Open main menu

The Fansus β

Changes

The Demiurge

239 bytes added, 09:49, 5 May 2019
no edit summary
The Overseer of this Sphere is the Spokesman, though he rarely enters it. The Spokesman is a brilliant artisan who is said to have been a Name of the Demiurge even before the Collision. He collaborated with the Demiurge on the New Mansus early in its history and constructed the Leonine Gate, but was later assigned to the Mansus-side of the Gate to be the Demiurge's spokesman to the other Hours and ensue that the other Hours do not suspect anything about his master's philanthropy. He yearns for the New Mansus, and had myriad ideas for how to improve it and yet so little time to sit in his workshop and make these ideas a reality before he is needed elsewhere by his patron. Some say this is deliberate on the part of the Demiurge, who they most often claim is either jealous of his own Name for having better ideas than he is, or does not wish to see the Spokesman's ideas implemented out of fear of the power they would give to the population he oppresses.
 
The Aspects of the Spokesman are Knock and Forge
'''The Third Sphere:'''
The part of the Lighthouse in this layer also contains the Mint, which engraves the shed bronze scales of the Demiurge with arcane symbols and pay them as wages to the working Long. The Demiurge sheds his skin like a snake, and pay comes when the scales have been removed from the skin and engraved. The remaining skin is then used as an isolator, being capable of keeping out heat, Nowhere, and Glory-light alike. The conversion rate between the scales and Spintria changes frequently and irrationally, and conversion between them requires tons of bureaucracy, cementing the kafkaesque nature of trying to leave the New Mansus. The New Mansus is also one of the only places where they're legal tender. The Mint also acts as the timekeepers of the New Mansus, as time is measured according to the time between sheddings. As the Demiurge has several forms which do not shed their skin, this gives it nearly full control over time in the New Mansus by simply deciding when to shed or not shed.
The Overseer of this Sphere is the Grand Merchant, an odd fellow dressed in heavy yellow robes. Whether a Long or a mechanical creation lies beneath these robes is an enigma, and nobody knows where the Grand Merchant appeared from or what it was before becoming a Name. Like the Spokesman, it spends much of its time outside the New Mansus, but it prefers the waking world to the Mansus. There, it travels the wastes, offering deals that seem too good to be true in exchange for material and insubstantial things. It is through The Grand Merchant that most get the rare materials required to construct a Bronze Gate. The majority of these profits go towards the purchase of new goods from the Demiurge, but some always remain the Grand Merchant's own, at least for a while. When the Grand Merchant visits the New Mansus, they enjoy gambling at the Second Sphere casino known as the Red Pearl, one of the few venues in the New Mansus not owned by the Demiurge. The Demiurge has attempted to acquire the Red Pearl several times, but Aramintha and Esmerhild, the duo of Grail-Long who own the casino, have so far refused to sell it. There are rumors that they have connections to the Syndicate or that they have gained access that allows them to exploit the Grand Merchant to their own ends, but nobody dares accuse them, as they have several Long and possibly a Name in their pocket.  The Aspects of the Grand Merchant are Lantern and Grail.
'''The Fourth Sphere:'''
The Overseer of this Sphere is Adonis, a broad-shouldered giant of a Name who oversees the alloying of metals and the mixing of chemicals unharmed by the searing heat and the corrosive fumes. He was recently and suddenly elevated to a Name, and fears that he will be discarded just as suddenly. Therefore, he is ever eager to placate the whims of the Demiurge and the inventors and merchants of the spheres within his, pushing the workers of the Fourth Sphere ever harder to match ridiculous production quotas while rooting out workers at the slightest suspicion of Syndicate sympathy. Some rumor that Adonis himself was formerly a Syndicate agent who has gone through the brutal reprocessing program that takes place in the Sixth Sphere, explaining his loyalty and paranoia. He resents the Landlord for its rigorous scheduling interfering with his push for progress and attempts to take command over the machinery of the Sphere, and frequently accuses it of trying to sabotage his work. He's not completely wrong.
 
Adonis wields Forge and Grail.
'''The Fifth Sphere:'''
The part of the Lighthouse in the Fifth Sphere houses the Landlord, a grand mechanical computer and Name of the Demiurge. The Landlord is fiercely loyal to its creator yet fiercely ambitious, yearning for control over the sphere within its own. It vigilantly watches its tenants and demands control over every aspect over their lives, enforcing a cold, unfeeling, and mechanical schedule. It is also deeply afraid of the Jailer and its cruel madness, and resents Adonis for overseeing the Fourth Sphere, a position it claims that it should hold.
 
The Aspects of the Landlord are Forge and Lantern.
'''The Sixth Sphere:'''
The Overseer of the Sixth Sphere Jailor, who is chained to the part of the Lighthouse that goes through the Sphere. The Jailor is part mechanical computer like its successor The Landlord, and part amalgamation of various forms of scrap, automaton parts, torture implements, and esoteric art. This all has caused it to be known as The Ramshackle among the Syndicate. The Ramshackle is responsible for carrying out what the Demiurge calls reprocessing, brutal physical, mental, emotional and spiritual torture that takes place in this part of the Lighthouse. The Jailor was formerly the Overseer of the Fifth Sphere, but was compromised by sabotage carried out by what would later become the Syndicate. For this, the Jailor was cast into the Sixth Sphere to be reprodessed by the one who then held its current position, now known as The Syndicalist. After the The Syndicalist had reprocessed the Jailor, she began to doubt the Demiurge, as the prospect of a creation of the Demiurge becoming compromised had formerly seemed impossible. She abandoned the Demiurge and gathered the people who had sabotaged the Jailor, and founded the Syndicate. The Demiurge, meanwhile, installed the reprocessed Jailor as the Overseer of the Sixth Sphere.
 
The Aspects of the Jailor are Edge and Moth.
The true master of the Sixth Sphere, however, remains the former Name known as The Syndicalist. A slight woman in a bright red dress, she leads the vast organization known as The Syndicate, striking fear into the hearts of the Long and the Names of the New Mansus. Some call the Syndicate a labor union, others call it an organized crime group, and others yet call it a terrorist group. It is heavily decentralized, and may very well be all of these at the same time. It is headquartered in the Sixth Sphere, though the location of these headquarters changes frequently and irregularly. Some members have allied themselves with the Unfettered, or the Old Wyrm, or strange Gods-from-Nowhere that nobody in any Mansus has heard about, but officially the Syndicate affiliates itself with no Hour and defines itself in opposition to the Demiurge. Their goals vary equally wildly, some simply want better rights for the worker Long, some want to organize a mass escape from the New Mansus through the Leonine Gate, and some want to kill the Demiurge and remake the New Mansus into the worker's paradise that the Demiurge promised them.