“Oh I am altered now for good altered now for good
Shield these eyes no more shield these eyes no more”
–Vienna Teng, “Landsailor”
Have you heard of Moral Foundations Theory? It posits that people have 5 (or maybe 6) bases for moral intuition, the relative strength of which vary from person to person. These Foundations are Care, Fairness, Loyalty (to a group), Authority, Sanctity (I’d say “Purity” is a better word), and maybe Liberty. There’s:
Grizha the Rat of Caring
Chest the Root of Fairness
Chist the Light of Purity
Vyar the Beasts of Loyalty
Vod the Stream of Authority
and Svob who never shows up to meetings.
What if our alien space gods were from 6 different factions, and using the Earth as a way to prove points to each other? Then we would have a situation like the Odyssey, where people are chosen by the gods are representing certain ideals, and then left to duke it out? This guy’s the Hero of Care, and this guy’s the Hero of Authority. What do they have to say to each other? (BIFF BAM POW!)
Grizha’s champion: The Earthbreaker
Grizha’s gift: The Belt of Izanami (but it turns out you can’t please everyone)
Chest’s champion: The Lawbender
Chest’s gift: The Coin of Ma’at (there are lots of hidden costs)
Chist’s champion: The Lightbringer
Chist’s gift: The Manichean Glass (what is the binary obscuring?)
Vyar’s champions: The Cloudraker
Vyar’s gift: The Shibboleth Collar (what do you do with people who aren’t in your tribe?)
Vod’s champion: The Worldmaker
Vod’s gift: Scyld’s Rings (having slaves isn’t great)
Svob’s champion: Landsailor
Svob’s gift: Aka’s Cloak (what good are you when you’re far away?)
The protagonist would be a person who was made the Hero of X, but on further consideration, thinks that X isn’t always the right way to go. Oh man, it’s the deconstruction of super heroes I’ve been waiting for!
This idea is dedicated to Lew Delport (aka Viergacht) who’s working on the idea with me.