Paracletic Madonna

"An entity whose subpsionic vibrations are essential for life in the Milky Way."
-- Description from Booklet 098

The Paracletic Madonna (German: Parakletische Madonna) is a living cosmic entity whose subpsionic vibrations sustain all biological life in the Milky Way galaxy. She is the organic counterpart to the technological Long Row -- the Intercosmic Anti-Entropy System built by the Ancients -- and functions as a critical node in the galaxy's biological infrastructure. Physically manifesting as a cone-shaped form with an iridescent oval that radiates vitality and a desire for life, the Paracletic Madonna is not merely a being to be protected but a fundamental condition of existence: without her subpsionic field, the biological systems that sustain life across thousands of worlds would collapse.

The Paracletic Madonna's central narrative significance lies in her role as the test object of the Duel of Dreams -- the climactic metaphysical confrontation between David terGorden and Max von Valdec within the Reality Switch. Placed in mortal danger in both competing realities, she poses the same question to each combatant: will you sacrifice everything to save what sustains life, or will you abandon it and pursue survival on your own terms? The answers given by David and Valdec determine the fate of the Milky Way (Booklet 098).

Name and Etymology

The name "Paracletic Madonna" fuses two traditions of intercessory and nurturing power:

Paracletic

The adjective "paracletic" derives from the Greek parakletos (paracletos), meaning "advocate," "comforter," or "one called to the side of another." In Christian theology, the Paraclete is the Holy Spirit -- the divine advocate who intercedes on behalf of humanity, providing comfort, guidance, and sustaining presence after the departure of Christ. The term implies an entity whose primary function is intercession: standing between the vulnerable and the forces that would destroy them, providing sustenance that the recipients cannot generate for themselves.

In the cosmology of Die Terranauten, this theological resonance is deliberate. The Paracletic Madonna intercedes between life and entropy. Her subpsionic vibrations are the invisible medium through which biological existence is sustained -- a cosmic comforter whose presence makes life possible and whose absence would make it impossible. She is not a deity but a functional entity: the Paraclete of the galaxy's biological order.

Madonna

The term "Madonna" -- from the Italian ma donna ("my lady") -- carries its traditional associations with the Virgin Mary: the cosmic mother, the protector of life, the figure whose love and sacrifice sustain the world. In the context of Die Terranauten, the Madonna is not a religious icon but a living being whose maternal function operates at a galactic scale. She radiates "vitality and a desire for life" -- qualities traditionally ascribed to the Madonna archetype -- and her rescue or abandonment serves as the ultimate moral test for the saga's two competing visions of humanity.

The combination of "Paracletic" and "Madonna" thus creates a figure who is simultaneously advocate and mother: the entity who intercedes for all life by sustaining its most fundamental biological conditions, and the cosmic mother whose fate tests whether humanity deserves the life she provides.

Nature and Physical Form

Physical Description

The Paracletic Madonna manifests as a cone-shaped statue with an iridescent oval, an appearance that is at once abstract and suggestive of organic vitality. The iridescent oval -- a surface that shifts through spectral colors -- evokes the optical metaphor central to the Spectra and the White Star: just as nine spectral frequencies must combine into white light to activate the Long Row, the Madonna's iridescence suggests a being who contains within herself the full spectrum of biological vitality. Her form radiates a palpable sense of vitality and a desire for life -- not merely existing but actively willing existence into being for everything within her field of influence.

Subpsionic Vibrations

The Madonna's essential function is the generation of subpsionic vibrations -- a field of energy that operates below the threshold of conventional psionic perception but is fundamental to biological life throughout the Milky Way. This subpsionic field is distinct from the PSI abilities wielded by Drivers, Steerers, and the Entities; it operates at a deeper, more primitive level of reality, sustaining the basic conditions under which organic life can exist and thrive.

The concept of subpsionic vibrations places the Madonna within the broader cosmological framework of Die Terranauten:

The Madonna thus occupies the critical layer between the cosmic machinery of the Ancients and the biological reality of living beings. She is the bridge between the abstract anti-entropy systems of the Pre-Cosmos and the concrete, embodied life that those systems are designed to protect. Without her subpsionic field, the higher systems might continue to function -- but there would be nothing left alive to benefit from them.

