Timeless Exhale

Substantial postings about constructed languages and constructed worlds in general. Good place to mention your own or evaluate someone else's. Put quick questions in C&C Quickies instead.
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Xhin
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Timeless Exhale

Post by Xhin »

Hi all, I haven't conworlded in about three years.. this one plays out as an interchangeable history, mythology and story. It is disjointed and fairly psychedelic, and this is intentional. Nonetheless I'm willing to answer some of the questions you have (in the same format of course!) in between renderings.

Aja and the Timeless Void

In the beginning, Aja the Transcendant found the timeless void, a place devoid of thought and form but not without size or rules. From Aja's Xnzvs grew two great bubbles of Conscious Void and many smaller between them among the nodes of Aja's still-growing Xnzvs. Satisfied, Aja the Transcendant began to sleep, and exhaled Aja the Omnipotent to live among the Xnzvs and the outer timeless edge of each void.

Aja the Omnipotent awakened full of life from its sleeping transcendant home. It extended Xnzvs of its own into each Void and began to think into them, creating time and beginning to create Form.

> Caretakers of the Second Void

Aiul watched over the boundaries and laws of the Second Void. It made sure that time passed until the End, that space curved around to itself so things of Form could not pass into other voids, and that formless Spirits did not linger. Of the caretakers, only Aiul could speak directly to Aja, although Aja saw and heard all.

Miwn created the first worlds, geometrically perfect shapes of Fire, Water, Stone and Air. Each moved across the closed sphere of the Second Void in its own geometric path. Miwn created beings in each world to add Form to the otherwise perfect shapes.

> > Creation and Ruination of the Elemental Worlds

Great cities were created in each of the worlds, ideas flowed between them and their shapes were bent and twisted into strange patterns. Those beings were imperfect and occasionally killed one another; the spirits of Miwn were allowed to leave the Second Void. As the shapes became more complex, their rotation slowed and the world would only pulse. The Minnok took on stranger and stranger forms, combining with one another in geometric patterns into new beings. The most powerful Minnok abandoned Miwn and began to ravage and destroy the works of lesser elementals.

> > > Yor, High Priest of Miwn

Yor of Ganves, Jor of 5-3-2 Fire, Thirtieth-Pulse Minnok saw thirty of his thoughts and his Air and Water wives get killed in front of him. Pulse-Eater breathed fire bubbles that suffocated all in their path and each of his thousand tentacles exploded on touch, sending meteor daggers in a billion directions. Yor gathered his other six thoughts into his form and he and his Fire Wife carried their New Mind between them, fleeing before Pulse-Eater could destroy them too. They tried to start their life over beyond the shelter of the Sharp mountains; surely these ancient geometric forms would protect them.

As his Fire-wife raised their New Mind and eventually a second one, Yor studied under an old fire that lived in the sharp mountains. That fire was an old priest of Miwn and had followed him since he was still active in the world. He refused to give his birthname or wifename and went only as 'Priest'.

> > > > Yor and Priest

Life was hard when Yor first found shelter beyond the Sharp Mountains. Their area was cut off from the rest of the world and surrounded by impenetrable geometric forms. They were safe, but resources were scarce. Some of the liquid fire flowed deep underneath the valley where they stayed and the New Mind was able to dig into the old soil to pull it out. Pure fire was hard to find though as most of the fire forms had fled the area over the years and become conscious kin. Inside the mountains though lesser fires still lurked, foolishly worshipping the mountains as All that Was. Yor was able to sneak up on the weakest and drain its spirit before the other fires could flee. Then he would bring the pure fire form back to his family.

One fire form he encountered to drain was not like the others, however. Though it looked weak, it fought back terribly and drained Yor of much liquid and gaseous fire, though it did not penetrate Yor's solid core. Yor gasped, wounded terribly as wisps of fire and flame drifted into the sky. Then the lesser fire spirit spoke:

"I cannot be eaten, I am stronger than the mountains themselves."

And from the fire-spirit's barely-damaged form came forth a fractal of violent colors and kaleidoscopic shapes, washing over Yor, surrounding him and filling his mind with thought.

When it was gone, Yor gasped, as his Form had been fully repaired and was in fact stronger than ever, no longer the liquid-full starved form that it had been for the last ten turns. His core felt stronger, his air less chaotic and his spirit full of joy. Being a simple flame he bowed before this Higher form, offering himself to be eaten instead.

The higher form refused to meld with Yor, neither honorably like the feasting kings of old nor violently like Pulse-eater and his kin. Instead he said that the elementals had made their spirits wicked in the search for more power, and had turned from the edicts of their true god Mihn. Yor was told that instead of being eaten he would learn the ancient secrets of Mihn. If he refused to kill anymore, he and his family would be given the full abundance of Form by the grace of Mihn.

<<<<

Through the teachings of Priest, Yor learned to create instant permanent Form through his six thoughts, nourishing his family without killing. As he grew more powerful and his new minds more numerous, he atoned for his past feasts by releasing his thoughts back into the mountains and thought with his core alone.

In two hundred turns the entire valley was full of priests of Mihn, each thoughts of Yor or descendants of him and his fire wife. When Pulse-eater came to destroy the mountains and make the valley a part of his flesh, the priests held him back, singing fractals of flame that bound his tentacles into the stone and scoured the bubbles from his twelve shifting cores. Yor went into the heart of Pulse-Eater between all the spinning orbiting rocks and found his true core. As the priests strained against Pulse-eater's thrashing forms, Yor tried and tried to break the core, but it was too strong for his attempts, made too strong by millions of forms. He knew his priests were dying quickly outside and wouldn't be able to restrain Pulse-Eater much longer. Seeing no other choice, he split his own core and cried a fractal of spirit, praying for Mihn to intervene.

