Thus Spake Zaranephilpal/AbyssalsOutsideFate
Abyssals are outside fate?
Nephilpal - 10/17/2003 09:28:01
As far as I understand (and I don't really understand, I'm just guessing), Abyssals are creatures outside fate.
Alchemicals are; says so in the ST Chapter. And the Abyssal Exaltation itself seems very fate driven. You die... or you are supposed to... and then you don't. The Deathlords channel the power of the Malfeans and a twisted Solar Essence into you and stave off that doom, provided you accept the Faustian bargain. From the moment you take the Black Exaltation, your fate belongs to the Underworld. That's the essence of the Abyssal Curse. You WILL stand with the forces of darkness against the forces of light. You WILL murder the world. You WILL bring only death and destruction in your wake, and if you refuse, your disharmony with your dark fate will bleed into unholy miracles of Resonance that stain and wound the world for you. You don't get the possibility of a happy ending. You don't get to hope. You live in the shadow of your own bitter inevitability until the end of days, when you walk in the ashes of the world you have burned.
If that doesn't take you outside the auspices of fate, I'm not sure what does. In any case, my own games treat Abyssals as outside fate.
--Neph
jabberwock - 10/17/2003 10:27:12
Do you do searches for "Abyssals," and "Neph," or do you actually read all these threads? ;)
Nephilpal - 10/17/2003 10:53:41
I read most of them, and I run searches for "Neph" on a regular basis to see if I am invoked.
I see Abyssals as having fate, but being beyond the fate of Creation. Their destiny is inescapably scribed in the stars of the Underworld. They are the hands of the unmaking until they too are unmade.
Abyssals are dead, or would be barring the unholy miracle of Exaltation that sustains them in a twilight parody of life. They belong to the Malfeans with all that they are and all that they should not be... life, Essence and destiny conjoined to the purpose of annihilation.
I'm not saying they are beyond fate, but beyond the Loom of Fate. You could even argue that they have the strongest connection to a "fate" of all the Exalted, since even Sidereals can ammend the terms of their destiny. Abyssals cannot change what they are or what they must do.
--Neph
