{"id":604,"date":"2015-10-14T20:30:04","date_gmt":"2015-10-14T20:30:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/logicalpremise.org\/?p=604"},"modified":"2015-10-14T20:31:56","modified_gmt":"2015-10-14T20:31:56","slug":"on-victor-manswell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/logicalpremise.org\/?p=604","title":{"rendered":"On Victor Manswell — a gift from my friend"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Victor<\/a>
Victor Manswell n the Chapel at the Holdfast accompanied by his wife Margareta. Image by Tyler Kelting.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I’ve written a great deal of the Premiseverse, from the backstories and histories of the Thirty to figuring how eezo works. A great deal has been not invented from whole cloth, but rather co-opted by me from existing materials Bioware never used.<\/p>\n

Once such element that I have altered is Victor Manswell.<\/p>\n

The following are snippets about Victor. They are not<\/em> by me or my hand, but by someone who read my works and presented their own take on Saint Victor. And yet, such is his iron will, vileness and determination — that I found myself only having to alter the concepts put here in the very smallest of manners.<\/p>\n

It is the work of a friend named Julian, and I am interested in thoughts upon it.<\/p>\n

From the Historical Annals, Post Reaper Views on Critical Points of History<\/p>\n

“\u2026 the enigmatic individual usually known as \u201cVictor Manswell\u201d (March 28, 1998? – November 14, 2095). Also known as Markgraf Viktor Alchsneiss\u00a0Schlossvogt von Hechingen, or as Sankt\u00a0Viktor der Feuersbr\u00fcnste. He claimed to be part Prussian, part Baltic German, and able to trace his line back to the House of Hohenzollern. He provided what seemed\u00a0to be valid genetic proof of his claim, saying that he himself had only recently grown curious enough to run such genetic tests and that therefore he not not previously known of his ancestry. He spoke and moved and behaved every\u00a0inch like a man telling the truth. But then, Franziska Schanzkowska (1896-1984) very likely believed herself to be truthful in saying that she was the Grand Duchess\u00a0Anastasia Romanov. If the Margrave\u2019s statements were untrue, perhaps he believed them truthful….”<\/p>\n

From the Salarian Discourse on Humanity, Volume XII:<\/p>\n

“Apparently, \u201cManswell” had been a close associate of a group of human industrialists and millionaires known as the\u00a0Bilderburgs. It is disputable if such association translated into influence. What is beyond dispute was that he had over a trillion dollars in gold and in commodities essential to\u00a0human life \u2014 food, water, weapons, prefabricated structures, protective equipment, and other materi\u00e9l. He controlled where the things he had went, and he controlled\u00a0where they did not go. The man called Victor Manswell was the richest surviving human being anywhere, and bad things tended to happen to those who questioned him….<\/p>\n

From the Systems Alliance Uplifting Infantryman’s Primer:<\/p>\n

“\u2026 Remembering the enormous contributions of experienced professionals like Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben to the American Revolution, Manswell made use of his\u00a0personal cadre of expert private military contractors, whom he had handpicked long ago. As he reached out to more and more military contractors on Earth, he recruited\u00a0them with the food, gold, arms, and medical supplies that he had stockpiled in advance. In particular he recruited from among German, Austrian, French and American\u00a0mercenaries and defectors to his cause. Then he passed these personnel to his training cadre and send the program\u2019s graduates to train and recruit others, who in turn\u00a0trained others, and so on. Safe in space, Manswell already had all the necessary specialized support facilities for his new troops, with lavish accommodations for\u00a0supporting them and their families. This let him control whether those families stayed healthy. Manswell also used a carefully considered system of collective discipline\u00a0and corporal punishment, one derived from the traditions of Prussia. He moderated his disciplinary system by allowing unit members to reduce \u00a0 others\u2019 punishments with\u00a0a voting system, and also to volunteer to endure part of a punishment that another unit member would otherwise receive. \u2026”<\/p>\n

On Saint Viktor: \u00a0A collection of the Will of Iron:<\/p>\n

“\u2026 He earned the gratitude of countless Alaskans when he annihilated the so-called \u201cCoordinators.\u201d This tenacious group of organized extortionists, formed from rogue\u00a0emergency management units, had seized almost all of Alaska\u2019s remaining power and fuel infrastructure. The thugs also had centers of power in other states, and were\u00a0able to call on thousands of combatants from as far away as Cuba. They were led by the unstable \u201cChief Commissioner\u201d of the \u201cNational Emergency Resource\u00a0Coordination Commission,\u201d William Cosgrove Hammond, who at times imposed barter prices so high that many people were left burning human waste just to survive\u00a0the cold. Finally, the Iron Guard under the equally ruthless Mickey Rourke tracked Hammond down as he attempted to flee all the way to a bunker complex in Nevada. He failed to get that far \u2014 Manswell had\u00a0him drawn and quartered.”<\/p>\n

QUOTES ATTRIBUTED TO MANSWELL<\/strong><\/p>\n

To the Archbishop of Germany, on the eve of the assault on France:
\n\u201cYou ask me whether I kill the innocent? Do you make a joke of this? The burning wave of all the works of the wicked is coming to the shore of mankind. It is taller than fifty buildings; it is\u00a0wreathed in smoke and cinders. \u00a0If I do not act to turn that wave aside, then in short years everyone left alive on this planet will be begging me to help them die. And you\u00a0ask me whether I kill the innocent?\u00a0What would you do?\u201d<\/p>\n

