And the Cosmos in Which it Travels
Fragment, believed to be from the Early Great Empire Period.
Before the beginning, there was nothing. No one can say how long there was nothing, for there was no time. No one can say how vast was nothing, for there was no distance. There was only nothing. At least, that’s what the Faescribes say. But who can say for sure? Nothing being what it is, there were no witnesses, either.
From nothing erupted – or perhaps was birthed – the Glimmer and the Gloom; Darkness and Light, Shadow and Radiance. Two primal forces that vie for dominance across the breadth of creation. Tides of contention between these forever opposed aspects yanked and yawed the stuff of the cosmos and gave it form, after a fashion. Stars coalesced from the roiling cosmic soup, then later the worlds. The same tide that gave rise to the stars gave rise to life on many worlds, and so on across all realities.
Some say that the stars were an attempt by a primordial Archfae of the Glimmer trying to consolidate the power of its patron to achieve final victory, but in so doing they ceded the wide spaces between the stars to the Gloom, and thus balance was maintained, as ever it must be. Others argue that an equal aspect of the Gloom created the epochs of darkness through the cosmos, forcing the Glimmer to retreat, to contract and concentrate, and thereby gave way to the stars.
It all really depends on who you believe, I suppose. In which direction, that of darkness or light, that your fancy takes you. The wise know that true power comes from courting both the Glimmer and the Gloom in equal measure. An agent of chaos cannot see past its games, an conspirator of order cannot see past its structures.
But an acolyte of the balance? Now, there, you have something.
Which leads us to the next point. If the stars are bastions of the Glimmer, and the space between citadels of Gloom, then where lies balance? The Worlds! For only on the worlds do we find life. Only on worlds do we see Glimmer and Gloom in equal measure, for while the parent star may shine down during the day and the influence of the Glimmer swells, so at night the star is hidden and the Gloom expands.
And so, too, the next day, all over again.
It is under these conditions that life thrives. It is in balance that life gets its footing and makes beachheads a world over and thus spreads itself to ever nook and cranny in which it can squeeze itself.
So, then. Nothing, then Glimmer and Gloom, then stars, then worlds, and finally life.
Wait a moment, one might say, how does one know there is life elsewhere? Or what form it takes. And the honest answer is that we know much, but only so much. Through our magics (and much more on this subject later) we may cast our senses into the void and feel the texture of the cosmos. We, those of us with skills and perceptions honed to a fine enough point, can asense the stars, the worlds, and the voids between them. For the wise few, there can be no doubt as to the tenor of life versus its absence, and when we cast our senses to the stars we find, everywhere, the music of life. So there is life, but of what kind, we cannot say. Perhaps one day we shall attune our senses sufficiently – and probe deeply enough – to know more. But for today, we know only that life is there, it is all around us.
So then, one might ask, are all the worlds like our own Saaret? And the answer, I am loathe to say, is no. In neither my own sensory wanderings nor those of any of my fellow explorers have we ever felt/heard/touched a world like Saaret.
Saaret, it seems, has something others do not.
But what is it?
The Fae. The capricious, powerful, playful, deadly fae. Only from Saaret do we hear the music of the Fae. To be sure, that means only that we have not yet heard that music elsewhere. I could cast out my mind tomorrow and find a world brimming with their ethereal hum. But as yet, nothing.
This is not proof that Saaret is unique but it is, at the very least, vanishingly rare.
A very frustrating fragment from some of the oldest stacks in the Treasury. Here Kalithil tackles some very big concepts, and on the cusp of giving us more, the text cuts off. When questioned, Kalithil simply tells me to keep digging. Also please note, I have a tenuous date of Early Great Empire for this fragment. It is possible it is even older.