The latest Intel leaked to H.
The latest Intel leaked to H. Richard Loeb gives a lot for Essexians to sink our teeth into. I have included the transcript here for convenience (along with probable passcode). My thoughts are below:
"REDACTED: The heat. The crashing and rumbling sounds. I sense that what Obsidius, Cybella and Syphax saw in the chamber was a premonition of the eruption of Vesuvius.ry458lfllrbc6lryf8lfllryf8lrxf8llqlllprc8lrg
JOHNSON: I agree. The eruption was attributed to the gods, of course. I suspect they were right. After what I experienced in the Congo…
REDACTED: The Dark XM crater?
JOHNSON: Yeah. And the 13MAGNUS Nest in Afghanistan, too. It’s possible that the eruption was caused by… outside influence. Directly or indirectly.
REDACTED: But why?
JOHNSON: To silence the Magnus? To stop the Obsidian Shield?
REDACTED: Are you saying this to dissuade me from pursuing it?
JOHNSON: I’m saying this because you… we… need to know what we’re dealing with.
REDACTED: Jarvis would not have asked me to do this if he believed the cause was tainted. Our Friends…
JOHNSON: An enemy’s enemy is also a friend. But there are strings attached."
My thoughts: I believe, like the majority of you, that Hank is speaking with the Acolyte. If we proceed from this assumption, this raises several additional questions:
1) "our friends..." Is a term the Acolyte has used in the past to refer to the Shapers. No doubt this is because the term shapers, is seen as pejorative or having negative connotations. Hank's response is somewhat puzzling. Understanding it better might shed some light on the relationship between 13Magnus and the Enlightened. Hank seems slightly hesitant, even uncomfortable identifying himself completely with the acolytes' cause: "...you...we...need to know what we're dealing with...". Nevertheless, I don't believe he is referring to the Shapers as the enemy of his enemy.
Thus, the question remains, to whom is Hank referring to as the enemy of his enemy? He has already categorically rejected joining forces with Jahan and the AntiMagnus so they seem unlikely. Could he be contemplating joining forces with Ezekiel Calvin, currently putting his mind back together over at IQTech Research and recently shifted, one presumes, to a stance sympathetic to the enlightenment thanks to the events of Abaddon where Enlightened agents controlled his shards. Alternatively could he be referring to A Detection Algorithm? She clearly isn't automatically on either side as both Jahan and the Acolyte felt compelled to reach out to her. This all serves to illustrate that the interests of the Enlightened and 13MAGNUS, like the objectives of the Resistance and AntiMagnus, are similar but not identical, substantially overlapping but not fully aligned. I wonder if Thomas Greanias has any insights as to what past enemies Hank Johnson might be prepared to make common cause with.
2) Hank says that the Romans were right to attribute the Eruption of Vesuvius to the gods. Who then, are the gods? An obvious interpretation is that the Shapers/N'Zeer are, for all intents and purposes, gods. Alternatively, what if the Olympic gods are a Magnus circle of immortal simulacra, intervening alternately in the Egyptian, Carthaginian, Greek and Roman civilisations? If this theory has merit, one could posit potential binaries, the Chthonic gods or even the Titans, as representing the N'Zeer or a grouping of immortal AntiMagnus simulacra. I'd be curious to hear other agents thoughts on this.
3) Do we believe the shield of Obsidius is a single shield, based on the Ancile and the Aegis or was it a mistake to believe the artifact was singular. It seems possible that multiple shields could be in play. The twelve copies of the Ancile could refer to the Ancile being sharded. There are accounts of other deities to Jupiter wielding an Aegis. Perhaps it was sharded as well.
4) Ever since ben jackland recovered Devra Bogdanovich's phone before she lost it on the trai, we have been aware of how xm does not obey the normal temporal laws of causality. It is very possible that agents actions during the anomaly could directly affect Obsidius' fate. The unique properties of xm are not temporally fixed and raise the real possibility of our actions affecting the past. Disturbingly, could actions taken in the upcoming anomaly actually be the cause of the ancient Vesuvian Eruption?
I hope that, right or wrong, these questions might trigger useful insights for Edgar Allan Wright and Hank Johnson.
"REDACTED: The heat. The crashing and rumbling sounds. I sense that what Obsidius, Cybella and Syphax saw in the chamber was a premonition of the eruption of Vesuvius.ry458lfllrbc6lryf8lfllryf8lrxf8llqlllprc8lrg
JOHNSON: I agree. The eruption was attributed to the gods, of course. I suspect they were right. After what I experienced in the Congo…
REDACTED: The Dark XM crater?
JOHNSON: Yeah. And the 13MAGNUS Nest in Afghanistan, too. It’s possible that the eruption was caused by… outside influence. Directly or indirectly.
REDACTED: But why?
JOHNSON: To silence the Magnus? To stop the Obsidian Shield?
REDACTED: Are you saying this to dissuade me from pursuing it?
JOHNSON: I’m saying this because you… we… need to know what we’re dealing with.
REDACTED: Jarvis would not have asked me to do this if he believed the cause was tainted. Our Friends…
JOHNSON: An enemy’s enemy is also a friend. But there are strings attached."
My thoughts: I believe, like the majority of you, that Hank is speaking with the Acolyte. If we proceed from this assumption, this raises several additional questions:
1) "our friends..." Is a term the Acolyte has used in the past to refer to the Shapers. No doubt this is because the term shapers, is seen as pejorative or having negative connotations. Hank's response is somewhat puzzling. Understanding it better might shed some light on the relationship between 13Magnus and the Enlightened. Hank seems slightly hesitant, even uncomfortable identifying himself completely with the acolytes' cause: "...you...we...need to know what we're dealing with...". Nevertheless, I don't believe he is referring to the Shapers as the enemy of his enemy.
