Ikta

After Lynux created the Iktyfs, he hid. For many, many years he was alone, but it wasn't like he was used to having company. At first, he struggled to understand mortality and almost died. He, 1. Almost drowned in a river 2. Attempted to eat many inedible things in the search for how to stop feeling ill (such as tree bark, dirt, rocks, etc.) Eventually, though, he figured out what was edible and inedible ... somehow. And somehow indeed, somehow he lived for many, many years in solitude, watching the Iktyfs build societies and culture, supporting each other's survival, and picked up their language over a long, long time. What caught his attention, though, was the formation of hierarchies-- he noticed that, over all the societies he observed, one key person, or a small select group of people would supervise others or tell them what to do. He was intrigued by this, and remembered his previous failure to dethrone God. Perhaps it could fill the same desire, just in a different form, he thought.

But one day Lynux heard a song through the brush. An adult Iktyf, sitting on a building's steps with a stringed instrument, singing a song with a tragic voice. The Iktyf heard him come closer, and turned around.

He said nothing, but his eyes stared into theirs. The Iktyf showed an immediately affectionate nature, introducing themself as Keulaynloeeuje. Lynux was then unnamed, but Keulaynloeeuje gave him his name from the now archaic word for 'refugee.' They took him into the small city, homing him, giving him what sustenance they had, and trading a tailor to get him new clothing. He was interested by the transaction. Keulaynloeeuje was his source of education, the person who gave him a name, his caretaker and his first acquaintance. Keulaynloeeuje helped him understand what he was feeling at any given moment, and offered him kindness, even if he didn't smile at them. Lynux would help Keulaynloeeuje in return, as they learned from them to do with others. Lynux owes a lot to Keulaynloeeuje.

When he had the words to describe his origin, word spread among them and he was revered for, “All he’d done for them.” this is when he started thinking about what to do with his opportunities; he remembered his goal to dethrone God which he had failed to do. The second best thing to that was ruling over the people, so he suggested an autocratic government over their current method of rule (which was who produced the most crops) and after a long while of proving himself capable of managing the people through … managing them, and their reverence, they made him sovereign.

Following his coronation, he would slowly build up

After Lynux created Iktyfs, they waited until they deemed the people intelligent enough, and came to the people after staying hidden for so long, using their position to be worshipped as "God." There are, of course, people with different beliefs, but it’s the most dominant belief system/religion on the entire planet of Icta. How did they feel about being sent to die by God? Well, not happy for sure. But was there anything they could do? Find a purpose for their skills, which meant ruling over the people as "God," as he should've been. He suggested a kingdom be built, and the people praised his idea and took to work. He appointed himself (to the acceptence of the people) as the theocratic god and appointed people below them to assist in anything he needed assistance with. They concluded being exposed to danger so openly wasn't the greatest idea, so he faked his death. The religion obviously stayed flowing, maybe even more so than it had been before. Lynux took absolute power in secret and has been its true dictator since, while the people believed he had really died, and they believed his subordinates had become the managers of the kingdom in his place. The titular royals get orders from Lynux, although they believe the person telling them to act was a person closest to them who's whereabouts they believe are purposefully kept hidden for privacy and safety. This concept is a little convoluted so here's a visualization:

Lynux has a very deep oath to keep this kingdom/nation standing for ambiguous reasons. It's partly selfish, thinking he deserves to be the rightful ruler of it and will do anything to keep his position (and I mean anything, as you'll see) and ensuring loyalties regularly, trying to make sure this kindgom wont fall apart like his divinity did from one mistake. (He is not extremely perfect at this, to note ... He just covers his tracks very well when things go south.) He keeps himself justified by having the sentiment that he's doing this for everyone in the kingdom, however slightly knowing it's not the case, and not caring. He mostly tries to ignore any emotion that came with mortality, and wants to return to godhood where he didn't have such a thing. The funny personality isn't all fake, it's a good stress reliever after working all day, but mostly he's trying to force the allegience to trust him by not seeming like a threat sometimes. He is physically feeble, but has a strong suit with weapons and the like.

