Believing in Stories - Preface wrote:There is much about the Multiverse that I can't claim to know about.
I can't claim to know about the horrors of the Blood War, despite the traces of fiendish blood in my veins, despite having seen the fields of the Abyss with my own eyes, for I will never feel it as deeply as its combatants, and even if I could, I would only be able to feel one of its many sides.
I can't claim to know about the pain of two tear-eyed brothers finding themselves on opposing sides of a battlefield, charging at each other, for I never had a person that I loved dearly enough to call brother, nor felt enough patriotism to ever join Furyondy's army.
I can't claim to know the utter glee of a mage's apprentice getting his first spell right, late at night, well after his master had gone to sleep, after spending the entire day fumbling and fizzling his spells, for I was never an apprentice.
And yet, I can feel all of these things, as can you, despite never having experienced them on your own. Through words written on paper, through my own imagination, helped by traces of experiences, I can extrapolate all of these things. Armed with quill, ink and paper any cutter could write about their past, about their experiences, and the experiences of others. Others prefer to use these weapons to create new experiences, new stories, new persons.
I, dear reader, am one of such others. Ever since I first set foot in the Cage and interacted with the Sign of One, I have noticed the similarities between the art of the writer and the philosophy of the Signers. I have come to realise how arming myself with a quill is no different than sitting deep in meditation in a think tank. I have noticed how my own belief in the way stories work shapes my own life. But, lest you think me barmy right from the get go, allow me to elaborate my thoughts. Allow me to speak of the Collective Subconscious, of Causality, of the Centre of the Multiverse, and more.
So allow me, Signer of this paper, for your humble patience pray, gently to read, and kindly to judge my words.
Believing in Stories - The philosophy of the Sign of One through the eyes of a writer
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Believing in Stories - A brief look at the Sign of One's origins and philosophy wrote:To understand where I'm going with this, dear reader, allow me to first take a look at the origins of my Faction.
Somewhere in the Cage, in a ward whose name I do not care to remember, an arachnologist lived long ago, one of those who had an enclosure and creepy little crawlies on a shelf, and kept tarantulas and webs for showing. She often thought about those webs, how intricately spun and connected each strand was, all leading to the spider that laid at its center. Rilith, as she was called, found herself bitten by one of her spiders - a nasty brown-specked little thing - and she knew that her death was nigh. She was an expert, after all; she knew that the blue mottling growing around the bite mark was a sign of the venom spreading. And yet, she didn't panic.
She took the spider away, safely sequestered in an enclosure, and focused on its web. She found something in its strands, in the way they connected everything, and began to think. She was an expert. Experts didn't make mistakes. Experts don't die of spider bites, because they're careful. Experts don't die poisoned by silly mistakes, because they didn't make them. Rilith's thoughts, as humble as she was, were powerful. They were powerful enough to convince herself - to will a layer of belief strong enough that, when she glanced down at her bitten arm, no blue mottling was found, and no bite mark remained.
Chant is, the Sign of One was born that day in her mind, though the faction itself would still take some time to form completely. Over the course of her life, our first Factor started a movement that emphasised the power of thought and will, of how positivity often led to favourable outcomes, and visualising one's own defeat often turned into a self-fulfilling prophecy. These concepts, while they might sound barmy to you, dear reader, are still at the core of the spider web that is our philosophy, though it might take some digging to tear apart all the layers that have been built upon them.
The spider web is an interesting mental image to describe our philosophy. Nowadays, kind reader, we believe that everyone is the Centre of the Multiverse. The One spider at the center of the web. Some Signers will protest at this assertion - they will claim that they are the spider, and that everything else is a strand of their web, be it a figment of their imagination, or something that they willed into existence. I am inclined to disagree.
Dear reader, I believe you are the center of the multiverse. And that I am, too, and that berk that brushed past you while you were on your way to get a Lim-Lim skewer, and the fellow that gave you that skewer. You are the center of the multiverse, since nobody else can know your thoughts as well as you do. Nobody else knows your life as well as you do, your feelings, those dark little impulses that creep into your mind when nobody is looking, or those moments of unwitnessed bravery that you have. Nobody finds that smile that you find so charming as enthralling as you do.
And yet, you must be aware that there are other spiders in this web. What makes you more important than others? Think, dear reader, that every spider is a character in a story. Every character is a protagonist of their own story, whether yours is more important than others is merely a matter of perception.
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Believing in Stories - The Collective Subconscious and Causality wrote:
As you are undoubtedly aware, my gentle reader, the laws of the multiverse are more or less set in stone. In most planes, when you walk, your feet fall to the ground. When you breathe, you need a certain type of air, or perhaps water if you are of the aquatic persuasion. There are things that you take for granted, like the idea of angels being good, fiends being evil, and modrons being boring. I have taken to calling the force behind these things you take for granted the Collective Subconscious.
And what is this Collective Subconscious? It is, dear reader, your own belief, and that of others. It is an amalgamate of our subconscious beliefs and knowledge, leading to a structured, yet chaotic mess. Something that makes sense, yet contradicts itself every now and again, because our collective belief can't agree on everything.
Work, work your thoughts; and in them see a book. Behold the story of a man that, out of nowhere, just turns into a werewolf seven hundred pages into the story. Picture now the Collective Subconscious as the audience of that book, and you will likely see from it the same reaction: scoffing, groans, utter disdain, and a general dislike for what the author just pulled out of their arse just to add a werewolf into the story.
