One (The Book of the War)
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Onefor other, similarly-named pages.
Several parts of The Book of the War and the Book of Lies attached significance to the moniker or descriptor "One" as something relating to the nature of the enemy during the War in Heaven.
The name was used by a renegade Investigator previously loyal to the Celestis, (PROSE: The Taking of Planet 5 [+]Loading...["The Taking of Planet 5 (novel)"]) but may also have been connected to "Mother", the intelligence within the caldera's database who was the progenitor of the timeships. (PROSE: "Appendix IV: Notes on the Rivera Manuscript" [+]Part of The Book of the War, Loading...{"namedep":"Appendix IV: Notes on the Rivera Manuscript","1":"The Book of the War (novel)"}, PROSE: "Appendix III: Carmen Yeh's "Fantastical Travels in an Infinite Universe"" [+]Part of The Book of the War, Loading...{"namedep":"Appendix III: Carmen Yeh's \"Fantastical Travels in an Infinite Universe\"","1":"The Book of the War (novel)"})
Instances[[edit] | [edit source]]
In The Book of the War[[edit] | [edit source]]
After President Umbaste opened his biodata to the caldera, he was launched into a year-long fugue state as his mind wandered the metastructure of history. When he eventually returned, all he could say was a single word, over and over; when stripped of its time-active connotations, the word could be translated to the English language as "One". After several days of this, he killed himself. (PROSE: "Academician Umbaste" [+]Part of The Book of the War, Loading...{"namedep":"Academician Umbaste","1":"The Book of the War (novel)"}) However, the secret minutes of House Dvora suggested there was more to his death. (AUDIO: A Labyrinth of Histories [+]Loading...["A Labyrinth of Histories (audio story)"])
The Rivera Manuscript described a Great House renegade's imprisonment by mysterious forces. Commentary on the Manuscript in The Book of the War suggested that the renegade "had fallen into the hands of the enemy, already studying the Homeworld's weaknesses long before the War’s outbreak". These enemy representatives were never directly described. Much of the manuscript concerned a praxis-induced mental journey undertaken by the renegade and his interrogator.
One scene, set on the Homeworld, referred to a humanoid form, a non-carbon presence, and something the renegade called "the first, the many, and the indivisible" (which "may have been a bad translation"), with someone, presumably the renegade, asking: "why does it hate us?". There seemed to be difficulty translating a later section of the Manuscript into English, but some sections were legible: an interpolation reading "why does it hate us?" and, later, an extended conversation including the renegade, the interrogator, and perhaps other voices. (PROSE: "Appendix IV: Notes on the Rivera Manuscript" [+]Part of The Book of the War, Loading...{"namedep":"Appendix IV: Notes on the Rivera Manuscript","1":"The Book of the War (novel)"})
Is that what you're planning / It might be / It still could be / Remember / Inside the skin of the sun / It's an option / It wouldn't work / What if someone tried it / What if you were called to account / It's an option / Always an option / You keep the sun / In a bottle / You want to know what happens if you lose control / Don't you?
The Book's commentary also noted that the renegade’s physical captors were probably "mere proxies", rather than the Enemy itself being present. It made note of the fact that One was "a title known to be taken by the head of the Celestis's Investigators", but proposed that this was likely a coincidence because "the Celestis [weren't] mentioned anywhere else in the text". (PROSE: "Appendix IV: Notes on the Rivera Manuscript" [+]Part of The Book of the War, Loading...{"namedep":"Appendix IV: Notes on the Rivera Manuscript","1":"The Book of the War (novel)"}) Notably, another account showed that Investigator One went rogue during the War following the fall of Mictlan, after a "brush with death" at the hands of the Time Lords which had left him still humanoid, but somewhat less than real; "his features were blurred, like an unfocused photograph of a man". (PROSE: The Taking of Planet 5 [+]Loading...["The Taking of Planet 5 (novel)"])
In Fantastical Travels in an Infinite Universe[[edit] | [edit source]]
Carmen Yeh's Fantastical Travels in an Infinite Universe contained an account, quoted as an appendix to The Book of the War, of a momentous interview between Compassion and the War King during which the two discussed their respective views on the identity of the enemy, and brokered an uneasy alliance. When one of the War King's advisors asked what "assurance" she could give of the safety of the breeding pair of pilots she demanded as payment for joining the War, she willfully misinterpreted it as a request for an assurance of the reality of the threat they all faced. Answering that imaginary question, she tapped the golden circlet the advisor was wearing, (PROSE: "Appendix III: Carmen Yeh's "Fantastical Travels in an Infinite Universe"" [+]Part of The Book of the War, Loading...{"namedep":"Appendix III: Carmen Yeh's \"Fantastical Travels in an Infinite Universe\"","1":"The Book of the War (novel)"}) used to link one's mind into the Matrix, (TV: The Invasion of Time [+]Loading...["The Invasion of Time (TV story)"]) and said: "what do you have for assurance? I can answer that one quite easily. As a matter of fact, I think you can answer it yourself quite easily. You know where to look. As to what you'll find there… one thing. Just one". (PROSE: "Appendix III: Carmen Yeh's "Fantastical Travels in an Infinite Universe"" [+]Part of The Book of the War, Loading...{"namedep":"Appendix III: Carmen Yeh's \"Fantastical Travels in an Infinite Universe\"","1":"The Book of the War (novel)"})
Other accounts connected to the War suggested that there existed a powerful mind within the Great Houses' grand computer which had birthed the timeships, and was believed by some to have predated the Pilots, creating the Homeworld's humanoid race to fake an origin for itself. (PROSE: Dead Romance [+]Loading...["Dead Romance (novel)"], Toy Story [+]Loading...["Toy Story (short story)"])
In the Book of Lies[[edit] | [edit source]]
An aphorism of the Enemy contained in the Book of Lies read, "One does not love or hate: One is not a person nor a gestalt." (PROSE: Pre-narrative Briefings [+]Loading...["Pre-narrative Briefings (short story)"])
