Loa
Loa was a term coined within the religious practices of Haitian voodoo for a supernatural entity whose power could be called down and channeled, being neither precisely a ghost nor anything so grand as a god.
Due to the similarity between their form witchcraft and Haitian voodoo, Faction Paradox also used the term "loa" to refer to the spirits involved in their own rituals. This principally meant sentient phenomena within the structure of time, which the Time Lords preferred to understand as equations and other lifeless mathematics.
Additionally, some schools of thought within the Faction, including those which came into the creation of the Remote, had a broader understanding of the term "loa", as potentially referring to any non-physica being with a material influence on the culture within which it had emerged, such as fictional characters or the public personas of celebrities. (PROSE: "Loa" [+]Part of The Book of the War, Loading...{"namedep":"Loa","1":"The Book of the War (novel)"}) The Native American dakina has similarities to the Remote's understanding of loa. (PROSE: "A'daltem Ano'nde" [+]Part of The Book of the War, Loading...{"namedep":"A'daltem Ano'nde","1":"The Book of the War (novel)"})
Nature
Haitian loa
The word loa was originally coined for entities which were a central fixture of the Haitian voodoo religion. In contrast to the remote gods and angels of other religions, loa were spirits existing alongside the worshippers rather than above them or in a different world altogether. (PROSE: "Definitions" [+]Part of Interference - Book One, Loading...{"namedep":"Definitions","1":"Interference - Book One (novel)"}) According to The Book of the War, a loa was "a presence which walks on a plane alongside humankind rather than above it". (PROSE: "Loa" [+]Part of The Book of the War, Loading...{"namedep":"Loa","1":"The Book of the War (novel)"})
The loa aren’t your average bunch of gods-from-above, that’s what I’m say- ing. They’re not untouchable, and they’re not infallible. They get drunk and they get angry and they have good days and they have bad days, same as the rest of us. They’re real, but they’re not-quite-real. They’re here, but they’re not-quite-here. Ready to get involved at a moment’s notice, if you know how to get in touch with them. (…) You don’t worship them, not like you worship gods. You talk to them. Like friends. Like companions. And they talk back.
Thus, the loa could be "invoked, called upon or even invited to occupy the body of the summoner". A practitioner would "use the loa almost as spiritual tools, summoning the higher presences to ‘ride’ them and thereby invest them with that loa’s own abilities". (PROSE: "Loa" [+]Part of The Book of the War, Loading...{"namedep":"Loa","1":"The Book of the War (novel)"}) At a typical voodoo ceremony, "you’d think the loa were right there in the middle of things, dancing along with the priests and the priestesses. Well, maybe they are". (PROSE: "Definitions" [+]Part of Interference - Book One, Loading...{"namedep":"Definitions","1":"Interference - Book One (novel)"})
There were different types of loa, some of them "ancestral", as indicated by "familial names", while some of them were "linked to a specific place, item or even historical event". (PROSE: "Loa" [+]Part of The Book of the War, Loading...{"namedep":"Loa","1":"The Book of the War (novel)"}) Though not ghosts in the conventional sense, it was possible for dead human beings to ascend to become loa. In 18th century Saint-Domingue, "new and hungry" loa of the Revolution were created by followers of the revolutionary Makandal, who himself was believed to have become a spirit after his execution. (PROSE: The Adventuress of Henrietta Street [+]Loading...["The Adventuress of Henrietta Street (novel)"], COMIC: Bêtes Noires & Dark Horses [+]Loading...["Bêtes Noires & Dark Horses (comic story)"]) In the 20th century, Baron Samedi and the Petro gods were worshipped as evil gods in Haiti. (PROSE: White Darkness [+]Loading...["White Darkness (novel)"])
