alright, lets start from the basics then. If a character creates causality as an 'action' (or causality on the most fundamental level is an emanation of them), does that mean they are bound by causality to you?
If their only action as the prime mover is creating everything, than we can just model them as being coeternal with creation. There was never a state of existence where there was not both the prime mover and creation, and that one state is the only state, there were no further changes needed since the prime mover succeeded on their first try.
If they do further things, then they are, in fact, bound by causality.
What would be the implications for you of them being coeternal with creation? That does, though, assume that creation is eternal, which it need not be for an unmoved mover to exist.
What's your stricter notion of causality that does not include all characters who drive causes or receive effects?
I laid out the three conditions for causal relation in my earlier comment regarding the disagreement between Kira and DT. "doing things" is also not the same as driving causes or receiving effects in fiction. You can see the longer explanation and quotes/sources up in the thread
- Counterfactuals. If X causes Y, that means that if X had not happened then Y would not have happened.
- Explanatory power. If X causes Y, X explains the occurrence Y
- Regularity/law. If X causes Y, then setting up circumstances [similar to] X regularly has Y follow.
but I'm not too sure that simply because a character undergoes change that implicitly undermines their reported type 5.
I'm sure that it does.
Change is only an element necessary to fulfill the 1st condition for causation, there is more to it than that. I suspect this conversation might get semantic and technical as hell, so I apologize ahead of time lol. Let's see what I can come up with
The only real way I can think of to cut through the first condition and have something still by type 5 while in some way changing would be if it underwent a "process" that was pre-ordained (for lack of a better term) and/or innate to its nature. Azathoth waking up would be this, but that's really the only example of a 'change' in a type 5 that does not fit the first condition for causation off the top of my head.
I have a
potential example or two that cut through the second condition despite arguably changing, but I will have to brush up on some of the details of
[ ] and their 'incarnation' before I formally lay that out. So I guess wait on that one kek. Edit: Actually, I just realized I guess narrative causality or the will of the author would
technically cut through this one as well lol, but that's a bit of a meme answer
I'm going to go deeply reread the section of my textbook where they discuss the kinds of Regularity because I suspect that if there is a clean way to precisely lay out Type 5 beings changing without being bound by causality, the third would be the most reliable and common.