Universal Nomenclature

What to call a universe? Realistically speaking, the inhabitants of a universe would simply refer to it as "The Universe", and stop there. This isn't going to be very useful for readers or an author, and so a decent name is required. This is what most authors have done with their universes, hence the names Arda, Narnia, Oz, Flatland and Wonderland. It makes the fictional universe much easier to refer to. Other series have no names per se, instead relying on their series titles : The Wheel of Time Universe, The Foundation Universe, The Revelation Space Universe and so on. With science fiction it's a little more acceptable to rely on series titles, since the stories are usually set in the future of the universe we live in. However in a fantasy universe, which is meant to be distinct, it does, to my own sentiment, warrant a unique name; its inhabitants would hardly refer to their universe via title of a book in our reality.

The only reasonable excuse for concocting a name for an alternate universe would be to say that it is the word which its inhabitants use to refer to "the universe" in their language. I am, unfortunately, not a linguist, and while I am working on a language for my sub-reality, it'll be years before I devise anything as polished as Quenya.

Moving on to the name itself. In English and its related languages at least, places have a tendency to end their names with an "A". Australia, America, Asia, Africa, China and India to name a few. Perhaps this is simply a remnant of Latin, with Brittainia, Hispania, Gallia and Italia. And in turn characteristic of PIE languages, with Persia, Lydia, Assyria and Phoenicia.  This tendency carried over to the Inklings, and Tolkien chose Arda while Lewis chose Narnia. I feel inclined to break this trend and end with a sound other than an 'A', not in the least because I hail from a different cultural background.

Then it occurred to me that if a the universe was named by Eleyon, its initial name might not even be something you might express in speech. Our vocalised names are only manifest in a physical reality of sound. Then again, for the purposes of communication with humanity, Eleyon would have selected a name that would accomodate physical speech and his own experience of the universe. With all these criteria in mind... I am really rather at a loss to pin a name onto my sub-creation.

The thing that I've found with names, with the characters and locations I've established, is that they tend to sound strange when you first contrive them, but after iterated use, they seem to adopt a euphonic quality that they did not possess before. So I suspect that if I do think of a temporary name, with intentions to amend it in time, it will mostly likely establish itself as a permanent one.

Syllable-wise, I would be most comfortable with two. Referring to the universe should be simple. I would think a single syllable would be the most appropriate, such as how the names of other natural objects are monosyllabic, the sun, moon, world, sky and sea. But that leaves me with a dearth of sounds to select from. Somehow a disyllabic seems to strike a balance between flexibility and simplicity in this respect.

Ergo, two syllables; the question now progresses to "Which two?" I would say no voiceless plosives, no fricatives, no sibilants and no affricates. They don't seem to sound full enough for the name of a universe that is supposed to contain everything in reality. I've also thought that anything bilabial wouldn't sound primeval enough. The universe is related to the idea of origins to me, so the lips seem too far removed from the vocal chords to suggest a relation to a source. An 'R' also strikes me as a tad complex, since I will likely decide that 'R's should be trilled in the language is devise, so that's out as well. 'G' reminds me of guttural, garish, gun; well it seems a little too harsh. So what am I left with in the English alphabet after the culling...

'L' 'N' 'D' 'W' 

Of course I should technically move beyond English sounds, but very well, I'm writing this in English, so I want English speakers to pronounce the name with the quality that I'm after naturally, not some garbled refraction of it. Perhaps I will change this as time goes on, or as I suspect, maybe not. Alright then, five consonants and two vowels to pick from. An open 'A' definitely has to go in there, it's the most open sound. And an 'E' since it represents the next relatively open sound, and the mouth seems relaxed and natural to me, somehow. 'O' is still fairly open, but seems to stately and formal somehow, as in 'O come, O come Emmanuel'. 'I' and 'U' are too closed for consideration. 'E' should be first and 'A' second. 'E' opening up into an 'A' represents the broadening of experience for me. The thing about 'A' in English is that it can be pronounced like the 'A' in hand, which isn't what I'm going for. I suppose that's may have been part of why Tolkien appended an 'R' to the 'A' in Arda. 

Well after considering various combinations, the one that appeals to me the most is Eldawn. When that came up I felt it fit perfectly in terms of the word 'dawn', although the 'A' should sound a little more open than the 'A' in dawn, and 'El' is a syllable that makes thematic sense with some of the other names I have determined for the rest of the story. 

Well that took a long time to figure out. I honestly didn't filter sounds out with a preconceived idea for the name, the process moved along just as it did in this post. But yes, I admire Tolkien's respect for names, and in that sense, I cannot accept a casually selected word to refer to the entirety of my sub-creation. Naming things can be rather a hindrance to authors who want to get going with the story, but there is satisfaction in a carefully crafted sound that adds greater meaning to the fantasy as a whole.

Scientific Philosophising

So often, it is submitted that science and religion are incompatible, religion holds back the progress of science, choking visionaries with arbitrary beliefs, impeding a logical interpretation of observations from a moral high ground. Science is the way forward, out of an age of ignorance and irrationality. It may not have all the answers now, but it will, and when it does, God will be dead. Such a view arrogantly holds that science is without its limitations. I'm not talking about academic limitations, such as uncertainties in experiments, but limitations to what science can explain. I for one believe that science does a fantastic job of showing how things work, but it reveals nothing with regards to a higher existential purpose.

One of the weaknesses of the scientific approach to understanding is extrapolation. Primarily in the assumption that if nature functioned one way in the past, it will continue to do so. That the constants of the universe are indeed immutable. Extrapolation is essential to science, and ties intimately with the tenet of replicability. If hydrochloric acid and sodium hydroxide have reacted to neutralise each other in the past, they will do so again. If every patient I have operated on in the past has had two lungs, so will the next patient. Without a faith in the discoveries and principles of the previous generation, no one would be able to stand on the shoulders of giants. We would be lying on the ground. But relying on this too far doesn't sit too well with me.

Shortly after I heard about radiocarbon dating, I wondered to myself, well no one's actually lived that long right? And of course, not one conscious person was actually around in the time of the dinosaurs, at the time when our atmosphere was devoid of oxygen, at the time when the sun formed. Yet we pin dates on these events. It's one thing to say that most people have two hands, since we've seen that for ourselves. It's quite another to say the earth is 4.54 billion years old, when no one has actually observed carbon radioactivity for that long.

