Footenotes: Apostate's Secret and the Destruction of the Multiverse

Welcome to another entry in my Footenotes series. Hope you brought your reading glasses.

Nightmist's deck holds so many bits and pieces of future content. We have picked a lot of them out, but everytime I revist her deck, something new jumps out at me. And then my head starts having thoughts (scarry I know).

Out of all of the villains and heros we have been introduced to through SotM, we know the least about Apostate. Seriously, we know a great deal about every other character except him. We dont know what he is, who he is, where he came from, why he has a sister sword to Fanatics, what his connection to Fanatic is as a whole...we know basically nothing. His bio is unhelpful, being all of a few sentenses and half of them deal with Fanatic going into hiding pre-redeemer status.

There a very important question here. Why. Why do we know so little about him? Why did Christopher choose to present him in this way while all the other villains get cool backstories and have all the fun.The only answer that makes sense to me is that all the answers to the questions above are somehow very important to the conclusion of the of the major narrative.

"It sends its servant" - Time Crazed Prisoner

Could Apostate be the servant of the Cosmic Entity and ultimate bad guy?

Consider the following. Nightmists deck contains a card call Astral Premonition. Flavor Text: "I shall not allow you to ravage this world as you have others". Others? He has brought chaos to other worlds as well?  Going back to the picture of Time Crazed Prisoner, there is a picture of orbit paths with big X's over the planet on each orbit. The name contains "Astral", so an astral premonition could be directly interpreted as getting a bad feeling from the stars (or outter space in general).

Oh yeah, lets also not forget that his front side is called Infernal Emissary. 

Emissary: Noun.

       1. a person who is sent on a mission to represent another person or organization

Man, Christopher kinda spoon fed us that under our noses! So is this person/organization that he is representing the Cosmic Entity? Take a look at his scant bio one more time. Group Affiliation: The Host. That sound familiar to you? Good, me neither. But the picture is starting to come together.

https://greaterthangames.com/comment/56932#comment-56932

Christopher putting "Demons" in quotes like that is more than likely significant to all of this in some way. Previously refered to them as nega-demons in the same thread. Putting both of those together, the conclusion is that these things are not Demons, at least not in the traditional sense of Heaven/Hell/Angel/Demon dynamic. They are something else all together.

The back art of Apostate's deck is incredibly strange and I am surprised it has not come up more on the forums. The thing in the center seems to be a planet on fire, at least thats how I'm seeing it now. The two females(?) bracketing that destruction though is quite a puzzle. Could one symbolise Fanatic, and if so, does she have a twin sister somewhere? That might even be too far a stretch for me. So lets stretch it further but in a different direction.

https://greaterthangames.com/forum/topic/footenotes-the-matriarch-and-the-red-herring-4239

This thread has a bunch of great stuff from a lot of different people. But one of the threads of thought that I really enjoyed thinking about was the loose connection we were making between Matriarch, the Cosmic Entity, and the Irish Morigan mythos.  The Morigan, just to quickly get to the point of this, is commonly depicted as a trio of sisters.

Well, this duo of sisters is rather interesting looking at it through that lense. Going back to my original thought there, maybe the one IS supposed to be Fanatic. Maybe the other is the Matriarch? Why Matriarch? Well, if any of my broad stroke conclusions from both of these threads is anywhere close to the truth, then Matriarch is very much tied in with the Cosmic Entity in a significant way. Now since it looks like Apostate is also the herald of the comming Appocalypse, both he and Matriarch could be connected in a significant way as well.

The Time Crazed Prisoner speaks of 'All will end as one' or something to that effect. "The Host". What if this Cosmic Entity is going from world to world trying to incorporate it into his own "realm" of existence? This could be the whole reason why the timelines and different universes are bleeding together, as a way to condense everything down before being absorbed/eaten/whatever it is it does. In a sense, he "hosts" all these worlds in his own realm to rule over and do as he pleases (or whatever motivation an all powerful cosmic dude might have). Re-reading KNYFE's bio, FILTERs interest in a particular set of realities is troubling. It seems to hint that there is one timeline that would allow this Cosmic Entity/Event/Whatever to consume the rest. FILTER doesn't mess with timelines "ending or begining", but KNYFE knows thats a lie. We are talking about possibly them aiding the Ending to all timelines, which would itself be the begining of a true singular universe. Why would this be good for FILTER? No idea, but considering the very nature of the Block and its inhabiting the gray areas of space/time, I would think they have the means to evade the fate of the rest of the multiverse. 

