The names for Heah and the Makhan are based upon the fact that my concept for them is very mechanical. They are supposed to be the epitome of order, without any blurring of the lines for good or evil, a desire to preserve creation or destroy it, but simply and purely to obey the rules and laws of the world that they live within. Thus, for that mechanical aspect, I started searching for words similar to construction and building. In the end, Heah means "high" which sounds like a far stretch, but apparently all of the old Latin words for things being built or constructed are based upon the concept of heaping things on top of each other. Which sort of makes sense when you consider that without a great deal of technology, a lot of building started out as exactly that. Makhan, of course, is relatively self-explanatory as a slight variation on the word associated with Making, thus kind of turning them into "The Made."
Heah is the final deity, along with Fyrste and Malithia, who believes that there is a Prime Creator, and who therefore thinks that there is a very particular plan or map for the universe and Creation. However, unlike Fyrste, he does not assume that what has been done necessarily follows along that plan, with the fact that what has been done being unable to be undone not necessarily being evidence that what was done was somehow "right" or following along that plan. However, he is also not in agreement with Malithia that what has been done was wrong, and that it should be destroyed in order to start doing things along the "true" path of the Creator.
Instead, Heah is the eternal scientist. While Koshiri is also methodical in her own path, Koshiri still acts upon her own emotions and feelings, with a certain compulsion towards her sense that Creation is wrong somehow. Heah, in the meantime, does not act towards the pursuit of either the preservation OR the destruction of Creation at all. Instead, Heah has acted towards nothing but the attempt to determine through facts what may or may not have fallen into the plan of the Prime Creator.
The ironic thing here is that Heah *has* acted upon an initial assumption that there IS a Prime Creator in the first place, but given that initial assumption, Heah has not made any further major assumptions about Creation. As such, Heah did very little in the acts of Creation, as he was attempting to formulate a judgement regarding Creation itself.
However, once Koshiri created the inevitability of Death, Heah recognized that the constant feuding between those deities who wanted to preserve and destroy Creation would not end soon. He also recognized that their actions upon Creation were being done reflexively against one another, and happening too fast to study properly. And so Heah's primary action within Creation was to put order and systems to the universe. Suddenly, creatures would still eventually die, but they would go through a particular course of aging and development first. Certain physical properties and laws persisted from one creature or object to another. There was a certain consistency and predictability to Creation as a whole. This made it easier in Heah's mind to study and test certain aspects of Creation in order to make a final judgment regarding the need to Preserve or Destroy it.
By the time the deities began to Create their mortal races, it had become clear that they would have very little to do with direct impact upon Creation itself. For one thing about the inability of the deities to undo what had been done, was that every act that they had taken reduced the possibility for certain other acts. For example, as much as Nasci had attempted to touch Creation to find a way around that inevitability of death, what Koshiri had done could not be undone. There was therefore no way around that aspect of Creation. Just as the initial acts of Creation itself could not be undone. What the gods found, therefore, was that they were actually losing power. Not in a sense of being somehow drained, but because they began with limitless potential before any of that possibility was actualized, but once actualization of Creation began, there were less alternative possibilities that could be enacted. It was almost as if the deities had Created a box for themselves in action.
As such, it was extremely important for each of the deities, in Creating their mortal races, that they Create the race in a way that would allow them to best achieve their individual goals with regard to Creation. Thus, the Makhan were not Created as a tool for the implementation of an overall preservation or destruction of Creation, but instead as a tool to implement Heah's desire to study and categorize Creation. As a means of determining whether Creation was worthy of protection or destruction in the first place.
The Makhan are quite literally a mechanical race. For those with longer backgrounds in mythology or fantasy, they are most closely resembling golems than anything else. However, they are sentient and intelligent. Their society is one of absolute law, of which no Makhan ever disobeys, which helps them to operate and function without need of a disciplinary system.
However, in their interactions with other races, they are not naive to the fact that laws don't mean nearly as much to those other races, nor to the fact that those races do not necessarily recognize the laws of the Makhan. While this does allow them to be relatively forgiving of slight transgressions, they do not hesitate to exact justice upon major violations, in particular in cases of breaches of contracts and agreements. In fact, many races view their system of law to be confusing and foreign because it does not seem intuitive to many, but that system of law is logical and based upon very strict systems. The Makhan revere predictability, and anything that threatens such predictability threatens the basis for their scientific inquiries, muddies the waters, and makes their conclusions inexact. Without predictability, their system would fall apart, and therefore they exact justice against transgressions to such predictability with extreme prejudice.
As such, and as one would predict, this places Heah and the Makhan greatly at odds with Eleuth above all. Even the act of Eleuth upon the world in creating diversity was a source of frustration for Heah's desire to have order and control over his ability to study Creation. And with the Luthans' preoccupation with promoting, and in some cases some may argue forcing, individual choice, Heah and the Makhan cannot quantify specific, observable trends and patterns. For when everything falls to individual will, then there is too much room for variation and inconclusiveness. And these are the greatest threats to Heah's ultimate goals.
The magic of the Makhan is a magic of order and alignment. It is heavily focused upon artifice, granting power to objects and tools than being centered upon individuals. Electricity is another heavy theme for Makhan magics. In fact, heortstaal, or "heartsteel" is one of the primary sources of magic for the Makhan. It is a metal that is both highly electrically conductive, but also acts strongly as a conduit for magical energy, as well. It is at the core of every Makhan, serving as a source for life and power, and has in some rare cases (where a Makhan has been known to intervene in the affairs of another mortal race) been linked with certain healing and life-giving practices amongst other races, as well. However, that is not to say that there are not also many very destructive properties of the magics of the Makhan, as one can no doubt guess by the effects of lightning strikes and the like in general.
Overall, the Makhan are a race that is slow to act, but once motivated to take action for a particular goal, they act decisively and see their actions through to the end. They are therefore capable of being stalwart allies or fearsome opponents, depending upon which side of their inquiries one lies. That is, of course, if one could manage to get any of the Makhan to care enough regarding their existence either way...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment