A few notes and deductions

[Guildenstern]

Just thought I'd get some things out for all to see, for review and confirmation that it seems to make sense.

-Jack's name is Jack Kluggman, but his REAL name is Jack Landers, and is the son of one Dr. Landers, who is working with Loki/Nyarlathotep for goals unknown. Last we saw of him, he'd apparently shut his soul off permanently in order to break free of the control of a bunch of Nazi ghouls. He broke ties with Ariel, and is on the run with Hook, Maria, and Thera.

-Thera is really Helana Bloodstone aka Hel aka Incarnate of Death. She's originally from Ancient Atlantis, and has Morrigan the Incarnate of Battle for an older sister, even though Morri seems to be all of 8 years old at the moment. There's some animosity on Morri's part, perhaps stemming from the conflict between their mother and their grandmother.

-Morri, Loki, Hephaestus, Tsukuri, Cal, and untold others seem to be part of a dual movement called the "Army of Man" and "Keepers of the True Word", whose goal seems to be to assure humankinds supremacy and freewill, though this may just be a face presented to the public to curry favor.

-Tsukari and Cal are the smartasses who seem to be simply competent muscle for the Army of Man. They were around for the capture of Kevin Graves, idiot cultist, and Sirrus, before he was cybernetically enhanced and placed in a position to kill god in a subconscious suicide attempt. Tsukari is a tengu, and I think Cal is as well, but I don't remember where I got that idea.

-Hephaestus was known as a monster hunter by the name of Nichstadt in the 19th century, before a psychic attack unlocked his true memories, where upon he presumably set about seeking out other incarnates, awakening them, and forming the core of the shadowy cabal that is the Army of Man. Dude also has a scarred eye and a big metal arm.

-Graves... is complicated, convoluted, and not completely known, so we'll skip him for now, other than mentioning he was leader of a joke group for the Army of Man.

-Most notable about the group was that one of the members was a spectacled woman by the name of Anna Nichstadt. She may or may not be related to Hephaestus. (And bacon may or may not be related to ham...)

---
Dr. Landers has been working on some sort of secret project involving altering humans to unlock their ultimate potential. Or something. Apparently there are five "children", of which Jack is the Third, and an Elizabeth is the Fifth.

Just on a guess, I'm thinking Liza Castillo, the girl with the missing bits who works for Control, is the Fifth child. This is mainly based on the talk between Doug and the Mysterious Spooky Voices about how the Fifth child was too paranoid for their purposes, and the thought of "Who else have we met who could take out a contingent of Nazi Ghouls and is insanely paranoid?"

---
So!

Liza is the science experiment sister to Jack who is the son of Landers who's bunking with Loki who's working with Hephaestus who's (probably) the father of Anna who works with Graves who's always getting mixed up with Sirrus who played the devil to Thera's angel and Thera is sister to Morrigan who was in Friday the 13th with KEVIN BACON!

So you see, it all ties together. Well except for Duke and Kain, but they can just go hang, you know?[/i]

[Seafog the 3rd]

WOW!
Way to lay it all out and bring it together Guildenstern. Here are my thoughts in review.
-I completely missed Liz as possibly being a Child.
-I don't think Jack shut off his soul, just his emotions. Shutting off his soul smacks too much of 'loosing yourself to gain yourself'. Where the point was to make him his own person. Can't do that if you don't have your soul.
-The Army of Man is working to ensure the supremacy of humankind over our home reality, but many of its leaders are Incarnates (who ARE human), and they have definate ideas on the heirarcy WITHIN humankind. Guess whos on top?
-Tsukari and Cal, Tsukari also told mouthface demonseed that she was angelic related. Does that mesh with the Tengu bit?
-Graves seems fairly straightforward to me. A not terribly bright beach bum, trying to stay alive and not work to hard, who always ends up in bad company or strange situations. Including constantly being related to Sirrus in some fashion or another. Much of it really being his own fault for persuing (path of least resistance) eternal life. He was part of the beach cult, left when it got too sexually disgusting, got old fast, joined that church probably in return for slowing his decay, Army of Man take down the Church, give Graves the body Sirrus was no longer using, eventually Sirrus gets bonded to the body again. Probably more to it eventually, but thats it right now.
-I wonder what that thing Kain turned into was, just before they got captured by the AoM.
-Loki is rather interesting in and of himself. He is very old, an original Incarnate, a Herald(?) for the Elemental Chaos Gods, powerful, has alot of big plots going at the same time, playing several sides off against everything else, gotta be insane to boot.
-Also some loose ends that may become more important later. Such as that Medusa chick, and Egyptian mummy dude who controlled Hooks (and a number of other musicians) canopic jars. Not to mention that there are levels of reality beyond what even the Incarnates can know and control.
-Where is Control going to fit into all of this.

Thats all I got right now.
Anyway, very cool post/analysis there.

[Guildenstern]

Looking back, I don't see Tsukari claiming any sort of relation to angels. I mean, she says she's working for the Knights Templar at the time, but that's the only connection I see to the host. As for the Tengu bit, well... http://strangedaze.comicgenesis.com/d/20050713.html. She turned into a giant bird person, which is where I got that from.

Loki... ach. Incarnate of Cunning? Trickery? Chaos? Seeing How Many People I Can Screw With At The Same Time? Who can say?

Also, I didn't try to get everything, just some of the more pertinent and twisting points.

Oh! Something I forgot to mention! Ahem: Werewolves will always get killed. ALWAYS!

[Seafog the 3rd]

Angelic related is something the AoM is NOT. So how could she work for the Templars? I got the impression she wanted to tell the demonseed something true, but that would not help him fight her, and was cryptic enough to be misinterpreted. So what WAS she telling him? And how IS she related to the Templars? Wait, who was it who created the Narrator cyborg? Was it the AoM or some other group? I'm just getting confused now, so never mind.

[Guildenstern]

Ah, I see part of the problem now. I was misunderstanding you when you said "angelic related". I thought you meant actually related to an angel, as in offspring or something, not related to the Host in the sense of working for/with them. Mea culpa.

In light of this new understanding, let me try again. First, I think I was wrong when I said she and Cal were working for the AoM. It may have been the other arm of the Incarnate conspiracy, the Keepers of the True Word. Alternately, when she was talking to the demon with teeth for eyes, it was a flashback to '99, and she may have changed employers, or the Templars may have fallen to the AoM since then, or the Templars may have been a shell conspiracy around the Incarnates. Who knows? Only Matt can say for sure.

As for the group that made the Smiling Assassin, I can only assume it's the AoM, but I know for fact that Cal and Tsukari were there for it. Bam: http://strangedaze.comicgenesis.com/d/20010730.html

[Guildenstern]

Oh, man, getting into full conspiracy mode for a bit, the mysterious voice has been manipulating Jack since the start!

Assuming the Voice was also the Chained Jack who convinced Jack to shut down his emotions to escape control of the ghouls, and furthermore had sent them after Jack specifically for the purpose of getting him to do so, we take the assumptions even further and suggest that the Voice did not just take advantage of the situation, but in fact arranged for Jack to be Chained in the first place!

If the Voice did in fact set up the end situation of convincing Jack to forsake emotional ties, and had control of the situation from very much in the beginning, then the real starting point of their interference with Jack's life would go all the way back to the Cult on the beach at the very beginning of the comic! The Voice arranged it so that the name on the death certificate of the corpse they tried to resurrect was Jack's true name, instead of the actual name of the corpse that's currently being cohabitated by Graves and Sirrus.

By changing that one name, the Voice set in motion Jack's encouter with the Chains, the emotional binding and behavioral freedom they brought with them, and the underlying pattern of the spell necessary for him to achieve the desired frame of mind for their conspiracy!

Hell, the Voice may have even arranged for Graves to be in the cult in the first place, so that the optimum level of incometent lackey-ness would be in place to find the corpse and the truename.

Which all really leads to the thought that if and when Jack ever finds out about this and who's behind it, he is going to be very, very displeased. All the more so if it's after he ascends to godhood.

... Matt, I really hope you come back to Jack and Thera some time in the future. I want to see how this all plays out!

[Seafog the 3rd]

Not to mention, how do Tengu even BECOME MEMBERS of a, well, human supremacy movement? What are tengu in SD anyway? Demons? Mutated or crossbred humans? Lycanthropes? Their association with the AoM gets wierder the more I think about it.

I also hope Matt comes back to Jack and company. I'd really hate to think of the story disappearing in the middle like that. As seems to have happened to Jackie's Fridge and Acid Reflux.

As for the Chains, I see them more as the monkeywrench/curveball/murphy in everybodys plans. The one that allows outcomes that noone anticipated, outcomes that our heros get to have a real say in forming. I think there is more to the 'Children' situation then we know. I get the impression they are something that has been concidered and fought over for a long time. Almost like they were part of a prophecy. Or at the very least an important part of the plans of one faction, and some of the other factions know it.

[Miroberus]

Excellent work at recapping everything, and pretty well spot on. Jack did indeed wall off his own soul. It was a split-second decision, done to stop himself from hurting those closest to him. And yes, there are consequences to that action.

And if the organization of the Keepers of the True Word seems convoluted, well, it is. It's not actually a single group, but made up of several smaller organizations working towards a common goal. And even then the histories of those groups are somewhat complex: The Army of Man is a descendent of the Knights Templar and the Order of Assassins, for instance. And Tengu are a form of Lycanthropy. How did they join? Let me put it this way: surviving the training from the Incarnate of Battle requires a level of resiliency that isn't possible from normal human bodies.

And I am continuing with Strange Daze, since all the ideas I've had lately are pretty much tied into it. I'm modifying the current storyline so that it fits in with the larger one. It might take some time to get that prepared, so I'm thinking about going back in and finishing the precursor story with Tsukuri, Cal, and Graves. We'll see how that goes.

[Zerethkat]

Tsukari is a tengu, and I think Cal is as well, but I don't remember where I got that idea.[/i]

The fact that they both like eating eyes is a big clue here. I re-read everything recently, and it wasn't _confirmed_ that Cal is a tengu, but circumstantial evidence supports it. (FAKE EDIT: As does Miroberus' referring to them as "The Tengu".)

And No-Soul Jack doesn't seem completely devoid of emotions. He's exhibited sarcasm, annoyance, and curiosity while under the influence of the chains, and (if I remember correctly), at least sarcasm in the new improved no-soul state.

As for Kain's device? Obviously some sort of Atlantean weapon.

Sorry about coming in late, I just noticed activity here.