Nietzsche and Nietzscheanism

**Nietzsche** (Full name: **Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche)** (15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher, cultural critic, composer, poet, philologist, and Languages scholar whose work has exerted a profound influence on Western philosophy, and western culture in general, especially within media.

Nietzsche began his career as a classical philologist (which is the study of language in oral and written historical sources) before turning to philosophy. He became the youngest ever to hold the Chair of Classical Philology at the University of Basel in 1869 at the age of 24.
 He resigned in 1879 due to health problems that plagued him most of his
 life, and he completed much of his core writing in the following
decade. In 1889, at age 44, he suffered a mental collapse and afterwards, a complete loss of his mental faculties. He lived his remaining years in the care of his mother until her death, and then afterwards in the care of his sister.
Nietzsche's body of work touched a wide range of topics, including art, philology, history, religion, tragedy, culture, and science. His early inspiration was drawn from figures such as Schopenhauer, Wagner, and Goethe. P

rominent elements of his philosophy include a critique of objective truth in favor of perspectivism; his genealogical critique of religion and Christian morality, and his related theory of master–slave morality; the idea of choosing to affirm existence in response to the "death of God" and the profound crisis of nihilism; his notion of the Apollonian and Dionysian; and his characterization of the human subject as the expression of competing wills, collectively understood as the will to power. He also developed influential concepts such as the Übermensch and the doctrine of eternal return.
 In his later work, he became increasingly preoccupied with the creative
 powers of the individual to overcome social, cultural, and moral
contexts in pursuit of new values and aesthetic health.

One of nietzsche's goals was to defeat the platonic undercurrent of external values, which he considered similar to the religious framework of relying on god for meaning and value. His concept of self created values did not just mean creating a new ideology, but specifically relying on your internal nature to decide what you consider virtuous for you rather than looking to an external objective ethics. However, many who reference him do not depict the idea of value creation as so extreme, focusing instead merely on the idea of meaning without reliance on god. Nietzsche was also a strong criticism of hegel and his idea of a specific universal goal / people as united to society / narriative / etc. For this reason nietzsche's ideologies are associated more with neutral and chaos, whereas hegel is associated more with neutral and law.

Megaten of course references nietzsche in various ways. The concept of the ubermensch is associated with neutral or dark neutral in some of the later games in its sense about creating new values, and the master-slave moral dynamic is associated with chaos and law. Despite the more explicit association of the ubermensch with neutral, a lot of the associated ideas on hierarchy and overcoming are associated with chaos. To a degree, the entire idea of accepting life on this earth, rather than seeking platonic external worlds can relate to the neutral mentality.

## General info

**Nietzsche** is sometimes considered a proto-existentialist.
Note that one thing there is to note about nietzsche is that he did
not always depict his work as something that one would take as dogma,
but as open ended that would pave the way for a future he did not
consider himself qualified to describe. For this reason a variety of
different types of people are inspired by him, as well as there being
a variety of interpretations as to what he considered his future
world to look like. As far as megaten goes, it seems some of this
ambiguity is worked into it itself. Since various sides, and
especially neutral and chaos (but even law due to things like death
of god theology) are based on different aspects or inspirations from
it.

Even though neutral is what the idea of the value creation of the ubermensch is more associated with, chaos in many respects
is also based on the philosophy of Nietzsche, in the sense that it is about **struggle** and **overcoming**, which is a motif often repeated in nietzsche's work, and which are heavily tied to the tde in nocturne. Although
not a mainstream interpretation of virtue ethics, Nietzsche is
generally lumped under it, as a loose virtue ethics of the noble virtues of
higher people. This is of course because mainstream virtue ethics often also glorifies virtues such as humility, etc that nietzsche
criticized as life-denying.
Note that although
he did talk highly of master morality, and the problems with its
opposite slave morality he didn't merely want people to profess
master morality, (which itself existed in the early world in an
unreflective form) but their own personal higher morality, which
resembled the life affirming views of masters more than slaves, but in a more self reflective
way. Likewise, the higher virtues in and of themselves were not treated as a form of ethics by him, but skillful aspects that morality can be built on. His idea of a future morality is something that he admits that he cannot fully describe, since he won't be its creator and it does not yet exist, but it will resemble the noble virtues of the higher men, but will be more self reflective, rather than just naive and straightforward way like ancient master morality was.

