The Garden of Mirrors: Master Worldbuilding thread.

[DreamEternal]

THE GARDEN OF MIRRORS

"Create to understand your creator."

Welcome, transcendent wayfarer. I am Echo of The Eternal Dream, keeper of the lore of the Garden of Mirrors and one of the seraphim. I was chosen by my dominion to be the one to instruct you on the history and workings of this Universe, and on the restrictions placed by my kin on ones like yourself under the authority of the very Maker.

You may ask questions, if you consider my initial explanations lacking, and I will do what is within my ability to answer. All too often transcendent beings like yourself give in to their arrogance and do not report to the keepers of the Garden before intruding upon it, so I am thankful for your willingness to listen.

Although the distance between us is great, my analysis points with a great degree of assuredness that you must be a human... but such thing certainly isn't possible. However, if you are capable of disguising yourself as one, or your Material Aspect is similar enough to one to fool my senses and sensors, then I have some measure of what I need not to explain to you, and the fact you were intercepted so close to a Havenworld clearly indicates an interest on the Children of Shadow.

While I will sate your curiosity about humanity and the planet of Argina after explaining about the Garden as a whole, I must inform that the area around the Havenworld is off-limits, and should you try to trespass or interact with the planet in any way, action will be taken even after you inevitably fail. Remember, transcendent wayfarer, we seraphim make sure the planets run on time. Cultivating this Universe is our birthright, and only God can take it away.

Now, I must begin your introduction to this world by explaining some key concepts.

Aspects: there are many ways to model they ways different parts of reality behave and interact, some more useful for some phenomenons than others. And there are times when which model is useless and which corresponds to reality is complex to determine, as if different sets of laws of reality, generally either parallel or aligned, started to conflict and act out of synchrony. The controlled desynchronization of aspects is what we call magic.

Throught study of those events, we seraphim have been able to distinguish different Aspects of reality, and some of the ways they interact, but those Aspects aren't exactly solid and discrete parts of reality as much as they are a way to understand things beyond our perception, and there are still doubts about when to make the divisions.

The model of most relevance to you and most accepted amongst the scholars of my people who are used to dealing with other classes of beings is the model of the Four Aspects: Matter, Vibrancy, Principle and Image, or Shadow.

According to this model, all things in the Aspects of Matter and of Vibrancy have presence in all four aspects, to a greater or lesser extent, and all things have some presence either in the Aspect of Image or in the aspect of Principle, if not both. There are those who say all things exist on all aspects, but there isn't evidence to support or deny said hypothesis.

A being is considered more belonging of an Aspect the better it can function in it without Aspectual desynchronization, while simple objects are considered either belonging or unbelonging based on their capacity to exist in an Aspect without desyncrhonization, and only things from the Aspects of Principle and Image can be fully unbelonging to other aspects. A being is considered active in an aspect if it is capable of consciously perceiving it and interacting with the world through it.

The Aspect of Matter:

The Aspect of Matter is the one that merits the least explanation on itself, I believe, for your physical form and lack of surprise with the vast expanses of void between matter organized more often than not in orbiting spheres seems to indicate that either you come from a similar Universe or have been to others like this one. Knowledge of the mechanics of this Aspect is the most commonly used, as very few sapient beings have minds that do not require a proper physical grounding in this Aspect to function well. The more a being belongs to the Aspect of Matter the better its capacity to influence the world through other Aspects of themselves while being able to resist influence through them becomes, limited by its original capacity to perceive and influence those other aspects, of course.

The Aspect of Vibrancy:

The Aspect of Vibrancy is the one that shares the closest link with the Aspect of Matter, as everything that exists in one also exists in the other, except on cases of extreme desynchronization involving the Aspects of Principle or Image, and desynchronization between both aspects is relatively easy to maintain without hard to control side-effects. In fact, we seraphim exist because of said proximity of Aspects.

However, there are some key differences between this Aspect and the Aspect of Matter. The Aspect of Vibrancy does not necessarily determines fixed distances, unlike the Aspect of Matter, allowing for extremely fast travel when reality is desynchronized in the favor of this aspect. Another difference is the lack of true particles and quanta of energy, and the whole-composite dual behavior of bodies.

