Feel free to smack me over the head if this has been posted before on the workshop, but I'm pretty sure it hasn't. I thought this would be best posted here -- it was originally written by Highemperor (in Arkng Thand's POV), on September 5, 2004, and some information here is contradictory to currently-written NeS material and/or not correct.
Arkng Thand's Treatise
Blood & Ink: A Synthesis of NeStian Metaphysics
~~by Arkng Thand, Scholar of Deitopos
INTRODUCTION
Metaphysics is a delicate subject, never more so than when approaching the realm of something so malleable as the Neverending Story (or, more precisely, its "current" incarnation, the Neverending Story Squared). I say "current", because in truth, the Neverending Story (hereinafter referred to as "the NeS") is an extratemporal entity, continuous in its own discontinuity. It is a mishmash of paradox, of parallel lines that cross. The only way to understand it is in terms of so-called "skewed lines", that is, by entering into a higher dimension of thought. This I have attempted in this treatise.
A HISTORY OF THE OHQS
The Ohq family has always played a very important role in the NeS. The NeS has many beginnings, and in each of them there is an Ohq. In the realm of the Writers, an Ohq (Geb I) was there since its inception and refined it into an actual story thread. In the realm of the story, the same Ohq (or rather, his avatar) became the first bumbling hero to define the thread, and is indeed, more than anyone else, its central character. However, the Ohq clan's history goes much further back than that. The Ohqs apparently always had bloodink running through their veins, as nearly as historians can tell, and were a family blessed by the WriterGod. My theory, based on my extensive researches, is that the bloodink was first introduced into the line by Gaius Ohq, the Roman centurion who, in the story realm, swallowed some of the WriterMessiah's blood while He hung from Calvary. (This of course raises some interesting questions about the origin of Desmond and perhaps all NeSferatu in general, but these concerns will be addressed later.) In any case, the Ohq line can be definitively be traced back to the 7th century A.D., with a medieval writer known as Augustyn Ohq penning the text in his own blood (the first documented use of bloodink) which is believed to have been used by the seer Nostradamus in his own prophesying. No official record of the Ohqs exist before then, though undoubtedly such loss of the clan's beginnings is in large part due to the inefficiency of Microsoft's record-keeping systems. It is from Augustyn Ohq that we will begin our tracing of truly historical figues in the Ohq dynasty.
While Augustyn had no children, being a celibate priest of NeStianity, his sister continued the Ohq line. The next Ohq of note appeared in the Industrial Revolution, being born in 1856, just before the American Civil War. This, of course, is the Ohq historians are commonly familiar with: Erro Ohq II, founder of the world's first League of Heroes in 1873. Erro was the son of Baron (Erro) Ohq I, and was something of an imaginative child. However, he formed a childhood friendship with King Emp, the king of the Armenians. (Legends, of course, persist that the bond between the Emps and the Ohqs goes much further back than that time period.)
In 1873, Erro Ohq (II) uncovered the Crystal Cave, awaking an ancient wizard known as Merlin, who commanded him to found the League of Heroes. Erro did so, and became the leader of a mighty contingent whose like has never been seen since. Some members of this illustrious confederation were Badger, the superhumanly strong and agile werebadger; The 13th True Evil, the cursed descendant of The FIRST True Evil; Admiral Randall I, whose submariner skills rivaled that of the mythic Captain Nemo; and King Emp, whose skill as a mountedarcher was unmatched, even by his fellow Armenians.
Erro's doom was sealed in his final battle with his archnemesis Count Desmond, lord of the NeSferatu. In it, he saw, as the poet, scholar, and enchanter Mustang put it, "something which no mortal should bear". This glance aged him prematurely, so that he died within ten years, at the ripe young age of 40. What he saw, no one was quite sure, as Erro never revealed it to his contemporaries; however, a close look into the memoirs of Mustang and a comparison with Jim Seven (commonly called Satan)'s war journals reveals that he saw the ultimate doom of bloodink. (To be explained further.)
Erro's body disappeared from its sepulcher the night after he was buried, and its disappearance was suspected to have something to do with King Emp, who vanished that same night.
Though there were some decorated war heroes from the Ohq line in the World Wars, they did not further the development of NeS, and as such will be skipped over for the sake of space, so as not to waste it, which I notice, I'm wasting anyway, in telling you this. Ah, well.
This brings us to the prophesied twins, Geb and Losien Ohq, born in that order within two minutes of each other. While Geb was always meek and mild, his sister Losien took those traits (common to the Ohq family throughout the ages) to new heights of naivete and vulnerability. Though she died tragically at the hands of Morthrandur, the Sepulchral Phantom, one might say that she matured, thanks in large part to the steadfast love of the sometime-villain, sometime-hero, The Last True Evil, so-called because he had no heirs, beyond the possibility of the rival of the True Evil family, TFFE (The First False Evil).
Geb Ohq (commonly known as Gebohq), brought the seed that was NeS to its full development at the height of its incubation. He unwittingly founded a NEW league of heroes, called the Legion of Heroes, initially based in Big Ben, London, England. While the NeS was originally troubled by minor villains, its form was taking shape, and finally as it rose up, so did its opposite: the Ever-Ending Plot, bane of all that was NeS. It was thanks to all the heroes, from Highemperor's initial discovery of the threat to Geb's final sacrifice that enabled the NeS to square itself into survival.
Geb went on to become the plotwielder of the NeS. His final fate is unknown.
Here it is interesting to note that several alternate versions of Geb began appearing including Gebiyl, who at one point became the real version before switching back.
In the 22nd century, Asa Ohq was born, and inherited the mantle of leadership of the heroes. He was an unremarkable leader, and is noted only because he was the one to disband the legion.
Thousands more Ohqs trickled in over the course of the ages, but the blood(ink) of the line grew thinner and thinner. The last Ohq to truly be an Ohq was Morthrandur, the Sepulchral Phantom. He was only part Ohq; he was also part Emp, supposedly, and in addition part everyone in the cosmos.
It is here that we bring our history of the Ohqs to a close.
DECIPHERING THE CODE
Today, it is nearly impossible to sort fact from fiction, of course, but we can distinguish the two by applying the "leet" code (1337) to the history.
Let's begin.
"Ohq", of course, is rendered 046 in leet, and serves as the touchstone by which the Ohq "code" is measured against.
Here's a quick list of the leet renditions of the most noteworthy Ohqs.
Erro Ohq: 3|2|20 046
Geb Ohq: 936 046
Asa Ohq: @5@ 046
Morthrandur: |v| 0 |2 7 4 |2 @ |\| |) ? |2
We see that, while Erro most closely resembles its decoded counterpart,as time progresses, the similarity between the encoded name and the decryption decreases drastically. What can be inferred from this is that the language of leet is drastically altered or perhaps even decreased in usage (the horror!) as time goes on.
Only two conclusions can be drawn from this. Either leet is altered into something unrecognizable by currently developed cortically functional understandings of characters today, or leet is replaced by something. Either way, something monumentally advanced comes into play by the time of Morthrandur. Leet is barely comprehended today, or at least is comprehended as not being comprehended, but when cortically developed mindsets surpass it, who can know what will come after? I refer to this as the Neocortical Calculus. We will be exploring this more indepth later.
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BLOODINK
Where did it come from? We all recognize bloodink for its power and authority; even Highemperor, who once acknowledged himself sovereign over the NeS, respected its power; indeed, it was the source of his power.
With great effort, I have captured a sample of living bloodink cells for study. After generations of work, I have determined that bloodink, while alive, is, quite literally, all-overpowering. The problem is, that its life can only be sustained by more life; that is, by being contained within a living vessel; i.e., a human heart. Once it is taken out and put on paper to write, it dies and loses the majority of its power... yet even its echoes are so potent that all creation pales before its majesty.
We know that bloodink was used by AncientWriter the Writer in Atlantis, but its use was discontinued by BelmonttheWriter in A.D. 1166, when vampires started drinking it and lessening its effect on stories. This leads me to believe that the NeSferatu, who specifically feed on bloodink (as opposed to the more vampires nosferatu, who feed on mere mortal blood), were created specifically for the purpose of keeping bloodink cells alive. They could collect all bloodink within themselves, and then their own living bodies would perpetuate the bloodink indefinitely, thus lending complete and total permanence to the story they resided in.
There are very few ACTUAL neverending stories in existence, but this one, the NeS, as NeSferatu have been encountered within it before, must have been given its essential neverending quality by the fact that NeSferatu dwelt within it. This naturally leads one to the conclusion that NeSferatu are still alive today. Perhaps if all the NeSferatu were destroyed, THEN it would be possible for the NeS to stop.
