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6 responses to “Escape”
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Ah now our author really “owes” us another story: TORIS says “I…” when referring to Toris. So indeed demons acquire sentience thanks to the memories of someone.
But then who was Velanid? How did the demon today known as the Stonebreaker acquire Velanid’s memories? Or maybe some demons are “born” sentient…
Also, when will our hapless trio discover that just below the platform there is a bridge to the passage that Tenid used to come down?
Has anyone here read The Host by Stephenie Meyer? I haven’t read the full thing (I’m not that into Romance type stories) but the fantasy concept is intriguing.
The aliens take over the bodies of their hosts (humans in the novel), kill them, take over their memories and consciousness.
This is what the demons remind me of here. Toris the human is dead. Gone. TORIS the demon has captured Toris’s “Soul” his consciousness, etc.
The question remains if demons have some other purpose than just capturing memories and consciousness? Do they take the souls of the dead to heaven or hell? Or do they help recycle them to create new life forms (like reincarnation?)
If so, then what will be the consequences to not allowing human souls to reach to their intended destination?
I suspect the conscious demons (ones with a human soul trapped in them) are stuck neither in the spirit realm nor the living realm. (though they seem to exist in tangible form in the living realm, they don’t eat or share some activities that make a living being.)
I’m curious to see what the fallout will be.
I’m also curious to see more what’s going on around the Well and if other demons are lurking about.
MJI I dunno about our author’s background, and you are looking at it from the a religious point of view, but issues of consciousness, identity, memory, free will have long been part of philosophical studies, more than religious ones, even if they are both metaphysical.
Then they have been recycled in many ways in sci-fi, as to AI and digitalizing consciousness (“vastening”).
Not only our author’s art is excellent, but his story has some depths that are rare even in high-brow webcomics and literature, for example:
* Demons in their natural form are mindless, mischievous spirits, animals in practice. But when “imprinted” with human memories they change, and their aspect changes too. The Noridi would have, by human standards, every justification in enslaving the demons, just as they enslave cattle and dogs; and in the story so far the ancient Noridi are not shown to be nasty or evil, to mistreat their demons, just use them as they use domesticated animals. But the human memory overlay actually gives the demons not just sentience, but personality, feelings, and these pages show that they are capable of resentment and moral judgment and yearning for freedom:
http://overthewallcomic.com/otw/2012-11-13/
http://stonebreakercomic.com/stonebreaker/healer/
* TORIS is a very special case: he first got “awakened” with the memories of Toris, then he became friendly with the humans in part because of those memories, and then CANATOPIS stole that name and memories from him, reducing him to still sentient but names and memoryless, and then Anyalin somehow gave him back that name and memories.
There is a wonderful paradox in the overall story and that of TORIS in particular: it is because the ancient Noridi gave the demons names and memories that they could control them and use them as tools, but also without those names and memories the demons would not have been sentient and have personalities and feelings; the demons hate being enslaved precisely because they have a human personality and memories.
In effect the story argues that sentience and memories and personality (or from a christian point of view having eaten the fruit of the tree of good and evil) give “human” rights, whether the body is that of demon or a born human, and that the ancient Noridi were wrong to fail to recognize demons as their equals.
What makes TORIS special is that he has been treated badly both by humans and demons, and yet he has managed to create good, equal relationships with Koris in the past and Anyalin today, and with FERADIN and probably some other demons.
The other argument of the story is that there are “mean” people among both humans (the boys who hurt the crow, the slavers) and demons (those who steal names, those who attack humans that have done nothing to them, not even their ancestors, like the two Tatchans), but also non-mean people, like notably Anyalin and TORIS.
I wasn’t speaking about any particular religion. Just the concept of souls passing to whatever destination or be recycled.
I also picked up on the interesting detail about demons and their names. Give them their name and they regain gain sentience.
The second link you shared:
came just after this one:
http://stonebreakercomic.com/stonebreaker/boom-4/
We see a marked difference before and after the builder’s name is called. Before Feradin called his name, he just makes sounds. Tries to say “Human” in some dialect “HVMAN” (same as the scrolls). After Feradin calls his name, he starts talking in sentences.
“But then who was Velanid? How did the demon today known as the Stonebreaker acquire Velanid’s memories? Or maybe some demons are “born” sentient…”
I still suspect “Vinlanid” was the first human victim and resulted in the first demon captured.
Maybe by accident, but once the religious leaders found out they can interfere the process of death and the passing of souls, they can reproduce those conditions on other humans and the demons who attempted to do their “jobs” with the “bait” put out.