The Concordance

Ys-Voya requests that readers submit to The Concordance.

This article is about bonus material. For more uses of the term see concordance.

The Concordance is a collection of literature, commentary, and bonus material related to Kill Six Billion Demons.

The comic may be read like any other, but getting a handle of the bonus material can be tricky because some of it can be found off-site, in hard-to-reach locations, or out of chronological order. Therefore to avoid this confusion, this article will serve as a reader's guide. All of the extraneous content may be found here in addition to the conversations Abbadon has held with readers.

List of major works

• 5th Treatise on Aeons
• Aesma and the Three Masters
• Fifteen Ways of Ruling
• Meti's Sword Manual
• On the New Gods
• Koss and the Flames
• Tales of the Silver Prince
• Psalms
• Song of Maybe
• Spasms
• Enyis and the Boar King

Songs and poems

Main article: List of songs and poems

Prayers and proverbs

Raise your voice to YISUN, flay a man and sing a song, cook some bread and break an egg, dance wildly through the street throughout. Eat many peaches.

***

The first wisdom – abolition of self,
The second wisdom – always brew coffee before breaking fast.

–Vym Yrttr, priest of ATUN

***

The three qualities of a White Son of YIS:

A silver tongue
A golden claw
An iron heart

–Pravam Wat, blood priest of Namon, BDO 1994

***

CITY ORDINANCE 335999

DS 20313, SUBSECTION 33

ALL PERSONS HAVING EXPIRED OF LIFE, HAVING BEING DRAINED OF VITAL ANIMUS, OR NO LONGER POSSESSING AN ATUM (BEING A BODY) MAY NOT

1. PANHANDLE
2. SLEEP IN PUBLIC SPACES
3. ENGAGE IN LOUD ACTIVITY AFTER 10PM IN PUBLIC SPACES
4. TRAVEL WITHOUT PROPER AUTHENTICATION
5. REMOVE BODY PARTS SO AS TO DISTRESS PASSERBY OR OTHERWISE ENGAGE IN UNPRODUCTIVE MISCHIEF

IN EFFECT: DS 2000 (see section 30044 for more detail)

***

O! Corpse-gods of chance! Affix your hooks in our supplicant flesh! Lead us from the dreaded shoal of margin to the hallowed shores of holy Profit, and may our ledgers be ocean!

–Common guild prayer

***

Let us cut God to see if he bleeds!

–Slogan of the Belligerent Knights

***

He who drinks oceans of blood shall never cease bleeding from the mouth.

–Proverb of the Concordant Knights

***

Beware the swordsman who carries no blade.

–Proverb

***

 

“A true king of swords knows not only how to cut, but the value of each cut. Without weighing his blade carefully, he will soon find it carving away his own flesh.”

-Intra, sword god

Author commentary

On the syllables of royalty

Tam Lin	But Ys Atun Vrama Presh is only 6 syllables…
Abbadon	"The conquering king must speak with both his internal tongue of self-love, and his external tongue of violence: he must proclaim himself a king not with a tongue of flesh, but an iron tongue soaked in the blood of his lovers." Psalms 8:46
Tam Lin	I… I don't understand…
Nayr	The seventh syllable is not spoken with a tongue of flesh.

On the inspiration for YISUN

aumshantih	The depiction of the primordial YISUN reminds me a great deal of the depictions of the Hindu "deity", Vishvarupa, in which a single god reveals their Ultimate Cosmic Form. Amazing work!
Abbadon	Thanks! The idea of the Vishvarupa and Vishnu in general is the principal inspiration for YISUN actually.

On the Multiplicity

November 7, 2013

Eldritch	So there are 777,777 gods, presumably evenly distributed between Black and White. Who got the tiebreaker? Is there a single Gray god?
Abbadon	Generally it is accepted there are 333,338 White Gods and 333,339 Black Gods, and this is the official version endorsed by the Concordance of Demiurges and the Seven Lords of Infinity, but there is some (rare) dissidence, including a hermaphrodite God, a gray God, and the bizarre notion of two times 0.5 of a God (which is rarer still due to dispute about just what 0.5 of a God constitutes)
Eldritch	But, kind storyteller, the sum of 333,338 and 333,339 is a mere 666,677. How does one account for the 111,100 remaining divinities? Have they been forgotten, or lost to time, or rendered Null?
Abbadon	This one has taken a hit in the head, it should be 388,889 and 388,888. One forgets his liturgy. There is some debate over the accuracy of this number but talk is dangerous and discouraged by the supreme masters of reality, and let us not continue further lest we invoke their ire.

