-- ReginaldGusto - 08 Nov 2015

On a cold november day like any other in Washington DC, the world changed. The Secret Service arrested Norman Cayce, a private contractor CPA in the retainer of Senator Clark Maxwoll of Texas. Mr. Cayce took offense at some comments made by the Senator, and attacked him in a blind rage. Senator Maxwoll was already speaking to the Press when something unthinkable happened. In an instant, the ground opened up, swallowing the Capitol building, the Washington Monument, and everything in between. Out of the chasm crawled the creature now known in popular culture as “Balder,” a 30-story Humanoid composed entirely of magma. He rose out of the pit, stood up straight, roared, and blasted everything he could see with streams of radioactive lava.

“How do we know it was Norman Cayce who erupted?
WE don’t. I do.
You might be surprised to hear how young I am. I’m 37. I work as a desk drone at a city hall in a dusty West Texas town, drawing maps on a computer for people who need them. I do my work, I get paid, I say hello to people as I pass them in the hall. I try to make everyone feel like a Human being. I listen to citizens when they call or come in. I help them get where they’re going. I help them get what they want.
But I’m not normal. I grew up with a spiritual life that, while Christian on the outside, was decidedly new age metaphor at its core. I believed in the collective unconscious, the “Creative Stream.” I’ve always been imbalanced, temperamental, easily angered. I’ve always had a vivid imagination, and talked to myself as if I were a committee of people. I used to be very Christian, and regularly talked to God. I prayed boldly, and my prayers were answered. I learned to fight from my mother. Not fist fight, or wrestle, but fight, verbally, emotionally. I learned how to go for the throat with my words, my body language, my raw intent. I learned how to pay attention to the weaknesses of others. Mostly, I turned that instinct to protection of others, to protect and bolster their weak sides, but if I felt insulted, I cut loose. It used to be said that when mother and I fought, we would level Tokyo. Our fights were epic, and we were furious creatures.
But I was always plagued with doubts. The voices in my head second-guessed me at all turns, questioning me, demanding explanations, and they were never good enough. I was never good enough. I kept suicide as an option, always ready to go, and plans upon plans upon plans of how to do it, until the desire to end myself felt rational.
And then, one day, walking through the grocery store, plagued by thoughts of my own inadequacy and impending suicide, suppressing all outward sign of emotional distress in this public place, I fought to regain some control of my emotions. Most of my readers understand what this battle is like, how difficult it is, but some will not. Wrestling your emotions is wrestling with God. As I tried to parse through the emotions, I had a realization:
It wasn’t me.
I was angry because I had just lost my wife to cancer, and would have to go in to work the next day and organize numbers for an unapologetic monster of a Human being who would readily consent to my death and had fairly openly consented to my wife’s death. Except that none of that was true. My day had been smooth, easy, my boss liked me, everyone had smiled today, and my wife now waited at home for me.
The realization freed me, some how.
That night I dreamed of chaos: protests in the streets, politicians debating, war in the Middle East, unrest in China, school shootings, corruption, unrepentant corporations, all the bogeymen of our time, and I just wanted to explode. I wanted to give my life to change it. If my chest had been a cannon, as Melville said, I would have shot my heart at the Earth.
And then, a calming, kind, powerful voice from behind me.
“Good. Now open the gates.”
And then I woke up.
That day I called in sick. I drove out to an old range I used to go to when I wanted to get some shooting practice in. It was closed down now, but the owner let me hike the area. It was the only place in a hundred miles of this flat wasteland that actually had a hill. I hiked up to the top.
The voice from before said, “Just feel.”
I closed my eyes.
It would be impossible for me to tell you about the exchange that happened next. Suffice to say, I spent hours reconnecting. With the Universe, with myself, it doesn’t matter. I reconnected with Mother. Not my temporal mother, who used to turn browbeating into an art form, but something much more primal, universal, timeless. I felt warm. I felt loved. I felt safe.
And then I felt Norman.
“Open the gates, child.”
He suffered.
I felt his rage. Somehow, I don’t know how, I knew I could not get angry along with him. If I got caught up in his emotional state, I would be sucked in. I would rage impotently on this hill and accomplish nothing. That wasn’t what I wanted.
I wanted t free Norman. I wanted to loose his soul, let him be who he needed to be.
And so, calling on the new-age training of my younger years, I took a deep breath through the nose and exhaled through the mouth. I breathed like this for several minutes, assaulted from the outside by Norman’s anger, his desperation, his shame, and his fear. One by one, I lit up my chakras. I rose up into the Yoga mountain-stance, and lunged down into the Hero stance, arms reaching to the heavens. My heart pounded in my head, my muscles screamed, and I snarled.
As they led Norman away in handcuffs, I brought my hands down to my chest, and as if pulling open a curtain in front myself, I tore reality. I ripped with all my might, thrusting my hands out to either side, and roared a horrible, unearthly roar that shook the earth. In that moment, Balder was released.
And so was I.”

