God of the Shallow and the Self
Busy finding an image right now. Will return at a later date.
God Concept: A god whose purpose is to give purpose its meaning. Yzechr told the sea to be malicious, to devoid the mortal the sense of self the further down they are into its deep abyss. Well, what is “self”? What is “malicious”? If a man casts no net and yet expects fish, is it malicious for the sea to give him nothing? And for what to define as mortal? Is every shortly lived a mortal? Is a mountain mortal? In order to be malicious, the sea must understand what is “malicious.” In order to comprehend “total annihilation”, it must first understand what is “total self.”
Hence Amut was created. A God to give the sea its meaning. He defined the shallow water, from which the depth may be inferred from. He defined the cleanse state, so that First Cepholopod can become entirely corrupted. He defined what is, so Cepholopod can define what is not.
Appearance: Amut the Black Whale, like its name implies, has the appearance of a gargantuan blue whale. Its skins are covered in scars. Its fins carried whale lice and barnacles. The length of precisely 3000 meters, and the width of precisely 1400 meters.
Motivation: There is no motivation.
It is crucial to remember that these are the Gods that the sea gave rise to in response to the directive of Yzechr. He told the seas to be malicious, to corrupt, to destroy the total sense of self through descent. Amut’s motivation is to provide that structure necessary for Yzechr’s directive to be followed.
He defined the surface of the sea, so others could understand what depth is. There are gradients of corruption, and Amut is the scale that provides meaningful distinction. He cleansed the sea from corruption. Not because he hates corruption, but to provide the necessary beginning. If the deepest part of the ocean is equally as corrupt as the surface part, then what descent to be inferred upon? If all are deprived from their sense of self, then what separates them from total annihilation? A being that possessed no “total-self” is not able to reach “total annihilation.”
There needs to be a “self” in order to comprehend “total annihilation.” There needs to be “beginning” to understand “the end.” His motivation, if one is to ascribe their own morality to a God, would be to maintain this clear distinction within the seas. Because without Amut, the seas could no longer follow the words of Yzechr.
And with these distinctions made, patterns are formed. Not many, but enough for life to take hold. Enough for sea critters to breed, live, hunt, and die. Enough for them to maintain a sense of self before venturing down into the deeper part of the water.
Roleplay Example:A Fish that Think:
It began with a simple question:
“Does the wave hate the sand when crashing into it?”
But how can the ocean hate, when it lacks the “self”? One would be a fool to ascribe hatred between a mace and a nail. And yet, there remains a cruelty ascribed to the system when one swings a hammer in a certain way. As if the way the muscle moved and how the metal’s scream permit a certain level of morality into its action. How could a hammer be a symbol for hardship and butcher of civilization, if itself possess nothing to understand the function pertain?
Malicious required intention of harm. And cruelty desired a participant to feel.
Yzechr’s oceans lacked both. The water does not possess a soul. It does not breed, nor eat, nor drink. It is simply a pool of water given a directive it could not understand. It moved because the winds that moved its surface liquid in a direction, not because itself possess the will to move. The currents are form by the warm waters displacing the colder one. Nothing of its "being"... There is no being, only an "it" that has a function.
A function to be "malicious"
But Amut is different.
It is the first inhabitant of the sea to think. It had borned, mated, and injured. It had given birth and in doing so, hunted others in order to sustain its other-self. It has given blood to nurture its young and sacrifice itself to protect its mate. For all senses and purpose, It was the first being of Yzechr’s ocean to comprehend “self”, to possess “self”, and the first prisoner to Yzechr’s directive.
It was able to understand “morality.”
And this makes the ocean whole. It now understands what is “malicious”, now that it was able to establish what “kindness” is.
Now, the ocean is a "being", with Amut as its participant.
Now, there is "malicious."
Three men walked along the shoreline of a dying lake. The trees here are covered in an unnatural layer of white, while skeletal remains of birds and mammals are perfectly preserved from the passing of time. A century ago, the only stream that leads the water to the sea was blocked. Now, after a century of salt accumulation, nothing lived here. By the side of a mummified whale, they set up camp and wait for the arrival of a god.
A god that goes by the name Amut, the Black atop the Waves. He is known to be an adversarial to the God beneath the Wave, First Cephalopod. To where he roamed, corruption cleansed. Where the water is stagnated, he opens them to new life. And unlike the First Cephalopod, who answered in meaningless and obtuse, Amut’s answer in the specific and bounded.
They didn’t wait for long. From the horizon, a white line slowly emerged, carrying a black shape upon its crest. The ground trembled as buried springs broke through the salted earth. Fresh water forced its way upward from aquifers buried deep beneath. The air quickly thickened with the scent of wet stone and living algae, mixed with the breeze of sea and salt. Salt cracked and sloughed from the shoreline like shedding skin as cracked earth began to mend. Amut, God of the Shallow and the Self, rose upon the wave. Where his shadow passed, currents aligned. Behind him, fishes of multiple shapes and colors followed, as if eager to find a new place to call home.
The three men quickly made for the hill to hide from the rushing waves. Once there, the men then shout their question - the purpose for their travel.
“Why does the ocean hate?” asked the philosopher. It is known by mortals that when the Ancient created the sea, he told it to be evil. And yet none knew why. What better question was there, but the purpose of oneself?
The Black Whale sang. “You perceive injustice done to the self. For hatred required intent, and the sea has none. Whatever was unjust, was done upon you or done against you. Only the drowned possessed the knowledge of drowning.”
“Then if you are so kind, why permit evil upon your faithful?” Ask the priest, who wore the robe of his cult.
“Who followed me, mistaken functionality for morality. Does an arrow have intent, when its purpose was to kill and maim? Or the intent remained with the hand that released it?” The whale responded, speaking in words of current time, so that all who listened could understand. And the zealot bowed his head in turn.
The last man was neither a scholar nor a zealot. He was simply a fisherman who had seen life bloom around the lake before it became inhospitable. He was there when a fishing village surrounded the lake. Ships used to leave early and return with heavy nets. He was there when the last boat returned to the harbor with empty holds.
He was simply a man who had lived more than his fair share of time.
And like any man of his time, he prayed to the Black Whale for its return to the lake. For the return of the fish. For the continuation of the village that had raised him. He chose to hold onto faith, while others moved to other villages and towns.
He was the last inhabitant of the village, a teller of what once was. He accompanied travelers and sightseers from faraway lands, but sought nothing beyond spending his final days on familiar ground.
And after fifty seasons, he asked his God.
“Why now?”
The Whale murmur, the sea breeze carrying its words as it left quickly as it arrived. The lake, once cut off from the sea, now reconnected through a new river. The lake was still its usual self, uninhabitable. For now at the very least. With the opening of the waterway, the salinity will decrease, permitting life to return to this lake.
But that is not now.
“Why ever?”
Availability: One or twice per week
Experience: Not the first time I wrote on this site.
