The All-Seeing Floor of Pukwan's Temple

The Kingdom Chronicles draws its inspiration from the endless realms of fantasy and religion; but because the series carries no singular religious affiliation, I love seeing the ways that people from all over the globe choose to connect the story and characters to real world things and places. So often the allusions they make teach me more about my readers than about my books.

One aspect of the book that is based on religious writings is the throne room in the Temple of the Crown, where the throne is carved with representations of their planet's present solar system, two fire-breathing dragons defend the throne (though needlessly), and the very floor has the ability to reveal anything the Great Vagahem wishes to see: things past, present, or future in as vast or minute a scope as He desires.

There are long discussions about every part of the Temple of the Crown and Mount Ryel that could be had, but today I want to focus on the throne room floor only.

When I created this aspect of Pukwan's temple, I drew from verses and writings of both Judaism and Christianity. References such as: "The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool" (KJV Isaiah 66:1), "...and beneath his feet was...like the appearance of the heavens..." (Pentateuch, Exodus 24:10), "...thy walls are continually before me." (KJV Isaiah 49:16), "...but there is no God beside me, and all things are present with me, for I know them all... And it came to pass that Moses looked, and beheld the world upon which he was created; and Moses beheld the world and the ends thereof, and all the children of men which are, and which were created;... For behold, there are many worlds that have passed away by the word of my power. And there are many that now stand, and innumerable are they unto man; but all things are numbered unto me, for they are mine and I know them." (Moses 1:6, 8, 35.), "and I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire:" (KJV Revelation 15:2), and my final example, "but they reside in the presence of God, on a globe like a sea of glass and fire, where all things for their glory are manifest, past, present, and future, and are continually before the Lord" (The LDS Doctrine and Covenants 130:7). There are many others, and too them I added my own thoughts and expectations.

If a being is all-powerful, all-knowing and ever present, there really is nothing to put limits on it except itself. There is no one who can give it boundaries or limitations. Essentially, such a being would be an unstoppable force and an immovable object, living far outside the captivation of space and time. To perfectly contemplate the grandeur of a god is a feat that no finite human could ever accomplish, for we know of no such condition as infinity, only the limits we face in and of ourselves; everything we know is governed by some law not its own and has some sort of a limit. Therefore, no person will ever have the ability to prove or disprove the existence of a god unless a god chooses to reveal itself to us and prove that they do in fact exist.

This being the case, if a god did exist, I would imagine that such an infinitely powerful being would also be the most perfectly compassionate since everything that has come into being, including time, space and the laws of nature, has done so by the god's sanction and appointment. In essence, it created the game, which means it also created the rules and their loopholes and has the power to transcend them all for its own purposes.

These thoughts and others, along with the verses noted above, all played into the creation of Pukwan's all-seeing floor. Using the special surface as a medium, Pukwan is able to open up a view beyond time and space to display anything He so desires. Instead of having to preserve His kings on a journey across time and space constantly, He can simply throw open this fantastic window and show them as a distant observer something they could not otherwise behold. He knows the limits that He has placed on His mortal kings, and so He utilizes means whereby He can give them a glimpse of His knowledge or purpose without destroying, harming, or frightening them. The all-seeing floor is just as much a manifestation of compassion as it is a tool of instruction and revelation.

What do you think? How have you interpreted Pukwan's character in the books so far? What expectations would you have if you were to interact with an eternally infinite being, a god? Please leave a comment, and take them anywhere you want to go. I don't care if you believe in a god or not; if you don't, just pretend for a minute. What if they did exist? What would they be like?