Nyza Thezumai

On the subject of living myths, there’s no finer embodiment of that concept than Nyza Thezumai. Even among deific Rodinians, few could say their life began with something like the Chicxulub impact, and fewer who would call it only the third most consequential event of their life.   For better or worse, the arc of her personality and character has bent all of Rodinia around itself, sweeping the Creatures of Earth along with her ascent – and inevitable descent.   Her life dawns as one of hundreds of millions of Paravian refugees fleeing a dying, burning Earth in the immediate aftermath of Chicxulub, as the Rodinians rushed in to save as many of their new Paravian Rodinian cousins as possible. Consequently from this, she fought in the united Great House armadas that took savage revenge for the Chicxulub strike on Earth, ragefully scouring the Local Group of galaxies hunting those responsible. From there, she served in the newly created Imperial Service founded by the first Emperor, and remained there throughout the tenures of eight Imperial Majesties, attaining a senior position.   When Archnadrakian Balaine murdered his own kind and created the unstoppable Ninth Caste Nadrakians to replace them at the onset of the Blood Harvest, most Rodinians knew they were going to lose the ensuing war and be slaughtered. The reason why Nyza continues to command such respect from elder Rodinians despite her now horrific beliefs were the raw emotions of those final hours of the Blood Harvest. In the space of days, due to the sacrifice of the last remaining old Nadrakians, most Rodinians went from tearfully cradling their children in their homes, to pushing back the Ninth Caste Nadrakians deep into the galaxy, and Nyza was the one who ultimately rallied them. She led what was left of their fleets, and personally slew Archnadrakian Balaine at Sicarsis. It’s because of these events she’s pushed the political envelope so far where most other insurgent Great House lords would simply end up beheaded by the Imperial Majesty. Her charisma and lingering popularity with elder Rodinians allow her to break norms, break so-called ‘little laws’ without consequence, and throw political bombs towards the Emperor that ordinarily aren't tolerated from the Rodinian aristocracy.   From Sicarsis though, it’s all downhill. She served as Empress following that harrowing conflict, rebuilding Rodinia’s power and founding the Rodinian Empire, ruling over it for 1.2 million years. Initially she made a genuine attempt to model the Empire on the peace-loving model of the Nadrakians, who made this a condition of their sacrifice. But Rodinians are still mortal in mindset and not fit to have such power, Nyza least of all. A series of poor policy decisions lead to embarrassing foreign policy blunders and scandals that ate away at her public support until she lost control of the Imperial Bequeathing Sword, whereupon she ceased to be Empress.   She returned to Great House politics and took her place as Matron of Great House Thezumai, bitter over losing the throne of all thrones due to, in her view, squabbling entitled civilizations refusing to obey. Her bitterness turned to resentment as she watched the Empire decline under Emperor Ior, ultimately succumbing to abandonment. That resentment festered again into hostility and rage when the Billowing was discovered and Ior’s only response was to start curtailing Rodinian’s psikinetic usage to slow it down.   She’s now staging something of a comeback, viciously attacking Emperor Ior and the governing party's lack of action on the Billowing, and what she believes is the only option Rodinia has left to survive it: harvesting the Souls and spiritual power of so-called “useless species” to accelerate Rodinian ascension to godhood and thereby escape the Billowing.   This is a purely theoretical idea with no basis in proven fact, with far too many open questions. Dumping that power into the soul of the Earth will certainly empower the Rodinians, but there’s no evidence they’ll be capable of detaching their souls from space-time to escape the Billowing. To quote one Rodinian philosopher about the sheer finality of the Billowing:  

“Our souls and therefore minds are etched into the fabric of space-time like embroidered art upon a bedsheet. If you remove the bedsheet, then the embroidery is just loose thread. It loses form, expression, and all meaning.   Our minds are the embroidery and space-time the bedsheet. Without space-time, our minds as embroidered upon it simply cease to exist. You can’t extract it or move it anywhere else, as it’s an expression of the underlying universe which the Billowing shall destroy.”