And so within my narrative, along with the structure of the system of magic, I'd like to suggest a serious consideration of what would be possible if the forces were not constant, the extrapolation invalid. This connects with the notion that what we discover through science could be manipulated. I admit this is a stretch, but I feel there is merit in a healthy dose of doubt. If there really is a God, and a Satan, as I do believe there are, then there are beings who are older than us, more powerful than us and capable of influencing our conclusions.

None of us can really say with absolute certainty that dinosaurs existed, I've carried around the notion in my mind that when we get to heaven and ask the Creator about them, he'll say they were put there for decorative purposes. To walk along this road a little more, what if there really was a counterintelligence, who wanted humanity to reject the belief in a God? Could this malignant intelligence not set up their own false signals, half bird half reptile fossils, fake evidence that would misdirect scientific understanding?

We tend to believe that whatever we learn for ourselves has to be the truth. We take the evidence, look at it with fresh eyes, then assemble the jigsaw into a coherent whole. But what if there is a superior being, dancing just outside of our awareness, constantly altering the evidence, pointing us subtly, but dangerously, in the wrong direction? We will never be able to say what is truth and what is falsehood. But in our assurance, the lies that we construct for ourselves are more convincing and deceitful than the lies we are told by another. What better way to convince someone that you are right then by having them do it for you?

The scientific paradigm of using models that work until we create a better one is wonderfully open-minded and has served humanity well. However I feel that we need to keep our minds more receptive yet, to the possibility that we can never really know anything at all with absolute certainty, not even with the most rigorous scientific tests, for the ways that man obtains evidence are ultimately limited.

The Four Magical Disciplines : Strong and Weak Nuclear Interactions

I'm combining the last two forces because, I must admit, I haven't yet thought of convincing and interesting ways to use these forces meaningfully. I've been trying to expand my understanding of the possibilities afforded to mages of these final two disciplines, but I can't reach the same extent as what is enabled by my comprehension of electromagnetism and gravity. Well there it is, knowledge limits ability.

Regardless, I will attempt to convey what I believe would be possible. These uses are subject to change as I learn more about these two forces.

The strong nuclear force comes under the dominion of Unavo. The strong nuclear force is responsible for holding quarks together in baryons and mesons. Protons and neutrons are both baryons since they are made of three quarks, and the residual strong nuclear force holds these two types of particles together in a nucleus. If the strong nuclear force could be enhanced or suppressed, it could be possible to induce nuclear fusion and fission quite controllably. Elements could be transmuted from one to another, somewhat like alchemy. It does fit in with my idea that Unavo should be aligned with the changeable and yet tightly bonded within metamorphoses.

I suppose that influencing the residual strong nuclear force would be easier than the gluons between the quarks directly, based on the energy levels involved. Supposing it is possible however, I still can't get very far as to describing potential results, since isolated quarks are not exactly familiar to anybody.

Oleris is in charge of the weak nuclear force, the force that mediates radioactivity and quark flavour changes. Changing quark flavours opens up a door to a host of exotic particles for a weak interaction mage to use, which I am once again, at a loss to describe. Radioactivity would also allow elemental transmutation to some extent, though perhaps not as rapidly as that by the strong nuclear force. To me, Oleris's introversion resonates with radioactive decay, an alpha particle whizzing away from a crowded nucleus, but yes that is highly simplistic. Since Oleris is also aligned with mathematical beauty, perhaps I'd better identify patterns in the weak interaction before I fully establish such an identity for him.

I hope to be able to find more interesting uses for these two forces in future. For now, Unavo and Oleris exist primarily as the concepts they embody, rather than their forces. Perhaps this is for the best anyway, a mage of the nuclear forces could wreak destruction if the natural constants are tampered too far.

On a final note, I would like to say that in order to fit the cultures of the little world, I will no longer refer to the four magical disciplines by their ideological heritage as the four fundamental forces. Rather electromagnetism will be Älloran magic, gravity Yevanian, strong interaction, Unaven, and weak interaction as Olerist magic.

The Four Magical Disciplines : Gravity

The other familiar fundamental force is gravity, and this belongs to Yevassë. She took charge of it simply because it is the force that pulls matter together, acts over long distances, and proceeds steadily most of the time. Rather more suited to her temperament, steady, and conceptually aligned with her aims, to keep things together. Although of course, gravity can also be used as a great force of propulsion. Ällora went with electromagnetism because it was the easiest to explore new possibilities with, and the most dynamic, in his conception of its uses.

To begin with, a simple application of gravitational magic would be to lift objects, which would strike mages as very similar to the magnetic use of the electromagnetic force. True, but I would suppose that gravitational negation would allow simple lifting of all objects, but magnetic levitation would work best with paramagnetic materials. Diamagnetic materials should require quite a lot more power to work with.

While a user of electromagnetic magics would be able to sense distortions in electromagnetic fields, a user of gravity would be able to sense the movement of mass of any sort. A gravity mage would sense a moving projectile, the location of the sun and so on.

As a whole, gravity is not a force that I would say acts very variably on human scales, but I have been able to think of interesting possibilities that may require a sizable magnitude of power. I'm not really sure how much I should limit these magics but here goes :

Increased agility by reducing the effect of gravity on the body. This would allow jumps and acrobatic feats which are not normally possible. Since water is diamagnetic, this effect would remain largely exclusive to mages aligned with gravity. Conversely, an opponent's freedom of movement could be greatly suppressed.

Gravity could also be used to accelerate objects easily, and presumably, an extremely fine degree of control would result. The patterns that result from simple gravitational laws are intricately complex. In combination with a mage's sensitivity to moving objects, this may allow for precisely orchestrated manoeuvers. Gravitational fields of objects in the environment, or even the air, could be used to pull other objects around, by strengthening or weakening local gravity. The ability of a mage to channel gravitational field strength should be related to the mass of the original object. It would take a lot more to increase the gravity around a bubble of soap compared to a lead sphere.

Another interesting application of gravity would be how it interacts with spacetime. Or in rather more confusing synonymous view, matter stretches spacetime which causes gravitational effects. Or I might want to wait for the graviton. Anyway, this could be exploited to manipulate light. Rather ironically, this would lead to a lot of confusion about the nature of magic as a whole, to those unaware of the underlying systems. Cloaking devices are therefore, possible with both gravity and electromagnetism. Light cannot, however, be generated directly via gravity. Then again, a gravity mage would not require such optical aid for illumination, their sensitivity to mass and movement would suffice.

Pushed to an extreme, gravity is responsible for black holes, though such a massive, no pun intended, undertaking would have to be fatal for a few gravity mages in concert. The amount of energy required to form such a dense object would be beyond human manipulation. Not to mention the disastrous aftereffects.

