Five Afflictions

Spoiler warning! This article contains major spoilers for PALISADE 13: Worth the Trouble Pt. 2. Tread carefully!

Five Afflictions
Members	Dust Refrain Ravel Cleave Oversight
Area of Operation	Palisade
Affiliations	Divine Fleet (formerly) Palisade
Meta
Season	PALISADE

The Five Afflictions are strange, amoral beings — kaiju — that cause destruction on Palisade without regard for factional allegiance. Each has pawns or minions of its own, and generates a unique negative effect.

Their current auto-antonym names appear to come from the Afflictions themselves. Cleave, for example, "has called itself, or people have dreamt the name" Cleave.

History

The Afflictions were once the Divine Palisade's "greatest collaborators": the Divines Reflection, Antiquity, Logic, Decisiveness, and Affection. Prior to the events of Twilight Mirage, they and their Excerpts left the Fleet alongside Palisade. They have resided on the planet for thousands of years, long enough to have interacted with the New Earth Hegemony and, later, the Divine Free States and Principality of Kesh.

They are no longer in the social category of Divine, and the label "Affliction" was applied to them by the Fabreal Duchy after being traumatized by Palisade's violent history.

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After Palisade becomes part of the Mirage, Cori creates sanctified areas protected by Perennial's power for the Affliction to retreat to. Thisbe kickstarts negotiations between the Chimeric Cadent and the Afflictions held in one such area. Eventually, the Chimeric Cadent, Chimera's Lantern and the Afflictions disappear from Palisade, interrupting the healing and integration of the Afflictions with the Cause and Palisade society. No one knows where they have gone, but more creatures similar to the Afflictions begin to appear across the galaxy.

Afflictions

Dust

Main page: Dust

Also known as Pride's Mirror (by the NEH) or the Looking Glass (by the ancestors of the Divine Principality), Dust was once the Divine Reflection. As Reflection, it could provide self-insight to its followers. Dust is a large mummy-mech with power over a sort of dust that can transform into dopplegangers of anyone who gets too close. It is mostly confined to the Diadem.

Refrain

Main page: Refrain

Also known as Yesterday's Reprise (by the NEH) or the Ghastly Chorus (by the ancestors of the Divine Principality), Refrain was once the Divine Antiquity. As Antiquity, it allowed people to leave parts of themselves, or their memory, with it. It is now a hungry undead archive which takes the form of a spectral theater.

Ravel

Also known as Labyrinth's Thread (by the NEH) or the Hedge Maze (by the ancestors of the Divine Principality), Ravel was once the Divine Logic, who embodied a logic that was many-valued and not based on a true/false binary. The non-binary nature of this logic is reflected in the three horns of Ravel's pawns, which are 12-foot-tall, invisible minotaur-like beings, or "tricerataurs".

Ravel "looks like a massive, loose brain neuron prowling the hills and valleys". It can reroute roads and pathways or build walls to disorient and defamiliarize.

Cleave

Also known as Whetstone's Opposite (by the NEH) or the Sanguine Hatchet (by the ancestors of the Divine Principality), Cleave was once the Divine Decisiveness. Its pawns look like "if a dragon was made of knives", and they share Cleave's power to impede communication using voiced, signed or written language.

Oversight

Also known as Hell's Facade (by the NEH) or the Empty Garden (by the ancestors of the Divine Principality), Oversight was once the Divine Affection. It looks like "a slowly moving statue whose features are always fluctuating under a stone shroud."