While the faction of Heaven make themselves appear either like completely uncaring jerks or oddly Magnificent Bastards just asking for a punch in the mouth. Basically, every non human faction acts completely contrary to popular belief or philosophical understanding, so the only possible explanation is that the being known as Yahweh in the story is not the actual Judeo-Christian God of biblical fame, and the entire war is in actuality is planned by actual God to test both or either Humanity's faith or free will.
The test of faith is in "God's" message that Hell is inevitable for all humans so they just lay down and die and accept it. The humans that do are rewarded for their faith by being taken not to Hell, but true Heaven instead. The ones who do not, and start the Curb Stomp War against the armies of the afterlife, complete the test of free will.
Basically, God does not mind unquestioning faith, but He does not want boot-licking yes-men who go along with His every word like robots, either. That is not what Humans were created for. In fact, there are 2 examples of God actually doing this: the prominent 1st is God's command to Abraham to kill his son Issac (which God stopped before the deed was done) as a test of faith; the second is when another biblical figure (whose name escapes me right now) literally wrestles with a angel over one of God's commands to him. Afterwhich God commends him on this saying that at times His words should be scrutinized and not always blindly followed. That was the test of free will.
Basically, the entire war is to see who is unquestionably faithful, and who will not just cow-tow to the Almighty's every fickle whim and be willing to question God's reasoning (even if said question is presented as a SAM to the face). Also corallary to this, the other main reason of the Salvation war might be...
Since only a sincere request for Gods forgiveness and belief in Christ is all you need to enter the better part of the afterlife, perhaps God felt that current humans were becoming far too relaxed and maybe were abusing the current system (a person could technically kill someone then just ask for forgiveness and have their record of sin wiped clean). God perhaps thought that in this way salvation was far too easy and consequence free. So his solution was for Humanity to duke it out in a massive orchastrated Massive Crossover Battle of Ultimate Destiny to both make humanity learn and remember that Salvation is a privilege not a right.
Although if it is a right then it is a right like freedom it is not simply given but fought for and earned with literal blood, sweat, and tears.
- Now that is God's Plan.
- Who said it was breaking conservation of mass? It could simply be using the mass in its universe to create the bodies.
- And when humans find a way to get through it, they are gonna kill him, too.
- How? Physics pretty much stops working the way humans understand it on the other side of it. Bullets may turn to water, nukes burst into happy fun flowers meat into gravel, unlike heaven and hell, which weird though they may be are basically similar to Earth in nature. The other side of Minos gate simply is not.
- According to Stuart, the only reason we can't go there is because the rules to that dimension are too different from ours for them to interact. Not even nonorganic objects can get through. He says it represents the finality/mystery of death — true death — or something.
- It also works the opposite way too: our universe's rules are too different for them to exist in. Which makes them a non-factor. If we can't touch them directly and they can't touch us directly, what's there to fight about?
- Word of God from Stuart is that he actually is entirely human - just a very, very creepy human.
- More Wordof God. "The Targeteer" is actually based on a 1980s strategic analyst called Don Brennan, who was brilliant and affable but whose talents at gardening were worse than non-existent. "We used to joke that he could kill plants just by walking into the same room with them."
- There may actually be multiple Targeteers; he's just the only one that's been identified, in answering General Petraeus at his Heaven HQ.
- There are multiple Targeteers. Not all of them necessarily go by "Targeteer". They're a particular type of military contractor.
- There may actually be multiple Targeteers; he's just the only one that's been identified, in answering General Petraeus at his Heaven HQ.
- Jossed. In both cases the energy was going directly to the tyrants of both factions. Although there was no energy being generated by Hell.
- The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river, the Euphrates; and its water was dried up, so that the way would be prepared for the kings of the East. And I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs;
- Nope. But anyway, Michael know that the HEA will reach heaven very soon. He already has a plan for that.