The bottom left corner of Time Crazed Prisoner shows one line that branches off to 2, which branches off to 4, which branches to 8, ect ect. This is pretty much how timelines get born in a sense, one action can yeild different outcomes depending on the factors of Fate and Chance (Nightmist brings these up as essential elements in her decks flavor text). Those all branch into unending possibilities and realities (ever see the end of Bio-Shock Infinite?). The Cosmic Entity, or whatever Cosmic Event that has KNYFE so worried, might have the reverse effect?

1. 1a person sent on a special mission, usually as a diplomatic representatddf

The Host is a collective name for all the angels. It seems that singing in choirs for years is enough to implant religious significance to that word despite my atheism. Next I'll be thinking that Cosmic Encounter is a good game. 

Google tells me it's also a novel by Stephenie Mayer, but I'm going to pretend I didn't read that. In fact, I'm going to pretend that everything to do with Stephenie Mayer never existed. 

I assume you mean this out of the context of the game right? If so, that is facinating. I never knew that.

Yeah, that's what I meant. It's not a commonly used term outside of religious discussion but I hear it in Christmas carols and services.

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,  Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. (KJB, Luke 2.13-14)

I'm sure it was chosen for the potential double meaning.

In light of Silverleafs comment, I had to do more digging.

Remember our past discussion on Unity, Golems, and Jewdaism? Here is some notes also from Jewish texts on "fallen angels" from wiki:

"Jewish pseudepigrapha, especially apocalypses, he appears as the chief evil figure, “ruler of a demonic host, influencing event throughout the world, cast out of heaven as a fallen angel”

Also from wiki on "Heavenly Hosts":

“Most descriptions of angels in the Bible describe them in military terms, such as encampment (Gen.32:1-2), command structure (Ps.91:11-12; Matt.13:41;Rev.7:2), and combat (Jdg.5:20; Job 19:12;Rev.12:7). The heavenly host participate in the War in Heaven and, according to some interpretations, will battleSatan and Satan’s own army at the End of Days and be victorious.”

We can see the End of Days/Apocalypses relationship directly in Apostate’s and Fanatic’s decks. 

End of Days: “In Christianity, end time is depicted as a time oftribulation that precedes the second coming of Christ, who will face the emergence of theAntichrist and usher in the Kingdom of God.”

To me, it looks like Christopher flipped this old Christianity story on its head, where Apostate acts as the second coming of Christ trying to usher in the kingdom of the Cosmic Entity. The second comming is a direct result of the appearance of the Antichrist, and that seems to be Fanatic here.

Hey Christopher, how am I doing over here? 

I like it. 

I'm looking forward to him coming back to see this. He's going to love it.

Correct or not, he's going to love it.

Any thoughts on who the named characters in his deck are?

Also, we have seen a lot of speculation about villians getting the hero treatment, but what about heroes flipping sides?  Undaunted shows Fanatic getting shot by arrows and being called a lunatic by Ra.  The only characters we see so far that use a bow are Parse and Trueshot.  Trueshot's arrows kind of glow yellow so I don;t think the ones in Fanatic are Trueshot's.  If your speculation about Apostate is true and he is the servant of CosBe then is it possible she is as well and might go full villian on us?

Some think they are the demon shown, or at least a specific one of that type. I'm not sold on that idea, but I'v asked this question on more than one occasion and have not gotten too many clues.

Sounds legit all I can think to add is that the two figures on the back of his deck appear to have the same nose as the banner on Parse’s buffer overflow/wotc box. Dunno if out lends credit to your theory or if it’s just a nasal shape that just keeps popping up.

