A Letter from the Forge

[Yezrien]

Like many Sharders, I dream of writing a meta-series of interconnected fantasy epics -- a Cosmere all my own. (Brandon seems to have this effect on many of his readers.) Today, I’d like to share some fragmented concepts from my giant setting: the Panstellation.

Here’s an artist’s rendition of the Panstellation (a rank, arrogant, amateur artist’s rendition).

The Panstellation is solar system of solar systems. Nine stars, each orbited by several class-M planets. And all the stars orbit something called the Forge. See the big purple emission nebula? See the litte black nebula that obscures part of it? See the little glowy thing inside the black?

That’s the Forge. Here’s a close-up:

It’s bigger than the biggest stars, and it’s the source of all magic in the Panstellation. Its magical radiation pools in the souls of the planets, fueling the magic systems that their inhabitants enjoy.
Planets closer to the Forge enjoy stronger ambient radiation. They are high-magic settings, where demigod-level characters are commonplace. On the outer rim, magic is scarcer, and people more likely to compensate with advanced technology. And there’s plenty of diversity in between. 

Most planets are inhabited by humans, but a few feature more alien peoples. And the humans have supernatural diversity: I imagine that different planetary conditions (climates, gravities, magics, etc.) have produced variations on the human body that don’t exist on Earth.

The following is an in-universe letter. It’s basically my version of Sazed’s epigraphs from Hero of Ages. 

I’m imagining a pretty straightforward epic trilogy, set fairly early in the grand timeline of the Panstellation. It’s set on a world fairly close to the Forge. The bad guy, already a sorcerer, well-versed in the local magic systems, has managed to attain godlike power by drawing energy from within the Forge itself (rather than from his own planet, like he’s supposed to). 

At the trilogy’s end, this villain is defeated, and his Forge-power-extraction mechanism is destroyed. But we’re not out of the woods, yet. When he stole power from the Forge, he unwittingly created a critical imbalance, which will eventually kill the Forge, and probably destroy the universe.

And so one of the Trilogy’s heroes must save the day again, this time by making the ultimate sacrifice. He must take hold of the stolen power, ascend to virtual godhood himself, and return said power to the Forge. 

Much like Sazed, he’s managed to write some things down in the process. Enjoy!

Spoiler

Dearest Kazzia,

By the time you read this, I'll be gone. Not just gone, like I am now, but gone. Dead. Maybe more than dead. 

And that's almost acceptable to me. We've seen so much, done so much... it would be selfish to ask for more. How many times have we cheated Death, you and I? Eventually one of us ought to let him win. 

But I have one regret, and it's the way I left you. 

I didn't say goodbye.

I expect Wollick has told you that I didn't know it would be fatal -- that I went to the temple expecting to come back from it all. He's lying to comfort you. Lying through whatever teeth he has left. It was him that told me it would be fatal. Not that I needed to be told, of course.

Everyone who ever touched this power went mad, or worse. How could I expect to control it, even for an hour, without being consumed by it?

So I didn't tell you I was going. I know you wouldn't have tried to stop me; I know you're stronger and wiser than that. But I was afraid you'd cry. And if you cried, I wouldn't be able to do it. I wouldn't be able to leave your side. 

But it had to be done. The sun, the Forge... it all needed to be set right. And I had to be the one to do it.

I'm sorry, Kazzia. I am so, so sorry.

I'm fading now. The power has burned through me. Once it returns to the Forge, I'll be gone. I'm not even alive enough to come see you, and die with your hand on my cheek. 

But I can write this letter, and I can trust the Winds to carry it beside your bed.

This is my apology. I can never truly atone for what I've done to you, but perhaps I can win back a few points by answering some questions. Specifically, the questions you've spent your entire adult life pondering in vain.

I've been inside it, Kaz. I've been inside the Forge itself, and I found memories. Well, not exactly memories. The Forge isn't alive, strictly speaking. But it contains echoes of much that's gone before -- fragments of the past, suspended in its power. I touched them, and I saw.

So, yes, I behaved like a complete and utter chull. But now I'll reveal, to the extent that I can, the ancient secrets of the origin of the Forge. And the universe.

In the beginning, there was Chaos. 

Well, not just Chaos. There were also stars, planets, rocks and dust and gas clouds, all the things one can find in the universe today. Even people. 

But there was more, back then. There were things too vast, too beautiful, and too terrible to even imagine. Things that don't exist today because they can't.

More was possible in those days...

But no, that's not quite right. The laws and logics of reality, which mark the boundary between the possible and the impossible, were exactly as they are today. But there was Chaos, then. And Chaos tended to ignore those boundaries.