The kingdom is considered a sacrosanct spot because it's where he "died" and religious people tend to gather there (so if someone was born there, they are probably religious.) The religion continues to spread more because of the abundance of trade within the country. It's a wealthy place and has exports of high value. Lynux dislikes working with finances and such, but understands it well because he had to, however Lokus handles finances as the treasurer.

Lokus is the treasurer of the allegiance. Their actual name is Iko (given the name Lokus by Lynux to exert influence upon joining the allegience.) They were a high performer in mathematics, and lived in a small, more rural area with their parents until they were requested to live and work in the main kingdom to join Adsum Absconditus, a hidden allegiance only people trusted by Lynux are invited to join. They were the first in the group, joining at about 24 years old ... Lokus wasn't really that religious, but at least believed Lynux was god. Lokus isn't necessarily religious at all anymore. Lokus was raised around good influences and has a nice and passive personality, trying to respect others as much as they can and try to be a good person all the time (which makes negative emotions like anger and hate not unbeknownst to them but just quite frightening to work out because they don't want to wish ill will on anyone because they want to be a good person.) They were taught to speak their mind when necessary, which goes against their ideals a little bit ("Will this harm our relationship if I talk about it? Would that make me a bad person?") so they have to shut their mind out when they truly know its necessary to speak up about something. They aren't weak though, and are good at physical labor due to living in a farm. Them and Lynux would often have deep conversations between them when they were the only people in the allegience, so others tend to notice a slight connection that goes a little bit deeper than surface level acquaintances, making any negative emotions toward him a bit frustrating for many reasons (see prev.)

Lokus started to grow a bit suspicious of Lynux, seeing | to which Lynux decided that he needed to test Lokus's loyalty to the allegience if he was really going to have them in the group. If Lokus failed this test, they would be killed for knowing too much.

Around this time, Lynux lost a military general with subpar candidates for the job, so knowing that Lokus was skilled in physical labor, they made them take up the role, promising to let them out of the job when a new candidate was ready or found. This made Lokus more accustomed to violence and made the shared assasssin job a bit easier, but being the general for the seemingly few years they were came with PTSD and inner anger that they have to hold back and struggle against to stay passive. This is not helped by what is about to happen. Lynux is allied with a struggling nation, which the nation they’re allied with (which Lokus’s parents had moved to shortly after Lokus had gone to the kingdom) had citizens held hostage by the other nation Lynux’s military was fighting. So their parents were held hostage, and Lynux hadn’t planned to interfere since they’d be released anyway if they defeated the other nation.

There, all the other captives were released, and Lokus reunited with their parents. It's important I provide the fact that the allegience follows a strict set of rules, which include heavily limited contact with the outside world outside of the Palace the allegience resides in to avoid spilling the secret and harming Lynux's sovereign power ... if his power was ever to be greatly threatened, he would execute the person who caused it. This makes Lynux show up to the reunion between Lokus and their parents, revealing the secret to their parents by showing himself to them on purpose. Their parents sit stunned and shocked while Lynux speaks to Lokus. Lynux pulls out a gun and holds Lokus to gunpoint, and as a testament to their loyalty (and heavy suspicions that Lokus would reveal everything he'd been trying to keep secret) Lynux (still holding them at gunpoint) gives them a (seperate) gun, and asked them to to either save their parents but in turn Lynux would kill everyone on the planet, or save everyone on the planet but Lokus kill their parents themselves. Lokus, caught between the weight of their decisions and extreme stress, chose to kill their parents. And with extreme reluctance and regret, Lokus shoots their parents dead.

(It's important I say that Lynux does not have his divine powers anymore, and killing everyone on earth would not be possible. He's bluffing here; if Lokus chose to not kill their parents, he would've just shot them and their parents to death and moved on.)

