Chapter 53: 052 Checkup: A Higher Power

As the Merchant left, being carried away from the core by a branch similar to the one that delivered Donovan and Diana here, the Arboreal Maiden made to give them a physical checkup.

"I won't ask you to strip down to your underwear, but please make the area on your back around your shoulder blades clear. The great Csillacra wishes for me to verify that the changes it implemented have properly developed."

"Properly developed?" Don was quite confused at the phrase that was used. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"The Great Csillacra essentially had to rebuild your bodies from scratch, the previous tissue being completely unsuitable for split. Organs, reactions to chemicals, and other such subjects were not altered. However there is always the risk that some of the rapidly developed tissue or organs may have not assembled themselves in the intended manner. Muscles are usually the culprit in these cases, crossing and fusing fibers being the most common though faulty attachments to tendons are also fairly frequent."

"How often are procedures like this done for that to be an issue? Didn't you say it was rare for someone to have it done to them?" Diana was a little worried about issues with their bodies, though the Arboreal Maiden's confidence in her abilities kept her from panic. She could tell they would be taken care of in a proper manner.

"The only rarities about your procedure were that you were being given a core, and that you were being altered by the Great Csillacra. Aside from that, the use of split in regenerating lost tissue or even creating new tissue entirely is not all too rare, though I understand that the cost of such an operation is not cheap. Even illnesses and the like can be remedied by the proper use of split, at least to a degree. After witnessing your kind's growth, I have come to the conclusion that this is the reason medical technology is practically non-existent. Speaking of, what do you wish to be addressed as?"

"What do you mean by that?" Donovan asked the question as her slightly chilly hands pressed down on his back.

"The name of your species. I think you will find that 'human' doesn't cut it, it seems to be the default interpretation of the term encapsulating all humanoid species. I wouldn't go with the scientific term, homo sapiens, either, a single word is the norm. I know you have a few names for humanity from different languages, though I don't know if that will translate well through split. Perhaps a name from your scientific fiction suite?"

Diana took over on this front. "I believe the official stance of the relevant political institution would have been to refer to ourselves as 'Terran' should 'Human' and its analogues have been deemed unusable in diplomacy with extraterrestrials. Something about it being a direct reference to our planet of origin, Terra."

"Wasn't Earth's official name Earth though?"

"For the longest time, it didn't have one. Until about fifty years ago that is. We officialized the name Terra as more of a scientific and diplomatic measure rather than anything else. The same conference officialized the moon as Luna as well. If I remember correctly, representatives of the Outer Oligarchies were invited as well. It seems like it was unilaterally agreed upon."

"Really? They actually agreed on something?"

"It seems so. Despite their hostility, they seemed to have had a soft spot for home..." Diana trailed off as she remembered that 'home' was gone now.

"God, that makes me feel a little bad for what I did." Don, his back to Diana, didn't catch on to her sudden depression. "I suppose that's war though."

"War? I wouldn't call what you did 'war'. ARC showed me the video, that was more like a massacre."

The Arboreal Maiden didn't really want to interrupt their conversation, there was a great deal she wished to learn from it, but there were other matters that needed to be discussed in the time before they parted. "So I take it Terran will be the chosen name for your race?"

"Oh," Diana was shaken from her train of thought, "Yes. More than it making sense, I find it quite the fitting name for ourselves."

"Seconded. I think Terran is a pretty cool name too."

The Arboreal Maiden nodded in recognition. "I shall pass this information on to all relevant parties. Your checkup is complete Donovan, I detected no abnormalities. Would you like a summary of the important changes?"

"I'd like that."

"I would also like to record this information, if you don't mind." Diana rummaged through her clothing in order to find a small tablet.

"The major changes, as expected, involve the addition and alteration of organs so as to make you capable of interacting with split as would any other person. Other than that, a few issues in what you would call your genetic code were resolved. Some examples include a predisposition to cancer and early balding. The biggest reason was to ensure that your future offspring would not be plagued by issues generated by the circumstances of your conception."