He received no answer and his own Pure form escaped from his core, being absorbed into Pulse-Eater. Yor died and Pulse-Eater was only made stronger by his selfless sacrifice.

<<<

At the beginning of the Thirty-first pulse, six turns in, Pulse-eater ate the entirety of the Sharp Mountains. Although the smallest of the six points of the Fire world's diamond shape, his accomplishment was compounded by the fact that he had inadvertently absorbed ancient knowledge. He cried to the other Great Minnok, and fractals of raw geometric power flowed between them. Every city that lived in fear of the Great Minnok suddenly became worshipful instead and pledged their resources, so corrupted were they by the power the Great Minook wielded.

All four worlds began to change dramatically, combining and coalescing into One World, a billion tendrils connecting each of them to the other, Forms constantly rebuilding and redesigning one another, and then the greatest of all the powers sang a fractal of Void at what little resistance was left, permanently banishing them from the Second Void.

<<

Aiul's law had been broken and Form had been given to the First Void. The caretakers that had been created decided that the world must be destroyed so that it would not interfere with the rest of Creation. A perfect world could then be created in its place. This is what Aiul (Law), Mihn (World), Nyata(Form), and Lyu(Spirit) declared should happen.

However, the newest caretaker, Jyna (War), disagreed. It said that the Second Void was imperfect and could be improved only by making it *more* imperfect. It would take the world and grind together into chaos. It would make the forms powerless and mistrustful of each other, and uphold Evil as the highest standard. Instead of granting strength, the little amount of Power given into the world would corrupt and everyone would seek it.

Mihn froze the world so that it could do no further harm to creation, and Aiul asked this of Aja. Aja the Omnipotent agreed and gave its caretakers new powers, and they set to work at once to rebuild the world.

<

> The second world

Aiul was the Law and with its new powers it created an army of angels to watch over the Voids and report back if Form appeared. They were malevolent too and could Unthink any Form they found outside of the Second Void. Though they could not be everywhere, the Angels would always eventually destroy anything caught outside the Second Void.

The four worlds were detached from one another and all but the heart of the fire world and the heart of the stone world were compacted together into one world. The Cataclysm had begun.

>> The cataclysm

The beings on the new world cried out in terror as their bodies were ripped apart and stuck to other bodies in a disjointed way. Those that had practiced perfect geometry were given to despair as disjointed elements would come together and refuse to be taken apart. Great cities of orbs and spirals created by pure thought were fragmented into jagged bricks and slabs of metal. Storms played out across the surface, beings falling into that terrible shrieking tempest and emerging as painful facsimiles of their former self.

The Minook cried out to their gods; why had they been betrayed like this as the world had finally been made right? Why were the ones who had resisted Final Melding reappearing and growing stronger? And fighting each other? They prayed to their landforms, but they were nowhere to be seen. They prayed to their Worlds but those too were gone. They prayed even to the Abstract Form that created all of them in all their geometric glory -- but even that was rapidly being destroyed by the chaos.

Many of them died. The ones that were left gradually forgot more and more of their previous world as it faded from memory and was ravaged from sight. Those that remained were left with a great sadness and disappointment, although they could not remember why. They stopped fighting each other and retreated deeper into the chaotic world, becoming clouds.. mountains.. lakes... volcanoes.. becoming a part of the imperfect earth.

<<

Nyata was Form, and although it was pleased that the world's Forms had diversified so strongly, it was concerned that no new spirits were being created on the world. Without spirit, how would the Second Void ever track through time? How would the First Void ever burn bright enough to end? So Nyata created creatures from the imperfect dust and water, plants to cover the earth and animals to roam in the deepest seas. Nyata spun the heart of the fire world and the heart of the stone world around this new world, creating night and day, sunlight and moonlight to drive these new creatures.

Lyu was Spirit, and it grew worried about these creatures that would only kill and eat one another and would never think outside their own immediate needs. They were so imperfect most of them did not have spirits at all, and those that did would dissipate at death or try to find a new host, and no spirits would ever leave the Second Void.

A great poison was growing across the world as more and more spirits would vie for the same body and the bodies would grow frailer and live shorter. The other Caretakers were too busy with the Great Splitting and the Final Birth to pay Lyu much attention, so it gave some of its essence into some of the land creatures, and nearly exhausted herself doing so.

A caretaker losing its power was new, and even Aja took notice at this turn of events. Aja declared that the world could not be destroyed again, as part of its essence was now somehow part of the world and these new creatures. Scared to lose more of itself, it did not finish granting power to the Final Caretaker but instead withdrew itself completely from the world.

<

Aja the Omnipotent withdrew from the Second Void. It appealed to Aja the Transcendant, but it continued sleeping in the timeless void. Aja the Omnipotent retracted all of its Xnzvs, leaving the Voids to fend for themselves with whatever parts of Aja's essence were inside. It would not return into the worlds while it could lose itself. It retreated furher into the nodes of Aja the Transcendant, but inside it found an infinite number of sleeping Ajas, each one waking briefly as Aja the Omnipotent focused on it. Each one as fearful and hungry as Aja the Omnipotent and willing to step in and take its place if necessary. Aja the Omnipotent's infinite spaceless nodes curved into mockeries of Aja the Omnipotent, laughing at its pitiful choices, deriding its existence and each played out caricatures of its possible futures. And all this while Aja the Transcendant still slept.

Aja the Omnipotent returned to the world. But when it did, ten thousand turns of the Sun had passed...
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