Ghost of a flea

Words of the Space Marine: "Chant"

From the comments:

Robert Brown 2 months ago (edited)

"Wow... I just got a very surreal feeling. Like you sometimes can get when you're in a huge crowd of people, or someplace high up looking out on a wide sweeping view of the world below, or when you lose yourself and get disoriented looking up at the stars. It's that feeling of smallness, of insignificance next to the sheer scale of the universe around you. But this feeling is a little different. This time it was as if all the various worlds and universes we imagine were suddenly juxtaposed in my head at once, an infinite variety surging and circling around me, the awestruck observer. All of their grand vistas and rich histories, the seething masses of people who inhabit them and all of their hopes and dreams, joys and suffering, the great world-changing events and movements taking place within them, Empires forged, civilizations founded, ages ended. What are we next to the vastness we imagine? We are nothing, and yet they would truly be nothing were it not for us. I strain my eyes, looking for one universe in particular... Amidst countless others swirling about my stationary vantage point, I see the United Federation of Planets from Star Trek. It is bright, hopeful, and looking towards the future. Beside it, the free peoples of Middle Earth stand tall, living in a world of magic and wonder. The Culture and its Minds passes by to my left, no less magical for its godlike technology. Rising from beneath my feet, the citizens of King’s Landing are going about their daily lives while the nobles fight for the right to rule them. Emerging from behind a universe I do not recognize, but which I know I've seen before somewhere, the Mass Effect universe comes into view. This one is interesting, because in it, humanity is fighting for its very existence, defying the odds. I take a moment to admire their tenacity, but this is not the universe I'm after. The one I hope to find is much older, with far worse odds. After much searching, I find it. 40k is among these infinite universes like a diamond in the ruff, standing as a testament to the resilience and tenacity of the human race. As it wheels into view, the very fabric of this universe looks frayed, desperate, like a piece of rope straining under a heavy load, but which refuses to snap. Nowhere else is our dogged determination to survive against all odds so plainly displayed, or so harshly put to the test. They may not be 'real' in the way we normally use the word, but the souls who exist within that bleak reality are still to be both pitied and admired. Across the omniverse of myth and legend, created and sustained by those of us lucky (or unlucky, as the case may be) enough to live in the 'real' world, 40K shines forth as a beacon of inspiration to us all, as an example of courage and, if not hope, at least stubborn defiance in the face of inevitability. Most people say that 40K is grimdark. I disagree. 40K is the poem 'Do not go gentle into that good night' made real."

Posted by Ghost of a flea at September 26, 2016 07:38 AM