Board Thread:4. General Discussion/@comment-124.83.16.225-20160127164816/@comment-124.83.16.225-20160212133947

Don't sweat it. Just say whatever's on your mind. I'm sure people here enjoy talking about this kind of stuff anyway. It's just one more thing to do to procraste from translating the WN's text (or doing any other kind of work). And I can type out a whole lot of stuff too.

Rou didn't need the Tomboy Princess to confirm things for him, really. He's been spying on everyone for quite a while. He was even there watching in on the Holy Kingdom's meeting and knew that the Holy King himself wasn't entirely against keeping the peace and just watching how things play out. If Rou had made any peaceful overtures, the Holy King seems like he would have considered it. Or, at least, asked the Cardinals to meet up again and consider whether Rou really has any peaceful intent. The author has gone to lengths to show some of the major players of the Crusade as being reasonable or respectable people, after all. The Book Hero was the one who was pretty fearful for the fate of the continent, but the others were more level-headed in their consideration of the information. What with how dangerous the other 2 World Enemies were (one could charm and seize the minds of people, the other killed anyone who got close to him) and how impossible it was to gain any information on Rou (the Star Reading Hero couldn't get any exact information on him, only a vague premonition of his future which likely included a lot of death), they weren't left with much to act with.

When a World Enemy is born, every hero (that is, anyone who's a part of a major poem) receives an announcement in their head stating as such. Since it seems unlikely that the book would not include information about a "World Enemy" even if they were "good", it's logical to assume that there were only 2 (now 3) World Enemies in the history of this land. If there were any more, they simply did not appear on the main continent. However, that's all just a "what if".

The Greed, the first World Enemy, was born as an especially beautiful Foxtail (a Beast Man that's a fox) who used her good looks to seduce powerful men and benefit from them. So if you want to argue that she was mistreated somehow to make her want to abuse people, I suppose there's enough vagueness there to think so.

The Sloth was just a sloth monster that up and one day decided that he was tired of the world and wished for everything to die. So, uh, no ambiguity with him.

The World Enemy title is pretty unambiguous. At most, it may just mean that the person in question might cause a lot of death. Which Rou certainly has, aside from apparently seizing the economies of multiple countries with his Merchant Lords in an implied future. If the Gods wanted to set people at ease, they wouldn't have given the title "World Enemy" or given them intimidating titles like "Gluttony Without Exhaustion", "Greed Without End", or "Sloth Leading to Death". That last one? Once again, completely unambiguous. I mean, if you really stretch it, I suppose someone could see something good about sloth that "leads to death". But that would be quite the stretch.

Rou actually isn't the only one among his group that's been worshipped by other people. The monsters and demihumans that have seen Rou's party also got down and prostrated/prayed before them. When a monster gets around their rank of evolution, they're pretty much considered a sublime existence. Rulers. Rou got worshipped early on because of his skin color being associated with a Great God (it could have also been mistaken for the God of the Death Sea, but it seems that isn't the case for most people; maybe there's a difference in hue?).

Oh, upon reading the bestiary entry for Apostle Lords, it seems that the default skin color for them is "dependant" upon their blessings. So it seems like Apostle Lords can only exist when they have a blessing from a god. Interesting and it adds to what we've all been saying of their connection to the gods of this setting. Especially the abilities they have:

True Name Conferment - Giving people true names.

Propagation - Spreading the teachings of a god (the god who blessed them, I assume)

Command over other oni.

It seems that the Fossil Restoration ability Rou has is NOT a normal ability of an Apostle Lord, but was granted to him because of his status as an Extinct Species of the Apostle Lords. So yeah, it seems that an Apostle Lord's abilities are concerned with spreading the teachings of their god, whatever it may be, and empowering their followers (because True Names can give amazing abilities to their owners).

However, like I said, World Enemies probably aren't named such JUST because they can cause a big change in the world. Rou may lose his World Enemy title and exchange it for some other one, or keep it anyway while gaining a new, more benevolent sounding one, but World Enemies are called World Enemies for a reason. They're meant to sound intimidating and hostile. The gods of this world have made a very easy to understand system and I don't think they would add any ambiguity for no reason. Regardless of Rou's intents, his World Enemy title gave him an opportunity to snack on lots of enemies and gain a whole lot of experience for his followers. Considering how gladly he welcomed the event, even if he hadn't gained the title, he could have even thought to arrange such a large war himself for the sake of his subordinates anyway, don't you think?

Orthanos, Origin and Demise are ruled by the SAME Great God. The Great Gods rule over 2 domains each. Rou's Great God rules Origin and Demise. The Savior's Great God rules Birth and Wisdom. The Great God who brings Otherworlders over rules Time-Space and the "Star Ocean" (the galaxy).

Rou definitely has his choice over what he can do. All the gods can do is arrange events for him. The Light God, for example, wants to force Luke down a certain path, but all he can really do is pile up harder and harder obstacles for him to overcome. What the Major Characters of these Poems do and how they reach is entirely dependant upon them. Keep in mind that the gods receive more divine power the greater known their heroes are, so them achieving great things, no matter what it is, would benefit them a lot. However, Great Gods have no need for this, so for them to bless anyone would be because they're interested in the person in question (some Gods and Demigods bless people for this reason too, but it's rarer because it's not a guaranteed investment) or because they want events in the world to go a certain way (Satori was created to fulfill some wish the fallen Mountain God had to serve the Great Gods).