- Interesting, but unlikely. Various celestials have referenced wars in which they drove off other pantheons, including a deal with the deities Caesar worshiped. Also note that those humans who don't go through the Minos gate wind up at St. Peter's gate, and those humans who don't go to Peter wind up at the Minos gate. Competition among other afterlives probably works the same way: A soul that goes to one place doesn't go anywhere else. Working out the exact mechanics could result in an interesting celestial immigration system, though, especially after other pantheons are located and agreements with them are made.
Yahweh and Satan were described as being beings that were like the Angels and Demons, but somehow supreme among them. If we consider the fact that the Forces of heaven and Hell considered themselves their own Nations with traditions, languages and government structures that were unique to them, then we can make the connection that they have a sense of Nationalism or Patriotism (one that is borne out of Religious adherence). In a Hetalia WMG, it's theorized that the nation-tans were once worshipped as gods by humans, before the rise of the big religions (Christianity, Islam, etc.). It could be that the "gods" of other alternate universes in the Salvation universe were the ancestors of modern nations, forced out by Yahweh and Satan (as mentioned the TSW's backstory). Yahweh and Satan could have been the nation-tans of the Angels and Demons (and were thus "brothers", following a TSW theory. Only, they were "brothers" in the same way that America and England were "brothers"). Of course, since Uriel is supposed to be Yahweh's brother, and Elhmas his son, then they may be nations as well. In this case, Uriel may be the Anthropomorphic personification of God's wrath as humans and Angels know it. This could also be an explanation for why Uriel's power has become less effective: humans just don't believe enough in it anymore, unlike the Baldricks and Angels. Elhmas may be Yahweh's son in the same way that Greece and Egypt were Ancient Greece and Egypt's sons, and he took over as Nation-tan for the Angels when Yahweh bit it. The reason why Yahweh and Satan both died was because they had become extremely weakened by the invasions, and the peoples of Heaven and Hell became so demoralized that their sense of being a distinct people died as well ("Their faith met our firepower. Our firepower won".). Even Abigor said that things would never be the same in Hell. While Elhmas took over in Heaven, Hell saw the complete thrashing of Hell, so they don't really have a nation any more. The old gods that survived went with their followers to other dimensions, and thus survived where other nations had died out. Ancient Rome, of course, joined up with his old boss Caesar to establish New Rome, which was recognized by his grandsons the Italy Brothers almost immediately. And the Targeteer(s)? Well, the one working for the United States may very well be Alfred F. Jones in one of his more Dark Fic-y moments, while the other Targeteers could be other nation-tans helping their people. In this setting, they would come off as rather creepy. Maybe the "Devils" spoken of could be the nation-tans?
- That would actually make for a good fanfic story, come to think of it. Somehow, Rome and Caesar rebuilding the Empire (with Italian backing) actually sounds pretty plausible in-story.
- The inspiration for this WMG actually came from the part of the story that mentioned the Italians as prominent backers of New Rome. The way it was written just made me think of an enthusiastic North and South Italy recognizing their grandpa's new "house" and offering to help set up. Of course, that means that Rome somehow got down to Hell from Heaven. But considering the fact that Rome was able to convince "God" to let him bug Germany for a while, and that the Yahweh of this story is reminiscent of Nero or Caligula, it probably wasn't that hard for Rome. It would also explain how Caesar evaded eternal torture: With Rome acting as a "go-between" for Caesar and these mysterious "other gods", he was probably able to call in a favour or two to cut Caesar a break. Other nations may have done this for a select few people (such as their favourite bosses or national heroes).
- Ok, now I'm convinced of seeing a fic like this come to reality. And the some. Undead-Habsburg Austria-Hungary anyone?
