The Tenno were awake, they who had journeyed beyond the boundaries of reality and returned from the place the Orokin called Hell. Who can say how many they’ve saved from a life of darkness, and how many they’ve cast into the abyss. Every story is a piece of the puzzle, surah... and the universe is full of stories. [Anthology]
Hail to the Jewels in the Lotus
Chapter Five: The Weight of What We Owe
Ain't no victims on these lists, Stardust. Every one of them workin' against the impossible to make things right for them and theirs. Makes them a hero in Ticker's eyes. Still... like the man said... show me a hero and I'll write you a Void-damned tragedy.
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Velut luna, Statu variabilis
Like the moon, are you changeable.
Semper crescis, Aut decrescis
Ever waxing, and waning.
Nunc obdurat, Et tunc curat.
First oppresses, and then soothes
Ludo mentis aciem.
As fancy takes it.
Egestatem, Potestatem.
Poverty, and Power.
Dissolvit ut glaciem
You melt them like ice
-o- Fortuna was the Roman goddess/personification of Fortune, particularly the ever-shifting balance of prosperity and disaster. Similar to Lady Justice, she was often depicted as wearing a blindfold, but was usually sans scales. I added them back in because I liked the additional symbolism of the “weight” of the Corpus autocracy and their unfairly skewed values.
-o- Here, Fortuna is rendered as an Orokin, hence the asymmetrical arm. This is because the Orokin remind me of some hybrid of Japanese nobility and space Romans, a vibe that was certainly reinforced by Ballas’ silky toga and the overall “living Grecian statue” look about him. And while Fortuna (the Venusian debt colony) is not Orokin, per say, I’ve always thought of the Corpus as wannabe Orokin – regarding the Golden Lords as the pinnacle of achievement and trying to model themselves after them. As revealed in Simaris’ data frags, they certainly didn’t appreciate the literal apocalypse brought on by the original Tenno rebellion, thus why they still refer to them as Betrayers.