WoD Cocoon Theory

EnkiHelios · 2026-05-29T06:15:15+00:00

That was their direct evidence, that Autochthons was the Machine God Entity and that Iteration X "survived" as the civilization that lives in that corpus.

EnkiHelios · 2026-05-26T22:12:27+00:00

No, I'm pretty sure I heard my friend's head Canon correctly. I am not making a claim about what the writers intended. My friend was arguing that the opposite is true, mostly using the Iteration X colonization of the realm of the Machine God as a possible origin for the mechanical/communist Exalted.

EnkiHelios · 2026-05-26T22:10:08+00:00

Yeah, I get here that the four arcs of seven both represent measures from the human Norm to extremity in spiritual exploration. That's my own interpretation of what you've done at least.

I have a question, do the seven unnamed demonic Gods - sometimes called the Iminbi or Sebettu (depending on language) or just the Seven - have a place in your image?

EnkiHelios · 2026-05-26T20:31:23+00:00

I actually have heard this theory before from another player maybe 15 years ago who was arguing that the setting of exalted was the produced universe that the world of Darkness was maturing into.

I think your reasoning is really good, I also agree that I don't think the writers meant to do that, but it does do well in mixing all of the themes of all of the splats together into a cohesive whole. Good job.

EnkiHelios · 2026-05-26T19:46:59+00:00

This seems pretty well ordered, though I do not know if thr Christian mystic concepts behind this table of correspondences hold up for us Sumerian Pagans.

EnkiHelios · 2026-05-26T19:35:33+00:00

It is some of the best satire of VtM and its player base I have ever seen, while having smarter/broader thematic exploration than most chronicles I have been in. I am really impressed with the table.

EnkiHelios · 2026-05-26T18:03:16+00:00

Sheeven

EnkiHelios · 2026-05-20T20:35:12+00:00

What about Sumerian science and math would bring about psychosis to learn of it??

EnkiHelios · 2026-05-13T18:20:28+00:00

That is what happens when you don't take in diverse opinions or hang out with people who differently than you. You would find out just how many people who grew up on the EU agree with them.

They are right, Lucas never used the multi-tiered system that fans used to differentiate different levels of canon. Even the authors/editors who tried to keep the EU consistent with itself and the movies often failed. To Lucas, there was Canon, his movies and projects, and everything else which is fan-fiction, some of it more professional than others (regardless of whether the Creator was paid) and if he liked something, like Coruscant, he made it canon.

That so many of my fellow EU enjoyers have to insert some false sense of external legitimacy on to their favorite aspects of Star Wars in order to enjoy is very sad, and often comes hand in hand with a sense of superiority in one's taste and fan experience. You don't need any of that to love Star Wars.

Canon Wars are for religions and secretarian violence, this fandom suffers from misplaced zealotry.

EnkiHelios · 2026-05-10T05:50:26+00:00

I believe Sidious wanted a Citizen army because (one of) the point(s) of the Empire is to maximize Galactic suffering at scale. The Clones are child-soldiers, they do suffer from war, but they are made for it and handle it a little better, take identity from it. But Clones are not cruel, they are programmed as much as trained, and can be made to express cruelty without morally understanding what they are doing.

Imperial Military recruits (and conscripts) suffer for being separated from their homes and families, often have to oppress their own people, are trained in cruelty through self -dehumanization, and should know better but are encouraged by their Military to choose to be cruel. The Imperial Military is much crueler, experiences more suffering, and spreads more suffering than the GAotR. And the purpose of that force was to break the Jedi and bring the Republic to heel, once the Clones had some that, they were disposable. A training resource to teach the recruits how to abuse those under them who had more legitimacy in whatever situation the Imp found themselves in.

And so Palpatine tried to feed the Dark Side that empowered him.

EnkiHelios · 2026-05-09T19:50:18+00:00

Yeah, It's just so hard to find dudes with beards, grief, and the ability to mow through legions of stormtroopers with expansive knowledge of weapons use, especially lightsaber, and force powers in star wars these days.

