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Sidewinder wrote:From the description of the demon being "poisoned" by shrapnel, I'm guessing they're vulnerable to bacterial/viral infection, e.g., biological weapons.

Considering what Dr. Surlethe described, that could be it.

Oh, and General, their metabolic pathways are almost identical to ours. Chemical weapons should work on them just fine.

tim31 wrote:Stuart: were you tempted at all to describe Yahweh besides being huge? Or did you simply consider it irrelevant?

It's a conscious choice of mine not to give detailed descriptions of characters; rather than draw a detailed picture at once, I like to shade it with details, pencil strokes that provice an outline. That way the reader can use their own imaginations to provide the character with an appearance that suits them. I did this consistently throughout TBO, there are very few character descriptions there. What there are are odd remarks at different times, filling in details. For example Lillith has long, very black, curly hair, honey-colored skin, full lips, heavy eyebrows, all details gently shaded in over several stories.

Armageddon is a bit different; many of the characters actually exist so you know what they look like or can look them up on the web. But, I'm shading in the demons in my preferred manner.

By ATC, do you mean all-terrain cycle? (I'm assuming you don't mean Air Training Command/Corps or Air Transport Command.)

Air Traffic Control (I have this private belief that when Israelis drive things they get taken over by the spirits of long-dead kamikaze pilots). They have this nice game in Israel Flight Control, see who is the first to get all the little dots into the circle in the middle of the radar display.

Succubus, single-sex freak? So, demons regard non-hermaphrodites as freaks?

All will become obvious in due course..........

tim31 wrote:Stuart: were you tempted at all to describe Yahweh besides being huge? Or did you simply consider it irrelevant?

Somewhere in the back of my mind, I remember that certain Kabbalah texts actually give physical dimensions to YHWH. Besides the Protestant Old Testament, there are sooooo many interesting things in the Jewish tradition.

All about him, the people sang; he could feel the ecstasy of the choirs of angels, of those few, fortunate saved humans

Stuart, does this mean that those humans that were saved prior to heaven closing its doors are turned into angels? Sorta like a Metatron en masse?
Or am I reading it too literally, and it just means that the souls of "saved" humans without ceasing worship Yahweh along with the heavenly chorus?

As far as Yahweh goes, it was intentionally left vague, in part because I have no idea what sort of revelations the other authors have in mind for the god. Of course, if I had been specific, I imagine Stuart would have edited it for good measure.

Cecelia5578 wrote:Stuart, does this mean that those humans that were saved prior to heaven closing its doors are turned into angels? Sorta like a Metatron en masse?
Or am I reading it too literally, and it just means that the souls of "saved" humans without ceasing worship Yahweh along with the heavenly chorus?

I intended it to mean the latter, but since it's ambiguous, the final interpretation is up to Stuart.

Hawkings wrote:I assumed it meant Air Traffic Control.

Stuart wrote:

Sidewinder wrote:By ATC, do you mean all-terrain cycle? (I'm assuming you don't mean Air Training Command/Corps or Air Transport Command.)

Air Traffic Control (I have this private belief that when Israelis drive things they get taken over by the spirits of long-dead kamikaze pilots). They have this nice game in Israel Flight Control, see who is the first to get all the little dots into the circle in the middle of the radar display.


What they said. It's been recently on the news here exactly how fucked ATC here is, underpaid, overworked, in a very stressful enviorment.


Stuart, if you want to add a dimension of 'misunderstanding biblical texts', I'd be happy to translate parts of the Hebrew bible for you into literal english, so you can compare what the KJV and other English language bibles say.

brianeyci wrote:

JN1 wrote: I've quoted part of his email below.

First eh. Let me guess: he went through the whole thing picking parts of the story he thought were "wrong," as if something as self-contradictory or ambigious as The Bible wasn't open to many interpretations.

Obviously I can't speak for him, but I did not read the email that way. He was only raising an alternative interpretation as far as I can see.
He's enjoying the story, as it happens.

Wow. Living in Heaven or Hell would suck. Well, it's up to Earth to make things right.

It seems to me that Yahweh would be extremely powerful, but perhaps if you killed the eternal choir which constantly feeds him with its praise, you could weaken him.

Similarly, I imagine that Satan might be weakened if enough of the humans in Hell are freed, and no longer suffering for his sustenance. The humans substantially outnumber the demons after all, so if you can disrupt demon territorial control enough to start freeing humans who can then roam freely in large areas to liberate other humans etc, you could potentially start something really big.