Well that's about it for gravity for now, a general feel of this discipline of magic. Some of its effects overlap with the electromagnetic expression of magic, but other effects do distinguish its basis on a separate interaction.

Vignette : Reassess

It's tiring, trying to keep up with everyone else. Feeling that everyone's moving ahead of you, exuberant, motivated; while you glide on social inertia. The track you're on is well lit, crowded, competitive. The glances from people nearby betray their expectations. They all think you're one of them, intrinsically propelled. But you're not, you're weary.

So... Stop running. Walk. Wait. Think.

What inspires you? Saturates you with wonder, keeps you engaged? What would really keep you going if all the luxury of the world were to fall into ruin? Why aren't you there? The crowd continues to move, some people walk besides you to ask you if you need aid. They're polite, but they can't really help, they need to keep on running.

There's a flash in the dusk off to the side of the track; brief, intense, mysterious. Your gaze turns, it calls.

Look again at those rushing past you now that you've slowed. Do they all really know where they're going? Or have they just walked in the safety of the lamps all their lives? A last few faltering steps in that exhausted direction. Curious stares and suspicious gazes from the rest of them. Stand still and wait for an opening, an exit, to get off the track to a bleak future. Then turn and sprint away, into the darkness, away from the path. You don't know where you're going, but at least you've found yourself.

The Four Magical Disciplines : Electromagnetism

Well, now that I've given a bit more of a background to the Deols in charge of my little world in the "Mind of the Deols" posts, I'll explain the magic system in relation to the Deols as well. Each of the four created Deols has an affiliation for one of the four fundamental forces. This isn't established when they are created, but rather, when the laws for the ways the material plane operates are devised. When it is decided that four forms of energy out of all the numerous classes of energy will be used to design the physical universe, each of the Deols adopts a force as their own personal domain. Electromagnetism belongs to Ällora.

This force is the easiest to conceive uses for, since we already employ it so prevalently. I believe that it's most basic uses will be heating, lifting and illumination. They're the most straightforward ways to use EM, like splashes of paint on a canvas by a 5 year old.

As a user's understanding of electromagnetism improves, the possibilities broaden. From the electric side of the force, any device runs on electricity is theoretically possible. Cameras, calculators, laptops, phones, clocks, and so on. Since I've said that magic would be something like exercise for the soul, I would imagine that a culture using electromagnetism would also try and automate as many functions as possible. Otherwise using a computer could possibly be unduly tiring. So perhaps they have batteries to charge so they can take their minds off keeping a device running. Similar to a crank that you would wind up and then release to run a clock. But of course they wouldn't really require an electric grid, the potential difference could be established directly within the device.

On the magnetic facet of the force, access to levitation would easily lead to the development of maglev based transport systems. Once again, I suspect these would eventually be automated rather than tediously controlled by micromanagement. In my understanding of things, there is no reason why magic has to remain a manual, unpredictable thing. If people had reliable access to magic, as they do within my fantasy, they would develop suitably advanced technologies to exploit such magic. Magnetism could also be used to build navigational devices, using the magnetic field of the planet.

A final expression of the electromagnetic force is that of electromagnetic waves, a fusion of electricity and magnetism, light. From the radio to the gamma, uses for electromagnetic waves could be as varied as they are today. I do want to impose a limiter that x-rays and gamma rays, being of higher energies and frequencies, necessarily require more energy on the mage's part to generate. Internal heating or cooling would be a simple exercise, as with lighting.

Additionally, based on optics, a direct manipulation of light would also allow for magnification. Directly, without the aid of lenses. Mages with the electromagnetic force under their command would discover tissues, cells, organelles and microorganisms. They could possibly observe them while they were alive, allowing functional elucidation much more easily as well.

Based on all this, it is certainly possible that a group of mages using the electromagnetic force could create a technological system comparable to what we have today, or even move beyond it. The internet, wireless communication, maglev trains, automated climate control and computing for example.

More traditionally magical uses exist for a mental command of electromagnetism of course, that may not be easily achievable with today's standards of technology. Cloaking devices, flight, precise nano-engineering, phasing objects through barriers, seeing through walls, just to name a few uses.

To end off, given what we can already achieve with just one of the four fundamental forces, electromagnetism, it's rather interesting to consider what humanity would be able to achieve if we could somehow control gravity, the strong interaction and weak interaction to a simliar degree. Of course, it's also rather interesting to note that electromagnetism has such a dominant role in our lives, I'm tying this into my story, but I won't reveal how or why just yet, but there have been hints at it all the same.

The Mind of the Deols : Unavo and Oleris

The younger pair of the created Deols, Unavo and Oleris, are the final Deols and beings who are based in the ether. Unlike the relationship between Ällora and Yevassë, which I would liken more to that between a husband and wife, Unavo and Oleris are more like close siblings. But these two siblings, while sharing a strong bond, are as unlike as night and day in almost every respect. Unavo and Oleris represent my story's embodiment of duality.

I'll be using the broad terms masculine and feminine to describe Oleris and Unavo respectively. I understand that masculinity and femininity have been associated and re-associated with many other facets of life by countless cultures and thinkers, but at least within this sub-universe, this is how they will be aligned for now. The idea of masculinity and femininity has less to with gender than with a certain side of a spectrum of life's experience. Please don't let this inflame feminist or chauvinist ideals here, I'm not in anyway suggesting that women or men must embody these characteristics. Just like how romance languages have genders assigned to nouns, it's not supposed to be related literally to the male and female.

Unavo

Alright, Unavo is a representation of the feminine side of the duality. She is social, emotional, beautiful and vibrant. She is extroverted and prefers the company of groups. She enjoys getting to know people and learning more about them; their dreams, fears and motivations, and she shares information about herself freely and openly as well. In that sense, Unavo is demonstrative with her emotional wellbeing and highly empathetic. She draws comfort from the wellbeing of others more than from her own, in addition to her connection to her creator, Eleyon.

Her thought processes are fluid and intuitive, mental bridges between thoughts that share subtle nuances instead of logical highways. Unavo is what some people would call the "right brain", the powerfully creative, imaginative and sometimes random part of the mind. She is however distinct from the creativity of Ällora, he has more of a powerful curiousity. Ällora's creativity is directed at fulfilling potential, bringing out the best in what he sees around him. Unavo's creativity is undirected. It is wild, untamed and spontaneous, with no particular end in mind.

