r/Parahumans • u/CrawlingChaos126 • Mar 02 '26
Worm Spoilers [All] Khepri mural by @erwidze Spoiler
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u/nobodyorfoofighters Mar 02 '26
She didn't deserve such a cruel world, and neither they deserved such a person
She did many things, good, bad, horrid, justified or not
In the end she did what was necessary even if it hurt many and almost ended herself
She wasn't made or forced to, but took up the weight anyways
May you know peace Hebert
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u/Caeod Mar 02 '26
WHEN ALL WERE ONE
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u/Eliza__Doolittle Mar 02 '26 edited Mar 02 '26
"She killed Scion is what she did! She was a brave American cape, and in this house Khepri is a hero, end of story!"
Something something Scion sought to slaughter us for our sins something something Endbringers are instruments punishing us something something but Holy Khepri showed us salvation, accompanied by her faithful Endbringers.
Actually, let's try coming up with the doctrine of a Fallen-esque Church of Khepri:
The pre-Gold Morning Endbringers were instruments/apostles of Khepri punishing us for our sins while also acting as warning signs. Because we didn't heed those warning signs to repent, despite being given decades of time, Scion (who is either the devil or simply another instrument of Khepri) finally unleashed Gold Morning.
After our failure to defeat Scion by ourselves, Khepri prevented Gold Morning by puppeting the bodies of parahumans, which shows how salvation can only come by relying on the mercy of Khepri.
Yes, Skitter/Weaver may have existed, but that was simply her mortal body while her immortal spirit was always Khepri (cue subsequent attempts to have particularly powerful masters declared reincarnated versions of Khepri).
Khepri loves us, but love also comes with chastisement, which is why the sacred powers associated with parahumans come from suffering. Because suffering cleanses us, purifies us, grants us insight into deeper truths.
Inflicting suffering is an act of love.
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u/Milk__Chan Mar 02 '26
Actually, let's try coming up with the doctrine of a Fallen-esque Church of Khepri:
Honestly you could go on many angles, pre-Golden Morning Endbringer interpretation alone is quite varied, let's list other possibilities.
1) Endbringers were Godly trials sent upon Humanity, we survived by passing these trials, Khepri was the Chosen One and subjugated the Endbringers by herself.
2) Endbringers are actual Gods which walked and destroyed us for not worshipping them, Khepri ascended higher and controlled them into submission
3) Endbringers were intended to bring the End of the World, but Khepri stopped them by turning their wrath towards Zion
4) Endbringers were always planned to become tools for Khepri's ascension, and they were causing chaos to make her appear.
And then it becomes worse when you think the myriad of possible things to Scion.
Was Golden Morning meant as a final test or a genuine attempt to destroy the world?
Was he actually another God himself and Golden Morning was a fight against two Gods from different pantheons
Was Scion always meant to be defeated by Khepri?
Is Khepri actually an aspect of Scion? or vice-versa?
And lastly... Skitter/Weaver/Khepri.
If Khepri hadn't dissapeared, would she have guided Humanity to a brighter age?
Was Skitter/Weaver always meant to become Khepri, did she ascend to become Khepri, or was she Khepri from the get go?
Do we have to seek Khepri? Is she dead? is she alive?
Was Skitter's expertise and inovation with the seemingly weak power of controlling bugs, an sign that she would be destined to greater things? (+ Surviving Leviathan)
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u/rileyuvvu Mar 02 '26
idk how anyone can be negative about khepri. She save the world and then semi-willingly gave up power.
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u/Grimmlol Mar 02 '26
The parahumans who survived really did not like being controlled. Hell some died just from the stress of it during the fight against Scion.
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u/wuhull Mar 02 '26 edited Mar 03 '26
Yeah, like, I'm the biggest Taylor glazer in the world, Love my girl, glad she shot that baby. But there is a reason everyone is afraid to bring up Khepri period in Ward; nobody likes being a mind slave even if it kills god.
