Didn't anyone ever tell you talking about someone behind their back was rude?
One passing reference in a book that only became cannonical as a result of a mistake (similar to the inclusion of 'Her Majesty' on the album 'Abbey Road' by the Beatles), and everyone is like "Abaddon is Jesus" or "Abaddon is a demon" for the next two millenia. Being a supernatural entity is hard enough at the best of times without ill-informed people running their mouths off and slandering you, one way or the other.
Honestly, John was a nice old bloke, but towards the end was having far too much mushroom tea to take ANYTHING he wrote seriously. I admit, I introduced him to cannabis, but the magic mushrooms were NOTHING to do with me okay?
I have to admit though, I am quite proud of the waste of time that that first paragraph of the Gospel according to John has caused amongst theologians... I suggested that bit to him, and he was a sucker for obscure mystical bollocks. Ho theos... more like ho ho ho joke's on you theos...
You see, Abaddon is neither Jesus or a demon. He is not even really 'the angel of the abyss', other than in very obscure figurative terms that I tried to get into John's thick skull over several bottles of Retsina one night. The stuff about creepy-crawlies was the result of me tipping a scorpian down John's back one day on Patmos when he was 'contemplating the divine' (how he used to describe being totally off his trolly on mushrroms). I was wearing a yellow T-shirt at the time. Go figure.
I am actually a supernatural entity, employed under inter-divinity regulations on fair-play in created Universes.
You don't think any god can just go and create a Universe without following the correct proceedures? It would be chaos. It's bad enough the mis-alignment of dimensional arrays that occurs accidentally sometimes (and not just in episdoes of Star Trek... George W. Bush being elected, the Mary Celeste, Little Big Horn, you name anything weird and it's normally a glich between two Universes occupying the same rho-space).
If there were no planning regulations and standard code of ethics for creators it would be sheer chaos. Not that it's Switerland here in any case, but if it weren't for rules EVERYWHERE would be like Belgium.
Basically, I am an Non-Theological Entity, an N.T.E.. I have nothing to do with god; he has no control over me.
I don't even particulary like the chap, but think by the time he gets on to his next Universe he will have worked out a lot of his unresolved anger managemnt issues (he came from a violent home; his father ate his mother), and don't think he's really THAT bad (you should see some Universe's, I can tell you!).
My role is that of ombudsman, referee or umpire. Or a gameshow host. It doesn't really matter how you think of it. Essentially, when the rules of the game dictate stalemate or checkmate, I tot up the points and rule over who won.
I'm sorry, but god isn't doing too well point-wise at the moment. Uncontrolled rage, unreasonableness, being a big fat party-pooper, and assigning the writing of holy books to people you would not trust to write down a single digit 'phone number are just some of the big minus scores. You should of seen his first Universe though... that was REALLY nasty.
In fact, breasts and Bach are the only thing keeping him in positive figures at the moment, but he's not a quitter, I have to give him (he's called George... he hates the capital thing (Him, He etc..) that.
Satan is far better; in other Universe's where the god isn't acting like a stroppy teenager, the polar entity has to be really bad, and god normally wins. In this Universe, as often happens in the first Universe or two a god makes, the polar entity is actually ahead on points, as all he has to do is be bad enough to be interesting... sometimes all it needs is black Levis's and a goatee, if that.
Think of it; better clothes, music (he claims Bach too, and has the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones etc.), books, lifestyle - George never get any action when he was young god, and is just being mean with his sexual repression and misogyny), politicians (Ghandi, Martin Luther King, Abraham Lincoln, they're all the Devil's), you name it.
As it stands, if the last trump blew tomorrow (that is IF; I don't make predictions, I interpret rules), the Devil would win, and get full creative rights and his own place in rho-space, and George would get to spend the next eon cleaning out black holes in someone else's Universe.
Quite frankly, Satan (Stan to his friends) is quite a nice chap as Princes of Darkness go, and I think I know where I'll be retiring too when this Universe gets wrapped up. I've seen his plans! Woo-hoo!
And what, I can hear you think, happens to 'us', as in you dear squishy corporeal mortals?
What do you do with Monopoly tokens or chess pieces when the game is over? You put them away. Sorry, no flaming torment, no tinkly harps; the Destroyer's job, after adjudication, is clearing away the pieces.
Only those of you that get to the, errrr, I suppose 'end of the board' is a good way of putting it, surivive this process in any other way than as coulombs of energy. If you 'get to the end of the board', then you get to play again (that's where Death comes in... Sharon (she' very pissed the Greeks got the spelling wrong) is basically a glorified (haha) taxi driver, and does not 'do' the bones and sickle thing unless she's in a good mood.
After repearting the game a few times, or it you're very lucky or clever, you 'get it'.
Those that 'get it', those that figure out the answer to 'life the universe and everything' (and no, it's not 42, although Douglas did get it) have sufficient... I suppose 'escape velocity' is a nice way to phrase it, to escape corporeality... and then you get a job... although I won;t go into the details of how all that's done. It does takes a VERY LONG TIME to get to be a Destroyer, I can tell you; I've been in existence since Ray-time (which came before Mee-Time and after Doe-time), and it's Sow-Time now. A very long time indeed.
You might start off as being an 'enbodiment' in one of the more traditional Universes (with a REAL Mount Olympus, and REAL muses. There's actually one Universe that is exactly like Discworld, but that's just a statistical eventuality rather than a big surprise.
I was the embodiment of hang-overs in my first job, worked my way up through the muses, demi-gods, incarnations (no nails, thank goodness) the wholle panoply of supernatural and mystical roles (being gravity sucks), until I worked as Death in several Universes before getting the job as Destroyer in this one.
Being Death and being the Destroyer are quite similar, accept Death works more, but can experience each second of time more than once, and thus can fit it all in and still have time for a tan.
Being the Destroyer, well, you get to hang around an awful lot, and have to try not to influence history too much.
I get carried away every now and then; Leonardo Da'Vinchi for example, but Leo was a bright spark who 'got it' when he was three, first time round and all, and was just marking time until he died.
The Dark Ages had been so dull (apart from the Vikings... I liked the Vikings... ) I just got lost in the moment... they lost the work book with sketch of the water powered Pentium VI, which was just as well...
But even though I can either roam around in non-coporeal form or materialise myself a body at will, it can get rather dull and lonely. I've been men, I've been women, I've been straight, I've been gay, I've been rich, I've been poor, I've been most higher mammals, and you can't help but get attached to you little corpsicals (especially the one with breasts), and even IF they do 'get it', there's next to no chance of getting assigned to the same Universe.
It only happened to me once, when I was the muse of music and a girlfriend from three Universes back was the elemental spirit of fire... those were the millenia, I can tell you; sixteen billion years with the hottest chick in the Universe (well, THAT Universe).
Otherwise it's Empires rise, Empires fall, girlfriends come and go, every now and then there's a good book, or film, or a really cool band, or a Tri-Dee Feely... but you don't have those yet, do you? It might be fresh and new to you, but with me it is enui to the enth power at times.
You can always date another supernatural entity, but then you have each other's enui to deal with; at least with a corpsical their amazement at how new everything is, their lack of being jaded, do you have a way to distract yourself from how big time is. Otherwise you just look at a sunset and think of the quadruple sunsets on Quidzdlack Voth IV in Me-Time, EVERYTHING becomes dull (although this Universe does have redeemingly good music).
Anyway, I'm meandering; a problem when you can remember everything as though it happened yesterday unless you try really hard to restrict your memory to the current Universe (which gives you a headache if you do it all the time... sometimes I have difficulty remembering what the value of c is in this Universe...).
Hope this clears up your discussion...
Regards
Abaddon
a.k.a. Angel of the Abyss
The Destroyer (N.T.E. 003) for Universe x45t67^89Nhf873920756520ghftr93045;f/ghk4773/g693783
Time frame: So/1.5678456789x10^34/67854/6785
Seeing how easy it is to come up with mystical nonsence, I would not get that bothered about who Abaddon is... far more useful to know who your true friends are...
People living in glass paradigms shouldn't throw stones...