Similarly, Unavo's beauty is organic and difficult to pin down. The beauty of an impressionist piece of music or painting. A sublime experience that escapes beyond the rationalisation of words and postulates of logic.

Unavo was the being who made the spontaneous decision to investigate what would happen if ether was knotted and coiled far beyond anything Ällora and Eleyon had ever cared to attempt. It was an intuitive leap, which lead to a major discovery, energy.

Oleris

On the other hand, Oleris is the left-brained, masculine side of mental existence. He is closed, logical, steady and sharp. Even among the company of the five Deols, Oleris would attempt to seek solitude and quiet, very unlike Eleyon at a first impression. However, Oleris does understand the value of relationships, he is committed and loyal, just that a group tends to be rather overwhelming for him. He prefers communing individually, deeply and quietly. It takes awhile for Oleris to express his emotions and person, but it is not to say that he lacks an interesting personality. Oleris finds his value in his creator, Eleyon, and delights in his own existence.

Oleris thinks in a highly structured and organised manner, he won't act unless he has good reason to. He is extremely quick with logical puzzles, powerfully deductive, and can express his reasoning with unparalleled clarity and succinctness.

If Unavo is an impressionist nocturne, Oleris is a baroque fugue. If she is a sunset by Monet, he is the hard geometry of the Platonic solids. He has his own manner of beauty, the complexity of mathematics and structure. From the simplicity of arithmetic to the esoteric operations of quarternion numbers, Oleris is representative of beauty that is crystalline, consistent and precise.

While Unavo may have been the one to make the leap to energy, Oleris played an integral role in identifying patterns and identifying possibilities in the nature of energy. He tells Yevassë, inadvertently, that a logical extension of Unavo's experiment might be possible. This leads to Yevassë's discovery of matter.

~

To me, Unavo and Oleris also represent another spectrum of thought and expression. They are distinct from the spectrum personified in Ällora and Yevassë, but complementary in many ways. Ällora is the curious visionary, Yevassë the reflective actualiser. Unavo is the unbridled artist, centre-stage, Oleris is the solitary philosopher, comfortable in his own corner of the world. Yet all of the Deols have a close relationship with their creator, Eleyon, and from that they find their value and value in the existences of each other.

Unavo and Oleris are two sides of the same mind, the mind of Eleyon, and to some extent, of every thinking being in existence. Once again, they are forces within our minds that, if working in harmony, can be of great mutual benefit to each other. If they are severely skewed, we are losing out on the variety of experience that the world has to offer. Every individual has a place along the Älloran - Yevanian scale, as well as the Unaven - Olerist scale, but to make the most of your gifts and quirks, Eleyon represents the God who coordinates each being to work harmoniously within the whole.

The Mind of the Deols : Ällora and Yevassë

Next in order of appearance, Eleyon creates Ällora and Yevassë. They are also etheric spirits and the first created beings, the older pair of created Deols. Ällora represents the innovator and dreamer, while Yevassë aligned herself with order and caution. They were intended by Eleyon to balance each other, but as you might as expect, it doesn't stay that way.

Ällora

Ällora is regarded as masculine. On that note, I would like to have defined Eleyon as neuter, unfortunately, the English language has a lexical gap regarding a respectful pronoun for gender-neutral nouns, so Eleyon is masculine in the same way that God is referred to with a He.

After his creation, Ällora soon demonstrates that he has very different priorities from Eleyon. Perhaps it was a result of the presence of companion beings throughout his entire existence, but whatever the reason Ällora does not feel the same need for companionship as Eleyon. He loves Eleyon as his creator, but has a steady yearning to express himself creatively. Eleyon encourages this, having placed such a drive in Ällora's spirit. Ällora, even while in the etheric plane, already begins to dream and imagine other worlds, worlds of strange laws and sensibilities, varied and multifaceted in existence. As he returns to the reality of the ether, Ällora soon tires of Eleyon's doting. Ällora turns to exploration, searching for something, anything, that will break the monotony of the formless undulations, but nothing stays structured in the ether but the fold of the spirit.

Therefore Ällora pleads with Eleyon to learn how to form another being. Yevassë, while normally content with times of communion with Eleyon also expresses her curiousity regarding how she and Ällora were created. As such Eleyon creates another two beings Unavo and Oleris, to demonstrate the creation of a spirit being. Ällora is fascinated, but in the process also realises with absolute certainty that the only structures that hold in the ether are the spirit folds and the intricacies built around that core. He feels despondent about what he feels are the limited potentials of ether as a creative medium. He attempts to express himself creatively with the ether all the same. While the other Deols take delight in his creations, Ällora wistfully speculated constructs with a more agreeable substance.

The next major development that allows Ällora to develop creatively comes when Unavo compresses ether and discovers energy. In this medium, Ällora finds he can create and fashion relatively stable structures. Pure energy would be exotic to us, unlimited as it was by rules of the four forces. Nevertheless, energy allows Ällora to turn some of the dreams that thus far existed solely in his imagination into reality. As Eleyon creates beings of energy, Ällora demonstrates how they can sculpt and weave the energy to create and innovate. The energetics turn their creative work back to the worship and adoration of Eleyon, respecting the other Deols, but not venerating them above the First Spirit. All is well, as Ällora is also satisfied that his talents could be put to the use of worshipping Eleyon himself, in invigorating new ways, instead of through the fluid ether.

Ällora loves the bold, the innovative, the dynamic, the vibrant and the intelligent. He wishes to see any slumbering potential realised and honed to its finest glory. Always taking steps, whether they are forward of backward; what matters to Ällora is that he tried. Eventually, progress will be made, and when it is, all will reap its benefits.

Yevassë

While Ällora represents unbridled creativity, Yevassë's mind is calm and steadfast. After she was created, she preferred to spend more time with Eleyon and learn about him, her creator, as well as herself. Ällora's attention was diverted externally, eager to discover new things in the world, to look forward to progress and dream of the future. In contrast, Yevassë focused on the present, trying to understand herself internally, getting to know what she saw as the most intricate structures around her, themselves, spirits of the ether. She learned about Eleyon's lonely existence, helped him to refine his vision of harmonious society, thought long and deeply about the characteristics such a utopian society would have.

When Ällora suggests that he and she ask Eleyon about the process of their own creation, she readily agrees, also curious to find out how such highly ordered structures could be formed in the ether. She bonds quickly with the younger Deols, Unavo and Oleris, as a maternal figure. As she interacts with them, she begins to understand more and more of how diverse spirits can be, and visualises the first inklings of what society should be like, for herself, experientially.