"Early balding huh..."

"It would have started within the next ten years, considering your projected natural lifespan of around 750 years you would have only spent around four percent of it with hair on your head."

"Thanks for that."

"Natural tooth regrowth was also added owing to your prolonged lives, and your natural lifespan should now sit around five thousand years. Granted, this change is meaningless if you throw your life away, but it was a consideration by the Great Csillacra in order to build on your limited advantages and help to diminish your many disadvantages."

"F-f-f-f-five THOUSAND?!?!?!" Donovan was instantly on the verge of collapse.

"Is-wha-that's," Diana was trying to catch her words. Project Eternum had given them a large number, but that was a theoretical maximum, the true value was likely no where near that long. "Even Jesus hasn't been dead that long!"

"Ah, yes. Jesus of Nazareth born in Bethlehem of Joseph and Mary is who I assume you are referring to? Watching his life, though terribly short in my eyes, was so dreadfully interesting. It doesn't surprise me that such a convincing religion was born of his sacrifice. Had I not known the Great Csillacra was interfering, however limited, I too would have thought that a higher power was at work."

""What!?!?!"" Don and Diana were unified in their exclamation of shock.

"Should I not have said that?"

"Jesus is, was, considered the greatest cultural and religious mystery of our time!" Diana, who showed great interest in the past, was enthusiastic in her explanation. "His existence could be reliably confirmed owing to the large number of third, second, and even first hand sources, but we could make nothing of his miracles which supposedly happened. Some could possibly be explained as sleight of hand, others might even be described as a slightly more advanced understanding of scientific principles, but there were some that just didn't make sense no matter how we tried to look at it."

"Yeah. I'm not exactly religious, nor am I too educated on the historical or cultural fields, but even I know about the Enigma of Nazareth."

"Well, I suppose your reactions make sense considering the fact you don't know the intricacies of split..." The Arboreal Maiden trailed off. She seemed like she was seriously contemplating. "I suppose it would be unfair to deny you an explanation at this point wouldn't it. In that case, you should understand that most of the stories related to that man are true, most. After his death, some details of certain stories were embellished in the same way rumors are, but by and large they all hold true. This even applies to the circumstances of his birth, that being Mary the Virgin."

Diana and Donovan alike were staring at her with rapt attention. This was huge for them.

"Rather than being impregnated through intercourse, Jesus was conceived by the Great Csillacra's direct fertilization of one of her eggs in order to create an avatar which it could use in order to enact change. Split, as you might imagine, was involved in this process. Remember that your universe was only severely lacking in split, not absent of it. Jesus, as he was named, was not under the Great Csillacra's direct control but rather acting under its suggestions and tutelage."

"Wouldn't that make the Great Csillacra the father?"

"The father?" Donovan was confused at Diana's interjection.

"Part of the Holy Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Jesus was the Son, God was the Father, and the Holy Spirit was... I guess we don't know yet, do we?"

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"About that..." The Arboreal Maiden shyly raised a finger. "I, might have had a part in all of that." Her cheeks were ever so slightly redder, clearly embarrassed about it.

"You're the Holy Spirit?!" Diana was further shell-shocked.

"Not . . . quite. You see, the Great Csillacra isn't the best at conveying certain emotions, considering it lacks the relevant biological features. So, when needed, I may or may not have had to act as a substitute in order to achieve the desired effect. Anyways, Jesus was often told to go to a certain place and perform certain actions that would further the Great Csillacra's plans. That isn't to take anything away from his own character of course, he was a paragon of your virtues through and through. Many an occasion he performed acts on his own out of the goodness of his heart. Unfortunately, that caught the attention of the local Empire and lead to his eventual death.

I think you might be surprised to find that the effects of this, especially those related to his 'resurrection', were far more effective at accomplishing what the Great Csillacra set out to achieve than what it had originally planned to do."

"He was actually resurrected?"