Higher people would break free from
herd morality and make their own morality based on their own
interests and what leads them to positive life affirmation. A general
idea in Nietzsche's work is that values and interests might clash in
such a scenario, and whoever would have the most power to emerge
victorious would the one living their life according to their own
values, at the expense of the people will less power. Engaging in
conflicts and attempts to assert one's values would be good according
to Nietzsche because the engagements and attempts would be
"life-affirming" exercise of power, regardless how much
power one has in relation to others, and whether you ultimately
triumph. This train of thought related to struggle and overcoming is obviously a main basis of chaotic morality in most
of the games, being described almost directly. Though creating and upholding your own values is more related to neutral. He even states that war is preferable to a lazy and non life affirming peace for this reason. Nietzsche equates happiness with power, which is a strong chaos leaning. And that it is good to clash because it is also life affirming to express negative emotions. Tying it to chaos in IV being referred to as "spite."

The ambiguity comes from how to characterize chaos' relationship to nietzsche. Nietzsche's pattern was master morality leads to slave morality, which ultimately will result in a future morality. While chaos is associated with master morality, and law with slave morality, the idea of this future morality is more ambiguous, and aspects seem to show up for both neutral and chaos. Since nietzsche also has associations for other sides, due to the underlying existential themes in general, it would be difficult to draw a 1:1 comparison to specific nietzschean figures. One reason for the similarity between neutral and chaos might be to show how chaos is a more extreme and detrimental reaction, from which neutral is a toned down version. Similar to how in SMTI both had buddhist associations, but it identified chaos' buddhist associations as a dark deviation.

**The** **Apollonian and Dionysian** is a philosophical and literary concept, or dichotomy, based on certain features of ancient Greek mythology, and which was used by nietzsche to highlight ideas (and was even written about by jung, giving it an element of being directly related to the games). In Greek mythology, Apollo and Dionysus are both sons of Zeus.
 Apollo is the god of the sun, of rational thinking and order, and
appeals to logic, prudence and purity. On the other hand, Dionysus is
the god of wine and dance, of irrationality and chaos, and appeals to
emotions and instincts. The Greeks did not consider the two gods to be opposites or rivals, although often the two deities were entwined by nature.

The obvious associations here are Apollo to law, and Dionysus to chaos. Note that like the greeks, neutral is not about rejecting these influences, but seeing them as intertwined, and as something that ebbs and flows, and which you can see work in unison. Though which some people are more of one than the other. Nietzsche believed that European culture from the time of Socrates had always been only Apollonian and thus decadent and unhealthy.
 He notes that whenever Apollonian culture dominates, the Dionysian
lacks the structure to make a coherent art, and when Dionysian
dominates, the Apollonian lacks the necessary passion. Only the
beautiful middle, the interplay of these two forces, brought together as
 an art, represented real Greek tragedy and evolution of society. So an additional element is given to the association of nietzsche and neutral, in correspondence to the in game idea of society rejecting the accepting and flourishing of its Dionysian or chaotic side, and suffering as a result.

## Perspectivism

**Perspectivism** is the philosophical view that all ideations
take place from particular perspectives, and that there are many
possible conceptual schemes, or perspectives in which judgment of
truth or value can be made. This is often taken to imply that no way
of seeing the world can be taken as definitively "true",
but does not entail that all perspectives are equally valid, due to
there being certain facts necessary to represent coherently for
validity. The term was coined by Friedrich Nietzsche.

Obviously in the most general sense this can be compared to the ideas of observation and cognition talked about in iva and p5. Where they say that the "real" world is the one seen by you, and whatever you see is reality to you. This not meaning that there is no true physical facts, but that they are meaningless outside of conceptual schemas. Different interpretations can also literally alter the way you experience reality. And experience is of course all you can experience. While in the more general sense this is described as a fact of the world as a whole, in the more specific sense, neutral seems to use this line of thought a bit more than others, focusing on value pluralism, and the different modes of perception in the way it does ethics.

