“
My name is Gur Sevraq, and I have stolen the future.”
Gur Sevraq (/gər səvˈrɑːk/ or /gər sɪvˈræk/) or The Friend[note 1] is the leader of The Church of the Resin Heart, and a reported miracle worker. He stole the Divine Future prior to the start of PARTIZAN.
Appearance
A spider-like humanoid synthetic, with big mandibles and six eyes resembling angle brackets (if each were made of three dots) pointing towards one another, like the Lacuna rpg cover art of a cartoonish spider in a hat. They have eight limbs, which are normally hidden under their clothes.
On their first appearance, they wear long cloaks and robes layered over one another in natural colours (tans, khakis, browns, and very light pale sand tones), with splashes of teals and oranges from individual cloth or sewn-in ribbons, so that "as they move around, different layers show and move" in an almost hypnotizing way. Their similarly-coloured low turban, ringed by an orange ribbon, covers the very top of his head.[1] On his second appearance, he is wearing different fabrics, now in very saturated blues, silvers and whites that somehow still give the impression of warmth.[2]
This section contains spoilers for PARTIZAN Episode 28 onwards.
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The puppet of Gur Sevraq remains "clearly wounded and broken" from his fight with Clementine, at least during their first speech. Their ghost no longer wears any robes, and their spider-like form is fully visible.
Personality
Gur is a skilled preacher and rhetorician, although with friends he has a tendency to get distracted, ramble and go on tangents. They are deeply faithful, and do not appreciate mockery of their relationship to God. Along with his followers, the Friends of Gur Sevraq, he naively believes that the spread of communication technology could enable social progression beyond the imperialism of the Divine Principality. They are firmly against slavery and forced labor.
Gur is not a pacifist: they have killed at least two people. He is also willing to manipulate people, or at least to manipulate Clementine Kesh.
This section contains spoilers for The Road to PALISADE 20: City Planning Department.
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After death, he has lost much of his old naivety and self assurance, viewing those traits as mere "hubris" and stating that "the revolution never needed [him]". They've also lost faith in the True Divine, but affirm their belief that Millennium Break will and must end the Divine Principality.[3]
History
Although he grew up as part of the Mysteries Metronomica, Gur Sevraq was led by both his studies and the guidance of Perennial to the service of the True Divine.
With the Friends of Gur Sevraq, Gur was involved in various clandestine operations against the Principality. They stole the Divine Future from Stel Columnar, and during the theft they killed the Pact Elects Myosotis and Plumeria. Future gave them prescience and the ability to imagine futures unconfined by the hegemonic and imperialist world around him.
They contacted the wavering Elect Cymbidium and spurred him to join them on the Isles of Logos, but Cymbidium instead aimed for the Sable Court before his crash in Obelle.
Along with their Church and many pilgrims from both sects of Asterism, he set out to walk the Prophet's Path on the 1000 year anniversary of Logos Kantel's own walk. The ambush during this journey led to him being held as a somewhat-willing captive by his former escorts, the Rapid Evening. It was during this time that they first communicated telepathically with Valence, shortly before the True Divine's attention turned to Partizan and they were instructed to assemble the Exemplar.
His kidnapping made him an increasingly important symbol for various factions of the Principality as well as a pretext for intensification of civil war, with Stel Kesh blaming Stel Apostolos for their disappearance.
When the Rapid Evening took Fort Icebreaker, he assisted in hiding it from the eyes of the Stels, and when Millennium Break formed he used it as an opportunity to spread the message of revolution, but did not run in the elections.
This section contains spoilers for PARTIZAN Episode 28 onwards.
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After Millennium Break seized Cruciat and Clem was about to be ousted, Gur had an argument with her that culminated in both of them attacking each other and falling from atop Fort Icebreaker into the sea. Both were considered to have disappeared or died by the rest of Millennium Break. Clem washed up on the shores of Chorus Island, and eventually found Gur's ghost trapped in a caved-in room. He advised her initially on faith and continued to serve as her advisor when she took the Reflecting Pool.
Soon after their fall, Gur's body and the Divine Future were pulled from the ocean by the Curtain and Stel Nideo. They used it as a non-sentient receptacle for altered, propagandistic versions of old speeches, which were transmitted throughout the Principality.