Lokus is traumatized by this and in shambles after this. They can't leave this place. They have no immediate friends or family left. Lynux tells them something like,"Hey so... this is why you had to do that, I'm really sorry do you want like a hug or something I'll do whatever it takes to make you feel better" obviously bullshitting but Lokus doesn't realize and since they have nowhere and noone else to go to (besides Luns, which they werent really close with at all at this time) they confide in them. Lokus has so much anger in them from this incident (mainly directed at Lynux) that they're simultaneously trying to justify what he coerced them into doing, and also fighting that idea. It's mental dissonance to them, and doesn't help with the anger they have to fight back to stay calm around others at times.

Lokus develops a greater taste for alchohol for the first time around this period. And so does Luns, because they can't handle the extreme guilt and remorse of killing other people, like Lokus. They attempt to emotionally reserve themselves intentionally to try and disconnect from the guilt and believe its right, in the name of god and everything ... but they find themselves disconnecting from their religion, and not feeling the protection of Lynux/God like they used to; not feeling the comfort or the warmth from it anymore and feeling exposed to the effects of their family and the danger of other people and even Lynux.. This startles them once they realize, and the guilt becomes overwhelming. They risk the chance, spilling their feelings to Lokus one afternoon in Lokus's room. From that point on, Lokus tries to help Luns through everything. It takes a while for Luns to get comfortable telling Lokus everything, but they start to equally confide in each other more over time, Lokus talking through things as well. Things aren't easy, and sometimes talking through things leads to conflicts between them. But they have nowhere else to go, so it usually ends up resolving. From Lokus, Luns learned what it was like to have someone actually care for you in a deeper way than a fleeting friendship, and how to work out what they were feeling. From Luns, Lokus learned what it was like to know someone with a vastly different life and perspective than them, and how to help others in genuine, meaningful ways. Lynux gets suspicious of their absence during some nights, and Luns grows to despise their job over time.

To introduce the next Allegience member, Luns, we must introduce Ikfinsj. Ikfinsj is a high priest in the Northern region of Ksij-En, in the capital of Filin. Coming from a middle-class pedigree whom pass down priesthood, they grew up in a church in the Northern region & capital of Ksij-en, notably alongside Luns-- a fellow church congregant and the future publicist of the Allegience-- with a mixed relationship: both having opposing personalities made the two only go as far as acquaintances, however Ikfinsj admired Luns's writing and smarts, constantly praising them when possible, especially if they needed reccomendation into a program, Ikfinsj being their senior of a few years would try to help them get in. Ikfinsj liked Luns's work because of their own talent for writing, except Ikfinsj presents their work for a sermon, so it could never be as personal as Luns's work. Ikfinsj did try to write poetry at some point, but Luns studied for so many years as a child and hitherto that Ikfinsj declared defeat after only a few tries, concluding eventually that they would likely never be able to write anything like Luns. Ikfinsj likes presenting for an audience though, being as gregarious as they are, people find them easy to talk to and they have a lot of friends, as can be seen by their countless Kiska (ornaments on an Iktyf's ears that display their various relationships' and friendships' status, most heavily practiced by northerners in the capital.) The only downside to being so sociable with the others is that Ikfinsj finds their relationships are only surface-level. They never really had deep friendships. But Lynux entering their life would change everything.

That one fateful day would eventually come, when Ikfinsj recieved a letter in the mail. It was signed from the current ruler of the country, and Ikfinsj was obviously shocked. They were asking Ikfinsj to start a chain of letters, being because the government wanted Ikfinsj to publicly declare various polemics that the government would supervise and provide. Ikfinsj immediately sent back a letter agreeing, but soon after, they realized that the reasoning for making them read these speeches publically was not specified, which was odd. As they kept exchanging letters, the "current ruler" supervising the speeches made a mistake: They had accidentally used the Iktjkis's (their language) pronoun "Kajij" when reffering to themself, which was an immediate red flag, because only God was referred to by Kajij. Ikfinsj obviously questioned them about this, and the "ruler" revealed that they weren't the ruler of the country, but someone with high political power (secretly Lynux.) Ikfinsj was dumbfounded, and from then on obsessively wrote to them, trying to figure out who it was at the cost of late nights and a messy room. Some congregants would say they only saw Ikfinsj during their usual sermons, as well as unusually sudden political speeches, but not once did they leave their room to do anything in their free time around others anymore, and they took dinner to their room night after night. The church members got worried.