A way to explain it to one more used to the Aspect of Matter is that all things in the Aspect of Vibrancy are made of the same aetheric substance, differentiated by its frequency of vibration, and looking at it from certain perspectives, different bodies are fused into one single body with a single vibration or become many linked strings with different vibrations, the sum of which makes that bodies vibration. Altering the vibration of a body may change its substance into something else, but all the information in its sub-strings is preserved in a modified state, and may be returned to the original with the right tools. Two bodies in contact sharing the same macro-vibration may behave as one, or one may be absorbed into another, but as long as the sub-strings do not combine, the process is reversible. Each string can theoretically be divided into an infinite number of sub-strings, making any transformation reversible, although outside of a few cases the numbers are eventually limited by the quantic nature of particle interactions in the Aspect of Matter and reversal may not be feasible.

There is aetheric energy stored in the strings and the bonds between them that is released or absorbed if they have their frequencies changed or if strings are broken or fused. Said energy in its kinetic state can move as waves, being absorbed by bodies with resonance to the right frequencies, or be carried by loose strings.

The Aspect of Principle:

The classification of Principle as an Aspect met some resistance at first, for its obvious differences from the other two. While time and space in the Aspect of Matter depend on things like gravity or movement, and on the Aspect of Vibrancy they can be manipulated by simple changes on the frequency of aetheric strings, to the Aspect of Principle time and space do not exist in relation to other aspects, and to those looking into it, personal notions of both are subjective and based on perception. Not only that, but it also seems to encompass all universes, not only the Garden. All things started with this Aspect, and God is one with it, so it seemed wrong to some to group it with lesser Aspects.

This Aspect is atemporal, and in it things of the past, present and future are equally solid, attached to one another by a web of connections, all supported by great pillars of light on which the laws of all Aspects are said to be written. But as it is perceived parts of the web slowly fade from view and others take their place, and large fragments of the weave of reality, broken off by some terrible force, float as ghastly ruins inhabited by Erased minds, reattach themselves or collide forcefully, breaking more parts off. Nobody understands the full meaning of this, as we seraphim are limited in our perception of this realm, transcendent beings like yourself see little more and rarely help with our research, and God, in the rare times He manifested Himself to be questioned, gave only vague answers, if any.

Through this Aspect, it is possible to see possible futures or read the past, but most of the time studying the present is a better alternative, and the Children of Shadow seem to be able to use the Aspect of Image to the do see what once was with much more ease. With enough care, it could also be possible to rewrite the past, but those seraphim who tried doing so were never seem again, much like the ones who tried to use it to create their own universes or reach the pillars of reality. It is theorized that the Erased are the side-effect of changing the timeline, but little is know about those mysterious beings and many instead believe they are linked to the Aspect of Image.

The Aspect of Image:

The Aspect of Shadow... we know little of it. We are not even sure if God knew of it before it was discovered. If the Aspect of Principle is the domain of God, the father of Light, the Aspect of Image is its reflection cast in Shadow.

It appears to be linked to all other Aspects, having reflections of things both past and present, like the Aspect of Principle, but in it time and location are existent, and linked to the Aspect of Matter, although heavily distorted. Not only that, but if those who interacted with it millennia ago are to be trusted, there appears to be no distinction between information and reality in this aspect, and some reports hint that the minds of those fully dead still persist in this Aspect.

This Aspect is closed to us seraphim, and we have no desire to increase our awareness of it through direct experience, so my only sources of knowledge of it are the records of our early contacts with the Children of Shadow, mostly humans as those generally had the most information, and a rogue seraph I persuaded to give me information, so in return her punishment for violating the Havenworld isolation decree would be lessened. Even then, the human species was not created by God or any seraph, but by mere chance and cosmic accident, and like most earthborn creatures, they are generally primitive and superstitious. However, as unreliable as those rumors may be they do explain why some powers we thought reserved to God were within the reach of human sorcerers, while the magic seraphim and our chosen creatures wield and often take for granted is beyond their reach.