## Ethics

**Master morality** and its contrast
against **Slave morality** is a central theme of Friedrich
Nietzsche's works, especially On the Genealogy
of Morality. Nietzsche argued that as a whole there were in the past (though this is not a fundamental law. There could have been others) two fundamental types
of morality: 'Master morality' and 'slave morality'. Slave morality
values things like kindness, humility and sympathy, while master
morality values things like pride, courage and strength. Its core essence being nobility. And cultures tended to be heavily shaped in relation to their views on these. (Note, nietsche's goal was not to get people to merely be masters, but to get them to invent a new life affirming morality.)

To nietzsche, master morality was the original morality of humanity. The morality where people were seen as good due to their tangible qualities, the strong and victors valued themself and were life affirming. Masters saw themself as good and the weak as bad or ignoble, being simply those who lacked noble qualities. Nietzsche presents slave morality as an invention of those who were envious of the accomplishments
of higher people. Slaves inverted morality out of a need to see themselves as good. Making things like humility and good intentions a virtue, and declaring evil to be equivalent to the actions of the masters. Slave morality differentiates
good from evil, (rather than good from bad like the masters) inverting it so that humility and the qualities that
masters consider ignoble are actually the higher ideal, (Note that
law's virtues are criticized and called slavery by chaos) and the
noble qualities are considered evil to have obtained. And they present this humility as a deliberate choice, rather than something they necessarily have from weakness.

Master morality divides between good
and bad, with slave morality being divided between good and evil.
Nietzsche saw slaves inventing the concept of evil because they
believed they are oppressed by the masters. The basics of being a
master(or noble) is thinking of yourself as 'good'. On the other
hand, the basics of being a slave is thinking of the master as
'evil'. And slaves have this judgment focused morality in order to
appear smarter than or greater than those they resent. Nietzsche
defined master morality as the morality of the strong-willed, and so
saw what he called slave morality as the weak trying to obtain power
over those with stronger wills. Something he saw as incorrect and
damaging. In strange journey horkos calls the demons noble, setting the tone for how they are seen.

In terms of religion, master morality was associated with polytheism, slave morality with monotheism, and the future morality with atheism by him. He saw polytheistic gods as representing their people, and life affirming qualities. But monotheistic gods, due to lacking particularity, or human flaws weren't properly beings at all, and so representing them as the ideal to seek represented a desire for nothingness. He also noted how monotheistic religions tended to place more emphasis on their afterlives, corresponding to being less life affirming. Note how this parallels many things in-game, such as lucifer even using the phrase "the empty breath of god." And polytheism representing the earliest morality. The future morality also being represented by human life affirmation rather than gods if you interpret neutral as the ubermensch. Though it ambiguous how to interpret it.

Master morality is unambiguously a heavy inspiration for chaos. Even the presumed history nietzsche gives of master morality as the original morality that slave morality being law later triumphs over resembles it. Doubly so since he deliberately associates master morality with polytheism, and slave morality with monotheism. However, the ambiguity comes in in trying to place what side counts as the resolution to this. Nietzsche did not want people to merely go back to master morality, since that was unreflective and archaic. His ideal he defined as the "higher man." While higher men would be elitist, due to accurate assessment of self worth, it is not clear whether in-game chaos is meant to be master morality, or to also potentially be tied to the ubermensch. If chaos was meant to parallel master morality, and law slave morality, the idea of new values may be meant to tie to neutral. It seems the concept of the ubermensch was split between the idea of value creation going to neutral, but emphasis on hierarchy and being life affirming going to chaos. But the more explicit associations go to neutral, like the term ubergestalt.

