Endgame Environment Experiments

 

This post won't be on social media for obvious reasons. So if you're a die hard supporter read on ... 

It pretty much looks like I have to split off the chess game inside the King's hideout from chapter 01 and release it in chapter 02 as a separate instalment, because it will buy me more time to really get the details and the complexity of the game and lore implemented.

There needs to be a way for the player to acquire the king figure. Each figure is held by its counterpart (The queen holds her figure, the rooks hold theirs a.s.o). So in the case of the king figure, Yama would have to willingly give it to the player. 

But why would he do that?

Only if he himself suddenly wanted to play with him, because he respects his intelligence and strategy.

How would that happen?

And most importantly: Where?

And it got me thinking ... where was Yama before he encountered the arbiter's mind? Where did the arbiter's reflection occur? Did it occur in the house? No, it couldn't. The house was a reflection of Yama's mind and the arbiter merely initiated Yama's own reflective process. This process created an obsession in him and this obsession is evident in his inability (or unwillingness) to leave the hideout. So Yama must have experienced this encounter somewhere else. At his true residence.

Yama wasn't a small shopkeeper from the beginning. He was reduced to that, after he attempted to guide the arbiter back to a new reincarnation. The arbiter refused, forced Yama to reflect on himself and Yama became obsessed with his own lack of faith in an endless search for light and hope.

Where was Yama before all of this took place? Where were his guards? Where was his throne? Where was the mirror in which the arbiter's reflection took place?

Even though the arbiter screwed him up, Yama started to respect her tremendously. He saw something in her, that deeply impressed him. Just like the shadows see something in Yama that impresses them. They follow him willingly.

Yama would only willingly give out the king figure, if a being earns his recognition to the same degree the arbiter did. A mirror would have to be involved and both parties would have to participate in a reflective process and then handle the outcome.

Ironically .... Yama would then only give the player the king figure if he voluntarily chooses to engage in the process of reflection .... the very process he's been avoiding throughout the whole game. And this process would then consequently take place in Yama's true residence. And out of respect for the player, Yama would (for the first time since the arbiter's encounter) willingly leave the mansion hideout and await him at his residence.

And then there's another question .... what makes one a king?

A king holds power, because his judgement is respected. If a king's judgement is no longer respected his power wanes. Territory is much less relevant than the power dynamic behind it. One can be king of a relatively minor country and still hold tremendous power based on the leverage one has earned through their actions. This leverage can take the form of many things .... first and foremost (in our world) it is money and influence. Power can be exerted based on a transactional dynamic: You do this, I give you this. Or it can be exerted based on respect alone: If you respect my judgement, then you should follow my call to action.

So in other words: One can hold the title "King" if one accumulates a sufficient amount of leverage and respect. 

Yama would only recognize the player as his equal if he brings something meaningful to the table. Respect alone would not be enough. The player would need something else, that creates leverage.

The threat of death can also be seen as a form of leverage: You do this for me, or you'll die. But that only works if the person you are instructing is actually afraid of death, which certainly wouldn't be true for the king of death himself. Especially in a situation where both of them are technically already dead. In fact reincarnation would probably be a much greater threat for both of them, because they both learned to exist in this strange place and by being thrown into a new existence all of their previous knowledge suddenly becomes worthless.

The player's leverage lies in something else: The willingness to continue existence with full knowledge of the suffering involved in it. Contrary to Yama, the player must demonstrate that he willingly chooses to reflect, to experience suffering and to accept reincarnation. And in order to do this, the player would need to willingly let go of everything he has earned and willingly put himself into a position of complete helplessness, without the ability to free himself.

It doesn't matter whether the player truly believes in any of this. If his actions demonstrate to Yama that this is what is going on, then Yama will inevitably feel envious. Because this faith in existence is what he lost after he met the arbiter.