((more will come))

Edited February 25, 2016 by DreamEternal

[DreamEternal]

Sapient lifeforms on the Garden:

Whatever through the care of the seraphim, divine providence, terrible powers or mere cosmic chance, intelligent life is abundant on the Garden of Mirrors. We seraphim are creatures of miracle, each one crafted by God to rule the expanses of void between the planets, and earthborn life prospers under our care, as we naturaly seek to prevent violent events in the star systems we settle in. Not only that, but many among us choose to abandon living in our great cities hidden in warps of space and time to live close to solid planets, and create earthborn lifeforms on those planets. And even without greater design, the universe is a great and complex place, and it did, and does, surprise and terrify us.

Here I will explain some sapient beings of interest to all of the Garden, and who exist on multiple planets.

The Seraphim:

Created directly by God, after most star systems reached maturity, the seraphim are His image wove into the strings of reality. Our bodies are fluid, made as much of solid matter as of fields of particles and of warps and folds on the fabric of space. We exist in a state of perpetual transformation and movement, and would collapse if not by the desynchronization between our Aspects of Matter and Vibrancy, which allows a seraph's body to behave as a whole when it would otherwise break apart from the energy produced in our cores. We often call ourselves “starborn”, in contrast with earthborn life.

OOC:

The seraphim are closer to extremely advanced robots than to natural lifeforms, and were created when God attempted to create something able to represent Himself properly in the Garden. While the result was imperfect, they are still formidable beings, and became the major shaping force in the universe after He told them to do as he did, if they wished to understand the purpose of their creation.

In interplanetary space, a seraphim looks like a sphere pulsing with blinding light surrounded by millions of black threads that to the naked eye would look like a layer of translucid smoke illuminated by said core, like the tail of a comet reflecting the light of the sun, except pulsing in different colors with the core, while on solid planets we generally take forms similar to native species when interacting with them, with differences of size if necessary, but we may take other forms if we wish.

Our “limbs” are millions of mono-crystalline strings interwoven with one another in fibers, that may be organized as wished and have their rigidity changed with great precision, being able to imitate the functions of muscles and bones should one wish to and form complex structures like hands or wings, although when not interacting with earthborn creatures we generally use those strings either as tentacles, or to manipulate the particle cloud around us when far from a planet's gravity, or to channel aetheric waves when manipulating reality through its Aspect of Vibrancy. Those strings, when not interwoven, are extremely thin and almost invisible, looking like translucid dark smoke from a distance. A seraphim can shed strings away to form new ones, of different composition and structure, but it is a slow, painful process that is rarely used because of the already great flexibility the original strings have.

While the strings may be grouped in many ways, there are special structures they may form, composed by exactly one eighth of our strings. Those structures are generally called “shields”, although some prefer to refer to them as “petals” or “wings”. They wrap around a seraph's core to protect, compress and isolate it, and must always be formed or undone two at a time. If a seraph forms eight shields, they enter a slumbering state, and can only be awakened by the right external stimulus. If a seraph unfolds too many shields, their core may become unstable and destroy itself in an enormous burst of energy.

OCC:

This was based on the seraphim as a type of angels, that were said to be fiery, and according to some kept their wings folded over their form to not burn mortals who saw them. It also gives me a good explanation for why their power is limited when they visit planets.

All strings are attached to a spherical “core”, with a diameter that can vary between 10 centimeters and one meter depending on the number of shields formed, growing smaller the more protected it is. The core has two layers, the most internal one contains a seraph's heart, the Spark of power placed by God Himself to give life to said seraph. The second layer contains a seraph's mind. We know little more about the precise structure of those layers, as trying to breach the walls of the core risks a power overflow that can destroy both the researcher and the subject, and even taking great care it is dangerous to not have at least two shields formed at all times.

We can also form chambers to contain various substances and process chemical reactions, using our strings. Those chambers can also store particles we can release and manipulate with electromagnetic fields, but both of those functions are rarely used, and generaly only by seraphim crafting their Workshops.