December 10, 2014

Archbinder Myrithion	Y'know, there's something I've been wondering for a while. If YS and UN split themselves up into 777,777 gods, then which side, black or white, has one god more than the other? or is the 777,777th god grey or something? It's a silly question, but sometimes silly questions turn out to be really important.
Abbadon	Archbinder Myrithion is observant

On YISUN and lying

Viridian

Say, do the Seven Syllabes describe the truths/lies of YISUN? Does the fact that Their splitting was a paradox enabled them to teach their children well after their 'Death', or it is in itself an elaborate hoax? Is sorcery being persuasive enough to lie in emulation of Creator Themselves? If Their halves are existance and non-existance, does it mean that YISUN both was and will never be? Never been there in the first place, thus making Their very existance a fabrication They needed to become in the far future when Their being will be possible – exactly because They lied in the first place that They indeed exist? Isn't Time a lowest lie, and thus entropy is meaningless and true joy is obtainable by transcending ones illusive fear of a lie that cannot harm you, no more than Empyrean Womb of YIS? Are YIS and UN the Ur-Roots of the words YES and NO, the very concepts they define, like a coin with 0 on one side and ∞ on another, and who is what? So many questions.

Abbadon

YISUN is the most ecstatic liar to have never existed. They perfected the art of lying – how else can one reconcile existence? You seem very well versed in the basic multidimensional theology of ATYN. If I knew nothing more, I might say you have studied your Psalms or are perhaps a Homun ascetic.

On creating language

Hazy-Eye	I'm wondering if you've made an actual alphabet for this world? Because I'm wondering what these signs say, if they have any meaning at all.
Abbadon	There is in fact a U.M alphabet, but only for the coarse dialect or low speech. Things already in the comic may not be translatable for now but they probably will be in the future. The syllabary is a little different too. For example, the letter V is used as an English approximation of a U.M. vowel sound.

On the hierarchy of devils

Driftwood	Sure are a lot of blue devils around, now. That's probably not important anything that happened already or was mentioned at all
Abbadon	Blue Devils are actually the lowest order and most common of Devils. The hierarchy is Blue < Violet < Crimson < Gold < Vermillion < Indigo < Ebon, and all the variances in between. Starting on the devil hierarchy one naturally starts with blue.

On the suicide of YISUN

Eldritch	Er, wait, hang on. I just realized something. If YISUN committed suicide in order to create the rest of the universe and other beings, how can these passages where YISUN is interacting with other beings? Is it just a term for YS and UN acting together?
Abbadon	The speakers speak well, they are clearly well versed in their meta-theology. The straight answer is that a core tenet of YISUN is based on the acceptance of paradox. God is and isn't alive at the same time. YISUN is the root of all existence and nonexistence and thus separate and divided, but the sum all things and all un-things is still YISUN.

On whether Prim and Hansa exist

Do ath	"A good tale, Hansa would be well pleased. Mayhaps we the demiurges could truly glimpse these vassals of word?"
Abbadon	Prim and Hansa are both in form absent from the Multiverse as they self-annihilated by Division along with the rest of the multiplicity in the forging of the Wheel. Many still swear by them or pray to them for protection though.

A description of Hansa

Ratoslov	Lovely though she be, Prim is terrifying. Are Hansa and the Conquering King one and the same? Or do they merely both share a love of tobacco and the smell of smoke?
Abbadon	Hansa is UN-Hansa, of a divine order – he was of the Multiplicity – that is to say he was a god. The Conquering king was born mortal, though it is said he shared Hansa's love of tobacco and philosophical poetry, yes.

On 82's historical account

Toast of Doom

I am perplexed by this tale of the iron plum. Where is it intended to fall in the history of this world? YISUN's role, acting as some sort of elder among lesser gods, does not fit within the history that the angel provided, in which YISUN died to produce the lesser gods. Perhaps this is but a fanciful tale woven by a holy man whose celibacy deluded his envisioning of that which would be considered coital skill.

