#tree of spite

You were trying to make a god resistant to control. Something that couldn't be recouped and recuperated. And now you're wringing your hands that it's something you can't control? That its first saint is popular enough in the prison to get the captives chanting its name so loud the helicopter can almost hear?

Transcript: From below, we begin to hear muffled chanting. It's hard to hear, but the words might just be - 'Tree of Spite, Tree of Spite, Tree of Spite.' The sound cuts out quickly.

Fucking GOOD!

This is what you wanted! This is literally what you wanted.

Stop pussyfooting around, Paige.

Also, what the fuck did you think a Saint based on The Many Below, the god of spite towards the system that killed you, would be? In episode 26:

Transcript: "But we think... we think it's going to be something to help you spit in the face of the people who are doing this to you."

What did you think spitting in the face of Esther's executioners was going to look like, Paige?

Transcript: "I will bring them fear instead. My death today shall be the quiver in the executioner's hand tomorrow, the wavering doubt in the mind of the justicar." [The image says 'justice,' not 'justicar,' but this is in error: in the actual podcast, she says 'justicar.']

What did you think would bring a quiver to the executioner's hand, Paige? What did you think would bring doubt to the justicar?

And on top of that, one of your god's closest conceptual predecessors (episode 23) is a god of spite from the Immemorial War, with a significantly more evocative name than The Many Below:

Transcript: "'May Its Spear Impale Your Father Sufficiently To Fuck Your Mother' - whew. A god of spite, used in the Immemorial War by dying soldiers on both sides." (Reading aloud) "The prayer-marks of 'May Its Spear' were typically erratic and ideographic, designed to be used by shaking fingers dipped in their own blood."

What the fuck did you think was going to happen, Paige?

What kind of god did you think you'd called forth?

And what kind of god do you think would be better?

Because from where I'm standing (sitting) this looks like a really fucking good god, Paige. It's working. It's spreading devotion organically among the powerless ("Tree of Spite! Tree of Spite!"), it's spreading fear organically among the powerful.

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Now, the major downside of The Many Below is something Paige hasn't touched on at all - only Hayward has paid attention to it. Namely: animals spontaneously turning to saints when killed by predators, despite obviously not being able to recite the prayers or make the prayer marks.

Best case scenario this is a sort of aura effect based on the farm now being a holy place to the god, or on Paige being a holy person. Because if this sort of thing starts happening everywhere The Many Below is worshipped, hooo buddy the ecological implications are Not Great.