Amber: Metaphysics of Creation
"Elder Spirits
of the Universe"

-various sources


What came before the Courts of Chaos? If the Courts are ancient beyond the span of the rebel Dworkin and his descendants. . . . then from out of what state of being were the Courts carved? Herein find one answer that has implications reaching into the present. . . .

 
In the Beginning, there was Nothing.
Destiny acquired mood and things Began.


First the currents of Vitae were separated from Nothing. As time passed, Destiny perceived that Vitae alone did not produce motion. . . and so the Shrewd was separated from Vitae. Again time passed. The boundary between Vitae and Shrewd blurred and gave itself to variety. Still the universe had much of everything, but little motion, so Destiny reached into the Shrewd and separated out the Shadows.
The Shadows acquired motion. . . rhythm. . . and it was good.
Destiny withdrew and time passed without meaning and scale. Time spent of such proportions. . . that Vitae was able to trickle into the Shrewd, which likewise was able to penetrate the Shadows. And in the Shadows, the three Powers together struck the sparks of Being.
So it happened then, that People crawled the Shadows and tried to prosper. And when they did, they called it Life. And when the life grew good, they called it Civilization.

But the sparks of Being had started something great and terrible besides the people that populated the Shadows. The Powers themselves began to acquire an understanding of Being. First the Shroud began to feel its own Spirit of Being within the Shadows, for it was the environment where Being had first been founded. Then the Chimaera realized itself as separate from the Shrewd. Even after a time, the Siege became aware of being the Seat of Vitae. And with the awakening of these Spirits, came something so terrible, that everything, even Destiny, was in danger. . . . .none knew if it was a part of Destiny, or a matter of reaction to the complexities that were growing ever more within the Multiplicity of the Shadows, even the Spirits did not know.

Forgotten in the beginnings of everything was Nothing.

The terrible thing that happened was this, like the Spirits, woken within the Environs of Power, something woke within the Nothing. Something of Nothing woke to Being, and began to take back what was its separated parts, its self, it began to reclaim the Universe, to Unmake it.

This was the Wyrrm, the Unmaker, Spirit of the Abyss.

Civilization began to die. By inches, by leagues, by ones, by threes, the places that were whole fought the Unmaking. The weak perished quickly. The strong lasted a while longer. Everything of people, of being was slowly dragged to the Abyss and consumed by the Wyrrm. This would be the end of our story except for Trump.

Within the terrible stress of the end of everything, a new Environ formed. Between the Shadows being torn into strips of molecules and the Abyss itself, formed a fertile Environ of possiblilities lost and found, realities broken and fused together in ways that could defy description by Shadow itself. This was Trump. And while the destruction of the Universe was inevitable, that very destruction had created something that had not existed before. And the terrible agonies of that Environ gave waking to its own Spirit, much faster than any Spirit had woken before it. And this was the Muse.

The Muse came among the People at the edge of the Abyss, who were fighting the End, and it passed to those of great Perception the waking of that Perception. And the Artists had a means of strengthening Civilization anew. And the final stand of Civilization began there, on the Edge of Shadow, before the Unmaker. And this became the Courts of Chaos.

And great was the anger of the Wyrrm.

Time passed. And the Wyrrm came to understand that Civilization was great, but the People that guarded it were small and sometimes weak. As it understood how to Unmake the substance of the Universe, it came to understand how to Unmake the needs and desires of People in order to further weaken the Courts of Chaos, and thence the Universe.
And slowly things began to fall into the Abyss again.

Now at this time, the Universe had become balanced to the nature of the Powers. The greatest part of Vitae resided at the furthest reaches of the strength of the Abyss. Thence came the major portion of the Shrewd, thence the Shadows themselves, and finally, buffering the infinite Shadows, the infinite Environ of Trump. And this arrangement we might call the Circle of All That Is, for this is true even today.

But something wonderful was about to happen. For as the Courts of Chaos held against the Power of the Abyss, other lesser People and Civilizations were able to struggle into existance in the wasted Shadows. While they were weak reflections of the Civilization within the Courts, they gave strength to the Universe.

And more wonderful still, then rose up a Spirit, whose nature was of the Circle of All. Whose strength was the Left Handed Path of the Circle of All. And this Spirit even partook of the Nature of the Abyss, itself, and as it woke, the Wyrrm thought itself to have an ally in the Unmaking.
But the Serpent was canny in its own Power, and knew well that if the Wyrrm should complete the Unmaking, then the Circle would be no more, and likewise the Serpent would be destroyed with the rest and so this Spirit went among the people of the Courts of Chaos and added its strength to their task of resistance. And this was a mighty bond and the Unmaking was stopped and the Universe was saved.

And the people of the Courts of Chaos were then Legend.

But the strength of the Wyrrm is unwavering and the need is a part of its Being and it will persist until the Universe is Unmade.


-translated from the archaic Thari inscriptions on the Roots of the Cathedral of the Serpent, supplemented with partial transciptions from the LostWays archeological site at the Black Bastion-



As we came to know the Sinister Path, we raised up a Great Working in the Serpent's name, and that Spirit did come amongest us once again and saw this thing that we had made. And the Serpent said, "Great Tools still require great minds to guide them, remember this, and call this Tool your Logrus, so it does not become your folly."



-from the House of Helgram, attributed to the Lost Book of Great Workings, as recorded in the New Mentat Order of the Church of the Serpent-

Shroud Unicorn Serpent Siege Chimaera Muse Wyrrm



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