“
My name is Gur Sevraq, and I have stolen the Future.”
Gur Sevraq (/gər səvˈrɑːk/ or /gər sɪvˈræk/) or The Friend[note 1] is a reported miracle worker and the leader of the Church of the Resin Heart. He stole the Divine Future prior to the start of PARTIZAN.
Appearance
Gur is a spider-like humanoid synthetic with eight limbs, which are normally hidden under their clothes. They have 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.
In his first appearance, Gur wears long cloaks and robes layered over one another in natural colours (tans, khakis, browns, and very light pale sand tones). These clothes include 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] In his second appearance, he wears different fabrics, this time 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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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 naivete 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 and Involvement
PARTIZAN
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Spoiler warning! This section contains major spoilers for all of PARTIZAN. Tread carefully! |
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 sets out to walk the Prophet's Path on the 1000 year anniversary of Logos Kantel's own walk. The ambush during this journey leads to him being held as a somewhat-willing captive by his former escorts, the Rapid Evening. During this time Gur first communicates telepathically with Valence, shortly before the True Divine's attention turns to Partizan and they are instructed to assemble the Exemplar.
His kidnapping makes him an increasingly important symbol for various factions of the Principality. It also serves as a pretext for an intensification of the Principality's civil war, with Stel Kesh blaming Stel Apostolos for their disappearance.
When the Rapid Evening takes Fort Icebreaker, Gur helps to hide it from the eyes of the Stels. When Millennium Break forms he uses the opportunity to spread the message of revolution, but does not run in Millennium Break's elections.
After Millennium Break seizes Cruciat, with Clem about to be ousted, Gur has an argument with Clem that culminates 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 washes up on the shores of Chorus Island, and eventually finds Gur's ghost trapped in a caved-in room. He advises her initially on faith and continues to serve as her advisor when she takes the Reflecting Pool.
PALISADE
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Spoiler warning! This section contains major spoilers for all of PALISADE. Tread carefully! |
In the five years since the events of PARTIZAN, Gur's ghost has continued to haunt the Witch in Glass. When the Figure frees themself from the Witch in Glass, Perennial transfers Gur's ghost over: they no longer haunt the Witch, and now haunt the Figure.[4] Aboard the Blue Channel, Gur tells Figure about the tapes that Brnine has of conversations between themself and Valence, leading Figure to watch the tapes.[5]
The Puppet
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Spoiler warning! This section contains major spoilers for all of PARTIZAN. Tread carefully! |
The puppet of Gur Sevraq, a.k.a. the false Gur Sevraq, is an imposter created and controlled by the Curtain of Divinity which, following Gur's death, stole his body and reloaded it with an old memory core and stolen or secret recordings from before he died.[6] The Curtain uses the puppet for propagandistic purposes and to distort the messages Gur conveyed during their life.
In their first speech, the puppet remains "clearly wounded and broken" from Gur's fight with Clementine. By the beginning of PALISADE, they have become a symbol and prophet of New Asterism, reuniting both sects of Asterism and adjusting their philosophies to aim adherents toward settler-colonialism. Their speeches characterize Palisade as a garden which must be tended 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.
Click here to reveal.
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.[7] 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
- ↑ PALISADE 25: An Impossible Ideal Pt. 4
- ↑ PALISADE 29: Honesty and Integrity Pt. 2
- ↑ PARTIZAN 38: The Red Light
- ↑ PARTIZAN 36: The Witch in the Glass Pt. 2, opening