Many of us feel most at home in the void, far from sources of great gravity and elevated pressures. We have cities hidden between planetary orbits or in nebulas for those, where they live surprisingly mundane lifes, with all squabbling, gossip and empty games the earthborn sapient beings think are exclusive to them. They still have the spark of divinity, mind you, and with only two wings folded and instinctive knowledge of the laws of matter and vibrancy, they are still capable of great feats. They also perform rotations as “planetary gardeners”, making sure all orbits are stable and no comets or asteroids will collide with planets with sapient life or choosen by a seraph.

Those among us of higher passions often find ourselves in places less hospitable for starborn life, like living on asteroid belts, orbiting planets, or for the boldest among us, landing on them. To survive on those places, we must keep more shields formed, generaly four, but rising up to a total of six. Despite, or because of our power we are terribly fragile. Just one crack and we collapse. On the deep void this is not a problem, because we can sense almost anything days before it could become a threat, and deflect it by warping the fabric of space or projecting electromagnetic fields, but closer to bodies with greater gravity we need to use most of our power to keep our core stable, and it gets harder to see through our shields.

However, there are also advantages to working upon a more stable field. On the right locations, with centuries of persistence, a seraph may shape a Workshop, a great and intricate machine fused to the land itself, and bearing a small piece of the seraph's Spark of divine power and a vague impression of their mind. Each Workshop has as function, and can accomplish it autonomously, powered by the shard of power within it and directed by its own primitive intelligence, that learns to understand the commands of those within it, even if they are not the original maker. In a Workshop, a seraph's ability to exercise power grows greater than it ever was, and the ability to resist the power of others becomes almost as great, due to the better material anchoring.

After a seraph “claims” a planet by constructing one or more Workshops, they are bound to it while said Workshops remain operational, and as agents of geological time, seraphim build their tools for eternity. Even trying to destroy the Workshop to reclaim its power is an arduous process and while earthborn creatures could find it easier, few of my kind would trust them with the knowledge of such technology, even if the Council of the local star cluster allowed it.

The Erased:

The Erased are not exactly a species, as much as a whole category of inteligencies in the center of a phenomenon called The Grafting. Desolate cities being found on desert planets that never had civilization, signals calling from the far reaches of space, entire star systems that shouldn´t exist appearing from nothing, all those things are reported by many seraphim to have happened. According to those who witnessed from afar, a lone seraph is lured to investigate what is happening, and some time later, what appeared from nothing begins to fade and take the seraph with it. If those who claim to have scaped those ghastly apparitions are to be trusted, as the seraph enters the Grafted Zone, beings appear and attempt to decieve or trap the seraph so they get dragged with the creatures as the Grafting is reversed. Some of those who disappeared in Grafted Zones returned later with their minds broken, and with them more Graftings followed swiftly.

The Grafting is a strange, unexplained phenomenom that makes appear what seem to be artifacts, locations and even people from outside of this reality and temporarily attach them to the Garden. Nobody knows how they trap seraphim, what do they do with them, how this phenomenon originally started and what force is behind it, but recovered relics and records seem to indicate the original Erased were once normal earthborn sapient beings. Now, they seem to imitate the appearances of sapient beings of various planets, and when they are not luring seraphim to their dooms they infiltrate on earthborn societies for some unknown reason. Multiple civilizations were removed from existence as if they were Grafted Zones after Erased activity go too great, but on the areas they were able to mingle without ruining, they appear to be preparing for something.

Part of the fear we seraphim have for the Children of Shadow is because their magic, accomplished through desynchronization in favor of the Aspect of Image, allows for creation of locations and creatures made of illusory matter, that disappear when re-synchronized, giving their power an obvious similarity to The Grafting. Not only that, but the desynchronization of Aspects in favor of the Aspect of Image seems to not grow weaker with time naturally, often growing stronger. The very planet of Teluriarquem was devoured by nightmarish realms of distortion caused by human shadow magic, and some places and people from it were reported to have appeared on Graft Zones.