  But aside from that, it also results in the deaths of those civilizations harvested. It’s genocide on an appalling scale. It’s, in essence, the same thing the remnants of the Ninth Caste Nadrakians do in their endeavor to rebuild Balaine’s soul after Nyza split him in half at Sicarsis.   She doesn’t care though. Her views on non-Rodinians are summed up, in her very own words:  

“We’re the completed product; the end stage in the evolution of life in this universe. Everyone and everything else is just the universe’s botched and failed attempts in creating us Rodinians.   Look at them; most don’t make it to space before they’re filtered out by their own stupidity, and those who do endure long enough enjoy their little transient triumphs before becoming the victim of someone else’s transient triumph, et cetera, et cetera. It’s all never-ending cyclical mediocrity and endless stagnation all amounting to nothing.   Emperor Barden’s refusal to provide Rodinia with a future is condemning the only civilization who can escape the Billowing, in order to safeguard lesser species who are utterly doomed regardless. They’re all going to die in the Billowing, so what does it matter if they die sooner? They’ve had their time; the universe has had its time, but our time is far from over.”

— Nyza Thezumai

  This is alarming rhetoric to be hearing from one of the leaders of a Rodinian Great House, and although House Thezumai is the second smallest in terms of military power, wealth and soft political power, it has allies in two other Great Houses. There’s also the issue of Nyza herself, who’s frighteningly powerful as you would expect of someone who killed an Archnadrakian. The entire political system of the Imperial Government and position of Imperial Majesty exist to constrain Great House lords like her, but it’s straining under the weight of her personality and power.   More alarmingly, her arguments are finding purchase within swathes of the general Rodinian electorate and her acolytes are winning elections to the Imperial Government, further eroding Emperor Ior’s power. If his approval among the Rodinian people drops too low then he’ll lose control of the Imperial Bequeathing Sword and cease to be Emperor, opening up a two-year vacancy period until a new one is elected by the people. Leadership will fall to partisans in the lower elected positions of Imperial Government during this period, many whom Nyza now has influence with. They’ll undermine the system, bend and change laws, and suppress their opposition in order to allow Nyza to become Empress again.   It’s far from hopeless though. A large majority of Rodinians don’t agree with her and actively dislike her. Their problem though is they’ve become so dispirited and depressed by the Billowing that they’ve withdrawn from politics altogether. They don’t believe in Nyza’s murderous plans, but also don’t see any point in participating in politics anymore either and therefore aren't resisting. In their minds, they’re all dead. They don’t think it matters anymore. It’s a flaw Rodinians have because of their immortality; they think that something is pointless because it ends, and if it's pointless, then it doesn’t matter. This has left elections to be increasingly influenced by Nyza supporting extremists as normal Rodinians tune out, and Rodinia’s complicated political system isn’t designed for disastrously low engagement.   Her victory would be catastrophic; for non-Rodinians, Rodinians politically opposed to her, and the Rodinians who class themselves as independent from Rodinia, living in the Enclaves throughout the cosmos. These are all groups she’s stated she’ll go after, and there’s really no one that could stop her if she took total control. Rodinia was meant to be that superpower swooping in to stop the evil doers when the evil doers “won”. They were meant to be the imaginary heroes everyone thought about, coming to their rescue to set everything right when enemies triumphed.   There’s no one going to swoop in to set Rodinia straight if it goes off the rails. No one who could. This is a civilization whose fleets are so large they have their own gravitational fields that perturb the motions of stars within a galaxy. They have more ships than galaxies in the observable universe, and far, far more warriors than that; each one, for lack of a better term, an unbeatable demigod.   The fact she’s coming so close to the Granite Throne of Rodinia is a condemnation of the utter selfishness of the average Rodinian, their lack of concern for the wellbeing of others beyond their own society, their diminished views on the value of mortal life, and their nihilism. There’s still 21 million years left until the Billowing, but simply because the Rodinian electorate can no longer expect to live forever, they’re going to sit around and allow a tyrant to take power who’ll then deny everyone else those precious 21 million years.