At the same time, Makandal's followers incorporated much of the Catholic Church's mythology and continued to honour their saints while practicing other rituals; (PROSE: The Adventuress of Henrietta Street [+]Loading...["The Adventuress of Henrietta Street (novel)"]) in 20th century Haiti, the Rada Loa included Saint Patrick. A small group in Haiti originating from Dahomey also worshipped the Great Old Ones, including one (PROSE: White Darkness [+]Loading...["White Darkness (novel)"]) later identified by the Seventh Doctor as Cthulhu. (PROSE: All-Consuming Fire [+]Loading...["All-Consuming Fire (novel)"]) Hermes suggested that the gods of Haiti were Immortals. (PROSE: Deadly Reunion [+]Loading...["Deadly Reunion (novel)"])
Faction Paradox loa
- Main article: The Spirits
Faction Paradox adopted the concept of loa to refer to the entities they called upon in most of their temporal rituals, attempting to communicate with them and "prime" them. (PROSE: "Loa" [+]Part of The Book of the War, Loading...{"namedep":"Loa","1":"The Book of the War (novel)"}) Some sources had the Faction usually refer to these beings as simply "spirits" or indeed "the Spirits". (AUDIO: The Eleven Day Empire [+]Loading...["The Eleven Day Empire (audio story)"])
Either way, the Faction viewed these loa or spirits as emergent processes within the structure of time itself, who were in some sense alive, (PROSE: "Loa" [+]Part of The Book of the War, Loading...{"namedep":"Loa","1":"The Book of the War (novel)"}) as contrasted with the Gallifreyan Great Houses' conventional view that the laws and processes of time were mere mathematical equations. (PROSE: The Ancestor Cell [+]Loading...["The Ancestor Cell (novel)"], "Loa" [+]Part of The Book of the War, Loading...{"namedep":"Loa","1":"The Book of the War (novel)"}, Weapons Grade Snake Oil [+]Loading...["Weapons Grade Snake Oil (novel)"]) For example, when Mother Tarra invoked the loa among a coven of young Gallifreyans, Kellen preferred to refer to them as equations. (PROSE: The Ancestor Cell [+]Loading...["The Ancestor Cell (novel)"])
How literally the Faction took its belief in the sentience of these spirits was a matter of some debate. (PROSE: "Loa" [+]Part of The Book of the War, Loading...{"namedep":"Loa","1":"The Book of the War (novel)"}) One source gave their view as substantially metaphorical: if one defined history as an ever-changing pattern, then, just as shapes can be seen in clouds in the sky, the loa could be seen in time. (PROSE: Weapons Grade Snake Oil [+]Loading...["Weapons Grade Snake Oil (novel)"]) Also to the credit of the hypothesis that the loa were a metaphor was the fact that some Faction elders, such as Godparent Morlock, had been known to "invent loa out of thin air whenever necessary".
However, The Book of the War tilted towards acknowledging the existence of these entities, reasoning that withGodfathers "duty-bound to research alter-time", there may be "little difference between them devising a new loa and a less exotic scientist creating a new chemical formula". Thus, it might very well be an entirely sensible presentation of events to assert as the Faction did that "the processes of time [were] entities" with "no tangible presence in the universe" but the ability to "protect, beguile, curse and possess anybody who tries to cross their boundaries", meaning that Time was "occupied, even guarded, by loa". (PROSE: "Loa" [+]Part of The Book of the War, Loading...{"namedep":"Loa","1":"The Book of the War (novel)"}) Indeed, many accounts documented powerful beings known as the Guardians, who were distinct from the Time Lords, guarded "the equilibrium of time itself", (TV: The Ribos Operation [+]Loading...["The Ribos Operation (TV story)"]) and found taking on physical forms to be a stifling imposition. (AUDIO: The Destroyer of Delights [+]Loading...["The Destroyer of Delights (audio story)"])
Even if the Houses claim that the processes of time are mere phenomena, those phenomena are so complex that there's no reason they shouldn't have a will of their own, taking on a form of sentience just as any complex system might do. There are parts of the Spiral Politic where the structure of history is made up of trillions upon trillions of pieces of information, vastly more than the typical human brain. Indeed, if history could be viewed from the correct angle, how does anybody know that there wouldn’t appear to be 'organisms' encoded in its mass? If that's even remotely true, and history evolves, then it'd certainly explain how the Houses can now be at War even though they specifically designed history to make War impossible.