Ikfinsj enjoyed the challenge, as much as they agonized over every detail. Lynux, too, enjoyed it thoroughly, and went out of his way many, many times to tease Ikfinsj in their letters. One day, Lynux made one decision that would change their relationship forever, just to see what Ikfinsj would do-- at exactly 2:00 am on a rainy night, they would both meet in the empty church, and Lynux would finally tell Ikfinsj it was him. And they did ... Ikfinsj was left in a state of shock, and at first did not believe that he was actually the person behind the letters, nonetheless ruler of Ksij-en, nonetheless God-- but it was true. God was not dead, and he was Sovereign. But why would Lynux tell Ikfinsj this, and sacrifice everything that his greatest motivating fear pushed him to hide and even kill for?

When Ikfinsj learned that Lynux was Sovereign, they quickly pieced together that the unnamed organization with communication restrictions was under his jurisdiction. This came with their discovery of several backended political moves by Lynux (of which Lynux never expected to be discovered) that they did not

Lynux saw something in Ikfinsj. Something was very special about them, the way that they didn't completely revere him, but rather challenged him in their devotedness. They questioned him. And Lynux felt such an intense adrenaline that he very much liked, just by interacting and being around them... He felt, indeed, that he could go down to Ikfinsj's level and stand up again just fine. It felt like, for the first time in thousands of years, he had an equal match on Ikta. Perhaps it's the crazy things people do in the blurred frenzy of obsession and infatuation that contradict everything they've ever done. It's in Ikfinsj that Lynux finds the only emotions he allows himself to feel. Since Keulaynloeeuje's demise, he has made sure he feels nothing that would interfere with objective work. But Ikfinsj is Lynux's modern Keulaynloeeuje and more. Ikfinsj is everything Lynux could ever want in an acquaintance, but they began to tilt past a bit more than acquaintances, even past friends.

^ Ikfinsj (left) and Lynux (right), Ikfinsj is presenting incense (a valued import to Ksij-en from their commercial ally Bj-en) to him as a religious offering; Lynux is reaching out to the both the incense and Ikfinsj themselves, getting down to Ikfinsj's level in a vulnerable manner.

Luns was very religious, growing up in a household centered around religion, and it was engrained in them from a young age. They went to the church with their parents for a few years until their parents left them to be raised in the Northern Church by its inhabitants; their parents justifying themselves with a prophecy they claimed to have both seen in their dreams. There, they were fed and raised by the congregants, later working as a part-time librarian for many years, reading books, bird watching and writing a lot of poetry. They published their works to the response of a small, dedicated fanbase who found them very talented. They grew up notably alongside Ikfinsj, a young worshipper only a few years older than them who came from a long lineage of priests. They looked up to Ikfinsj, learning how to practice faith by doing what they did-- unfortunately, Luns and Ikfinsj had opposing personalities: Luns being introverted, straightforward and book-smart, and Ikfinsj being sociable, gregarious and charismatic. Thus, they never really became proper friends, since Luns found them a bit obnoxious. Ikfinsj enjoyed their company, but realized this, and didn't bother socializing with them much, however still praising Luns for their smarts upfront & elsewhere. Them praising Luns would lead to Luns being invited to the Allegience; since Ikfinsj knew the Sovereign Lynux (why and how so explained in the story summary) they suggested Luns as an excellent writer to Lynux, who was looking for a talented one for an important government job, and also explained that they'd been involved in some sort of prophetic dream by account of their parents. Lynux concluded they were fit for the job, and Luns was drafted into the allegience as the writer for goverment publications. Luns's writings became more popular after they announced they had to retire publishing personal works (due to Lynux's orders.)They were nicknamed Luns by Lynux to enforce his authority, their actual name is Filyn.