Organic Counterpart to the Long Row

The saga explicitly identifies the Paracletic Madonna as the organic counterpart to the technological Long Row. Where the Long Row is a galaxy-spanning network of World Trees, Steerers, and cosmic structures designed to counteract entropy at a structural level, the Madonna sustains life at a biological level. The two systems are complementary:

• The Long Row prevents the universe from decaying into entropic heat death -- it maintains the physical conditions under which stars burn, planets orbit, and matter holds together
• The Paracletic Madonna sustains the biological processes that flourish within those physical conditions -- she ensures that life, once possible, actually persists and thrives

This complementarity is central to the Duel of Dreams. The Reality Switch tests whether each combatant will save the Madonna -- the biological foundation -- even at the cost of personal survival. The test is meaningful precisely because the Madonna and the Long Row are not redundant but interdependent: reactivating the Long Row without the Madonna would restore the universe's physical structure while leaving it devoid of life. Both systems must function for the Ancients' cosmic architecture to fulfill its purpose.

The Madonna and the Cosmos

Connection to the Ancients and the Pre-Cosmos

The Paracletic Madonna's role as the galaxy's biological sustainer places her within the cosmological architecture of the Pre-Cosmos and the Ancients. The Ancients -- intelligent plant beings from the universe that existed before the Big Bang -- created the Long Row and embedded their cosmic infrastructure into the fabric of the current universe. The Madonna appears to be part of this legacy: a living component of the Ancients' design for sustaining not merely the structural integrity of the universe but its biological richness.

This interpretation is supported by the Madonna's relationship to Codecyn -- a location described as "a place that is avoided, even by the Entities, after a Madonna died there." The phrasing "a Madonna" (rather than "the Madonna") suggests that the Paracletic Madonna may not be unique but rather one of a class of entities -- perhaps one per galaxy or per region of space -- each serving as the biological sustainer for its domain. The death of a Madonna at Codecyn created a zone so devastating that even the million-year-old Entities avoid it, implying that the loss of a Madonna produces consequences far beyond ordinary catastrophe: it is a wound in the fabric of biological reality itself.

The Double Galaxy Codecyn is described as the "galaxy where the Parakletische Madonna is missing" -- confirming that the Madonna's absence is not merely a local problem but a galactic one, and that the consequences of that absence persist across cosmic timescales. If the Milky Way's own Paracletic Madonna were to perish, the result would be comparable: a galaxy-wide collapse of the subpsionic field sustaining all biological life.

Connection to the Entities

The Entities -- the galaxy's million-year-old supercivilizations -- are acutely aware of the Madonna's significance. Their avoidance of Codecyn demonstrates that they understand the catastrophic consequences of a Madonna's death. The Final Strike they threaten against humanity is motivated not only by Kaiser Force's acceleration of entropy (which threatens the Long Row) but implicitly by the danger that entropy acceleration poses to the subpsionic field the Madonna maintains. If Kaiser Force technology continues to tear open Space II and destabilize the cosmic fabric, both the Long Row and the Madonna may be destroyed -- a double catastrophe that would leave the Milky Way both structurally and biologically dead.

Connection to the World Trees

The Paracletic Madonna's biological sustaining function parallels and complements the role of the World Trees -- including Yggdrasil -- in the cosmic ecology of Die Terranauten. The World Trees are nodes of the Long Row, generating Mistletoe Blossoms that enable Driver navigation through Space II and serving as the living infrastructure of the anti-entropy system. The Madonna operates at a different level: where the World Trees sustain the psionic and structural dimensions of cosmic life, the Madonna sustains its biological dimension. Together, they form a complete system of cosmic life-support:

• Yggdrasil and the World Trees sustain the psionic navigational network and the structural integrity of space
• The Paracletic Madonna sustains the biological substrate upon which all psionic and technological civilization depends
• The Long Row as a whole -- World Trees, Steerers, Madonna, and all related components -- sustains the universe against entropy

The Duel of Dreams: The Madonna as Test

The Paracletic Madonna's narrative significance reaches its apex in Booklet 098, "Duel of Dreams," where she serves as the central test object of the climactic confrontation between David terGorden and Max von Valdec.

The Setup

The Reality Switch -- a precosmic entity orchestrating the Duel of Dreams -- generates two complete alternate timelines: the "White" reality (a cooperative future of bio-technology and interspecies symbiosis) and the "Black" reality (a dystopian Second Reich of Humanity ruled by Valdec). In both realities, the Paracletic Madonna is placed in identical mortal danger, presenting each combatant with the same fundamental dilemma.

