Godspeed, glory Pt. 3

> 				1. Nah, remember he said “at that time, every aspect of earth culture came back to the church.” -t
>
> 					1. Yeah but like, what if you just wanna hum while doing dishes or whatever
>
> 						1. You probably sung some shit about how clean the river was -t
>
> 							1. Rivers were dirty as fuck then tho3. Why study old Earth Cult religion?
>
> 		1. Bc Assemblage doesn’t say what happened between Cadence & Independence.
> 		2. Bc good to learn where we came from even if we know it’s wrong.
> 		3. Bc Blue Path started as old earth cult
>
> 			1. The pine tree was the symbol of old earth cult too, for example.
> 			2. Both are about importance of home + environment + family.5. So What happened?
>
> 		1. For sure:
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> 			1. Independence driven out of Resonant Orbit early in its life (during Cadent’s life)
> 			2. Earth Cult finds + rebuilds him
> 			3. He rises in status, gets more power, civil war, moves earth, etc etc etc3. Probably:
>
> 			1. Independence demands that Kamala not try to resurrect divines
> 			2. Kamala reveals that the entire point of the Resonant Orbit is to save divine life, not human life.
>
> 				1. Bc she believes (knows????) humans will win war and kill all divines if war breaks out
> 				2. Prof. Gauge’s says “She ran the numbers!” but not sure if that’s metaphor or for real. Algorithmic oracle maybe?4. Something happened that caused split.
> 	1. Group project: “Fill in the gaps with hypotheses, explain how you would test these.”
>
> 		1. Q1: How could humans win war against divines?
>
> 			1. Humans could win war by building machines as powerful as divines but designed for perfect loyalty/without their own minds.
>
> 				1. To test: Recruit design team and run sims using Old Earth Cult era tech levels.
>
> 					1. Inform sims with both quant and qual research--get first hand accounts of civil war3. Q2: What could have caused the Independence/Cadent split?
>
> 			1. She could have resurrected a divine
>
> 				1. To test: Check assemblage & NEH-UAS for any info on dead divines
>
> 					1. Also check for like, renamed divines or whatever. any thing weird3. Could also have just set up a system for resurrecting divines
>
> 				1. To test: hard to test…5. Q3: Why did Independence care so much about letting divines die?
> 			1. Bc Independence feared being made a slave or turned into a terror (like Rigour), wanted Divines to be able to die if they wanted or needed to die
>
> 				1. To Test: check the other earth chants, contact Diasporan archive to see what Independence thought abt Rigour?*
>
>
>
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### Cold open

I watched the colors spring into view, Gray. Pink and blue and yellow and red. Waves of light flickered through the windshield, covering my hands, my face. It has been a week since I crossed the border, but my clock says it's been two years. Time is twisted here, I can feel it. I can feel the past, I can smell the cup of coffee in my hands, I can see you running through the backyard during a sunshower, the damn dog barking up a storm, you laughing... it was a long time ago, Gray. And it was yesterday, too.
I wonder if you two know that you set the world on fire. Rapid Evening agents abandoning post by the dozens. Dozens ain't much in the face of hundreds, but it's more than ever before. And because you did not hit that button, the future of the Mirage is at risk of splintering. The New Earth Hegemony, Volition, and after analyzing every last speck of that data you've sent back, Crystal Palace has confirmed the most dire news of all for the Fleet. The divine Empyrean might fly through the Mirage, but it is a con. It is a machine with no soul. It has been dead for months. This is the world you and Demani have chosen to save.
Well, you may not like it, but I am determined to help. I stood in front of Crystal Palace, I spoke to it directly, and I have been assured that we remain aligned with guaranteed events. I was shown the evidence and I was shown the path, and my place in it. I have been commissioned as Chief Intercessor for the Twilight Mirage. In that way, you have what you always wanted: someone to do more than sit back and watch. I will observe, yes, but my agents and I are no strangers to action. We will be advocates for the Mirage in the way that the hammer is an advocate for the unsecured nail. We will help it find its place.

## Plot summary

### Doyenne's Speech

"For my entire life, I pursued the perfection of form. I captured light, turned block into figure, bent the shape of noise until it was song. With each new creation, I thought that I was reflecting some deeper truth. I put those panes of Glass above Sculpture City not only to capture the energy of the sun, not only to showcase the brilliance of our art, but because I thought: 'Here, this is the best monument I can make to color itself.' I thought that what great artists, what great minds, did was to reach past the shadows of the material world and to the light of the real. The eternal. The universal. To symmetry, and composition, and rhythm, and harmony. These things that exist beyond the minds of humans. And these great people, I thought they dragged the universal, the real, back to the material world, to grace us all with beauty and clarity.
And then, after I deposed the tyrant king, I learned everything he had kept from us. About our history, about these Divines of yours. They were impressive, truly, they opened my eyes and lifted my ambition. Why stop at a monument to color, or at trying to capture movement, when I could aim higher? Memorious, Anticipation, Grace, Liberty, Composure, Determination, Valor, Independence. There are so many things to aspire to, so many things to create.
And I was not alone, was I? These so-called Independents, scurrying around Quire, looking for old parts of a long-dead machine. They thought they kidnapped me. They only brought me closer to what I was looking for. Why else would I have you make this beautiful machine? And while the Independents waste their time looking to the past, I look to the future. They were not the only ones on the hunt for this machine. In fact, as these men ineptly search Quire for Independence's mind, the creatures of the fifth moon have found it already.
Have you heard their names? Have you met them? The Iconoclasts? I have parleyed with them, with their searchers. I have spoken to those who have no interest in words, and they have told me the truth."
The light catches the cockpit here, and through the glass you can see that she has on this sort of metallic, wire-frame mask covering her face. And she lifts the hand of the mech a little bit and everything in the room begins to shake, in the same way that she lifted her arm back in Old Church, and lifted all of the glass from the ground into the sky.
"The Iconoclasts have shown me my error. Beauty is not a thing that a person can simply retrieve from the realm of the ideal and use for their own ends. Your divines do not reflect truth. They corrupt it. So long as you build them with you at the center, you hold them back. So long as we design them, so long as we are even considered in their design, we hold them back. For all of their beauty, for all of their impossibility, for all of their power, we could only have ever made them look like us.
The Iconoclasts, their god Volition, they seek something greater. To rewrite reality itself, to let in true beauty. And once I grant it this machine, Independence, it will lead us into a beautiful age, more perfect than Glass itself. What would otherwise be an apoplectic flailing will be a focused, passionate and singular work of art.
I will not run from them as others have. I will run to them. I'm going to help them make something great, even better. And I extend to you this offer: come with me. Step into a new age of beauty. Or stay behind and witness the future be painted new from your small place on the canvas."

## Cast

* Austin Walker (GM)
* Keith J Carberry (Gig Kep-hart)
* Sylvia Clare (Echo Reverie)
* Art Martinez-Tebbel (Grand Magnificent)
* Andrew Lee Swan (Even Gardner)

and

* Ali Acampora (Tender Sky)
* Janine Hawkins (⸢Signet⸣)
* Jack de Quidt (Fourteen Fifteen)

## External links

* Episode page