^ Luns

At being drafted into the Allegience, Luns was completely awe-some of Lynux before them. They were extremely obedient and praiseful, glad to be even in the same palace as him, following his every order. The Palace itself was also something extraordinary to them, being more regal than any building they'd ever been in, even growing up in the rich Northern region, home to the capital of the country (Ksij-en) and the grand Palace itself. It would continue like this for a few years, until Luns began to get to know Lokus. They always felt something that drew them to Lokus ever since joining the Allegience, and didn't know what it was until they started talking. Luns realized over time that they were falling in love with Lokus, and after many embarrassing moments and an unexpected reciprocation, later the two became spouses.

At one point, after the decade+ that Luns and Locus have spent in the allegience (they are now in their early 30s, were drafted in their early 20s) Locus decides to tell Luns about their idea to kill Lynux. Before confiding in Locus, Luns sometimes they had no option but to confide in Lynux, making them sympathize subconciously at times; Luns partly feels like it would be a mistake to get rid of Lynux because of their competency. This makes Luns aversed to the idea at first, but their growing spite for their job and the gradual dissolve of their devoutly religious lens through which they viewed life, they eventually told Locus they could do what they wanted, not outright saying, "Sure, I would love to kill god!" because it would feel awful and violent. Locus has grown more accustomed to the violence over time, but Luns has grown more disgusted towards it over time.

(From here on out, the story is relatively unclear and is still subject to change :) )

It's important I note that the following sentence has mentions of "everyone" and "someone" which is referring to the allegience, and I refer to them this way because I plan to have more characters in the allegience besides Luns and Locus in the future. If this is the case and more members are made, that means Luns and Locus spread the message to the others.

This all coalesces eventually to everyone in Adsum Absconditus setting up the planned murder of God. They are sick of the atrocities and decide to end the cause of everything. They don't know what he's capable of (not knowing he's mortal) and Lynux catches on to a little bit of this plan, but doesn't end up figuring it out due to a heavy workload he already has. Locus says they want to talk with them about something privately. In the room, they talk, and Locus finally does lecture them about how they feel. Lynux responds by threatening Locus and injuring them with a weapon from the holster under his gown (since they were extremely suspicious before even entering), but is stopped by someone before they could do anything serious. Everyone in the allegiance comes out of hiding armed, and in order to prevent Lynux from getting away, they amputate his right wing with a sharp weapon. Everyone listed their grievances with him, and he made it clear he had no intention to change the way things were, since his methods were ideal to him.

They take him, in pain, out to the large podium in front of the Palace, and ask all citizens of the kingdom to gather. (It’s also worth noting that people in high positions of power have special insignias for their roles. For the allegiance, they have the highest ranking insignia, so they are respected the moment this insignia is seen without regard for past impressions.) Luns is the one who announces everything he’s done and everything that he was behind to the public. They let Lynux speak for himself and threaten to shoot if he lies, to which he tries to bend the rule by not lying about things everyone knows, but covering up the truth that everyone else doesn't know, and justifying himself because, "He was doing it to keep the keep the kingdom from collapsing." He also calls the allegience membres by their real names for the first time as they decide his fate. This makes it harder for the members to kill them.

And this is where the story can take two routes depending on my decision of how this story ends. In one end, they successfully kill Lynux and the kingdom is left in a state of confusion on what to do next, who to rule the kingdom, if financial situations will change, etc. Now, I'm not aversed to that route entirely, but it ends too quickly to make me satisfied. That being said, I'll describe what happens in the 2nd end because it'll probably be where I go with this.

Lynux ends up finding a weapon of some kind and taking back his authority over the others, threatening that they don't know what he can do since he is a god (he's lying, as I've mentioned, he can't actually do anything ...) something happens and the kingdom enthusiastically accepts him back as a ruler, making Lynux more vain than he already was, ignoring any past notion he had about possibly dying in a position of power. He becomes a bit more reckless now that he's not hidden anymore, and his conceit grows by the day.

And that's about all I have for now! Hopefully that made even a bit of sense, lol.

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