You see, Assam or Hakeem or Mustafa or whatever those blood-parched devils call their primordial god-monster-father, he's a severed god, too. Just as was Malkav, he was hewn into bits and scattered into the mouths of his younglings. The same thing. Only - and this is an "only" you need to pay careful heed to, O best beloved - Assam did not settle into the minds of his childer. Where did he go? Well, what does an Assamite love best? Learn this, and you learn where their own forebear dwells.
But that's why they're not the beasts they once were: he stirs in them, just as Malkav stirs in us. And oh, I feel sorry for us all when the Assamites start vomiting up their father-god into a communal vessel so that he can stand on bare feet under the night sky once more.
—Vampire: The Masquerade - Clanbook: Malkavian (Revised)
The Gems were once a single unit, a lone entity. They were a sentient being of limitless power. At the time, this being was the only living thing that existed within any and all realities. It was all that was and all that was was it. This being was infinity and forever. No one would fault you if you were to call it God. What other name would fit it? But I doubt it ever had a name or any use for one, for it was more alone than any being has ever been. All that was was already part of itself. There was no other in its life. A more desolate existence is beyond imagination. I believe that is why it chose to put an end to itself. But such power does not give up the ghost easily. From its ashes rose all that is currently reality, in all its forms. The core of this being's might was reincarnated in the form of the six Infinity Gems. They are the ultimate in power, the darkest secret in all the universe. It was by mere chance that I happened upon it while studying the Well's depths. Can you believe it? The greatest secret of the ages sitting out in plain sight for eons, waiting for someone to notice it. With such power under my control, I might sit at Death's side... as her equal.
—Thanos, The Thanos Quest:
Magnus: This is an old story, and one that has many meanings, but in this case the metaphor is so direct that it is as close to literal truth as I can show you. (Magnus shows Iobel a vision of a statue sitting on the edge of a cliff. The statue topples over the edge and shatters on the ground below)
Iobel: The statue is you.
Magnus: I fell and was broken into many pieces, some small, some large, but all part of a whole, and each less than that whole.
Iobel: You are just one piece. A divided being, each part separate from the other.
Iobel: The statue is you.
Magnus: I fell and was broken into many pieces, some small, some large, but all part of a whole, and each less than that whole.
Iobel: You are just one piece. A divided being, each part separate from the other.
"And so [Hydaelyn and Zodiark] fought, and they fought, and they fought. And in the end… Hydaelyn was victorious. With all Her strength She smote Him—dealing a blow so devastating that it split the very fabric of reality. And thus was Zodiark banished and His being divided."
—Emet-Selch, Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers
