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Earth - The Battle at the Crossroads

Earth occupies an unusual position in the atlas of the astral plane. It is considered by many astral denizens (both living and dead) to be a virtual "No Man's Land" and yet simultaneously it is the site of the galaxy's (if not the universe's) most powerful site.

It is on Earth where the second complete creations of the Absolute, now calling themselves "man" make their home. "Man," being the first of the creatures capable of completely independent thought and decision making, was also the first creation to feel the temptation of the Adversary.

In a sense, it is Earth's pattern which has set the precedent, the stage if you will, for all the "conflicts" between the Ultimate Divinity and the Adversary. The play which has been performed a thousand times on a thousand distant suns with a cast and crew of trillions.

On some of these distant suns, you find nothing but ruins and the decomposed or dispossessed souls of the defeated. On others, you find utopian paradises, spared the evils of famine, greed, war, and pestilence. On many, many more, the play reflects that of Earth's - a battle neither won nor lost, with neither side at a definitive advantage (Beyond the obvious advantage of the Absolute's favor). Earth is at a crossroad - a state of moral ambiguity (or ambivalence, as you prefer).

[A note scrawled in blocky script in the margins of this paragraph reads: "If you're confused about what the Absolute is all about, the Green Knight clears it all up when you get to the section on Heavenly Hierarchies. So try not to pay too much attention here."]

Earth is also home to the prisons which couch the Adversary, sometimes called the Deceiver, sometimes called Satan, and other times Lucifer. The submerged twin realms are often called merely "Hell," although it is to be noted that like so much of reality, it is more than a singular entity. The two halves of hell, its own Yin and Yang are Hell and the Abyss.

The Yin, Hell is a place of sulfur, heat, volcanic disturbances and rampant magma. It could not be called a "pleasant" place by any stretch of the imagination, the subterranean place of the Adversary lies here, and it is near the vast Lake of Fire where you can find the Fallen Crater - the very spot the Deceiver touched when it was first cast from Heaven.

[A note scrawled in blocky script in the margins of this paragraph reads: "As a personal preference, I don't like to compare Hell to Yin, which is soft and feminine by nature. But hey, maybe that's me.]

[A note in thin, hasty lettering below the previous reads: "Perhaps when compared to unfettered and endlessly shifting madness, fire can seem a bit softer than advertised."]

It is a place of fire - it is also a place of light. Those who call Hell their home are strictly authoritarian, obeying those with greater power, greater seniority and commanding equal obedience from those below. It is not unlike Feudalism in its rawest, most undiluted state. If you imagine Lucifer as the King, below you can imagine the Dukes: Beelzebub, Asmodeus, Azazel and those other great beings who stood by the Adversary when it challenged the Supreme Being. Below them stand lesser creatures, and below them lesser and lesser ad infinitum. It is control given ground.

Mortal experts maintain that there are Nine "levels" of Hell. In a sense this is true. If you were to imagine Hell as the side of a mountain - the peak of the mountain is the gateway to your reality. But as you move further and further down the mountain slope, you find greater and greater depravity.

[A note penned in thin, hasty lettering in the margin of the paragraph reads: "'Gateway' should be plural; but I think that would mess with his metaphor -- and grammar. Regardless, there's more than one way into Hell. Don't open strange doors."]

Hell is the final resting place of many unfortunate souls liberated from their body who can find no solace in peace or happiness.

The Yang, the Abyss is a place of darkness. Deep. Unimaginable. It is a place of chaos, a place of uncertainty, of malleability and shifting rules. What was true of the Abyss when I last "saw" it, is no longer true. Nor can an observer ever be certain that their experience will not metamorphasize suddenly and dramatically in the middle.