Darth Wong wrote:It seems to me that Yahweh would be extremely powerful, but perhaps if you killed the eternal choir which constantly feeds him with its praise, you could weaken him.

Similarly, I imagine that Satan might be weakened if enough of the humans in Hell are freed, and no longer suffering for his sustenance. The humans substantially outnumber the demons after all, so if you can disrupt demon territorial control enough to start freeing humans who can then roam freely in large areas to liberate other humans etc, you could potentially start something really big.

I didn't think that's why they harvested humans; the point was to gather humans' 'energy' to boost angels and demons into the afterlife, not necessarily to sustain them in this life.

Surlethe wrote:

Darth Wong wrote:It seems to me that Yahweh would be extremely powerful, but perhaps if you killed the eternal choir which constantly feeds him with its praise, you could weaken him.

Similarly, I imagine that Satan might be weakened if enough of the humans in Hell are freed, and no longer suffering for his sustenance. The humans substantially outnumber the demons after all, so if you can disrupt demon territorial control enough to start freeing humans who can then roam freely in large areas to liberate other humans etc, you could potentially start something really big.

I didn't think that's why they harvested humans; the point was to gather humans' 'energy' to boost angels and demons into the afterlife, not necessarily to sustain them in this life.

That's why I thought too. Killing Yahweh's choir would just annoy him.

Surlethe wrote:

Darth Wong wrote:It seems to me that Yahweh would be extremely powerful, but perhaps if you killed the eternal choir which constantly feeds him with its praise, you could weaken him.

Similarly, I imagine that Satan might be weakened if enough of the humans in Hell are freed, and no longer suffering for his sustenance. The humans substantially outnumber the demons after all, so if you can disrupt demon territorial control enough to start freeing humans who can then roam freely in large areas to liberate other humans etc, you could potentially start something really big.

I didn't think that's why they harvested humans; the point was to gather humans' 'energy' to boost angels and demons into the afterlife, not necessarily to sustain them in this life.

Is it confirmed that this is actually what happens? Or is that just what the bosses tell the peons?

By the way, since the discussion of different Old Testament texts has come up, there's a new translation of the Septuagint (the Disaspora-era translation of the Old Testament to Greek) available as the Orthodox Study Bible. The translation tries to be as faithful as possible, although much commentary is provided in the footnotes if you care for it.

The reason they decided to use the Septuagint is due to the fact that it was translated from the Hebrew before 100 BC. After Christianity appeared, a number of changes were made to the Torah and the deuterocanonical books were omitted. The Orthodox Study Bible has a complete translation of the entire Septuagint.

Whether it would be of any use to this story is questionable, but I figured I might as well throw it out there if anybody's interested in a look.

I would think that Yahweh must be storing 'energy' from this worship, for his eventual death, somehow, else, why does it have to be unceasing; though of course, he could just be so deranged that he orders that simply because he likes it.

Of course, if this 'energy' has any use other than ascending him upon death is another matter.

NecronLord wrote:I would think that Yahweh must be storing 'energy' from this worship, for his eventual death, somehow, else, why does it have to be unceasing; though of course, he could just be so deranged that he orders that simply because he likes it.

Of course, if this 'energy' has any use other than ascending him upon death is another matter.

Soul energy is like crack cocaine to Yahweh

Stuart wrote:He’d also looked at one of the homes of the Flying Chariots as the convoy had made its way East. Two of them had been taking off, the howl they made painful to the ears. ‘Warthogs.’ One of the truck drivers had shouted. ‘Wait till you see them babies at work.’ They were babies? What did the parents look like?

I giggled, heartily.

Sidewinder wrote:From the description of the demon being "poisoned" by shrapnel, I'm guessing they're vulnerable to bacterial/viral infection, e.g., biological weapons. Or is iron actually poisonous to demons?

Considering they eat their dead, they have far hardier immune systems than almost any other creature living on this planet. Perhaps the medical teams just removed shrapnel from Depleted Uranium Rounds in this case?

Allergies to metal ARE possible in humans. I, personally, suffer from an allergy to aluminum. It could be that whatever physiological quirk allows them to store and discharge energy has also resulted in a severe iron allergy.

CaptainChewbacca wrote:Allergies to metal ARE possible in humans. I, personally, suffer from an allergy to aluminum. It could be that whatever physiological quirk allows them to store and discharge energy has also resulted in a severe iron allergy.