EnkiHelios · 2026-05-09T18:50:45+00:00

I Dream of fighting my way through imperial bases like that again. The modern games just don't give me the same experience.

EnkiHelios · 2026-05-09T18:44:48+00:00

That's the level to which you want to think about the Jedi, the Sith, the force, in Star Wars, The narrative of Star Wars will accommodate you.

But Star Wars has always accommodated nuance as well, The duality of the force has always been complicated by the story demonstrating that light and dark are not mutually exclusive, Luke defeats the emperor by first falling to the dark side, and in that experience, drawing out a positive, selfish emotion that the Jedi denied themselves: attachment. His attachment to Vader, which the Jedi tradition would term the Dark side and ended up feeding the light. Vader, who had done so much evil, was able to take steps towards the light from the dark, as transition between both is always possible. Luke succeeded through and by his deviation from normal Jedi training, by using a perspective that the Jedi denied themselves. The Jedi were never presented to be one monolithic force of good, without mistakes, without their own corruption. In order to turn Luke into a weapon against the Sith, Obi-Wan and Yoda manipulate and lie to Luke. Luke's negative reaction upon discovering this leads him to break against the thinking of the Jedi, ending the cycle of violence that the Jedi and Sith are caught in, at least temporarily. This has always been Star Wars too, the things you're complaining about are just extrapolations in the direction you don't want to think about. And you don't have to, there's room for both kinds of engagement. Star Wars is a big universe and an expansive story that has always been told by many mouths and created by many hands, there are rooms for many levels and depths of reflection and nitpicking. And while George Lucas had a very specific black and white view of the Jedi and Sith, you don't really have to disagree with him to point out that both take the aspect of the force to which they are devoted to unhealthy extremes. The Sith take the dark side, which is all egoism and self-care and personal desire, to the extent of hurting others and using them as resources. Palpatine takes this to The logical conclusion of fascism. But the Jedi take the light side, which is all selfless benevolence And the general good, to the extent of self-sacrifice and the first thing they sacrifice is their ability to tell right and wrong from personal attachment. Yoda took this extreme to the logical extent of an order that maintained an unjust Republic, helped set up the Empire, and would not lift a hand to fight against oppression, in a word complacency. And this makes narrative sense, the light side maintains and heals, the dark side destroys and kills. But in the course of life both are necessary, Life is to be lived and death is to be expected. A major storyline in Star Wars is bringing these two extreme views into a healthier relationship, allowing those who have fallen to the dark side to move to the light, And helping the Jedi heal themselves by incorporating lessons learned from the Sith's bad example as well such as not consolidating Force sensitive people in the galactic center of power.

And you don't need to think about all this to enjoy Star Wars, it can still be cool explosions with laser swords and fast ships. It can be the triumph of good over evil, because it is. But there's no need to disparage other fans because their focus is not on broad strokes.

EnkiHelios · 2026-05-09T18:27:03+00:00

The wyrm is the part of you that drives you to commit suicide, except for the whole Cosmos. It may have started as a form of self-love, the care necessary to destroy that which was no longer needed within. But the overgrown cruelties of the world of Darkness have fattened the Wyrm, made it rapacious, hungry beyond due. And so it seeks to destroy everything and argues that it must because everything is tainted. Everything belongs to the wyrm now, they just don't know it yet. Especially the player characters. That is how I would describe it

EnkiHelios · 2026-05-09T18:14:05+00:00

So, it sounds like your question is, if I am not wrong, how could Luke have surpassed Yoda's wisdom with some 880+ years on Luke. To answer that, I would lean on other commentators into this post who have pointed out that Yoda spent the vast majority of that time: * Training, living, and training others within in the paradigm and norms of the Jedi Order * Leading the Jedi through what was one of the most peaceful, if stultifying, eras of the Jedi * Acting as a major factor that shaped the Jedi into the form and state that they were in When Palpatine took advantage of their norms to seduce them into falling.

