Talla's Frontier Temple: Chapter 7
Added 2023-02-02 16:08:59 +0000 UTCComments
I'm going to respond to this more later (while being careful with spoilers), but I want to say I really appreciate the sarcastic condescension of forestalling an "apocalypse-of-the-enraged" with: "No pressure Dija, you got this. Here - have a pillow."
Xavier Torch
2023-03-31 13:39:20 +0000 UTCHot, very hot. I am not surprised that the Conspirators struck first, and literally as our protagonist entered the city. The levels of deception certainly added extra dimension and spiciness to what we would normally expect to be a natural, honest act. It also highlights the trade offs of the temple system. Peace, perhaps . . . but at what price? Earlier we are told what we already knew that men in the temple are not involved in raising children, but what if they did want to participate. The temples solution appears to be quite simple, just don’t tell them. It reminds me of America’s “don’t ask . . . don’t tell policy,” regarding homosexuals in the military under President Clinton’s administration. Comedian’s far and wide had an absolute field day for those 8 years of Clinton’s tenure. Fortunately, Zhair’lo is much more perceptive than most men, and has very strong, clear meshes, and thus potential insight into his partners mind. He knows something is different this time around, even if he isn’t given enough information to make an informed choice, lol - or even realize he might have one. The deception doesn’t just end there though, the Conspirators/Geneticist are in a unique position to control who the mothers are, similar to the games played by the little girls – but with a lot more authority. The little girls can sometimes switch messages or assignments similarly the geneticists can presumably choose partners and probably switch names of the encounters’ participants, after all the only true record of Talia’s, mother is buried and encrypted deep in the Conspirators stacks. We have already seen how hard it can be to identify members of Sweetness as long as they are wearing skirts and the conspirators are well schooled at taking advantage of that. Zhair’lo couldn’t tell until the skirt came off and even then his thought tell us he hadn’t really seen a woman with three in that particular discipline – but was it really three? “Oh, she’s from Pussy, Zhair’lo realized, seeing the thick hair peeking out from under the hem of her skirt. That’s what three upgrades looks like?” Its interesting to note that at this point in his young life Zhair’lo has never seen a triple in that discipline, he’s probably seen singles and maybe a double and then briefly two perfections (11’s) while he was in an altered state (and fell unconscious shortly thereafter), with no actual references in between. Thick hair peeking out from under the hem of her skirt? Does that really sound like 27% of the way to perfection? Good lord what monstrosity must lurk under a Goddess’s skirt? Would not surprise me at all if later on he has to re-assess his estimation. Although, we have seen special services can merit an out of division upgrade before keeper, but she has at least two, I suspect she has at least three or more out of division disciplines, since we are told: “She has so many upgrades, and I can’t tell which one in the most prominent, he thought, only one Abundance, clearly, and I think it’s only one Facial. I can’t see her stomach or back well enough to pick off Iron, but… Zhair’lo might not be sure about Iron, but we have seen that a consistent symptom of Iron is height. Indeed, in several instances Talla has been completely disregarded out of hand as being too small to be anyone of import, and we know: “[Djia]’s tall, Zhair’lo thought. She’s just wearing moccasins, but her height makes up for my leather boots so we’re almost eye to eye.” Djia’s not a warrior, she doesn’t have to wear the flattest shoes possible without any support, she’s taken extra care with her appearance even wearing eye make-up to enhance her eyes - something Zhair’lo tells us most women don’t do during normal service. I am pretty sure from the clues clues you laid out that she has at least one rank of iron, along with facial and abundance at minimum. She’s taken every precaution possible to appear to be as close to Zhair’lo age and development as humanly possible, probably to minimize any suspicion, especially since she must interact/co-opt potential gatekeepers in the form of women of Form (who do not approve of planed Eugenics, beyond preventing inbreeding) to pull this off. In fact, her senior’s [conspirator] probably coached her how to answer certain inconvenient questions, that might normally arise, Indeed Zhair’lo was able to tell They’re not supposed to tell us this stuff. And I’m not supposed to know, when he asked “How do you have an Abundance upgrade and a Facial [as a mere Neophyte]?” “Special services to the Temple,” she said. Although you didn’t previously expressly give a time-line [Well – actually you did, when you responded to Christopher] on the childbirth timings I think I recall a clue: I got the distinct impression that Maska, when she was still a Keeper had not yet gone through childbirth, then later after she reached Acolyte, it was implied that soon that she would need to perform a [special emphasis] duty before advancing further, I am guessing that stressed duty is childbirth. Since women are usually matched with men of the same age this implies that men pulled to sire will normally matched with women of the yellow (Acolyte+) or orange (Adept+) tier. (for a population to be reasonably stable, without any war, they will need at least two children per mother). We know the Temple is particularly interested in breeding gifted men (and clearly, despite his age Zhair’lo appears to be about as gifted as they come) with powerful high ranking women, but are publicly, at least, somewhat limited due to propriety