The conversation between Exandria and Araman is fascinating to me. Because at the pretext, they have a pretty similar premise: somewhere in the distant past, incredibly powerful beings came from Somewhere Else, took residence on this world, and shaped it to their will. Except they didn’t stay forever. Now they are gone, and the people of this world can move forward.
But beneath the surface, the differences are staggering.
pre-divergence Exandria, despite the gods literally walking the world in the flesh, the dominating force of mortal kind was arcane magic. A technologically advanced society, where man reaches for, and once even achieves, godhood. Meanwhile in pre-shapers war Araman, it was the priesthood that seems to be ruling. From the priestly houses of Halovar and Tachonis, to Azgra’s priests, to Sylandri’s perfect, demanded devotion being a requirement for everything, from access to magic to something as basic as reproduction.
Exandria is also a much more settled world. It had eight hundred years to recover from what was essentially an apocalyptic event. Meanwhile in Araman, the dust hadn’t even settled on the old age. There are many mortals who remember the shapers. The world is still hanging, still looking for a new balance, still with a vacuum of power trying to be filled.
There’s also a difference in the approach of the divinities themselves to the world and its people. When the Betrayers were trying to destroy the people of Exandria, the Prime Deities fought them. When they realised how much their tight grip on Exandria was hurting it, how much their wars were hurting it, they let go. They took their Betrayer siblings, who they still loved because they were, in fact, siblings
Meanwhile, when the Shapers saw Azgra wanting to destroy his people, wipe them off the face of Araman… they said they’d give him some of their own people to have. When mortals finally rebelled, the Shapers held on so tightly that even in death they hadn’t released their grip.
As a whole there is this sense, to me at least, that the Prime Deities of Exandria genuinely do love Exandria and its people. They tried to hold on, because they did love that place and didn’t want to go, but when they saw their presence was hurting it more they let it go, for its own good. They interfere minimally, lend their power to people, because they still love that place and the people. The Shapers, in the meantime, seem to have loved Araman for what it can give them. They exerted very tight control of their peoples, whereas I don’t think we have much evidence of the Prime Deities exerting much control of Exandria as a whole.
It’s no wonder that the people of Araman, oppressed under the weight of their Shapers, did away with them. Specifically the Rungjani, whose Shaper didn’t even try to hide his tyranny behind sweet words and tempting rewards. And it’s no wonder that in Exandria, the group trying to kill the gods was very much a fringe group.
Araman feels like what Ludinus wanted people to believe Exandria is like.
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