"Kind of, at least by your standards. It might be more accurate to say he was forced into a near death coma that took three days to recover from."

"How long was he without food? Water?" Donovan was more surprised with his tenacity and will to live.

"He could replicate bread, presumably through split, and fasted for forty days and forty nights at one point. I imagine a mere three or four without it would be possible." Diana answered his question, much to the Arboreal Maiden's delight. It really made her job easier when someone she was working with had the gist of the it.

"That is indeed the case. After he recovered enough to move the boulder from his tomb's entrance and fled, he began working small 'miracles' behind the scenes for some time before his death."

"Wow. Here I was thinking we would never get the answers..." Diana looked up at the sea of leaves above them. "In that case, who was the devil? Was there someone else you had play the fool?"

"No, the devil was not an individual or other such entity but a 'manifestation' of humanity's, no, Terranity's more evil nature. In the context of religion, you might call it the original sin, or cardinal sins, those instincts and desires that epitomize barbarism."

"So the devil is within us all after all, huh?" Don was thinking about all this new info. He wasn't exactly an academic, but he could tell when something was probably very important for him to know.

"While they certainly are rather destructive impulses, I should tell you that they are not without purpose. In fact, the Great Csillacra purposefully designed you to be that way not only to survive the early stages, but so you may be better suited to accomplish the task it has for you.

Lust, while necessary to make sure that your initially limited numbers grew and that you would continue to the point you would be introduced to the greater universe, introduces problems in a society that has grown past a certain point. At the same time, chastity as an antonym might be thought of as lust for a single person, monogamy, an important societal function to have if you wish for everyone to be at least somewhat pleased and able to continue their lineage.

Gluttony was a prerequisite for civilization to bloom, the desire for food incentivizing a sedentary lifestyle so that you might focus your attention on progressing as opposed to survival. However should one become too gluttonous they will suffer from health risks, those associated with being fat, and so a degree of temperance is required to maintain a suitable store of food and a healthy body.

Greed, alongside Sloth, serve to incentivize growth both technologically and economically. Charity is a necessity in order to make sure that no single person becomes overly wealthy and therefore despised by others, while Diligence is required to actually get things done.

Envy is a powerful motivator as well, encouraging people to better their skills and usefulness to society in small amounts in order to attain what they desire, though too much of it will result in actions such as theft. To counter this a societal pressure consisting of kindness and liberality to take care of others must be implemented to disincentivize theft and encourage others to reach their desires, the objects of their envy.

Pride, then, is ultimately what moves people to better themselves, at least in small amounts. Pride can push people to properly enforce laws, protect others, and provide care, though it may also push them to do nasty things or make them stubborn. Therefore an air of humility is required to keep it in check, to always be open to someone being better than another.

All of these sins and virtues needed to be balanced in order for you to grow. Tip the scale too far to one side and your species might even start to regress. A people too chaste will begin to shrink in size and ultimately die. A person too temperate will end up malnourished. Someone too charitable will only end up impoverishing themselves, another too diligent in their duties may end up working themselves to death. Someone too kind may end up being taken advantage of, empowering those predisposed to sin. Those too humble will not only draw the ire of others, thinking it to be a mockery, and potentially even miss chances to display their skills."

Donovan and Diana remained quiet for some time, taking in this speech that almost seemed practiced. There was logic to this argument, one they understood at some level, however neither fancied theirself a philosopher. To them, this was relatively new information. To Diana in particular, this seemed to be the Arboreal Maiden's way of teaching them how to fashion the ideal society.

A few minutes after the Arboreal Maiden left them to think, Diana piped up. "That was only six sins right? Aren't there seven?"

"Indeed, there are seven. Unfortunately, I myself struggle to describe the relationship between Wrath and Patience. Definitionally, Impatience is the antonym for Patience, and Calm or Happiness would serve as the antithesis to Wrath. However these two are what the great Csillacra posits must be balanced. The thing is that it is possible to hold Wrath in your heart, yet be extremely patient in the way that you go about redressing the grievances that may have caused it. Similarly, there are people who are extremely impatient yet would never hurt a fly in anger.

