#ih-shui

Ih-Shui

58 yo

occupation: mistress at the Garden of Two Suns, former apprentice of Yarr

cupcake with a sword

understands more than most people around, but sometimes needs a push to speak up

spends quite some time taking care of her ageing widowed father master by listening to his crap patiently

Kilubi

49 yo

occupation: mistress at the Garden of Two Suns, former apprentice of Yarr

will whip you without skipping a beat

does the push for Ih-Shui quite often

spends quite some time taking care of her ageing widowed father master by murdering any person who but looks at him impolitely

Orube

53 yo

occupation: Kandrakar-trained Basiliadean chosen one, Earth-based journalist and world saviour

is there to show the true swag and knock out everyone on the way

literally embodies everything where Himerish failed, Kandrakaring, Basiliadeing, she even took extra class of Earthing

also big respect she wasn’t all like what the hell is actually going on here, am I going insane, nice to meet you people btw

Will Vandom

should be 17–18 yo I suppose, but Heatherfield is a fortress outside of the flow of time

occupation: Earthly high-schooler, leisurely world saviour, temp at a pet store

basic human(e) interaction simulator for Himerish

may function as beginner level, cause she can understand his responsibility trauma

Cornelia Hale

ditto, as for age

occupation: Earthly high-schooler, leisurely world saviour, ground-breaker in all possible senses

is there to roast their boss to ashes and enjoy herself

OCs:

Atni

389 yo

occupation: retired elder at the Garden of Two Suns

former strict queen and legend

kind of enemies to too tired to be enemies any more with Yarr

currently considered a wonder of nature for not being dead at her age

wildly enjoys that she can say literally anything without consequence now

Kettuah

deceased :( only in flashback, would be 297 yo

occupation: doctor at the Garden of Two Suns, enthusiastic gossip-collector

always ready for a bit of fun, offence, and other pleasures of life

one of the few at least half-sane on the list

while also one of the few never entrusted with a deadly weapon as the main job, as it tends to be

Qanu

347 yo

occupation: honourable elder at the Garden of Two Suns

a nice person, but he’s got his limits ffs

everything lies on his shoulders

thinking of retirement on every birthday, but the Garden would probably collapse

only the highest secretary knows that he sometimes keeps his feet in bath salts under the desk

Leruqe

328 yo

occupation: honourable elder at the Garden of Two Suns; currently the Garden’s event planner

feels important

queen of passive aggression

Yaveh

231 yo

occupation: highest secretary at the Garden of Two Suns

Bernard Woolley of Basiliade

spends his life running from one important person to another

would laugh much more in the office, if he was allowed to

So... here they all are.

Coming soon...

I am very happy to start with the stallion of fire

I do believe that this scene is also another tiny take on the general topic of badly used power that reappears all the time in the comics - with Phobos, with Elyon giving up the might for Meridian, and very much with Oracle - and like Yarr here, Himerish was not using his force wisely, but impulsively, by which he shot himself in the leg, but also others have suffered (which does not happen here I guess).

Then impulsiveness appeared to be Hime's problem at some points, especially in the view of Kandrakar, like with freeing of the astral drops - and it is very much Yarr's problem at the lake, as well - he is very emotional about the issue, so in his fury he gives Hime a rather questionable choice

and to be honest, his resignation out of guilty feeling is also very impulsive. There are several very interesting broad paralles in this scene, I think you must already be thinking of some of these now, they are so clear, when you think about it.

Yarr's resignation itself is interesting straightforwardly, because it is literally Yarr's mistake almost making him lose his position - same as what happened to Hime.

Here I would like to note that the direct reason for resignation is seemingly different. Hime was mostly kicked out for decisions actually quite understandable from a human point of view, but not so well thought through, and for acting where he should have observed - also humane behaviour. Yarr here makes the mistake of impulsiveness, but also mistake of risking other people's lives, which is the reason, why he resigns out of his own free will, while to Kandrakar that is really not a problem at all with Himerish - they literally blamed him for saving people, if it included intervention in the flow of destiny. But it is a problem to Himerish as a mortal, I am sure, as it is to Yarr, and it is overall an interesting difference, as at the very end we actually can see Himerish feel like he does not deserve the position at all - thus, sort of resigning of free will like Yarr for the reason of guilt, and so the parallel connects (i'll get to this more below).