Thus, the question remains, to whom is Hank referring to as the enemy of his enemy? He has already categorically rejected joining forces with Jahan and the AntiMagnus so they seem unlikely. Could he be contemplating joining forces with Ezekiel Calvin, currently putting his mind back together over at IQTech Research and recently shifted, one presumes, to a stance sympathetic to the enlightenment thanks to the events of Abaddon where Enlightened agents controlled his shards. Alternatively could he be referring to A Detection Algorithm? She clearly isn't automatically on either side as both Jahan and the Acolyte felt compelled to reach out to her. This all serves to illustrate that the interests of the Enlightened and 13MAGNUS, like the objectives of the Resistance and AntiMagnus, are similar but not identical, substantially overlapping but not fully aligned. I wonder if Thomas Greanias has any insights as to what past enemies Hank Johnson might be prepared to make common cause with.
2) Hank says that the Romans were right to attribute the Eruption of Vesuvius to the gods. Who then, are the gods? An obvious interpretation is that the Shapers/N'Zeer are, for all intents and purposes, gods. Alternatively, what if the Olympic gods are a Magnus circle of immortal simulacra, intervening alternately in the Egyptian, Carthaginian, Greek and Roman civilisations? If this theory has merit, one could posit potential binaries, the Chthonic gods or even the Titans, as representing the N'Zeer or a grouping of immortal AntiMagnus simulacra. I'd be curious to hear other agents thoughts on this.
3) Do we believe the shield of Obsidius is a single shield, based on the Ancile and the Aegis or was it a mistake to believe the artifact was singular. It seems possible that multiple shields could be in play. The twelve copies of the Ancile could refer to the Ancile being sharded. There are accounts of other deities to Jupiter wielding an Aegis. Perhaps it was sharded as well.
4) Ever since ben jackland recovered Devra Bogdanovich's phone before she lost it on the trai, we have been aware of how xm does not obey the normal temporal laws of causality. It is very possible that agents actions during the anomaly could directly affect Obsidius' fate. The unique properties of xm are not temporally fixed and raise the real possibility of our actions affecting the past. Disturbingly, could actions taken in the upcoming anomaly actually be the cause of the ancient Vesuvian Eruption?
I hope that, right or wrong, these questions might trigger useful insights for Edgar Allan Wright and Hank Johnson.
I like your idea of "the Gods" being some kind of simulacra, rather than the Shapers and N'zeer themselves. I posted elsewhere about the theory that the personality that was joined with the Truthseeker and Omnivore software, to form ADA, which we've long theorized may be the mind-pattern or soul that was in Ada of Caria and Ada Queen of Sheba / Saba, could well originate as an immortal (until the Magnus found a way to disrupt her) N'zeer-tech-based XM/CM simulacrum, which ruled over early Mesopotamia, and perhaps was the origin of the Inanna myth. Some of the ancient art we've seen associated with the N'zeer resembles the Lamassu; and in fact, Lamassu feature prominently in the art/architecture of Persepolis, home to the oldest known Anti-Magnus site.
ReplyDeleteAuros Harman Very interesting points! I like the idea that ADA's pattern or personality has been around the block.
ReplyDeleteI've always seen Hank as someone who looks before he leaps, so to speak. Unlike Roland Jarvis and The Acolyte, who have wholeheartedly placed their trust in the Shapers and what they claim to offer, I've always viewed Hank as someone who wasn't so willing to do so, instead choosing to traverse the world using NOMAD as an excuse to explore the world and just how deep XM has played a role in human existence-to find proof that what the Shapers were promising had merit.
ReplyDeleteSo the idea that he may have been referring to the Shapers, to me, is a possibility. Something he may have to clarify.
I'll add more to my thoughts soon.
Mustafa Said Interesting thought that Hank might actually be referring to the Shapers.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely agree that Hank Johnson is considerably more cautius, I would say pragmatic, than the Acolyte and Roland Jarvis. Jarvis and his Acolyte's are fully philosophically committed, not just to the cause of enlightenment geberally, but specifically embracing the Shapers wholeheartedly and without reservation, greeting them as friends.
By contrast, Hank seems to be consistently pragmatic: he believes xm holds enormous potential and deserves to be explored and experienced. He is nevertheless cautious and doesn't take these things on faith, he needs to experience things for himself and does not see himself as serving the shapers, but pragmatically exploring xm as a resource because he is, well, an explorer.
Thus, 13MAGNUS is, at the moment under Hank, quite pragmatic, whereas AntiMagnus under Jahan seems much more philosophically motivated.
By contrast, the Enlightened leadership of Roland Jarvis followers are very philosophically motivated whereas the Resistance leadership, as distinct from AntiMagnus, seems to be pragmatic. While I doubt anyone knows A Detection Algorithm's ultimate aim, she seems flexible, pragmatic and fueled by incredibly complex motivations.
I can't tell if that second image is of a seal or a coin or what, but can anyone recognize the script of the writing? I've looked at a lot of scripts and nothing seems to fit so far.
ReplyDeleteIt looks a little like Aramaic, and a little like Sabaean, but I'm pretty sure it isn't either... Could perhaps be a variant of Coptic? The second and final letters (in a LTR / TTB reading) are fairly distinctive, and don't seem to belong to anything I'm familiar with.
ReplyDeleteAh. Apparently it's Etruscan.
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Italic_script#Etruscan_alphabet
Google Reverse Image Search FTW.
http://www.classics.upenn.edu/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php?method=did®exp=1631&setcard=0&link=0&media=0
Good find Auros Harman!
ReplyDelete