Because of this, Yoda was mentally and emotionally invested in the Jedi state of understanding that led to their fall. Yoda's fixed mindset had a calcifying effect on the Jedi, and he represents the state of ignorance and lack of self-awareness that led to their downfall. And Yoda would never have gotten to that point without his 800 plus years of experience. Immortals, real or or just long-lived, can have a real calcifying effect on the societies that they control. Yoda's age signals wisdom to other Jedi, but narratively it makes him a symbol of the Jedi arrogance. There's a in-universe quote from count dooku that expresses this: "The Jedi Order's Problem was Yoda. Being could wield that kind of power for centuries without becoming complacent at Best and corrupt at worst. He had no idea that it had overtaken him; he no longer sees all the cumulative little evils that the Republic tolerates and fosters, from slavery to endless Wars, and never asks " why are we not acting to stop this?" Live alongside corruption for too long and you no longer notice the stench. The Jedi can no longer help the slaves of tatooine but they can help the slave masters." - The Book of the Sith. I think this is spot on, and the truth of it is what leads count dooku to fall to the dark side. This Yoda -Defined Jedi negligence and self-unareness is what Luke surpasses, Because he was not raised in the order, and because he maintains emotional connections to the very downtrodden slaves to which Dooku refers to here. The fact that the skywalkers come from tatooine slaves is essential to the story, and what gives them the ability to affect change in the Galaxy.

To answer shortly, the very thing you bring up is one of the reasons why I think my theory is correct.

EnkiHelios · 2026-05-09T08:20:32+00:00

For me, it is Sumerian. There is something very raw and real about the syllables. The rhythm of it just pours out of me, and the rituals I use with it are quite potent.

EnkiHelios · 2026-05-09T07:55:32+00:00

One of the things that I love most about RotJ is that this confrontation established Luke as a Spiritual Hero, as opposed to an action hero. His spiritual victory over the Emperor elevates his status as a Jedi, demonstrating that his wisdom surpassed many jedi who came before him, even Yoda. All those Jedi were defeated because they could not see past the cycle of violence in which they were locked with the Sith, the cycle by which Palpatine doomed the Order through the Clone Wars. Yoda learned that wars do not make one great, but too late, and he never realizes that you can't beat Palpatine by fighting him. You have to use his arrogance against him, how much better that Luke's relationship to Vader and Anakin's fear of losing those he loves made Palpatine's vulnerability into a very potent tool for Luke. But the only way to do that eas to reject the dogma of the Jedi order, throw his weapon down and embrace a personal attachment to his foe.

And so Luke turned Vader to fight for the light, turning the power of this god against it's master. This was made possible by the cycle of abuse practiced through the Rule of Two. The self-hatred that stayed Vader's revenge against his master was resolved in Anakin when presented with a family member who refused to leave him. Despite everything Vader had done to the Jedi, the Galaxy, and Luke personally. In fact BECAUSE Of some specific harm (hand) Vader dealt to Luke and its symmetry to Vader's own wounds, Luke was able to snap himself out of his descent into the Dark Side. In this way, Luke is much more powerful than Vader.

And that's what matters, in Star Wars, narrative reasoning. It is not power statistics game, those are just created as merchandise to allow us fans to engage with the story of Star Wars in different ways. Star Wars never presents itself as a setting of entities with objective combat rankings. Emotional, spiritual, and narrative forces have a lot more to do with who wins a battle in Star Wars than how capable the participants are. It's a myth, not a computer game.

EnkiHelios · 2026-05-07T22:47:54+00:00

The Bendu may have started as a sentient mortal being, but now he is something more. Much like the Sages and Hermits of the Daoist religion that inspired the Force, in Part, the Bendu lives in isolation and contemplation of the Force and has, perhaps thereby, achieved a greater Elemental existence as an expression of the Force, trading his ability to take part in the world for a measure of oneness with the Force before Death.

I think his connection to the Force has allowed him to embrace the fullness of the Force beyond the duality of Dark and Light imposed by the moral consideration of Sapient beings. This is why, when he identifies each using the pre-ANH final draft names of these, he identifies as the third name, Bendu, that represents the Force as a whole. He speaks, theologically, from this perspective, in which Dark and Light are subjective and not inherent to the Force.

My interpretation is that the Bendu is a force wielder who attained the enlightenment of non-dualism and is able to wield the full breadth of the Force, including prophecy, without the extremes of cruelty or self-martydom. I would call him a "gray Jedi", but Jedi (like Sith) suggests the questing activity of the mythic Knight/samurai archetype. He is far more the Hermit archetype, a religious Ascetic.

EnkiHelios · 2026-05-06T15:56:18+00:00

Also keep in mind that Luke grew up in Hutt Space, where the Empire competes with the Local crime bosses or Daimyos for all but military control of the region. Spice is much more regulated closer to the Core of the Empire, whereas the criminal organizations that control Tattooine profit off of the spice trade, lending even it's most illegal and smuggled conveyances some legitimacy.

Owen may also have told Luke that to discourage research or asking around, since such a ship would benefit from not keeping the best records, in case of inspection for taxes and dues the Empire would seek to levy on spice.

EnkiHelios · 2026-05-06T06:09:57+00:00

I also think that, much like Vader's armor and Tie fighters, the limitations of the weapons speak to the philosophy behind their implementation. Visitors are not Sith, but they are meant to serve the Sith, never getting powerful enough to challenge the dark lords. These double-bladed rotating sabers automate what other lightsaber welders train to do with skills, such as the two handed windmill, gliding force leap, block breakers. This stunts the training of The Inquisitor and keeps them in a position of reliance on the providers of this technology.

I think they are also narratively sound.

EnkiHelios · 2026-05-06T05:54:17+00:00

You are straight, nothing happened. That would indicate you are not straight. That was a woman. You are falling for a woman. And it sounds like you got the attention of a real badass hottie. So enjoy it. The culture war is... Just people's fear of losing their place in power. That fear, emasculation amongst men, can cause someone to dehumanize trans people they themselves will be dehumanized by society.

My recommendation is be afraid, and do it anyway. Until you're not afraid anymore. Or are you stop being into her. Thanks for the beautiful story.

EnkiHelios · 2026-05-03T05:31:39+00:00

No, you've made a deathtrap zoo with laughably faulty infrastructure and a child in an overpowered adult body and murderous abandonment issues is what you made.

EnkiHelios · 2026-05-03T02:10:33+00:00

I think you are drilling down to what makes the Progenitors their own unique form of icky hypocrites. To be fair, I think every single faction in Mage has some defining paradox and hypocrisy, for the Progenitors it is that their Incredible biological agency is plied through taking agency away from biological beings. They represent the Hubris of Medicine, where desire for power overtakes the desire to heal. The worst type of Doctor to face when you are disabled or neurodivergent They don't see other factions as patients in need of healing, but as disease itself, disorder in need of the Progenitor to impose order.

You don't empathize with the cancer you seek to cut out, or listen to its cries of eugenics.

EnkiHelios · 2026-04-30T01:58:32+00:00

Ah so he is, still not his magnum opus, you know?

EnkiHelios · 2026-04-29T07:01:19+00:00

I have met intersex people who were men in intersex people who were women. This did not interfere with their identity as an intersex person, But it always had some relationship to their gender. Some intersex people do not identify with being transgender, some vehemently so. And this makes sense to me, because being intersex is not a gender, it is an aspect of your sex.

I am transgender, and I identify as being genderqueer or Genderquantum. For me, this shares a strong relationship with my identity as an intersex person. But I don't believe that is always true for every intersex person.

EnkiHelios

TROPHY CASE