In the end, it turns out Yarr did not make so much of a mistake, of course, cause Hime survives and finds himself - this may be reading too much into it, as it seems not as clear a parallel, but I could read it as a metaphor for the middle view, which also appears in the story, that the decisions of Kandrakar are just very complex, and therefore morally grey to a human. Or that many times Hime is just damn lucky his decisions turned out well, mostly thanks to the Guardians doing something else actually. Or maybe that right after Himerish would accept his guilt and humanity fully, the things will unexpectedly turn out well and he will be able to return.

Anyway let us get back to the human point of view at Hime's deeds - and there already was a hint at

Yarr's/Hime's risking of people's lives for a cause. Yarr technically gives Hime a choice - but Hime is in such a situation that it is reasonable to think he cannot decide reasonably. He may not feel like he has a choice at all - which is kind of the situation of the people in Hime's hands, as well, like the Guardians. There is a good reason to fulfill his order. It gives their life a meaning. They may die, but would they ever feel good about themselves again, if they refused? Myself I HC that Himerish is actually in the very same situation himself as Oracle, too, while he uses the Guardians feeling of duty, so the fortress does with him - but that is a lot of headcanoning i admit. Either way, he is not a cosmic fortress, he remains human and so there is also

the issue of guilt and guilty feeling: Yarr feels such overwhelming guilt that he resigns from his position - which, I believe, mirrors that there is a hidden guilt in that which is left in Himerish of his human self, although, as Oracle, he is not supposed to have personal emotional opinions of things - we could actually see in former arcs that he did feel guilt:

This is already arc 1, talking about Guardians, especially Will and the weight of the Heart; then:

This happens after the battle with Nerissa, so it has a lot of damned decisions to possibly relate to.

In relation to the loss of position it seems, as if the Yarr-Hime parallel was breaking, cause Hime's feelings during the trial are not such - he appears like he was entirely ok with his decisions

BUT he is tried also for principally different issues than Yarr - for issues problematic in view of Kandrakar, not in view of human. The only time where this changes is when Tara stands up and blames him for using her as a tool - and he is clearly in denial, thinking of some vague and empty overexplanations, denying her understandable valid feeling which steps beyond her feeling of duty. Similarly, later that day he discovers in himself a very humane feeling - a worry about himself, a self-centered priority of emotion, and diminishes himself for it. He is feeling guilt, but unlike the former examples, the guilt is for being humane and feeling humanly in the first place - showing how his thinking and self-understanding is shapend, and broken if i include my personal human opinion, by his position, into overt dehumanisation of himself, and then also of others:

Of course we never see him blame himself for blaming himself, for being humane in a feeling of guilt, tho he is not very open about it. Self-hate is possibly ok in his logics then - no wonder when both his worlds show such rough reactions to mistake.

Then, importantly, the guilt continues. When at the end of the Basiliadean story Orube picks him up in the Garden, he literally says he does not deserve the title of Oracle and appears to be at a very low self-esteem - I mean, it is like Phobos, the tyrant, who Hime acknowledges as like a little of a worse option than himself. Does he feel guilty by the rules of Kandrakar, or by the rules of a mortal, though? Both, I would say - he failed to keep his position, but he also blames himself for leaving everyone in such horrible situation.

And it is then, let's not forget, when he for the first time explicitly says he does not deserve the title of Oracle, mirroring Yarr self-diminishing feeling by the lake. And it is only after he discovered his human self - and Yarr stands right there next to him - that he gained this reflection. In both cases the self-hate is overdone and highly emotional. And so, as was said above, the parallel connects.

(sry Yarr is in the lower picture, but he tells it to Orube)

There is also this important fact that Yarr does not consult Kilubi and Ih-Shui about his impulsive decisions like Himerish does not consult the council - which is one of the main flaws of Himerish as Oracle discussed in arc 4 - and interestingly, it is the one flaw wrong from both human and Kandrakarian point of view, cause it is mirrored also by Will not consulting other Guardians, who are angry about it. Neither of the men needs to do so officially it seems, as they are the ultimate superiors (Yarr at least in the specific party by the lake), but their failure to consult results in trouble for everyone.

