CorvusMask
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Used forum search to see if folks had discussed this before, and I noticed it was really rare for it to be mentioned(like, once a couple of years in random post rare). So figured out I might as well make own thread for this because its neat trivia and I think it would be fun for more people to learn about.
So I don't know why it took me so long to realize this as I had read on Gnosticism before, but Monad and Aeons are directly inspired by Gnosticism(or at least some versions of it as Gnosticism is modern name for variety of beliefs). In Gnosticism Monad the One, the Absolute is the supreme being and source of "pleroma" while Aeons are emanations of it. Common theme to Gnostic beliefs is dualogy and idea that non-material world is the real world while material world is essentially a prison, goal of Gnosticism being about having knowledge of the divine and true nature of reality.
Amusing thing about this is that as Gnostic beliefs originated from Jewish-Christian social environment, Monad is closest Pathfinder ever gets referencing to a version Christian God, well, at least a version of New Testament God, Demiurge/Yaldabaoth(the creator of material world who mistakenly believes it to be the supreme being and is ignorant bout existence of Monad, Aeons and non-material world) is pretty close to Old Testament God on otherhand.
Anyhoo, would actually be fun if Yaldabaoth had its own version in Pathfinder :D Even if Aeons and Monad aren't really identical to their Gnostic counterparts, besides the whole duality thing. Most of Aeons' names come from names of individual Aeons. I would like to see aeon Sophia also represented, but I digress.
So yeah, neat stuff, I already liked Aeons, but it is nice to realize they are actually based on something mythological. I hope this will be fun trivia to learn for other people too since it seems to be obscure info
| SOLDIER-1st |
I have a Fiend Keeper medium character who's fiend is the serpent that tempted Adam and Eve in the garden (playing it as an Xacarba). When Yahweh cursed the serpent to crawl through the dust, rather than literally, it was more metaphorical, and the serpent is bound to impotently possess a human (who were created out of dust in the mythology).
My character views his possession as a curse, and as he goes up in level, he eventually is able to use divinations and planar travel to get information about his curse, and finds out about Yahweh, which sets him on the path to finding Yahweh to undo it.
The part where it gets relevant to your post is that Yahweh is a Twilight Pitri Manasaputra who managed to gain full divinity and claims to have been integral in creating this iteration of the multiverse. The Seventh Accord (mentioned in Chronicle of the Righteous) was actually about Yahweh, and what to do with him. They invited the well-meaning but presumed insane deity, but after questioning him they grew afraid of both his power and the unintentional problems his interference in both mortal and outsider affairs caused. They tried to convince him to stay and meditate in Heaven, but he declined, and so they tried to imprison him. He fled, and ran up to the Garden, breaking through the gate (which is why it now lays open and broken), and then disappearing. No one knows if he was destroyed, or fled and hid, or transformed into something even greater.
Just a little headcannon that I would probably be burned at the stake for.
| Seventh Seal |
Also relevant to Yaldabaoth is that not only is he the demiurge (=creator) of the material world (usually attributed to the Judeo-Christian god), but an alternate name of his is Samael, one of the many identities of Satan in Judeo-Christian beliefs. This link between Satan & the creator of the 'evil' world was part of Catharic belief in particular.
Also, in some sources Samael is equated with Azazel (perhaps mistakenly), as well as with Ashmedai (a variant of Asmodeus...).
So, it's really not that difficult to see why the Gnostics (& their 'spiritual inheritors', the Cathars) as a group were declared heretics and stamped out during the early days of Christianity...
But, as religion can be a little polarising: my apologies if it does bother you somehow.
Please flag the post so that the forum moderators can review it & decide whether or not it should be modified or removed.
<edit> Added the Disclaimer.