this post in a nutshell: the Vidyadhara cycle can get a bit fucked up. sometimes. a lot of times. all the time, if you really think about it.
Note: i also blame my philosophy teacher. he was an awesome teacher, but philosophy class always made me question my own existence…
i think Dan Heng is right in wanting absolutely nothing to do with Imbibitor Lunae’s past and very clearly states he is NOT Lunae. However despite Dan Heng’s wishes and many people empathizing with him, in my opinion, it boils down to this:
the mentality of being a Vidyadhara
A case of “shut the fuck up and don’t spout bullshit, you don’t know how it feels, experience it yourself and then you know how hard it actually is”
First Note: Vidyadhara are just built differently — physically, mentally, and psychologically
For the vidyadhara, it’s their natural life cycle to be reborn with a clean slate every 700 years, possessing no reproduction capability and being immortal as long as they underwent the reincarnation process. They see it as normal and a “matter of fact” thing, and xianzhou natives do too, but can other non-vidyadhara species truly understand this? It’s kind of like how other species see things differently and have different morals from humans.
It’s a bit of a mind-fuckery because a vidyadhara is always the same person, but they always will get a clean state, and yet depending on each incarnation they might turn out completely different.
So they’re the same, but they’re also not.
Second Note: don’t say any bullshit until you’re the one going through it, then you will realize how hard it is
Basically this. Perhaps some aren’t going into a breakdown when their vidyadhara friend just deletes them from their life (or well, the vidyadhara is deleted and born anew), and they try to accept it because they’re too old and are wise enough to accept their lot in life, but there are others who are just bamboozled by it, even though they must have thought they were prepared for it. exhibit 1) Jing Yuan
Even the vidyadhara are not excerpt from this.
There’s a vidyadhara mirage who says his vidyadhara lover just went into an egg. To the race, this is a normal cycle of life. She won’t remember him. She will be the same person born anew. She will be a different person too. She can’t be burdened with anything of her past incarnation. He knows she is not dead, but he stares at the rolling waves and feels as if she is because he cannot and as a vidyadhara he must not see her reincarnation as HER.
But his feelings won’t matter, do they? This mirage said he couldn’t wait for his turn to come, but this wouldn’t guarantee him another future with his lover because CLEAN STATE you know? After returning to his egg, being reborn anew, then all of this — his grief, his solitude, his love — won’t matter anymore because he will also stop caring about it as well. It won’t matter. They won’t matter. The only thing that matters is their new life, but at that point that is NOT going to be the life of their incarnation, is it?
This is such a contradiction, isn’t it? Perhaps in “another life” he had also thought this, had also grieved for someone else or been grieved in return, but those lifetimes don’t matter in the same way his current one won’t matter after he reaches 700 years old.
“So you’re gonna be reborn after another 157 years? That’s how your race keeps being immortal and wards off the mara disease? Just the way you were created by Permanence? Cool.”
“So you’re the SAME but also a DIFFERENT person every time you go into an egg? That’s kinda trippy, but OK.”
“What will happen after that? Will we still be friends when you wake up?”
and the next time your friend appears, they are a child and you are absolutely no one to them
(…)
(how is this immortality?)
(my friend/brother/sister/parent/mentor/student/comrade/lover has not forgotten, because this is not something as simple as forgetting, this is a clean state — in a way only the vidyadhara, transcendent and celestial, can achieve. a cruel severing of everything you had to do with them.)
(they are gone, and in their place is a child with a clean state)
(it’s as if they are dead and you’re left to deal with a legacy—)
So despite what Dan Heng says and the Vidyadhara culture, I can also see why Jing Yuan struggles and is pained by the sight of Dan Heng. And also why Xianzhou deems Dan Heng guilty.
I also can understand why Blade is so enraged at Dan Heng and refuses to back down or stop trying to kill him (Blade being insane put aside) due to his incarnation’s sins, because how UNFAIR would it for Imbibitor Lunae to get a clean state just like that? What, they’re same person? But they get to start over as a NEW person? All his sins like that, gone? What sort of bullshit is that?
Just. This whole vidyadhara reincarnation thing can get very, very fucked up, you know?
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He can feel it, the absent of the others on the silk bed. The chamber, Aether’s chamber that is , is pitch black saved for only the door that is cracked halfway but no lights shines through it.
Copia’s eyes tries to adjust. He can feel him, the deep rumble coming from Aether. Slowly his hand wanders to what feels like the other ghoul’s big broad back, he can feel the soft fur now standing on its own against his fingertips.
A rumble
A growl
Coming from the quintessence ghoul as he sits up on the bed.
Copia can’t see his face, he guess Aether might be looking towards the entrance of the door.
“Aether?” His eyes still trying to adjust, finding shapes and lines in the dark.
Aether is growling at something at the door.
Finally his eyes managed to catch onto something.
A pair of bloodshot yellow eyes staring back at the at the door, it’s shape indescribable, as if whatever that is has blended in with the surrounding darkness.
But Copia knows it’s another ghoul. He recognised the eyes.
An older ghoul.
Aether starts to snarls and bare his fangs before the figure , slowly leaves their field of vision.
The quintessence ghoul calms down before turning back to Copia, huddling him close and wrapping his arms around him in an embrace. He purrs loudly.
“A-Aether? What’s going on?” Copia mumbles, resting his arm on the ghoul’s chest.
“I won’t let them get you, Copia.”
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You know something genuinely difficult to write? When characters refuse to accept help, when they cannot see that others do not find their actions as reprehensible as they themselves do. I'm struggling and utterly failing to write a scene in my head - in which Emily goes to comfort Vaniah through his nightmares, and he reaches out and hangs on to her. Emily - knowing the whole time she could free herself easily - chooses to stay with him holding his hand for the rest of the night. And when he wakes Vaniah is unbearably horrified by what he has done though unwittingly. There's a lot more to it, but Emily is basically unable to convince him that it was her choice, and she knew the entire time that she could free herself: because he reacts so strongly to his perception of what he did that he cannot think of how it is from her perspective. And I'm writing it - probably the whole thing - from third person limited, Emily's POV. It's just difficult.
And also fascinating to try and see it from his perspective and from hers, and how warped his is. He reacts so strongly that he can hardly articulate what he's even feeling, and just. That's a challenge to write.
Some scenes I may write from both of their perspectives, but probably ideally end up solely from hers.
I should write the prologue sometime.
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