Abbadon

82's history might not be entirely accurate. Among the foremost masters of theohistory, the consensus is generally that YISUN's presence in these stories is entirely metaphorical. It is a common claim throughout the worship of YISUN generally that the concept of self is entirely irrelevant anyway, so it is entirely possible these parables relate to other gods and YISUN's name is used in their place.

On the history of the demiurges

Ben

Okay, so… lemme see if I follow. YIS-UN was followed by the 777,777 Black & White Gods (I think of them as Titans or Elder Gods but then I'm silly like that) who created the 777,777 universes before turning more or less inert. Then the Ruling King came and pierced the way to throne from one of those universes, and was followed by others, who collectively became known as the Demiurges. Then the Demiurges created the Magus Keys, conquered a lot of worlds and had a huge civil war in which all except seven died. These seven remaining Demiurges became the Black Emperors (and Empresses?). Some things are missing, like the beings that apparently were left in Throne between the deactivation of the Elder Gods and the arrival of the Ruling King, and the Knightly Orders and the automata built by the Demiurges, but this is the general jist of things, right? And all of this must've taken millions, billions of years, meaning that there is huge amounts of lore and stories taking place inbetween these massive events. I have to say though, I'm REALLY hoping the Ruling King still lives in some form. His pipe-smoking badassness is too good not to use in the comic in the future. God damn that's good character design right there.

Abbadon

You got it! We saw some of the beings that were left in Throne after the Gods' exit, the Prime Angels that the Conquering King defeated after entering heaven. Obviously there's more to the story!

On honorifics

Does it matter	From what I can tell Pree and Preem are honorifics with Preem being held in higher esteem than Pree which is handed out as compliment as opposed to how Preem is used to show how the speaker holds the spoken to as highly esteemed.
Abbadon	Preem is a shortening of 'Supreme' in U.M., it is used to refer to a person of status. It is generally used to refer to men, but not always. The female equivalent is 'Pree', which is generally used for woman, but is also used as a term of familiarity or endearment. It has a diminutive, 'Pre', which is used mostly as a term of endearment.

On whether U.M. is translatable

Does it matter	Is the Kingly Script that is shown above their translated names actually understandable or is it just some random squiggles? i.e. Is it possible for us to translate them ourselves?
Abbadon	This version of U.M. is in fact translatable!

On the gender of deities

Linden

Hi Ys-Voya (or Abbadon, whichever you prefer more), I wanted to ask if, even with the prefixes un- and ys-, some of the godly beings could be considered genderless or favor certain pronouns (like they/them, ze/zir, etc.) from others, and if you mind people submitting characters with certain sexualities or lack-there-of, or if you'd rather to keep most of such out of the story to focus on the journey of our mortal and angelic main characters. Answer when and if you can please and thank you!

Abbadon

Certainly! Gender is a bit of an arbitrary point for the near omnipotent, and nearly everyone was banging each other in the Red City anyway most likely.

On the concept of a hell

Haggar	Is each Hell the corpse of a god, or just Hell 71?
Abbadon	A Hell is common language term used to denote a corpse of a God that's been used for nefarious purposes, so as you surmised, there's a lot of them.

On weapons and technology

The Third Predecessor

My feelings are mixed, as the gun witch is now shown to have what are unambiguously flintlock pistols. Her powers would no doubt be more potent were she using, say, a collection of semi-automatic pistols with the same finesse. This implies that high technology is either of greatly limited availability, or its value is less than I assume it to be. Alison may, in fact, have the potent weapon of knowledge at her disposal, assuming she survives to make use of it.

Abbadon

Higher technology, especially weapons, is tightly controlled by the demiurges and coveted by the guilds. It's not easy to come by a modern-level gunsmith in the city, so you'd have to get it through the King's Road, which is a risky business. You'll see a LOT more guns when we meet Jagganoth, he's the one hoarding all the military technology.

On the mannerisms of angels

Throwaway

Hey, Abbadon, what pronouns should we be using for 82 and 23? 82 doesn't seem to like being referred to as female, but I know that doesn't necessarily mean they default to male and I remember you mentioning that angels are at least physically genderless. I've been using singular "they" just to be safe, but I thought I'd ask just to be sure. I'm sorry if this is annoying; neither of your tumblr blogs allow messages and I don't know if you use your spring.me account anymore, so I thought I'd ask here since the question is sorta wiki-related.

Abbadon

I'll definitely open up asks on my tumblr, I wasn't aware it was a feature actually until a few days ago. You can use 'they' to be safe. Angels are generally referred to with male pronouns since they were born of a male god. However, their essential forms are completely sexless, and are assumed to be genderless (but default to male in most people's perception). It will become pretty clear in the comic what 82's deal is I expect. Keep an eye on how particular characters refer to 82.

On angels, devils, and the Wheel

Happy to respond to all of those. The black/white part will become pretty clear fairly soon (early next year in the comic most likely). Angels and Devils are beings of the White (or void), so they don't have physical bodies and need other ways (armor for angels, masks for devils) to inhabit the physical world. Humans, spirits, and servants are Black, and inhabit a physical body, and to enter the Void must cast a Shade (we've seen Allison's!). My influences are woefully easy to find, but I'd chiefly have to say Moebius, Geof Darrow, James Stokoe, Sheldon Vella, noriyoshi Ohrai. I have thought about making a reference page sometime. Lastly, I use photoshop CS 5. It gets the job done! –orbitaldropkick

On What Influenced KSBD

A lot of people ask me about my influences. I think making a section on the site would be overdoing it a little bit, so I'll list some of the major ones here and hope people can go off and find other ridiculously cool stuff. Kill Six Billion Demons started as the scene that opened the comic (a girl receiving a key from a godlike warrior on the run). I had this idea like 10 years ago. I think I had planned to make it into some kind of shonen Bleach knockoff. Then I discovered I was a secret Where's Waldo addict and chanced upon 80s and 90s French sci-fi comics. I must start with the eternal Jean Giraud (aka Moebius) is probably one of the biggest influences on my work. On that note, anything by Jodorowsky (Metabarons is fantastic). Along those lines, Geof Darrow's Hardboiled kicked the shit out of me. Its the first book I read where I knew instantly I wanted to get into comics hardcore. James Stokoe and Sheldon Vella are both insanely radical dudes that come from the same comic DNA as me. Stokoe's Orc Stain is a phenomenal book, and the man cannot be mortal. My coloring I have cribbed mostly from Sheldon and Noriyoshi Ohrai. Lastly I cannot give enough credit to Wayne Barlowe and his Inferno work, because he got me into that particular brand of surrealist fantasy. Go check his stuff out right now. Writing wise Kill Six Billion Demons is heavily inspired by Clive Barker's Abarat and Michael Kirkbride's 36 Lessons of Vivec, for the Morrowind video games, which tangentially got me into reading Buddhist and Hindu philosophy and writing all the weird crap you find in the comic. I have to also give credit to Requiem:Vampire Knight. It's a French comic series with copious blood and boobies, but the art is unbelievable and the concepts are ridiculously goth/metal as hell. I'll also mention the movie Mirrormask here along with a ton of Neil Gaiman's work because he is undeniable God-king of the modern/urban fantasy concept. Though it's not an influence you can just parse out immediately, influence from a lot of religions have been folded into the KSBD cosmology, most notably Zoroastrianism, Zen Buddhism, and Vedic Hinduism (there's also some Abrahamic stuff if you look very hard). Lastly, I'll mention that I'm stupidly and unnecessarily into super heavy metal. I can't really name any specific bands that have had an influence on my comic but the extreme melodrama metal is ridiculously good fuel for the creative fire.

The Tale of Varim Ashta

"The Tale of Varim Ashta" is an unofficial name.

the novice PARAT-EN full of awe

The seventh syllable is Truth Indeed, but truly I am a fool, for my words now are: is a man without paradox an impossibility, or a paradox himself?

Abbadon

This question was asked of YISUN once by Varim Ashta, a wise man and unstoppable master of the white astral flame, lord-conqueror of thirty four dimensions and ruler of 78 billion souls. From his iron fortress Varim bade his servants summon YISUN from their seat at the center of the Omniverse, where the spoken question was then posed. YISUN was perplexed by this question and could not answer. Varim Ashta would have been astounded with glee at his profound victory over the master of creation, but at the moment of YISUN’S hesitation, Pavreem Varim Ashta, demigod and slaver of thirty million worlds suddenly discovered he had actually been a plum tree all along.