Origin of Absolution

So, can we just take a second to ponder a quick question?

Where did Absolution come from?

Ok, so we know that, after Helena left the monistary, she went underground where she secluded herself and found some templar armor. I assume she found "a" sword with the armor as well. Her bio then continues with this strange passage:

 A year passed in solitude, during which she fasted and claims to have been sustained by faith alone. She awoke one morning with her fingertips bloodied and her sword lying nearby. Smelling the acrid scent of smoldering metal, she picked up the sword and found that runes had been carved into its blade. She realized that she could read the Angelic runes - they read “Absolution”. The sword became a focus for her prayers, manifesting radiant flames along its blade

Did she take an average run-of-the-mill sword and carve those runes in her sleep, imparting divine powers into it?

If she did create this relic from an ordinary sword, could she do the same for another sword? We know that during the events of SotM and continuing through Tactics, that Absolution has been shattered.

Were these Templar arms and armor even ordinary to begin with? Or is the source of their power coming directly from Fanatics faith?

The Fanatic/Apostate story is probably the one I am the most interested in hearing more details on aside from the Fixer/Operative/Dragon Clan stuff

I still think she's a crazy super human who believes she's on a holy quest.

I think she could create another Absolution, except that she doesn't believe she can, so she can't.  

Crazy? Possibly. Human? I think the jury might still be out on this one

This is kinda what I was getting at. Her Aegis of Resurection, is it a powerful artifact on its own? Or is it only powerful because she believes it to be, so it is? Did she inscribe similar markings and runes into her armor that she did for Absolution? Will we ever know?

The "it's got powers because she believes it does" thing sounds almost like it could be connected in some way to the Dreamer's powers (and therefore the Visionary's, I suppose), since she dreams stuff (well, has nightmares) and it comes to life...so if Fanatic gave her sword and armour powers unconsciously and without realising it, maybe that's some kind of variant of what Vanessa can do. Except Fanatic sees herself as some kind of religious...sending, or something, so rather than dealing psychic damage she dealas holy-righteous-smiting damage, because that's what she believes she's doing ;).

We do? I know Critical Multiplier in Parse's deck shows Absolution breaking. But we currently have no evidence supporting that it has continued to be shattered into the Tactics timeline. For all we know, the sword may reform on its own.

Yeah sorry, that is an assumption and not nessesarily fact

Concerned that she would be pursued once the initial shock wore off, Helena sought refuge in the catacombs under the city. While exploring the tunnels, she stumbled upon an ancient cache of Templar arms and armor. With a determination bordering on fanaticism, she trained herself in the use of it. A year passed in solitude, during which she fasted and claims to have been sustained by faith alone. She awoke one morning with her fingertips bloodied and her sword lying nearby. Smelling the acrid scent of smoldering metal, she picked up the sword and found that runes had been carved into its blade. She realized that she could read the Angelic runes - they read “Absolution”. The sword became a focus for her prayers, manifesting radiant flames along its blade.  Taking up “Absolution”, she emerged from her tomb. It was time for her to fulfill her purpose: to purge the world of evil.

Let's go back to my Angels that fell and Atlantis speculation.

What if the magic of Atlantis was based on the powers of those original fallen angels, and was usable by their half-human offspring.  The masks would have been created through the powers of beings like Apostate, and can be weilded by humans with enough Nephilim blood, or maybe even all humans if they were designed that way.

Fanatic in this version is an attempt by Apostate to create another angel, not a nephilim, but another being like him.  Without other angels he would still be using human beings, but trying to make the Angel DNA dominate the human.  He thinks Fanatic is another failure, but when that car hits her and she is dying her Angel DNA triggers, giving her Superman-like flashbacks of her origins, and when she wakes up she's lost all feeling and has not way of knowing what has happened, except her dreams of Angels.

So she enters the convent, and studies while she continues to become less and less human.  then she shows her wings, and flees to the catacombs.

What we know happened, she lived in the catacombs for a year, found a cache of old armor and weapons, and didn't eat while she was down there.  I think when she went down there her DNA changes were at their climax, and were causing her to go a little crazy, she hides out under the city, starving herself and going crazy, becoming less human and more immortal.

She has a crazy dream and wakes up with her sword alterred (by her unconscious self) and her change largely finished re-enters the world as fanatic.

In this version her powers are tied greatly to her faith, or will.  Her sword does what it does because she believes it can, and her own power extends through her sword as a conduit of her will.  Similarly the aegis is the focal point for her immortality (which wouldn't be 100%)

(REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED)

The other option is that she ran into a cache of weapons that did have atlantean roots, so the items have actual powe that augment her own.

I like the idea that Apostate's relics are extensions of his own power, how he uses them is pretty awesome, Relics protecting relics, which also happen to be focal points for keeping himself from being taken out.  