In the "Black" reality, a mysterious figure in an old-fashioned spacesuit appears on Tonteran through a spatiotemporal distortion, speaking of the Paracletic Madonna. This figure -- David terGorden as he exists in the Black timeline -- triggers a series of events that lead Max von Valdec to Cubus II, a highly radioactive world where the Madonna awaits rescue. A dying man directs Valdec to a Madonna Oasis where the entity is said to be located.

In the "White" reality, a parallel figure -- Max von Valdec as he exists in the White timeline -- appears aboard a Cosmic Spore encountered by the Seed Masters Lavily and Junita on their Organ-Sailer, also speaking of the Paracletic Madonna. This encounter leads David terGorden to Valneron, a planet where the Madonna faces destruction by a PSI Kollapsare -- a zone of mutated plant life and distorted subpsionic vibrations that is annihilating the very field the Madonna generates.

The symmetry is exact: in both realities, the same entity faces the same threat, and each combatant must decide what to do about it. The Reality Switch has engineered the situation so that the Madonna's fate depends entirely on the character of the man confronting her peril -- not on his power, intelligence, or resources, but on his willingness to sacrifice.

Valdec's Choice: Cubus II (Black Reality)

On Cubus II, Max von Valdec confronts a world of extreme radioactivity at the periphery of a Gray Hole -- one of the entropic wounds inflicted on the galaxy by Kaiser Force technology. The Madonna is stranded here, her subpsionic vibrations weakened by the hostile conditions. Valdec deploys a Crawler, a specialized vehicle designed for the planet's lethal environment, and attempts to reach the Madonna Oasis -- a designated location where the Madonna can be retrieved.

The mission fails. An approaching energy storm threatens total annihilation. Faced with the impossibility of rescue, Valdec makes a decision that is entirely consistent with his philosophy: he abandons the Paracletic Madonna and instead plans an exodus -- evacuating the "best" of humanity to another galaxy, leaving the Milky Way to its entropic fate.

This is not cowardice. It is Valdec's worldview distilled to its essence: when the situation is unwinnable, salvage what you can. Save the remnant. Preserve the species through rational triage. It is a survivalist's calculus, unsentimental and pragmatic -- and, within its own framework, entirely defensible. Valdec does not flee from fear; he retreats from a battle he has judged impossible to win, redirecting his resources toward a future he can control. He is, as the Reality Switch has designated him, the Antagonist: the man who cannot transcend his own survival instinct, no matter how rational that instinct may be (Booklet 098).

David's Choice: Valneron (White Reality)

On Valneron, David terGorden faces the same entity in the same mortal danger. The PSI Kollapsare -- a zone of collapsing psionic energy -- is destroying the planet's subpsionic field, and the Paracletic Madonna will perish unless someone intervenes. The threat is not merely local: if the Madonna dies, the subpsionic vibrations sustaining all biological life in the Milky Way will cease.

David arranges for the Madonna's retrieval. But the cost is absolute: he sacrifices himself in the process, giving his life so that the Madonna -- and through her, the subpsionic foundation of all life in the galaxy -- will survive.

This is the choice the Reality Switch was designed to provoke. David's self-sacrifice is not strategic calculation but an act of faith: faith that the universe is worth preserving even at the cost of the self, that giving is more fundamental than keeping, that the cosmic order rewards those who serve it without reservation. It echoes the pattern established across the entire saga -- from his mother Myriam's sacrificial death at his birth (Booklet 031), to his disruption of the Kaiser Force demonstration at the Great Festival (Booklet 003), to his use of the Connex Crystal to stabilize the Archive rather than empower himself (Booklet 095). David's defining trait has always been his willingness to spend himself for others. The rescue of the Paracletic Madonna is the final, absolute expression of that trait.

The Decisive Asymmetry

The two choices are not symmetrically reasonable. Valdec's exodus plan would save millions of lives. David's sacrifice saves one entity -- but that entity sustains all life in the galaxy. The asymmetry reveals the fundamental difference between the two philosophies:

The Reality Switch recognizes David's choice as aligned with the cosmic order -- with the Long Row, the Intercosmic Anti-Entropy System, the architecture of life that the Ancients built into the fabric of the universe. Valdec's choice, however rational, fails the test because it treats the Madonna as expendable. In the cosmology of Die Terranauten, the subpsionic foundation of life is not expendable. It is the reason everything else exists.

