While always a mimic, the Jester Prince came to the discovery of his natural talent for miming when he was tasked with keeping refugee children safe during his time serving the French Resistance in WWII. He could entrance the children with silent pantomime, easing their nerves and keeping them delighted in the face of such overwhelming terror.
When he returned from the war, he attended Charles Dullin's School of Dramatic Art where he honed his craft. Very quickly after graduating, he joined a troupe and thus his career began. It didn't take long for him to gain global attention and acclaim. His pantomimes were considered genius works of contemporary parody. Allegedly, one critic praised Marceau's brief performance Life, Maturity, Old Age and Death, saying [Marceau] accomplishes in less than two minutes what most novelists cannot do in volumes. I admit, this is a little overstated, but, my point is, that through what the Jester Prince called the art of silence, he delighted and enlightened the world. He was born a husk, but, he was able to fill that void with life and color.
In some conversations this week, the similarities between the Jester Prince and the character of Superman came about. Ignoring the obvious (alien messiah figures), the biggest point of connection between the two figures is that they are both foreign entities that, for some reason, fell in love with humanity. They so exalted humanity, that they filled themselves with the best of humanity and thus became strange paragons of human potentials, at least ethically speaking.
But, that is the problem with parody. It is always a lie. At best, parody loves the thing it mimics, but, it is not that thing, itself. The Digitalis can only mimic the things they love, but they are always just a mimic. In some sense the Digitalis do not exist. They are an existential parasite that leeches their ontology from the truly substantial. And I don't think I need to reiterate that this mimicry accelerates Ontium Misfolding.
The Messiah is not a new visage in fiction or history. I am not here to propose that there is anything wrong with rushing to the aide of those less capable. However, when our Messiahs exist in fiction, they become dangerous. And Messiahs always exist in fiction. Some are born of fiction, such as Superman, Harry Potter or (arguably) Jesus Christ. Others dissolve into fiction, years eroding the truth in favor of bloated mythologies. A snake becomes a dragon, a stone wall becomes a fortress, 10 men becomes 50. And out of this fiction stems the greatest cause of Ontium Misfolding:
Morality.
To be more precise, I will call this Myth Morality. There is a procession of proper folds that coincides with something that looks like morality, but this is very different than a lot of the forms of Morality that have cropped up over the years. Myth Morality is any premise of what humanity ought to be, born out of narrative. Things like Kosher practice, Sexual regulation and Altruism are all of this kin. They seek for humans to be better than they are, to be untrue, to be mimic.
There is a strange Oroborousness about this morality. Heroes of myth are propped up from misunderstandings about what humanity is and are often caricatures of our best angels. Then, we as humans read these myths and seek to hold ourselves to these elevated standards and nobody has stopped us because it all takes the form of Morality that leads to reintegration, but, it is parody.
Messiahs typically have good intentions and many even do good things. But there is a major chasm between the good
they do and the great we praise them for. The Jester Prince is not a Messiah. This is an opinion that differs me
from Moduli greatly. The Jester Prince is merely a piece of the cosmic puzzle. If there is anything to honor him
for, it is for the ways in which he does what he was meant to, not for the good he's done. He is an agent that is
obedient to his place in the universe, but that's really not that difficult. It is a feat that is as difficult as
being.