[Video]

[crouching_sin]

[Today's video finds Naoya sitting and drinking a cup of coffee. He's bundled up in a green sweater, and he looks fairly amused.]

I thought I'd tell you a story today, for those of you who care to listen. This is a story about the Norse gods, and mistletoe. Let me define a fe things before I begin, for those of you who do not know those terms.


Gods are like… very powerful beings. Think of them like very rare, very powerful Pokemon. Gods in most traditions are similar to humans in the sense that they live out their lives, look similar to people, and have relationships. Generally, they're thought to have certain domains of power.

Mistletoe is a plant with white berries that looks similar to this.

[He pauses to lift up a picture that he's drawn to illustrate it.]

There's a tradition to meet under it to kiss people.

'Norse' refers to a people in my world that lived in the far north. Their culture is mostly known these days for being one that was full of warriors and raiders.


Now, on to our story. One day, the queen of the gods, Frigga, had a dream about her son Baldur - the god of light - dying horribly. Baldur had the same dream, and Frigga set out to see that it didn't happen. She traveled all the realms, making each and every object swear that it would never harm Baldur. Every object swore an oath - except for mistletoe, because Frigga thought it too young and unimportant to swear an oath.

The gods heard of all of the oaths sworn, and played a game where they threw things at Baldur and watched them bounce off. However Loki, god of fire and mischief, heard of this, and found out that mistletoe had not sworn that oath. He took mistletoe and made an arrow of it, and handed it to Baldur's brother, the blind god Hod. Hod threw the arrow at Baldur, which killed him.

Frigga went to Hel, the mistress of the dead, and pleaded for her son back. Hel agreed, on the condition that every living thing in the world weep for Baldur. She went to every living thing and begged for them to weep, and all did - except one. That was the giantess Thokk, and because she would not weep, Baldur did not come back to life.

[He takes a sip of his coffee, before speaking again.]

It's unclear whether Thokk was Loki in disguise or not. Certainly, he'd never tell one way or the other, god of mischief that he is. The fact remains that, though many see mistletoe as a symbol of love, it's in fact the reminder of a dead god.

... Though said god did reappear recently, though that's a story for another time.

I hope you all learned something today.

[Aaand the video clicks off.]

Comments

[Text]

[callbacks]

wait
the dead god came back?

[Text]

[crouching_sin]

As a demon, yes. In my world, when the one known as 'God' to most people nowadays - whose name is "Yehowah" - took control of the world, He cast down all of the old gods and spirits as demons. Some of those had a fragment of the previous ruler, Bel, inside of them.

Baldur was also known as Beldr, and took part in the War of Bel, where every demon with a piece of that old ruler came together to fight to take the other fragments and become the King of Demons.

It was said in the Norse traditions that he would come back at the end of days anyway, and the world did very nearly end.

[Text]

[callbacks]

oh
well that sounds shitty
did anyone win or did something else take place

[Text]

[crouching_sin]

Someone won, though he made a poor decision as to what to do with that power.

[Text]

[callbacks]

dont we all
what happened after that though
i mean you said the world almost ended so was it ok after all
or did you have to like
rebuild and stuff

[Text]

[crouching_sin]

He chose to become the Messiah - which put the fate of humanity's free will in God's fickle hands. If humanity does not act the way He wants, He will take away everyone's free will as an act of 'benevolence'.

[Text]

[callbacks]

whoa ok that is SOME BULLSHIT
the fuck does he want a really boring game of sims???
even my universe with its stupid time fuckery and predestination crap doesnt pull shit like that like we still have choices and shit
mostly

[Text]

[crouching_sin]

Agreed, it's incredibly stupid, considering free will is what makes humanity what it is.
Even his other options of what to do with that power would have been fine, as long as it wasn't running away. I would have preferred my plan, but even just keeping the power and sending the demons away would have worked.

[Text]

[callbacks]

what even was the benefit of doing the messiah thing that sounds idiotic

[Text]

[crouching_sin]

I don't know, he didn't give me his reasoning.

[Text]

[callbacks]

what does it even mean to do gods will anyway
its not like any religions ever been clear on the topic

[Text]

[crouching_sin]

Keep people in line, mostly. Punish the 'sinners'.

[Text]

[callbacks]

lame
dumb and lame
this is why all religions are such bullshit they dont explain anything and so many of them are wrong
or at least wrong in my universe i guess since theyre real in yours

[Text]

[crouching_sin]

They may be 'true' but that doesn't mean the stories don't get messed up in the most fucked up game of telephone ever.

[Text]

[callbacks]

yeah i hear that
we had all this greco roman and welsh shit just popping up out of nowhere in our world and also all the zodiac signs turned out to be representative not of perfectly reasonable made up myths about star pictures
but of some kind of caste system for the aliens that created our universe
it was pretty disappointing all around

[Text]

[crouching_sin]

That's... very odd, but I suppose I can't really judge another world on its oddness, given mine.

[Text]

[callbacks]

nah dude judge away
im pretty aware of what rampant bullshit my world was and frankly what ive mentioned isnt even a fifth of it
yours sounds like it has some internal consistency at least even if that messiah thing sounds whack

[Text]

[crouching_sin]

And the internal consistency of God being... essentially a dick, really. It has been a constant pretty much since the beginning of His existence.

Setting people up for failure, placing impossible tasks in front of them, limiting humanity's potential...

[Text]

[callbacks]

sounds like any world no matter if the big g god is around or not

[Bitter bitter bitter bitter rockin' everywhere.]

[Text]

[crouching_sin]

I suppose that's true. Not that I have much experience with alternate worlds, I'm afraid.

[Text]

[callbacks]

take it from me theyre mostly all the same
right down to how nothing matters and then you die
the differences mostly lie in cosmetic details
for example on what they call twelth perigees eve some aliens pseudoparental symbiotes apparently go out hunting and bring back the biggest piece of shit they can find
and i mean that literally
their haul is literally a giant behemoth turd
and they bring it inside and decorate it like a christmas tree
the more things change right

[Text]

[crouching_sin]

I'd call bullshit but that's pretty much what it is, isn't it?

[Text]

[callbacks]

yeah see youre catching on to what makes my universe go round

[Text]

[crouching_sin]

Of course. I think it makes most universes go around.

[Text]

[callbacks]

probably
but anyway thanks for explaining about mistletoe
seventeen years old and i never heard that shit before i mean christ what do they teach us in schools these days