Chaos wasn't alive. It was just a force, or an energy, or perhaps a substance. It pervaded the universe. It was random, undirected, utterly without meaning. 

Its only intent -- if it can be ascribed intent -- was change. It changed whatever it touched. It changed things into other things. It changed some things into nothing, and often changed nothing into something. 

Creation. Destruction. Transformation. 

It made worlds, stars, animals, peoples. And often it destroyed them soon after. It would wipe them into oblivion, or change them into something unrecognizable, or sabotage their survival by distorting the conditions of time and space.

The universe was terrible, when Chaos reigned, but beautiful as well. In its boundless, unthinking creativity, Chaos created marvels that language cannot describe.

How long was this age of randomness and change? I really can't say. Chaos made time inconsistent, and difficult to guage.

I said "In the beginning, there was Chaos," but that might not be true. I don't know if the universe existed before Chaos, or if it was Chaos that created the universe. If Chaos wasn't the first thing that existed, it could easily have twisted time, gone back to the beginning, and predated itself. 

The beginning of Chaos is extremely confusing.

Fortunately, the end of it is much clearer. At a time of no particular significance, and for no reason at all, Chaos created the agents of its own demise. 

They are called the Meddaia -- but not by themselves. That name was given to them by a different race, much later, and on a world I don't know. If I had to guess, I'd say it was their word for god.

How else can I describe the Meddaia, except as gods? They were vaster than planets, brighter than stars, wiser than the Gorshai. And their magic... they had more power than anything you could imagine, save the Forge itself. But, of course, there was no Forge, then...

Because the Meddaia hadn't built it, yet.

Yes, you read that right.

I wish I could show you these memories, Kazzia. To see the Meddaia moving through space, singing their ancient songs... they were as awesome as power itself. As majestic as love.

And they took it upon themselves to rid the universe of Chaos.

Why, though? Even I can't quite fathom that. Many worlds have known the Meddaia, and asked questions of them, but none have received a comprehensible answer.

Some believe it was ideological. They say the Meddaia were committed to order, so they saw Chaos as evil. Other theorists -- more cynical ones -- believe it was merely an act of self-preservation. For even with all their power, the Meddaia were not safe from Chaos. It could destroy them in an instant, without warning, without purpose.

I have a different theory.

I've seen fleeting memories of those ancient eons, when the mighty Meddaia were young. Their songs are difficult to understand, but I think I've seen the moment they decided to purge Chaos. It was a collective decision, hotly debated, but ultimately unanimous. It was a moment filled with a strange emotion... pure, loving devotion... and sorrow, as well.

It was familiar to me. It was the same thing we saw in Domandir, when Kombar challenged his father to mortal combat. Do you remember that moment ? Those titanic emotions? The sorrow of a son about to kill his father... and the loving pride of a father, whose son was about to achieve his destiny. And that noble determination, in both of them, to do what was necessary -- to uphold their ancient traditions, and also to give their tribe the strong leader it needed.

The Meddaia needed to do what they did, and they did it out of love... but it pained them, still. 

They may have been gods, but they were children as well. And they bore the most wretched and miserable curse that any child can suffer: a parent who does not answer questions. They turned to Chaos, their creator, and asked why it had made them. But Chaos could give no answers.

Even gods need purpose, Kazzia. I've learned that all too well. Every being that thinks is born with that need -- with a yearning to know why we were born. 

The Meddaia pondered their own creation, and concocted a thousand sciences and philosophies to explore the reasons for their existence. Randomness -- meaninglessness! -- was unacceptable to them, just as it is to us.

So, in the end, they conjured themselves a purpose. They decided that they were made to perform a task. To achieve the one dream which Chaos itself could not.

Chaos desired change, and so it changed all things in the universe. But in creating constant change, it had inadvertently creating the very thing it abhorred above all else: consistency. Change was unceasing and universal, and so... unchanging. 

Chaos created the Meddaia, then, to make the one change that Chaos itself could not: To change change itself. To change the universe into a place without Chaos.

It's a fanciful theory, I'll admit. It's based more on my feelings than any real evidence. But for beings of cosmic scale and power, emotions become spectacularly significant.

That, I believe, is why the Meddaia purged Chaos. On the question of how, I can speak with more confidence.

They created Order: Chaos's natural antithesis.

Chaos was universal, decentralized, and occupied all of reality. Order, on the other hand, was finite, known, measurable, and existed in precisely one place -- one point, with no volume at all.  And Chaos recoiled from this point, repulsed by it.

