Sword of Moonlight > Beginner and other Nonsense

The elusive/illusive ones (Seath & Guyra?)

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Holey Moley:
I came across a more succinct expression of this dichotomy:

“Art is a lie that makes us realize truth”.

This is from a long article on Kill Screen intoning the virtues of "low-poly" (http://killscreendaily.com/articles/poly-generational/)

The words are Pablo Picasso's:


--- Quote from: http://www.gallerywalk.org/PM_Picasso.html ---From Picasso: Fifty Years of His Art by Alfred H. Barr Jr., published for The Museum of Modern Art by Arno Press, New York, 1980.

The following [excerpted] statement was made in Spanish to Marius de Zayas. Picasso approved de Zayas' manuscript before it was translated into English and published in The Arts (New York, May 1923) under the title "Picasso Speaks."

I can hardly understand the importance given to the word research in connection with modern painting. In my opinion to search means nothing in painting. To find, is the thing. Nobody is interested in following a man who, with his eyes fixed on the ground, spends his life looking for the pocketbook that fortune should put in his path. The one who finds something no matter what it might be, even if his intention were not to search for it, at least arouses our curiosity, if not our admiration.

Among the several sins that I have been accused of committing, none is more false than the one that I have, as the principal objective in my work, the spirit of research. When I paint, my object is to show what I have found and not what I am looking for. In art intentions are not sufficient and, as we say in Spanish: love must be proved by facts and not by reasons. What one does is what counts and not what one had the intention of doing.

We all know that Art is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realize truth, at least the truth that is given us to understand. The artist must know the manner whereby to convince others of the truthfulness of his lies. If he only shows in his work that he has searched, and re-searched, for the way to put over lies, he would never accomplish anything.

The idea of research has often made painting go astray, and made the artist lose himself in mental lucubrations. Perhaps this has been the principal fault of modern art. The spirit of research has poisoned those who have not fully understood all the positive and conclusive elements in modern art and has made them attempt to paint the invisible, and therefore, the unpaintable.

They speak of naturalism in opposition to modern painting. I would like to know if anyone has ever seen a natural work of art. Nature and art, being two different things, cannot be the same thing. Through art we express our conception of what nature is not.
--- End quote ---


The central tenet is is Seath is the lie, and Guyra is the truth (and King's Field is the artifice.)


PS: Kill Screen has slowly grown on me. It's probably the video game press website that most closely embodies what I'd like to see a video game press be like. For no real reason that I can tell the articles aren't always about video games, and I can't really see a relationship to video games within the articles that aren't, but they are often interesting anyway. Probably it's a mix of caprice and the mindset that video games should reflect "the culture" and feedback into it. Probably mostly caprice. I can't tell what its readership is like. All of the comments and social features seem to be broken. I doubt it's because of "adblocking" and I doubt it's because I'm not registered/logged in. There are just no comments or anything, but there are vestigial buttons to make comments. It's kind of weird. I think it's also a print magazine somehow.


EDITD: For the record I don't really agree with the sentiment of the article that seems to be that low-poly is a kind of art like Cubism that should be exaggerated and stark. That's fine, but I think games just tend to look better with fewer polygons, that there is no inherent value in mimicking our particular reality, and that in general it's more cost prohibitive to do that (eg. uses more electricity) and doesn't elucidate anything; indeed if anything to the contrary. I do agree with the article that it's just stupid to chase reality, especially at the expense of everything else, and it's just boring, boring as any old photograph.

Holey Moley:
I am slowly becoming accustomed to pronouncing Guyra correctly, inside my head. It still sounds weird to me to say it, so I don't. But I will obviously once the regenesis of King's Field is underway.

I was watching a retrospective "documentary" about the musical act, Daft Punk, the other day. I don't know, I've always found their compositions overrated. I still think Kraftwerk and Yellow Magic Orchestra, or even Pet Shop Boys or New Order have a much stronger house/electronic sound (which I am more inclined to listen to recreationally.) These bands are considered forerunners of electronic/synth pop.

