[✗] [World Lore] Cosmology

[Nozgoth 2979]

Spoiler

 

 

 

Cosmology

What Lay Beyond the Material Plane

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“Singularities birth dualities, in turn begetting an endless cycle.”

 

Ignorance to the immeasurably vast knowledge of magicks and the laws of the cosmos is the result of truths lost, forever hidden within unknown scriptures from times untold. And yet such things exist who have seen all, are the cause for all, and indirectly make up for the sole reason which life and the veil persist, even under the unending scourge which the void threatens at every waking moment. But not only that, for mere microcosms of what once was are capable of creating titans within the great and unseen dark. Realms, stars, constellations, the veil… It is these things which lay beyond the material plane that philosophers, scholars, and magicians alike study in attempts to discern the power of creation - and to further their understanding of their own realm.

 

Whether it be within the minds of wandering wisemen, or in the study of a scholar - the stars lay waiting… beckoning to be understood.

 

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~An alchemist’s depiction of the veil~

 

The Veil

The Final Bulwark

 

Bestowed upon us by The Creator to protect all that exists from the void, the veil is a shield wrought of The Creator’s energy that encompasses a large expanse where voidal forces cannot trespass. Within lies everything that exists from a material perspective, a far cry from what roars just outside its walls (the void). For there is both existence and non-existence at the same time, an infinite duality of chaos - ever watching, ever waiting for the moment in which the veil might become weak enough to disrupt. Thus came the Three Primordials of The Creator - each tasked with different responsibilities in maintaining what is now known as creation. Namely, The Vigil would be sent to ensure no fiends of the void dare cross over, and to prevent the veil from growing weak. The Veil itself is a shield that grows steadily, and at times, with short-lived surges of might against the eternal force of the void. Yet to most, this war can be seen as one of attrition, with each side rarely advancing on the other lest they prepare to suffer heavy repercussions.

 

All that is known resides within the veil; this includes what some might call “space”, every realm, the stars, and the sun. More things will spawn into existence as the veil grows and ages, for there is infinite potential left within the remnant essence of the creator. In turn, much more sinister things take up residence there, including voidal behemoths and horrors, who creep along the darkest recesses of the veil, but rarely do they attempt to pierce and enter the material plane - for such is a feat seldom accomplishable. This is simply the nature of what is seemingly the only physical universe.

 

If one were to enter space, a descendent creature perhaps, they would be swiftly met with death lest they come with proper preparations. Certain magicks and anomalies do exist that would allow one to travel between realms, but if one were to be openly exposed to the cosmos that their realm is suspended in, they would quickly die by lack of oxygen - or hunted by the forces of cosmic correction. That being said, it is not entirely impossible for a creature of the material plane to venture out into space; there are simply no viable methods discovered to do such at the current time. Yet there are beings who frequent the happenings of space should their powers allow them, such as voidal beings, aengudaemons, the primordials, and more.

 

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~A depiction of the vast cosmos, and the realms within~

 

The Realms

States of Existence and Being

 

A product of aengudaemons, and on the rare occasion, The Creator or his energy itself; the realms are floating masses of earthen land (typically taking on a spherical or two-sided disc shape) which are protected from the outside forces of the cosmos and the void by the veil. They exist only within the veil, for no creation or existence may take place outside without being swiftly snuffed out by voidal energies. Each realm typically abides by its own laws and nature, crafted meticulously by whomever reigns over or crafted said realm. 

 

Aengudaemons take up vast swathes of space within the veil with their numerous realms, some seen and told, others not. But of course the most famous of all realms would be The Two Mortal Planes (Eos and Aos, or Axiom and Aerios), home to a tremendous amount of life and happenings in all the veil - often considered the focal point, where beings from all over tend to congregate. This is not to be confused with the nature of The Seven Skies, which serves as a hub realm to bind all other immortal planes; where aengudaemons commune and energies converse.

 

And yet at times, if a descendant looks past the black wall that is the night’s sky, they might catch glimpses of other realms… Ebrietas, otherwise known as the Moon, is the most common example of this coming to fruition.

 

Spoiler

 

Descendents can gaze upon realms which would be suspended in the nearby cosmos on the rare occasion. They would appear as masses comparable to planets, and depending on the plane and realm, could have varying attributes, physical or magical. They would seem extremely distant, sometimes appearing akin to stars, yet rarely would a being on the material plane be able to discern any proper details aside from primary colour and texture, and sometimes not even.

