Gospels

Even though Aedolis takes pains to control its citizens and weed out those with rebellious and/or traitorous tendencies, no system is so perfect that it’s foolproof. In fact, one of the greatest rebel factions is also located right at the head of the government—Pilots who work from the inside against their fellow Pilots. These Pilots call themselves the Gospels. They got their name from an insurrectionist Pilot nicknamed Prophet. Many of the early coded communications sent out by Prophet were disguised as religious spam, thus earning both he and the Gospels their names. The name Prophet has endured over several decades, and it is suspected that it is passed down from one Pilot to another.

It’s not easy to be a Gospel. With other psychics around, a Gospel has to be extremely skilled at masking their thoughts and resisting the psychic probing of their comrades, and even before that they have to be able to survive the intense training program without revealing any of their traitorous tendencies. Even more importantly, they have to get through the training with their humanity and compassion still intact. Many who would otherwise become Gospels are weeded out during the training phases simply because they were too readable. As such, there are very few of them, and even if they get through the training program, they still have to survive the military itself.

For some, it can simply be too difficult to play the role of loyal Pilot while secretly going behind the scenes to work against their people—and keep all the information tightly locked away for fear of outing themselves and their fellow Gospels. This means that a Gospel, no matter what they truly believe and no matter what cause they serve behind the scenes, still has to act and even think like your average Pilot. This means that a Gospel may still have to do some terrible things and fight battles they don't believe in just to keep their identity hidden. To add an even more twisted layer to the pile of complications and difficulties, there are also the dragons. A Gospel not only has to keep information away from his or her fellow Pilots, but the Gospel also has to essentially lie to the very creature he or she is bonded to—and addicted to. Just being opposed to the government is not enough to be a Gospel—you have to also be willing to deal with all these other added stresses and dangers and be aware of the fact that even the smallest mental slip-up could not only endanger your life, but the lives of all the other Gospels. In short, you have to have guts, determination, and the courage to risk everything…and you have to have some serious psychic skills.

The Gospels keep in contact with the outside world, particularly with Cancer, coordinating missions and operations with them—but never letting them know their real identity.

The Secret Everyone Knows About

The other Pilots know the Gospels exist; they just don't know who they are. There is a tension there among all the Pilots, a constant feeling of knowing that someone among them is a traitor, but just not being able to put a finger on who. Nonetheless, the Pilots never talk about the Gospels and publicly deny their existence, but it is an unspoken fact that they exist.