Skippy, I like all of that a ton. Especially the the idea of her undergoing a transformation of sorts that was triggered by the car accident.

Because I like to find stuff that will fit my own ideas of the narrative, this shares a lot of similarities to how Galactus creates and/or recruits heralds (Silver Surfer was the 2nd of his heralds I believe). Anyway, Jack Kirby in interviews has stated that the whole Galactus character and story was heavily influenced by biblical stories, and anyone who read my Footenotes on Apostate knows where I am going with that. Heck, the first herald of Galactus was "Fallen One". Apostate could be the Fallen One to Fanatics Silver Surfer. Apostate could very well have created Fanatic in a way, just like he said he did, in order to create another "herald", or in Apostate's case, "Emissary" for The Host. The "why" is still a major question there, but its possible.

Connections to Atlantis to this whole part of the story is also so interesting. We know there is a large source of mystical energy and power there, but how that ties in to everything else remains to be seen (if its ever explored at all).

If she created Absolution, what does that say about Condemnation? Do all "angels" have the power to create powerful artifacts in this fashion? If the Host is connected in any meaningful way to Atlantis, this could very well explain why Atlantis is such a seat of power and energy, as its defenses and artifacts might have been created in the same way.

Edit: Gotta go back to Absolution shattering. Her sword is iconic for her. First off, how in the world did Truth break that thing? Second of all, how do we think she reacted to Absolution shattering? I can't imagine she took it well. She had to disapear for days at just the mere mention of her not being a real Angel, what would she do if she lost such a strong physical symbol of her faith and purpose? I wouldn't be surprised if the incap art for Redeemer took place shortly after that sword shattered (we have no idea how good she would be at hand to hand combat, and the background art looks the same for the incap and Crit Multiplier).

IF the powers of her relics originate from her will and faith, then I am going to guess she figures this out sometime after her sword shatters. She has to find some way to be still be an effective fighter without that sword, and I am sure that she finds a way.

I would like to expand on this for a second. Firstly, lets talk about The Scholar. Now I can't recall where I have read/heard this, but I know it was from Christopher in some form, but it was about The Scholar not having the Philosopher Stone as an equipment card. The reason being, The Scholar will never be without the stone, he uses the stone for just about everything he does. Looking through the deck, you can actually see that this is very true. The only cards where the stone is not visible are; Proverbs and Axioms, Bring What You Need, Solid to Liquid, and Offensive Transmutation. I will point out, that in every one of those cards, at least one of his hands are not visible. Proverbs and Axioms and Bring What You Need may actually not have him holding it at all.

Why is this important? Because Absolution is an equipment card in Fanatic's deck. You can go through her deck and find plenty of cards without her using Absolution. Sure it's still a very big part of her, but she is certainly seen fighting without it. On Undaunted, we can even see her looking like she is going to start fighting without her sword. Continueing with Undaunted, the flavour text she states she is invincible. While this is probably an exaggeration, she is certainly very resilient, which certainly will help in hand-to-hand combat, even if she lacks training.

In the mutants and masterminds thread Christopher commented that Fanatic should have a higher Strength characteristic than Ra.  Super strength would probably make her a pretty effective fighter. 

So if relics are in some way created by angels, where does Ra's staff come in? We know that when a new host takes the staff, Ra takes over, and that the staff is in some way able to regenerate. We know tihs because it is broken in his original incap, while new Ra has it back. It does appear that the staff isn't necessary for the spirit of Ra to remain in charge of the body, but whenever there is a new Ra they possess the staff.

I'm still waiting on proof of a "new" Ra.

Fair enough, but he does have a functional staff, which still appeals to my original question of how Ra's staff works. 

The kicker for new Ra for me is the personality change. He sounds like a kid, where "old" Ra was worn down and very adult after the desert. But I won't have this argument here because it's off topic

Ra is a god.

I have absolutely no proof of this but I would think that he can imbue his own staff with a portion of his power, I think he crafted a new one himself.

On looking at Ra's incap I see that the Staff being 'destroyed' just means the head piece has broken off, I'm not sure I see the wooden part as integral to the staff's power. I don't see making a piece of wood five  Kadans high as being particularly difficult for a god.

If Indy can do it off-screen, I'm confident Ra can.

Ra isn't a god.

That is all.

Ra packs 3 staffs in his deck. He's like Batman.

I thought 4.

More than 1?

Are you a gully dwarf?

(Now there's a gaming-related reference I don't expect most folks to get… )

On topic, I think I'm with phantaskippy on Absolution (and Fanatic, in general).

