Solarian Culture - The Precision of the Phoenix-Rite · 5:35am May 21st, 2020
There have been several comments on the degree of precision needed at the phoenix-rite’s meal settings, and how it reflects a “rotten” core to Heliopolis’s culture. While I do agree that there are things wrong within Heliopolis, namely the classism and bias against those without a blood family, the precision of the phoenix-rite was never meant to be one of them.
Specifically, the phoenix-rite’s precision is not something that is forced on the servers, but rather, it is a means by which Solarians show their spiritual devotion to Queen Celestia and her chosen ascendants, the phoenix-born.
From a cultural context, the Solarians are a highly spiritual people, and their devotion to their goddess and her chosen runs deep. Phoenix-born are treated with the same reverence, if not more, than Princess Celestia is given in MLP:FiM, while Celestia herself is considered a shining source of good that only the most worthy are permitted to ever see. Celestia is their goddess, and her phoenix-born are her agents. For context, if Celestia were akin to the Abrihamic God, all of the phoenix-born other than Royal Seneschal Raven Inkwell would be akin to Virtues or Dominions, while Raven would be somewhere on the order of a Throne.
With this in mind, it is important to note that Raven is not demanding that the Solarians perform to this degree of precision as an expectation. If she wanted the precision for precision’s sake, she has other means to get it, like using constructs or allowing the use of spell-dances. But the precision in and of itself isn’t the point.
Rather, it is a chance for the sun-gazers to show their devotion to Celestia and her chosen by trying to come as close to Harmony’s perfection as they can. Raven is giving them a challenge, and basically saying "I am giving you the opportunity to show how far you are willing to push yourself for Celestia." Essentially, by working hard and getting the settings perfect, they are saying “my love for my Queen and her chosen is so strong, that I am willing to put in as much effort as it requires to make this as perfect as possible for them.”
What is also important to note is that while the sun-gazers are dependent on Celestia (she brings the day, and provides them with protection), the reverse is not true. Were the sun-gazers to vanish, Celestia would be saddened, much like someone seeing their favorite colony of bunnies get wiped out by a flood would be, but she would ultimately be okay. Acts of devotion like the phoenix-rite's execution are a way that the sun-gazers can say "we love and appreciate you Celestia, let us show you how much."
When you say sun-gazers, you do mean the worshippers, not...her subjects in general right? Sorry if it's a dumb question; I've found myself adoring the world building, but some of the terminology still evades me.
Ah, I didn't quite appreciate that this level of attention was only for the Phoenix-rite and not related to the insane pickiness of the nobles or Celestia. Just want to say you're doing amazing work on this story and I'm also really excited to see where you take this after we've covered the content from the one-shot. I also like how you're setting up Sunsets fierce disdain for all things related to Luna's subjects early. I look forward to see how this plays out in her inevitable meeting with Twilight (at least I think so! Guess we'll have to wait and see where you're taking us
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5266358
The sun-gazers are the people who followed Celestia instead of Luna and in one way or another worship her and adore her.
5266413
Well yes, but this is more a question of, to get down to it, how does this Celestia fare emotionally to others we've seen depicted? What I meant wasn't necessarily a request for a redefinition of sects, and more...was the line about Celestia being saddened but not emotionally destroyed meaning her worship, or her subjects in general? Because if it's the latter...I know in this continuity Celestia is a literal goddess, but damn, is she literally just that uncaring and disconnected, or is it more, she's at a state where a loss of devotees would be enough to make her be saddened by that loss, but she would still be happy to have subjects, period, y'know?
We've seen a lot of authors go down the rabbit hole of how immortality affects the emotional state of characters like Celestia, but in this continuity, how far does this disconnect run?
Tl;dr...in this world, is Celestia like a shepard, or is she like the owner of an ant terrarium? That's what I really meant to ask, I suppose.
Makes sense. Certainly preferable to self-flagellation or other harmful shows of devotion. And my card game lobe can't help but appreciate how it's devotion to white in the sense of extreme precision, dictates of tradition, rigid social structure, and of course the whole "praising a sun god" thing.
5266395
Thank you. Yes, this is only for the phoenix-rite. I have plans for how she and Twilight meet, and its going to be… entertaining. And that's all I'm going to say, because I'm a mean Voice in the Water.
5266416
Solarian is a national identity, sun-gazer is the race that makes up the nation. The sun-gazer race is comprised of three distinct sub-races, or tribes, the earth-weavers, sky-runners, and fire-callers.