Consequences of the Madonna's Rescue

The Victory of the White Reality

David's sacrifice to save the Paracletic Madonna triggers a cascade of cosmic events:

1. The "White" reality prevails: The Reality Switch, having posed its test, validates the cooperative, bio-technological future that David championed
2. The "Black" reality is negated: Valdec's dystopian Second Reich of Humanity -- the Kaiser Guards, the Steel Fleet, Berlin, everything he built -- is retroactively erased, as though it never existed
3. The Cosmic Spectra unify: The eight Cosmic Spectra held within the Reality Switch merge as David makes his sacrificial choice; David absorbs at least four of them, including Indigo
4. The Spectral Impulse is emitted: The signal confirming the reactivation of the Long Row propagates across the galaxy
5. The White Star begins to form: The unification of the Spectra initiates the creation of the activation key for the Intercosmic Anti-Entropy System
6. Valdec is ontologically destroyed: The Antagonist ceases to exist with the reality that sustained him; Llewellyn 709 confronts him in the void of the dissolved Black reality

The Madonna's rescue is thus not merely one good deed in a cascade of cosmic events. It is the trigger -- the act of selflessness that the Reality Switch recognizes as proof of worthiness, the moral choice that activates the cosmic machinery the Ancients designed. Without the Madonna's rescue, the Spectra would not unify, the Long Row would not reactivate, and the galaxy would be doomed.

The Ecological Transformation

In the saga's finale (Booklet 099), the consequences of the Madonna's rescue reshape the galaxy. David terGorden arrives at Ultima Thule and announces Valdec's death and the dawn of a new era. Cosmic Spores transform Earth into a green, living world. The Drivers form a Lodge and send a galaxy-wide PSI call -- echoing Llewellyn 709's original call in Booklet 001. The Entities hear the call and acknowledge that David is keeping his cosmic promise.

The Madonna's continued existence ensures that this transformation has meaning. The Cosmic Spores can rewild Earth; the Organ-Sailers can traverse Space II; the Seed Masters can cultivate living vessels -- but all of this biological richness depends on the subpsionic field the Paracletic Madonna generates. David's sacrifice preserved not merely a single entity but the condition of possibility for all the new life that the saga's conclusion celebrates.

The Codecyn Precedent

The glossary and location entries provide a haunting precedent for what happens when a Paracletic Madonna is lost:

• Codecyn: "A place that is avoided, even by the Entities, after a Madonna died there"
• Double Galaxy Codecyn: "Galaxy where the Parakletische Madonna is missing"

These entries reveal that the death of a Madonna is not a theoretical catastrophe but a historical one. At some point in the deep past -- long before the events of Die Terranauten -- a Madonna perished in the Double Galaxy Codecyn. The consequences were so devastating that the entire region became a dead zone, shunned even by the million-year-old Entities, who normally regard themselves as immune to local dangers.

The Codecyn precedent establishes several critical facts:

1. Madonnas can die: They are not immortal or invulnerable; they can be destroyed by sufficient force or neglect
2. The consequences are permanent: The subpsionic field does not regenerate after a Madonna's death; the biological collapse is irreversible
3. Even the Entities are affected: Beings of extraordinary psionic power cannot substitute for the Madonna's function or repair the damage
4. The Madonna class is not unique: The phrasing "a Madonna" and the existence of a Madonna in Codecyn's galaxy suggest multiple Madonnas across the universe, each serving a particular galactic domain

The Duel of Dreams' test is thus informed by cosmic history. The Old Forest and the Reality Switch, as surviving instruments of the Ancients, know what happens when a Madonna is lost. They designed the Duel specifically to determine whether humanity's champion would prevent a Codecyn-scale catastrophe from befalling the Milky Way.

The Madonna and the PSI Kollapsare

The specific threat to the Madonna in the "White" reality is the PSI Kollapsare -- a zone of mutated plant life and distorted subpsionic vibrations on the planet Valneron. The PSI Kollapsare is a phenomenon of psionic energy collapse, conceptually linked to gravitational collapse (as in Black Holes) but operating in the psionic dimension rather than the physical one.