I suppose it might be a means to balance someone's actions, someone who is easily angered and impatient is likely to make mistakes, maybe even lethal ones, while one who is a patient person unable to get angry at another will only end up pushed around.

I feel I simply must not have seen enough of your development to fully understand the intricacies of what the Great Csillacra means by this."

"Well the meaning is simple isn't it?" Donovan didn't see what was so hard about it. "It's the method of waging war."

"The method of waging war? What do you mean by that?"

"Wrath, anger, is an emotion usually expressed when in combat, at least that's what I think. Anger is usually accompanied by a degree of impatience, a desire to avenge whatever slight caused the conflict in the first place. That anger, wrath, would appear to be an incredible tool while in physical combat, increasing adrenaline and pushing the body to the limit. However you can't afford to be like that while in command, while responsible for strategy. You need to be patient and wait for opportunities instead of just throwing your resources at everything. Anger, especially that shared by many people, can be taken advantage of to draw your enemy into a disadvantageous position.

The further up the command structure you are, the more patient you should be. Never abandoning wrath of course, that often being part of the raison d'etre for a soldier in war, but you can't base your actions on it. The ideal is to have your ground troops, those actually fighting, be in a state of default aggressive, attacking anything they can if orders do not outright forbid it. Every step on the chain above them, the officers should become progressively more patient.

The commanding officer of a platoon should be thinking more about how to accomplish their objective and issue orders to his subordinates, but he should still be focusing on combat. The tier above them should keep an eye on their positions and work to get them in positions that maximize their lethality and effectiveness, the tier above that in turn should be focusing more on the tactical level objectives, above that focusing more on operational objectives, all the way to the top where they aren't at all focused on combat but instead winning the war.

At that level, the focus should be on securing extremely important logistic hubs and supply routes, forming large scale strategies to seize or prevent the seizure of key objectives, and minimizing overall damage to your own side while maximizing damage to the other. At this level, patience is desirable as it will prevent you from making mistakes where it matters and jeopardizing the lives and material required to wage war. It is also desirable because it takes time for the results of your plans to reveal themselves, impatience might ruin all your careful planning."

The Arboreal Maiden began to lightly pinch her bottom lip in thought. Ultimately, she was not very skilled in the art of war. In fact, she actively avoided such matters. Perhaps she would have to discuss this matter with the Marshall.

"If we think of it like that, then I believe that this comparison holds some water in the realm of diplomacy and government too. War is usually what is defaulted to when diplomacy falters after all.

I was told it was incredibly important to remain patient when negotiating with another party, especially those in a stronger position than you, in order to get a better deal. At the same time, you need to know when to push your advantage when you have the better position. Push too far and you might lose everything, don't push enough and you might not get what you want.

The wrath of the people you represent can be used as a powerful tool, the threat of war and severance of trade deals being powerful cards you can play as a result, but it might also pose issues. A good diplomat isn't controlled by emotion, but they know not to ignore it. Ideally, the temperament of a diplomat mirrors that of the people they represent, so knowing when to make your anger, discontent would be more appropriate in this case, evident is also an important quality.

As for government, righteous fury isn't a fantasy. Corruption can exist anywhere, so when it becomes apparent that the government has become corrupt and no longer acts as a representative of the people they claim to represent it would not be surprising to see assassinations and revolts performed by the common man. Ideally, there would be a legal path to take to remedy these faults, but even those can become corrupted. In this regard, acting patiently to accumulate a list of grievances and build a large base of support is needed so that change can be made peacefully before violence erupts.

If you act too soon, you lose all support. If you act too late, nothing gets done and support for your cause fizzles out."

"I think I understand now. Outside of war, wrath acts as a catalyst for societal change. I seem to recall revolutions following a similar pattern to what you described."

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