and in the geneticists case avoiding suspicion, how far can they go? Having Zhair’lo temporarily, but effectively taken out of rotation due to the Beshanna’s Queen proclamation was definitely a wake up call to the conspirators. This is probably compounded by the fact that even as gifted as he was discovered to be, by Gern’s Sweetness division, he was not expected, at his young age, to survive the Ordeal. He was viewed as a tragic, but necessary sacrifice required to save tens of thousands of innocent people. Only, a handful of people actually know how he survived, beyond that very small number, Talla’s role is unseen. This makes his survival seem even more miraculous to most people and to the conspirators, his his survival and breeding even more vital. Some of them probably even consider him to be the next great step in the breeding program. Those types of facts are just fodder to the fanatical, and the conspirators as cunning and intelligent as they are are still fanatics, due to their strongly held belief that their breeding program is absolutely necessary to forestall a continental system-wide breakdown featuring a literal apocalypse-of-the-enraged that would make the battle of Breshenna look like Cake-day. No pressure Dija, you got this. Here - have a pillow. I strongly suspect Djia is at least actually an Acolyte and possibly a (goddess/high-officer) born woman, probably on officer track. Interestingly, Djia believes she is in-the-loop about the deception and tries carefully not to reveal it to Zhair’lo, despite liking and admiring him. Clearly, the Conspirators painted her a heroic picture before she even met him. Is she really a conspirator? or just easier to manipulate because she landed in their house. It’s highly possible that sweetness was successfully able to keep Djia away from other goddess-born men, until “the proper time,” so unlike Talla, this is a completely new experience for her. Of course they didn’t “warn her,” - that would have raised inconvenient questions. They are not trying to educate her, they are trying to manipulate her. Clearly, the Conspiracy has many layers, Djia might be central to their plan, and perhaps even their long term goals, but is not deemed politically important enough to be privy to her own role, at this time. An Acolyte on officer track might only be about 24 years old which is not so terrible for an 18-19 well traveled young man, especially if they can hide it, and after all after the records are fudged, who will know. Which raises an interesting question, in our world women normally ovulate for 3 days, is this true here as well, if it is are the conspirator’s going to try to hit Djia’s window again in 48 hours or do they have another desirable/eligible woman in mind, how would they explain a repeat performance, or would they even need to. Del’s reaction tells us she knows something of the protocol. A round two (if it occurs) might give Zhair’lo another chance to get answers. How would the conspirators arrange for a higher rank breeding with an unusually gifted young man. We have seen High Officers have the Luxury of summoning a man since they cannot leave the temple. I imaging the Conspirator’s Sorceress could arrange sufficient political coverage she deems necessary, within reason. We know that Gern’s Goddess and Queen of Endowment both had fantasy’s regarding Zhair’lo, but the Goddess only actually served him when Breshanna fell and for a particular necessary purpose, then again she did ascended though Lips, and we get the impression she was only included in the Conspiracy after ascending far enough for her inclusion to be necessary. I have a feeling that a true dyed-in-the-wool Conspirator who sees the Eugenics program as central to their purpose will have a lot less qualms and a lot more fanaticism. Maska, in Breshenna, for example is willing to risk her life carrying on her life’s work, under a Form-Ascended goddess that would probably gut her just like she did Endowments queen if she ever discovered Maska’s true purpose. We know the conspirators had hoped Talla would land at least in Sweetness where they could have almost unlimited access to her. Indeed Talla CHOOSING Endowment is what allows her to land in a relatively safe space where she is allowed to develop and cultivate her own opinions and result in this beautiful story. I believe Gern’s Sorceress of Endowment was truly disappointed when she realized that after all that happened Talla ultimately didn’t really trust her either. Djia and Zhair’lo’s mesh is particularly strong which surprises her, and she assumes it is simply the potion. Zhair’lo tries to talk to her about it, but she evades the question, which is a pity, because unbeknownst to her, he had additional information that could have alleviated her own personal concerns. By controlling information, the temple hopes to control the people. Djia by helping conceal that information is also ensuring she too is also continues to be, somewhat blindly, manipulated. Lol – the Officer couldn’t even be strait with him about his “rest,” the very person to guide him safely to his rest, has been assigned, targeted and bio-chemically prepped to pounce on him, as soon as she can get him alone, away from his friends. Maybe they do have a sealed virgin to help, as he assumed, but the officer clearly had no intention of letting him rest: “I believe our Temple needs your Services,” . . . Zhair’lo asked. “Do I have a day to rest?” . . . “Of course, of course,” Nyesh soothed . . . we do want you at your best.” . . . yet probably less than a couple hours later . . . “Do you often Serve in the middle of the afternoon here?” “No,” her eyes lit up, “but needs are needs and proper timing waits on no woman.” “Timing?” Zhair’lo raised an eyebrow. Djia smirked . . . Actually, now that I think about it, Turiska probably has it’s own conduits and seal breakers, while the city’s conspirators