 

The most prevalent of all realms to the descendents and beings from the material plane would be Ebrietas. This can be seen every night if the sky is clear. It is a titanous, white sphere, sometimes appearing whole, other times in a crescent, sickle-like shape. Of course, to most mortals, this is known as The Moon.

 

As a side note: it should not be expected that the vast expanse within the veil follows typical real life standards of physics and science.

 

 

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~A proposed map of space from ancient times~

 

The Stars

The Remnant Essence

 

Flickering alight like the dying embers of a fire, the stars persist and illuminate the night’s sky where the sun dares not shine. Their erratic and sputtering appearance comes as second-nature, for they are soldiers in the front line in the midst of the unending and impossible war against the void. But their potential is nigh immeasurable, something often sought after by aspiring mages, scholars, and other folk of that likeness. It is due to the stars’ service in expelling voidal energy that the veil continues to expand. Yet tapping into this power is a monumental task, and surely comes not without a great cost in accordance with the limit of the mind, body, and soul (in other words, it would be extremely overwhelming).

 

The stars are physical representations of the remnant energy of The Creator, their origin somewhat akin to the creation of the splintered mortal and immortal souls, yet undifferentiated and unspecialized. This was a process in which half of The Creator’s soul was sacrificed, allowing stars to have the potential to spawn the aengudaemons themselves, and even realms (ultimately, every aengudaemon that has ever existed originated from the stars). Naturally, in terms of raw potential and power, they are greater than aengudaemons; though this of course hinges on the age and energy of a star. 

 

At times, a star can be seen shooting; which is a sure tell that it has fallen and ran dry of energy. This energy cannot be created nor destroyed by anything but the void, which is somewhat ironic, because the void is in part responsible for both a star’s creation and destruction (as it is for everything, inevitably). The fickle lights in the sky also serve as a graveyard of aengudaemons - the leftover energy of a dead aengudaemon is distributed amongst the stars. Stars appear in varying forms and arrangements, sometimes referred to by those of the material plane as “constellations”.

 

Spoiler

In essence, the stars are bodies of the creator’s energy. They come in constellations and can be attributed to many complex symbols and meanings dictated by different cultures of descendents. Players are welcome to discern their own constellations in culture/religion posts and do what they will with them. It is as well possible for the power of stars to be expanded upon in a future lorepiece, for the potential is limitless, afterall.

 

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Dedicated to Basil Ambrose of Seventis a waylaid stargazer;

 

“Withal, since she had been the Sun’s imitator, the Moon had begun to withdraw from him and malign him; defame, even. The Sun, having surmised this, broke bread with the Moon: ‘Why do you pull me rereward, and blaspheme me? Was it not myself, whom you were bequeathed by –– light and illumination; woe betide, now you reproach me.’

To whom the Moon told, ‘Depart from me, as paramour, for we are not wreathen as cord with one another, and I no longer love you. Woe worth the day, your great splendour has caused schism, and the world values me not therefore. Had you not espoused of the Creator’s hand, I would be extolled as the most opulent.’

In turn, the Sun retorted, ‘Thankless creature, let your virtue satisfy you. Indeed, I wax and shine in the day; but you wax in the night –– I, the diurnal; you, the crepuscular. Let us harken thereto to our Creator, and allow me to watch over his sphere, in the day.’

At this, the Moon drew crookbackt, even more incensed with fury. She accoutred her primordial quaternions with the Stars, assuming a great legion at her wield, whereby she began to duel with the Sun. She sent arrows ‘gainst the Sun and wished penetrate the impregnable brass of his light with darts. Nevertheless, since the Sun inhabited a higher sphere, he descended and split the Moon with [the point of] his partisan. Then, abasing the Stars from the firmaments, he said, ‘Thus, shall I always cleave you when you are full.’

The thwarted Moon wallowed in shame, crying, ‘It is better to be divided when full than to perish entirely.’”

 

- Bedwyr [Bedivere] the Hyperborean

Fables of Cosmology, and Theogony for Children,

Skravia, 1376.

 

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~ One scholar’s crude exaggeration of the Sun ~

 

The Sun

The Diurnal Eye

 

When the Creator brought the Veil unto the world, to scab over the null that was the Void, there was little. And then, as farce so says, with a single languid swipe of his digits and a phrase from his mouth, He wrought the Sun to precede all in His domain [sans Himself]; thrusting the Veil into a riddle of brilliant halftones, and subliming the smog-ridden earth of the Terra, from its reaches east to its reaches west, into a sphere of great radiance. Mounted high o’er a palanquin of clouds, surmounting the very firmaments, the Sun serves a number of feats, some directly; others by proxy. That which is indubitable, however, is the great sheen of light which it casts unto the mortal coil, cutting through sluices from which unabated rivers ran, to caverns measureless to Man, serving the succor to flora; and, withal, culling those warped from the soul, daring defy logic and the natural sequence.

