Mummies & Prometheans

[Cielle]

I can't be the only one who's noticed how much these two templates have in common. I'm not just talking about how they're both ritually reanimated corpses, though that process is similar. Consider:

- Both splats passively warp the world around them with Sybaris or Disquiet. People can sense their unnatural nature and it makes them behave in bizarre, hostile ways. Their true forms even shine through under similar circumstances.

- Both splats lack a normal human soul, and can gain (or regain) one through a process of self-discovery and improvement. Both are relieved of their greatest weaknesses and stripped of their greatest strengths by doing so. Both still retain certain advantages that make them more than human, though.

- Both splats face similar enemies. Amkhata and Pandorans can be almost indistinguishable in their appearance, their instincts, and their abilities (particularly their tendency to hide in plain sight.) The Centimani and Shuankhsen both take on inhuman forms, stitch together their own minions from ritually prepared body parts, and literally tear life force from their victims' flesh. All of them are attracted to Azoth/Sekhem, and those two energies are described in ways that suggest a similar source and function.

All of that opens the door for speculation as to whether the two splats might share a common point of origin, and what that might mean. Could the Promethean lineages have been created from Iremite sources, or make use of their Artifacts and Vestiges? If the Arisen are cousin to Prometheans, could those alchemical processes alter their Descent or allow them to transcend it? Do the Qashmallim and Judges know of each other or interfere with the others' business?

Anyone else tried to cross over these lines?

[ArcaneArts]

Some of this is stretching, but for me the main thing I got to point out is that Mummies(well, the Arisen and Deceived, the Shuankhsen are kind of fucked) actually do have their normal soul. It's modified by their relationship to the Judges and the Shan'iatu, but they have the same souls they started off with.

As for crossover? Not explicitly, but it's in the plans.

[Cielle]

It's modified by their relationship to the Judges and the Shan'iatu, but they have the same souls they started off with.

That's what I meant by "normal human soul" - it's modified, so it's no longer a normal soul. Apotheosis reverts those modifications per the text.

[ArcaneArts]

That's what I meant by "normal human soul" - it's modified, so it's no longer a normal soul. Apotheosis reverts those modifications per the text.

Ah, I see! Nevermind then.

[reseru]

Years and years ago Dave B said he was surprised more people weren't picking up on the similarities between the two splats, so there's certainly something there.

It's been my head-canon for years that Pandorans were somehow - however minimally - connected to the Lower Depths. By extension, Prometheans, too; I like to think that they're Depth denizens that have been "pulled up" into our world, and the Principle and Azoth are the forces working to help them get a soul. Mummies, canonically, are connected to the Depths, so this similarity always made sense at least in my head-canon.

[Exthalion]

The Heretic said that Sekhem remembered this:

Sekhem gave rise to myriad forms. Plants and dumb animals were among them, but so were invisible beings.
None of these beings, which explicitly includes demons, their kin, and certain speaking beasts, have the Will to defy suffering.
The judges made humanity from the children of Sutek (Sekhem) with the Will to chose to not be sacrificed to She With Teeth of Mountains.

So it is consistent with what Sekhem remembers if humans were originally made out of some sort of lower entity and Prometheans are repeating the process. An interesting connection with Vampires and especially the Strix suggests itself.
(It would also suggest that the Awakened may have something to do with those who chose Aaru, and the Scroll of Ages might have some connection to the symbols of the Supernal, but the grand cosmologies tend to fall apart on close inspection)

[Tessie]

It should be noted that various Lower Depths aren't necessarily connected in any way. Some Lower Depths can actually be diametrically opposed, one lacking and hungering for something that another has in abundance and vice versa.

[ArcaneArts]

It should be noted that various Lower Depths aren't necessarily connected in any way. Some Lower Depths can actually be diametrically opposed, one lacking and hungering for something that another has in abundance and vice versa.

Yes, but Duat explicitly lacks Sekhem, ergo (probably) a Lower Depth. This has been brought up a lot.

[Tessie]

I... did not claim otherwise?

[ArcaneArts]

I... did not claim otherwise?

Then I am not sure how your comment is supposed to work in relation to Res's?

I'll admit, I'm probably confused here.

[Tessie]

Then I am not sure how your comment is supposed to work in relation to Res's?

I'll admit, I'm probably confused here.

That just because A and B are connected to the Lower Depths doesn't necessarily mean that there is a connection between A and B because the two Lower Depths realms they're connected to might be completely unrelated. There could be a connection, but I wouldn't theorise it unless I had other reasons to suspect that A and B were connected. It was a reply to both Reseru and Exthalion.

[Exthalion]

Alternatively: The lower depths are all connected in so much as they connect back to the real world.

To give a possible example: When the first wave struck the rock of Atrm in the womb of Nuit it echoed out into the void giving rise to various realms which grew increasingly empty as its echo faded.

Progressing up the ladder of being from lower depth to true reality is reasonably something burned into the structure of reality.

[ArcaneArts]

That just because A and B are connected to the Lower Depths doesn't necessarily mean that there is a connection between A and B because the two Lower Depths realms they're connected to might be completely unrelated. There could be a connection, but I wouldn't theorise it unless I had other reasons to suspect that A and B were connected. It was a reply to both Reseru and Exthalion.

Ah, that makes more sense.

[reseru]

That just because A and B are connected to the Lower Depths doesn't necessarily mean that there is a connection between A and B because the two Lower Depths realms they're connected to might be completely unrelated. There could be a connection, but I wouldn't theorise it unless I had other reasons to suspect that A and B were connected. It was a reply to both Reseru and Exthalion.

Yeah, this is true but it's also not necessarily mutually exclusive with that I was saying.

Sure, they may be from differing Depths but the fact is, in my proposition anyway, they're both Depth entities which explains their similarities at least, such as all-consuming hunger and a spreading, contagious aura of maliciousness. That makes them more related than to, say, a Sin-eater, an Unchained, or a Changeling.