#c3e121

I feel like Tumblr Critters might appreciate this photo of my Lieve'tel cosplay from my last con

(cosplay name: @/Freedcosplay on Insta and FB)

bonus: (brb, still crying over this)

As Matt said in his fireside, Asmodeus hates being mortal. As Brennan showed in Calamity and Downfall, Asmodeus hates mortals and looks down on them.

But Asmodeus is also the kind of entity that will use the tools at hand to achieve his goals, whether he likes those tools or not.

The big goal of the Lord of the Hells is essentially to wipe out all the mortals so he can have the Prime Deities love him again, because he blames mortals for the entirety of the Schism that split the gods into Prime and Betrayer. And Asmodeus also wants to torture/punish everyone for forever because he hates them all.

You did this to me! You and your kin.  You think my enemy are the Prime Deities? (spits) Those are my siblings! We were happy once together. We traveled here together. Has it never dawned on you that before the Schism, all was well between us? We came here to make something.  And then, one of our puppets, one of our foolish paper dolls mattered so much to them that they threw us into the pit.  You think that my quarrel is with them? No. All of you did something to them. You made them turn their back on us.  My greatest heartbreak is that when I have collected every last mortal soul and all of my siblings into my pit, that I will only have eternity to punish them. -to Zerxus in Calamity Ep4

So becoming Father Milo, trying to become Timothy, were in service of that goal.

Aeor had to be stopped from killing his siblings (zapped from existence means he can't punish them for eternity). And Asmodeus took the extra time as Father Milo (roughly 50 years while most of the others were in their 30s) to plan and pull strings to ensure that all of Aeor would die, to control the plan. He even tried to snag the blueprints to the Factorum Malleus, possibly to kill his siblings (or just threaten them into compliance with his will), possibly to adjust to wipe out mortals. And a little bit of fucking with Pelor by pretending to be one of his priests/clerics. Asmodeus was milking his time as Milo to the best of his ability.

Timothy was a backdoor to the mortal side of the Divine Gate. Once everyone else was locked out: Surprise, bitch! And then Asmodeus gets to run free within the Gate, killing all mortals. Or the Primes have to tear the Gate down to stop him, releasing all the other Betrayers once more to really start killing mortals again in Calamity 2.0.

Also, both Father Milo and Timothy were/would be temporary. A hundred years, maximum, for an entity millennia old. No time at all. After all mortals "die like mayflies."

Meanwhile, the Rites of Catatheosis do not allow Asmodeus to return to his godly state once a smaller goal is achieved (not unless he wants to be on Predathos's radar again. and he can create new Rites of Ascension). He'll forever be a mortal, reborn again and again.

Asmodeus hates that. After all:

You have referred to yourself and your fellow mortals as our children. You are not our children. You are... a bad first draft. ... I'll tell you why I loathe your redemption. To reach a hand down to somebody, they need to be beneath you! And I'm beneath nobody. You wanted to understand me. Then you should have accepted that I was right! -to Zerxus in Calamity Ep4

And the thing is, to survive being a mortal baby, a child, you have to have someone reach a hand down to help you. A baby is simply incapable of surviving without a caretaker above them, providing for them. And Asmodeus believes himself to be below no one.

How humiliating, how mortifying. And it's not even a one time thing like Father Milo was. Time and again under Catatheosis, Asmodeus will be a mortal baby.

At least as Timothy he wouldn't need to rely on someone else to take care of him. It would be rough as hell for a young kid like Timothy to take care of himself, but doable. But a baby? Dead without a caretaker. And then Asmodeus gets to do it again. And again. And again. And again.

And even without the whole baby-phase, Asmodeus will have to spend time, again and again, building up his power. Rising up from whatever new beginning he gets in each mortal life. Sure, some lives he may be born into a family that has/grants power, but until he rules the world, has everyone under his boot, it will not be enough. (Not unless he truly changes for the better)

Now certainly being threatened into Catatheosis doesn't help Asmodeus feel better about becoming forever mortal. After all, the fact that a group of mortals could threaten him into it runs up against "I'm beneath nobody!" Or at the very least brings the "little play things" that "aren't real" up to an equal standing.

But the threat is definitely not the only reason Asmodeus hates Catatheosis.