The Mech Touch

"Mythology is an amorphous beast." Shederin described as he paced around the room. "Whether people believe that myths truly occurred or not, they enrich a culture and serve as great ways to spread certain messages. Though myths had their heyday in times of antiquity, they have shown a surprising degree of resilience to this day. The rise of detailed recordkeeping and the enabling of accurate recording of facts has not stopped humanity's desire to know that their reality is a lot more fantastical than it appears."

He gazed at the various displays that were based around the symbols of the Larkinson Clan. From a relatively accurate depiction of the Golden Cat to a projection that froze the moment in time when the silhouette of the Superior Mother sent forth a wave of death that turned the Auralis into a ghost ship, the clan already built up quite a lot of exaggerated tales as well.

Ves leaned back in his chair as Lucky flew in his direction and landed on his lap.

"Meow."

"What are you trying to say?" He asked.

"No one knows who initiated the Vulcan Faith." The old man said as he continued to tour his own office. "Certainly, we know that the members of the original Dwarven Justice Movement founded the new religion, but they are quite clear about how they are merely following the directives of 'Vulcan', the supposed god who directly descended upon one of their own kind and assisted them in breaking their chains. This has resulted in a rather open-ended situation where the most authoritative source in this new church has left the stage early before he could establish any proper rules and doctrines."

Ves saw where this was going. "So the early followers just made up their own stuff to flesh out their new religion?"

Shederin nodded. "The records of those early days are patchy and inconsistent, but it is likely that the original escapees from Desala X became caught up in their own fervor and started to ascribe numerous phenomena to their new god. Now think about the nature of the initial members of the Dwarven Justice Movement. Do you think that they are idealistic students, well-educated freedom fighters or enlightened nobles?"

"No." Ves instantly answered. He knew exactly what those dwarves were like. "They were all former slaves who grew up in an underground heavy gravity settlement. Their former masters deliberately cut them off from the rest of the galaxy and only taught them the bare minimum they needed to operate all of the heavy mining equipment. I sincerely doubt their masters bothered to teach them about culture."

"Indeed. These are some of the lowest underclasses that you can find in civilized space. To be honest, their lot is still a lot better than others, but they were still far from capable of founding a proper religion. The result is that the Vulcan Faith that emerged from those chaotic days developed in an organic and uncontrolled manner. The untimely deaths of Rion Aaden and Gion Greybeard left behind a power vacuum that wasn't sorted out until much later on. In the meantime, dozens of authoritative individuals who all claim to have witnessed Vulcan's descent and heard his proclamations in person began to establish rules and customs they believe to be inspired by their god."

"And I bet that these enthusiastic dwarves didn't bother to check up on each other to make sure their instructions were compatible with each other."

"Yes. A large amount of contradictory doctrines emerged. The longer this went on, the more struggles took place. It led to an increasing amount of heated shouting and rowdy fistsfights. When the dwarves started to take up arms against their own brothers, a power struggle ensued where one faction managed to gain dominance. Gemina Greybeard emerged as the first high priestess of the Vulcan Faith and forcefully established a single canon that legitimized the best customs that had emerged from this time. Since her opinion mattered the most, she was able to dismiss every other tradition as apocrypha or invalid."

Ves never heard of Gemina Greybeard, but then again he never bothered to familiarize himself with each and every dwarf back on Desala X. With a name like hers, it shouldn't be too surprising that she managed to win the factional struggle within the group of escaped rebels by coasting on Gion Greybeard's name.

He snorted. "Why do I have the idea that it's not so simple?"

"You would be right to suspect that there was still a lot of discontent. The dwarves had very little experience in exercising proper leadership and control in those days. Several notable defeated rivals managed to escape and persist outside of the reach of what soon became known as the proper Vulcan Faith. One of them was a particularly radical dwarf who went by the name of Wikker Yellowshoe."

"Who?" Ves asked.

He certainly didn't recall a dwarf by that name either. Back when he underwent his last Mastery experience, he became too preoccupied with pursuing his own goals to pay a lot of attention to other dwarves. He had no reason to know each and every person. He thought it was completely pointless to befriend any of them when he was destined to leave them all behind and return to the present.

Minister Shederin waved his hand, activating a projection of an opulently-dressed dwarf. The angry figure's stocky form was bedecked with rich and luxurious fabric that simply looked wrong on a heavy gravity variant human.

"The self-titled Flame Herald Wikker Yellowshoe went on to found an offshoot of the Vulcan Cult that eventually became known as the Dwarven God Cult. As its name already suggests, this splinter faith rejects the notion that Vulcan is a human god and believes him to be a god instead. Wikker Yellowshoe appears to have skimmed through the galactic net to come up with this justification. He has adapted an ancient myth and translated it into a narrative that plays right into the grievances and sense of inferiority among his kind."

"What did he come up with?" Ves curiously asked as he continued to pet Lucky's back.

