Chapter 90 - The Ones Above All (Patreon)

In the canon of the Lord of the Mysteries, the Great Old Ones and especially the Outer Deities were something that played a significant part of the story. One could say that the presence of the storyline and one could say that they were the final bosses of the novel.

Great Old One refers to a level above Sequence 0, where one becomes a direct representation of a certain aspect of the universe. According to the Second Blasphemy Slate, to become a complete Great Old One, one needs to accommodate the corresponding Sefirah, plus the Uniqueness and at least one Sequence 1 Beyonder Characteristics of each Pathway in the group.

Then there was another group of the Above the Sequences, which were the Outer Deities. 

Also collectively known as the Cosmos.

"They" were Cosmic Entities that were hostile toward Earth. The Outer Deities targeting Earth are all Great Old One existences and are considered to be the most powerful in the entire universe, according to the Seven Lights within the canon.

In the Lord of the Mysteries, due to the residual power of the Original Creator, a barrier that protected Earth was formed, which blocks "Them" from directly invading. Valkorion immediately made an observation that this wasn't the case with this world, because he was extremely sure that the Deadric Princes were at this level.

But for whatever reason, they were not directly invading their world with their armies. 

In the canon, because The Original Creator was unable to reawaken, the barrier around Earth has started to weaken. When the barrier collapses, the Outer Deities will swarm into the world. 

And while Valkorion possessed the knowledge from the canon, he knew that he couldn't really depend on it because this world was vastly different from the canon of either A Song of Ice and Fire or that of the Lord of the Mysteries.

Nevertheless, as ironically it sounded, the knowledge that the Deadric Pricnes and Oblivion existed out there put him at ease somehow because it meant that he had completed one of the missing pieces of the puzzle that he had been searching for during the past years.

"Are are 'They' exactly? You know that I am the only one person in this room who doesn't know what you are talking about."

Mellisandre clearly knew things that she shouldn't know, and he wanted to make use of them as long as they lasted because it seemed that she was amiable to him. She wasn't always the most talkative person around and wouldn't be revealing too much information about anything that she didn't deem necessary for anyone to know.

One could say that her skills at keeping secrets close, but as they were already talking about it, she saw it as no harm. In the end, Gotrik, as a member of the Slayer Cult, already knew everything or perhaps even more, because the Slayer Cult wasn't one faction that was keen on hiding the secrets from their own members.

In the typical average Beyonder Organization, the amount of information that every member had access to was heavily dependent on the rank of the person within the said organization, with the clear distinction of the Slayer Cult.

Within the Slayer Cult, aside from some pieces of information that were available to the Elders and Cult Leader, then everyone was allowed to explore the Lore of the World as much as they wanted, including the topics of the True Gods and Above the Sequences.

"Collectively, they are known as Deadric Princes, also known as Outer Gods, an Above the Sequence entities of unimaginable power, and just the knowledge of their existence is dangerous itself in this Epoch because 'They' didn't intervene in the Faerûn for many millennia on the wider scale. According to the myths and legends from the Pre-Epoch or at least from what has remained unless you find someone from that age, the Faerûn in the beginning all the creation was created by two groups of the Above the Seqeuce beings."

Mellisandre paused as he took in everything that she was speaking about; he listened attentively because this was the earliest history of the Faerûn, one that was directly related to the myths of the creation of this world.

At the same time, hearing this allowed him to see how different it was.

"One group of Above the Sequence, the Great Old Ones or the Aedras as 'They' became known, partook in the creation of the Mundus, the Mortal Realm, including the world of the Faerûn. The second group, the Outer Gods or the Deadras or the Deadric Princes, didn't help create Mundus but instead built the planes of the Oblion in the tapestry of the Cosmos. The more simplistic interpretations would be that the Aedras are the good guys and the Deadras are the bad ones, but that couldn't be farther from the truth, even though some Deadric Princes indeed tried and would try to conquer the Faerûn from time to time or that many Evil Cults are dedicated to the worship of the Deadric Princes."

This was rather similar to the creation mythos of the Elder Scrolls universe, but with specific tweaks for this world. One thing that was confirmed to Valkorion again and again, the longer he lived in this world and the more he learned, that his foreknowledge was something that couldn't be trusted.

Everything here was vastly different from canon knowledge, and the world itself was much bigger than he had thought. With the addition of the countless Planes of Existence within the Oblivion, who knows how big the world really was?

And the number of adventures that were awaiting.

"Did they attempt for the full-scaled invasion? Or are there records of something like that happening?"

Valkorion was rather curious because, in the Elder Scrolls Lore, some of the Deadric Princes attempted such a feat, but they failed most obviously. Still, he was curious if such a thing also happened in this world or not.

"Several times in history, but I would like to not talk about such things... this kind of knowledge became the closely guarded secret for a reason. Even though for the past several centuries, the Deadric Princes were silent and only some Evil True Gods are stirring trouble in the Faerûn, there are still many followers of the Deadric Princes across the world and they still represent a grave danger to the Faerûn."

Mellisandre said with a firm tone, leaving there no place for further discussion as he could see that this topic was something that was somewhat sensitive.

Even before, this world had no shortage of powerful Evil Cults and Secret Organizations with nefarious purposes, and it seemed that the Deadra Cults were the most dangerous.

"Most of the Deadra Cults are forbidden by the ubiquitous agreement between all factions, and their worshippers are hunted down to the last one, with the only exception being the Deadric Princes that are not interested in conquest, domination, or destruction of the Faerûn."

That was fairly logical, though what surprised Valkorion was the fact that not every single one of the Deadric Cults and worshippers was to be killed on sight, but only the ones that were actually dangerous.

From the bigger perspective, it sounded more logical because he could see that some of the other Deadric Princes who didn't have nefarious intentions toward the Faerûn wouldn't be too pleased if their worshippers were constantly being culled down.