Ällora's experiments and ideas were a source of constant interest to Yevassë, however she would assess them and comment on their feasibility, their usefulness and their impact. Ällora trusted her astute reasoning and in talking to her, often found his dreams were tempered and sharpened to clarity. Their relationship was mutualistic in that way.

When the energetic and physical planes are created, along with the beings to occupy them, Yevassë tasks herself with codifying a set of guidelines and principles that are in line with Eleyon's social vision. Yevassë finds her purpose in actualising and refining the ideas of others into detailed systems and plans. In this capacity she also worked colalboratively with Ällora to develop his ideas about the energy arts into pieces that were tasteful and elegant, not too daring and unorthodox.

Interestingly enough, Yevassë's quiet contemplation is what brings her to the conclusion that energy can be further compressed. She thought ahead, and knew that Ällora would tire of energy eventually. She simply extended the idea that ether could be condensed and attempted to condense energy. She succeeds and forms the first specks of matter. While Ällora is busy managing the orchestras of colour and symphonies of movement, Yevassë decides to surprise him with a the new medium.

Yevassë favors the reserved, the introspective, the organised, the prudent and the pensive. She wishes to ensure that societies function cohesively by beginning with the individual; that each being should understand themselves thoroughly, and by doing so, better understand each other. Refining what is already known to an optimised, functioning unit, filling in the specifics, Yevassë perfects the known instead of rushing into novelty.

~

This pair of deols draws heavily on the duality that I observe between ideals and utility, dreams and reality. In a perfect environment, the two mindsets that Ällora and Yevassë represent would tie together and spur development and progress in any field. The balance between theory and application in the sciences, the visionary and the classicist, the the left and right wing of politics - though I am hesitant to box these two Deols up with political affiliations. Any area should have a share of fresh new ideas, and temper these ideas with the best lessons that can be gleaned from the past. More often than not, the society we live in and the mindsets we adopt to issues are skewed to one side or the other, to the detriment of everyone involved. When is your own thinking too Älloran, or Yevanian?

Vignette : Rediscover

Telling yourself you can't. It's not like you, long past the sentiment of freedom and irresponsibility. Sitting in the monochrome routine. The highest peaks and lowest abysses of emotion already exhausted in forgotten experiences. The cage of the city.

But really, you understand there's so much more.

Reach out to catch a raindrop, sit back to watch the clouds writhe in the azure sky. Leave the concrete. Run barefoot on the stone path, skimming fluidly through the dappled sunlight, under the breathing forest canopy. Hear the calls of decorated avian singers, feel the caress of chill air breezing past your arms. Dance in solitude beneath the crescent of a waning moon; an unending spiral of steps to the tempo of whirling music. Rest in the damp grass as the dome of the heavens turns in the infinite ebony, speckled with apertures of stellar luminescence. Trace the waltz of the wandering planets among the immutable constellations. Stand on the precipice above the temperamental sea, the beat of the waves drowning out the call of the gulls.

Remember the majesty of nature, the intricacy of creation, the vitality of the primeval. Realise that you are small, and something, or Someone, out there is greater than the whole world of experience we presume to have exhausted.

The Four Magical Disciplines : Overview

I knew early on that I wanted my magical system to be scientifically consistent, as much as possible. Ergo, I decided that in the place of a tried and tired elemental system, or one based on spells or anything conventional really, I am going with the four fundamental forces of physics. As far as I know, no one has ever attempted this before. If there is already such a fusion of concepts, please do notify me. I'd feel terrible saying that I've never come across it when another author has already attempted it.

For those of you unfamiliar with the four fundamental forces, I'll attempt to summarise their characteristics below. Please note, I'm not trained in physics, save in popular science books akin to "The Elegant Universe" and secondary school concepts. The familiar forces are gravity and electromagnetism. Gravity is the force that attracts anything with mass (well technically energy, but that's a little more abstract. Here's a link for good measure : http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=SG&v=p_o4aY7xkXg&hl=en-GB) to anything else with mass. Electromagnetism is a little more complex to describe through it's numerous embodiments. As it's name suggests, electromagnetism is a unified force of electricity and magnetism. Light, being an electromagnetic wave, also comes under this force.

The other two forces don't have a very apparent effect on our daily lives. Gravity pulls you down, though that is really quite relative, to the earth, and electromagnetism is practically omnipresent in the modern world. From computers, to radio, to x-rays. The other two forces are essential, but not very apparent. They are the strong and weak nuclear forces. The strong nuclear force acts over tiny distances, within protons and neutrons; well technically between quarks, so you'd see it involved in all hadrons. If you've seen a diagram of atomic structure, you know that all the protons are packed within the nucleus of an atom. Based on a familiar understanding of electromagnetism, this absolutely does not make sense. So many positive charges in the same area? Wouldn't they fly right apart? Well the residual strong nuclear force between protons prevents that and holds them together.

What about the weak nuclear force? Well this is a little weirder. It mediates changes in fermions, leading to, for example, changes in the nucleus of an atom, radioactive decay, and also, stars. The weak nuclear force is part of why hydrogen atoms can be fused together in the heart of stars. At least stars that use the hydrogen pathway.

So... there remains the burning question of how this magic system would work.

The basic concept I have is such that a user of any of these four disciplines of magic would have the ability to strengthen or weaken the force in a certain localised area. The more proficient an individual is with magic, the longer, stronger, and larger the field of effect can be. In this sense, magic with the four fundamental forces is like manipulating energy directly, instead of through a material medium like a wire or a particle accelerator. Magic is direct alteration of energy with the mind.

A core idea is that this force magic is only limited by what the user can conceive through their understanding of the effects of that force. For example, someone using the electromagnetic force may use it to generate light in spherical light-globes. But if he only understands the force from that perspective, he does not know how to use that discipline of electromagnetic magic to levitate objects. Even though he may be strong enough magically to do so.

It's simliar to technological advances in that way. Theoretically, it would have been possible for an Airbus 380 aeroplane to have been built in the, I don't know, industrial revolution for example. The materials were available and if put in exactly the right place, they would form an aeroplane just as they would today. Except that didn't happen. Humanity was limited by their understanding of aerodynamic engineering at the time. If I apply this to my magics, advanced techniques are certainly possible once understanding has been reached, but until then, knowledge limits ability.