The audience of the book would stop reading there, and call mibix. Why?
Because we believe in causality. In order for that character to randomly turn into a werewolf, dear reader, we first have to established that they have been bitten by an odd wolf. One that was strangely resilient to their weapons. We have to establish a little foreshadowing; we have to describe how that character has been having nightmares leading to the full moon. How others have observed them to be hairier than they recalled, or how they've had a hankering for meat.
If you prefer a simpler example, picture a window that gets shattered and explodes into a thousand tiny glasses. For the window to shatter, there needs to be a rock thrown at it; or a spell, or a mephit has to dive through it. We know that windows don't explode without reason, and because we believe in this so firmly, we don't allow them to explode without a reason, because the Collective Subconscious needs causality to accept it.
But, you might be asking, kind reader; what about the times the multiverse doesn't work in ways we take for granted? What about gravity in the Astral, or in Limbo? What about the vegetation in Kharasutra, that grows without a single shred of sunlight to feed it? What about those high-ranking Signers that can create things out of thin air, even though it is impossible for me to do so?
Belief is powerful in the planes, dear reader, and localised belief, even more so. When I first stole into the Outer Planes, not long ago, I did not fathom the true power of belief. As a clueless, I could never have imagined such a simple truth. But we are both much more than the clueless we once were, are we not?
We believe that Limbo is chaotic enough that every rule is on the line regarding it, so it always surprises us with its randomness. We believe that Kharasutra is a moonlit hunting ground for predators, so it has vegetation for them to stalk, even though plants need light to survive. And we believe the higher-ups of my faction can alter reality with their will, so they can. These things have been established, and they are accepted enough for them to happen. If you look deep enough at any of the things that seem to break rules or defy conventions, you will surely notice the pattern.
But be wary of what belief can do to your surroundings, you powerful center of the multiverse you. When was the last time you read a story about angels falling and believed it? When was the last time you read a story about a succubus falling in love with a mortal hard enough for her to abandon the ways of evil? When was the last time you thought of a modron as an individual?
How many angels have fallen because you've allowed yourself to believe that they can fall? How many demons have risen because you've allowed yourself to believe they can rise? How many modrons have gone rogue and developed personalities because you have projected one onto them?
Think, cutter. Your belief will send ripples in the Collective Subconscious, and eventually, causality will find a way to make those beliefs come true.
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Believing in Stories - Your place in the story wrote:
Now, dearest of all my readers, you're probably wondering what's your place in this, and what does this have to do with stories and writing. You might ask yourself that, if you are the center of the multiverse, why do you have to deal with so much mibix on a daily basis? Why do you have to hurt, or be inconvenienced? Why can't you be surrounded and tended to by a bevy of beautiful young maidens, or a coterie of chiselled scantily clad men? Wouldn't that be nice?
For growth.
Simply put, I believe that the multiverse, in its unfathomable magnificence and sheer size, can be extrapolated to a more condensed, more easy to understand thing: a written story you can hold in your hands, a poem sung by a bard, or a play performed on a stage. Kindly understand that this is a metaphor, but one that still carries a significant weight in my beliefs.
Without conflict, without desires, without a need to struggle to fulfil your wants and desires, without something to drive you forward, your place in the story would be stagnant and boring. That is not to say that you can't curse your fate and rage against the heavens for it if you so desire - by all means, do so! It doesn't mean that you can't be indignant about the mibix that you have to deal with. But, dear reader, I merely ask that you do not despair for long, and that you see this as a crucible. That you use your struggles as a motivation to grow, to improve yourself, and ultimately, to impose your will on the Collective Subconscious. To learn how to use causality, to make things better for you and yours.
I ask you to make your place in the story memorable. Nobody likes a character whose life is perfect from the start. But if you fight for every inch of success, if you struggle, sometimes fail, and sometimes win, until you are happy with your position, the Collective Subconscious will be pleased, and it will be an utter joy to read. As the saying goes, bread tastes a lot better when you bake it yourself.
Now, you could argue that some of these points could have been made by a Godsman, perhaps by a Taker, or by just about anyone else regardless of the faction they adhere to. And to an extent, it is true.
We are spiders in the same web, characters in the same story.
It's only natural that we look and think a bit alike.
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Believing in Stories - Parting words wrote:
Thus far, with rough and all-unable quill, I have pursued to share my thoughts with you, dearest of all my readers. So kindly allow me to finish this by saying that it has been a joy to write for you, and to express a few more thoughts before I abandon my quill for today.
Consider the possibility that The One might not be a single person, but that all of us might be part of that entity. That Collective Subconscious.
Consider the possibility that every other cutter out there is just as important as you, and that they might have stories as interesting as the ones you have to tell, if you care to listen.
Consider the possibility that you already know all of this, and I merely reminded you of it.
Lastly bear in mind, dear reader, the power of words and fiction, and how they can affect your world. You have read words here that you know in the depths of your soul. A little part of your mind knows that you have -read them before-, but can't quite put your finger on where. I didn't write these words. You didn't write these words. You never read them anywhere before, and yet, your very soul has noticed them, and knows where they're from even if you can't put it to words. You might have been amused by it, or perhaps a part of you was indignant without quite knowing why.
But you recognised them, without ever having read them with your own eyes, so I'll make my parting words a question.
Could it be that you are an aspect of something greater than you originally thought? That the hand that holds the pen of your story knows these words, even if you, the character in it, don't?
Were your own eyes the ones that read them first, or were they The One's?
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