Merry Christmas!

Hello again. I am Cozy. And today, I wish to celebrate Christmas to you readers out there.

I used to recall a rather interesting piece of trivia in my youth - How 'Mary had a little lamb' isn't actually that simple.

It's said that Mary Sawyer has had a little lamb, which she took to school one day, when her brother suggested it to her. John Roulstone, nephew of a Reverend Lemuel Capen, met her at school, and saw with interest how the little lamb wanted to be by Mary's side, even with the teacher barring it from the class. Inspired, he wrote a poem, and traveled back to the little schoolhouse, to hand the poem to her.

Sarah Josepha Hale, the well-renowned author of the poem we recognise today, changed a few stanzas and added her own to it - But that made the first 16-lined version of the poem much less childlike and weighed with morals. It held a deep, powerful meaning to the little story described in 16 lines. That version was not one that could be interpreted by children easily - I mean, come on, the poem turned from a cheery melody to a pretty deep one about showing kindness for everything you do, even after you pass on.

Mary had a little lamb,
Its fleece was as white as snow,
And every were that Mary went,
The lamb was sure to go.

He followed her to school one day;
That was against the rule;
It made the children laugh and play;
To see the lamb at school.

And so the teacher turned it out;
but still he lingered near;
And waited patiently about;
Till Mary did appear.

And then he ran to her, and laid
His head upon her arm,
As if he said "I'm not afraid,
You'll keep me from all harm."

'What makes the lamb love Mary so?"
The eager children cry;
"O, Mary loves the lamb, you know,"
The teacher did reply.

"And you each gentle animal
To you, for life may bind,
And make it follow at your call,
If you are always kind."

That is pretty deep. Deep enough to have some of the adults I know hang their heads in shame.

But yeah, essentially, that is the story of Mary's Little Lamb. But, why share it on Christmas?

Because here's where it gets interesting.

Saint Mary, Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God. These names are used to depict the Mother of Jesus, Mary. And, if you do recall from the Gospel of Johann (or rather John), he claims Jesus to be the "Lamb of God", as can be seen from the line "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world."

I'm not one to simply say that these two incidents are tied together or anything, but I have recently tried out Zero Escape : 9 Hours, 9 Persons (weird how it isn't People), 9 Doors. And it touched on a pretty interesting concept in that story - Morphogenetic fields.

Let's say there are 80 people in a room, with dividers separating them into 80 different spaces. All the people are gagged in the mouth and restrained so they can only move their hands and forearms, but not enough to free their mouth. They can see and hear, but the dividers are too high to see anyone else. They can only think it's a sort of warehouse they're trapped in. Now, before these 80 people, lies a weighed Rubik cube. Their objective is simple - Solve the Rubik cube.

Once they do, and the weight of the cube is divided across evenly, the Rubik cube has to be placed back onto the table, to release the door holding them captive. The huge warehouse is made in a way such that it is air-tight - It was used to preserve food, after all. The oxygen inside will run thinner and thinner until they eventually pass out. So unless they wished to die, they have to solve it. The net amount of air in the warehouse is limited. (Of course, there are windows and chambers around to exchange the air, should it get too dangerous. The point is not to murder the 80 subjects but to test the morphogenetic fields, but they have no way of knowing that with the dividers blocking their sight.)

The first time this experiment was conducted, all the subjects, with no knowledge of Rubik cubes, took 51 minutes and 14 seconds to finish the test. The second time this experiment was conducted, it was by another 80 people, with no knowledge of Rubik cubes. The time to complete was 47 minutes and 29 seconds. This experiment was conducted for 5 times total. I didn't really get to see the 3rd and 4th result, but by the fifth, it had only taken them 29 minutes and 17 seconds.

400 people. All with no knowledge of Rubik cubes. And every time the experiment was conducted, the time shortened further and further. I'm just saying, that these random, non-repeated participants have become better and better at solving the Rubik's cube as the number of experiments increase, even when they have never touched a Rubik's cube before. Almost as if it was saying, that the more people around them knew how to solve a Rubik's cube, the better they themselves were at it.

Why is that so? They were gagged on the mouth, and the only indication that they have to solve the cube, was the clicking sounds they heard from other segments with people trapped within. How could they, without communicating with each other, have progressively known how to solve the Rubik's cube?

That is one of the experiments to investigate the morphogenetic fields. There have been others, like Locke's Socks, the Ship of Theseus, hell, there's a whole lot of them. Rupert Sheldrake delves deep into the subject field himself, you can go research on that if you'd like.

What is interesting, though, is that how morphogenetic fields can tie the future and the past. I understand that at the true ending of the 999 story, one of the subjects used their morphogenetic field to communicate with someone 9 years in the future. It seems wack, but perhaps real. And who knows - Maybe it wasn't limited to 9 years.

Mary's Little Lamb was composed in 1830 A.D. and the birth of Jesus, well, is in 1 A.D. You don't say - D'oh. The year is named after Jesus's descent itself. We're talking about a distance of One Thousand, Eight Hundred And Twenty-Nine Years. Perhaps the Lamb of God has knowledge of the morphogenetic fields, and transmitted his knowledge onward into the future, to keep the religion strong.

And perhaps that wasn't the only contact Jesus has made with people of the future - Martyrs, priests, abbots, there could have been many opportunities that someone from the past could have intervened with someone from the future, with the usage of morphogenetic fields. There have been people in history whom has communicated with Jesus in their dreams, and who's to say? Perhaps it's not limited to Jesus alone. The gods we worship, they could have this ability too - The peaceful meditating figure underneath the Bodhi tree may have been communicating with other people.

Is that not a possibility?

... Well. I've shared my piece for Christmas. I hope you enjoy it. And now, back to a subject relevant to the story. You guys have probably been waiting for this - The Legend of Segus. (Who is totally Gesus. Y'know, Jesus.) If you haven't read the story this far, Segus is the Legend that Katachi and Mother Rinnesfeld worship.

Segus, The Revenant Of Chaos
Lore of Words of Power Quest
______________

From a young age, Segus was already renowned as a pacifist. He loves the plants and animals, despite being abused, as a slave child. He took care not to hurt any of them, be it trample on, or kick by accident, because he understands the value of life, and its transience. He has a very careful nature and gentle air about him, much like Katachi - Or rather, Katachi has a very careful nature and gentle air about himself, much like Segus. Segus was one of the people whom Vithrolu respected, because of his equally-heavy respect for life.

Segus has heard many, many tales of tragedies and of the lost in his youth. But, as a slave child, he could do nothing but silently tend to his roles assigned. He hasn't really paid much attention to any of those because he couldn't anyway, and lived hard, but simple - He tended his master's little garden with equal care. Well, until the day arrived where the garden was destroyed by a magus battle in the square.

Some magus that used ice had a fierce battle with a puppeteer, and they fought and fought, to win their freedom - Slavery was a rather large theme where he was from. The ice magus used a Phronia spell (Phronia is the Goddess of Limits and Lady of the Tundra, wife and consort of Dardicel, the Lord of the Earth) which shattered the garden he was tending while he was out running an errand. He could do nothing but weep silently for the plants and insects that had once lived in what remained of the garden.

... And that ignited a saintly fury.

He threw his life away. He scorned these methods of taking a person's life. And so, he stepped forth, to fight the ice magus whom won against the puppeteer. Unlike the ice magus, he didn't fight for freedom. He didn't fight for vengeance. He didn't fight for the joy of fighting, unlike Ilpoh. He didn't fight for any other reason.

He fought to show the meaninglessness of fighting. (I know futility is a better word, but I just felt like typing meaninglessness.)

With that, his first debut as the Revenant of Chaos began. He faced the ice magus, whom shot and attacked him with barrages and barrages of ice upon ice. But he stood there, and opened his arms wide, accepting the attack altogether. The ice disappeared before it even reached his body. Any attack that was directed at him, was destroyed. He simply stood there, accepting it all. The ice needle that was formed on the magus' hand headed right for him, but it was shattered. It couldn't hurt him at all.

The bystanders were amazed that the young child nullified every attack that came his way. So the magus changed his style of attack, aiming for his blind spots, but even then, nothing. It shattered just as it always had.

Segus has a signature pose - His chest puffed out, his arms widespread, and he had become invincible. Nothing could harm or hurt him, by doing and maintaining that pose.

He was a legend that specialized in Nullification Magic.

Much like how Sha'koth specialized in Illusion magic, much like how Axia founded Astral magic, much like how Kafki wielded Intoxication magic. All legends founded their own subroots of Magic.

Gods are a different story - They have no magic to impart. Magic is a tool created completely from Image Power. The Gods can use Image Power to reinforce their Arts, but Arts are not Magic. That is why Image Power is the greatest sin, to use Image Power without an Art to practice with.

In any case, Segus traveled far and wide, after earning his freedom by defeating the ice magus, the other slaves, and the Slave Warden himself. He searched and searched, he walked and pondered, and simply hiked and trodded on, all to find a specific location - The mythical Island amongst the Clouds. He wishes to reach this island, and settle down in peace, away from the horror of conflict and self-interest that he believes to have plagued the lands below. His journey to find this island is essentially what forms his legacy. He drank poison, ate things that weren't supposed to be eaten, he has walked places nobody would go, all to find the one utopia in his mind - The Island amongst the Clouds.

Nobody could say for sure that he found the Island - Nobody has seen him, nor his corpse, to know if he has died in a swamp somewhere in Western Anik, or on the mythical Island itself. Nobody knows.

But his lifelong dream, his fervent pursuit of it - That inspires many people to move forward, in what they believe is the ideal.

But sadly, not many people share the same 'ideals' as Segus has. His followers, blindly following his example, copies him without knowing why they ought to. That is why he is the Revenant of Chaos, because there have been people killing others 'in the name of Segus', which, though it was nonsense, was enough to frighten everyone about.

So there you have it. Segus lore. The story about a slave's journey to utopia, if you believe that he found the Island amongst the Clouds. Or, the slave's eventual demise, if you believe he died before he ever found it.