The raw emotional context of this place might be easier to describe than the physical impression. It is the overwhelming sense of fear and powerlessness, like being trapped in a pool of blood beneath a clear plastic lid. You can see outside it, but you can never reach it. It is a bright sunshine day when your father tells you can't go outside and play. It is your mother dying in your arms from the plague. It is you dying from the same plague a month later. It is the blinding flash of a nuclear holocaust and the certain knowledge that in a split second, you will be radioactive ashes blown across the world.

Those who dwell here are as ferocious, untameable, uncertain, malleable and ever changing as the realm itself. The beasts of the Abyss, for so few of them emerge with anything more than an animal's base cunning, are beings of limitless adaptability.

Though the Adversary rules the Abyss, it does so only in name. Nothing can truly rule this place.

The only souls here are lost, shattered, ruined or broken by their meat bodies. Deranged, unstable and far removed from the reality that spawned them.

Many experts have debated whether or not Hell and the Abyss are a physical location, or if they exist purely within the Earth's astral shadow. They can be easily (almost effortlessly) reached by astral travel, but they defy even the simple logic of classification, by allowing physical beings to dwell or move about as easily as astral ones. Because of this, the twin realms of the Adversary are dangerous to astral travelers - you can be slain there. For good.

To continue with our metaphor of heavenly twins, I will now attempt to describe Hell's better half - commonly referred to as Heaven.

Where Hell brings its own adjectives with it, Heaven does the same. It is in almost every way, its opposite. Bright, comfortable, peaceful. It is snuggling with a book in front of a fireplace on a cold night. It is the kiss of your most passionate lover. It is a secluded place in the forest where nobody can disturb you.

Existing in Earth's astral shadow, not unlike Hell, and also catering to physical and astral beings in equal measure, it is a common misconception that Heaven is the seat of the Absolute's power. The Absolute is bound to no specific place (being limitless and beyond mortal reason by nature) and does not call Heaven Its home anymore than it calls Hell Its home. It is part and parcel of all things.

[A note scrawled in blocky script in the margins of this paragraph reads: "More metaphysical nonsense. What he means to say is: 'God doesn't live here anymore.'"]

What Heaven is however, is the home of the Divinity's first creations and agents of the Supreme Being's will (as interpreted by themselves, naturally). Herein dwell all manner of Angels, as well as souls searching for peace and comfort after a harsh journey on Earth.

Loose structures of authority and power exist here, but laws are obeyed not out of fear for the consequences, but because they are reasonable. To describe this place is to imagine your most perfect dream world - no matter who you are or what you believe perfection to be, Heaven is it. In some ways, it is as malleable as the Abyss, shifting and shimmering in light and song to reflect your own mind. It is anathema to the agents of the Adversary, who find peace to be an affront to their very nature - which is rebellion.

[A note scrawled in blocky script in the margins of this paragraph reads: "They don't call it a Heavenly Bureaucracy for shits and giggles - Angels and 'Heavenly Creatures' have a strict hierarchy and leadership structure which closely resembles the most defunct, inefficient government system you can imagine. That's not a 'loose' structure."]

It cannot be truly defined as a mirror of the Absolute except in its formless infinities.

Between the two monoliths of Heaven and Hell, exist the neutral ground. The battlefield, in a very real sense. The two halves consist of Earth's physical biosphere - the world of meat and four dimensions you regularly inhabit, and the astral plane. I will describe the astral plane first, as it is the one you are likely the least familiar with.

In many ways, the astral plane is a mirror of the physical biosphere. You can visit London in the real world, and you can visit London in the astral plane and find a location very much similar, minus the annoying presence of physical bodies, the raucous of automobiles and the painful need to breath oxygen and the myriad of unpleasant particles that are carried in with it.

Things in the astral plane are not -fixed- however. They vanish, reset, are replaced. Moving a kettle in the astral plane will not move a kettle in the physical world. In fact, moving the kettle from an accustomed place is likely to have the kettle leap from your hand and replace itself where it is the most comfortable.

[A note scrawled in blocky script in the margins of this paragraph reads: "You can't usually read in the Astral Plane either unless the words -really- mean something to someone. Usually lots of someone. You can read the poem at base of the Statue of Liberty, but don't try and pick up Stephen King's latest novel."]

It is the place where a conscious mind goes while it sleeps. A dreamer often shapes the astral space around himself, matching it to his own rhythm and cycles.

In the astral world, places are built from the emotional and sensory impressions of the lifeforms that live there. Initially, a visitor accustomed to a more limited scope of reality will see things visually first, but as you grow comfortable with the astral plane, you realize that it is an emotional plane.

And that is exactly why Earth is a veritable No Man's Land for astral travel. Wracked with hatred, anger, despair and hopelessness, it is mixed with a vile cocktail of greed, lust and sloth. For one who had the fortune of not "growing up" in this place, it radiates emotional feedback that could drive a lesser being insane easily.

Consider also, that the astral plane is as alive with the flames of war as the physical world. Demons and Angels who have no physical form, lost their physical form or are otherwise confined to the astral plane make battle on each other daily. These huge, destructive gashes of pain and suffering criss cross the Earth's astral shadow like scars, building up over each other. Long after they are done bleeding, you can feel them pulsing. Burning. Crying.

Astral events carry into the physical world in a deeply disturbing way. They can affect the minds of those still bound in life. If your home was the site of a ferocious duel between two demons the night before, you may have been awoken with nightmares. Or more insidiously, you might find your mood subtly altered. The fiercer the intensity of the fight, and the longer your duration in the space, the more you will find yourself entwined with the violent events that occurred there.

The physical world is of course the biosphere where you find yourself this very instant. It is the ultimate battlefield between the agents of the Absolute and the Great Deceiver, as it is only here where each side can make a true difference. From Earth as you see it, any change that is made affects the astral plane. It affects Hell. It affects Heaven. A creature which is slain in the physical world can no longer make a difference. They cannot make change. They are powerless beyond the astral plane.

That's only if they're lucky. Some creatures do not have the spiritual stamina to escape into the astral plane on their demise, and their existence ends when their meat body fails. They do not reincarnate, they do not journey with the pilgrims of souls, they do not find solace or peace anywhere. They end.

[A note scrawled in blocky script in the margins of this paragraph reads: "He's waxing a little dramatic here - no doubt for the benefit of his demonic readers. Angels and demons usually revert to an astral state if their physical form is destroyed. Some can even grow new physical bodies in the dark places of the Abyss. The only true way to kill those demons are to hunt them down in the astral plane and then gut them a second time."]

Not surprisingly, this vulnerability makes many agents on both sides highly hesitant to engage in open warfare in the physical world. They fight quietly, covertly, or through proxies. A Cold War of metaphysical significance. Mankind, cursed with independence, free will and only the loosest connection to the Supreme Divinity is the most common soldier on both sides.

[A note scrawled in blocky script in the margins of this paragraph reads: "I probably wouldn't call 'free will' a curse. But maybe that's just me.]

Angels and demons alike invade dreams, whisper sweet nothings, convince, cajole, insult, taunt, bait, encourage, motivate or otherwise drive mankind to acts of both incredible bravery and beauty and acts of ultimate depravity and violence. What we think is right is often wrong, and what is known to be wrong can occasionally be right. But these astral beings have no qualms adjusting your viewpoint to be a more efficient, more clean tool for their use.

[A note scrawled in blocky script in the margins of this paragraph reads: "Yes - this happens. Just not as often as he'd like you to think."]

In their place, demons have also given birth to a whole host of new creatures, called "monsters" by the denizens of the Earth. Largely trapped in their physical bodies, but possessing stamina, skills and abilities far beyond those of human beings, they were for many centuries the ultimate weapon in the arsenal of the Adversary. In recent centuries, their fundamental weakness, which is the same as mankind's - free will, has begun to lessen their value as a tool. None the less, they remain firmly entrenched in the camp of the Adversary.