He does in beyond good and evil also say though that higher men would realize that they do not owe lower people anything. that humanity exists for the sake of higher men to be able to be higher and held up. Which obviously corresponds heavily to chaos and it talking about how the strong should be able to do as they see fit and the weak have no inherent right to life. Making chaos in actuality closer to how nietzsche saw his own ideals, even if people could try to use the ambiguity to defend a more neutral path. But again, the fact that dark neutral is more overtly nietzschean than regular neutral is likely an admission that nietzsche leans chaos. It is possible that atlus considers him to be between neutral and chaos, and so ambiguously presents different interpretations or aspect of him for each. Which would not be the only thing they do that with. Notably, nietzsche does not so much care what people do as why they do it. Which could carry over to what actions are seen as weak or not in a chaotic society.

**Slave Morality.** According to
nietzsche the original morality of humans was Master morality. The
morality of the strong and noble. In reaction to this, and to their
lowly position, the downtrodden reversed this conception of nobility
creating a system that values kindness, humility, and sympathy,
demonizing the old masters. And
this became the basis of christianity, and by extension modern
society. Conceptions of egalitarianism and glorification of the weak
are based on this. For instance, he saw socialism as a kind of
secularization of christian ethics. Nietzsche believed that noble
virtues and ideal people would glorify war as a chance to overcome. And
slave morality was associated more with pacifism. Asura describes order
this way in strange journey, saying it is nothing but comfort for the
weak.

In game, chaos is presented as existing
first, and the old gods corresponding to a kind of master morality.
And law emerged in reaction to this, placing value in humility and
working in tune with its system rather than one's own nobility. Law
is also presented as having more power relative to chaos, and having
demonized the old gods, which parallels nietzsche lamenting that
slave morality took over, demonizing the concept of masters and
social stratification. Note that he obviously considered this in a
pejorative sense, and so despite this correspondence to nietzsche's
works, law in game is not meant to bear all the assumptions of it as
a purely negative force. Nietzsche sees slave morality not as slaves
trying to liberate themselves, but to try to drag masters down, making
universal slavery by forcing the humble life denying perspective of
slaves onto all. Note chaos insisting that law is about slavery despite
its egalitarian nature, and the fact that in a chaos world there is
casual acceptance of actual slavery.

Interestingly, nietzsche also equates
master morality with polytheism, and slave morality more with
monotheism. Since polytheistic gods represented fallibly represent
life itself and saying yes to it, while monotheistic gods depicted as
perfect entities represent forsaking true values of this world In
favor of saying no to life. He even calls the desire for god a
desire for nothingness, to be removed from the realities of life
itself. This interestingly relates to megaten also, with chaos often
insisting that a law world would barely be called living, and
describing god as “empty.” And in nocturne, the law equivalent
side even uses the word nihilo to describe itself, and associates
itself with the void. Note that the in game sides do not conform fully
to nietzsche's classical descriptions of the past, because all sides
also focus on future developments and are different. But it gives
context for the origin of these ideas.

**The higher man** (distinct from
ubermensch) is seen as having five main characteristics. He is
solitary, pursues a “unifying project,” is healthy, is
life-affirming, and practices self-reverence. Solitary meaning
unfazed by the attitudes of the herd. Basically someone self
actualized and self loving. Not merely indulgent, but also creative,
and seeking responsibilities to prove self worth. Nietszche was also
anti utilitarian saying that seeking happiness is nonsensical, but
rather one should seek to become a higher man, and happiness would be
a result. Higher people would have self confidence to such a degree
that others might deem it hubris. And he was worried that the
existence of slave morality would effect and harm potential higher
men.

Note that the implication he gives is that while master morality was professed in the past by a kind of higher men, the higher men of the future would have a more advanced morality. One unknown to us now. So the reason it is hard to place nietzsche's ethics is because while he glorifies master morality somewhat, it is not clear whether the higher men of the future's values will closely resemble it. In practice, much of the descriptions he gave imply it as similar, since he considered that higher men would realize their own superiority and not support concepts like equal rights that appeal to the weak. For instance, master morality he also calls the "pre-moral" period of
mankind. And the values of higher men in the future he likewise says would once again go beyond the concept of good and evil. Note that chaos in how it sees law rarely uses the concept of something like evil to describe it. (Note that although nietzsche criticized buddhism as life denying, he considered it a better religion than christianity, insisting it had already gone beyond good and evil, and focused on a tangible reality of suffering rather than a fake one of sin. This likely being another reason buddhism is lumped in with chaos).

