“Cal”, Callidora, Moon Order, Evocati, Maiel’s leader
Imagining the armor of Zion in The Trailokya Trilogy came about through the long years that it took for this series to finally make it onto paper.
If you’ve been following the blog, especially pieces written about the series, you know that a great majority of my work comes from dreams that I have had. A long time ago, I learned to pay attention to them. Whether they were precognitive, which still blows my mind, or just disjointed sessions in channel surfing, I listened. There never was much I could do with any of the information my brain was processing. However, from time to time there were such lucid stories told. One of those became OP-DEC: Operation Deceit.
I’ve been dreaming things that made it into Trailokya since I was a little girl. One of those things was seeing the armor. Often, I am in the character of Captain Maiel. Part of that characterization is wearing the armor. Almost always it was already on, or activated. Years later, the dream that revealed how that happens came to me.
Luthias, Order of Pritanni, Evocati, Guardian
Walking along, the simple gesture of reaching toward my shoulder and tapping the penannular, which had little to do with the greater portion of the dream, became a pivotal answer.
If you’ve read the first book, you’ll already know that each faction, called Orders, is marked by their various armor and penannular. The penannular bears the mark of the order and in many cases, their rank. For instance, in the Moon Order, the phases of the moon stand for rank. Moreover, the device is nanotechnology. It houses all the material that makes up their armor, which forms over their sattva (body) as needed.
The Moon Order armor is different from the Sun Order Armor in that one is cobalt and silver, and the other is sunshine gold. The armor reflects the order.
But why swords and armor when we’ve evolved to guns and fatigues?
When you’re talking about immortals, I think the answer to that becomes a little more obvious. If they can’t be killed, what good is an AR-15 going to do? Not much good at all. Fatigues, might be useful, as in camouflaging their presence, but they can do that by manipulating the energy around them, so they have that built in (or rather, it’s part of the penannular’s power).
You see, the weapons they use to dispatch the enemy are tools given to them by Kind Adonai, who has the ultimate authority on who will live and die (permanently in the sense of the book). The swords and knives are extensions of his reach, his energy and will. Perhaps, their symbolism instead of their reality is what is really more important. After all, they serve as conduits of power.
Can the armor be pierced?
The armor and shields can be pierced. You’ll see that in later episodes, but you also see that in the first book with a certain guardian. Although duta and sattva cannot be killed by one another, they can be damaged to the brink of death. I think that is far worse. Imagine what it must be like to have to lay around in a sick bed healing for however long it takes for your energy to return to full tilt. Perhaps your legs have to be reformed in that process. Would it be painful? How long would it take? Can others give some of their energy to help you build yourself back up?
To get the answers to these questions and more, you should be reading the series!