Perennial is a Divine, called the Adversary by the Divine Principality. She resides in the massive space station at the core of the galaxy, which she uses to cause the Perennial Wave, a destabilising flow of nanomachines which disrupt high level technology. For some reason, the Wave is much less effective on Divines.
She is worshiped by the Mysteries Metronomica, the so-called Cult of Perennial.
Appearance
Before she moved to the space station at the centre of the galaxy, Perennial's body was described as[1]
“
Imagine a nervous system. Like a, like a human nervous system. But imagine that instead of being made of like, organic human stuff, it was made of Russian Sage. Which if you haven’t seen, is this kind of purple and green plant that has these kind of long stalks of, kind of, again, lavender looking flowers. And it is gigantic, and it floats alongside the, the ship, with you all.”
She once used lightning that took the shape described above while providing a ship to the Witch in Glass.[2]
Perennial is visible in the sky as a purple star in constant wheeling motion.[3][2]
Personality
Perennial sees the arc of history as ultimately cyclical, with popular movements and empires rising and falling in eternal recurrence. She may also be able to see alternate universes and possibilities. Having grown bored, she looks for something new to emerge -- an end to the cycle, or at least something interesting. She is incredibly capricious, sparing neither those who hate her nor her adherents for the sake of her own amusement.[3][2]
History and Involvement
Perennial was installed by Horizon into the galactic core in order to prevent the Principality from taking it over. She took over the generation of nanomachines there and used them to interfere with technology. As a result, the Divine Principality's access to faster than light technology was lost, although the Wave's effects on tech in general led to deaths among both biological and synthetic people throughout the galaxy.[4]
Relationships
True Divine
Perennial's exact relationship with Autonomy Itself is unclear, since both rarely speak directly. Gur Sevraq believes there is "a gap between them that she cannot cross", and that this is why she sent Gur to become a follower of the True Divine. She may be interested in the possibilities of Autonomy Itself's promise of finality.[2]