Latest / Mythic Mind Games / 30 - Oblivion and the Knight of Faith

Transcript

30 - Oblivion and the Knight of Faith · Mythic Mind Games

• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Here it holds true that only the one who works
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: gets bread, that only the one who is in anxiety
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: finds rest, that only the one who descends into the
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: lower world rescues the beloved, that only the one who
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: draws the knife gets Isaac, soaring, carekeguard, fear, and trembling.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: The story of Oblivion is unique among the Elder Scrolls titles,
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: and fairly unique among role playing games in general. See
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: in Morowin you are the Nervaren, In Skyrim you are
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: the dragon Born. In both cases, you really embody the
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: Chosen One trope. You're a unique individual who alone is
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: able to save the world from disaster. Everything, like the
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: center of the narrative, really depends on you. But in Oblivion, however,
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: you actually aren't the chosen One. You are not truly
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: the one that the story is about. At the very beginning,
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: you discover the importance of the emperor curial septum in
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: his line. So long as the Emperor bears the Amulet
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: of Kings, the gates of Oblivion are held at bay.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: And should that line be broken, then Marouna's Dagon will
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: surely consume all of Tamriel into his realm of oblivion. Thus,
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: with the death of Ural Septum the Seventh right at
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: the beginning of the game, the oblivion crisis is at hand,
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: and your job is not so much to secure victory yourself,
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: but rather to secure the victory of the Imperial line,
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: which places Martin Septum, the illegitimate son of Urial Septum
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: the Seventh, at the center of the story. This is
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: Martin's story, and you're here to make sure that it
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: comes to its fulfillment. Your task is to ensure that
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: he carries out his task, much the same way that
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: same wise Gamgi, whom Tolkien identifies as the true hero
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: of the Lord of the Rings, is tasked with ensuring
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: that Frodo accomplishes his task. You know, if somebody were
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: to be asked who's the hero of Lord of the Rings,
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: I think most people would say Frodo, but Tolkien actually
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: says no, the principal hero of the Lord of the
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: Rings is actually Sam, because it is Sam's humble virtue
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: of service that allows Frodo to carry out his own
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: narrative task, at least to the extent that Frodo can
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: do that. I mean, I guess I won't spoiler of
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: the Rings, but most of you probably know how that
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: turns out. But nonetheless, Tolkien identifies Sam as the principal hero,
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: despite the fact that he plays something of a secondary
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: role to the more primary character. Likewise, to jump franchises again,
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: you know this is Obi Wan Kenobi who let Darth
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: Vader strike him down so that he could become more powerful,
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: not in serving himself or even its own ambitions to
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: serve the good to the light side of the forest,
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: but rather he allows himself to be struck down so
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: he can become more powerful as he serves Luke in
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: accomplishing the task that is set out for Luke, and
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: so embracing such humble, sacrificial service, Obi Wan became fat
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: more powerful than he would have been on his own
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: in opposing the forces of evil in his own strength,
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: his strength rightly belonged to another, and when he relinquished
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: his strength in service of helping the other accomplish his task,
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: while Obi Wan actually became more powerful because for the
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: true hero, the important thing is not so much that
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: he is the one who achieves victory, but rather the
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: important thing is that he plays his part in seeing
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: victory achieved. Right he doesn't have to be the on
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: achieving victory. He achieves victory in seeing victory achieved. That
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: there's an important difference there, and so such a hero
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: is loyal, even to the point of death, to all
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: who are on the side of good. And he has
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: the wisdom to know what role people are to play,
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: and he plays his role in helping them fulfill theirs.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: And so he recognizes the unity that goodness provides an
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: opposition to the fragmentation of evil, because the obvious reality
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: is that Luke would not rise to his ideal form
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: without the sacrifice of obi Wan, and obi Wan would
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: not r eyes to his ideal form without his sacrifice.
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: Freda would not accomplish his mission without Sam, and Sam
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: would not accomplish his mission without sacrifice. Martin Septim would
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: not preserve Tamriel without the hero of Kavach, and the
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: hero of Kavach would not be a hero at all
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: if you are not willing to plunge himself into oblivion
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: and obscurity in order to ensure Martin's victory. Thus, true
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: heroism is not concerned with being seen as heroic, but
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: rather with being heroic. And for more on this, let's
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: talk a bit about the Knight of Faith as described
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: by the Danish existentialists Soaring Kirkey Guard. Now, according to Kirkegarden,
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: the Night of faith is the highest ideal of human
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: existence that someone might embody. This is someone who does
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: not place their hope in worldly fortune, but nor do
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: they live solely in accordance with rational reserve such as
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: we get in Stoicism. The one who merely forsakes worldly
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: fortune is that he calls the Knight of infinite resignation.
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: This is like the Stoic for the Knight of infinite
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: resignation is the one who resigns themselves from all finite goods.
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: And that's where they end. And this is what we're
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: encouraged to do by the likes of Seneca, Epictetus and
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: the emperor philosopher Marcus Aurelius. Now, the Knight of Faith
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: goes beyond this resignation. They sacrifice all worldly goods. They
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: sacrifice their relationship to fortune, to good fortune with the
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: confidence that is confides with faith that all will be
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: returned back to him more fully. In fear and trembling,
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: which is where I'm going to be mostly pulling my
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: careguard material today. Careyguard writes here it holds true that
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: only the one who works gets bread, that only the
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: one who is in anxiety finds rest, that only the
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: one who descends into the lower world rescues the beloved,
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: That only the one who draws the knife gets Isaac.
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: The Knight of faith is the Orpheus who actually rescues
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: his eurriticity, the Psyche who recovers beauty from Persephone to
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: make unget beautiful, and the Abraham who sacrifices Isaac only
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: to receive him back more fully his Now these may
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: seem like dramatic connections to bring into the context of oblivion,
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: but that's only because it's easy to miss the magnitude
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: of what the hero and Oblivion does amidst the repetitive
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: nature of gameplay mechanics. But in effect, he's doing the
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: same sort of thing that he is sacrificing his own legacy.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: It's certainly his own self preservation that he might enter
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: into hell for the sake of martin salvation as emperor,
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: and in so doing he partakes of that salvation himself
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: and all of Tambriel with him. The reality is that
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: we're all going to enter into oblivion. At some point
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: or another, chaos will consume our perceived order. Trusted allies
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: will betray us. Occupation and income might be stripped away
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: through no fault of our own. Great sickness might befall
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: us or those whom we love. Each assault of chaos
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: is a gateway to oblivion, so to speak. But the
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: Night of Faith does not wait for the four of
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: oblivion to pour out. No, he enters into oblivion willingly,
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: with the faith that he will emerge on the other
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: side in victory, that he will come back holding something
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: of value that he did not hold before, a sigil stone,
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: so to speak, which he is able to use to
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: strengthen himself on the road ahead. Now to really drive
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: in what he means by Knight of faith. The Knight
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: of Faith here is not necessarily the monk who lives
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: apart from the so called normal world. No, he's somebody
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: who actually enjoys the world immensely, even more so than
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: the most bourgeois hedonists. In fact, Kirkyguard says, the Knights
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: of infinite resignation. Right, these are our stoics. They're pretty
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: easily recognizable. Their walk is light and bold. But they
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: who carry the treasure of faith are likely to disappoint
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: for externally, they have a striking resemblance to bourgeois Philistinism,
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: which infinite resignation like faith, deeply disdains. And so when
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: you're talking about the hardcore stoic who says, well, I'm
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: just not gonna have any part in worldly fortune because
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: it's all passing away. I'm just going to cast myself
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: on fate, like that sort of monastic stoicism, it looks
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: really impressive because of their obvious display of integrity, obvious
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: display of self restraint, self discipline, and these are commendable things.
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: But he's saying here, is that the Knight of Faith,
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: whom Kuker guard actually places above in value, above this
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: stoic Knight of resignation. Well, he says, the Night of
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: Faith is actually going to look really ordinary because he
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: actually enjoys the very things that in other sense he disdains.
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: Because remember the Night of Faith. Well, this is the
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: hero who renounces the world with the expectation of recovering
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: it again, this is the kind of person who recognizes
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: the deceit of temporal fortune. But this is precisely what
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: allows the Knight of faith to enjoy temporal fortune. They
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: don't rely on passing fortune as absolute as many of
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: us tend to do, but they instead recognize that all
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: temporal joys are fleeting, and so they can hold them
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: with an open hand, counting them as if they are
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: already lost. But into doing they're able to enjoy them
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: while they are still in their hand, with the constant
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: reminder that fortune today is not a guarante or of
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: what awaits tomorrow. No, all goods are gifts. All established
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: order is a gift that is temporary within this moving
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: world of chaos, which is rife with potential for gateways
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: to oblivion. And so the goods that we have are
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: gifts that could be recalled at any moment. And so
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: as the night of faith, we celebrate and we enjoy
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: the good that we have along with our bourgeois philistine brethren.
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: But we do so with anchored hope in the eternal
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: that fortune can never plunder. Indeed, we are able to
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: enter into oblivion itself with the expectation that in the
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: end all will be well, and that we will be
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: strengthened for the journey ahead by not waiting for oblivion,
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: but instead entering it willingly, we are able to plunder
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: its riches instead of allowing its forces to plunder our own.
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: And the reality is that in enacting this myth, we're
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: taking within our souls the very treasure that we recover
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: through the enacting of the myth. But to come out
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: on the other side of the myth as a hero,
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: as the better orpheus. It is imperative that you don't
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: stay in oblivion. You keep an eye toward the land
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: of the living. You don't forget why it is that
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: you're there, lest you become lost in the chaos, lost
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: in despair, mistaking it for real life. And this is despair,
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: which in the Turkey Guardian sense, should be distinguished from
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: mere depression. Right, there are all kinds of things that
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: can feed into depression, but despair is a really condition
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: of the will. This is where you abandon hope itself.
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: This is where you abandon the meaning of life, You
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: abandon that which makes life worth living. You lose your
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: very self. That is what he identifies as despair, and
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: that's something that we can easily become consumed by during
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: our ventures into oblivion, especially when oblivion enters into us,
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: and so we enter oblivion with an eye to the
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: land of the living. And we enter with the faith
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: that we are moving into the grave, with the expectation
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: of resurrection, that we're going to be recovering that which
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: we are laying down through this venture through the portal. Now,
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: how do we rise to this ideal that Careguard lays
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: out for us? Well? According to Kirkeguard, purity of heart
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: is to will one thing. He writes, the Night of
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: Faith will have the power to concentrate the conclusion of
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: all his thinking into one act of consciousness. If he
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: lacks this focus, his soul is dissipated into multiplicity from
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: the beginning, and he will never find the time to
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: make the movement. He will continually be running errands in
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: life and will never enter into eternity, for in the
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: very moment he approaches it, he will suddenly discover that
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: he has forgotten something and therefore must go back. And
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: if that temptation doesn't describe our experience with Elder Scrolls
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: or open world games in general, perhaps especially the bethesta
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: titles of losing focus on what is that we're doing
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: and just going off in all kinds of directions. But
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: the Night of Faith doesn't get distracted with endless side quests.
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: Remember what it's all about, oblivion. Gates are opening, not
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: only in your own life, but in the world around you,
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: and as part of this world that has allowed the
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: gates to open, you have a responsibility to close them. However,
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: you can never save the world until you learn to
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: renounce it. Only by refusing to tether yourself to fleeting
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: goods can you discover the good that makes good things good,
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: the beatitude that fortune can never take away, but that
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: continually stands within your reach if only you would reach
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: for it. When you renounce the world and hold on
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: to that line of beatitude, the paradox is that you
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: actually gained the world back more fully precisely because you
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: are not trying to grasp it as if you could,
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: and so you receive the good things in your life
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: with the open hand of gratitude and admiration, because you
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: know that even if they were to pass away from you,
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: you still have what you need, and so you are
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: able to make the necessary sacrifices of that which never
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: properly belong to you. This is why Socrates is able
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: to look down the court of Athens that is about
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: to unjustly execute him, and he says to this court,
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: no matter what you do, even if you kill me,
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: you can never do harm to a good man. And
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: thus he is able to enter into oblivion willingly. His
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: life was meaningful because he did not cling to it tightly.
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: He learned to die before he died, and so death
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: lost its power. And so enter into oblivion willingly. Plunge
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: yourself into the chaos that breaks into life, that you
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: might bring it more fully into order. Play the hero,
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: help others to fulfill the roles that they have to play.
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: And for your part, play the hero, not so you
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: will be hailed as a hero, but so that you
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: might be a hero. As kerke Guard says, anyone who
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: loves God needs no tears, no admiral. He forgets the
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: suffering in the love. Suffer as you must, but do
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: not heed the suffering. For here it holds true that
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: only the one who works gets bread, that only the
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: one who is in anxiety finds rest, That only the
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: one who descends into the lower world rescues the beloved,
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: that only the one who draws a knife gets isaac.
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: Until next time God speaks