—Nibiru Yog Sothoth.

The aftermath:

In the year or so following Balder’s eruption, there were government committees formed, task forces assigned, reports written, religious proclamations issued, even laws passed, but no one really knew anything. Then, there were other eruptions, thankfully smaller and less damaging than Balder’s. It also became readily apparent that there were Humans at the center of them. The first few were dealt with violently, of which about half were killed and the other half remain wanted to this day for the violence they employed to protect themselves. Eventually, cooler heads began to prevail, and people realized that the Humans involved might need help. Then, people with more control over their eruptions and a desire not to destroy or be violent started to speak out. Various communities of Kaiju formed. Some operated above ground and some hid in the shadows. Some were actively hunted and destroyed, some fought back, some simply endure.
It became known later that there were also Celestials involved. Their involvement was a double-edged sword, since some of them hunted Kaiju with greater efficiency while others sought to help their Primal brethren. Their involvement was also notably more subtle.
To this day, Humanity spans a full spectrum of beliefs and feelings about the Kaiju, but the general wisdom is that for every Kaiju that lives in the open, nine more hide among Humanity. This number comes from a particularly powerful Kaiju who works with the United Nations to educate them about Kaiju. He says he can “feel them moving in the Deep Water.”

Culture:

The range of cultural options open to the players and GM is exceptional. Do you want Kaiju and Human relations to vary from city to city, or do you want all of America to have outlawed Kaiju? What percentages of the population do you want to love them, fear them, sympathize with them, judge them, or not care? Do you want a particular individual’s feelings on Kaiju to be practical, theoretical, or personal? Are the Kaiju in a particular city friendly, standoffish, or indifferent? Do they live out in the open, or hide? How do the locals feel about them? Are they at peace, or in conflict? How many factions are there? What is Kaiju crime like? How does law enforcement deal with them? Which Kaiju rules here? Does he rule the Humans, or cooperate with them? What’s the local etiquette like? How much of the town has been destroyed? Rebuilt?
Population density can vary. As a starting point, I recommend one Kaiju for every hundred thousand people in an area. Of course that number could vary. Maybe the GM likes a higher density, say, one per 25,000. Or, maybe the GM wants to determine a set number of Kaiju, regardless of density numbers (eg: “this town has ten Kaiju in it.”) Factors for the decision might include Human attitude and activities toward the Kaiju, Celestial activity in the area, presence of a local community concentration of Kaiju (say, an embassy, or a temple of Tiamat), and so on. Also remember that some Kaiju essentially look Human in their Kaiju form (such as some Messengers and Queens), or that some might slip under the head-count in other ways (such as a Bogeyman who gets missed because he lives in an abandoned refrigerator in the city dump).