Recordings of Gur's true words and speeches, on the other hand, were passed around Millennium Break where other groups would pass around concert tapes. This section contains spoilers for PALISADE.
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In the five years since the events of PARTIZAN, the puppet became a symbol and prophet of New Asterism, reuniting both sects of Asterism and adjusting their philosophies to aim adherents toward settler-colonialism. Their speeches refer to Palisade as a garden which must be tended to by Principality citizens.
Relationships
Clementine Kesh
After being captured by Clementine, Gur seems willing to work with her towards her goals, up to a point. He spends some time at her bedside attempting to educate her, and they begin playing chess together. However, he is not willing to leave the rest of the Rapid Evening imprisoned under her control. They continue trying to win her over after the formation of Millennium Break, but Clem's complete unwillingness to learn, grow, or listen leads to increasing acrimony between them.
This section contains spoilers for PARTIZAN Episode 28 onwards.
Click here to reveal.
In particular, Clementine insults Gur's faith, which leads to the physical altercation where they fall from Icebreaker. After Clementine finds them on Chorus Island, the two continue to clash, but Gur begins to teach Clementine about faith, Perennial, and other topics she had not been receptive to before. She is the only one who can see or hear his ghost: Perennial has bound them together. Gur is unable to communicate with his gods and unsure what would happen to him if he let Clem die. For that reason, despite hating her and being ashamed of his own perceived cowardice, they serve as a whisper in her ear to keep her from committing outright atrocities.
Valence
Valence and Gur meet when Valence visits the Church of the Resin Heart during downtime, but their first major interaction is after Gur's disappearance, when Valence telepathically contacts them on behalf of the church to make sure they are well. They see each other again during a vision in "Divine Attention". Gur Sevraq also invites Valence and the Rapid Evening to join Millennium Break.
While Valence is occasionally irritated with Gur for lecturing, they generally get along well. They have similar interests as religious scholars and worshipers of the True Divine and enjoy discussing the nature of faith. They are also both charged with uncovering the Exemplar.
This section contains spoilers for PARTIZAN Episode 38 onwards.
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Valence is deeply affected by Gur's death. It spurs them to redouble their efforts to find the parts of the Exemplar, a search which ends in their own death as well. After "The Red Light", Sovereign Immunity ends up uncovering records from Gur and Valence and giving them to Broun. This includes notes from their conversations on faith that Valence, the more grounded of the two, had been recording to someday turn into a book.
True Divine
The True Divine grants Gur Sevraq the ability to work miracles. This power is only available when the Portcullis Gates open and strengthen their connection. Past miracles have ranged from restarting a generator to hiding an entire mobile military fortress from the Principality.
This section contains spoilers for The Road to PALISADE 20: City Planning Department.
Click here to reveal.
After his death, Gur was unable to hear from the True Divine any longer.[4] In their introduction to "City Planning Department" they have clearly lost faith in the True Divine, describing them as "empty synecdoche for justice...so easily diluted and dispersed".[3]
Bond (Kingdom)
- Milli is right to distrust all who seek to direct her power, but she ought fight for those who share her dreams yet lack her strength.
Trivia
- In the postmortem, Austin said that in a live action adaptation Gur would be voiced by Chiwetel Ejiofor.
Quotes
“
We are driven by this one understanding: that history looms, not the way an ominous shadow casts over the land, but like a machine that weaves. It pulls threads together alike and not, according to pattern, material, and process. And as it stands, the Divine Principality will weave this age, this so-called Perfect Millennium, forever.
And so here is our outrageous idea, slipping from incoherence into necessity: we will work the loom of history ourselves. We will set the pattern, pull the cloth, slide the shuttle, and bring together each of our different threads into something that to look at it once complete is to see something so essential it is hard to imagine the world before it. A future unlike the past, a yet unnamed tomorrow. Together we will break this millennium.”
Notes
- ↑ Gur Sevraq is The Friend in the ROT13 cipher, and vice versa.
References
- ↑ PARTIZAN 09: DESERT SQUIRE - VANTAGE, 01:38:27 - 01:40:48
- ↑ PARTIZAN 13: A Captive Audience, 2:59:00
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 The Road to PALISADE 20: City Planning Department, opening
- ↑ PARTIZAN 36: The Witch in the Glass Pt. 2, opening