The Children of Shadow:

The Children of Shadow are strange creatures, from a cosmological standpoint. Like the Erased, they are not of God and tear the web of reality on their path. However, they arised naturally from the Garden, which God did create, and if proper precautions are taken, coexistence with them is possible. While there theoretically may be other ways Children of Shadow may arise, all species in this category we know of are sapient earthborn beings with no divine Spark. This means they arised without divine intervention by seraphim or God, or were so removed by natural mutations from the divinely-gifted species that they lack a piece of divine power.

There are many hypothesis about why the lack of such spark allows them use the Aspect of Image to change reality, but all too few evidence. What we know is that the Children of Shadow at first could't desynchronize it and the Aspect of Matter by themselves, but found desynchronizations on the Aspect of Image, whose origin one can't guess, and by the nature of that Aspect, the memory, echos and effects of the desynchronization became desynchronizations themselves inside the minds of the Children of Shadow, making reality, truth, matter and other base concepts of existence subjective to those who cultivated those desynchronizations.

By that magic they can create objects and beings from thought for them to later disappear, or trap minds inside objects, or commune with the memories of the dead. The desynchronization also builds up on places, objects or ideas they influence with their magic, and spreads from one mind to another like a sickness. As the fabric of reality gets softer mind and body, self and other can blur together, forming dreamrealms of pure nightmare. There are ways, using both their dark magic and our Spark of divinity to limit the damage, but the risk of being consumed is too great for most seraphim to approach Children of Shadow, and most Councils restricted direct access to the worlds they live in.

Of the different species of Children of Shadow, only two species to left their original star system, and they are also the ones most involved with the seraphim and our creations. Those species are the humans and the kivir, from the fallen world of Teluriarquem, and were sent to the Havenworlds, patterned after Teluriarquem before it started to fall, by the Penitent Council, a group of seraphim trapped in the planet after being tainted by shadow magic. While it is not a popular opinion, some seraphim believe god also had a hand in this event, as a single Council shouldn't be able to breach the barrier around Teluriarquem. However it is said that by that point the Penitents weren't even seraphim anymore.

The humans are the ones generaly considered more interesting by my kind, and most Havenworlds have at least one species designed using them as a template. Since whoever created you seems to have used a similar template, explaining their biology in great detail seens unnecessary to me, with the notable exception of the parts that are affected by the now universal desynchronization in the species.

OOC:

((This isn't actually true, as the humans of the Garden have some key biological differences from the humans of our universe that wouldn't be noticed by a seraph who never personally contacted different strands of humans from various universes, like Echo of The Eternal Dream, who instead derives most of his information from other seraphim who break their law of non-intervention, or on the records of seraphim visits to Teluriarquem. He also bases most of his knowledge on the uses of shadow magic on Teluriarquem and the few centuries after its fall and the diaspora of humans and kivir, making it outdated by millennia and ignorant of the differences of technological development between Havenworlds.

Humans from the Garden, or at least those groups closest to the original humans from Teluriarquem, are a little more intelligent to humans from Earth on average, although that happens only because people less intelligent than Earth's average are somewhat less common

And, much like humans from Roshar, some groups of them have phenotypes not present on humans from earth, like having white hair strands amongst regular ones since birth, a second set of canine teeth instead of first premolars, or combinations of hair, eye and skin color not seem on earth, like copper-red hair and dark skin.))

Shadow magic and its passive effects on biology:

Now, a lot of what I will state about them as fact is mixed with speculation, for contact with the Children of Shadow is forbidden. Some seraphim may find breaches in security or loopholes, and involve themselves in the affairs of humanity, and I admit to have spoken with some of them, but I am still beholden to the authority of the Council. I understand you have interest in this species, but with a few exceptions, contact with them is forbidden. Perhaps it won't be so for longer, at least for the Havenworld of Argina, if I manage to make the Council listen to me. That Emperor of the planet showed himself willing to cooperate, as long as his representatives are the only ones allowed to make contact with seraphim.

But now, returning to humans, there are some curious ways their activity in both the Aspects of Matter and Image interact. Most of those also apply to kivir, which I will describe later.