Chaos is obviously based on master morality, as well as the concept of higher men. And chaos calls law slaves many times in game. Nietzsche saw slave morality as trying not to free themselves, but to turn all of society into slaves, forcing the slave like attitude of humility upon all. (not that that's actual slavery, but whatever). Interestingly as a counterpoint to chaos, it makes sense for law to
be both socialist and christian, because nietzsche saw socialism as
the secularization of christian values of glorification of humility,
etc, and not fit for those striving for individual greatness. He disliked utilitarianism as well, another law attribute.

Note that nietzsche also did not think a single kind of morality was fit for all people. Higher people would profess higher values, but they are necessarily the few. He even describes a hierarchy where on top is the intelligent, then the physically strong, then those who are neither. The lowest people would likely still profess some slave morality even in the future where the world is once again shaped by higher men. But at the same time, the weak would be following and complying with the standards of the higher. This corresponds a bit to how chaos worlds are seen in game, where the weak in them are not necessarily seen as professing the same morality. Merely having to comply with it.

Nietzsche also expressed his
dissatisfaction with modernity. He disliked the contemporary "lazy
peace," "cowardly compromise," "tolerance"
and "resignation." Which ties into chaos being aligned with
war and struggle.

**The blonde beast** is a euphemism used to compare the masters of master morality to lions. Nietzsche expressly insists it is a mistake to hold beasts of prey to be
 "evil", for their actions stem from their inherent strength, rather
than any malicious intent. One should not blame them for their "thirst
for enemies and resistances and triumphs". Similarly, it is a
mistake to resent the strong for their actions, because, according to
Nietzsche, there is no metaphysical subject. Only the weak need the
illusion of the subject (or soul) to hold their actions together as a
unity. But that it does not make total sense to make the bird of prey accountable for being a bird of prey.

The blonde beast is associated with the past, whereas the ubermensch is associated with the future. While some of the project of nietzsche's ideas on the future are associated with chaos, in a large way it is associated more with the past. Chaos is described in game as the original state of the world, and one that the chaotic gods are seeking to restore. Doubly due to the comparison between the masters and lions which is in keeping with chaos' idea of not being divorced from nature. Obviously keep in mind that the ideas are not a 1:1 comparison to things in-game, since while the game loosely parallels the evolution of morality, megaten is not shy about using the associations in various ways and splitting the concepts to match the archetypical associations of the sides. This ambiguity is in keeping with nietzsche himself, who did not want his works treated like a manual, but as a more general inspiration. You could also interpret it as ideally being the latter, but it being an ideal not always reached.

**Ubermensch** Note that the higher men
are different from the overman / ubermensch. The higher men are a
realistic goal and simply people who are overall better. But the
ubermensch is more of an archetype of perfection. Something that is
an ideal to strive toward more than something presented as if it had
ever been achieved. Whether it was something that one achieved or
that people would in the future was presented as rather besides the
point. Note that since ubermensch create their own values, different ones do not necessarily have the same values. Ubermensch would be absolutely this worldly, free from the herd, create their own values, and restore the idea of a superior aristocratic type of individual.

Dagda's path is depicted as heavily
nietzschean in an explicit way. There's a direct tone of freeing
yourself from the herd to have entirely self created values, and talk
about how they are self created in a way that makes you like your own
god and deliberately rejects other external gods. Which parallels
both nietzsche emphasizing rejection of afterlives as well as values
external to the self. Nietzsche even emphasized that some degree of
solitude is a virtue, because being too social is tied to mediocrity.
Note that its likely no accident that dagda is treated as leaning
towards chaos. You becoming a god on massacre also represents the
concept of higher men creating their own values and other humans
following them. And dagda's view on humans' relation to gods relates
to nietzsche's call to reject not only external platonic values, but
the desire for a world other than the real one. So it corresponds to
the idea of human empowerment, even if not humanism per say.

Note that the term ubergestalt is used for gore in strange journey. And that regular neutral paths also tend to focus a bit on value creation, even if not necessary in the exact way nietzsche imagined. Since law and chaos are both depicted as specific pre-existing paradigms, even though chaos is depicted as one in which people can fight to assert different lifestyles within. But while that is value pushing in a sense, the game treats it a little more like a value of the strong and different lifestyles more than necessarily different values in every case. Though it also has lucifer emphasizing what he thinks is right. So aspects of the ubermensch do seem to be split between neutral and chaos. Which is why dagda's path being between them is the most explicit depiction.

And so for this reason, for different interpretations, different figures might be our analogue for the ubermensch. Even though the ubermensch is more explicitly associated with neutral and dark neutral, lucifer seems to embody aspects of it as well. Since he is not an archaic god merely, but one who narriatively comes after the triumph of law and as a next step past it, restoring aristocrat nobility and corresponding to the hierarchical type of politics nietzsche talked about. Ubermensch will embody
perfectly all nietzsche's ideals of the higher men, living by values
they themself created. And on the flipside, for interpretations from other angles, gore is called the ubergestalt, which may be a neutral variant and interpretation, and in iva's dark ending, nanashi himself becomes one, becoming a god of a world where people are seen as creating and maintaining their own values. The point here is not to find the specific thing Nietzsche is associated with, since aspects can be split into multiple areas. Note though that the most explicit associations are indeed for neutral however.

Nietzsche also wrote that one seeking
to become the ubermensch should only have friends one can clash with
in order to become stronger from the struggle. Friends you never
disagree with can make you complacent. Which shows that strife can
exist on all levels in the chaotic mentality. Some have also drawn
lines between this and the fact that your friends often become
enemies in the games in general.

Note that the term Ubermensch was not
coined by nietzsche, but actually comes from **faust**, where the
demons refer to faust as an ubermensch for trying to go beyond human
logical understanding using his drives and motivations to achieve
hidden knowledge. So the association of the concept as coming back
around to refer to something leaning towards the demonic has basis.

## Death of god

**Death of God** One other point of
nietzsche's ethics is the idea of the death of god. Which in context
means the societal loss of faith in religion as a basis to use for
absolute values. Nietzsche worried that people would fall into
nihilism once they lost faith in this absolute, and so must overcome
it by creating their own values. Various figures have been inspired by this idea of the death of god, not only in a nonreligious direction, but even as a form of theology, with death of god theology being a thing that also informs religion. In a megaten concept, the idea of the death of god is ultimately applicable to every side, since every side at times moves past the idea of an absolute monotheist framework. The different responses corresponding to different hypothetical responses as talked about by nietzsche.

To nietzsche, past the death of god there was the risk of nihilism. Since people were relying on god as a concept to give meaning and value to their life, and so the loss of this as something able to be treated as an absolute source gives rise to the question of how to make sense of value. Nietzsche thought that many might give up on thinking life has meaningful value at all. But the ubermensch in contrast is a hypothetical one who overcomes this, creating their own values to uphold. The idea of no longer having external god given values is most associated with neutral, such as at the end of II where you talk about no longer having anyone else to cling to or rely on (meaning divine beings).

**Life affirmation**. One aspect of nietzsche's work is the emphasis on life affirmation. He saw desiring external worlds as a form of rejection of this life, saying that people should affirm their life in this world. Same with affirming platonic values, which he saw as a rejection of the value in tangible exisetence.

**Amor fati** is a latin phrase that means "love of fate" or "love of one's
fate". It is used to describe an attitude in which one sees everything
that happens in one's life, including suffering and loss, as good or, at the very least, necessary. Nietzsche considered this a mark of higher people. In megaten note that gaians train to accept even death, saying that if they lose fights they deserve death, and that this is merely a facet of life. And in strange journey, the demons accuse humans of not being able to graciously accept death like their ancestors because they are afraid of losing their pleasures. Tying to the past's depiction as more chaotic.

**Anti-Christ** or **Anti-Christian** is
another book by nietzsche. In context though a more accurate
translation would be anti christian, referring to christianity as
professing decadent slave type morality. The book's forward claimed
it was for a limited readership who were able to understand its
higher values. It expressed his dissatisfaction with modernity. He
disliked the contemporary "lazy peace," "cowardly
compromise," "tolerance" and "resignation."
Implying that these were values that stemmed from Christianity, and
should be rejected. The title reflecting this rejection. In terms of
relevance to megaten, the importance is just to stress how much
nietzschean morality was set up as a counterpoint that opposed
christianity, as well as socialism which it claimed flowed from
christianity. And so Nietzsche as inspiration for chaos is an apt
source.

## Aristocracy

**Aristocracy.** Nietzsche's preferred
government seemed to be something like an aristocracy and meritocracy
that was formulated in order to elevate higher men, and allow them to
flourish. And would see people fall in like behind great men in their natural
order. Though it is not clear how much he literally believed this
himself, or merely depicted it as part of his work. Obviously the
idea of a meritocracy shows up often for chaos. Which also believes that the weak would follow behind the whims of the stronger. Note that although nietzsche downplays the idea of there being a "morally superior" state in an objective sense, he still considers some states to have more value. Which is an equivalent concept. So what chaos works towards is something they may legitimately see as better even if some of them consider their reasons to not be moral ones per say. While nietzsche's professed system doesn't quite match chaos' anarchic tone, it does match its idea of meritocratically elevating those of strong wills.

**Herd mentality**, or mob mentality,
describes how people are influenced by their peers to adopt certain
behaviors. Though he called it various things, nietzsche often
talked about this as a negative thing, saying that one mark of
superior people are their ability to break free from this herd
mentality. Note that the biggest emphasis on breaking free from the herd is dagda's dark neutral. Though chaos still emphasizes this in a more balanced way, saying you are free to assert your own values against the herd.

**The last man** is a term used by
Nietzsche in Thus Spoke Zarathustra to describe the antithesis of the
imagined superior being, the Übermensch. The last man takes no risks, and seeks
only comfort and security, and because of this lives a long, but
seemingy empty life. And according to nietzsche is the goal modern society set for itself. In the book Zarathustra confronts the crowd with a goal he
presents as so disgusting that he assumes that it will revolt them.
The lives of the last men are pacifist and comfortable. There is no
longer a distinction between ruler and ruled, strong over weak, or
supreme over the mediocre. Social conflict and challenges are
minimized. Every individual lives equally and in "superficial"
harmony. There are no original or flourishing social trends and
ideas. Individuality and creativity are suppressed.

The society of
the last man would go against the theoretical Will-to-Power, the main
driving force and ambition behind human nature, according to
Nietzsche; as well as all other thriving life, in the universe. The
last man, Nietzsche predicted, would be one response to the threat of nihilism.
According to nietzsche this is not even necessarily ideological, but
something they fall into out of pure apathy.

As goes without saying, this concept
closely resembles the types of criticisms the chaos side aims towards
law. Ranging from everything from the egalitarianism with no
distinction between ruler and ruled, or strong and weak, to
suppression of individuality, to the peaceful mentality and desire
for safety, with interpersonal conflict being eradicated, and the
declaration that life is effectively meaningless under these
conditions. Not to mention that he defines this as against one's
nature, which chaos often accuses law of rejecting the nature of
humanity, and affiliates itself with a more natural outlook. Law's
depiction as cold and robotic is in keeping with this theme. Note
also that nietzsche admits that the last man is likely to live longer
due to his ideology than his chaotic counterpart. This is also in
keeping with in megaten how in chaos worlds, young death is often
merely accepted as a fact of life, as they have a live fast die young
mentality.

However, one should also note that
nietzsche's concept was not meant to refer to a megaten style lawful
society vastly different from ours. But rather that he implied that
western society was already oriented towards this goal. And so these were criticisms he was aiming at the general populace.
So from this angle, it is also a criticism of neutral.