But regardless, one of the members of Daft Punk is called Guy-Man. I am not sure where the name Guy comes from. It may be French or Portuguese or something else. But it is pronounced like Guyra. It may not be a coincidence that Jean uses the French spelling (pronounced like Jon) and Guyra is spelled this way (not like guy, but like gi.) Just an odd factoid I picked up on:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy-Manuel_de_Homem-Christo

Holey Moley:
I've been wanting to post something, anything of late.

In this (https://killscreen.com/articles/devil-daggers-is-one-hell-of-a-time/) article about what looks like a pretty spiffy game (I recommend checking it out on Youtube) there is a link to a website hosted by Google that is like the ravings of a madman. It seems like the writer chose to use this link very rashly. But for all my vague interest in demonology, owing to my Megami Tensei days, I wanted to find a better source to trace this name used by the creator of this game... a few searches didn't reveal much, but it introduced me to a figure named Rudolf Steiner I was not previously familiar with...

And that got me to this (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthroposophy#Ethics) Wikipedia page for an "science-based" esoteric movement he was responsible for, prior to WWI.

I wanted to share a link to this game, but didn't have good reason to. But this gives me an excuse. This section on this page says:


--- Quote from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthroposophy#Ethics ---The anthroposophical view is that good is found in the balance between two polar, generally evil influences on world and human evolution. Two spiritual adversaries endeavor to tempt and corrupt humanity: these are often described through their mythological embodiments, Lucifer and his counterpart Ahriman, which have both positive and negative aspects. Lucifer is the light spirit, which "plays on human pride and offers the delusion of divinity", but also motivates creativity and spirituality; Ahriman is the dark spirit, which tempts human beings to "...deny [their] link with divinity and to live entirely on the material plane", but also stimulates intellectualty and technology. Both figures exert a negative effect on humanity when their influence becomes misplaced or one-sided, yet their influences are necessary for human freedom to unfold.[1][4]

Each human being has the task to find a balance between these opposing influences, and each is helped in this task by the mediation of the Representative of Humanity, also known as the Christ being, a spiritual entity who stands between and harmonizes the two extremes.[4]
--- End quote ---

Now I don't know where this comes from. If it's accurate, and if so original or modern interpretation of the beliefs of the people gathered under the umbrella of this fantastical movement. But IT DOES roughly approximate the conceit I've entailed for Seath and Guyra...

It's clearly borrowing from Zoroastrianism, on of the oldest religions that looks like modern Western religion. I believe Hinduism style religion is older--said to be the oldest. It does what I am inclined to do, assume Lucifer is code for Ahura Mazda, or seems to. Even though I only recently looked into this view of Lucifer, and although it's very popular today, by hook or crook, it seems to be solely based on the Book of Enoch, some apocrypha, that likely inspired Milton to write Paradise Lost, which is where this domination by Lucifer in modern day fiction hails from, reinforced by modern tomes, like Neil Gaiman's Sandman.

I think it's synthesis of all of these fantasy characters from our tall tales past, that can be done rationally more or less, and it points to this kind of configuration, that you see repeated everywhere. Maybe that lends it weight--in some form of perverse speculative spiritualism--I don't know.


My only quibble is this group gets it wrong. In my book the role of "Lucifer" and Ahriman need be reversed. So in this quote the qualities attributed to Lucifer should be attributed to Ahriman (or more commonly known as Angra Mainyu) and vice versa. And then the Lucifer (Ahura Mazda) figure becomes Guyra, and the Ahriman (Angra Mainyu) becomes Seath. Lucifer is associated with light, and Ahriman darkness, but this is dealt with by sleight of hand... as Guyra is the light dragon, as black absorbs light, is photophilic, and vice versa for Seath.

The "Anthroposophy" people are unique in describing both urges as "evil" although the section go on to describe them as also vital, in equal parts. Usually Ahura Mazda is said to be pure goodness, but I don't think Guyra is best served by that role, as a character. And the quote says finding the balance is served by the model of "Christ". Which for better or worse I intend for the Moonlight and Dark Slayer to represent Christ. It's corny, but if there are going to be vampires, then there will be crosses, so that's that! What can I say, he's very popular. It wouldn't be a representation of humanity without it.

