FOR THE GRACE, FOR THE MIGHT OF OUR LORD

Banner art by Gary Jamroz-Palma for Dan Luvisy. Mun is +30, minors respectfully requested not to interact. This is intended to be a brief rundown of the character and an FAQ for interacting. More information can be found here. I have two other active RP blogs: @godsinthewater and @apisanonymous.

WHO IS THIS?

Archangel Metatron, Celestial Scribe, Chancellor of Heaven, Voice of God. This interpretation is fandom-independent, and I have little interest in playing any canon Metatrons out there (as in Good Omens, Supernatural, etc.) There are, however, currently four main settings for my take on Metatron , which can be read in greater detail here. The Mun goes by "Ick", but also answers to "Metamun".

WHO WILL YOU PLAY WITH?

Reiterating that I'm not open to playing with minors; there WILL be mature themes on this blog from time to time. Other than that? I'd prefer to only do threads with mutuals, but I'll take asks from anybody.

ANY CONTENT WARNINGS?

Violence, religious horror, and similar topics are gonna be prevalent. I will not roleplay smut with anyone under 21, and frankly I'd prefer not to with anyone under 25. My dedicated smut tag is nsft. Please ask me to tag anything if something makes you uncomfortable-- I have a dark sense of humor, but I don't want to seriously disturb anyone.

WHAT IS METATRON LIKE?

Under the cut for length.

"I MEAN, I COULD FUCKIN' NAME CERTAIN INDIVIDUALS. FOR MOST OF US, THOUGH, PLEASE JUST DON'T FEEL THE FUCKING NEED TO ANNOUNCE TO US WHAT YOU'RE DOING. THAT SHIT ISN'T APPEALING TO YOUR AVERAGE FUCKING POPSTAR, AND IT ISN'T APPEALING TO US."

Before I start no, it's not what you're thinking. No, not that, either. No, not that. Definitely not that. Whatever you were thinking, you missed the mark. Unless you didn't, in which case I am very shocked. When I say "weird niche" I mean "weird niche". It's not even stuff that most people would think of as gross, I don't think, it just would not come to mind.

Putting under a readmore just in case.

Satan's Kingdom State Recreational Area, New Hartford, Connecticut. Satan's Kingdom is well known for its inner tubing rentals:

-- Lily and Granny Weatherwax, Witches Abroad

The context here, which I can give without major spoilers, is that the evil witch-- Lily-- has set herself up as the shadow ruler of a fairytale kingdom. She is the kind of person who turns people into beetles and then steps on them. Granny Weatherwax is the good witch. She doesn't particularly like being a good witch. She would like to be the kind of person who turns people into beetles and steps on them, but she cares about the difference between right and wrong and therefore has to choose right.

Note that Lily is utterly convinced she's the good one, despite it all. Granny knows of her own worse inclinations and chooses to be good anyway.

I kind of want to smash this quote in the internet's face sometimes. I am not naive enough to imagine every dead writer I admire-- in this case Terry Pratchett-- would agree with me on everything, but the most basic point is that there is a difference between thinking about something and doing it, and we really need to learn that.

And it is especially relevant that the bad guy is the one who doesn't understand the difference.

Seeing other people complain about hatred and ignorance without doing the introspection to avoid displaying it themselves. Particularly in the form of projecting a set of traits and motives on to entire groups of people. like you know that you and yours are often misrepresented. so maybe try to apply that insight a little more broadly to others. i'm not only speaking in terms of being "fair" or "just", it's that because you it is very difficult successfully engage with people meaningfully if your impression of them is wrong. and i'm talking both positively and negatively.

"The gods play with us as if we were dice, and all their pleasure lies in our suffering."

and you know what? i almost bought that but then i had the wherewithal to look it up. Ovid has the gods doing some very nasty things but that still didn't sound like his voice. and yep, total fabrication, at best some kind of mishmash of shakespeare and einstein. i thought it was suspiciously pithy and i was right.

Every time someone brings up Copernicus I really feel the need to object to his being framed as "lucky" to have escaped the Church's censorship when he died in full communion and well-respected. His ideas weren't even particularly criticized until decades after his death. In 1533 German theologian Johann Albrecht Widmanstadt gave a lecture on Copernican theory to Pope Clement VII and the papal court, and was rewarded with a copy of Alexander of Aphrodisias’s De sensu et sensibili. Widmanstadt went ahead and inscribed that copy with a note about the circumstances he'd received it. He went on to be a secretary to Pope Paul III, and then Cardinal Nikolaus von Schönberg. The cardinal directly wrote to Copernicus in 1536:

Some years ago word reached me concerning your proficiency, of which everybody constantly spoke. At that time I began to have a very high regard for you, and also to congratulate our contemporaries among whom you enjoyed such great prestige. For I had learned that you had not merely mastered the discoveries of the ancient astronomers uncommonly well but had also formulated a new cosmology. In it you maintain that the earth moves; that the sun occupies the lowest, and thus the central, place in the universe; that the eighth heaven remain perpetually motionless and fixed; and that, together with the elements included in its sphere, the moon, situated between the heavens of Mars and Venus, revolves around the sun in the period of a year. I have also learned that you have written an exposition of this whole system of astronomy, and have computed the planetary motions and set them down in tables, to the greatest admiration of all. Therefore with the utmost earnestness I entreat you, most learned sir, unless I inconvenience you, to communicate this discovery of yours to scholars, and at the earliest possible moment to send me your writings on the sphere of the universe together with the tables and whatever else you have that is relevant to this subject. Moreover, I have instructed Theodoric of Reden to have everything copied in your quarters at my expense and dispatched to me. If you gratify my desire in this matter, you will see that you are dealing with a man who is zealous for your reputation and eager to do justice to so fine a talent. Farewell. (Rome, November 1, 1536)

These are not events which would have transpired if Copernicus, in his own time, was not allowed to speculate on heliocentism, or if people who were enthusiastic about his ideas were afraid to share them. High-placed individuals in the Church were excited about his ideas. Obviously by the time of the Galileo affair the political climate had shifted, not least because the Reformation had been going on for decades and the Church was increasingly paranoid about laymen making theological statements. Authoritarian institutions in general are more permissive the more complete they feel is their control, but also Copernicus was a hell of a lot more diplomatic than Galileo. It's unacceptable when people in power act out of misplaced wounded pride (as Pope Urban VIII certainly did after the whole Simplicio mess) but that's not an issue of dogma, it's petty feelings.

Moral of this story being, even within very old, established institutions what is or is not heresy is subject to change. I actually have no objection to your statement "The system doesn't care if you're right – it cares if you obey", that's completely correct. Dogma is bad. I just personally feel like tearing my hair out every time the fine details of Copernicus' career and reception get glossed over.

I need some kind of AU where Metatron gets to have the energy Lillian Gish has here. There aren't many opportunities I have to portray him as frightened but absolutely adamantine in his defense of people he loves.

Why aren't we interacting?

Let me open by saying thank you for doing the commentary with Raph, because that did make it easier for me to reach back. It was brave of you, I hope you don't mind me saying.

Funnily enough one thing that stops me from doing more with multimuse blogs is I'm never sure which muses they want to play against mine. I used to do more muses but right now they're all on the backburner because it turns out too much switching on my end burns me out if I'm not careful, but the other way around is fine. Lemme know if they're any muses you'd especially like Meta to interact with?