The Order of Forgotten Mysteries #9: Biblical involvements

[anonymous]

Oy mateys, I gotta say, this week's Order is a little bit different than usual. It is not discussing a real forgotten mystery, but rather a theme that has never been abandoned by the developers, yet has been overlooked often. As we are discussing Christian and Biblical subjects, I would like to note that I, who haven't read the Bible and used merely Wikipedia as my source, might be completely derailed here. The things I will mention do not necassery tie with the real beliefs of people who are Christian. Also special thanks to @NaBrZHunter, who helped me with rewrite some errors and misunderstandings!

 

Ever since the start of early theorizing concerning Zombiologica, monotheistic Middle Eastern religions, among which Christian and Biblical matters, have been involved in our discussions. Whether it were connections to Satanic organisations, Knights Templar or Fallen Angels and Biblical stories used as metaphor for the involvement of extraterrestrials, we are familiar with Christian tales. Jeb Brown is said to be helped by Angels while crafting the Pack-a-Punch machine, and in Alpha Omega, eyeless Angels with big carnivorous jaws have appeared in Pernell's dream. Verruckt even featured a Biblical verse, which was even before our meeting with the Ultimis characters. It therefore was nothing odd or unexpected to suddenly see a Bible verse written on a wall in Classified. 

 

19:9

 

This stands for Revelations 19:9

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Then the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!” And he added, “These are the true words of God.”

Revelations 19:9 is one of the last of the 22th Chapters. What happened prior to these events? 

 

Revelations

God secured the Book of Life, only worthy to one to open and read it. This Book, however, is secured by seven seals. The breaking of the first four seals releases the Four Horsemen. 

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"I heard one of the four living creatures saying as with a voice of thunder, "Come." I looked, and behold, a white horse.."

The Four Horsemen included the rider of the White Horse (disease), the Red Horse (war), the Black Horse (famine) and the Pale Horse, carrying Death, or Hades. The following seals unleashed the Wrath of God, earthquakes and other cataclysmic events, followed by the scorching of all flora by fire, the poisoning of all water and the diminishing of all light. Not uninteresting to say is that these events were caused by something that came from above. I believe this can be connected with the Apocalypse caused by the Moon missiles: the fire, the death, the darkness (note that Tranzit takes place during daytime, but thanks to the fog the sun can only be seen in Theatre Mode). At Diner, horse sounds have been reported by various players. Weird, a horse in this apocalyptic landscape…

 

In the following chapters of Revelations, a war breaks out in Heaven. The Great War of Agartha? This ends with the defeated angels, among who was the Dragon, or Satan, being cast away to Earth, known as Fallen Angels. I highly recommend reading Tac and Mac's thread about the connection of these Fallen Angels with the set-up of our story. The Dragon gives a monstrous Beast the authority to rule Earth, and shows 'great and miraculous signs', causing people to follow him. Its followers are forced to receive the Mark of the Beast on their right hand, which reminded me of the Shadowman's practises in Morg City. 

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"You wear the Mark. You are cursed."

There is, however, to little known yet about what caused Morg City and our four characters to flip into the pocket dimensional/cursed version of Morg City, so more connection I cannot make concerning this subject. 

 

We've reached Revelations 19, the events the Classified verse is about. In this chapter, the war between the people of God (ones with God's Mark) and rest of the world (ones with the Beast's Mark) takes place. After the war has finished the Beast is thrown into the lake of fire. Satan is thrown in the bottomless pit, the Abyss, the Chasm or Rift that leads to Hell. The Dark Aether. We approach the end of Revelations, but we take a short look to chapter 21, verse 6.

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"And He said to me, "It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts."

Now, aside from a reference to the map Alpha Omega, this verse might be a nod to Primis (Alpha) and Ultimis (Omega). In the Christian meaning of the words, Alpha Omega means that God is eternal and everything, from the Beginning till the End. Chapter 21 is about a new Earth and Heaven replace the old ones, and all the death and suffering is over. Kinda like a happy ending, but also tied to the idea of the world starting over again: A theme that is involved in many ancient mythologies and cultures.

 

The Tower of Babel

Now I'll make some sort of flashback to events prior to Revelations, at the very beginning of the Bible: Genesis. Location: Babylon, current Iraq. In Babylon, people had built a tower that tall that it was believed to reach Heaven: the Tower of Bable, also the infamous name of the Tranzit Story Quest. Now the correlation between these two is, I think, that Richthofen as well wants to reach 'Heaven', Agartha, by using his 'Towers of Bable', the Global Polarization Devices. Now @EricMaynard came up with an interesting idea on the  Discord about pictures drawn on the wall in Classified.

 

Most people, including me, believed that this pyramid would refer to the MPD, or APD perhaps. However, it appears different than a casual, symmetric pyramid, with its diagonal layers and tower-like look. It looks very similar to a painting in the café at Town, Tranzit.

The Tower of Bable. Wherever you search for pictures of it, it always features this striking diagonal-layer appearance. Will we return to Green Run? Or construct a Global Polarization Device somewhere else perhaps? Underneath this drawing, "the way through" is written and above, a picture of the Vril Rod is drawn. 