The Diaspora:

“Constructive chaos has its place in the world, but there is still such a thing as destructive chaos. Most of us just want to live in peace, in harmony with our fellow creatures, with our brothers and sisters, Human, Celestial, other Kaiju. We will not forsake our own needs, but there is a difference between “need” and “want.” Most of us recognize that line, and we strive to maintain balance.
There are a few of us who recognize what we are. A network of about twelve-hundred of us, and on top of that our Celestial allies and our Human support structures, have formed a loose bond, an agreement to live in peace and harmony, to help each other, to take care of needs and temper wants. We seek to make sure that Balder never happens again, and that our brothers and sisters can have a place on Earth that is good, safe, useful, and right.
It is not often that Mother and Father are in agreement. When they are, the world changes. We seek to distill, using our own existences as the reactor vessels, the best intentions of Mother and Father in this time of upheaval. We are the change.”

—Nibiru Yog-Sothoth

After the eruption of Balder, there arose a loosely formed agreement between Kaiju to police their own. It has evolved over time, especially to include Human and Celestial allies, and as it stands now, their creed is this:

—Erupt only on your own terms, never anyone else’s. No one has the right to command you to erupt, or not erupt, and no one has the right to manipulate you to erupt or not erupt. Do not give them that power over you.

Sound easy? There are Humans who have figured out that, sometimes, goading a Kaiju to eruption might work to their advantage. Making a person angry takes them off balance, causes them to lose control. If they goad the Kaiju to destructive behavior, they might claim the moral high ground and destroy that person in the press, or the courts. They might also goad the Kaiju to such destructive behavior that the military or law enforcement has to be called, which puts the Brother in danger, as well as those responding to his rampage. While intentional incitement of a Kaiju is a felony, the Brother is still legally responsible for his actions. Perhaps the most sinister use of a Kaiju’s vulnerability to eruption is the occasional terrorist, who doesn’t even have to strap a bomb to his chest anymore if he can find a primal patsy.
And that does not even take into account less sinister forms of goading. While the military disagrees, the Diaspora holds the position that merely signing up with the US military does not forfeit your control over your eruptions. A commanding officer might command you to erupt, to use you as a strategic weapon. Even those who love you, and have only good intentions, might try to pressure you when you don’t want to erupt. A younger sibling saying “if you loved me, you’d scare that bully off for me,” has a definite and very real problem that needs addressing, and his loved ones should try to help, but he just does not understand the danger he puts himself, his brother, and others in when he expects such a thing.

—You cannot command another Kaiju. You can only offer to assist his needs, or protect the people and property around him, even by engaging him if you must.

“This is easily the most controversial of all our agreements. Philosophers, moralists, ethicists, thinkers of all kinds have debated this one until they were blue in the face. Our defense of it is not in logical proofs, it is in reality. So you think some rules for Kaiju should be unyielding, and that the force of Command is acceptable to use in these circumstances? Okay. put yourself in our shoes. You have a desperate need you’re trying to fill, and you feel that without it you give up your very life, your autonomy, your spirit. What tone is command usually spoken in? How does it make you feel when some presumptuous little shit-head yells at you to bring you to heel, tries to tell you that no matter how badly you need something, he’s not going to let you have it?
Kinda makes you want to erupt, doesn’t it?”

—Nibiru Yog Sothoth

—Never repress. It doesn’t work. Eruptions will happen, and repression only makes them worse.

This is a known fact. The first year or so, eruptions were almost weekly. It did not take psychologists long to figure out why. As a result, an entire industry has arisen around Kaiju counseling and services. Some communities have “safe grounds,” where a Kaiju can go to erupt in peace. Fighting between kaiju is acceptable under certain circumstances, to relieve the pressures. Some Dragons will gladly fight any Brother who wants to, because it gives them a chance to get out and be themselves, too.
If you repress, you might forestall an eruption for now, but the longer you repress, the more difficult it will be to steer when you do erupt, and that means all kinds of trouble for everyone.

—Only ever destroy what needs to be destroyed. TAKE SPECIAL CARE to protect everything and everyone that does not need to be destroyed. You are responsible for the consequences of your eruptions.

The protection of lives, safety, and the well-functioning of the world are foremost on the mind of the Diaspora. Sometimes, it simply becomes necessary to cut loose in order to accomplish a goal. If a raging Dragon attacks your city with indiscriminate chaos and destruction, the Brothers and Sisters may have to “suit up” to stop him.
But that does not give you free license to stomp the city in the process.

—Always ALWAYS be honest with yourself and others about your feelings, and your needs. If you fail to do this, you may become a danger to those around you.

Sometimes, it can be scary to be this honest. What if your unmet need is to be accepted as a gay man, but you live in a backward rural community in which you might place yourself in danger if you come out of the closet? What if you are a loyal soldier of the United States, and you need to see a corrupt command system brought to justice? What if you are a drug addict, and you are afraid of social and legal consequences if you ask for help with it?
These are all reasonable fears that every Human feels, but you are in a position of greater responsibility than they are. The steps you take to take care of your needs may be extra-ordinary, but you are in a position of far greater necessity for them. Take care of this matter before you erupt, and you will save yourself and everyone else a great deal of trouble.

—Ask for help, and be honest when you need it.

And as a corollary to the one above, there are some needs you cannot take care of on your own. It is not a question of IF you will need help, it is a question of WHEN. The Diaspora, especially, seeks to offer help when it is needed, not just because we are stronger when our brothers and sisters are stronger, but because we are vulnerable when they are vulnerable. Every destructive eruption hurts all of us. But if you can’t ask us, ask your support structure. There are thousands upon thousands of organizations, families, and individuals who will also be willing to help you meet a need, for a variety of reasons ranging from altruism to enlightened interest to professional duty.

—When a Brother or Sister asks for help, do what you can for them, and never NEVER shame a Brother or Sister for asking or needing.

And still another corollary. This agreement is fairly tightly enforced. All Kaiju have need, and one who shames another while expecting not to be shamed for his own is usually held in high contempt. Even if they reject the hypocrisy by refusing to admit their own need, they are still held at arm’s length (which, for some Kaiju, is quite a distance).

“The number one emotion stopping a Brother or Sister from asking for help is shame. This world makes it easy to feel ashamed to need. Just look at how society treats the homeless, the poor, the minorities. Often the ones most cruel to them are the ones desperately afraid they may have unmet needs themselves. This shame was not formed in a vacuum. Sometimes, a person’s family or society makes it actually dangerous to need. Children are beaten, minorities are executed by the police, women are slut-shamed and threatened with rape, torture, and murder. One of my Sisters killed herself after years of fighting off crippling depression, because her family terrorized her into silence about her gender identity and sexual orientation.
Well now, those actions have taken on a new dimension, because taking part in them means taking part in the next eruption. Ignorant and frightened Humans might be excused for lapsing into their old barbaric ways, but that is beneath us, and we know better.”

—Nibiru Yog Sothoth

—Never bring your own fear or anger to a Brother’s eruption. He has plenty of his own. You’ll only add fuel to the fire, and may get burned yourself. If you must engage, do so only with surety of purpose in your heart and mind. To us, it is all an exchange of energy.

This is often the hardest agreement to keep. Extremes of emotion come naturally to us, and we all possess a basic human empathy. The feelings of others are contagious. Moreover, when someone turns into a 50 foot octopus near you and slams his tentacle down on the cars to your left and to your right, reflex takes over, adrenaline surges, and you need to change your underwear. If he actually is trying to kill you, eruption from your own emotions may be your only option to survive.
A Kaiju will fail to keep this agreement from time to time. It is known, it is expected. But it is also expected that, as soon as possible, he will regain control of himself and steer the situation as best he can.

—NEVER TARGET A BROTHER’S SUPPORT STRUCTURE. Your conflict is with him, not them. We will NOT tolerate this sin, and Mother’s AND Father’s vengeance will be swift, sure, and final.

This agreement is the only one for which the Diaspora will violate their own proscription against commands. It IS a command, and you WILL keep it. Intentionally and directly targeting a Kaiju’s Human support structure is a cowardly act with very little advantage in an engagement but long term consequences for the Kaiju later, not the least of which is making them more vulnerable to eruption later. Such an attack has been the cause of more than a few undying blood-feuds, usually resulting in catastrophic violence and death. Attacking a Kaiju’s support structure is a felony in most states and countries that haven’t outlawed Kaiju entirely, in some cases carrying the death penalty if the attack was successful and fatal. In some countries, the law is so strict you can be executed whether the attack was successful or not.
But that is not all. The Diaspora will put a price on your head, and will pay the bounty. If the Council of Wizards gets ahold of you, they will “neuter” you, or “cut off your tail” (cut off your source of Primal energy, rendering you Human, and no longer a Kaiju).
Accidents do happen. Some Humans are not smart enough not to put themselves in danger, and some Kaiju are callous enough to use them as Human shields (these Kaiju are held in more contempt than those who would shame another for needing). Moreover, some Kaiju just react in the heat of the moment. If you are ever responsible for harm to a Kaiju’s Human support structure, you are expected to submit to judgment immediately, explain yourself, and make amends.
Lately, however, this decree has had to evolve, since some of the Human support structures do take part in the fight. For example, a team of Navy SEALS riding a Giant or a Dragon. This decree was meant to protect the children and families of Kaiju, who may be in harm’s way by virtue of being close to their Kaiju. It was not meant to give mercenaries and soldiers free reign to attack a Kaiju with impunity. Conventional wisdom is if a Kaiju’s Human allies choose to weaponize themselves, they take the danger on by choice. Even so, it is still bad form to target them directly if you don’t have to, or to do them more damage than necessary. An adherant of the agreements of the Diaspora is expected to neutralize them peacefully if at all possible. You are also expected to discern the difference between an A-10 Warthog swooping in with anti-tank bullets that could shred your skull and a ten year old child attacking you with a stick.

—If you must engage, show respect after it is resolved. After all, we are Brothers and Sisters.

“Dharma: ‘Give an example of defeat.’
Yudhisthira: ‘Victory.’”

—The Mahabharata

The Diaspora learned the utility of this agreement from their Celestial allies.
Very seldom do two Kaiju fight to the death. It is customary not to hold grudges, but it does happen. You might even find two rival Kaiju who “keep score” of their encounters. But the simple fact is, even fights among Kaiju are willing exchanges of energy. You take a piece of them, they take a piece of you. This is true no matter who “wins” or “loses” (this principle has been known to make the bond of rivalry between Kaiju sometimes stronger than the bond of love of friendship, since they fight so often). Moreover, it is assumed that every Brother and Sister is doing what they do for a reason, whether it creates conflict or not.

“Bottom line, what this agreement means is, win or lose, don’t be a dick about it. Being a dick just fosters more negative emotions and limiting decisions, and it just makes more eruptions for the rest of us.”

—Nibiru Yog-Sothoth

Showing respect after a fight can go a long way toward fostering harmony and a smoother relationship between Kaiju, and between Kaiju and Humans. There is sometimes a fine line between acceptable glorying in victory, and cruelty. Cruelty is frowned upon, but if you lose, you are expected to acknowledge the victor. This agreement is hardest to keep when the fight was over something substantial. A Bogeyman preying on the people in a Guardian’s fence-line, for example, might cause a particularly wrathful fight. Neither Kaiju is expected to give up their legitimate needs just because they lost a fight, but in this example, the two combatants would be expected to come to some accord about where the Bogeyman can and cannot haunt and how he might have his needs met without hurting people who don’t need to be hurt.

Do not be distracted by the lure of your Thirty Pieces of Silver. Maintain your focus on the greater good.

“Thirty Pieces of Silver” is a complex concept in the Diaspora. The term was coined by Nibiru Yog-Sothoth, and has a fairly intense and layered emotional meaning that you almost have to be a Kaiju to understand. There is no one-sentence deffinition that covers it, but most in the Diaspora sum it up simply as follows: Any petty concern that is yours to claim by moral right but in the claiming will cause you to forsake something greater.