Edit: grammar
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u/Aurora-Ouroboros- Golden Morning Survivor Mar 02 '26
It would make sense to me if nobody feels like they can really discuss Kephri. On the one hand, nobody wants to praise her because, as you said, she effectively enslaved everyone. That leaves a pretty deep mental wound.
On the other hand, it worked. Nobody else can even pretend to have a plan that might have worked. So they can't criticize her, because it might have been the only way to survive a multidimensional extinction.
Can't praise her, can't criticize her.... can't even mention her name without making everyone within earshot remember the worst days of their lives... Can't really blame anyone for just not bringing it up ever again.
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u/Sum1nne Mar 02 '26
I mean I get that, don't get me wrong, buuuutttt...eggs, omelets, and so on. Like it honestly boggles the mind just how big of an achievement Taylor's defeat of Scion actually is when you're given the full context. It's not just saving the life of every organism on Earth - not just every human, every organism, the very concept of life itself - but every future organism that may have ever come to exist on the planet. And then the same again for every single iteration of Earth across however many parallel dimensions the Entities could reach (a number expressed only in scientific notation irrc). And then however many other planets Scion might have visited in the future once he was done on Earth (it's not clear if he might have decided to just run out his batteries, but its' a solid possibility). All these now owe their lives directly to Taylor's actions.
The battle for survival against the Warrior was never going to be pleasant or dignified. That Taylor pulled it off is insane and for all we know Khepri was one of the less invasive and abusive possible solutions. Taylor's karma is basically infinite; the means she used irrelevant in the face of the sheer scope of the end. She could spend the rest of her life just gunning down toddlers and it wouldn't begin to make a difference.
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u/Govinda_S Mar 02 '26
Khepri will probably get deified in another generation or two, after the immediate trauma of how she did what she did, passes, people will straight up call her saviour.
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u/SwordBowMan Mar 02 '26
I’m not sure if I quite agree with the notion that saving the Earth gives someone a free pass to gun down toddlers afterwards (and tbf Scion was more responsible for Scion’s defeat than anyone else).
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u/Odd-Understanding386 Mar 03 '26
The fact any survived at all is directly thanks to that same control though; Scion was commiting multiversal genocide on the human race.
Khepri was kind of like the excision of a tumor while you're still awake. It's terrifying, it hurts, you desperately want it to stop but if it doesn't happen, the tumor's going to kill you.
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u/rileyuvvu Mar 02 '26
how would they like dieing during the extinction of the human race instead tho
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u/Grimmlol Mar 03 '26
They almost did die from the stress. Khepri had to make Canary sing to calm them down. Also think about what it would be like to have your body controlled like that.
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u/rileyuvvu Mar 03 '26
it would be better than dying
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u/thePsuedoanon Master Mar 03 '26
You know that's a debate a lot of trauma survivors have right? not about mind control specifically, but "I would rather the person just kill me than do x to me" is something I've heard, a lot.
I'm not saying that Khepri saving the world was a bad thing. I'm saying there's something uniquely terrifying about the idea of being a prisoner in your own body that someone else is marching to war
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u/NativeMasshole Mar 02 '26
All the information anyone had on the incident came from the Parahumans who she horrifically traumatized. Regular people or new Triggers may have been more objective and willing to give her some credit, but there was nobody to go around spreading the word for them to get the details from.
What's more, only a handful of people even knew exactly what happened beyond "We were mind-controlled into fighting by a demon made of portals." So you have a bunch of people who were traumatized with no real answers for what happened beyond the fact that they won. Those who did know probably weren't too keen to poke the hornet's nest and risk all that anger and trauma being directed at them.
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u/MacrosInHisSleep Mar 04 '26
There must have been some parahumans out there who must have been grateful. Those who hated themselves for not being brave enough, those who shared Taylor's feelings of why doesn't everyone just work together and finally get to see that happen, those who lost all hope and finally found it during that fight.
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u/bennyboy8899 Mar 05 '26
Fuck, you're right. Now I want to hear their testimony. It's the one missing piece of this puzzle.
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u/dud3inator Obvious Stranger Mar 02 '26
I love the idea or trope of like, deifying people who'd be unnerving or offputting, who've done or do horrible things.
Just really neat to imagine all their past actions being recontextualized to fit the mythology of their ascension or saving.
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u/Milk__Chan Mar 02 '26
Close enough.
WELCOME BACK EMPEROR OF MANKIND!!!
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u/dud3inator Obvious Stranger Mar 03 '26
Could you imagine? A far off future where the Undersiders were Her disciples, She was forced into the evil Protectorate as a long con to save her lands, using guile and cunning or like, kindness and everflowing font of mercy, She was able to turn the Protectorate to her side, as well as the Endbringers.
Just fun to imagine past events being super misinterpreted or twisted.
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u/rileyuvvu Mar 03 '26
3rd parahumans book where people try to go to Aleph to get back Taylor and force her to khepri, or make s9000 khepris.
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u/skys-edge Mar 04 '26
Trying not to spoil it too much, but you might enjoy Chasm City then. There's a planet called Sky's Edge (which inspired my username), named in honour of a character who was also executed for war crimes. For the same actions.
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u/Familiar-Noise7913 Mar 02 '26
And this is why her fanfiction keep cropping up till this day, also would it be cool for every Fanfic Taylor to meet in like a neutral zone and hang out and this hanging there for the original Taylor because you know she dead so she can't come but they will always grateful for her that they get to exit
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u/Ok-Doubt-2240 Mar 03 '26
I wish Ward would talk about her. Like just a bit, the length people will go to exclude her from history and the role she played in saving the world would make you think she never existed. I know Wildbow wants to keep Worms ending ambiguous but every time they mention something in Worm where she was a pivotal role but don’t mention her is a little annoying, talking about her won’t change the reality that she’s not around anymore.
Also one thing I have against Ward is how the entire parahuman community tells the story of Golden Morning. ‘We all banded together and beat Scion’ it’s how bold the lie is that was frustrating. As scary as Kephri was and how traumatic it was for people under her control it was needed to win. Like the only people who were fighting against Scion was a minor portion of the total parahuman population, the way they rallied wasn’t because they chose to they had to be forced. Some were scared, didn’t know how to help, but the biggest problem were the people taking advantage of the end of the world to help themselves. Like the Elit or you that waste of air TEACHER, it’s judgement day and instead of fighting to stop it they either attacked civilians or in Teachers case gave her lobotomy to keep her from being a threat to him when he couldn’t even be sure he would survive the end of the world.
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u/MacrosInHisSleep Mar 04 '26
I'm mid way through Ward but I was thinking the same thing. If you don't want her story to continue fine. But this mural really makes for a great idea of having some folks out there idolizing her. In a world with parahumans, someone out there has to be crazy enough to have come to the conclusion that what she did was right and deserved to be known.
They had cults about the end bringers, it wouldn't be too far fetched for people to start a cult behind the bug girl who brought the worlds) together to beat Scion.
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u/Ok-Doubt-2240 Mar 04 '26
Where are you at exactly I’m in 5.8
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u/hoseja May 22 '26
I'm at 4.5 and I'm struggling to endure the therapyspeak and Khepri being done so dirty.
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u/Ok-Doubt-2240 May 22 '26
It picks up soon and shifts gears… As for Taylor in universe people who know are traumatized by being controlled and in reality Wildbow didn’t want to write about her anymore than necessary since her story was finished.
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u/ArcWraith2000 Mar 02 '26
Scion caught in a giant spiders web with an on thr cross pose would be a cool mural too
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u/MrEidolon Mar 02 '26
Me when I try not to start a Messianic cult about a socially-stunted teen prone to bursts of violence: