*Clears throat
I want to start by saying that I make a lot of declarative statements below, but that’s just the way I write. This is all just riffing and I don’t imagine any of it to be set in stone.
Yes! The unbalancing effect of the transcendence exodus would initiate the downfall, hoovering up resources whilst destabilising the already ravaged environment.
Now, the destabilisation could invoke all sorts of apocalyptic memes. There should probably be a flood of some kind, biblical in proportion, with deep seated memories ingrained into the survivors, perhaps a zombie plague of some kind thrown in for good measure.
But concurrently, there would need to be fantastic, barely conceivable happenings, chunks of land displaced from one side of the globe to another (mixing cultures), strange and unpredictable negative-energy weather systems, lightning sprites in the lower atmosphere and the like.
‘Need to be’ because we want our wasteland to not just be destroyed and… well, wasted but also as alien to the survivors as possible. Challenging in weird ways (the implications of the powers the entities in ‘Stalker’ exert on time and space in The Zone has always stuck with me). The very fabric of reality, and our assumptions about it are a foe to be overcome, a limb of the meddling post-humans, throwing their might in the faces of the survivors.
What have the survivors done to themselves to gain advantages in this scenario? What has driven Morrigan to seek out and scavenge tech? The humans, living in the shadows of the gods, would seek to emulate them, grafting technology to themselves, gaining advantage but paying terrible, de-humanising prices for that advantage.
The underlying theme, of course, being Transcendence. The trickle down effect debases the survivors, they cannot achieve the pure transcendence hoarded by the elites and must debase themselves with the table scraps (perhaps deliberately put their as experiments) left by the transcended elites.
This enforces the journey that Morrigan takes, the journey to a ‘real’ transcendence from a debased state on the negative side of the equation. Why is she the hero? Because she doesn’t just transcend from wealth, or even relatively comfortable poverty but from a twisted, fallen state. Her transcendence is strengthened by her enlightenment. Buhhda needed to see suffering, the very notion of which his family had protected him from, before he could set out on his quest.
Hmm, I see where you find this to be tricky. You don’t want to make it a clear shot, ‘she would have always been successful because she always was’ kind of deal.
However, there is a part of me that recognises some kind of gem in this rough. Jung’s ideas of the self. Directing our subconscious drives, somehow aware of the full journey we must take, before we have ever stepped out onto it. The Self can be our greatest friend and our most terrible foe. Perhaps something to be explored in there. Perhaps something to be abandoned, made impossible and lamp-shaded accordingly as an impossible plot device. ‘This is not an allowed mechanism!’
Oh! That’s neat. 2001 space-baby approves.
Damn yes! I actually missed this last night, Morrigan has been in my head for a while now, I mentioned her in another thread last year. But we’re obviously on the same page. However, I’d like to make it a little more troublesome. What is morality from the perspective of a god. Do you choose the deaths of a million to save a million and one? (Trolley problem exploration here.)
I agree wholeheartedly with the godess-ness. But I think we can invoke a trinity here.
- Her scrambling to find advantage with fallen-tech would denote her selfish drive.
- Her journey toward compassion would lead to her sacrifice.
- But her transcendence to godess-hood would be the top of the pyramid. ‘Beyond Good and Evil’ to borrow a quote from Nietzsche. She is the true Übermensch; the elites would be merely super powered, super intelligent humans, without a unifying morality.
The technology she encounters is like training wheels, an experiment to see how a human would react to that kind of expanded ability/consciousness.
I agree that the limitations of her experience/powers have to be along the order of what you have described. Still tied to a human conception of time and space but expanded slightly.
Pertaining to the already-transcended, I’m reminded of Iain Banks’ ‘Minds’ from the culture. Some of them are interested in human affairs, some are off in The Land of Infinite Fun and couldn’t give a toss what the bacteria are up to. I’m not sure that putting limitations on the transcended would be explorable with any degree of consistency. But I’m interested in hearing ideas. 
Perhaps it is enough to indicate that at least one of them is using our universe (and it’s closest vacuums in the many worlds), as a kind of sandbox for this experiment. Perhaps that transcended is her (but probably not, it introduces too much ‘fate’), perhaps it is just a chance experiment that can potentially lead to transcendence for a debased human. There are infinite many worlds, perhaps all containing spacio-temporal infinity themselves. Somewhere in those infinities, this story can take place.
I like this, the idea of a hostile side to her powers, this could also be our acknowledgement of a greater sphere, where the transcended who are not interested in human affairs have gone off into. Higher and more inconceivable orders of infinity to encapsulate the environment of the story. This would strengthen the value of her own choice to be our goddess, rather than abandoning or manipulating us as the others have done.
I don’t like the idea of the macguffin being a physical thing that she carries with her and presses buttons on (it could work, but in my mind it would be like a super-iPhone with all the ‘there’s an app for that’ associations. Pet peeve of mine, I’m afraid.). Perhaps more like a retro-virus reprogramming her mind and body. Something that is in some way tied to her physical-emotional state perhaps?
As to limitations; choices where there is no outcome of an acceptable nature? Her powers could also be developing as she came to terms with them, not fully fledged until the last instant before transcending. So, unpredictable, (again with the reference to Stalker but what the hey) based on her true subconscious desires and not on her conscious wants. She may allow friends to die because she envies them or is subconsciously angry at them. The dark reaches of her mind could be the limiting factor. Her shadow the enemy.
Or perhaps they just abandon this sandbox when the outcome is not to their liking, they have infinity in which to play/experiment. For those, of course, that even care about humanity and the earth, under the circumstances of our story, would be limiting themselves by choice.
I also dislike backwards time travel to a degree. I think the smudge of consciousness limitation I mentioned earlier allows some kind of exploration of that whilst imposing a specific limitation on it too.
Aye!
I think that is the ideal outcome that she is trying to learn how to do/cope with. Her inward journey, in learning how to bend her power to her will would lead her to this ability. Initially she would be reflexively ‘snapping’ to safety, with her awareness of the process developing like a skill. Or perhaps like a form of meditation practice. At first she is only following her instincts but soon comes to be able to calm herself in those situations and begin to choose from a myriad of options? Hmm, kinda like the Hulk, I guess. In a way. Maybe not.
I have not seen it but I’m about to. Cheers!
Phew. Grammar and speeling mistakes ahoy!