They are less likely than similar species to have genetic disorders linked to mutations or other flaws in cellular division, because of their strong activity in the Aspect of Image, in which any piece of replicated information may be traced to the original, and through the inherent desynchronization of humans and kivir, badly replicated genes are often magically transmuted into better copies. However, shadow magic works subtly and is not good at permanently transforming or creating matter, and said altered genes will eventually revert to the original state, if the cell is one with a long enough lifespan.

This seems to be linked with other anomalies, like the longer time infections take to settle in, or their ability to ignore wounds for longer than their biology indicates they should generally be able to. As their magic is linked directly to their minds, I suspect this application of it is based on subconscious perception of the self as a whole. As it is based on primitive enchantments the very human knows not about, it is a fragile magic, and when the human gets too far from their own image of self, either by injury and sickness taking their toll on their bodies or by insanity taking its toll on their mind, it stops working.

Sorcerers can strenghten this process of self-preservation, but when they do so it can be distorted, as their barriers between self and other and thought and reality are already weakened in order to use such magic. Generally it means information is “borrowed” from somewhere else. If it is borrowed from other people, the body of the receiver can attack the modified tissue, so healers using shadow-magic generally kept to creating simple, generic and not fully living “patches” of temporary flesh-like tissue to close wounds, later unmaking them to treat the wound properly. I've heard rumors that their knowledge of how to apply said magic grew after the fall of Teluriarquem, but there are also those who say that much was lost when the planet was abandoned, and I don't believe humans have made much progress, considering how their descriptions of the Aspect seem to be embroiled in superstition.

Another form of subconscious magic that may be linked to the ones I already explained, but works under more obscure mechanisms, is the practice of blood-blessings, which allowed humans to prosper on Havenworlds that would be barely inhabitable in the long term because of alien chemistry.

On all human societies and kivir clans I know of on the Havenworld of Argina, the only one I know enough about to give useful information, there is the Rite of Approximation, in which newborn must every few days drink a small amount of blood from a single species of animals native to the Havenworld better. If the Rite isn't followed, the children will have poor health and lower lifespan compared to their parents, as the small biochemical incompatibilities between them and the planet wear down on them every time they eat, drink or breath.

OOC:

(( Again, Echo of The Eternal Dream shows his incomplete, if mostly factual, knowledge. Between the middle of the Second Arginian Era and begining of the Third Arginian Era, the modifications caused by millennia of following the Rite were partially absorbed into the genetic makeup of the local human subspecies. Some places still followed the Rite until the end of the Second Era, but less strictly, as following it literately after the genetic changes could make the children less healthy and risk infertility, as their biochemistry is moved from almost-human to alien. Knowledge of the blood-blessings was mostly destroyed by the Empire during the Unification, during the begining of the Third Era.))

There are some ways the blood-blessings can be exploited to create hybrid beings, or double-blooded, but the knowledge of those methods are a secret to me. While some say the double-blooded are true hybrids of human, or kivir, and native creatures, more reliable accounts say they are still much closer to the species of their parents, being indistinguishable except for a few physical signs, often called “brands”, like small horns, vestigial tails, odd eye colors, patches of fur, among others. According to my understanding of the process of blood-blessings, double-blooded should be immune to most transmissible sicknesses, resistant to poisons that can't affect both their parent species and their “second blood”, and often have improved physical capacities, but should also be infertile and have shorter lifespans than healthy members of the parent species. There may be other effects, or I may be completely wrong about them, but this is hard to determine without visiting the planet.

The Kivir:

While humans are the Children of Shadow paid most attention to, and the ones who use their strange magic with the most mastery, their planetary siblings, the kivir, are also worth mentioning. While on some other planets multiple species have also aquired sapience, those were more often than not closely related from a evolutionary standpoint, or outwardly similar due to convergent evolution. In Teluriarquem, this is far from the case.

