SMQ Lore (001) - The Oldkin (Introduction) (Patreon)

As promised, I'm going to try and do some lore posts, explaining concepts of the worlds of ICFOS and SMQ - and here's one that is shared in both. A shared pantheon that is, inextricably, at the beginning of things.

In the world of SMQ and ICFOS, the Oldkin are the pantheon of gods and demons that represent the many aspects of the world. The word "Oldkin" here is short for "old kin" - as folklore tends to describe them. These endearing terms serve a purpose: to dampen some of their more alarming aspects; to try to put something incredibly large, wonderful, and fearsome, within the boundaries of a word that makes them "family." As such, they receive epithets in the cultures of the SMQ/ICFOS worlds, referring to them as "Cousins", "Uncles" or "Father" depending on the oldkin's personal preference (often, by their animal name. I.E: "Cousin Owl, Cousin Dog, Cousin Dolphin.")

Whatever the nomenclature, Oldkin exist in myth and legend, their presence, at the time of the story, considerably diminished in a modern world that has advanced past their open worship. However, a lot of them remain in many forms: fairy tales for children, products that evoke their legends, or, in the case of the strongest among them, they maintain a presence among humans. 

Oldkin are, largely, embodiments of non-physical things. Rather than being elemental deities (a role reserved to the "lesser" oldkin), most of them are things such as love, lust, curiosity, memory, magic-- concepts that are either emotional or spiritual.

The origin of the Oldkin

The oldkin come from a timeless realm, called Dream, Ever-Dream, or Dreaming (as opposed to the Waking world, physical reality.) They are, quite literally, timeless. They remember always existing. From their point of view, all realities are dreams they have: just as a human may dream up whole worlds that they then briefly live in, to the Oldkin, each waking world is a brief dream, one they sometimes navigate.

When an Oldkin is weakened, usually from lack of worship, they go to sleep in the dream, entering a dormant state. Never truly gone, but quiet.

The Nebulous Duality

Oldkin, as a term, refers to "both sides", though the distinction between them can be as vast as day and night, or extremely subtle, but as a general rule of thumb:

Divine oldkin tend to be more benevolent, or selfless. They often represent or embody an ideal. They thrive on worship, that is, positive admiration, or by people living in the way that they favor.

Demonic oldkin tend to be selfish and have no particular interest in giving. They often are the action, expression, of an ideal, and thrive on sacrifices and offerings, but worship still works for them. 

Often, demonic Oldkin are "split off" from their divine self, but can also be descended from their divine selves:

(Left: Gunnar, right: Redford)

An example are Gunnar and Redford - father and son. Gunnar represents independence, self-resilience, being self-made. He's the god of personal accomplishment and learning to be comfortable on your own, but also he's not very gregarious, a god of independence necessarily meaning he's not one to need a lot of friends. 

Redford is a demon of dependance, of letting go and relying on others. While he might also embody elements of laziness and irresponbility, he scoffs his dad's strictly-solitary perspective, understanding the importance of connections a lot better than Gunnar. 

An easy way to understand this is to keep in mind they are both about the relationship of the One and the Many. Where Gunnar favors the relationship with one-self, and ONLY that, letting everything else come accidental, Redford favors that with the Many, and ONLY with the many.

This is not a hard rule. There are divine oldkin who are neither nice nor exactly good, and demonic oldkin whose behavior is more noble than some of the gods.

Eagle and Dove, Kuzpoc, and simply 'Dove.'

The Eagle was originally one oldkin - law and justice. Powerful and mighty, but unforgiving and rigid. So rigid, in fact, that they became a prisoner of their own rules, coming off as either incompetent or as unreasonably harsh in others. So, the Eagle cut himself asunder (according to some stories, outright castrating themselves). Two oldkin were born-- with Kuzpoc bearing down the smiting power of pure authority, and Dove taking on the aspect of protection and justice. However, Kuzpoc regards Dove as the demon here, and Dove doesn't care to correct him-- why would it matter what they are? It seems like a pointless question to Dove.

(It might have been Dove who started the rumour that Eagle castrated himself - according to Dove, Kuzpoc is the removed member, because he's "a massive tool.")

Dove is the great protector - but they don't care who they defend. They will defend the guilty and the innocent all the same, because to get picky is to stray dangerously close to Eagle's way of seeing things. Eagle, meanwhile, sees no compromise: even a little bit of guilt is guilt, and he must mete out punishment.

(The in-universe show "C.L.A.W - Heroes of New Yolk city" features a glamorized version of Eagle, confronted with a fowl but frankly cool fiend, reminiscent of Dove, even though he's a blackbird.)

While "impure" worship - as people who buy into these products aren't really worshiping the Oldkin, it keeps them in the public consciousness. And to have people aware of them is at least one step up from being totally forgotten.

The Limited Influence of Oldkin

Whether through mutual accord, an honor system, or out of necessity, Oldkin tend to avoid direct intervention in human or monster affairs, except when either invoked, or when that intervention is done at the same capacity as a normal human could, given the resources or magic required.

This is because Oldkin understand the danger of openly meddling:

- To do so would draw a lot of human attention to that Oldkin, in the disfavor of the rest. Doing so, thus, immediately makes them direct competition to the others, and would cause the rest to lash out on them.

- Doing so also tends to provoke their opposite to meddle in return. Some oldkin care about balance, or find it particularly offensive when, say, whole villages, towns or cities believe in ideas diametrically opposite to their own.

- Some Oldkin also point out that whole worlds have ended by "immature and unmeasured acts of cosmic intervention." They're cautious of doing so.

Still, some Oldkin find ways around this rule. For example:

Dipsy ("You're reading it wrong. Deep Sea.") is the oldkin demon of fear, and... largely friendly towards humans. He describes himself as "mankind's very first friend." After all, fear protects, it keeps you from going out in the dark. Dipsy has maintained his presence among humans by being a successful horror novelist: not only are his stories timeless, but after he lives out a pen name, he just waits it out before coming up with a new one. The fear his stories inspire feeds him, and this trick is only allowed because he's not doing anything a regular human being couldn't - even if he is, perhaps, specially well equipped at coming out with scary ideas (but then again, humans can do that too.)

Thaddeus Bolt is a god of storms-- and through storms, electricity. And, in the process of reinventing himself, he became a god of innovation who rebranded himself as a corporation - Bolt Industries. The name of the company is on so many people's lips, who speak with praise of the products. While materialistic (and very, very self-centered and narcissistic) Thaddeus is also extremely powerful, having done what he's done within the rules. He is also an example of a god with a complex nature: he's very selfish, and sometimes ruthless, but he's very much about progress. What's more, anyone who can sincerely sweet talk him with some praise is often generously rewarded... provided their devotion doesn't stray to other gods (or worse, demons.)

That's it for the first lore post! I'll be talking about the individual Oldkin, gods and demons, next time!