The devices used by the Angels are much fewer in number, and weaker in scope. They mostly consist of imperfect replicas of themselves, front line soldiers and fodder who have no will of their own, and little divine spark.

Also dwelling on Earth are groups of neutral beings - often referred to as "meta-humans," or "elementals," they include the nearly extinct race of Elves, the servants known as Fairies, and also elemental manifestations of common Earth phenomenon. These beings are often thought to have been birthed by Earth itself, although the mechanism is not wholly understood. But I would challenge any astral traveler to state the Earth is not sentient and conscious in and of itself.

One final group indigenous to Earth which deserves mention, are the "other" agents of Divine Will and the Adversary's response. They refer to themselves as "Monster Slayers," as though it was a race, a species rather than a job or position. One such Slayer told me that he didn't view it as any of those things, but rather as his existence. It is from this group which I myself am sprung.

Monster Slayers were officially denounced from the Heavenly Bureaucracy at approximately 30 ACE, the reasons of which are myriad and almost impossible to explain. Some Monster Slayers accepted promotions or positions within the Heavenly Hierarchy. Some changed sides and began work for the Adversary. A very small number, growing smaller by the century continue to do the job they were originally called for - killing monsters and demons.

The Adversary's response, was the birth of the "Elder Demons." Its first attempt at creation, rather than destruction, resulted in a success that can only truly be called miraculous. 108 in number, corresponding exactly to the number of Monster Slayers summoned by the Absolute, they were the match of a Monster Slayer in every respect. These 108 Elder Demons also formed the Parentage of all modern monster types. Though some of these Elder Demons are slain, many more continue to thrive in the pits of the Abyss or the castles of Hell. They are sentient, old, and as vile a creature as you can imagine.

[A note scrawled in blocky script in the margins of this paragraph reads: "I've bagged eight of these guys in my 3000 some odd years, and none of them were easy. These are the one force on Hell or Earth that can put a Monster Slayer in his grave - and they did a good job of it. By my best count, 81 Monster Slayers bought the farm in the belly of an Elder Demon, including the esteemed Green Knight himself. By contrast, some 22 Elder Demons met their ends on Monster Slayer steel. See my notes in the Encyclopedia Monsteralia"]

Finally, we arrive at the last team which does battle in the Earth's biosphere. In many ways (and for many reasons), I would like to avoid even discussing the otherworldly invaders, but no true explanation of the Crossroads would be complete without a mention. Many, many years ago, when the Earth was still fresh and new, before it was Satan's prison, before it was the battleground it has become - groups of minor divinities from outside our immediate era came to rest here.

Their exact origins are difficult to fathom, even for an individual unbound by conventional thought and perception. Even the greatest among them are not equal to the Absolute, and it might be blasphemous to suggest that they are contemporaneous with It, but that is perhaps the best descriptive term. They did not come from our Universe, and they do not pretend to follow our rules. They represent similar facets to the Deceiver, but are wholly alien and incomprehensible. To even try is to risk madness.

[A note scrawled in blocky script in the margins of this paragraph reads: "If you're unsure, the Green Knight is referring to Yog-Soggoth, Azazoth, Cthulu and their ilk."]

Madness is indeed their gift, and they give it freely. Demi-Gods, Servants, Lesser Monstrosities alike, their very presence is an affront to all creatures living in our reality - whether they hide behind the veil or not. Demons and Angels will strike at them when they get a chance, but despite their lack of Divine or Infernal Spark, they seem to exist in a state not dissimilar to our own tiers of power - so not all demons or angels can fight them on equal terms. It is most often left to man and his devices, poor as they may be, to struggle and fight against these otherworldly horrors.

And so -- we have the Earth. An enormous, free for all melee between the forces of Lucifer, the Heavenly Servants, Horrors from Beyond the Edge and mankind all struggling for ground. All struggling to make that all important Difference.

Can any one of them win? Only time will tell.