Читать книгу Verse and Dimensions: Stories - - Страница 22

Barelitil is a powerful, proud and charismatic Supergod who sadly perished during the unknown events of the Calamity. All currently surviving Broken Supergods (except Monopolum) have vague memories of what he was like, how he acted and how he treated them, but nothing concrete about the events of his life or his death.

Whatever Barelitil's death involved, it must have been exceedingly violent as small pieces of Barelitil's constituent -verses can still be found across the Beyond Bubble. Under normal conditions, the constituent -verses of deceased Supergods would take the form of useless decaying Archverses. However, for unknown reasons the Barelitil fragments are able to retain perfect structural integrity.

In fact, the pieces seem to hold some small fragments of Barelitil's mind and personality, which can still speak to and hold conversations with the other Supergods. It was initially hoped that Schematus would be able to reassemble and resurrect Barelitil, however it turns out these pieces only held mere echoes of Barelitil's mind, and the original seems to be permanently lost. It also doesn't help that they still haven't found a large chunk of Barelitil's head.

Schematus has confiscated most of the Barelitil fragments for his experiments, mostly involving performing ludicrous tests on the Godsmoke and mental echoes within, along with questioning the echoes for information about the calamity. (To which the answer is always "I don't know" because they don't have memories.) Abnull has begun hiding the ones she finds so that she, Binauris and Peralitus are free to use them when they wish, although Peralitus is just as bad about hoarding them as Schematus is so Abnull has stopped offering them to him.

The Barelitil echoes only hold the appearance of consciousness and sentience without actually being a real mind; talking to them could be compared in human terms to talking to a learning A.I. with Barelitil's personality traits. Nevertheless, the Broken Supergods consider it a valuable way to 'keep him close by', even though Abnull and Negatil both agree Peralitus takes it way too far. Positev doesn't really see the problem.

Barelitil was classed as Omnipotent^3 and Omniscient^2 on the Omnipotence Hierarchy. Judging from the surviving Supergods' memories combined with conversations with the fragments, it can be gathered that Barelitil had great respect for the Supergods and acted as somewhat of a mentor and father figure to them.

Barelitil was apparently a great leader and legendary adventurer who Abnull, Binauris and Peralitus had seemingly once served under. He is remembered for his extreme pride in himself and his 'group' along with his utter devotion to ensuring their success. The Barelitil fragments often mention such a group and while they are unable to elaborate due to their lack of memories, they seem to refer to the Broken Supergods and the 'group' as different things. Strangely, none of the Broken Supergods have any memories of Barelitil ever mentioning this 'group'. References to it come exclusively from the Barelitil fragments.

Abnull can't help but feel encouraged whenever she listens to the Barelitil fragments and can quickly understand why he is remembered as a great leader. Negatil is annoyed at his constant obsession with himself and his 'group', an obsession she believes to be completely delusional, but nevertheless admits he has redeeming qualities. Positev likes Barelitil's charisma and leadership skills but does not find him as captivating as the others do. (Still, he is quick to defend him from Negatil's complaints.)

Schematus has an uneasy relationship with Barelitil. He fully understands why the others like him, but seems to get an instinctive negative reaction whenever he thinks about him. Schematus believes this is closely linked to the events of the Calamity and investigates it thoroughly.

Barelitil's most interesting relationship is with Peralitus. Peralitus believes that he is Barelitil's biological son and that he was chosen by Barelitil as the most competent to lead the 'group' once he died, placing him in a position of authority over the Broken Supergods. To everyone's surprise (and Abnull's disgust), conversations with the Barelitil fragments support this idea.