In the Names of God by corleonis

Terragen • Science Fiction • posted on Feb 11, 2012

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Description

Massive Lei Gong rises in the distance, with 6 members of it's extensive family of moons visible, over the Tratung Mountains in this view from the moon Zhun-Ti. The monks of the Jaffei Order live far above the forest and it's inhabitants, both literally and figuratively. Living an ascetic existence amid the freezing mountaintops, they continue their Order's reason for existence; their attempt to fulfill the Prophecy of Clarke. Found in the holy book "The Sky's Backside" written by the prophet Clarke millennia ago, the Prophecy states that when all 9 billion names of God have been calculated and printed into physical existence, it will reverse Hubble's constant, causing all of spacetime to slow and then stop it's expansion and begin it's contraction into an eventual singularity, essentially triggering the end of this universe and the creation of the next. The monks have strung together a network of sublight transmitters to contact their brethren on other worlds in order to assemble the holy List in real time. This small, unassuming temple here on on Zhun-Ti is a permutation generator that generates the many possible combinations of letters that make up of the names of God, which are then sent to through the transmitter to a printing station, to be printed out on prayer flags and hung from the Final Stupa. When all 9 billion prayer flags have been hung, the monks will have, in effect, destroyed the universe, all in the names of God. If anyone has read the short story "The Nine Billion Names of God" by Arthur C. Clarke, found in the compilation "The Other Side of the Sky" (aka "The Sky's Backside" .... translation errors in ancient texts are a pain aren't they ;D), then you'll probably recognize this. It's sort of a re-imagining of the story with a different setting ... what can I say, it's one of my all time favorites :D

Comments (23)

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shayhurs

4:09PM | Sat, 11 February 2012

Excellent render!

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masonspappy

4:12PM | Sat, 11 February 2012

This image absolutely must be viewed full size to be appreciated. This is an outstanding render with fine object placement. I also (vaguely) remember "The 9 billion names of God", although it's been at least 40 years since I read it. Well conceived and well done!

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wotan

4:18PM | Sat, 11 February 2012

Fascinating composition and render... perfect to my sense!

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zhaanman

4:47PM | Sat, 11 February 2012

Man a truly grand scene wow!!

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geirla

5:10PM | Sat, 11 February 2012

Excellent image and premise!

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coyoteviper

8:35PM | Sat, 11 February 2012

very stunning work.

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PsychoNaut

9:22PM | Sat, 11 February 2012

The full size view on this one is quite breathtaking! Wow! Plus the story is awesome. I love futuristic monks doing weird things, hilarious mistranslation of Arthur C. Clarke's work (I've unfortunately never read it).

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ShawnDriscoll

9:23PM | Sat, 11 February 2012

Nice story I remember from my mainframe days. Nice re-boot.

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Thelby

10:41PM | Sat, 11 February 2012

Very Epic Creation! The Moons are of Stellar Implications and I love how the Large Gas Giant seemingly dwarfs everything!! Very Nice populations, also!!!

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peedy

12:17AM | Sun, 12 February 2012

Fantastic image! Beautiful lighting. Corrie

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saphira1998

3:58AM | Sun, 12 February 2012

very great work

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ia-du-lin

4:10AM | Sun, 12 February 2012

wonderful sci-fi scene, great landscape, planets/moons and lighting

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ratfugel

9:04AM | Sun, 12 February 2012

Ilyadic! That's the only word I could conjure up to describe this superb piece of art. There's a heck of lot of thought and effort gone into this. You are to be congratulated. Not many images would stand hanging on a wall. But this one would!

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grafikeer

9:54AM | Sun, 12 February 2012

Stunning vista...the overall grand scale to this is well conveyed,and attention to detail superb!

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starfire777

5:52PM | Sun, 12 February 2012

Fantastic image!!!

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Rich2

7:45PM | Sun, 12 February 2012

A sci-fi geek as I have read that one in his youth... Forgotten the story as well so thanks for the refresher! And wow! This is a very well planned image!

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