To the refugees of the so-called “Central Authority” of Romania, who protested his heavy-handed rule:<\/p>\n

\u201cUntil the faces of the debt collectors are reflected in the eyes of burning corpses, humans have a nasty habit of forgetting they\u2019ve even visited the bank. Humanity’s debt now is in a broken planet, in dead populations, in a land that cannot produce food, in air we cannot breathe, water we cannot drink!<\/p>\n

I am just the\u00a0guy restructuring the debt to save your sorry asses.\u00a0And you\u2019re\u00a0arguing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Excepts from the Journals of Jacen Manswell, on a call from the Family to set aside the SSA war against Earth:<\/p>\n

\u201cNeither I nor anyone in this family will stand by while all sinners and all innocents burn alike.\u00a0\u00a0Neither I nor anyone in this family will put down this burden, will look\u00a0away from the pain, or will disown the Motherland. Neither I nor anyone in this family will shrink from consequences.\u00a0Neither I nor anyone in this family will\u00a0suffer disobedience!<\/p>\n

Iron does not bend, and it does not break.\u00a0This meeting is adjourned.\u201d<\/p>\n

Excepts from the Journals of Darcen Maxwell, unpublished:
\n\u201cBy the leave of this family — and its many sacrifices — \u00a0you are numbered among those who give orders, or who will grow to give them. No one is born with the skill for such, you must learn how to give them.<\/p>\n

Sooner or later, you will have to face the microscopic issue\u00a0of what to do when you are disobeyed by your lessers. In such a case you may well be forced to eliminate the offender \u2014 even perhaps to slaughter his defenseless animals, kill\u00a0everyone he ever knew, blast his homeland to cinders, exterminate his culture and people in their entirety.<\/p>\n

Therefore, you had better be\u00a0damn\u00a0sure of\u00a0what<\/em>\u00a0you say, what you\u00a0don\u2019t<\/em>\u00a0<\/strong>say,\u00a0how<\/em>\u00a0you say it, and\u00a0when<\/em>\u00a0you speak. You are both blessed and cursed. You have fewer\u00a0chances to make mistakes than does the man in the street, and sometimes you have no chances to make mistakes at all. I won\u2019t always be here to help you understand\u00a0the situation.<\/p>\n

God help me, sometimes I \u2026 don\u2019t \u2026 I don\u2019t even \u2026 \u201d<\/p>\n

Deathbed conversations : the annals of Maxwell Manswell:<\/p>\n

\u201cEnough. Max, you will listen to me. In the cell at the end of that corridor there is an organically alive but societally dead creature, the kind called an\u00a0enemy of the\u00a0people<\/em>. If ever we can no longer kill the few to save the many, then we ourselves must expect death. That is how it must be for me \u2014 how it must be in the time of your\u00a0heirs, their heirs, and theirs, and theirs. You know what is required. Soon I will return here. Don\u2019t make me summon the part of myself that will kill you if you fail.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Sermon on the Hill: Victor at the dedication of the Statue of Christ Tormented at Arlington National Memorial:<\/p>\n

\u201cGod sent his Son to die for our sins. God took back from His Son\u2019s experience a firsthand familiarity with the experience of death, and death holds for Him no fear.<\/p>\n

But mark well that for his part, Satan fears death. When we ask why this is so, we must see that unlike God, Satan has no part of himself that has experienced death.\u00a0What he does know is that his existence is finite. Someday, souls will escape him simply because he is no longer there to turn them to him. This is one reason why, like\u00a0God, Satan trains humans to magnify his work.<\/p>\n

Satan fears death, and knows in advance the shame he will feel for each soul ultimately escaping his grasp. He knows he will not live forever, and from his fear and\u00a0shame at this, he yearns to guide us to hurt and destroy ourselves.<\/p>\n

Satan strives to encourage our belief in disinformation about sin. Satan\u2019s propaganda on this subject falls into four main categories. First is the lie that God does not\u00a0exist. The second is the lie that there is no sin. The third is the lie that when God promises to forgive the sins of the repentant, God intends to go back on his word. The\u00a0fourth is the lie that God is some sort of incompetent or charlatan, lacking the power to forgive sin at all.<\/p>\n

I find the worst of those who have been convinced by such falsehoods as these. Then I kill them \u2026 before they can kill our race.\u201d<\/p>\n

Conversations in Yellow: Accumulated memoirs of Shi Kon Chu, First Gong of Family Chu<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the risk of one family going to Hell is an acceptable trade for the preservation of humankind. I think the risk of fifteen being cursed for all time by historians and the weak is of no moment.<\/p>\n

Extinction threatens us. And it is not an option.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve written a great deal of the Premiseverse, from the backstories and histories of the Thirty to figuring how eezo works. A great deal has been not invented from whole cloth, but rather co-opted by me from existing materials Bioware never used. Once such element that I have altered is Victor Manswell. The following are … Continue reading On Victor Manswell — a gift from my friend<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5,13,12,3,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brain-droppings","category-defuckery","category-fundamental-questions","category-me-ramblings","category-other-peoples-actually-decent-art"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2ZibE-9K","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/logicalpremise.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/logicalpremise.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/logicalpremise.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/logicalpremise.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/logicalpremise.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=604"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/logicalpremise.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":606,"href":"http:\/\/logicalpremise.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604\/revisions\/606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/logicalpremise.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/logicalpremise.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/logicalpremise.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}