A New Life: The Emperor Himself
Posted: Tue Aug 30, 2022 3:26 pm
TIMESTAMP: 76 Searing - 91 Searing, 122
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Learning about the Gelerian Imperium was actually a rather interesting thing as learning about the history of any nation was wont to be. In truth, it was a fascinating thing how a nation could be so forward thinking in regards to science and technology that the government itself felt almost…archaic, in a way. However, one thing that was of note was the fact that at the end of their history class, they spent a good two weeks learning not about the Imperium itself, or even past leaders, but the current Emperor. This was…unbelievably tiring to the two vampyres and they were surprised it even continued beyond the first day. For as many boons as the Imperium had, the dogmatic way in which they viewed their Emperor was honestly a bit…disturbing.
As far as the two were aware, the Emperor was not more than a mortal, human man. As fallible as anyone else, he was, and they couldn’t actually see what it was about him that made him so inherently special aside from the serendipitous circumstances he was born into that allowed him to live the life he led. In spite of this very obvious set of facts, everyone around here held the man up higher than any of the divines. A nation is more than its leader, yet here? It felt so dogmatic that any positive thing about the Imperium itself was attributed to the man, despite the fact that it was doubtful he did much of anything on his own given the scale of the place.
Neither man spoke these thoughts outside of the private company of themselves, and even then, it was avoided. To do so would be sacrilege, heresy. It was extremely fascinating to them how the Imperial Mandate worked, too. Initially upon their arrival, they thought it was more of a consistent thing— but no. That’s not it. It was a bizarre way to allow the Emperor to rewrite the laws at any time, at his own whimsy. Should he change his mind about anything already written? That’s fine, he can just…do that. Such a thing was strange, for the vampyres were used to things like laws and politics being so very slow, yet when you had a system in place that allowed one person to change things just whenever? It was actually anxiety inducing to think about keeping up with. Who knew, there could be no changes for years and then ten in a month. And if one were to find themselves out of the loop…? Well, that would be the fault of the citizen in question.
One should also note that the Emperor was beyond that of a deific figure, one to be regarded with the utmost reverence. He was…anything anyone wanted him to be. Well, not really, since he could not actually be everyone’s ideal all at once. However, that is, in fact, how much of the Imperium’s citizenry appeared to feel. The parasocial relationship that people were encouraged to have was one that allowed them to fill in whatever vagaries that surrounded him with whatever they wanted.
To some, he was a chivalrous man. Noble, knightly, kingly, honorable…everything else one would expect. Among those who believed this, there were still myriad differences. Splinters of this group thought of him as something stoic and austere, somebody very serious in nature, who ruled with a benevolent, yet ironclad, hand. For others, they saw him as a lot warmer. They saw him as a gentle shepherd caring for his flock. This one, Hector thought, was laughable. Given what he had been taught thus far about the Inquisition, what he had witnessed and so on, to say that there was anything gentle about this Emperor’s rule was…more of a joke than anything else. The Inquisition was remarkably cruel. Such a thing did not bother him, no, it was just the fact that so many people were so delusional that made it funny.
Somehow, others saw the man as a charismatic politician. They found him charming, attractive, witty, and so on. Again, this was lost on both Hector and Vergil– they found anything relating to the man to be…dry, largely. And yet, he was so heavily romanticized that people would sit there and hold him up as an ideal which they would then compare all of their potential romantic partners to. Some were infatuated with the man in general. These folks were just…bizarre. He was a middle aged man, not too attractive, but not bad either. It was just wild to them how blindingly smitten people could be with a man with whom they had never, and very likely would never, even speak to.
In truth, it would have been a lot easier for the two of them to adjust if this blind reverence was toned quite a bit down. It was such a foreign concept to them that they had trouble playing the part since the glory of the Emperor himself was lost on the two of them. It was…hard to force enthusiasm about somebody who one looked at as a person instead of a figure of myth. It was difficult to revere somebody that one only saw as a man and not anything more.
This was actually the most difficult part of living in the Imperium for both of them. The reverence. The deification. The dogmatic loyalty. Neither of them were capable of feeling this way for somebody they had never met. Neither of them were capable of feeling this way even for the divines themselves, being that they had been so entrenched in the ways of the Menders. To put individual creatures up on pedestals like this was a farce, and it was incredibly difficult for either man to dispel this way of thinking from coloring their view of the Imperium. Man was meant to lead and reign over itself, yes, but as a collective. To put a singular man at the top of the pyramid was a plan bound to topple, and if history were anything to go by, such a thing would happen here, too. Eventually.
The question, then, would be if they would be around yet still when this Emperor fell, when the new one rose, and then for however many more would rule until the Imperium fell or dropped this system. For they were, effectively, immortal. Would they live to see this nation continue to thrive? Or would it fall while they still drew breath? Would they still be here to see it first hand? Or would the information be whispers on the wind? The thought of watching this nation change was almost ambrosial to Hector, in truth.
Vergil was far more cynical. He foresaw disaster. Each new Emperor being more narcissistic than the past, and eventually, the Imperium would implode. Flaw would build upon flaw. Cracks would form in the foundation, splintering it. Yes, it was possible for these things to be reinforced and repaired, but Vergil just...did not have that much hope for the Emperor to do this, as megalomaniacal as this ruler of the Imperium came across to him now, and he imagined it would only get worse with time.