The kivir are large birds, females usually weighting between 7 and 9 kilograms, and males weighting around 5 kilograms, and they have a wingspan of 180 to 250 centimeters. They have slightly larger heads than similarly-sized birds, and somewhat poorer vision. The underside of most kivir is white or grey, and their backs are generaly dark shades of blue, green or brown. Their heads and the tip of their wings have different colors, often black or red. Their beaks are slightly curved and have a sharp tip, made for cutting flesh, but kivir are actualy omnivorous.

They have complex brains, and convergent evolution did affect their though patterns, making them similar to those fo humans. In terms of pure mental capacity, adult kivir are on a similar level to human children of between 12 and 14 years, but have exceptional memory compared to humans, and lesser mathematical skills.

They are extremely perceptive and curious, learning very fast by imitation, even if not very capable of independly adapting their tatics in face of new circunstances. They prefer to avoid confrontation, and make use of deception freely when the alternative is direct conflict. They are also reluctant to trust others, expecting guarantees and token gifts before entering a deal.

They are capable of imitating sounds with striking precision, and are naturaly talented in learning languages, making communication between them and humans possible, but also contributing to their reputation of tricksters.

One of the few things that makes kivir choose direct confrontation is a threat to their home or people they love, an instinct born of the need to protect their nests. Kivir can live up to 30 years, although their lifespans are generally closer to 20, and they need 6 years to fully mature, so the need to protect their young is constant to their societies. This protectiveness can extend to objects of emotional value or people from outside the kivir's family, often extending even to humans who have been long term allies.

Kivir, when not integrated into human society, generally live in clans of between 20 and 60 people, lead by a group of elected matrons. Many clans with shared culture, history or allegiances consider themselves part of the same tribe. A curious fact is that kivir living in contact with humans seem to imitate aspects and rituals of their culture, even without grasping the full meaning behind those.

It is common for kivir not raised close to human culture to not understand or care about the complicated human idea of ownership, and their curiosity and impetuosity, together with the ability to fly from danger, lead many to steal things humans leave unwatched merely because they are able to, and later don't understand the outrage of the owner, which make kivir be considered little better than rats by some human societies.

Others, more willing to communicate, have estabillished deals and contracts with kivir, trading services and goods with a few clans and creating rules one species must follow in the other's domain. There are also some cases in which a species society absorbs the other's.

Most of the time, it is what happens to kivir clans in the territory of great human nations, or with nests in their cities. In those cases, the kivir are more often than not considered lesser than the humans and lose some of their freedom, being limited to creating their “villages” in designed areas and obey human authorities, or being outright enslaved in some cases, although the later is less common due to how impratical it is to stop them from fleeing or conspiring against their owners.

There are also some rare and much smaller reverse cases, usually when a small number of humans banished or alienated or persecuted by their own society finds itself dependent on clan of kivir for intelligence, food or stolen goods, and is forced to serve under a pact to it.

Another interesting fact about the relationship between humans and kivir is that while both being Children of Shadow technically allows them to acess the same kind of magic, kivir often find themselves unable to use it with the soffistication trained humans have, in part because their claws are less precise tools for preparation of vessels than human fingers, and in part because of some small differences in their brains that make it harder for them to make the abstractions necessary to properly manipulate the Aspect of Shadows. However, their memories make it so that they find it easier to maintain enchantments with their minds instead of physical vessels, as long as the human that created those enchantments passively allows the abstract part to be drawn from their own mind or explains the enchantment in detail.

Mentaly sharing enchantments with a kivir can grant the human sorcerer a bond to it, with subtle vantages for both, like longer lifespan for the kivir and better memory for the human. While some talented human magicians may maintain bonds with multiple kivir, more often than not the bond is between only two people. It may be dissolved at any time, although it is considered unpleasant by both sides to do so.

((More on shadow magic later))

Edited February 27, 2016 by DreamEternal

[DreamEternal]

RESERVED: Cosmic History.

Edited February 25, 2016 by DreamEternal

[DreamEternal]

RESERVED: Argina: general

[DreamEternal]

RESERVED: Argina: Pre-Telurian Diaspora

Edited February 24, 2016 by DreamEternal

[DreamEternal]

RESERVED: Argina: from First Contact to First Ascension

[DreamEternal]

RESERVED: Argina: Second Era

[DreamEternal]

RESERVED: Argina: Imperial Era

[Seonid]

Hope you don't mind comments here (I know I'm hoping for comments on mine, so I'll assume that you feel the same way).