“In Hall County, a few years before Balder erupted, there was a tiny, dusty little town with a population of about 300, most of them cotton farmers. On the outskirts of this town lived a young Dragon by the name of Pete. The town hated this boy. He was half black, his mother had a serious drinking problem, and his dad was a vagrant who had been arrested and finally killed after taking after the Sheriff with an ax. His mother died of some disease, probably AIDS, and the town didn’t know any smarter way to handle Pete than to try to drive him away. When I met him, he had a huge scar across his forehead. Some idiot had hit him with a shovel when they attacked his house and then spat in his face.
Pete finally erupted about a year after Balder, when some nasty Elder God came through turning everything under him into a desert. I and a team of Celestials had been fighting that monster for two days, but it was this boy, turning into the biggest meanest beast you ever saw, who put the Big Brother down.
The town was ecstatic. He had saved all their cotton fields. The Celestials and I made no bones about who had saved them. We told the tale in such a way that they saw him in a new light. The change was dramatic. Everyone hung off of him, apologizing, trying to shake his hand. The mayor came out to personally thank him, and to try to apologize for all the years of abuse. They wanted to make it up to him. The mayor gave this heartfelt speech, and read letters from the citizens, all of them telling how this experience had changed them, and how sorry they were.
But Pete didn’t take the mayor’s hand. Instead, he walked through the crowd to the man who gave him that scar, flashed out a knife, gashed his head and spat in his face. Without a word, he went back home, still sullen and friendless. In all that crowd, no one but I understood what he was feeling when he did it, why he did it. Even fewer can understand how I can understand it as I do and still be so very sad that he did.
That’s what thirty pieces of silver looks like. Its lure is powerful. It’s a desperate need, a deep thirst, the one need I advocate repressing, the one need you absolutely have to satisfy some other way than claiming what is yours when it’s in reach. That Dragon collected his.”

—Nibiru Yog-Sothoth

Other groups:

Are there other groups? Certainly. For one thing, every Elder God has a cult, every Queen has a Court, and every Messenger has fans. Some are benign, some are malignant, some are focused on narrow matters, such as a University Kaiju Support Club, and so on. Some are in amity with the Diaspora, and some are neutral.
And some are openly hostile.
Whether we like it or not, there is such a thing as Kaiju terrorism. Lately, the attacks have been more frequent, and very little is known about who is behind them…

Pringles

No, not the potato chips.
Some time ago, one of the great designers of video games created a very popular series of games, wherein an elf saves his fictional world from destruction. Within this game is a minor character named Pringle, a small but sedentary man who believes, wrongly, that he is an elf. He dresses up as an elf, acts in a way he thinks elves act, and tries to get others to believe he is an elf. He cannot work elf magic, but he scatters confetti everywhere with grand gestures of his hands, and speaks nonsensical “magic words.” He also aids the hero of that game on his many heroic quests, in some very notable ways.
A “Pringle” is an otherwise normal Human who believes, wrongly, that he is a Kaiju or a Celestial. Most of the time, they are harmless. Some are even helpful to real Kaiju or Celestials. A very few have gotten themselves in trouble, or even done real damage trying to mimic the creatures they believe themselves to be. Many of them are adherents of the Diaspora, and some have lent great service purely by the chutzpah to show up to things where Angels (sometimes literally) fear to tread.
A Pringle is different from a simple fraudster invoking uncertainty for an advantage of some kind. For one thing, the fraudsters are usually skilled enough to actually get some benefit out of pretending to be a Kaiju or Celestial, whereas a Pringle usually just makes people think he’s crazy. All indication is that a Pringle genuinely believes, or at least really really wants to believe, that he or she is a Kaiju or Celestial or could become one.
Why do people become Pringles? The reasons are many and varied. Some may just want to feel like they belong. Some may be trying to fill an emotional gap in their life. Some may be trying to escape a boring and mundane life, or may be using their obsession as escapism, from something truly bad. Some may just want to “try out” the new experience of being something or someone else. It isn’t uncommon for even some hardened Kaiju to recognize a certain kinship with the needs and wishes of a Pringle, and treat them kindly. More than a few fights between Kaiju have been started over an insult to one of their Pringle friends. Even so, it is also not uncommon for a Pringle to get really annoying from time to time, even to Kaiju that love them.