Under Chaos, the universe had had no shape, no dimension, no permanent axis or orientation. But once Order was born, reality itself was changed. Order became the center of all things. The origin. The nexus of axes. Zero, Zero, Zero, Zero. It was at the heart of existence, and Chaos was all around it.

But since Chaos marked the outer boundaries, those boundaries were limitless and eternal. Chaos expanded, unbound, in every direction.

So a second Order was created. Not a point, this time, but a sphere. A hollow shell, perfectly round, encompassing everything. Outside it there was nothing; not even Chaos.

And then the Purge began in earnest. 

The Meddaia stood outside their sphere, and pushed inward. The sphere contracted, closing in on Chaos, and Chaos fled ahead of it.

As the sphere shrank toward the center, it passed through all the matter in the universe. Worlds. Stars. Gas clouds. Everything. It had no effect on them at all. Its only interaction was with Chaos. 

Smaller and smaller the sphere became, and so the domain of Chaos grew smaller as well.

In the end, the sphere's diameter was no greater than that of a giant star. There was no matter between the sphere and the center. Only Chaos. All of Chaos, which had once suffused the entire universe, was trapped in that little ball. ('Little' in the cosmological sense, of course.) 

Then, as is the nature of Chaos, it did something unexpected. It pushed back.

Chaos began to repel the Order, and press outward, against the will of the Meddaia. It was almost as if Chaos had acquired a will of its own, and decided at last to resist its confinement. Or perhaps, confined so completely by Order, Chaos had been imbued with some measure of structure and finity -- limits, beyond which it could not be compressed.

But the Meddaia were resolute. They pushed harder.

And then there was... a collapse.

Chaos buckled and fell inward, upon the point -- the heart of Order. For the first time, they touched. And they mingled, and merged, consuming and absorbing one another. Order and Chaos became one. And the one was... harmonious.

It no longer pushed outward, and the Meddaia no longer pushed inward. This thing, this grand sphere, was content to exist as it was. Inside it, the great fusion of opposites did swirl and blaze with a beautiful light. And the outside, its shell of Order, became part of the harmony as well. It contained, but did not restrict.

A sphere of utter calm, black as night, pierced from within by light of a thousand colors. You've seen it in your telescope, Kazzia. This is the Forge.

It is chaos, shaped by order. It is order, liberated by chaos. It is the possible and the impossible, intertwined and dancing.

It is not alive... but it is passionate. 

I don't understand that any better than you do. But it's true. I know it.

So the Forge was made, and the Meddaia sang a song of triumph and joy. Their quest was done, and successful, exactly as planned -- but with the thrill of an unexpected climax. They basked in the light of the Forge, and composed arias to honor its beauty.

And then the singing stopped. 

The Meddaia fell silent, aghast and unbelieving, when they looked outward, away from the Forge, and saw... nothing.

Well, not nothing, exactly. But less. A great deal less than they were used to seeing.

The stars and the planets and the gas clouds, that was all there, as it should be. But life was not. Life had dwindled. The songs and souls of mortal beings, which once filled all the universe with presence and commotion, were suddenly all but gone. Just a handful of worlds in all existence -- more than a hundred, but less than a thousand -- still boasted little haloes of life.

And fewer still were home to intelligent life.

And none at all had magic. Magic had vanished entirely.

Now, the Meddaia understood the full weight of their actions. Magic was of Chaos. It was a residue, left behind in the wake of Chaotic change. And the great sphere of Order, which passed through every world and wonder, had purged them all of magic, as well as Chaos.

And the laws of possibility, it seemed, were not so fond of life as the Meddaia had assumed. In most places -- the stars, the gas clouds, and almost every planet -- life could not survive without magic.

When Chaos was purged, and the Forge created, one billion worlds were scoured of life. One million thinking races died, bereft of the magics that let them live.

They are gods, the Meddaia... but even gods make mistakes. And who but gods could make such a vast one? Who but gods could murder every world?

Not every world, but near enough.

The Meddaia themselves were creatures of magic. They survived the purge because they were outside the sphere, pushing in. If it had passed through them, they would have died.

(One of them did, I believe. It was discovered much later, to great sorrow.)

So what could they do? The Forge could not be unmade, nor Chaos unleashed again. The only magic left in the universe was within the Meddaia themselves, and even if they killed themselves and released their power into the void, it would not be enough to rekindle life. 

But the Forge itself provided a solution.

It was found to produce a certain radiance -- an emanation of power, shining forth in all directions like light from a flame. It was faint, this Light of the Forge, but it was magic. It was too dim to light the whole universe... but it did suffuse a region as large as many solar systems.