Only since the whole universe of King's Field is a fiction wrapped in a fiction, there is no actual Christ figure. It's there symbolically in the form of the twin swords. The swords belong to St. Michael in his many forms, who is a character who is only ever seen sidelong. There is a place like heaven where Michael is, or at least is partly, but it's unknowable, and to see Michael as he is there is impossible, but I think there can be a scene at the very end of it all, the depiction of the final moment where Michael is astride heaven and earth and so vaguely perceivable. And spoiler alert, he's really just Silval, or Silval is an alter-ego of Michael, and probably Michael is the ego of the supercomputer that's tasked with creating the dream-like VR world, so this computer is the dreamer so-to-speak, and also Michael, all self-contained, and we the player-characters are invaders inhabiting the figments of its dreaming imagination (are we one more level of fiction removed? Who can rightly say.)


PS: I want to add that Seath and Guyra are squarely both Earth Dragons in my working model. These are dragons that are instinctively cunning and deceitful. Their qualities are to mimic other kinds of dragons, and have no true qualities of their own otherwise. They are the model for the serpent. But this is merely their nature. It's not to say that they cannot have enduring qualities and good intentions. Indeed my private view is that Guyra is more or less the unsung hero of the KF universe, and that Seath is its arch villain. So I think the real challenge will be how to elevate Seath to a place of prominence. I want to associate Seath with the arts and nature, those are his/her/their main virtues. Inspiration. I also believe these twin dragons represent something more primal that is intangible that even they cannot place. For Seath this becomes Leon Shore, who is a character like Satan, a peer to Michael, and maybe in Guyra's case something like Lucifer. I don't know. He's certainly popular as well. The angel of our times that almost seems invented. I would rather not go there in the KF universe, but it would make for interesting Megami Tensei crossover! You can think of these figures like prime directives, aspects of the super-computer's programming.

Holey Moley:
EDITED: Rereading this post now, I am reminded that upon further digging that day (it was an off-day for me, a half-day, make a pizza day) I unearthed some potentially interesting ideas:

For people who want to believe in magic (magick!) there's a character called the "Dweller on the Threshold" or something like this. I think I mainly know it from Twin Peaks (which is being continued this year on ShowTime! 25yrs later) which seems like pure fiction, as these things almost always do upon deeper inspection. I mean really, imagine living in a pre-Internet world and coming across all of these pseudo-fiction books on magic and things, almost assuredly all crap written by desperate scammers trying to put food in their mouths...

But anyway! It's still a pretty good concept. Good enough for David Lynch. In fairness a lot of Rudolf Steiner's group (which seems like it was chiefly the German branch of the Theosophy club of the time, only commandeered by Steiner. Another fun fact, Andrei Tarkovsky planned to make a film or something about Steiner before his untimely demise) recognized that fiction or myth was the proper venue for talk of magic and things unseen, although they also took seriously claims of clairvoyance, which is not a contemptible idea either; if only humans were not so weak and prone to inventing elaborate events for attention and succor...

Rudolf Steiner staged some plays, four in all I think, that were supposed to represent "mysteries", an ancient tradition of melding theater with activities of "mystery religions". In at least one this "Dweller on the Threshold" is used. I think generally to represent a Satan like figure, the arch nemesis of all of creation, although also a doppelganger, as if this is an aspect of each and every one of us. Wikipedia's article says that Steiner treats this as an amalgam of the twin urges from the main post, in "Anthroposophy" Lucifer and Ahriman. Still I think he jumps on the bandwagon of saying that this character is something to be reconciled with, and confronts the spiritual adept whenever they cross to-and-fro between the earthly and astral realms.

Now! I don't know if this flavor of King's Field needs an astral realm. I think the realm of dreams is sufficient for this purpose. Linking these two urges is simple for Guyra and Seath since, Valad is both of them. So it seems that if the "Dweller on the Threshold" business is to be appropriated, that this character must be Valad, as he lives on in the imaginary afterlife, the stuff of dreams. And to be clear, here I am talking about the after-universe, the "X" universe, which is probably described in this thread, but if not it is elsewhere.