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Pernell: (sigh) There must be a way... there's got to be a way. The voices in my head, well, it's been years now. They won't leave me alone. The only way to temper them is... is liquid courage. Heh. (sips) At night it's worse, it's lonely here. So quiet in the middle of the desert. I hear them seeping through the dry cracks of dead dirt. (sips) They want me to find a way through. The gateway. I found a schematic in Doctor Richtofen's journal. He made a plan, a backup plan to build a device, a uh, uh, fast-lane. We tried to build it but... we didn't have the necessary components, they... well they just don't exist! (clinking) (sigh) The last several months I've had this reoccurring dream. In it, I'm able to merge with the Aether... the spirits. They say it's the only way. I need to investigate this further.

The backup plan. The way through. The components. 

As a last thing, nothing to do with Biblical references but rather science again, @RequixEclipse noted this picture of the MPD drawn, with "The Source" written underneath it and a weird exploded ball of some sort drawn above it. He connected this ball with the destroyed Earth, seen in the Die Rise loading screen. I find it striking that this MPD is called "the Source" and the Tower of Bable, the GPD, "the Way Through". Has anyone any visualized idea of how this might work. Of what is the MPD the source, and is the GDP the gateway of this? 

[Spotlight]

Great post, an idea that comes to mind is that now that we have broken the cycle and all that, it may be that we can take the road to the end of Buried, now on the side of Richtofen, in addition to the small changes like now Avogadro is in its "complete" version and is not just a sample.
I really don't know what repercussions it could have on the story right now, but it would be interesting to make use of that second ending.

[anonymous]

9 hours ago, Spotlight said:

Great post, an idea that comes to mind is that now that we have broken the cycle and all that, it may be that we can take the road to the end of Buried, now on the side of Richtofen, in addition to the small changes like now Avogadro is in its "complete" version and is not just a sample.
I really don't know what repercussions it could have on the story right now, but it would be interesting to make use of that second ending.

Indeed, it is interesting that while both Buried endings are canon, thus far, only Maxis' Endgame seems to be continued. Maxis... the one who wasn't inside the Moon Pyramid Device yet used the Rift's energy to enter Agartha and take Samantha with him, leading to Earth's doom. It can be noted that we actually never saw an MPD occupant using it's full potential power, as Richthofen must activate the Global Polarization Devices and 'mend the Rift' first. After this, he is said to eternally damn Samantha's soul and is able to inhabit physical bodies (Samuel Stuhlinger) as well. What more, I wonder? What would him being in control lead to? And was he, just like Maxis, corrupted by the Apothicans as well or did he had a free will?

 

It raises the question till how far Maxis's Endgame has caused the events of BO3 and BO4 to happen, as it had Origins as a result (free Sam), though the whole Multiverse Fuckery was taking place ever since the first MTD tests. 

 

I'm curious if we'll ever see the real Pernell in Hanford. Who knows, his energy could be more powerfull than the original "Him"... Also, welcome to the site mate! If you have any questions just ask, hope to see you around!

[Spotlight]

Thank you for the welcome, and if I have a question, the "eternal damnation" that caused it and how it affects the story.

[anonymous]

46 minutes ago, Spotlight said:

Thank you for the welcome, and if I have a question, the "eternal damnation" that caused it and how it affects the story.

 

Richthofen: "Finally, I am in control! The aether is mine to manipulate as I wish. The world is now my own personal plaything! A-HA HA!"

Maxis "What have you done?!"

Richthofen: "I've won, Maxis! That's what I've done!"

Maxis: "But what about Samantha? Your actions condemn my daughter's very soul to eternal damnation! Even if you do not care for her, surely you wish to return to your own body?"

Richthofen: "Not really, no. And I already possess the power to leave this netherworld, and re-enter the physical realm once more. I can choose anybody I wish! Ahahaha! As for you, Maxis, you will simply cease to be! Auf wiedersehen, toodles! Hahahaha!"

 

So it appears Richthofen's actions lead to Samanatha's damnation, and the way Maxis tries to talk Richthofen into getting his own body back, I think it has to do with Samantha's soul still inhabiting Richthofen's physical body.

 

When Maxis is in control, Sam's soul is taken out of Richthofen's body prior to Ultimis teleporting to Groom Lake, 1963, leaving it comatose/braindead. If Richthofen would gain control, would Sam eventually teleport to Groom Lake too? Or did these events not even occur? Its interesting that by the time of Buried, Ultimis + Sam would have either died or travelled away from Griffin Station. And yet Samantha would be doomed. Why? I do not know, but perhaps it merely refers to Maxis inability to 'travel back in time' (as far as you can call it like that in the Aether) to Moon and rescue his daughter, as he can only do that when he is in control.

[Mattzs]

The Aether story is filled with Biblical allusions and references.

 

Origins is another name for  Genesis (the first book in the Bible)

Revelations is the last book.

Wasn’t Tranzit’s achievement called “Tower of Babel” too?

I still think the Shadowman’s mark is the Mark of the Beast. It looks like three 6 on top on one another. Plus, the form in SoE is referred to as beast mode.

There is also no doubt in my mind that the A.D.A.M.s in Alpha Omega are a direct reference to Adam from the Book of Genesis. While somewhat loose, one can draw a parallel and say these A.D.A.M.s disobey their creators as well.

 

While not a part of the Bible, the Vril-ya were said to have survived a Great Flood (an allusion in it and of itself).