murmur Wrote:Since Glory has been stuffed into the Ben-container, does this mean that there are NO Glory counterparts/avatars/versions in other universes? There isn't a version of Glory in Doug's world, or the BGC world or the OMB world?Okay, I really ought to do this on more thought and sleep, but here's the old college try.
Or maybe we've seen glimpses of Glory before in those other universes, only we had no clue. Like, one of those RPG-playing kids in the diner in DWII was actually that universe's Glory.
On a slightly different but related tangent, what is the difference between being forcibly incarnated and Falling? It seems to have done damage to Buffy-verse Glory that is equivalent, if not possibly on the same level, as Mara's Fall.
Demons, Old Ones, Gods, Hellgods: All the same basic kind of creature as far as my cosmology is concerned -- a timeslice of a much "larger" 12-dimensional being. The primary difference between them is what "team" they're on in the grand conflict between themselves, and their choice of Vessel. Note that these teams are not simplistically "Good" and "Evil", although they tend to play that way; there are evil gods that are part of the "good" team, and a few beings one might think of at first glance as "good" on the side of the demons. (One metric for determining the side is what they think of lower-dimensionals. The gods -- even the evil ones -- place some value on lower-dimensionals, if only as basic worshipers. Demons tend to see them as toys to play with and break without consequence, or to nosh on.)
Because that particular Earth does have interdimensional connections to other universes, spaces and places, not all of these Celestial and Infernal manifestations are "native" to the Buffyverse, but that has no real impact on how they operate there or their power level. (Think Skuld traipsing from world to world in "Girls, Girls, Girls".)
And as we've seen both in DW5 and in the third season of Buffy, it's possible for a lower-dimensional to get "promoted" (although given the ease with with the Mayor was dispatched, I wouldn't be surprised if he was being conned by the Big-D demons).
Lower-case "d" demons are effectively mortals with odd appearances, diets and abilities And are usually hostile toward humans for the same reason Indians didn't like white settlers in the Old West.
The Powers That Be -- sound and act a whole lot like the Seraphim Council from In Nomine: not quite gods, but unimaginably powerful compared to J. Average Mortal. Given their big emphasis on "balance", I believe they're actually made up of representatives of both sides. They administer and police the situation on Earth.
What I haven't yet explained in the story is that Earth in the Buffyverse is currently the metaphysical equivalent of the Korean DMZ. Or the Romulan Neutral Zone. Neither full gods nor full demons, by the terms of an ancient agreement, are allowed to operate directly on Earth. Both gods and demons can lend/send power to worshippers, particularly priestly types, but are forbidden from making personal appearances. Something about Earth is very special to them, special enough that they're willing to take a full hands-off approach to keep it from being rendered into gravel by god-demon conflicts. Hence the PTB, which are a mixed team of beings from both sides, roughly the power of archangels. Their entire goal is to maintain the balance of power on Earth so that neither side gets an upper hand and causes the other side to decide they have nothing to lose by breaking the agreement.
Naturally, demons being demons, they cheat a little, and the mortal-demon hybrids were grandfathered in as being mortals. But the good guys have been known to play a little fast and loose once in a while as well.
I don't know anything about Twilight, but the First Evil is another 12-D creature's avatar. The First Evil will not be appearing in this story, but will be... um, invoked might be the best word, toward the end.
As for Glory, she didn't fall so much as get dogpiled and beaten up, then stuffed in a packing crate. This happened on the 12-D level, although it was instigated by events on a lower level. So yes, that means any other roles that Glory's overself took in other universes (and in the Buffyverse!) are currently MIA. And what happened to Marller to turn her into Mara is actually the complete opposite of what happened to Glory. Marller was shattered, and essentially each of her instances across the multiverse became an individual, and they were all joined together only loosely. Glory has been run through the metaphysical equivalent of file compression software and jammed into a single mortal body. Most of her power is locked away; part of that at least is because much of the power of the gods comes from tapping into the ability to perceive and affect a universe from a level or two "above" it, dimensionally-speaking. Glory, however, is firmly anchored inside a single 4-D universe, and her ability to affect it is all but non-existent.
-- Bob
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Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.