The Affliction Dust was once the Divine Reflection. It has also been known as Pride's Mirror (by the NEH) or the Looking Glass (by the ancestors of the Divine Principality).[1]
Like the other Afflictions, it can summon minions; its pawns are "beings made of compacted dust that ruins electronics and suffocates people if they touch them."[1] This dust, which also muffles sound (save for the stomping, roaring or distant rustling of the Affliction itself) and limits sight when it settles over a region, can only be escaped by confronting oneself in the form of one's pawn doppelganger.
Appearance[edit | edit source]
Dust is larger than a skyscraper[2] and looks like "if a mummy could be a mech, shawled and wrapped and deteroriating."[3] Dust can take a smaller form, but it is unable to leave the Diadem except by taking its "big mode" to fuck stuff up. This has left it unaware of what is going on outside.[4]
History and Involvement[edit | edit source]
Origins[edit | edit source]
The Divine Reflection was once part of the Divine Fleet. The followers of Reflection originally used their dust doppelgangers to talk through their own feelings, sort of like therapy.[1]
Like the other Afflictions, it was one of the Divine Palisade's "greatest collaborators", having left the Fleet with him before the creation of the Twilight Mirage. Over the five thousand years between then and its appearance in PALISADE as an Affliction, Palisade was put under threat repeatedly by war, imperialism, monarchy, and Divine slavery. Dust's purpose turned, cynically, inwards. It began to build an endless catacomb, forcing everyone touched by its dust to enter a vision of another self and "fence-sit" interminably.[5] These visions of possible futures do not include the active presence of Dust, as "it can't imagine a good version of itself anymore."[4] It also has not been able to leave the Diadem since it became Dust.[4]
There exist Delegates of Reflection, but no explanation is ever given for how these Delegates came about.
PALISADE[edit | edit source]
Dust's minions descend on Jade Kill forces and two Frontier Syndicate operatives during Resentment and Frustration. Faithful Emphasis and her team appear to succumb to the doppeldusters, but Occam Olio and Blank Shore manage to evade them and complete their objective.[1]
While the crew of the Blue Channel is on a mission to secure the Diadem Gravtrain's "train brain", they encounter Dust[2] and are pulled into dreamworlds;[5] Dust, it seems, wants the train brain for itself. Figure manages to pull Cori into his dreamworld and convince her that the dream is fake, and she casts Consecrate Ground to break the dreams, infuriating Dust. Brnine and Dust communicate (with Thisbe's help), and Dust shows Brnine its past and what the train brain truly is. They come to an agreement and Dust allows Brnine to take the train brain back to the Blue Channel.[4]
This section contains spoilers for the PALISADE finale.
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After Cori and Perennial create consecrated areas for the Afflictions, Thisbe brings the Chimeric Cadent to negotiate with Dust. The final results of this negotiation are not shown immediately, but eventually, the Chimeric Cadent, Chimera's Lantern and the Afflictions disappear from Palisade.
Curiously, at the same time, Reflection is said to have been one of the Divines freed from Fidelity's garden[6] and integrated into Wakeful.[7]
Appears in[edit | edit source]
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 PALISADE 27: Resentment and Frustration Pt. 2
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 PALISADE 32: Seize the Chance Pt. 3
- ↑ PALISADE 03: Today Is a Monday
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 PALISADE 34: Seize the Chance Pt. 5
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 PALISADE 33: Seize the Chance Pt. 4
- ↑ PALISADE 48: A Palette of Colors Pt. 3
- ↑ PALISADE 51: A Palette of Colors Pt. 6