 

However is its chiding stare unequivocal, much of the Sun’s stipulations remain quizzical. When the Veil was yet young and ever unfolding, and Man walked to see his prophets in the flesh, it was augured amongst stargazing conspirators that the astral projection served but a tear from which the Void seeped, and curdled; and, too those which portended the thought that, perhaps it had been a mere egg of the Creator, Himself, bolstering His infallible spirit within. These evaluations are largely apocryphal, however, and mustn’t be thought of as absolute.

 

Unsung in the annals of history, the Preserver bores the Sun’s impregnable walls of fire and fry, best likened as the Creator’s tactful eye o’er His domain, surveying the Veil with a consummate scrutiny. As does his epithet imply, he assumes the feat of assuring all is within the fief and breadth of the Creator, an extraterrestrial mediator, forever burdened by the logic of the world.

 

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Citations

https://www.lordofthecraft.net/forums/topic/165638-✓-space-from-within-the-void/

 

Purpose

What precedes this section is something sourced from content I have longed to rework and expand upon. This is what this lore piece serves to do. Lore pieces touching the subject prior to this one remain convoluted and confusing, making it hard to understand exactly what is and isn’t canon, and each piece differs from the other. By making this lore, I intend for it to be used in roleplay and in further additions of lore pieces that are in the works as this is being written. Cosmology is a very delicate topic with so much potential, so I hope that I have done it justice. 

- Nozoa

 

Nozoa - Author, Writer, Ideas

Hephaestus - Writer

 

Edited July 4, 2021 by Nozoa

[Hephaestus 1317]

Had a good deal of fun writing this with you, despite the fact that I procrastinated some.

 

 

[Valannor 6349]

I look forwards to my fellow LTs having to explain most of this to me. 

 

ILY Noz, +1 <3

[JoanOfArc 4586]

esoteric and edgy. based.

[ScreamingDingo 17084]

should just be a cultural post lol

[Nozgoth 2979]

2 minutes ago, ScreamingDingo said:

should just be a cultural post lol

 

Not necessarily, the whole idea is to lay foundations down within the canon lore for future expansion and use in roleplay.

[rep2k 2478]

I personally like it, great piece of lore, support given +1

[Panashea 2645]

I have to do this but with spirits; hope a clear player written version of cosmetology helps clear up world lore and gives me space to write too.

Edited July 3, 2021 by Panashea

[King_Kunuk 889]

I thought some of the stars where literally giant voidal horrors the size of planets

[Jentos 6962]

4 minutes ago, King_Kunuk said:

I thought some of the stars where literally giant voidal horrors the size of planets

space around terra is just a mass of voidal horrors and the stars are there eyes 

[Morigung-oog 2474]

It'd be nice to have canon lore rather than just elaborate and outlandish theories about the skies above the realm.

 

A very nice elaboration on snippets of lore, and linking them together, too. 

 

I'd write paragraphs detailling my love of this work, but this work puts my own to shame. 

 

Anyway, I'm giving this the biggest (as far as font size dictates) +1 I've given in a long while.

 

+1

Okay, the max size font on the forums is 72, which kinda sucks. Next time I see a lore piece this good, I'll find something much more snazzy.

 

 

[Ibn Khaldun 7729]

I will read this further when time permits, but I suppose you may not know about prior attempts (by actual LTs) at writing world lore on a cosmological scale had been attempted in the past. I attempted to do so back towards the end of Aegis (I think right after Availer left), got my lore accepted, then retconned.

 

I am not bringing this up to huff-n-puff, but to encourage you to get a green light before pursuing this kind of cosmological lore-writing further.

[latte 1312]

i love me some space 

[ScreamingDingo 17084]

This lore has been denied.

As above my comment states after speaking with management, this is perfect for a cultural interpretation but uses too many different aspects of lore we cannot canonise when discussing this, the implication of the Primordial's involvement with the sun and making the veil akin to space is something that isn't what we need to touch upon, or if done, needs to be done in simpler writing instead of a character's journal piece. For these big implication of World Lore aspects, it needs to be done utilising the K.I.S.S method (Keep it stupid simple).

Thank you for writing this, but I believe this is perfect to have as an in-character interpretation, not hard canon.