All of these thoughts, however, were about the distant future as opposed to the here and now, but what else were they supposed to think about when sitting in an undecorated, windowless classroom listening to somebody else drone on about a man neither vampyre cared about?
As far as the two were aware, the Emperor was not more than a mortal, human man. As fallible as anyone else, he was, and they couldn’t actually see what it was about him that made him so inherently special aside from the serendipitous circumstances he was born into that allowed him to live the life he led. In spite of this very obvious set of facts, everyone around here held the man up higher than any of the divines. A nation is more than its leader, yet here? It felt so dogmatic that any positive thing about the Imperium itself was attributed to the man, despite the fact that it was doubtful he did much of anything on his own given the scale of the place.
Neither man spoke these thoughts outside of the private company of themselves, and even then, it was avoided. To do so would be sacrilege, heresy. It was extremely fascinating to them how the Imperial Mandate worked, too. Initially upon their arrival, they thought it was more of a consistent thing— but no. That’s not it. It was a bizarre way to allow the Emperor to rewrite the laws at any time, at his own whimsy. Should he change his mind about anything already written? That’s fine, he can just…do that. Such a thing was strange, for the vampyres were used to things like laws and politics being so very slow, yet when you had a system in place that allowed one person to change things just whenever? It was actually anxiety inducing to think about keeping up with. Who knew, there could be no changes for years and then ten in a month. And if one were to find themselves out of the loop…? Well, that would be the fault of the citizen in question.
One should also note that the Emperor was beyond that of a deific figure, one to be regarded with the utmost reverence. He was…anything anyone wanted him to be. Well, not really, since he could not actually be everyone’s ideal all at once. However, that is, in fact, how much of the Imperium’s citizenry appeared to feel. The parasocial relationship that people were encouraged to have was one that allowed them to fill in whatever vagaries that surrounded him with whatever they wanted.
To some, he was a chivalrous man. Noble, knightly, kingly, honorable…everything else one would expect. Among those who believed this, there were still myriad differences. Splinters of this group thought of him as something stoic and austere, somebody very serious in nature, who ruled with a benevolent, yet ironclad, hand. For others, they saw him as a lot warmer. They saw him as a gentle shepherd caring for his flock. This one, Hector thought, was laughable. Given what he had been taught thus far about the Inquisition, what he had witnessed and so on, to say that there was anything gentle about this Emperor’s rule was…more of a joke than anything else. The Inquisition was remarkably cruel. Such a thing did not bother him, no, it was just the fact that so many people were so delusional that made it funny.
Somehow, others saw the man as a charismatic politician. They found him charming, attractive, witty, and so on. Again, this was lost on both Hector and Vergil– they found anything relating to the man to be…dry, largely. And yet, he was so heavily romanticized that people would sit there and hold him up as an ideal which they would then compare all of their potential romantic partners to. Some were infatuated with the man in general. These folks were just…bizarre. He was a middle aged man, not too attractive, but not bad either. It was just wild to them how blindingly smitten people could be with a man with whom they had never, and very likely would never, even speak to.
In truth, it would have been a lot easier for the two of them to adjust if this blind reverence was toned quite a bit down. It was such a foreign concept to them that they had trouble playing the part since the glory of the Emperor himself was lost on the two of them. It was…hard to force enthusiasm about somebody who one looked at as a person instead of a figure of myth. It was difficult to revere somebody that one only saw as a man and not anything more.
This was actually the most difficult part of living in the Imperium for both of them. The reverence. The deification. The dogmatic loyalty. Neither of them were capable of feeling this way for somebody they had never met. Neither of them were capable of feeling this way even for the divines themselves, being that they had been so entrenched in the ways of the Menders. To put individual creatures up on pedestals like this was a farce, and it was incredibly difficult for either man to dispel this way of thinking from coloring their view of the Imperium. Man was meant to lead and reign over itself, yes, but as a collective. To put a singular man at the top of the pyramid was a plan bound to topple, and if history were anything to go by, such a thing would happen here, too. Eventually.
The question, then, would be if they would be around yet still when this Emperor fell, when the new one rose, and then for however many more would rule until the Imperium fell or dropped this system. For they were, effectively, immortal. Would they live to see this nation continue to thrive? Or would it fall while they still drew breath? Would they still be here to see it first hand? Or would the information be whispers on the wind? The thought of watching this nation change was almost ambrosial to Hector, in truth.
Vergil was far more cynical. He foresaw disaster. Each new Emperor being more narcissistic than the past, and eventually, the Imperium would implode. Flaw would build upon flaw. Cracks would form in the foundation, splintering it. Yes, it was possible for these things to be reinforced and repaired, but Vergil just...did not have that much hope for the Emperor to do this, as megalomaniacal as this ruler of the Imperium came across to him now, and he imagined it would only get worse with time.
All of these thoughts, however, were about the distant future as opposed to the here and now, but what else were they supposed to think about when sitting in an undecorated, windowless classroom listening to somebody else drone on about a man neither vampyre cared about?
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