Now, Ih-Shui and Kilubi are extremely interesting characters in this. Like we could draw from them a parallel to the later triumvirate as the ultimate solution to Hime's political struggles.

But anyway, my friend recently told me stuff about this trope of the two friends of the main hero, who represent the hero's reason and heart - and they are there to play out different options and opinions for the hero. I am not sure, if this constellation is intentional here, as the pattern is so common that I believe many writers just add the "rational friend" and the "emotional friend" unwittingly, but it is really clear here.

We have Kilubi, wild with her whip and forward and sassy about Himerish, and we have Ih-Shui, more restrained and insightful. It is Kilubi who saves Himerish in the first place, following Yarr's order, and gets the deadly lights off his body - it is her, the heart and taking action, that allows Yarr to see his face at all and Yarr and Himerish to reconnect - and Himerish to reconnect with himself, literally and metaporically. Both women are uncertain about Yarr's offer to Himerish - cause no, as a feeling person, Yarr does not want him to die -, but after Hime goes into the lake, it is Ih-Shui who Yarr asks to speak out her mind, and so she observes that he acted too emotionally and risked an innocent man's life. Thus Yarr consults his reason - too late, of course - to find that no matter what he thought, his decisions were shaped by his humanity and human flaws. When he decides to resign, though, he again consults no one - the reasonable Ih-Shui tries to make an actual argument for him to stay, but he does not listen, cause he blames himself too much.

There is a great parallel of Ih-Shui to Orube here - because Orube has the same role later with Himerish. While he drowns in guilt, Orube tells him that yeah, he failed big time, but in all common sense, Kandrakar is really doing even worse without him now - sort of can be read like that his defeatism will only make others suffer, ultimately. Like when Ih-Shui tells Yarr that the Garden, a parallel to Kandrakar, "can't do without him."

Interestingly, unlike Yarr, Himerish accepts this - but maybe because for him the other option is Phobos, while for Yarr it was Ih-Shui, who was kind of much better.

Nevertheless, Himerish says he can't help out anyway, cause he lost his ability to travel between worlds - but it is Yarr, who tells him that he can find this ability in the ecliptic surge, because it will give him a gift, something from "the depths of one's heart", something "personal and treasured"

Suddenly the ability of Oracleship is not just the difficult role, the "curse" that Himerish literally thinks of during the trial.

Suddenly, it is something emotional. I believe the ultimate solution here is an actual balance between humanity and Oracleship, or rather the ability to connect them. It is Yarr, the symbol of humanity that Himerish had lost, who is the key for Himerish to actually find not only impulsive fury, but also the balance itself - Yarr gives him this advice and Himerish finally gets optimistic and appears happy again to be able to fix his mistakes - and, significantly, to go through another thing that looks very much like the waterfall that stripped him of his powers at the trial, but in different colour.

It is good to note that before Orube arrived, Yarr actually had explained to Himerish the meaning of the ecliptic ritual - as a connection of opposites - and very much emphasised the good value of that which may have seemed wrong

"We are all, each one of us" - because there is no way of escaping your opposites and your essence

Yarr also tells him about a darkness that surrounds him -

this is a wonderful parallel to that darkness that Himerish feels before he is put on trial - a darkness that surrounds him and may destroy him - but here, the darkness that he feared is actually that which will allow his rebirth - an acceptance of the darkness, of his humanity, and his mistakes, allows him to find the ultimate balance.

Finally, the departure from Basiliade and from Yarr - just narratively, it seems like a casual moving good bye - but it is not. Himerish apparently plans to leave, although he can't know if he will become Oracle again or what will happen at all - still he promises to stay in touch, no matter what - so, while Himerish will still go through some emotional humanity-finding development when cooperating with the Guardians (which is later explicitly stated), it is here that the 4th arc makes a promise of him remaining in touch with his human self, keeping his identity, finding the balance.

P.S. later added edit - also notice that first frame.. there as they stay opposite one another and Himerish holds Yarr, as kind of embracing his humanity and his emotions - this is really the one moment where he expresses something personal, some promise not to his duty, but to a friend (or.. ) - and there, if we keep that metaphor, stands Orube, representing reason and Kandrakar, on his side, and Kilubi, representing heart and Basiliade on Yarr's side, and they are both smiling, both satisfied. Just saying. :) :) :)