The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms

APPENDIX 2 A Clarification of Terms[1]

In the name of Itempas Skyfather, most Bright and peaceful.

The Conspirators, as they are properly called,[2] are like all gods in that they possess complete mastery over the material world[3] as well as most things spiritual. Though not omnipotent—only the Three, when united, were so gifted—their individual power is so great relative to that of mortals that the difference is academic. However, the Bright Lord in His wisdom has seen fit to greatly limit the power of the Conspirators as a punishment, thus enabling their use as tools for the betterment of mortalkind.

Their disparate natures impose further limitations, different for each individual. We refer to this as affinity, since gods’ language appears to have no term for it. Affinities can be either material or conceptual, or some combination thereof.[4] An example of which is the Conspirator called Zhakkarn, who holds dominion over all things combat-related including weaponry (material), strategy (conceptual), and the martial arts (both). In actual battle she has the unique ability to replicate herself thousands of times over, becoming a literal one-woman army.[5] However, she has also been observed to avoid any gathering of mortals for peaceful purposes, such as holiday celebrations. Indeed, being near religious paraphernalia symbolizing peace, such as the white jade ring worn by our order’s highest devotees, causes her acute discomfort.

As the Conspirators are in fact prisoners of war, and we of the family are in fact their jailors, understanding the concept of affinity is essential as it represents our only means of imposing discipline.

Additionally, we must understand the restrictions imposed upon them by Our Lord. The primary and common means by which the Conspirators have been limited is corporeality. It has been observed that a god’s natural state is immaterial,[6] thus permitting the god to draw upon immaterial resources (e.g., the motion of heavenly bodies, the growth of living things) for sustenance and normal function. The Conspirators, however, are not permitted to enter the aetheric state and are instead required to maintain a physical locality at all times. This restricts their range of operability to the limits of their human senses, and it restricts their power to that which may be contained by this material form.[7] This restriction also requires them to ingest food and drink in the mortal fashion in order to maintain strength. Experiments[8] have shown that when deprived of sustenance or otherwise physically traumatized, the Conspirators’ magical abilities diminish greatly or entirely until they have returned to health. Due to the Stone of Earth’s role in their imprisonment, however, they perpetually retain the ability to regenerate aged or damaged flesh and revive from apparent death, even when their bodies are virtually destroyed. Therefore it is a misnomer to say that they have “mortal forms”; their physical bodies are only superficially mortal.

In the next chapter, we will discuss the specific peculiarities of each of the Conspirators, and the means by which each might be better controlled.