With Ra, well, I think that staff head-piece is a powerful relic created long ago by a powerful superhuman (the original Ra) and imbuded with his essence. When a person touches it, Ra can manifest into that person - but that person influences that manifestation (which is why we have a different Ra right now - in my opinion, anyway). I have nothing to base this on other than what we've seen to date, though.

Get thee to Pax Tharkas, Rabit.

I can’t count that high either.

Gully Dwarves are kind of cute...but kender are the best :D.

And I find Gnomes amusing too :).

I wonder…can the Staff itself summon Ra in a similar fashion to how Ra summons the Staff? 

Might Atlantis have been an original home for The Host?

I think the staff head for NewRa is slightly different to OldRa's. It might not be the same staff at all...

In the game he just needs to play another card.

In reality, he need to go out and find an acceptable tree/branch to carve into his new staff. It takes a little while.

Fun Fact: the wood from the staff historically is made from the limbs of AkashButa

Every time I see this thread pop up, I think it’s about a religious gaming con.

The god of fire needs to find a suitable piece of wood from which to manually carve his staff? Ah, well, there's the problem, then ;).

It's got Dresden written all over it.

Take a look at the staff of Ra as it appears on the kickstarter.

The headpiece of the staff is a bird holding a ruby between its wings.  Now, take a look at the staff of Ra as it appears in the SoTM deck.  the headpiece of THAT staff is a disc with the ruby in the center.

I did some research, and the disc design (with or without something in the center) is associated with Ra, specifically as the Disc of the sun.  Its one of the most common symbols that crops up around him. Now, the bird design, specifically a falcon is associated with Horus.  Given the overally bird imagery of Tactics Ra, my guess is that his trials in the desert have caused him to fully transition into the Horus aspect of Ra.  this could also explain the personality shift.

Ra was a god, among a pantheon of gods.  While the pharoahs associated themselves with the divine, they were sons of Ra.  Manifestations of his power, not Ra himself.  Horus, on the other hand, was much closer to the mortal world.  Some Pharoahs (while they were alive) actually took the name Horus, and were considered to be divine beings.

In terms of mythology, Horus was a much more active God than Ra.  he was a god of action and war as well as sun and life.  So its entirely in keeping that Horus (Ra) would be more engaged and willing to dive in.

Ra appears.

Ennead appear. Beat Ra.

Ra disappears.

Horus appears. Beats Ennead.

Horus disappears.

Horus re-appears?

Braith, I totally feel you on everything you wrote. I made very similar observations on Horus during my Footenotes post on the topic (though that was before the Tactics KS stuff). In mythology Ra symbolises the rising and setting sun as an alagory for the cycle of life to death back to life. Makes sense. Ra seems to go away then come back a whole lot. You touched on the fact that Ra was connected with many creator-like gods, Horus being one of them. While Horus-Ra is a very common one, the combination of Atum-Ra was also very popular. 

The bird imagry is certainly Horus. But he also wears a Scarab necklace. That scarab necklace he is wearing looks identical to the one Atum (Roderick Ward) wears on his forehead. Recall that Atum takes the Scarab as a predominate symbol in the art for SotM (yes I realise the scarab is a very common egyptian symbol, but its a visual core for Atum). The skin tone + facial hair bear more than a passing resemblance to Roderick Ward as well. 

Roderick Ward may not be connected here. But I guess what I'm trying to get at is that this incarnation of Ra could be a little more involved than just the Horus aspect taking over fully. That aspect of Ra seems to have already taken over (at least by my reading of the Ra bio on the >G website). 

I wonder if Dark Watch Nightmist's has any bearing on Ra's story. Her eyes do bear the Eye of Horus markings (which were symbols of prodection and god-like power). 

regarding Dark Watch Nightmist...

Well, there's no particular reason why the host body has to be the same gender as the hero-body, is there?  We're dealing with power and magic on a ridiculous scale, that has associations with change and transformation.  

Also, Egypt had a couple of female pharoahs, like Hatshepsut, Nefertari, Cleopatra...

Totally. But is that what we are really seeing on Nightmist? Are those indeed the markings of Horus on her face? If they are, what does that mean?

I think that the regression darts (from Vengeance) played a major part in this.  The art depicts her reverting to "normal" after being hit.  Perhaps she started looking for alternative sources of power?  Egyptian relics are pervasive in lovecraftian stories, so its certainly in keeping with her aesthetic.

Or maybe the original source of the curse was egyptian in origin, and gained in strength after the darts wore off.  So the curse's heritage is starting to show.

This is a very interesting point. I wonder when Vengeance takes place in relation to the formation of the Dark Watch and  the Skinwalker. 

As for the origin of her curse, I do not believe it to be egyptian at all. Her bio talks of the "Chinese Master", and I am at the moment very strongly of the opinion that this master is either Zhu Long or a old mentor of his. Her curse is that a part of her is trapped within the mists of the Realm of Discord, just as a part of the mists is trapped within her. I'v always thought the little glowing orb Gloomweaver holds is that part of Nightmists soul, or something to that effect.

The earliest form of the "Eye of Horus" was actually the Wedjat Eye, associated with, not a masculine god-figure, but actually the goddess Wadjet, a snake-headed protector figure.

Take this for what you will. It may be meaningless.

I'm just going to point out the flavor text on the Rod of Anubis.

Gods damn it, Ronway, you beautiful genius!

Someone wanna share? I don't have access to my decks right now. 

I'm too lazy to get the card out, but basically it mentions NightMist holding the Rod of Anubis and feeling its power or something like that. It's been months since I have actually read it.

Cool, thanks Ronway. Interesting. 

And I had thought about it being permanent but if you look at Baron Blade's incap you see she is back up and running, so I'm guessing it was just a temporary thing.

Restating my love for the online card breakdowns.

Since it was brought up quickly, I'm gonna say Vengeance takes place before:

The Dark Watch forms (Fixer in normal clothes)

Apostate appears (Fanatic not in Redeemer armor yet)

Ennead's first appearance. (The incap side for V5 Blade shows Ra with no Beard, so the Ennead have not beaten him the first time yet to drive him off into the desert)

Why does Nightmist go after the staff of Anubis?

• She needs more power to fight Skinwalker, so she takes a team to get the staff and increase her power
• Nightmist wants to resurect Mr Fixer who was killed by the Operative, so she takes the staff in order to get Anubis to release Fixer from the underworld. The Trial of Anubis card art could possibly show Anubis weighing Fixers heart against a Feather to see if he is worthy of returning.
• Did you know there are two teasures found in the Tomb of Anubis enviro deck? Staff of Anubis is one, and Nightmist takes that. The other is the Idol of Anput. Anput, it turns out, is the female version or counterpart of Anubis. Anubis and Anput had a child named Kebechet who was related to mummification and keeping bodies fresh for reanimation. When Nightmist took the staff of Anubis, she might have turned into some kind of aspect of Kebechet, daughter of Anubis. This could also be a strong weapon against the likes of Skinwalker, given what he is and all. Note that the Idol of Anput also bears the marking of the Eye of Horus, just like DW Nightmist. Flavor text also mentions Blake Washington somehow building an exhibit display around the Idol, something playtesters may or may not find interesting.

The weighing of the heart was done to those about to enter the underworld, not leave it - if your heart was lighter than the feather, you got to go through into…paradise, or whatever it was. If it was heavier, it got eaten and your soul was basically destroyed into oblivion. Unless you were a Pharaoh, in which case you skipped the whole heart-weighing thing (because you were a god, or something) and travelled along a river thingy in a boat through a bunch of gates with challenges and stuff (like giant snakes that might try to eat you), and if you were properly divine and stuff then you were able to pass through it all and erm…join the gods or something, like all the other Pharaohs. I can't really remember the details…but basically, I don't think the weighing of the heart would have anything to do with retrieving anyone from the underworld because they didn't do that in Egyptian mythology. Nightmist might've tried nicking the Rod to try and rez Fixer herself, I suppose…though from what I recall Anubis didn't do much except escort your soul to the place with the scales and stuff for the heart-weighing. Maybe she tried to use the Rod and the Idol to try and rez him, if the Idol is to do with keeping bodies nice and stuff.

It could also be that they were collecting the relics to try and free the Visionary. We see her going under in one of the environment cards, so it seems possible that they would want the relics to try and get her back.  

Running with the idea that Nightmist becomes something similar to daughter of Anubis/Anput, and taking into consideration what "Attunement" means (DW Nightmist's base power), the whole healing/resurecting theme really sticks out to me.

And Braith, I totally forgot about Visionary falling into the Underworld. Just what I needed, another piece to the story I can't place in a larger context. Thanks!

If you are talking about NM's swirls beneath her eyes, those swirls appear in a few more places:

• Her arms
• Her nemesis icon
• Ethereal Bonds
• Grimoire
• Promo Gloomy's chest
• Promo Spite's chest
• Haka's eyes

Except for Haka, all of the other occurences are directly related to NM and her mythos.

This probably is a coincidence but…

…both involve snakes.

Quick question: Which poem by TS Eliot is Haka reading: The Waste Land or the Hollow Men?

I would imagine its the Wasteland, both because its his most famous work so more people will ger the joke and primarily beecause Haka's reading it in the Final Wasteland.

I won't disagree that The Waste Land was my first thought, but much of the imagery in the Hollow Men can fit into Haka's life in the Final Wasteland. One example is the last stanza: