| “ | KILL CONSUME MULTIPLY CONQUER | „ |
| ~ The Goddess Of Cancer’s mantra |
The Goddess of Cancer is the main antagonist of Scott Alexander’s short story The Goddess Of Everything Else. She is the cruel and wrathful sister of the titular deity, who desires nothing but to sow hatred and anarchy into the essence of her creations.
In Rational Animations’ adaptation, she is voiced by Liv Boeree.
History[]
When life began, there were 2 primordials. The Goddess Of Cancer, and The Goddess Of Everything Else. The Goddess Of Cancer snapped her pincers over the primordial world, ordering the first amoebas to slaughter and reproduce with no end. However, The Goddess Of Everything Else interfered, showing them a brighter and more beautiful future. The amoebas express their desire to live in her ideal vision, and proclaim their longing for her, they claim that they are forever bound to their creator’s will. She then manages to persuade them to go against The Goddess Of Cancer’s design, as they congregated into multi-cellular organisms.
In the Mesozoic era, The Goddess Of Cancer had risen again, furious at what her sister had done, considering their cooperation an insult. She snapped her left hand, repeating her first order and corrupting the creatures’ cells to mutate into cancerous tumors, killing those who were inflicted. However, the cells had learned to destroy their cancerous brethren, remembering the word of The Goddess Of Everything Else. Once again clacking, this time on her right hand, The Goddess Of Cancer commanded the whole animals, which had raged on for millions of years without end, leading many species to their extinction. But her sister had also returned, showing the beasts a future of teamwork and harmony. Yet, just as they had prior, they expressed gratitude for her intuition, yet sorrow at their inability to go against their creator. The Goddess Of Everything Else obliges, however, she also decrees that with every life created or taken, her own control would grow over them.
And sure enough, life had became collaborative, social groups of all species, including mankind, had become commonplace. Once again rising from the flames, The Goddess Of Cancer snapped her left pincer, ordering individual villagers and animals to betray their communities, however her sister’s interference had made sure that they had overcome their conflicts peacefully. Snapping her right claw, she commanded the communities as a whole, driving them to slaughter, and for those left alive, enslaved by their conquerors. Satisfied, the cruel goddess once again disappeared into the fire.
Sure enough, her sister had also returned, spreading the word of religion, science, and the arts, as mankind kneeled before her. Though once again, they had repeated their master’s command, lamenting on their position, fearing their oppressors. The Goddess Of Everything Else had stated that the more they had pursued their dreams, the greater the benefit would become, and the longer they had obeyed their tyrannical maker, the more her influence would grow.
Society soon diversified, attaining such achievements that would have been incomprehensible in the days of old. Emerging once final time, The Goddess Of Cancer had been more infuriated than ever, this final bastardization of her order had driven her to her breaking point. For the final time, she ordered upper class and civilians alike to spread her purpose. With the snapping of her left hand, riots and wars broke out, and ballistic missiles firing with the clacking of her right. And yet, from the rubble, society had re-emerged and resumed with their livelihoods.
One final time, The Goddess Of Everything Else had made her presence known in a public park, telling tales of an existence of intelligence across the cosmos, each and every life form being observed by the watchful eyes of angels. When a citizen had repeated the word of The Goddess Of Cancer. The Goddess Of Everything Else reveals that during the countless years of existence, she had been pulling the strings, and orchestrating her sister’s fall since the very beginning. Freed from the orders of her cruel and heartless equivalent, The Goddess Of Everything Else promises mankind their eternal liberty, following her future and leaving The Goddess Of Cancer forgotten by time.
Personality[]
The Goddess Of Cancer is meant to be the personification of evil’s ability to spawn and create ideas, reveling in the mayhem she inflicts on her children. As this is all she knows, she is enraged whenever change presents itself. Her sole goal in existence is to ensure that her design remains unchallenged by her sister’s attempts to create a better way for Earth.
Trivia[]
- Given her sister’s conception by Scott Alexander as an inversion of Morgoth from J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth legendarium, it is possible that The Goddess Of Cancer is meant to be a dark reversal of Eru Ilúvatar from the same mythos.