His Infinite Names -- The Pullman Skerry

William · 07-01-2009, 09:12 PM

(MASSIVE SPOILERS BELOW)

"Because, Michael, the Republic of Heaven is something we must make wherever we are."
--Yves, answering the question "Why weren't we told about this and don't just smile at me answer the question damn you!"

So I've just finished reading His Dark Materials. The whole thing struck me as an interesting skerry of timelines for use in a GURPS Infinite Worlds game, and just now I realized: in fact, it would make an awesome GURPS In Nomine Infinite Worlds game.

Premise: introduce parachronics however you like. And what's the first world they find? The world of Will, from the second and third books. At first it simply seems like a double, but odd Disturbances from England, where Mary Malone and young Will are working, soon attract celestial explorers' attention. A literarily-aware interloper quickly realizes that they've entered the world described in Pullman's trilogy, after the events described therein...

There are all kinds of fun you could have with the ramifications. The mess with Authority and Enoch is probably the echo of the Fall and the Second Fall as it played out in Pullman-Skerry.A. Not all of them happened the same way, you see... doubles of Lucifer in some worlds, not in others. Or is that Abyss looking back at you with an eye familiar to a demon that has been to the Lower Hells?

You could write up Lyra's world's humans-with-daemons as beings whose Celestial Forces are separate from their Corporeal Forces, sharing the Ethereal -- which are damaged by intercision or cut off at death. You have mulefa, Gallivespians, and the humans of Will's world. Souls from the skerry that are attracted to the local Marches (that bland place with the harpies) dissolve to reincarnate as new flesh later. And if they want to delay, then here, mortals can become angels, but the angels are different. (And might be very interested in angels who claim face-to-face memories of the Creator.) Sometimes they reincarnate, appearing locally to be a first birth, in In Nomine's timeline, where it's possible to exit the wheel and face a final judgment.

Vapulan means of getting around the multiverse would probably pop Specters, while Sorcerous and ethereal spirit-jumping wouldn't (but would only be spirit-jumping), and angels could sense, find, and use the tiny natural windows. And why didn't Yves and Lucifer, who knew, tell anyone? Because Pullman got one thing very right: one's Destiny and Fate can only be realized in the furtherance of the Destiny or Fate of one's home timeline. Offworld events are mostly irrelevant, important only insofar as they impact one's own world.

And if you've dug all this for a while, why, the next thing to do is have the I-Cops show up....

07-01-2009, 09:12 PM	#1
William Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Upper Peninsula of Michigan	His Infinite Names -- The Pullman Skerry (MASSIVE SPOILERS BELOW) "Because, Michael, the Republic of Heaven is something we must make wherever we are." --Yves, answering the question "Why weren't we told about this and don't just smile at me answer the question damn you!" So I've just finished reading His Dark Materials. The whole thing struck me as an interesting skerry of timelines for use in a GURPS Infinite Worlds game, and just now I realized: in fact, it would make an awesome GURPS In Nomine Infinite Worlds game. Premise: introduce parachronics however you like. And what's the first world they find? The world of Will, from the second and third books. At first it simply seems like a double, but odd Disturbances from England, where Mary Malone and young Will are working, soon attract celestial explorers' attention. A literarily-aware interloper quickly realizes that they've entered the world described in Pullman's trilogy, after the events described therein... There are all kinds of fun you could have with the ramifications. The mess with Authority and Enoch is probably the echo of the Fall and the Second Fall as it played out in Pullman-Skerry.A. Not all of them happened the same way, you see... doubles of Lucifer in some worlds, not in others. Or is that Abyss looking back at you with an eye familiar to a demon that has been to the Lower Hells? You could write up Lyra's world's humans-with-daemons as beings whose Celestial Forces are separate from their Corporeal Forces, sharing the Ethereal -- which are damaged by intercision or cut off at death. You have mulefa, Gallivespians, and the humans of Will's world. Souls from the skerry that are attracted to the local Marches (that bland place with the harpies) dissolve to reincarnate as new flesh later. And if they want to delay, then here, mortals can become angels, but the angels are different. (And might be very interested in angels who claim face-to-face memories of the Creator.) Sometimes they reincarnate, appearing locally to be a first birth, in In Nomine's timeline, where it's possible to exit the wheel and face a final judgment. Vapulan means of getting around the multiverse would probably pop Specters, while Sorcerous and ethereal spirit-jumping wouldn't (but would only be spirit-jumping), and angels could sense, find, and use the tiny natural windows. And why didn't Yves and Lucifer, who knew, tell anyone? Because Pullman got one thing very right: one's Destiny and Fate can only be realized in the furtherance of the Destiny or Fate of one's home timeline. Offworld events are mostly irrelevant, important only insofar as they impact one's own world. And if you've dug all this for a while, why, the next thing to do is have the I-Cops show up....