If it is that could change things a bit (but after looking at it I'm not sure I think they are the same). The flavor text for Astral Premonition could be in a different context than I originally though. It possibly could be that Apostate followed the heros to whatever alien planet they end up on with the 3 suns (which would still fit very well with the name of the card). The cover of WotC shows Skyscrapper (presumably she is the Thorathian hero) in front of some clay like hut buildings. It bears a strong resemblence to the buildings shown on Astral Premonition.

Close, but a little off Foote.

I can speak to end times Christian theory.

The one you reference is a popular interpretation that was started by a scam artist/evangelist (it depends on who talks about them) in the 1800's.  It really took hold during the second big revival circuit in America and has stuck, and spread until it is the predominant protestant view of the end times.

(that was just for history's sake, not in game importance)

Apostate would very well fit the role of the Anti-Christ.  The Anti-Christ (in this theology) comes and unites the world, generally thought to solve a huge crisis or bring peace in troubled times, only to use that to usher in a world order that is evil.

The Anti-Christ is not the real bad guy though, just works for him, maybe an Emissary if you will.  He will lead the armies of evil, and of man against the True believers and armies of God in Armageddon, where blood will run as high as a horses bridle.  (that's pretty high)

The real badguy of Revelation is "The Beast," which used to be the UN, then the EU, you know, whatever group of nations comes about to promote peace and unity.  It has a bunch of heads and devours stuff.  (this version is simplified to the point of being innacurate, because no one wants to turn this into a week long study of popular Eschatology)

I honestly don't think >G is going too much into Revelation, that's dangerous ground to tread, as going biblical tends to get people riled up on all sides.  Are they using that imagery with Apostate and Fanatic?  Definitely.  The Host is the word for the angels, which all demons at one time were a part of.  It really fits his style and his deceiver side.

(Has anyone else watched the old Star Trek Animated Series?  They had an episode where they basically help Satan overthrow Heaven, only they stop at the last second.  It's hilarious.)

***

More history, non-game world stuff:

The old view pretty much takes Jewish Numerology and the format of the writing (Apocalypses were really popular then) and comes up with:

Hey Christians, don't trust Rome, Nero is Crazy, keep your stuff together, good times and bad times are coming, but in the end God will reward those who stay faithful and good.  He couldn't just write all that, because you don't get to write letters from exile without them being looked over by your captors first.

***

So let's run with this in game world:

Let's say Apostate is the Emissary of the big bad.

1.  The relationship between him and Fanatic has to be big.  Why would he make her, or if he didn't, who is she?  Is someone out there helping oppose the big bad, and maybe long ago word came to an Earth that wasn't ready for it and it became religion instead?

2.  Maybe Atlantis was destroyed by Apostate betraying them to the big bad, because they stood in his way.  We've talked before about how maybe all these artifacts are Atlantean in origin. . .

3.  If we run a little more, what about the four horsemen?  Conquest, War, Famine, Death.  They would have to show up if we go very biblical at all, they are major players.

Conquest:  Voss

War:  Maybe Cosmitron?

Famine:  ???

Death:  Gloomy?

Maybe we'll get a Voss alternate that is cosmic powered.  Or maybe these characters are still to come.

There is a small side of me that is now worried that Christopher has made this game just to run it into a Left Behind style thing, irrational fear?  Definitely; but nevertheless it is there now.  Thank you Foote.  I'm going to have nightmares about bad theology now.

Oh, as for Fanatic's fit into this, she would best fit as one of the Witnesses, who resist and preach the truth about the Anti-Christ, are killed by him, there bodies are left in the streets for three days while the world celebrates and then they get back up again, which would be somewhat shocking.  

As far as broad strokes go, that sounds pretty similar to Fanatics Redeemer journey. Her faith is shattered by Apostate, so she disapears for a while until she comes back with more resolve than ever.

Thanks for all the additional input. All great stuff.

Yeah, she would just need someone else to join her.

Also to really fit we'd need a bad guy to decieve all the other heroes, and have two left opposing the bad guy, but in doing so are able to reveal the truth to the rest in time for them to join up and fight.

Which would be awesome.

Two words: Dark Visionary

She is just as important to all of this somehow as it relates to the timelines. She has flavor text claiming to be all possible futures or something crazy like that. Could we shoe horn her in here somehow? It's a tempting thought!

She also would fit easily.

The beast has a woman riding on it, and later the dragon makes war against a woman who is with child, who is protected and her child taken to God.

The dark entity that takes over Visionary could very well be connected to the Big Bad, in which case either or both of these parts could be filled by a visionary, heck she could be the child as well.  (I'll let you postulate on that one)

That religion thing? Sounds like a comic already. ;)

Well yeah, most comics are written in America, and the Eschatology we are discussing was a major deal in America.  I mean 88 reasons for 1988 was in almost every check-out lane in America, and the idea that Gorbachev might be the Anti-Christ affected international relations.

Not to mention American support for Israel, and the Senate's aversion to the UN all being tied to this exact Eschatology.

A lot of comic book storylines and characters are mined from Christianity, because those plotlines are so intwined into our social history already, they ring true even if the names and places are changed.

An "apostate" is a rebel against his faith/religion, a former believer who chose to "turn away", to use the christian expression, from his religion.

As Apostate has many things in common with Fanatic, it could suggest that "Apostate" was a former "Fanatic" - another "incarnation" of the winged hero of the faith, from the past (or future ?) who turned away from his "mission" and decided to serve the "other side" - or built his own army. It would mean that the force behind Fanatic -whatever it is - created other like her through History. Bringing back the question of who, for instance created Ra and the Ennead - who are also "religious" heroes and villains with multiple incarnations through history.

I will stay far away from the supposed Cosmic Entity and other rumored big players - especially the force Fanatic worships, but the background of the Multiverse suggests at least two forces create/encourage with regularity "anormal" people on earth, who become heroes or villains and fight against each other, maybe in some kind of complicated chess game. Legacy and his strange hereditary powerset, the musicians of the void, the "born with power" Citizens, etc.

Currently, information is missing, and I spend more time wondering about the "concentric worlds" than anything else !

Edit : and why "birds" are so often used in the multiverse, from the Matriarch to Kismet to Expat's "doves". And why we have the recurring pattern of "missing one eye/arm". And why "little girls" - and more generally, "daughters" - appear a lot in the backstories and art. And...

This was an idea that I posted in the fun house of speculation

There is a statue shown in both Fanatic's Consecrated ground and Apostate's corrupted Effigy. An effigy is the representation of a person and the flavor text states "These things you hold sacred are the worst of Falsehoods!"Possible that the statue represents a common link to their past? Lends credence to the idea that "angels" and "devils" are actually aliens or beings from another plane. Perhaps Atlateans as that would explain how humans have a false image of them ( a "corrupted effigy")

I missed the reference to "as you have other worlds" that's some good evidence.

what if Fanatic is part of a triplicate? In morrigan's three aspects they each had a different purpose. Fanatic would fit the war aspect well, can't remeb er the other two, but if matriarch fits one could we find someone who fits the other?

Also, there is an interesting connection between Fanatic and Haka as well. Both have died and come back, as confirmed by their bios, and developed powers and abilities because of that. That could be an important clue as well

Took a moment to look up aspects of Morrigan

Sovereignty is a common one, which the Matriarch as "Her Avian Majesty" ect. fits perfectly.

The other two seems to be Death or some versions of precognition, information, turning the tide of battle, ect.

Parse could fit well then, which gives all three of them a connection to a cosmic force as well, since Parse was touched by the cosmic force that brought back omnitron.

Death is a harder one to fit though. Possible Expat, but that is iffy

Dark Visionary = precognition, info, turning the tide of battle. Fits to a T!

Matty/Visionary/Fanatic as the aspects of the Morigan is too juicy to not eat up!

That's a pretty big turkey for the holidays, Foote.

With Apostate and Fanatic, I would guess that some big force is out there that Apostate turned against, and he believes Fanatic is following them still, whether she is or not.