But that is a matter of discussion for another day. The question now is... where did the NeSferatu come from? Who created them? And why did their leader, Count Desmond, (seem to) turn evil?
It is here that our topic shifts to the WriterGod.
THE WRITERGOD: LORD & CREATOR
It is well documented, and is admitted in nearly every legend and fable, that the WriterGod exists. It is definitively known also that his spirit is unquenchable. After having conducted several interviews with the intermediaries of the WriterGod and obtaining the results of my own investigative experiments, I have confirmed that bloodink is the manifestation of the WriterGod's power throughout all Creation. It does not matter whether such and such a part of Creation exists or not, or somewhere else; it is part of Creation nonetheless, and is kept that way by the WriterGod's power/bloodink.
When comparing various apocryphal texts with Nestian literary sources, one is easily able to figure out that "messengers" (also known as angels) were created by the WriterGod to transfer and oversee the flow of bloodink in Creation, to serve as living vessels for it. These, then, are the NeSferatu, those angelic messengers who converted to evil.
The WriterGod's role is self-defined, to maintain Creation, to create it every moment anew. The free will inherent in those mortals who possess bloodink within their arteries determines itself which story shall live and which shall die, within the scope of the WriterGod's purpose. He of course overpowers all things.
THE PLOTFRACTAL
The plot of the NeS is a fractal, as anyone moderately acquainted with the story knows, meaning that the story grows upon itself in a pattern, one that remains the same both the further out and further in one goes. This pattern is that of neverendingness.
There have been many protectors of the plotfractal over the aeons, but the most famous was JKtheWhite, who served as a protector alone, without anyone else to assist him and succeeded in perpetuating the NeS beyond anyone's wildest dreams. Their purpose was to make sure that the neverending element not only exists within the NeS but exists as its principal quality. They did those primarily by causing conflict.
THE NATURE OF CONFLICT
Conflict, naturally, is the clash of two opposing wills. As the ancient Greeks put it, "the beginning of citory is resistance"; that is, conflict begins the INSTANT that is opposition, even in one's thoughts. Conflict must seem neverending, for there are obviously multiple wills in Creation. However, there is a chance that conflict should end, as Creation (and thusly, all wills contained therein) is ruled by a Creator: that is, the WriterGod.
Ergo, if the WriterGod should choose to bring all wills into union under Himself, conflict will end, and the protectors of the plotfractal will be without recourse to maintain the neverending element of the NeS. It is therefore necessary to prepare additional defenses ahead of time. The only possibility for continuing the story in absentia of conflict is to bring the story in tandem with the unified will of the Creation, whatever that may be.
Of course, the unified will of Creation will be that of the Creator, the WriterGod, and the debate of what exactly the WriterGod's will IS has been raging for all time; I will not attempt to enter this highly volatile arena in this treatise. However, it is in the interest of the protectors of the plotfractal to consult the WriterGod's intermediaries in order that His will may indeed be determined.
NEOCORTICAL CALCULUS
This is my theorem of post-leet thinking. If, as shown previously, leet shall be overcome by something greater that we cannot currently comprehend, what will that post-leet paradigm be? Enter the systematic mode of neocortical calculus.
Leet has always been based on numbers. But it is possibly, nay necessary, that a new system must rise up based on a higher form of thought. However, all forms of thought are self-evidently traced back to THOUGHT itself. And when thought itself advances, i.e. when the human mind mutates and develops beyond itself... then we have a neocortical function. And functions are merely integers in a greater calculus. Hence... neocortical calculus, the theorem thereof.
What will this neocortical calculus be?
If current metapsychic functions can be considered mathematics and literary/artistic creativity, neocortical functions must consist of a higher function, perhaps a synthetic actualization of NeStianity - which holds as its central tenet the overcoming power of the WriterGod's gift of His writing Self to NeStians - in which the writers and their Characters(TM) unite in self and ascend to dwell with the WriterGod "for neverending and neverending", as it is said in popular NeStian texts.
CHARACTERS(TM)
These are the central points of the NeS, the figures by which everything else is defined. Even the WriterGod pours Himself into these the crown of His creations.
But what are they?
They are flesh and blood (sometimes bloodink). They are ink on paper. THEY ARE IDEAS. And as long as the free market of ideas flourishes, then shall the NeS perpetuate itself in a neverending eternity everlasting.
End 1st Ed.
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