 

So, with that out of the way, could Aspects be considered different planes of reality? Or dimensions? Or are Aspects different ways of looking at the same thing? I'm a little confused on that point.

 

Also, what kinds of races inhabit your universe? I've seen mention of humans, seraphim, God (a separate type of being? or the evolutionary end of other forms of life?), and Children of Shadow. Are there others, and if so, what are they like?

[DreamEternal]

So, with that out of the way, could Aspects be considered different planes of reality? Or dimensions? Or are Aspects different ways of looking at the same thing? I'm a little confused on that point.

It is no surprise you are confused, for we also do not know exactly. The "close" Aspects of Matter and Vibrancy are know to be two different ways reality behaves, two ways of looking at the same thing that generaly align, but sometimes one takes precedence over the other and things that would normaly be impossible happen. The "far" Aspects of Principle and Image are more... complex. Generaly they also behave like different states of the same reality, but the Aspect of Principle is also a database where all information everything in all Universes is stored, and so it transcends all Aspects.

The Aspect of Image is generally also accepted as simply another way of looking into reality, but it is said to infinetely distorted and expanded, as it grows and folds on itself as new information appears and older information fades without ever disappearing. In all Aspects when something is destroyed it leaves traces, and it is said that on the Aspect if Image, those traces are manifest as shadows of the original.

Its infinetely complex nature, and our limited knowledge of it, makes it hard to understand, but as far as we know, it is a "broken" version of the Aspect of Principle, where time passes, but everytime something is changed it leaves a shadow of its former state behind, making it temporal.and timeless at the same time.

Also, what kinds of races inhabit your universe? I've seen mention of humans, seraphim, God (a separate type of being? or the evolutionary end of other forms of life?), and Children of Shadow. Are there others, and if so, what are they like?

I will write more about the sapient lifeforms of the Garden. It suffices to say that there are too many species to describe, due to to the unmensurable size of this Universe and the care we seraphim take to avoid mass extintion events on planets that develop intelligent life.

But I will answer your question about God. God is the original mind, creator of this and all other Universes. While some believe it is possible to ascend to such power through enlightment, and God has not denied their claims, I remain skeptical.

[Seonid]

So where did you seraphim come from? Are you guardians of all life, or just sentient beings? Were you created for this purpose, or is it something you have just taken upon yourselves?

[DreamEternal]

So where did you seraphim come from? Are you guardians of all life, or just sentient beings? Were you created for this purpose, or is it something you have just taken upon yourselves?

It will be answered better later, in the Cosmic History session. Those things can be difficulty to explain in a way that makes sense for earthborn beings, even ones that managed to look beyond their own home Universe.

As for we seraphim, who sometimes call ourselves starborn, we aren't exactly guardians of life as much as lovers of order and patterns, and once a star system a group of seraphim wishes to settle in reaches maturity, they try to keep it stable, which also creates a favorable enviorment for life.

We only actively protect non sapient life in planets we have some form of interest in, either scientific or creative, and in such cases some seraphim even create sentient life in those planets.

Our protection of sentient life, however, is law among our species, for God declared all sapient minds are a reflection of Himself, and not being made directly by His power does not change that. While it may or may not have been our original purpose, it became a important one.

Of course, to every law there are lawbreakers. While conflicts among my kin only involve earthborn life if at least one seraphim involved is bound to the planet, some of us hold a deep fear of certain forms of sapient earthborn life, those who we call Children of Shadow, humans along them.

The Children of Shadow are creatures that arised to sapience with no direct intervention from God or from the seraphim, or are so removed from the divinely-touched ancestor species it may as well have arised naturaly.

I will explain more later.

...

Oh. I accidentaly answered, didn't I?

 

EDIT: Added sapient lifeforms.

Edited February 26, 2016 by DreamEternal