Godmother Kumo wrote on the Faction's practices of loa evocation for The Book of the Truce, comparing stage-hypnosis to the Faction's use of ritual to appease, communicate, and bargain with the loa: as long as the volunteer was playing along (whether for fun, to avoid embarrassment, out of a sense of duty, or due to genuine hypnosis), the task would be performed, and the desired action would indeed result. (PROSE: Weapons Grade Snake Oil [+]Loading...["Weapons Grade Snake Oil (novel)"]) Due to her highly Christian upbringing, Cousin Justine sometimes found it difficult to remember that the Spirits should be talked to rather than prayed to. (AUDIO: The Eleven Day Empire [+]Loading...["The Eleven Day Empire (audio story)"])
Specific instances
Particular loa protected the Eleven-Day Empire, (AUDIO: The Eleven Day Empire [+]Loading...["The Eleven Day Empire (audio story)"]) with The Book of the War suggesting that they were initially among the loa which arose around the "real" London. (PROSE: The Book of the War [+]Loading...["The Book of the War (novel)"])
Father Christèmas created a loa to protect Bankside by conducting an elaborate ritual involving the Chance Coteries. (PROSE: Weapons Grade Snake Oil [+]Loading...["Weapons Grade Snake Oil (novel)"])
Godfather Avatar was himself a loa and was capable of riding a human psyche. (PROSE: Of the City of the Saved... [+]Loading...["Of the City of the Saved... (novel)"])
Conflation with Swimmers
Certain Swimmers, such as Spinning Jenny, Baron Samedi, and Maman Brigitte, were considered loa by Elizabeth Howkins and Cousin Isabella. These Swimmers were said to contain every soul they have ever devoured inside, slaved to the Loa's will. One such Swimmer, Spinning Jenny, was created by a magic ritual and the sacrifice of humans. (PROSE: Spinning Jenny [+]Loading...["Spinning Jenny (novel)"]) The Book of the War, on the other hand, discussed Swimmers and loa separately and in quite different terms. (PROSE: The Book of the War [+]Loading...["The Book of the War (novel)"])
Remote loa
At some point, Faction Paradox noticed that the cultural role of celebrities and mascots in mass-media cultures seemed like an extension of the basic idea of loa, in that they could be viewed by transmissions but remained apart from people and they could become the face of their ideas. On the human colony world Ordifica, the Faction fully infiltrated the media-obsessed culture within a couple years to create loa in the medianet, transforming its people into a new culture, the Remote, hoping that the Remote would blossom into "loa-driven soldiers who'd bring down the whole High Council of Time Lords one day".
Although the project did not work out as the Remote's rapid cultural evolution made them lose knowledge of time travel and the Faction itself, (PROSE: "Definitions" [+]Part of Interference - Book One, Loading...{"namedep":"Definitions","1":"Interference - Book One (novel)"}) they carried on believing in loa, with their records of the Faction's already-untrustworthy legends becoming increasingly garbled. They referred to the powers that Rassilon barred from entering N-Space as "the greater loa", with Nathaniel Guest mistakenly believing the Cold to be one of them; "Indestructible, Ms Jones? You Don’t Know the Meaning of the Word" [+]Part of Interference - Book Two, Loading...{"namedep":"Indestructible, Ms Jones? You Don’t Know the Meaning of the Word","1":"Interference - Book Two (novel)"}) indeed, their dramatisation of the Yssgaroth breaking into N-Space saw Rassilon's Engineer referring to the true Yssgaroth on the "other side" as loa, despite Rassilon's protests that the Great Vampires they were fighting were obviously not spirits themselves. (PROSE: '"Faster than the Speed of Dark" [+]Part of Interference - Book One, Loading...{"namedep":"Faster than the Speed of Dark","1":"Interference - Book One (novel)"})
Other cultures
Dreekan voodoo had its own deities including Treeka'dwra, a messianic beast-god. (PROSE: Storm Harvest [+]Loading...["Storm Harvest (novel)"])