Perhaps human religion has been built around interaction with these forces.

If not specifically religion, maybe human interaction is a broader sense?

I'm kinda waiting for the 4th wall to break down and the "Cosmic Being" will be a "writing writer" sort of character. (if I may borrow a phrase from the Coheed and Cambria narrative. Common, you all see my forum avatar). If there are strong religious overtones to this Cosmic Being being "God" in a sense, the writer of a story is very much a creator (god) of his own story. 

For those not in the know, Coheed albums are one big epic space opera. Their 3rd album introduced the writer of the narrative as a character, who had to break the bad news to the protagonist that the only ending he could write that would bring him any peace was if he forced his character to destroy the universe from inside the story (by blowing up Star Transformer IV).  

https://greaterthangames.com/comment/50371#comment-50371

Maybe he wasn't kidding.

Maybe I just love reading too much into things 

Vorlons and Shadows.

My suggestion would be Kismet, as I said elsewhere.

Edit : As a side note, Apostate's cards always remind me of this, an important symbol in the anime "Noir".

I just have one question. Is Christopher a reliable narrator?

In the Mini-Nemesis thread, Empyreon was brought up and I think there is a bunch of relevant stuff bring to the table in support of my theory.

Empyreon is very close to the word Empyrean. From the wiki:

"The Empyrean was thus used as a name for the firmament, and in Christian literature, notably the Divine Comedy, for the dwelling-place of God, the blessed, celestial beings so divine they are made of pure light, and the source of light and creation"

Empyreon looks like he is made of Energy. Its bursting from him. He even damages himself in his AoE, representing the energy disapating from him into offensive output. 

More Christian symbolism is being used here, and if we are going to connect some dots here, that means he could very well be connected to the Cosmic Entity. He could possibly be a part of The Host in some capacity, especially if we are to stick with the Cosmic Entity as God/Creator metaphor.

Speaking of that metaphor, something else occured to me. When talking about all the Odin and Norse mythology symbolism in my Matriarch deck, I compared Odin to the Cosmic Entity there as well. Funny thing, and this is a little simplified, but Odin is a form of the word "Father". Sorta like God for Christianity. Thats not really important itself, but its more evidence for Matriarch could be a part of this as well. 

If the Cosmic Entitiy turns out to be God I'll cry.

Trick Question. Christopher is God…at least as far as SOTM and GSF are concerned.

I highly doubt it will be that literal in execution. Its really more of a vehicle for me to base predictions off of (like Empyreon and Apostate having a very strong connection in the narrative). I'll admit that its a pretty big leap by itself without the metaphors and symbolism tieing that idea together. Its not too much of a stretch to think he's drawn from a bunch of classical texts for inspiration in his stories, whether conciously or otherwise.

Its less that the Cosmic Entity will be God as much as it is that the Cosmic Entity might have similar properties and themes to God

If Christopher turns out to be God, that's not so bad.

Or it's extremely bad. I can't decide. 

Cryptic allusions to what is going on in the future, slightly odd sense of humor, fosters a group of loyal fans who get access to special priviledges. . .

not too bad of an analogy.

So I am not sure who or what the morrigan is but a hero representing death… fixer? he did die, i think. Well he isn't wearing the hat in his promo.

The Morrigan is an Irish goddess of death on the battlefield, associated with crows.

On the back of the Vengeance box, is the guy on the left blasting Medico supposed to be Empyreon?  If not I have no idea who it is; he's got the blast coming out of his chest, so that's my best guess.

yes, its empyreon

I love all of this.

Footenotes are basically my favourite part of this forum. Now that I can stand by a computer at work, I finally get to read through this magic!

Do you mean Judaism?

Jewishism.

A thought - has anybody (yet) compared the Time-Crazed prisoner art to the symbol on Progeny's forehead? That might go with the text Foote quoted above, and I'm 85% confident I've seen the symbol in the game SOMEPLACE before.

In light of WotC, some things from my original speculation need to be addressed.