So the Meddaia set about another project -- a work of engineering on the cosmic scale. They collected the gentlest and steadiest of stars, and set them in orbits around the forge. And they collected the most fertile and livable worlds, and set them in orbits around these stars. They built the entire Panstellation.

And it’s bigger than you think, Kaz. Nine stars, not six. And dozens of worlds.

And all of them, even those in the most remote orbits, were near enough to bathe in the invisibe essence of the Forge. It pooled and collected in their core-souls, and blossomed into magics, like ours. But they’re different on every world! The magics, the people, the...

Oh dear... I’m fading now. I’m losing myself. I go to the Forge, whence none return.

I hope I’ve helped. I hope this knowledge has given you some... happiness.

I hope you can use this to further your... And the College...

Oh, there’s so much more I would tell you!

There’s a world you must watch. They will come!

They are small, but very powerful.

Their name is...

I... I don’t...

Don’t trust them! They lie!

I must warn...

But I’m running...

Out...

of time.

I love you.

Forgive me...

Kazzia...

And... that’s that.

At the center of the universe lies the Forge, encircled by the Panstellation.

I designed this whole backstory to explain why magic works the way it does. I know I haven't explained any magic systems, but when I do, you'll find they're all very consistent and rule-based, but still whimsical and mystical. The idea is that all Forge-derived magic, like the Forge itself, is composed of both Chaos and Order. Being Chaos, it can defy reality and do the impossible; being Order, it always operates within the bounds of its own rule-system. 

If people are interested in this, I can post some more of my half-baked plans and ideas for this setting. 
Other than that, I appreciate any thoughts and comments. Thanks for reading!

Edited May 21, 2017 by Belzedar

[StrikerEZ]

This is amazing. I can't wait to hear about some of your magic systems. Are you gonna post them in this topic too?

[Jedal]

This is far...grander...than what I have written.

 

I'm intrigued by the idea of a common power source that does not permeate the entirety of the universe. So the Meddaia live outside the sphere? Because I assume its the only place they could live now. Or can they return, because there is magic?

[Hemalurgic Headshot]

Bravo! Encore! Magnificent!

Really, one day, I will have a library filled with the works of the Shard's authors. I hope to count your saga in it.  

Please send more. The lore is rich and deep, and you offer conflicts of minute and momentous scale that mingle and blend into a true masterpiece. 

[Truthweaver]

I got goosebumps reading that letter. Amazing! Definitely interested in reading more about this world. 

[C. M. Hayden]

This is actually very well done! I'd be interested in seeing more!

[Yezrien]

On 2017-05-21 at 6:11 PM, StrikerEZ said:

This is amazing. I can't wait to hear about some of your magic systems. Are you gonna post them in this topic too?

Thanks! And yes, I'll post more in this thread. I just have to compile some ideas into paragraph form.

On 2017-05-21 at 6:47 PM, Jedal said:

I'm intrigued by the idea of a common power source that does not permeate the entirety of the universe. So the Meddaia live outside the sphere? Because I assume its the only place they could live now. Or can they return, because there is magic?

Okay, the order-sphere is now outer shell of the Forge itself, so pretty much everything is outside it. (I'm afraid I may not have explained this as well as I could have. I should make a diagram.) 

But as to where the Meddaia live now, they're pretty much free to roam wherever they please. Their bodies are innately magical, so they don't have to stay close to the Forge. They prefer to, though, because the ambient magic of the Panstellation is very pleasant to them, but most choose not to. After their accidental genocide fiasco, they've embraced a non-interference philosophy regarding the younger races, and the easiest way for them to not interfere with the worlds of the Panstellation is to stay far, far away.

A few of them live on Panstellation worlds, mostly disguised as humans, but most roam the far reaches of the universe, searching for any remaining sparks of life, and experimenting with world-creation.

On 2017-05-21 at 8:30 PM, Hemalurgic_Headshot said:

Bravo! Encore! Magnificent!

Really, one day, I will have a library filled with the works of the Shard's authors. I hope to count your saga in it.  

Please send more. The lore is rich and deep, and you offer conflicts of minute and momentous scale that mingle and blend into a true masterpiece. 

Wow. I am saving a screen cap of this comment for future inspiration. Thank you so much!

On 2017-05-26 at 5:33 PM, C. M. Hayden said:

This is actually very well done! I'd be interested in seeing more!

 

On 2017-05-22 at 8:22 AM, Truthweaver said:

I got goosebumps reading that letter. Amazing! Definitely interested in reading more about this world. 

Thanks and thanks! More to come soon!