The thing about this Celestia and her kin is that she's more like a benign Lovecraftian great old one or a Greek titan, in that they doesn't need worship to survive. Rather, they existed long before her followers came to be, and could survive their loss. As for her detachment, she does love her sun-gazers, but it is more like the love one has for a cherished pet than that of a sibling or child. But, there is a reason for that: she is not, nor has she ever been, mortal, so she finds it very hard to relate to mortal creatures. Mortal creatures are so fleeting that she can't become emotionally attached to individuals, because from her perspective, they're gone in the blink of an eye. It is why she values her phoenix-born so much, because they are immortal, she can grow attached to them. They aren't on the level of existence she is, but they're more relatable.
I'd say she's more like a caretaker for a nature reserve, and the sun-gazers are the animals she's responsible for. But, she's not just responsible for them, but the environment they need to survive.
5266424
That's exactly what I'm going for. If we were to consider the Centaur's nations by color, I'd say Solaria is White(70%)/Blue(20%)/Green(10%), Selenia would be Blue(75%)/Black(20%)/White(5%). The shadow-stalkers are Green(60%)/White(20%)/Black(20%). As to why this is their combination, I'll get more into that later. Discord and his chaos-spawn are Red(70%)/Black(30%), while his "brother" Grogar and his chaos-spawn are Black (70%)/Red (30%).
5266454
Shame none of the Red ones are good (to our knowledge), Red was always my best MtG color, especially Red/Black followed by Red/White
5266506
Well, in Nitor, chaos is the force that seeks to destroy the world, while the centaurs, fundamentally, are beings of order which hold back the chaos. While I agree that Red is not inherently any more evil or villainous than any other color (I mained Black/Blue decks when I played), in this specific context, it is an antagonistic force to our protagonists.
I'm going to asume its not posible for one of the ascendents to preform a deed of such harmonic importance as to earn a further premotion to something more even, not perhaps quite to the same level as a centaur but as close as a being can get without crossing that ephemiral threshold
5266944
You are correct. There are beings like Lumina the Phoenix Queen and Ceredwin, Alpha of the Moon Wolves that are closer in stature to the centaurs, but they're also unique, ancient immortals that have existed since the dawn of the world.
5266986
that is at once heartening cause realism and lore
and dishartening cause theres a tiny part of me that loves it when the good guys are given phinominal cosmic power at some point and let loose to go nuts with it, its the reason why in comics i like things like Captain Universe, the Pheonix force and other such beings entititues and forces that grant there weilders almighty, if temporary, upgrades.
That does put a better spin on the whole precision aspect of the training, but I feel it's kind of undermined both by the fact that this focus on precision seems to trickle down through the settings for all of the nobility (implying that the Heliopolans actually are blessed and any dirteater should be grateful just for getting to serve them) and even more so by the existence of the Chromos villages where people are trained from birth to bring this level of precision into the rite.
So the people who come to Heliopolis to show their devotion to the crown by their own volition have exactly one month to catch up to several thousand people who have been trained all their life and never had an actual choice (assuming that even if people born into those villages have the option to leave pretty much the only thing they have known all their life, anyone who actually does so will be treated as equivalent to a Nightlover from that point on for basically deserting from the Sun's light). The rumor Sunset brings up in the story doesn't praise those Chromians(?) for their unwavering devotion to Celestia or their own merit in improving the lives of Sungazers somehow, but for their ability to keep every single grain in the royal garden perfectly aligned. Any volunteers from outside who want to come even close to the ones their devotion is actually aimed at would need not just a truly prodigious amount of said devotion and focus, but also be a prodigy in general just to meet the standards applied. Maybe Raven doesn't demand that level of precision, but if they don't show it anyway they'll be shit out of luck.
Ironically the person who actually did beat out everyone from those villages did so to prove herself and spite everyone else in the training, with her devotion to Celestia being only a distant background thought in most of the training parts of the story.
This is nothing against the quality of the writing in general and I do feel better knowing that this level of precision is not actually enforced outside of the rite (at least by Celestia and Raven, presumably every other noble is only too happy to keep their serving staff to these standards all year round). That said, I still can't see it like anything less than a problem and another indicator that even Celestia and Raven aren't really that invested in changing the status quo and Sunset is more of a "que sera, sera" approach.
5341620
Y'know, those are some very good points.
I guess one thing that I can say to address the last point is that this Celestia would best be described as lawful neutral with some good tendencies. She is, at the end of the day, a being that embodies order.
And, after all, Solarian culture isn't our culture. What we view as unfair or excessive is normal and right to them.