Apostate is not the servant sent from the Cosmic Entity. That is without doubt Progeny. And I believe I was correct about Matriarchs connection with the Cosmic Entity and "the servant".

But this leaves us (read: me) without a clear direction of where the story of Apostate and "The Host" fit in to everything. The Host could still be tied to The Entity in some way, but it seems less likely now than before.

But what we do know is that Fanatic's story is not yet done in SotM juding by her wild apperance in Tactics and the shattered remains of Condemnation.

The host could be involved.

Apostate might not be on their good side, he could have fled.  Nightmist could be seeing another one of Apostate's people, or just not care that he isn't part of the group, he's still dangerous, and if the Host is the big bad, then he doesn't come from good stock.

Also, I would just like to say I Told You So, that Progeny is NOT Cosminautilus.

Agreed in part. Sticking with the Christian imagery, Apostate could be like Satan, a fallen angel cast out of Heaven (read: The Host).

I think the Host is a collective of figures though, and I don't see the Comsic Entity being a part of a larger group, not when it has something like Progeny as it's servant/creation.

I still think Empyreon is a part of it (Caps mini-nemmy from Vengeance) due to his name, as well as the woman found on PW Caps incap art (because who else is she going to be?)

I'm very interested to see how the Fanatic/Apostate/Host story plays out, because we see the end result in Tactics. Fanatic is all crazy glowy now and Condemnation is in pieces. It's a major story arch that has gotten no love since Infernal Relics was released and I'm dying to get some information about it. Maybe it'll come in the next expansion.

Colour me also very interested in the Fanatic/Apostate arc.

Foote, I haven't looked at Tactics too hard, is Condemnation broken or Absolution? Because Absolution was broken on Critical Multiplier, by Truth, and PW Fanatic wields it.

Look at the card "Staff of Ra" in Tactics (Ra's card, obviously)

The newly minted Ra is in someones museum of sorts. We can see the dented head of Omni-Blade (remember we see Mainstay beating that dent in on the Sentinels card "Good Hero - Bad Hero") and the shattered remains of Condemnation. We can tell it is Condemnation by the handle, the green orb, and the size/shape of the blade shards.

Absolution is broken, you are correct. But we can infer that Condemnation also shatters as well, likely between a final confrontation between Apostate and Fanatic (as far as SotM is concerned. Who knows if Apostate will still be alive during the Tactics arc)

It makes sense for Condemnation to be broken if Absolution is.

Sympathy

If a great cosmic being had an army, the soldiers could look like Apostate.  If that Great Being had a "Progeny" it could look very different.

Not that I'm sold on the angle, but try this out:

Take the whole Christian arc and turn it a bit askew, make the coming great battle Armageddon and The Host the angels coming to wipe everything out.  Ditch the whole salvation angle, Cosmonautilus eats souls.

In this story Apostate fills his role as being one of the cast out, the one who escapes punishment, probably turned on his friends.  He may be a liar, and evil, but he isn't rebelling against a benevolent/just god, he's weaseled out of active service in the army coming to wipe out everything, and came here hoping to get away from it all to rule his own little insignificant world and do whatever.  (Or maybe the fallen found Earth to be special and he stayed/returned after the mess 

His affiliation is with the host because he has somehow weaseled his way out of trouble and out of direct involvement.

Again I'm not really sold on this, but I have thought about it, esp. when you have "Progeny" coming to Earth alone ahead of the main force.

I could very well see the big bad showing up and Apostate having to pretend he's the loyal servant, or even turning and fighting against it.

Or I could be, and most likely am wrong and it is something incredibly different.

Fanatic doesn't call herself Fanatic, others call her that because she's well, Fanatical, about her self-imposed mission.

I can't see Fanatic becoming evil, ruthless yes, evil no.  Remember that Apostate didn't even land a single blow on her to remove her from his way, he simply hinted that he and Fanatic were the same.  The mere idea that Fanatic was capable of the evil that Apostate was took her out of action.

Either way I can easily see Fanatic as being the one other heroes need to constantly hold back from actually killing the villains, at least the ones they know can't get back up afterwards.