Limbo
Page 16
In the Talmud, Samael (Wrath of God) is a seductive and destructive archangel, considered good and evil. In Jewish doctrines, he is known as the archangel of death. The idea of casting him as Lucifer (literally morning star or, as an adjective, lightbringer) came from Marcelo Hipólito, Brazilian author of Lúcifer—o Primeiro Anjo [Lucifer—the First Angel, in a literal translation]. I liked the idea and used it here.
The difference between the mythology and my version is obvious. Lucifer is generally regarded as Satan, the nemesis of God and humanity, bearer of misfortune and darkness. In Limbo, he is a jolly good fellow who gets the short end of the stick for everything that goes wrong in the world.
His sword, Mephistopheles, was also inspired by Hipólito’s work. Samael overpowers the beast and creates a sword with its essence.
Lilith
Lilith refused to lie below, as did Adam. She said, “The two of us are equal, since we are both from the earth.” And they would not listen to each other. She uttered God’s ineffable name and flew away into the air. God said, “If she wants to return, well and good. And if not, she must accept that a hundred of her children will die every day.” — Alphabet of Ben Sira
In Jewish folklore, Lilith was Adam’s first wife, but refused to submit to him. She existed before Eve, was intelligent and rebellious, and for not bowing to man, she was banished and later considered a demon.
She is said to form an unholy marriage with Samael, or Satan, with whom she breeds the first demons.
Most of her legends and personality seems to come from the Alphabet of Ben Sira, combining tales of female demons with the invention of Adam’s supposedly first wife. The latter stems from two contradictory accounts of humanity’s creation in the biblical book of Genesis.
Lilith is also portrayed as a succubus—a beautiful female demon who copulates with men in their sleep, spawning demon children. She’s also considered the Queen of Demons.
Her origins go back to Sumerian myths, in which female demons or wind spirits were called lilītu. She is never mentioned in the Bible.
In addition to the mythological interpretations, I took a lot of freedom with philosophical interpretations. I just scratched the surface of issues much more properly discussed by excellent thinkers. Kant, Descartes, Nietzsche, Aristotle, and Spinoza are some of them. If you, like me, have no pretensions to becoming a philosopher, I suggest you do it like I did: read books for beginners, from authors who comment on the texts of those excellent thinkers. Something along the lines of A Small Treatise on the Great Virtues, by André Comte-Sponville, and Sofie’s World, by Jostein Gaarder. Both of them, among others, inspired me and served as a foundation for Limbo.
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The tears of an angel. The sighs of a dying god.
The private Limbos. A tribute from the fallen.
These are the tales from Limbo, a collection of
short stories about its souls and infinite dimensions.
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About the author
Thiago d'Evecque is a Brazilian indie author. He writes the stories he likes to read: fantasy with humor, action, and just a touch of dark.
He makes covenants with abyssal gods hoping to gain more hours in the day to finish his backlogs of ideas to write, books to read, things to watch, and games to play. Not always in that order.
Plus, you know, to socialize with the other humans in his life.
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1. However, like revenge, it causes the same feeling of emptiness and emotional incompleteness.
2. If you consider books, video games, instrumental music, comics, sitcoms, series, anime, manga, YouTube, podcasts, Adventure Time, and exorbitant portions of coffee as an adult, we are natural friends. Otherwise, don't judge me. I need help.
3. If you argue on the Internet without capitalizing everything or mentioning Hitler or Nazism, you lose.
4. I don't understand why he has to wait for Judgment Day if his sentence has already been passed. It's pure psychological torture.
5. Tomoe greatly appreciated the sensitive art of separating head from body. That's what she does the most on Heike.
6. Hence the chapter title The Song of Justice.
7. My hair also turned gray from an early age, but of all the things I’ve been called me in my life, nothing came close to “enlightened.” Perhaps the least bad was “cotton swab.”
8. Eleos may have been the first emo in History. Sources needed.
9. It sounds a lot like the concept of "where there’s smoke, there’s fire." There has to be some truth to these tales, right? People wouldn't invent legends like this just for fun. No, no. No one invents things out of nothing, in a vacuum. All creations have a historical background. Right?