Based on this tenet, I am free to incorporate any method of magic use into the story. In it's simplest form, magic relies on will to be used. The mage commands the energy mentally, and the energy fluctuations happen. However, to aid a junior mage in understanding how magic works, or to focus the mind on the intended result, magic users may develop incantations, inscriptions, dances, songs or true names, basically anything that aids their magic use. The use of magic is limited to the users understanding of magic; if someone believes a stone will only float after reciting a spell for levitation, then he has to use that verbal command for that stone to levitate. Someone with a different understanding of magic could lift the stone just as effectively with a gesture, a song or just with mental will.

I have not yet determined how a mage's strength is developed and such. I suppose it is like a muscle. The more a mage uses their awareness of energy, the greater power and control the mage has. Another factor is the mage's ability to perceive energy. This ties in with the three planes. A mage is able to sense the energy around when they are in tune with the energy plane. Non-mages have been cut off from their awareness of the higher planes, the etheric and the energetic. As such they cannot visualise the energy around them and cannot manipulate it. Of course this applies to physical beings, namely humans. An advanced mage can sense the energy signatures of anything around him. If he stood by your computer or phone right now, he would sense the electrical currents flowing through the wires, heat generated from computation, and so on, without having to physically touch the device.

As for limits on magic use, every individual has a link to their soul and spirit, which are manifest in the higher planes. The stronger that link is, determined by how often the person exercises that link, the greater the mage's power level. I'm using power almost in the way that a physicist would use it; in terms of the amount of energy that is transferred per unit time. So the greater the mage's power, the more energy he can draw per second.

Does this violate the law of conservation of mass and energy? Well yes, quite blatantly. Energy is drawn in from the higher energy plane, or sent back to the energy plane, to perform magic. However magic use is limited by mental exertion. I would liken the effect of using magic on the soul to the effect of physical exercise on the body. Physical exercise tires the whole individual, but primarily affects the body. Magical exercise also tires the individual, but at the level of the soul more than on the body or the spirit. Perhaps your mind would just feel slow, sluggish and unresponsive. You might get energy aches, fatigue, cramps even, though the experience would be mental more than physical.

As to how exactly the forces can be used... I'll put those details in the rest of the posts in the "Magical Disciplines" series.

The Mind of the Deols : Eleyon

First off : Deols refer to the Great Spirits, who have their original existence in the ether. Just a little terminology of the setting.

In this series of posts I'd like to explain the motivations and philosophies of the Deols I have mentioned, to give you a better understanding of how they relate to each other. I won't move into too much of the story, what will be presented here represents their alignments before the Rebellion, as originally intended. To recap they are : Eleyon, Ällora, Yevassë, Unavo and Oleris.

The Deols of this sub-creation... on that note I should try and come up with some name for this mini-world overall, like Arda or Narnia... Anyway, these Deols do draw strongly on my God, the Christian God, on Satan, and other deities in various mythologies. However, they are not meant to be direct representations of them. I have conceived them with allegorical similarities, but I dare not place myself above the powerful beings I believe in. An author is in a uniquely dictatorial position over the characters of a narrative, and can force them to do anything deemed fit. Therefore, while Eleyon may draw heavily on the Trinity, he is in no way a complete representation, he is just a character in a story. I do not wish to commit blasphemy inadvertently as I write this, necessitating a disclaimer.

Eleyon

Eleyon, as previously mentioned, is the Creator figure of my mythos. Naturally, he draws a lot on my own conception of the Christian Creator. One of the earliest things I suppose most people wonder about after hearing the Biblical creation story is probably : Well then who created God? or : How did God come to exist? Personally I believe such mysteries lie beyond our comprehension in our reality, but within my own mythological construct, I could change that. Exercising my authorial authority, Eleyon begins as a fold in the vast ether. Please don't corner me with issues of where the ether comes from, if I spend to long contemplating the initial state of the world, I will never be able to move on to anything else. A field of ether is as basic an initial state as I care to construct. 

Eleyon's fold happens spontaneously, it is not created like any subsequent spirit. It grows in complexity and size around the stable quirk. I suppose this is an apparent violation of the second law of thermodynamics, but ether is so vacuous that thermodynamics can't really apply. To reconcile this approach with the notion that God has existed from the beginning, I put forward that Eleyon exists for so long in solitude, that when he finally begins to create, his own existence has already been around since Time Immemorial. Furthermore, I would argue that if no one is present to observe the universe, how can time be a meaningful concept? As Eleyon's spirit formed, time itself begins to flow for the simple truth that an observer is there to notice changes across time.

Moving on from mechanics, Eleyon's primary motivation is one that runs against his initial solitude in the ether. Eleyon's primary desire is for a unified, healthy sense of fellowship. It has been revealed to me that God is a relational being. He desires a personal relationship between Himself and His followers, and wishes for His followers to maintain fast bonds of friendship and love amongst themselves. When we do leave this good earth, the only things that really matter are how well our relationship with God is, and how well we relate to one another.

Therefore, Eleyon's ultimate creative work is that of mankind. Humanity represents a never ending growth of new minds and new spirits to meet, to interact and develop relationships with. And these beings are independent from their creator in a sense that they were designed by him, but each individual after the first two arises distinctly. Beings in the ether and energy were all crafted and fine-tuned by Eleyon's mind, leaving him with a nagging idea that they were really only extensions of himself, rather than truly unique individuals. Hence, in the original plan, Eleyon desired to create community, and with humanity he felt that he succeeded.

In the era that Eleyon spent alone, he often thought of how he would respond upon discovering another Deol like himself. Imagining community, he began to formulate rules and codes of conduct, laws and social conventions. Having spent an immeasurable time considering these issues, Eleyon has the greatest understanding of relational nuances. And you know what? In this reality, the final say on how we should act toward others is God's. The amount of time you have spent thinking about how you should behave is minuscule compared to how much God has already thought about it, why not trust what He says?

As a last note, an author creates characters in a similar way that Eleyon must have crafted the spirits and souls of those around him. Must authors always understand their creations thoroughly? Do writers really have control? Or do authors create, and then as the characters begin to define themselves, the characters begin to siphon control away from an author? And how dangerous is it for a character to take on a life of its own in the minds of readers, critics and popular culture? How many times can an author's intention with a character be refracted through the prisms of the minds of others before it changes entirely? Why did God choose to make us independent thinkers when He knew the risks that were involved with self-awareness? And if God is the author of your life, how will you respect His authority?

Magical Meditations

I've come across numerous magical systems over my many dives into various fantasy universes. Some are simple and direct, others have been fascinating in their detail. For my own system, I wanted to have some link to the scientific concepts that I've been exposed to. The four elements in the Avatar : The Last Airbender abounds with cultural detail and is delightfully fluid and intuitive, but then again; http://www.xkcd.com/965/

Obviously, the periodic table has too many elements for a meaningful magical setup... The alliance of Noble Nations? The Plunder of the Alkali Earth Metal countries by the selfish Halogens? Maybe I'll reserve this for a satirical story.

Anyway, on one end of the spectrum of magic, soft magic, I would cite the Lord of the Rings, and The Chronicles of Narnia. Magic in these universes was rather untechnical, things just happened, no careful systems behind them. In the Chronicles of Narnia, Lucy's vial? Yup it helps with the most deadly wounds. Why? It doesn't really matter. Coriakin, the wizard in The "Voyage of the Dawn Treader" casts a spell to make the Duffers monopods; it just works. Of course, Narnia is a great children's series and this level of design in a magic system is perfectly acceptable, and perfectly entertaining.

Magic in The Lord of the Rings may seem to be a little like Narnia's at first. The three rings are imbued with the will to preserve the Elvish lands. The One ring makes you invisible; questions about how light is bent around a person's body or perhaps the physical dematerialisation of that body are irrelevant. How does it extend someone's life? Well Tolkien does offer some explanation, tying in with his thematic concerns, but they aren't very technical. That doesn't matter, the themes in The Lord of the Rings are powerful enough to drive the nitty gritty of the magic system out of the picture. Yet a line from Lady Galadriel in "The Fellowship of the Ring" makes such a dismissal of Tolkien's magic system as completely akin to C. S. Lewis's; anything goes system, well, a little hasty. In the chapter The Mirror of Galadriel, she says :

'For this is what your folk would call magic, I believe; though I do not understand clearly what they mean; and they seem to use the same work of the deceits of the Enemy.'

To me, this line suggests that Tolkien was submitting the notion that to the simple Hobbits, many of the tools employed by the highly developed elvish societies were so amazingly incomprehensible that they were regarded as magic. Perhaps magic is just a broader umbrella term for processes that we observe but do not yet understand. Here I will invoke Arthur C. Clarke's third law of science fiction :

'Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.'

These two quotes in combination has resulted in a rather hilariously incongruous notion that the palantiri could be likened to high advanced Skype devices, with group video calls. But yes, perhaps the Elves of Tolkien do view their so-called-magic as clearly as they might view a mechanical grandfather clock.

On the other end of the technical scale of magic systems are constructs by Brandon Sanderson, hard magic, with his marvelously crafted and innovative set of rules and abilities. It doesn't make sense scientifically, but they are detailed enough to have a fair amount of structure. The pleasure of reading about his colour/life-essence based system in "Warbreaker", the symbol/land based system in "Elantris", and the metal-burning system in "Mistborn"have prompted me to subscribe to Sanderson's first and second laws of superhuman abilities :

1. 'An author's ability to solve conflict with magic is directly proportional to how well a reader understands that magic.'

2. 'Limits to a magical system are more interesting than the abilities within that magical system.'

Brandon Sanderson has two well thought out essays behind the two laws he suggests, if you're interested, do take a look. They've been quite instrumental in developing my own understanding of magical systems.

http://brandonsanderson.com/article/40/Sandersons-First-Law

http://brandonsanderson.com/article/100/Sandersons-Second-Law

Personally, I would like to have my magic system lie in between these two extremes in a distinct way, based on understanding. I have the notion that my characters may be employing magic, but not understand its fundamental underpinnings  which is the only limit to what they can conceive to do with it. It would be rather like the process of scientific discovery in that way.

Other magical systems that I've come across in my reading that I've found interesting are :

- The idea of true names in Ursula le Guin's Earthsea universe

- Trudi Canavan's magics in The Age of Five and The Black Magician Trilogy

I haven't yet had the time to read the Wheel of Time series with its much appraised magic setup. Hope to get round to it someday. Based on these reflections, I'm constructing my own magic system based on a fusion between scientific concepts of the four fundamental forces and typical magics, I'll detail this in another post, this one's getting too long. 

I hope this has led you to consider the superhuman abilities of characters in any fictional work with a little more thought, it takes time to craft a meaningful magical or technical system. Another little realisation brought home to me as I design my own sub-creation.

Existential Considerations : Body, Soul and Spirit

Before I get into intricacies of the story, setting and magic system, a little more framework is in order. My own ideas about the planes of reality in this universe are, in all honesty, not entirely resolved. Perhaps this post will crystallise them into something less amorphous.

"Mythological Musings" mentioned the role of the three planes of reality briefly in the creation narrative, glossing over their characteristics. I would say the original inspiration for this system was asking the question : We can view matter as coiled up energy, locked in particles or strings or what-have-you, what if energy in turn could somehow be a coiled up version of another medium of reality?

I quickly tied this in with the idea that every individual is composed of a physical body, a mental soul, and an immaterial spirit. But this begged clarification; what exactly are they? A physical body is simple enough to define, your material extension into the world, the arrangement of atoms that enables you to click on a link and then receive optical information to read this. Just another bit of clarification, the adjectives I will use to refer to these planes are : etheric, energetic and physical. I know energetic is usually used to indicate a high level of energy or activity, but since I'm calling it the energy plane, "energetic" it is.

The soul and the spirit? Somehow my conception of the two was vaguely synonymous. Interestingly, at a worship workshop session for my youth band, the leaders, very informatively, stated that the soul was made of three things, our emotions, will and reason. So the soul could be likened to our mental experience of reality. Our souls are part of the reason why we sin, it is impure. It is why we may understand what God is calling us to do, yet sin by the excuses "I don't feel like it", "I don't want to" or "I don't think that would work."Alright then, so the soul would have to exist as the mental imprint of the characters in this universe.

Lastly, I am left with the spirit. The worship workshop didn't deal with this in much detail, only stating that our old unclean spirit is replaced by the Holy Spirit that prompts us to the will of God, when we let Him into our lives. That was sufficient for the workshop, but with respect to creating this fantasy universe : More data required for a meaningful answer. The concept of the spirit has numerous links to the animating factor for human life, the breath of God, not in the least by its etymology. With respect to the fall, man was cut off from the Spirit of God and bound to the spirit of the world instead.

So in keeping with these bits of information so far...

Plane of Matter

The individuals who exist primarily on the material plane, namely humanity, have three aspects, one on each of the planes; the body, soul and spirit. The body exists in the material plane. The since humanity is mainly aware of the physical plane, people cannot sense the energy or ether planes without training. This physical reality is governed by four fundamental forces, gravity, electromagnetism, and the strong and weak nuclear forces. The energy flowing through the human body and the human mind are part of the energy plane but tied intimately with a person's physical body. The spirit, made of ether, cannot be detected by conventional physical or energetic means.

