The Codex Explained: What Measure is a Deity?

This post contains a few spoilers for up to chapter 4 of The Equestria Codex

Chapters two and three are now written, and I feel the story has finally got going. We have finally seen and experienced some of the events which have shaped both the nation of Equestria, and Celestia's own character. These chapters were quite exhausting to write, not least because of what Celestia ended up going through, and it was tough writing some of the painful scenes.

But there was one particular thing which I have enjoyed in planning these chapters, and that is the challenge of essentially writing a deity.

The alicorns are without a doubt the closest the EC universe has to Gods so far. Harmony is the most powerful single entity by far, of course, but its role doesn't exactly stretch beyond existing and being a source of magical power. Luna and Celestia have many of the usual godlike traits such as immortality and benevolence, and they are active in the world as protective forces.

I wanted to make their characterisation consistent and believable for their position, so I decided to approach them in the same way that I tend to approach my Christian theology; I decided what their most basic fundamental characteristics were, and then tried to work out what their motivations would be based on those.

1) First of all, I decided that I would interpret them as the spirits of the sun and moon themselves, who reside on the earth in physical avatars. The obvious conclusion from this is that they are functionally immortal, their spirits impervious to any physical attacks. This does not make them invulnerable, however, as C2 shows. That brings me on to...

2) their connection to the spirits of the world. All spirits are connected in my universe, and the princesses are fundamentally tied to those of the rest of the world. Thus, an event capable of severely weakening the spiritual structure of the world can have devastating effects on them. This in a sense gives them a motivation to protect Harmony, as it is essentially a matter of survival.
That's not to say that their motivations are selfish. When Harmony is strong, they are strong also, and their almost complete lack of material needs means they have very little greed-based motivation. But as friendship and the happiness it brings is almost synonymous with strong Harmony, they are motivated to ensure the happiness of the pony race as a whole, and that is the means by which they find fulfilment.

3) Fallibility. This is the main difference from Christian theology of course (apart from, you know, ponies). While the two sisters mean well and always have everypony's best interests in mind, they are not perfect. They can make errors of judgement, sometimes with profound consequences. This first shows in C2, where their first intervention at the battle is an act of desperation, and they fail simply because they don't know what to do.
Part of the motivation for making them fallible was to allow for Luna's inevitable fall, but on the whole I find it just makes them much more relatable as characters.

4) Limited power. Like fallibility, this places a restriction on the capabilities of the princesses. This had to be included for canon reasons (specifically, Celestia being struck down and trapped in A Canterlot Wedding Part 2). It also ensures that there is a reason for the Elements of Harmony to have significance.

5) Unity of the two. This idea actually formed fairly late as I was writing the story, but just flowed naturally as I wrote their dialog. I have the sisters existing (at least initially) as a sort of shared mind; their consciousnesses are separate and distinct from each other, but they complement each other perfectly and move in step with each other so that when they converse they almost seem to think as one. This dynamic will become more significant as Luna falls, I imagine.

6) Thought patterns. The idea is that the princesses have very powerful minds, on account of the sheer scale of their spirits. This is going to be particularly prevalent in Celestia as the story follows her. Her mind will always be working so that she quickly knows how to best take advantage of any situation she finds herself in (within the limits of her finite understanding, of course). On a related note, she is generally capable of hiding her true feelings from others, projecting a calm and friendly air while her mind sits behind it carefully analysing the situation. She always does her best to not be deliberately dishonest, but it helps in boring meetings.

And that, in a nutshell, is how I characterise the princesses. It is an intriguing academic exercise writing for a character who differs so fundamentally from myself, and I am really enjoying it.