I grant you permission to worship me.
The Seers of the Throne carefully maintain the inequalities of society, dividing the Sleepers into haves and have-nots, kings and wretches. Some people just have “it”, whatever “it” may be, and the Western media bombards viewers with unattainable standards of physical beauty, telling the have-nots that unless they somehow look like that, they’ll be have-nots forever and creating a world in which people take baths of bleach and mutilate their Supernally-given bodies. The tragedy of those that become Seers is that after Awakening to this truth they choose to side with those wielding the dividing knife as long as they get to be “haves”. Some new recruits to the Ministries, though, believe that they are incapable of attaining the life they wish to lead without aid. No amount of money will make them the person they want to be — beautiful, influential and desired. They feel that even as members of the secret rulers of the world, their rightful place is denied to them. Maybe they’re the wrong height, wrong color, or wrong gender. Maybe they just have no social graces. Eventually, they may hear of a Legacy, first founded in the Hegemonic Ministry, which promises to turn members into members of the Elite. By sacrificing everything that makes them themselves, they can create new identities, like a caterpillar becoming a butterfly, and live the lives of luxury and adoration they have watched with envious eyes since their Sleeping days.
There is a difference between physical alterations that serve a medical need and chasing an unhealthy ideal, and the members of the Chrysalides Legacy are firmly in the chasing category. Every Chrysalis has a dual identity — the nature of the Legacy is such that they can transform from their real self, which they call the “Husk”, into an idealized self created from the imagination and self-loathing of the Seer. Each Chrysalis only has one “Ideal”, one alternate persona, chosen on joining the Legacy. After the initial act of creation, the Ideal can be improved further — granted beauty, cleverness, wit, physical superiority... Anything the Seer believes his real form lacks. But it comes at a price. Every improvement is taken from the real form, which degrades as the Ideal perfects, and there are no take-backs and no second chances. Eventually, a Swan becomes both Beauty and the Beast, the Ideal a living Goddess and the Husk a withered crone. The Legacy sees it as a worthwhile sacrifice, hurrying through the time they spend as the Husk before they are able to transform again. Other Seers shake their heads at the pettiness of the Legacy, muttering that the Awakened should have higher goals. The Swans, surrounded by fawning admirers, don’t agree.
Attainments
- Spreading the Wings
- Perfection of Form
- Pinnacle of Grace
