer sees it, Beauty brought the knights and heroes in to restore Aather because it is hers and she wants it fixed. The fact that the process stole them from their own lives and removed their memories and abilities means to him that she is all right with stripping them of self. This means that they are tools to her. He doesn't have a problem with that on an intrinsic level--manipulation to achieve your own greater ends is okay with him, as long as it's done properly. But her handwringing loses legitimacy in his eyes because she's already done the horrible thing, and is failing to follow through to achieve her ends. This is part of why he has such an issue with her. But the sum of it is that his perspective is that of course a Maker isn't going to approach them as individuals--the individual is important, but focus in general is on responsibility to the whole.
A thing he has been doing lately is poking lightly to see if the personae know who he really is. He is assuming that Beauty must, since she brought him there, but he has so far gotten the idea that the rest don't. Between that and the fact that it's Beauty (and now also Mal) who are bringing people in and who the rest of the personae seem to more-or-less defer to/be intimidated by, Lucifer has made the assumption that Beauty and Mal are different than the other personae. He is assuming that they are not just possessing of godlike power, but that they are Makers--that Aather is their Creation. He has no problem with the concept of Beauty being 'good' and Mal being 'evil' or the idea of dual Makers, because of how the Creation story was explained to him in his memory (Yahweh made Samael and Michael, Samael and Michael shaped Creation).
There are several reasons he isn't properly articulating this. One, he thinks it's obvious that Beauty and Mal are different than the other personae. Two, he is reluctant to explain who and what he is, because he's fairly sure it'll end up being really tiresome. Three, he is conflating power and perspective. It would be really helpful for him to get Elaine's Yahweh Dance back as a memory, because it highlights the perspective change. Part of the reason he doesn't want to explain himself is because it getting out that he's Satan/a demon/Lord of Hell/whatever is likely to be annoying, the other part is that it really changes the power dynamic between both him and everyone else and the personae and everyone else if Beauty just up and snatched a Maker, wiped his memory, stole his powers, and dumped him in with everyone else.
I mentioned somewhere that this is what is very likely an epic misconception that will keep Lucifer chill in Aather indefinitely. This is because he will naturally follow the constraints of what essentially amounts to inter-god politeness regarding the use of godpower in other people's houses. He doesn't, as a rule, go swinging his power-cock around unless someone pushes his buttons, and is actually kind of surprisingly accommodating on that account even when it would be faster and easier for him to just godmode his way through. This pretty much applies to dealing with other gods, though. So as long as he thinks that Beauty and Mal are Aather's Makers, he will be more or less respectful of their house and their toys. (I personally suspect that they are more like the bickering little daughters of Aather's Makers that accidentally burnt the house down while their parents were out.)