- With the various new factions appearing in Hell, many based on historical nations that don't exist anymore, there is a distinct possibility that new -tans are being born in Hell, much like America and his contemporaries (Canada, Cuba, etc.) popped up when Europeans arrived in the Americas. It would be great if they were personified as Zombies, and it would be humorous to see Austria and Hungary moonlighting as the "parents" to the undead Austrian/Hungarian faction(s). Also, I just realized, Yahweh from TSW could easily be the "Kami-sama" that Hungary talks to about hitting France with the frying pan (as well as giving Estonia that epic dream where he was in the "Nyotalia" genderbent universe). After reading TSW and seeing this "God" and his attitude towards his subjects (mortal and angelic), it would fit that he would be the comical jerk we see in the Hetlalia 'verse. Himaruya just focuses on the Comedic Sociopathy whilst Stuart plays it straight.
We have a Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart as a character, he mentions having helped a Doctor (capitalized in story) various times in a previous assignment, and his men are combat-tested against Gorgon-like threaths. At the end of the second book, Humans control Heaven and Hell, but there's an economic and political mess inbound for the Alliance, something that could help him take over. It's possible he somehow provoked all of this, and he may even have sabotaged Elhmas attempts at making Mankind's peaceful just to provoke this war, and that his other plans were all a distraction to prevent the Doctor from noticing this one (and had they been successful, it would have just been a bonus).
- He could have been the Targeteer that killed Abigor's plants by just being in the same room, covertly poisoning them just for the hell of it.
- Possible semi-confirmation from the bonus features incorporated in the Black Lagoon 1 Series 1 and 2 DVD set. The author said that many of the characters in Black Lagoon were based on people he'd met while doing research in Thailand. The similarities between Balalaika and the real officer on whom General Asanee is based are compelling. Both are generally calm, collected, funny, and smile favorably on people who amuse or interest them. Both are usually willing to negotiate before resorting to violence. They are both also ruthless, aggressive, assertive, take great pride in being a soldier and generate intense loyalty from their subordinates. If negotiations fail, both will regret the fact in a cooing voice before casually gunning down everybody in their way. Overall, the similarities are so great that it is hard to imagine the author of Black Lagoon didn't meet the real thing and use her as a base for Balalaika. That would make Black Lagoon's Balalaika and the Salvation War's General Asanee cousins of sorts. Also Roanapur appears to be based in part on a small town on the Thai/Myanmar border (with shades of Port Moresby, Saigon and Marseilles and a touch of Butte, Montana in the 1920s) where the real-life officer was stationed in the 1990s.
- Also, Doctor Kuroneko is Kuroneko, just cause imagining a gothic-lolita doctor (i.e. the aforementioned Kuroneko) is somehow hilarious.
However, Earth's economy is going to crash, HARD. Between war debt, the price fixing with massive inflation, and the entire Earth economy set to fight a war that now is over, is going to lead to some HORRID troubles in the coming years. However, Hell's economy will be booming. Ceaser's New Roman Republic is the only nation without a huge amount of war debt. An incalculable amount of money is being fueled into the place with people's inheritance and private investments are going to be coming in. Hell has massive amounts resources and land to do anything one can imagine.
Several new nations will be founded in Hell include a lot of political niche, such as a Libertarian state and a collectivist Marxist state, as enough of even the smallest political idioloegy will have millions of followers to create their own places.
Heaven is going to be a strange issue. Not much chance of economic growth, the humans there don't trust any other humans, angels are still trying to figure out what is going on.
Humans are going to find other pantheons and other gods, either through randomly making new portals, finding old unused portals in Heaven and Hell, having the Gods punch holes into the human lands, or some combination of the above. Some will go with the humans, others will try wage war. Belilie may ally himself with some of them, maybe.
Beyond, the split roads of chance will make the rest hard to predict.
- Economic issues confirmed: Fedex is reported as going out of business, and Barack Obama reflects on the fact that, with an economy fully geared towards war, they might not be able to work fast enough to return to a civilian-based economy before it all crashes down.
- Sadly not very likely, since in the Chick Tractverse, almost nobody seems to ever have heard of Jesus and Christianity appears to be a very low-key religion, rather than THE biggest religion on the planet (or at least in the Top 3).