Plane of Energy

Souls reside in the energy plane. Everything we think with our minds is accompanied by electrical impulses in the brain, and this leaves an energy fingerprint visible to beings attuned to the plane of energy. Since it is only the next plane above the material one, it is still rather comprehensible to humanity. Using matter, energy can be manipulated and so forth. Beings native to the energy plane have no physical body, but so still have energetic constructs that function as a body of sorts in the energy plane. It's almost as if the body and soul are one for these beings, the constructs also house the energy pathways required for their souls. Their spirits however, are still etheric, but they can sense it just as easily as how humanity can sense energy. Also note that since all living organisms, plants and animals, have an energy fingerprint, they do have an image in the energy plane.

Plane of Ether

The final plane of reality is that of the ether, which is all but undetectable to the human consciousness, trapped in the lower material plane. Folds in the ether are responsible for the spirit, which is linked to the body and provides a force that drives life; at least, intelligent, conscious life. Yes I understand this sounds an awful lot like the concept of vitalism. I'm worming my way out of this one by saying that ether is so de-condensed and undetectable that conventional methods involving energy and matter cannot pick up reasonable traces of it. Physical and energetic beings have a spirit that leaves a fold in this plane. The five Great Spirits, Eleyon, Ällora, Yevassë, Unavo and Oleris, exist primarily in this plane of ether. Just as how the energetic beings had a merged body and soul, the Spirits have an entirely unified existence, body, soul and spirit, all expressed in etheric fluctuations. The rules applying to beings of ether are very different to those applying to beings of lower planes.

Alright then, hopefully this is an explanation of the three planes system that will hold up for the time being. The concepts of death, the heavenly rebellion and magic tie in to the three planes, so now that this is established, I can elaborate on those other issues in future.

Anecdotally, the fact that the spirit and the soul seem to be used interchangeably in our modern understanding of our existence is rather unsettling. Granted not everyone believes we have anything apart from this physical life, but this is something that should be clarified by those who do believe in an experience after this material world. Researching into this has given me a better understanding of how my own existence plays out, between sinful human nature and divine redemption.

Mythological Musings

The story itself really began with a rather bottom up approach. I imagined a few core characters, I knew I wanted it to be a fantasy, I knew I couldn't resist retelling the Atlantis legend, and I knew I wanted to draw on Biblical concepts. From this rather sketchy beginning I decided I had best establish a mythology for this universe, otherwise I might risk inconsistencies if I simply rushed off to start a narrative.

I suppose a great influence on my own mythology comes from Tolkien's creation saga, told in Ainulindalë and Valaquenta. What interested me about this was the notion that the mythos was monotheistic, with Eru as the original creator; and yet Tolkien accommodated polytheistic notions, with the Valar and the Maiar associated with parts of nature and the mind, similar to other pagan Pantheons.

Additionally, given my nerdy tendencies, I decided I would have my magic system based on the four fundamental forces in Physics : Electromagnetism, Gravity, Strong Nuclear and Weak Nuclear. Yes I agree it's rather incongruous, but why not? I just hope that the standard model and general relativity aren't overturned by the time I'm done, otherwise this will wind up sounding like Herbert's genetic memory in Dune.

I eventually came up with this creation story after a few reiterations :

The universe begins as a volume of ether. It is formless and unstable, spontaneous wisps and knots gather and unravel of their own accord. Eventually, a fold forms that stabilises itself, rather odd, but bound to happen with an infinite amount of time. It grows and adds to itself, increasing in complexity and size, eventually, it gains awareness. This first spirit was Eleyon, Creator of All. He begins to wonder if any other spirits exist, but in searching the immaterial ether, he finds none. In his solitude, Eleyon resolves to create other spirits from the ether. He searches for his own first fold, the quirk of stability that began his existence. After some study, Eleyon replicates the fold within himself, his awareness is divided into three aspects, slightly different, but not separate, trinity.

The next phase of creation begins when Eleyon creates separate spirits apart from himself, this time, two linked folds, but they are less bound to each other than the three aspects of Eleyon. He names the one created spirit Ällora, and the other Yevassë. Ällora is a great visionary, dreamer and thinker. Yevassë is reserved, reflective and prudent. Ällora soon convinces Eleyon and Yevassë to create another pair of spirits, just so he can observe how it was done. As a result, Unavo and Oleris are formed. As with Ällora and Yevassë, Unavo and Oleris have balanced qualities. Oleris is quiet and solitary while Unavo is demonstrative and sociable. In the future, Unavo and Oleris come to embody duality and balance, male and female, light and darkness, life and death.

Unavo makes the next major discovery; in manipulating the ether, she finds that if it is condensed enough, it collapses to form another material, which she calls energy. Soon the five Great Spirits have crafted a zone of energy within the ether. In it, energy based beings make their existence and worship their creator. Their spirits are still based in the ether, but tied to a construct of energy, or the soul. The energetic beings have their awareness in the plane of energy, just as the etheric beings had their primary awareness in the plane of the ether. Being born of the energy, the energetics are able to handle and shape energy more naturally than the etherics.

At this point, the story approaches the plane of existence that we are familiar with, matter. Yevassë is the one who takes the next step to condense energy into matter. With this new medium, Eleyon observes that it is complex enough to attempt something that was always on his mind; create self replicating, entirely independent beings. Ether was too formless and prone to dissipation. Energy was too fluid and changeable. But matter could be sculpted, stable and fixed. All of creation is directed under Eleyon's command to achieve his vision of beings that would be entirely distinct from Himself, every individual would be special and unique. These created beings would be superior to the rest in their autonomy. While Eleyon had to design every aspect of all the etheric and energetic individuals, the matter based beings would be formed without nitty gritty supervision. The Spirits designed rules and forces to keep matter in check, four essential forces were eventually decided and from that foundation, all of the physical world was made.

When the first man and woman are breathed into life, Eleyon finally rests, his desire for community fulfilled.

Just an introduction ~

Well, I'm setting up this blog to post updates on a fantasy story I'm writing. I've been working and developing this for years now and it's blossomed in a most fascinating way. Unfortunately it remains incomplete. Hopefully I'll be able to pressure myself into having some semblance of a deadline for the narrative this way. :P

Stories are ways to make decisions we would never have the courage to make, to glimpse into the minds of people we would never have the opportunity to meet, and to relive what we have already experienced for ourselves