have limited and very short term access to Zhair’lo, I suspect the delay on travel is either fabricated or exaggerated, the cities’ conspirators will probably call in whatever favors it deems necessary to maximize this opportunity. A Large city like Turiska, would have proportionally more conduits and seal breakers than a city the size of Gern, yet Goddessborn/Highofficer born children would still be limited because no city, however large can support more than three perfections on a discipline (the forth being inevitably and spectacularly fatal). When we started this journey Gern seemed big, but now after visiting Breshenna and Turiska which are both much larger we realize it is probably one of the smaller cities. In fact, each new small city (no mater how small) provide an additional environment/ecosystem to produce additional Goddess-born, that simply could not be replicated in a larger city no matter how much resources the temple might be willing to throw at it. Thus smaller cities could play a very important role in increasing Goddess-borns per capita across the Temple Empire. Since the temple is convinced that Goddess-borns of ever increasing strength are considered vital to both safety, security and prosperity (because the strength of a Goddess influences the distance trade caravans safely can travel outside a city.) Imagine what world powers in our world have been willing to do increase such capabilities. From that perspective, sweet innocent little Magnus is a big, big deal even for a large powerful city. An essential, vastly valuable trade commodity that sweetness cannot and will not ever acknowledge, yet will nevertheless affect decisions at the highest levels, even to the extent of causing a war between divisions resulting in the near annihilation of a Breshenna. It’s interesting that Del, seemed to suspect what was going on, even before the “guide,” reached the building. Yes, Del has a single facial upgrade, but she clearly had some prior information/experience of what was going on. I am also guessing later Djia, had a quick private discussion with the women while the men showered, but Del definitely understood her guides symptoms, even going out of her way to steer the discussion around it, even before they got to the building. Del’s going along with it, orders are orders after all, but I suspect she knows Zhair’lo (a male who would normally be assigned to white tier) unusually young to be pulled for this sort of duty, how does that fit into her planned future “Guide of how things ought to be.” Djia effectively co-opted Del to the point that Del helped deflect questions and later even going so far as to funnel his comrades away from him and even expressly ordering Kit to leave Zhair’lo alone with Djia. Del want’s to be a leader, but what type of leader does she want to be? Does she do anything or talk to anyone about this strange inconsistency, or just blindly follow and convey orders, like a cog in the machine? You partially addressed this in your response to Christopher, noting that yeah, “I don't think his squad thinks it's 'normal', just that Zhair'lo is weird and special and that's part of his weirdness. But he's *their* weirdo, so it's fine.” Del’s a bit more perceptive and detail oriented than the rest of the squad, she’s also shown that she is discerning enough to know when to let a matter drop only to pursue it at a later, more appropriate time, like the Tara/Zia situations. I enjoyed the story very much, hoping the next episode is around the corner.
Stephen
2023-03-31 12:01:50 +0000 UTCAh, apparently I didn't put Turiksa's size into my notes, although that was at least one PC ago, so it's possible it's in a note somewhere. If I'd drawn out the map of the world sooner, I'd have had Turiksa closer to Prima and therefore more protected, older and larger. In order to get promoted past Keeper, women need to have at least one child. There's nothing stopping them from doing it earlier as some are more eager than others and there are rewards for contributing to the birth rate, as Djia alludes to : “Special services to the Temple,” she said. “Hopefully I’ll get a Within one soon, too.” I don't think his squad thinks it's 'normal', just that Zhair'lo is weird and special and that's part of his weirdness. But he's *their* weirdo, so it's fine. Thanks again for writing! Xav.
Xavier Torch
2023-02-06 13:43:27 +0000 UTCGreat chapter, not long enough but it answers some questions and creates more. The women of the Temple are pushing Zhair’los breeding quickly. I thought that the young women of the temple didn’t begin having children until the were in their early to mid 20’s and had more upgrades so they could bear children safely. Djia wouldn’t seem to as a neophyte to have that. But the women want to breed Zhair’lo badly. Tara does seem to have a secret she’s not sharing, probably that she to was caught in monogamy. Maybe this will be the connection that gets her closer to Talla? Also, way back when Zhair’lo was talking to Kenji he said Turiska was a small temple that’s why he had to emigrate to Gern 60,000 people is the largest temple so far? I wondered when someone would notice that Zhair’lo could see into the minds of his partners, his squad just accepts that but it’s not normal for a man to be able to. The gang seems to be heading north and the women on the frontier are in the south. Beshenna is to the east. It’s going to be interesting bringing all these stories and people together. Please keep writing I look at my email every day looking for a new chapter. As always my standard disclaimer applies, you more writing talent in your little finger than I have in my whole body. Chris
Christopher Gist
2023-02-06 05:38:23 +0000 UTCCool! I'm always excited to hear from readers!
Xavier Torch
2023-02-02 19:15:12 +0000 UTCAlways excited to see new temple chapters, looking forward to reading it!
Jason
2023-02-02 19:13:43 +0000 UTC