"Well, the classical myth surrounding the birth of Vulcan, or Hephaestus if you prefer, is that his mother birthed him and gazed upon her child. Juno, or Hera depending on the flavor, did not like what she saw. The baby she brought to life was so ugly or deformed that she tossed the newborn divinity from Mount Olympus, off a cliff or into a volcano. Whatever the case, she did not do a good job and the misshapen baby grew up to become the powerful god of fire and metalworking that was both respected and feared. Now, how do you think a dwarf would interpret this ancient myth?"

Ves rubbed his smooth-shaven chin. "If I was a dwarf, I would have focused on the deformity that caused his mother to lose all of the affection she had towards her child. It makes so much sense to claim that the reason why Vulcan lost the love of his human mother was because he was born a dwarf."

"Exactly! This is the defining myth that Wikker Yellowshoe has clung to as the main justification why Vulcan is actually a dwarf. According to the scripture that he has propagated, the reason why Vulcan is called the God of Dwarves is because he is the very first dwarf to come into existence. He is the prototypical dwarf and the apex of what others of his kind can become. It is exactly because Vulcan was born this way that he is sympathetic towards other dwarves. Why else would he defy his fellow human gods and seek to assist the dwarves over other humans?"

Ves looked fairly impressed. "This interpretation does have logic on its side."

"That is why the Dwarven God Cult has never died out like the other splinter cults. While the Vulcan Faith ascended into the dominant religious strain in the Vulcan Empire under the influential leadership of High Priestess Gemina Greybeard, Flame Herald Wikker Yellowshoe continued to spread his persuasive beliefs in the background."

"Why did he call himself the Flame Herald?"

"Wikker Yellowshoe claimed to be the second dwarf who speaks the voice of Vulcan. The first one who introduced the word of the dwarven god to the masses was the mythic and heroic Rion Aaden. The latter's early passing allowed Wikker Yellowshoe to claim the dwarven hero's mantle. This undoubtedly helped him gain more legitimacy among other dwarves who didn't know any better."

What a scummy trick. These cult leaders always turned out to be charlatans and this Wikker fellow was no different!

"So how did the Dwarven God Cult gain more support when it lost out in the initial power struggle?"

Shederin chuckled. "It is true that the Vulcan Faith won the initial war of faith, but that is primarily due to its institutional support from the original leaders and visionaries of the Vulcan Empire. The vast majority of the rebels from Desala X insist that Vulcan is human. Due to their authority, the other dwarves that joined the growing rebel movement later on also inherited these views without much thought. This continued to snowball until trillions of dwarves adopted the status quo."

"How did Yellowshoe manage to break this institutional inertia, then?" Ves frowned. "It's not easy to convince people to believe that 2 + 2 = 5 when they have always learned that 2 + 2 = 4."

"By relying on superior logic and a more compelling myth." The foreign affairs minister answered. "Let's flip the analogy you brought up. Imagine if the Vulcan Faith claimed that 2 + 2 = 5 from the start. Your parents, brothers, teachers, bosses, policemen, mayors and even the Grand Regent of the Vulcan Empire have always stated that this equation is correct. However, anyone who knows an inkling of math can easily disprove the authenticity of this equation. That is what the Dwarven God Cult has done. It spent decades persuading other dwarves that its more logical and appealing explanation on Vulcan's nature is the correct interpretation. Yellowshoe claimed that the Vulcan Faith has gone astray because it was hijacked by secretive human masterminds."

Shederin didn't have to mention the MTA out loud. Ves could easily imagine that the Dwarven God Cult ascribed everything that was wrong in the Vulcan Empire to the machinations of the evil and diabolical mechers, who were all human of course.

"Has the Vulcan Faith actually attempted to stamp out this cult?"

"It did, but it is hard to convince the dwarves that have been 'enlightened' by the cult to renounce their beliefs. Once you embrace the narrative that Vulcan is truly a dwarf, it is hard to go back to believing that he is a human. For a long time, the adherents of the Dwarven God Cult kept their beliefs a secret from their friends and family. It was only until the last decade that the cult has gained such a massive following that its followers no longer have to hide. There are simply too much of them to get rid of them all. In fact, a majority of Vulcanites have openly broke away from the Vulcan Faith. The cult is on the verge of becoming the new mainstream if this trend persists."

Ves imagined all of the upheaval that might ensue as a result of this major shift in belief. "Is the Vulcan Faith just going to accept this encroachment?"

"No. The ruling classes of the Vulcan Empire are firm believers in the Vulcan Faith. Most of them are connected to the original rebels who supposedly witnessed the appearance of Vulcan. Their great respect for their liberator compels them to make sure the record remains correct. It is mostly the ordinary masses who are opposed to this 'truth'. They are too far removed from it and find the interpretation of the Dwarven God Cult to be a lot more pleasing to their ears. Truth doesn't matter at this level. Popularity is all that matters."

Ves knew that the Vulcan Faith was the more correct out of the two, but how could it ever win the hearts of ordinary dwarves when its truth was a bitter pill?

It was no wonder that the Dwarven God Cult gained the upper hand as of late! Its sweet-tasting candy was much more delectable!