When she was born with incredibly pale skin and bright blue eyes, she was immediately given a name. A name that meant everything to her people, a name that meant great power and prestige. The Taewon, the One Who Completes The Circle. Born seventy days after the last Taewon died, her birth was announced to everyone, and she was taken into the sanctuary temple of Gyeonpang to be instructed in all the ways she could uphold the sacred duties of a living god to her people.
She knew no name but that of the Taewon for her first seventeen years on Aria Prime. After all, she was a living god, the reincarnation of the last living god. She was beyond mortal knowledge. It was a deeply sacred role, and one foisted on a girl who grew up with a deeply lonely life. At times she resented her role. Other times she grew resigned to it. What she did know was that she was unhappy. Even her supposed childhood friends were intimidated by her… Taewon-ness.
Her mentors all said the same thing – that it was attachment to this life that she had to surpass. She had to embrace her role and be the living god the people needed. They decided that she had to go around the various temples to learn more of the diverse cultures of her planet, her people. It was at one of those temples that she was approached by two old people – a man and a woman. She looked at them questioningly. They looked at her with the same reverence everyone did, but there was something else in their eyes. Curious of this, she encouraged them to speak.
The man introduced himself as Hetai Youm and his wife as Michi Toihei. They explained their story, they only had one daughter, Rami, who they looked after. Rami was a very energetic woman, and fairly sexually liberated. She eventually fell pregnant by one of her lovers, and died shortly after childbirth. The Taewon raised her eyebrow.
“The baby was pale, with sapphire eyes and white fuzz on her head. That baby is you, Your Holiness. We… are your grandparents.” They said, uncertain of how a living god would react. The Taewon took a deep breath and closed her eyes, before ordering every one of her servants to leave the room and ensure that she was alone with her grandparents. “It is my divine will that you leave me in this room until I make egress”, she said in her best authoritative voice.
She then looked up at her grandparents and just broke down. It was so easy after a time to believe that she was just unusually selected, that she was ‘just’ the Taewon. Presented with the reality that she actually had a family cracked that delusion. Her grandparents slowly moved to console her. They got to talking, and she finally asked them if her mother ever came up with a name for her.
“Yes she did. It was Jutsuo, wasn’t it, Michi? Jutsuo Youm.”
Jutsuo Youm.
At the age of seventeen, she received the name that if not for an accident of birth, she would have received at that birth. Yet it felt right. Yet it felt like it was always her name.
While careful to maintain her divine image, she ensured that she could spend more time with her grandparents every chance she could get, as it felt like a balm on her lonely soul. Meanwhile, she was increasingly burdened by letters and orders as the priests deemed her ready to take on the other duties of her divine role. It is in those duties that she became far more aware of the delicate nature of Aria Prime’s situation in the Galactic Empire, and of the brewing civil war.
Sure, they would dub it a revolution later on, but every revolution is a civil war at first. Acutely aware of her impressive hold on the populace as their Taewon, and with growing knowledge of the power of the Empire’s Death Star, Jutsuo would shy away from public declarations, even if she privately reached out to some of the Rebels, and she eventually decided after the destruction of the Death Star to throw her hat, and her people, in with the Rebellion. She made the speech to her people in her most divine manner yet, invoking Aria Prime’s history and her predecessors’ wisdom – this she wasn’t lying about, she did have visions [or bad dreams?] of them counselling her to commit to what was “right and just”, not just what was easy – to justify the commitment to the Rebellion.
The following years were not easy.
Her people followed her, of course. Many out of respect and adoration for their Taewon, but most because they deeply disliked the Empire as is and she was just the final move. However, the Empire did not react well to this defection, and even though they were slowly collapsing, they had enough troops to make Aria Prime a misery for everyone there. She had to go into hiding a good few times, and had to quickly nip in the bud one or two of her priests casting doubt on if this was a good idea.
In the end, Aria Prime got off lightly, even though the people did not see it as that. She felt deeply responsible for all the deaths, and made sure to bless as many of the graves as possible, personally, deeming them holy martyrs, people who died for a sacred cause. She held many of their mourning relatives’ hands and mourned with them, gave them the chance to let out their emotions. This was far more personal and intimate than past Taewons – who were content to be the distant ‘wise’ scholar in their temples – ever did, and this gave her a strong intense reputation as the Taewon to many. The one who completed the circle, more than her predecessors.
The priests mutter, but her popularity continues to be sky-high.
After blessing her grandfather’s grave, Jutsuo and her Prime Delegate (she’s slowly constructing a kind of constitutionalism since she loathes paperwork) has received a request to name a Senator to the New Galactic Republic. Upon conferring, and making sure her Prime Delegate (a first cousin who’s a nun) is ready, she has elected to accept the post for herself. Aria Prime sees her not just as the Taewon, but as the Taewon, the one who led them out of the Empire and into the Republic, the one who holds mourners’ hands, the one who blesses the many graves of the holy martyrs.
But as she changes out of her holy robes into a white suit on board her spaceship, Jutsuo Youm hopes she can be more than that exalted role.
Can a goddess truly be a person?
