Hi everybody!
Today I wanted to discuss Absolute powers! The admin Nekron2 made a very good point on our Discord regarding them. They made some good points about trimming down the users, and the reasons behind it ultimately gave me inspiration to write this blog! So credit to Nekron2. :)
Im not staff, technically, but I can sure write a good blog from a discussion!
Absolute Powers[]
This is things like Absolute Immortality, Attack, Defence, Intellect and more. These powers are the absolute pinnacle of their field, and are unmatched by lower levelled variants of their power. This brings us to a popular "Limit" they all share: "What about Omnipotence and its darker sister power, Nonexistence?"
Would you guys agree that such a limit de-powers the "Absoluteness" concept that these immense abilities hold? A little theory of mine is that most users of Absolute powers ARE Omnipotent to begin with, because Absolute Immortality for instance is the Immortality that an Omnipotent user would possess. It is fully protected from all powers, otherwise it wouldn't be absolute, right? To me, Absolute powers are like little aspects of Omnipotence.
My second theory for these powers is that the powers might only truly exist in a world where the author has decided to not have a fully Omnipotent character in the verse. In this case, Absolute powers may be used to their fullest, almighty effect, with no technicalities such as "But Omnipotence...". This limit of omnipotence is purely so users here have an answer to the question, rather than a universal limit, because not all fictions will have an OP character, and those that do likely are the Absolute Power user themselves.
The Wrap Up[]
I hope this little blog makes sense! This is my first attempt to break down a common paradox. But to simplify it as much as possible, or for those who like a TL;DR section, here it is! :D
- I think Absolute powers are aspects of Omnipotence that can at least be used by non-omnipotent users. Most of the time though, the users, particularly of the Immortality power, already ARE omnipotent, so there is no what if paradox. The exception to the rule are Absolute Powers that multiple users can use at one time, such as Absolute Strength or Restoration for a couple of examples.
- Absolute powers Are exactly that. They are unlimited and almighty, and although as a power encyclopedia we account for Omnipotence paradoxes, it should be noted that this is more for convenience than anything. They can definitely be deactivated by Omnipotence, but yet they also...cant, if you get my point? Because I don't think Omnipotence exists in a verse where AI users exist.
- Absolute Immortality in question is specifically for a verse where Omnipotent powers either don't exist, or the user of AI is the omnipotent user themselves.
Simplified[]
- Omnipotence is probably the only thing in the way of absolute power users, assuming such a being exists in the fiction in question
- Most Absolute users are already OP sometimes
- Absolute powers and Omnipotence/Nonexistence can coexist. But they are a lot easier to grasp the idea of them if there are no possible opposition abilities to slightly de-power the absolute concept.
Your Thoughts?[]
I hope you enjoyed this little blog! Thank you for reading, and don't be shy about adding your own input in the comments! I look forward to hearing your own views! By the way, this blog is NOT complete, and more will be added in time.