The PSI Kollapsare threatens the Madonna by attacking the very medium through which she functions: the subpsionic field. As the Kollapsare expands, it distorts and destroys the subpsionic vibrations the Madonna generates, effectively silencing her cosmic broadcast. If the Kollapsare reaches the Madonna herself, the field will collapse entirely and permanently -- a biological Codecyn event within the Milky Way.

In the "Black" reality, the threat takes a different form: extreme radioactivity on Cubus II, a planet at the periphery of a Gray Hole. The Gray Hole -- an entropic wound caused by Kaiser Force technology -- has created conditions hostile to all life, including the Madonna. The symmetry is thematic: in both realities, the Madonna is threatened by consequences of entropy acceleration, whether manifesting as psionic collapse (the Kollapsare) or as physical radioactive devastation (Cubus II). In both cases, the underlying cause is the same: the damage that Kaiser Force technology has inflicted on the cosmic fabric.

Theological and Mythological Resonance

The Paraclete Tradition

The Paracletic Madonna extends the deep mythological framework of Die Terranauten into Christian theological territory. The Paraclete -- the Holy Spirit as advocate and comforter -- is the third person of the Trinity in Christian theology, the divine presence that sustains the faithful after Christ's ascension. In the saga's cosmology, the Madonna serves an analogous function: she is the sustaining presence that remains after the Ancients departed (into the Pre-Cosmos's destruction and rebirth as the current universe), keeping life viable in the cosmos the Ancients built.

This parallel is enriched by the Madonna's cone-shaped, iridescent form -- suggestive of both a votive figure and a living flame, the traditional symbol of the Holy Spirit's descent at Pentecost. The Madonna is, in a sense, the Pentecostal fire of the Die Terranauten cosmos: the presence that enables all subsequent life and mission.

The Madonna Tradition

The Madonna archetype -- the cosmic mother who protects and sustains life through love and sacrifice -- resonates throughout the saga. Myriam, David's mother, is the human Madonna of Die Terranauten: she sacrificed her life at David's birth, declaring him the son of Yggdrasil and the future liberator of humanity. David's sacrifice to save the Paracletic Madonna echoes and completes his mother's sacrifice: Myriam gave her life to bring the Heir of Power into the world; the Heir gives his life to preserve the cosmic Madonna who sustains that world.

The Madonna chain thus runs: Myriam (human mother who sacrifices herself for the Heir) -> David (Heir who sacrifices himself for the cosmic Madonna) -> Paracletic Madonna (cosmic mother whose survival sustains all life). Each link in the chain is an act of selflessness that enables the next, and the chain as a whole embodies the saga's deepest principle: that life is sustained not by power or pragmatism but by the willingness to give oneself for something greater.

Norse Mythological Connections

Within the saga's primary Norse mythological framework, the Paracletic Madonna can be understood as a counterpart to the well of Urd (Urdharbrunnr) -- the sacred spring at the base of Yggdrasil in Norse cosmology, from which the World Tree draws the water that sustains all the nine worlds. Just as the well of Urd provides the vital sustenance without which Yggdrasil would wither and the nine worlds would collapse, the Paracletic Madonna provides the subpsionic sustenance without which the biological life of the galaxy would perish. The Madonna is the living well at the roots of the cosmic tree -- the hidden, vital source that makes everything above it possible.

The Madonna in the Saga's Architecture

The Moral Fulcrum

The Paracletic Madonna occupies a unique structural position in Die Terranauten. She is not a character in the conventional sense -- she does not speak, make choices, or undergo development. She is a condition: the living foundation upon which the saga's entire biological universe depends. Her significance is not narrative but cosmological: she is the thing that must be preserved for anything else to matter.

This structural role makes her the perfect test object for the Duel of Dreams. The Reality Switch does not test which combatant can defeat the other in battle, solve the most complex problem, or build the more impressive civilization. It tests which combatant recognizes and responds to the most fundamental truth about the universe: that the foundation of life is worth more than any individual life, including one's own. David recognizes this truth. Valdec does not.