I'd already decided to use Valad and this way, and to call him Abraxas in this modern form. Abraxas comes from Carl Jung, but also old magical talismans. So functional Valad become the initiator of magic awakening in the X universe. So when a person first gains some kind of magic, they will typically come face to face with a form of Valad in their dreams. Magic works solely via the Dark Slayer. So sorry, reading magic books alone won't get you anywhere in the X universe. You'll need a fragment of the Dark Slayer, or also called the Holy Grail. Magic talismans like Abraxas stones may have a small microscopic fragment of the dark crystal housed somewhere within them.

My intention is to weave a modern universe that feels like the real universe. So in this fiction there is a grain of truth to many of the ravings of histories men and women of magical tidings. So code words for Abraxas become the Dweller on the Threshold and so on. No one knows their true name, Valad, other than some of the old-timers held-over from the pre-universe world where Verdite and Elegria once existed.


Another interesting artifact of the history of professed magicians and sorcerers is Dee's "Enochian Language". (Not necessarily related to that "Book of Enoch" from earlier ago.) John Dee was a scientific/mystical adviser to Elizabeth I. Derek Jarman uses him in his Jubilee to transport Elizabeth to a post-punk wasteland of an imagined late-20th century, accompanied by Aerial from The Tempest.

I've never been crazy about this kind of magic. I mean esthetically. Even though it's considered one of the more impressive lineage's, and certainly the most elaborate one. It grew out of a traditional approach, the workings of the magic were supposedly given to Dee by angels, in a scene very reminiscent of how the Mormon religion was given to its founder. So it's very easy to have fun at its expense. But angels and demons handing over magical codes is nothing new. It's a tradition probably as old as angels and demons themselves.


Anyway ... the only real reason it's interesting, is because it's very well suited to King's Field's magic. Mainly because it's based precisely on the same five-elements, and organizes them in to tables, more or less how I plan to combine magics in the new King's Field games: where there is just a Fire magic, and using it does all of things to do with fire. Or if you want Ice, then use both Water and Wind, and now you have ice. In this model you can imagine mapping the four elements to the face buttons on the PlayStation controller, and pressing two buttons at the same time to perform ice spells (edited: or rather to construct an ice "Field" from within which to perform spells until the field's energy gives way)

In any case, it would take some work to make the Enochian magic seem cool, but I figure it's a strong candidate for representing a lot of magic systematically in the X universe, because it's very KF-like. Because the X universe is based on historical events, this is as simple as recognizing that fictional Dee really did fairly recently converse with angels, and his techniques more or less work, and then you can build on that to quickly establish something like KF magic in a modern setting that works like we expect violent video games to work where "magic" is involved. My guess is in this fantasy other-Earth almost all rumors of magic will be wide-open to plundering ... if only because it's so less interesting to say their purveyors were all cranks! I mean that's just not an approach that'd ever manage to be as broadly popular as "Star Wars" for example.

Somewhere on Wikipedia it's suggested that Dee's Enochian could be an amusing cover story for then military applications involving something like modern day cryptography--or just goofing about:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enochian
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enochian_magic

Holey Moley:
Funny story. I was going to post this in Random News, but it's inadvertently about Seath.

I've noticed lots of wordplay in King's Field games through the years. It could just be my imagination. But anyway, yesterday my brother was asking me about the final water magic spell in King's Field 2. I didn't have a good answer for him. I told him maybe the magic isn't just water based...

But I realized today that because of how KF2 is setup, that all of the magic would be single-element based, and since "Seath" is learned from a water crystal, then it is presumably a pure water attack. (Incidentally I don't know if KF3 has mixed magic attacks or not. It has a somewhat different system.)

So I started thinking about what it could be, and loaded my KF2 game up to see how it was spelled and if it had a description. It is spelled just like Seath, but I'd already decided at that point that it's probably better translated as Seethe, and I just wanted to be certain.

We think of "seethe" in English in terms of seething-with-anger I think. But the literal definition is more like a surging/boiling water, so it's a perfect name for a damaging water attack to be fair...

And great wordplay if the writers intended for it to be a misdirect, since at this point Seath is associate primarily with the fountain maiden, who is associated with water, and worshiped by the old high-elves, who prized the fountain, so much so to worship its statue.

It isn't difficult to wonder if the entire plot involving Seath didn't develop organically out of the name of this spell. This could even be the genesis of Seath's character.

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