User blog comment:DYBAD/Character Sheet/@comment-25135454-20171011120908/@comment-4867780-20171024065442

Aren't the newer books growing increasingly distant from what actually happened though, increasingly reinterpreting the content to better accommodate modern culture, like a writer's setting evolves over the years to better please his audience and hopefully expand it along the way ? How do believers manage to trust a (his)story that is rewritten as time passes ?

Reason and faith seem hard to reconcile, as they operate on opposite paradigms. But it's true reason alone is distinctly insufficient when it comes to giving human life value and meaning, so faith is necessary to make our lives more complete and fulfilling.

Many/most people don't believe that sadness and suffering will ever truly end because human history is a whole is a testament to contrary. As far as we can tell, they are simply inherent to the world we live in and our own nature, so ultimately inescapable despite our best efforts. In this context, the fact that hope for a true end to sadness and suffering (without the end of life) still remains after all this times is very impressive, but it's probably just a psychological necessity just like how even the most cynical among us can't help dreaming of a better world deep down.

From what I understand, there was only Ether and the Great Guardian in the beginning, and the GG seeded fragments of his soul into that of sentient beings he created from the Ether to grant them access to the empowering Ethereal Arts, meaning their souls are Ether-based as well except for the GG fragment infused into it, which means that the Soul of Ether can create Ether-based souls just like the Great Guardian did. I understand his soul being finite unlike the Great Guardian's, but he could easily come up with alternatives like Ether-based symbiotic "soul implants" that could be easily mass-produced and infused into sentient beings and fulfill a similar transmitter purpose while the First Soul would operate like a living relay to the Ether, a centralized and passively regulated alternative to the Ethereal Arts.

That's just the first example that came to mind, with so much power at his disposal, there is no shortage of alternatives and bypassing tricks if the First Soul wants to make things right by his creations, which can't really be avoided without coming off as narrative enforcement.

Yeah, Assimilation Plots were never much of a happy ending for most audiences (loss of self and identity, thus loss of everything that makes who we are, no different from good old death), so you may have to figure out a more appealing alternative XD

In the Selforge setting, the inhabitants of the Inner Planes ("Lands of Adventures") who were created and exist for the sake of Selforge citizens find their just reward for their contributions in the afterlife when they reincarnate into the Possibility Matrix, where they live happily ever after through endless successive lives in as many worlds. The harmoniously combines the ideas of happiness, humanity and continuation, equally important in the end.

Humans aren't made for infinity, so their happiness not being infinite is totally fine, if not preferable. What matters is for them to be deeply happy on the long run, and the First Soul has the necessary means to guarantee both. So in my my book he's every bit as good as the Great Guardian, and doesn't have to live in his shadow or depend on his approval, just glean the knowledge he needs to refine his world in the light of his own perspective.

The First Soul definitely has the responsibility to stop his created children from butchering one another, anything less would just make him a monster in his own right. Try putting yourself in the shoes of the canon fodders forced to jump into the meat grinder to advance their superiors' agendas or the civilian victims caught in the crossfire or downright targeted by military forces, and the overwhelming wrongness of allowing such a thing should become quite self-evident ^ ^;

So yeah, if he even remotely cares about them, then war should be outlawed altogether, and to hell with free-will. The "right" to slaughter one another shouldn't exist at all in the first place, so he might as well just excise it from their minds, so this peace is no longer experienced as imposed and they instead automatically turn to diplomatic negociations when tensions arise.

Beside, I'm pretty sure the Orb of Intelligence would grant the First Soul all the necessary perceptiveness for balanced and beneficial intervention in the affairs of his people. So if his world isn't a hell of a lot better than real-life despite all his powers and knowlege, then he's really hopeless and should probably just resign from his position and entrust it to someone more qualified ^ ^;

Lawrence inherited the understanding of suffering from the original human he was born from, he never actually experienced for himself. Suffering is born from weakness and powerlessness after all, while he was invincible from birth and gifted with the necessary means to fix any situation he cares about, so suffering doesn't exist in his life. Immigrating citizens did have their share of it before meeting him and joining his world, but the burden of it was lifted by their Selforge Ascension and the memories of it were washed away by their unshakeable utopian lifestyle ever since, so all that remains of it is the absolute certainty of how much better life is under his exquisite cares.

Thank you very much for your appreciation :D I always goes right to my heart ^ ^