The Convergence of All Themes

The Paracletic Madonna is the point at which every major theme of Die Terranauten converges:

• Sacrifice versus Survival: David gives his life; Valdec preserves his. The universe rewards the former because the Madonna -- the foundation of all life -- requires it.
• Nature versus Technology: The Madonna is a living, organic entity; Kaiser Force technology created the conditions (Gray Holes, entropy acceleration, PSI Kollapsare) that threaten her. The bio-technological path of the "White" reality is aligned with the Madonna's existence; the Kaiser Force path of the "Black" reality is destroying her.
• The Individual versus the Cosmos: David's sacrifice is a single human act, but its consequences are galactic. The Madonna transforms personal morality into cosmic significance: one person's willingness to die preserves all life in the galaxy.
• The Ancients' Legacy: The Madonna is part of the cosmic infrastructure the Ancients built before the Big Bang. Saving her is an act of cosmic maintenance -- the preservation of the systems that the Pre-Cosmos's builders designed to sustain existence.
• The Heir of Power Fulfilled: Myriam prophesied that David would "free humanity." By saving the Paracletic Madonna, David frees humanity not from political tyranny but from biological extinction -- the deepest and most absolute form of liberation.

Key Locations

Key Participants

Timeline of Key Events

Connections

• Depicted in: 098 - Duel of Dreams, the penultimate booklet of Die Terranauten, written by Robert Quint
• Context established in: 097 - The Preventive Strike, in which the Reality Switch traps Valdec's Steel Fleet and prepares the arena for the Duel
• Aftermath in: 099 - The Eco-Shock, in which the consequences of the Madonna's rescue reshape the galaxy
• Historical precedent: Codecyn and Double Galaxy Codecyn, where a previous Madonna's death created a permanent dead zone

Related Concepts

• Duel of Dreams -- The metaphysical confrontation in which the Madonna serves as the test object
• Reality Switch -- The precosmic entity that places the Madonna in danger as a moral test
• Long Row / Intercosmic Anti-Entropy System -- The cosmic infrastructure to which the Madonna is the organic counterpart
• Spectra / Cosmic Spectra -- The nine beings whose unification is triggered by David's sacrifice to save the Madonna
• White Star -- The formation created by the unified Spectra, activated as a consequence of the Madonna's rescue
• Spectral Impulse -- The signal emitted upon the Spectra's unification, confirming the Long Row's reactivation
• Konnex-Crystal -- Fragments of precosmic memory slag that connect the combatants to their respective realities during the Duel
• PSI Kollapsare -- The zone of psionic energy collapse threatening the Madonna in the "White" reality on Valneron
• Old Forest -- The collective consciousness controlling the Reality Switch and engineering the test
• Entities -- Supercivilizations aware of the Madonna's significance and the consequences of her loss (cf. Codecyn)
• Ancients / Pre-Cosmos -- The precosmic civilization that created the infrastructure the Madonna sustains
• Kaiser Force -- The technology whose entropy acceleration threatens the Madonna and the entire cosmic order
• Heir of Power -- David's prophesied role, fulfilled through his sacrifice to save the Madonna
• World Trees / Yggdrasil -- The structural counterparts to the Madonna's biological sustaining function
• Steerers -- Custodians of the cosmic infrastructure who understand the Madonna's importance
• Seed Masters / Organ-Sailer -- Elements of the "White" reality's bio-technological civilization, which depends on the Madonna's subpsionic field
• Cosmic Spores -- The biological agents that transform Earth in the saga's finale, a transformation made possible by the Madonna's survival
• Final Strike -- The existential threat to humanity that the Duel of Dreams was designed to avert
• BOOK MYRIAM -- The sacred text prophesying that David would "free humanity" -- fulfilled through the Madonna's rescue
• Possible Worlds -- The alternate realities instantiated by the Reality Switch, in which the Madonna test unfolds

See Also

• David terGorden
• Max von Valdec
• Llewellyn 709
• Myriam
• Duel of Dreams
• Reality Switch
• Long Row
• Spectra
• 098 - Duel of Dreams
• 099 - The Eco-Shock
• Codecyn

The Paracletic Madonna is depicted in Booklet 098 of Die Terranauten. She is the living cosmic entity whose subpsionic vibrations sustain all biological life in the Milky Way -- the organic counterpart to the technological Long Row, the test object of the Duel of Dreams, and the entity whose rescue by David terGorden resolves the saga's central conflict. Her survival ensures that the galaxy remains not merely structurally intact but biologically alive; her rescue proves that the Heir of Power inherited not the power of domination but the power of selfless sacrifice.