Culture...... Kernel?

This suggestion made several people participating in the meeting a little confused.

During this time, several people have already inquired and learned about this worldview because of the strangeness and inevitability of this eucalyptus, as well as its similarity to the so-called Cthulhu worldview. But what kind of cultural core and the like, a few people really haven't thought about it.

Lu Ming continued: "The Cthulhu worldview has developed in such a long period of time, rich and diverse, and many stories have been derived from it, describing many strange lives. Its system, context, structure, and worldview are all complete. But at its core, in my opinion, there is only one thing: unspeakable fear, powerless despair.

None of the stories in Cthulhu's worldview are detached from this core. ”

A few people thought silently.

Lu Ming turned to say: "One of the settings of Cthulhu's worldview is that mythical creatures are simply incomprehensible to humans. What purpose they have, why they do it, why they have this ability, etc., all humans cannot understand. At the same time, mythical creatures don't care about humans at all - they have no ill will towards humans, they don't care at all. But because of their strength, human beings can have disastrous consequences if they come into contact with them even if they come into contact with them unintentionally.

There is a work that expresses Cthulhu's worldview, and the name is "Star Color". It depicts a series of stories about a mythical creature called 'Star Color' that accidentally descended on Earth and spawned it.

In this story, the family living in the town begins to go crazy and mutate because of the arrival of the stars, but they have no idea why and cannot understand it. This is unspeakable fear.

They are innocent, they are kind, they try their best to save themselves, but there is nothing they can do to stop the continuation of madness and mutation. This is powerless despair.

Eventually, the entire town is enveloped in the strange light of the Rainbow, everyone mutates and dies, and the Rainbow leaves Earth and returns to space - no one knows why it came or why it left. ”

Feeling this indescribable fear and powerless despair, even He Wei couldn't help but tremble in her heart, and truly felt the horror of this set of worldviews.

Lu Ming was silent for a moment before continuing: "Okay." Now let's strip away the appearance and focus on the core of this culture. So the question is, did this cultural core appear out of thin air? Was it simply created by a single writer? I don't think so.

is like "Journey to the West", we all know that it was created by a family named Wu Chengen in the Ming Dynasty. But before Wu Chengen, the story of Tang Seng learning scriptures had already been widely circulated, but the fragments were scattered and unsystematic. What Wu Chengen did was to organize and summarize these legends, stories, and myths together, create a complete system and context, and add his own originality to finally form this story.

By way of analogy, it is reasonable to assume that the Cthulhu worldview did not appear out of thin air either. It also has a complete cultural heritage. The role of that great writer at that time should be the same as the role of Wu Chengen, who created "Journey to the West", as the master of the collection, not the original pioneer. ”

He Wei came to his senses: "Standing on the shoulders of giants. ”

"yes, that's what it means." Lu Ming said: "Therefore, when we try to introduce the Cthulhu worldview to explain the existing events, we don't have to dwell on specific worldview expressions and literary stories, but go straight to its core. ”

Lu Qingliang was a little confused: "Then who should we go to?" Looking for a professional Cthulhu worldview creator? Family? Or the director of the film who filmed the Cthulhu story? ”

"Of course not. First of all, let's be clear that before the birth of science, the worldview of mankind was presented in a religious way. Different worldviews give rise to different religions, and religious beliefs participate in the creation of cultures, and the two grow and complement each other. Then, the cultural core of 'unspeakable fear, powerless despair', the culture and worldview it represents, should also have corresponding religious beliefs.

The process of sorting out this context in this way is as follows: First, there were some people in ancient mankind who believed that the origin of this world, this universe, was unknowable and incomprehensible to human beings. They are in awe of the great, powerful, and indescribable beings that exist in the underworld, and they are careful to keep their distance from them.

In the long course of inheritance, they have formed their own unique culture, and have 'summarized' some unique ways and taboos to get along with or deal with this indescribable being. As a result, it has formed its own unique religious belief system.

This religious belief system has participated in shaping their culture, forming this unique cultural core. Subsequently, in the convergence and integration with various currents of thought and various worldviews around the world, many variants may have emerged.

Eventually, this cultural core was touched by the writer who pioneered the Cthulhu worldview, which inspired him to create the unique cultural phenomenon of the Cthulhu worldview.

So, at this moment, if we really decide to introduce the Cthulhu worldview as a way of understanding the world and participate in explaining the situation we are facing at the moment, we should be looking for the origin of this cultural heritage, that is, the religious believers who adhere to this worldview. ”

He Wei looked at Lu Qingliang with some doubts: "Is there such a religion in the world?" ”

Lu Qingliang thought for a while and shook his head: "I can't remember, I haven't heard of it." ”

Lu Ming said: "It doesn't have to be a systematic religious system, it may also be a local belief system that doesn't even have an official name. There are many, many such belief systems, especially in economically backward areas, where there may be a belief in a village. ”

He Wei remembered the village where Dong Anpo was located in the previous eucalyptus. The belief in that village and several surrounding villages is the god Dong'an, which obviously does not have a systematic religious system, but even this local belief actually represents some cultural core.

She muttered, "Well, now, we're going to ...... Are you looking for someone who believes in 'agnosticism,' uh, God, the clergy, to help us interpret the situation? ”

Although his conclusion was like this, when He Wei really said it, Lu Ming still instinctively felt a little ridiculous.

In the end, you have to get help from a goddess or a god?

Lu Ming nodded silently.

Zhang Dingshan knocked lightly on the table: "Try it first." No, we have nothing to lose. ”

Lu Qingliang scratched his head: "Okay, then I'll go and find out where this kind of belief exists." ”

At the end of the meeting, in the headquarters of the Planetary Security Agency, which belonged to the office of the second operation team, Lu Qingliang fell into deep thought.

Even for a professional logistics personnel like Lu Qingliang, there are also huge difficulties in doing this.

He simply didn't know where to start in order to sift out the areas and groups of people where this belief existed, and then the "clergy" among them to help him.

The Earth is small, but it's too big. There are so many local beliefs that are only limited to local circulation that outsiders have no way of knowing.

But there is no way, and I can only do it at the moment.

The first thing that came to his mind was the Institute for the Study of Folklore, Religion and Culture. It just so happened that he knew a lot of experts in related fields, so he immediately called them one by one to ask.

The end result was a big disappointment for him. The experts he knew all said they had never heard of this belief and did not know where it existed.

After a busy night, nothing was found.

After sleeping and getting up, sitting in front of the computer for a while, Lu Qingliang gritted his teeth: "This is to force me to make a trick." ”

He picked up the phone again.

"Professor Ding, hello, I'm Xiao Lu. Oh, yes, yes, you said yesterday that you don't know. But now there is a situation like this, there is a project in our bureau, and this kind of sample is more needed for research, and the leadership is urgent, so a sum of money is specially allocated for the purpose of collecting information in the early stage...... Yes, yes, our leader said, whoever can provide valuable clues, or sponsor a project fund in the name of unit cooperation, or reward an individual with a bonus, can do it...... Okay, okay, okay, I'm sorry for you......"

Hanging up the phone, Lu Qingliang then dialed another phone.

"Hello Professor Lin......"

After dozens of phone calls, Lu Qingliang breathed a sigh of relief.

Those people are people in folklore, religious, and cultural circles. The information they can access and the connections in the circle are always wider than Lu Qingliang's. It is always more efficient to use money to mobilize their enthusiasm than to look aimlessly by yourself.

It's just more expensive.

Fortunately, the Operations Department has more funds, otherwise Lu Qingliang would not dare to do this.

The power of money is not to be underestimated. The next day, information was fed back to Lu Qingliang one after another. Lu Qingliang continued to follow the vine, opened the way with money, and mobilized some other people to assist him in information analysis, and after a few busy days, he finally grasped the situation roughly.

What Lu Qingliang expected was that most of the people who believed in "agnosticism" were concentrated in economically backward areas as previously expected. There is also covert transmission in large cities with developed economies. Some of these schools have even begun to change in the direction of evil and darkness, and there is a tendency to turn them into cults.

These things are not under the control of the Operations Division. Lu Qingliang directly handed over some of the information screened out to the relevant departments and ignored it anymore.

Once you have mastered the place of faith, the next step is much simpler. Lu Qingliang directly contacted the local security and cultural departments, and after they sent people to do some screening and investigation work, many "clergy" entered Lu Qingliang's field of vision. As a result, Lu Qingliang began the third round of screening.

He was to select the most capable of the clergy.

Only the best are likely to help them.

But at this step, Lu Qingliang encountered difficulties again.

What are the criteria for screening for these clergy? In other words, what is the measure of their "ability"?

Measured by their success rate in resolving the incident sought by the person seeking help? Or is it measured by the level of mana of the gods they believe in?

None of them seem to be reliable.

In particular, after conducting some preliminary investigations on these clergy, Lu Qingliang found that each of them was full of all kinds of bizarre legends and rumors, and it was impossible to distinguish between truth and falsehood. As a last resort, Lu Qingliang had to give up all the original screening specimens, and finally only measured them by one standard.

】

Fame, or influence.

The greater the fame, the higher the influence, and the more people who think that the person is capable, the higher the rating.

In this way, Lu Qingliang finally screened out the top ten clergy in the influence index.

These people belong to different schools, believe in different gods, and have different ages, genders, and regions. But the only thing they have in common is that the beliefs and gods they claim are similar to those of the Cthulhu worldview.

The gods have no good intentions towards humans, and they have no ill will. The gods don't care about humans, the gods are incomprehensible. Dealing with the gods is more like an "equivalent exchange", that is, I offer sacrifices, and the gods help me achieve a certain purpose.

And the reason why I am a clergyman, and the reason why you ask me to do things, is because I have mastered certain skills in dealing with the gods, so that I can avoid some malice of the gods towards human beings, and I will not be harmed by the gods.

Even the so-called faith is only a means of avoiding the harm of the gods.

After reaching this step, Lu Qingliang shared the information of these ten people with the other three. As a result, in the second action team, except for Zhang Dingshan, who was still sitting at the temporary base and was responsible for making decisions on the spot, the other three, including Lu Qingliang, all began to go out in person and began to visit these people one by one, and through personal conversations and observations, they judged which one was most likely to help them.

In one day, the trio visited a total of nine people. This last person was visited by Lu Ming.

All the way by plane and car, Lu Ming finally came to the outskirts of a certain county, in front of a single-family mansion with a pastoral ink style.

The mansion is beautifully built and occupies a vast area, which is expensive to look at. The owner who lives in it should be very rich.

This is also in line with the previous screening criteria. After all, if you have a lot of influence, you must have money.

At this moment, the gate of the mansion was open, and a person who looked like a security guard was on duty in front of the gate.

Lu Ming drove over directly and stopped in front of the door, the security guard did not open the door, but came over and asked, "Do you have an appointment?" ”