[ The compliment makes Quetzalcoatl’s already warm smile nothing less than radiant. More than most, Drizzt understands why this is something so beautiful and important to her, at least mostly. The fact that her Azteca were a culture of the past is something she leaves out for her own heartache on the subject. For now, she’s just full of love and pride for the people she looked over.
The question that follows isn’t much of a surprise, though. It’s one she’s been asked fairly often by the people of Kenos—natives and Shard-Bearers both. She does tend to give a slightly different answer to Shard-Bearers, though. For the natives, she wants to be their pure, uncomplicated hope, just as she was for her Azteca. For the people she would be fighting with and against, though… She feels they deserve more of the nuance. ]
Mm… It’s complicated, yes. I understand them both, and I could be either. It simply isn’t the right time for me to be Zenith, I guess is what it comes down to.
[ She looks back to the sunstone, since it abstractly lays out what she explains here, but trying to gesture to it wouldn’t be helpful. Its imagery makes perfect sense to her, but she doubts that would be the case for Drizzt. ]
We gods of the Azteca aren’t perfect. The world that exists now is our fifth try of it, actually! We call them Suns, since it’s the sun that’s life-giving, not the world, and with each Sun, a different god has taken up that position to try and craft a good one. But each of the four previous Suns had problems. Sometimes it was our fault or our nature—like when Tezcatlipoca was the sun, it was all black, so the people of that sun lived in the darkness of the black sun and couldn’t flourish. Sometimes it’s the people, since there was another where they were mostly wicked and flawed, so their world was no better.
[ Her attention turns back to Drizzt, and though her smile is still so warm and loving, her words feel callous for what she describes… At least if it were from a mortal. Morally speaking, there’s nothing wrong with it as a god, and that sort of distance is what tends to characterize them, regardless of their world or pantheon. ]
So, when they’re not right, we brought them cataclysm and started again. It’s a cycle, just like life and death. Even the current Sun, the Fifth Sun, it’s destined to end one day, since it’s not perfect either. It’s beautiful and it’s my favorite because I made its people, but when the time comes, I’ll mourn it as I wipe it away too.
[ It’s a long preamble to answering that question, but she thinks it’s important. After so long in Kenos, she’s found that not many people think of the world the way she does, and not only because she’s a god. The theology and the view of the world that she and her family have is more unique than she would have guessed. ]
…All of that to say! [ She laughs sheepishly, since she feels like she’s talked a lot already, but she continues ] —I don’t think it’s a fight that normal people should have to have, you know? I feel bad that it’s even anything that the Shard-Bearers have to worry about. It’s the duty of gods to care about big questions like that. I’d be happier if this were just a normal war about which city was better or who owns what land, not… Well, making people fight for countless lives, whether they’re leaving them behind or trying to hold onto them.
[ That smile softens, but it’s still a fond one of sympathy. ]
Meridian is my duty. But every life here is precious, no matter which side they pick. That’s how I look upon it.
no subject
[ The compliment makes Quetzalcoatl’s already warm smile nothing less than radiant. More than most, Drizzt understands why this is something so beautiful and important to her, at least mostly. The fact that her Azteca were a culture of the past is something she leaves out for her own heartache on the subject. For now, she’s just full of love and pride for the people she looked over.
The question that follows isn’t much of a surprise, though. It’s one she’s been asked fairly often by the people of Kenos—natives and Shard-Bearers both. She does tend to give a slightly different answer to Shard-Bearers, though. For the natives, she wants to be their pure, uncomplicated hope, just as she was for her Azteca. For the people she would be fighting with and against, though… She feels they deserve more of the nuance. ]
Mm… It’s complicated, yes. I understand them both, and I could be either. It simply isn’t the right time for me to be Zenith, I guess is what it comes down to.
[ She looks back to the sunstone, since it abstractly lays out what she explains here, but trying to gesture to it wouldn’t be helpful. Its imagery makes perfect sense to her, but she doubts that would be the case for Drizzt. ]
We gods of the Azteca aren’t perfect. The world that exists now is our fifth try of it, actually! We call them Suns, since it’s the sun that’s life-giving, not the world, and with each Sun, a different god has taken up that position to try and craft a good one. But each of the four previous Suns had problems. Sometimes it was our fault or our nature—like when Tezcatlipoca was the sun, it was all black, so the people of that sun lived in the darkness of the black sun and couldn’t flourish. Sometimes it’s the people, since there was another where they were mostly wicked and flawed, so their world was no better.
[ Her attention turns back to Drizzt, and though her smile is still so warm and loving, her words feel callous for what she describes… At least if it were from a mortal. Morally speaking, there’s nothing wrong with it as a god, and that sort of distance is what tends to characterize them, regardless of their world or pantheon. ]
So, when they’re not right, we brought them cataclysm and started again. It’s a cycle, just like life and death. Even the current Sun, the Fifth Sun, it’s destined to end one day, since it’s not perfect either. It’s beautiful and it’s my favorite because I made its people, but when the time comes, I’ll mourn it as I wipe it away too.
[ It’s a long preamble to answering that question, but she thinks it’s important. After so long in Kenos, she’s found that not many people think of the world the way she does, and not only because she’s a god. The theology and the view of the world that she and her family have is more unique than she would have guessed. ]
…All of that to say! [ She laughs sheepishly, since she feels like she’s talked a lot already, but she continues ] —I don’t think it’s a fight that normal people should have to have, you know? I feel bad that it’s even anything that the Shard-Bearers have to worry about. It’s the duty of gods to care about big questions like that. I’d be happier if this were just a normal war about which city was better or who owns what land, not… Well, making people fight for countless lives, whether they’re leaving them behind or trying to hold onto them.
[ That smile softens, but it’s still a fond one of sympathy. ]
Meridian is my duty. But every life here is precious, no matter which side they pick. That’s how I look upon it.