Chapter Text
Chapter 1.5: The Main Cast - Purposed
While Sins of Forgiveness is mainly about the Iterators and especially the individual fate and journey of a specific one, Shifting Gales, her journey would have ended very early and unceremoniously if not for various mortal Purposed, who aided her along the way.
Even divine beings require the aid of the unenlightened, especially now that they have been left behind to toil away on the Great Problem.
The Irradiant - [Project Acid-Rodent] - 001 - Creator: Approaching Sky
Specific issues require specific tools to address. The Irradiant, formerly known as 001, was meant to be one of these tools.
001 was not purposed with the initial goal to turn her into a radioactive menace with acidic abilities. Her purpose wasn't set in stone, with the key exception of her serving as an alternative to helping Approaching Sky's neighbour, Shifting Gales, with deliveries that couldn't be made through her especially weak broadcast connection — A way to transfer blueprints and the like.
001 was a canvas of possibilities. A basic Slugcat with mutagenic potential and an outstanding adaptability in the first Major Cycle after her artificial birth. A basic Slugcat, born with the intellectual awareness of a grown-up, with a wit as sharp as a razor and a rebellious attitude.
To adapt to the corrosive situation on Shifting Gales' island, she was bestowed with an innate acidity that would render her capable of surviving the harsh circumstances of her crucial mission. And gifted with a strong radiating aura to shield her from predators and allies alike.
001 grew into the Slugcat, who would be known as The Irradiant; Shifting Gales' glowing hope.
Fanart of The Irradiant - Drawn by Banan (fairyring)
The Spearmaster - Messenger - Creator: Seven Red Suns
A freak of nature. A being designed and realised by a god among many gods. A lattice that followed the religious teachings of the House of Forgiveness.
Seven Red Suns had no interest in introducing a living being to the atrocities of the Cycle. But when it became apparent that they would need an alternative way of delivering sensitive data, they procured the concept of a Messenger walking as close to ascension as possible.
To assure the poor mortal an easy path to ascension, the messenger Slugcat has been designed with a singular goal in mind. To grant the unfortunate soul the most direct path to ascension, Suns' late creators could only have dreamed of.
Every karmic urge was tied to the two vices that couldn't be ignored when designing a mortal helper: The first vice of war and pain, and the fifth of survival. They should be able to fight and carry out their mission.
The vices of lust, company and mammon, however, have been tied into the design of the purple Slugcat to be factors in dire need of upholding the other two.
Messenger had not the means to embrace lust, lacked the verbal capacities to revel in company with their kind and had their need of sustenance tied to the vice of pain, infused through the spear-like needles directly into their bloodstream.
Messenger was a creation made to survive and ascend, and not to suffer in between. But Seven Red Suns didn't address the individual needs of the soul... and also not their growing affection for the purple Messenger Suns bestowed with a name after their final mission had been concluded. They needed each other.
The Spearmaster!
When Suns got pulled into the affairs of the Local Group, Spears quickly noticed that Irradiant would require a mentor besides her inept creator; A role Spears embraced gladly, as they began teaching the pup everything they knew.
Unrelenting Wave Breaker - Intelligent Elite Scavenger - Descendant of Approaching Sky's experiments
If one were to imagine a Scavenger, one would picture a greedy being of scales and fur hiding behind a bone mask. A short-legged bundle of shakiness walking on its long arms, carrying spears and bombs with no regard for its safety.
An Iterator would describe these primitives as unenlightened brutes, annoyances, maybe even as threats to their Overseers.
The Scavenger Unrelenting Wave Breaker was an exception to the rule. He was a descendant of a row of Scavengers, who had been created in the test tubes of Iterator Approaching Sky. Hyperintellectual Scavengers with long and muscular legs, a physique more akin to Sky's late parents, the Benefactors. But Breaker didn't know any of that.
But Breaker knew something else:
Breaker was smart. Breaker was tall. Breaker was strong. A prideful member of the tribe and first to have been chosen to investigate the odd and burning behaviour of the rain-bringing Monolith.
Together with his tamed mount, the orange lizard he named Crusher, Breaker would be dragged into the affairs of Random Gods and play a pivotal role in the events unfolding.
Breaker and Crusher, together with the Scavengers Rain that Crackles (blue) and Flooded Coast (green)
Breaker and Chieftain Commanding Ocean Tides - Genetic differences