## Will to power

The will to power describes what Nietzsche
seemed to believe to be the main driving force in humans – achievement,
 ambition, and the striving to reach the highest possible position in
life. These are all manifestations of the will to power; however, the
concept was never systematically defined in Nietzsche's work, leaving
its interpretation open to debate. This seems to be because while he had it as an idea, he was not overly confident in it, and so did not overtly profess it, with it being elucidated on only by his sister publishing and editing some of his notes after death.

Nietzsche says: “What is good? - All that heightens the feelings
of power, the will to power, power itself in man. What is bad? - All
that proceeds from weakness. What is happiness? - The feeling that power
 increases - that a resistance is overcome.” His idea of the will to power seems to emphasize that the main drive of the will is power. Happiness is not a goal, but merely a result that arrives from establishing power.

Interestingly, in some of his notes, he actually describes this force as not merely a facet of consciousness, but like Schopenhauer considers the will to be a fundamental force. That what we call our will is derived from this abstract form of it in some way. This was because he rejected the idea of atoms as fundamentally basic and material, seeing them as manifestations of forces. The interaction of forces in a sense amounts to an indirect struggle for power, with the dominating force controlling the outcome. and this physical pattern is what controls all things, with our own consciousness ultimately being a manifestation of it. Note of course that he did not publish these notes, and so they are speculation but not necessarily indicative of a final profession by him. Note that by calling these forces will it is not necessarily meant to be panpsychic in nature. Though may have been flirting with such an idea.

Obviously in terms of megaten note that saying that the basic unit of reality is continuous with thoughts is something said in the beginning of digital devil saga. Another note is that this focus seems chaotic in tone, with them emphasizing power over all else.

## Eternal recurrence.

"Eternal return" (also known as "eternal recurrence") is a hypothetical
concept that posits that the universe has been recurring, and will
continue to recur, in a self-similar form for an infinite number of
times across infinite time or space. It is a purely physical concept, involving no supernatural reincarnation, but the return of beings in the same bodies. This was not necessarily posited as a literal thing that would happen, but mainly as a thought experiment. Though whether it was also meant to be literal was left ambiguous.

Nietzsche contemplates the idea as potentially "horrifying and
paralyzing," and says that its burden is the "heaviest weight"
imaginable ("*das schwerste Gewicht*") due to the fact that it means you would relive all your suffering infinitely. In contrast, to one who has truly conquered life and approved of it would consider being told that it will recur endlessly the ultimate prize to him. Since he approves of his existence as it is, and sees it as the ideal outcome for him. The wish for the eternal return of all events would mark the ultimate affirmation of life, a reaction to Schopenhauer's praise of denying the will‐to‐live. To comprehend eternal recurrence in his thought, and to not merely come to peace with it but to embrace it, requires *amor fati*, "love of fate".

## Shamanistic nietzsche.

**Shamanistic nietzsche** is a concept
developed by nick land and bataille that reads the works of nietzsche
in a neo-shamanistic lens. Classical shamanism tended to revolve
around unorganized contact with, or spiritual travel to a spiritual
world by breaking out of the mundane. This would often be associated
with a concept of spiritual transformation. Neo shamanism is seen as
taking a similar approach, but in a naturalistic or psychological
lens. Here it is more like an unorganized process of transformation,
facilitated by breaking through the regular world, which is
ultimately revealed to be an image structured by society's standards,
the superego, and the conscious mind, and into a more unmediated
level of reality.

This has to do with the concept of the
life-world, which says that the world as perceived by you is largely
a construct, not only in the direct senses you perceive, but in the
perception and meaning placed on it by your conscious. Land argues
that the neo shamanistic approach is not altogether different from
the classical one, and that the classical one was undergoing a
similar process of spiritual transformation by breaking through the
life world. This breaking through does not place you in contact with
any kind of absolute truth, due to the perspectvist stance being
taken. Like nietzsche, land rejects any kind of noumenon as a basis
of truth, calling it a holdout of theistic metaphysics that relates
to an idea of finding absolute truth. Land says it is not about
propositions to judge, but paths to explore.

In terms of megaten, the
supernaturalist takes and naturalist ones blur together due to the
psychological approach taken. But the chaos side does have practices
that involve taking nietzschean stances in a shamanistic direction.