Perhaps Yahweh built in a control mechanism through that. It wouldn't even have to be an allergy in the same sense we humans have them (the extreme cases where we break out in hives and our lungs start to close off), but that just might be the case. I'd imagine he (Yahweh) has more than one in place (especially after Lucifer's rebellion), but it would fit with what we've been shown.

This story is getting better and better...
Uriel's death is coming soon and Yahweh is in for a surprise...
I can't wait till the second army of hell...

I just had a thought... The suicide bombers that have blown themselves up to kill Baldricks. After they yell "Fuck Allah" or whatever it is they scream now, they go to hell, right? So why not have someone rescue a couple, give them a shitload of explosives and tell them to go do there thing in hell?

Curiouser and curiouser Stuart. Abigor's experiences will be worth a book all on their own though given the vast extent of the canvas upon which you are creating this story, there would be no room unless this story goes to chapter 100+!!

Clues have been given as to Jahweh, each of which makes any final unveiling more intriguing. Memnon inferred that Jahweh was no shining good guy, perhaps somewhat monsterish in appearance. I recall the word "lovecraftian" was used in a previous post. Probably most apt, either Lovecraft, Howard or C A Smith for example. Apolloin seemed to "grimace" at the thought of the everlasting chorus of praise. Now Michael notices despair in those who habituate before Jahweh's throne. Incense obscures Jahweh's face and visage. As with the message, Stuart will dribble out details as the chapter requires but he is not going to set out a TBOverse or TLW style Fact File.

One of the many ways in which Abigor can be useful to those he has now sworn fealty to and perhaps the most important is to describe the war between heaven and hell. The foot soldiers of heaven are unlikely to be similar to the demons. For a start, heavenly creatures are typically depicted with swords or bows, not tridents and claws.

"Wow. Living in Heaven or Hell would suck. Well, it's up to Earth to make things right."


You've got that right, The Vortex Empire.

Jonathan

Mr. Coffee wrote:I just had a thought... The suicide bombers that have blown themselves up to kill Baldricks. After they yell "Fuck Allah" or whatever it is they scream now, they go to hell, right? So why not have someone rescue a couple, give them a shitload of explosives and tell them to go do there thing in hell?

Because when you die in Hell, it's for good, or so that would be my understanding.

Also, Stuart must lace these chapters with E-Crack or some shit, cuz I think I'm jonesing already. Thanks for the new chapter, my favourite parts are the Baldricks perception of our weapons and technology, so the part with Abigor pondering about the Hogs and the transports was interesting.

Finally a slight nitpick, I only noticed it on my second run through, since in my excitement it seems I just unconciously added the correct prefix to the word. Highlighted the word that needs correcting.

Stuart wrote:“General Abigor? Follow me please.” The human spoke politely but firmly. From the number of chariots around, obeying him was unwise. Anyway, Abigor remembered the long streams of chariots heading west. Arguing wasn’t an option. He followed the human into the hangar.

Darth Wong wrote:Is it confirmed that this is actually what happens? Or is that just what the bosses tell the peons?

I think the right answer is "whatever Stuart says it is."

KlavoHunter wrote:

Stuart wrote:He’d also looked at one of the homes of the Flying Chariots as the convoy had made its way East. Two of them had been taking off, the howl they made painful to the ears. ‘Warthogs.’ One of the truck drivers had shouted. ‘Wait till you see them babies at work.’ They were babies? What did the parents look like?

I giggled, heartily.

Ickle baby Warthogs grow up into Spectres, of course!

with this line of thought they might think of the tankers as brood mothers, they way all the other aircraft 'nurse' off them.

Mr. Coffee wrote:I just had a thought... The suicide bombers that have blown themselves up to kill Baldricks. After they yell "Fuck Allah" or whatever it is they scream now, they go to hell, right? So why not have someone rescue a couple, give them a shitload of explosives and tell them to go do there thing in hell?

I don’t know, that doesn’t really make sense. Personally I think the suicide bombings against Bladricks are already out of place and under rate the abilities and intelligence behind Al Qaeda in Iraq. They use hoards of suicide bombers in the current war because its much more effective at killing Americans and masses of civilians then other kinds of bombs. Against ignorant Bladricks Al Qaeda is smart enough to see that this isn’t necessary, and that it can converse manpower by using other tactics. As it is a good portion of Al Qaeda bombs are in fact simply left on remote triggers or timers, hidden in abandon vehicles, apartment buildings ect…