Revision as of 08:05, 5 April 2010

Creation's Wake

It is known to certain savants that Creation moves through the Wyld.

It is not commonly known that this applies to time as well.

The Wyld itself knows no time, distance, or direction, but a portion of it is consumed and spun into the immediate future of Creation in accordance with the plans of the Loom of Fate. This moment is lived through and discarded, an eternal wave, forming a trailing, shadowy wake that is soon reclaimed by the Wyld.

This is why no magic permits travel into the past; the past no longer exists in the way most think of it. At best, one may summon an image of past events, as those events are the ancestors of the present and reflected in every action in the now.

It is not impossible to travel into the shadow, even so. The coherence of any given region in any given past moment depends on its stability in the now. If a sorceror was to go to one second ago, the well-defined lands of the Blessed Isle would allow existence for as long as an hour, perhaps more on the Imperial Mountain itself. In contrast, the past islands of the West are devoured heartbeats after the living Essence of now moves on. In the middle are somewhat solid places such as the Scavenger Lands, which retain form for half an hour at most.

To a naive eye, the wake of Creation appears to be much like the underworld, but this is mistaken. The underworld is leached of color and life, but retains activity and flow of Essence. The wake lacks even this substance; it is an utterly used up world. There are no spirits, no people. The sky is eternally light or dark, as the moment demands, but neither Incarna or stars shine. Wood does not burn. Food is bland, and inedible. Without essence of any kind, nothing moves.

Things of the now that retain life, movement, and being that are brought into the shadow are likewise stripped of these things, but not immediately. Simple inanimate objects will drain of substance within seconds without protection. Mortals or simple spirits, within minutes. Major spirits or other essence-wielders such as Exalts may avoid this effect by spending four motes an hour, twice that to reinforce the immediate area and delay the inevitable fall into the Wyld. Such beings may not regain Essence while in the wake. Hearthstones rapidly turn to dust, unless a number of motes equal to the stone's level is spent per scene; this retains its form but its innate power will not function.

Uses for the Wake

The wake of Creation is a thin existence, but it has useful properties.

First and foremost, it allows access to the deepest Wyld from any point in Creation. This is a versatile thing; it can be used for travel - indeed, the only way to return to Now at all is to travel through the Wyld. This property is also a useful way of disposing of enemies or captives, should one be so inclined - if the essence-leeching process does not kill them, being thrust into pure chaos surely will.

Secondly, if a thing has been destroyed, it is possible to dive into the recent past and retrieve the shadow of that item. This is not always useful, as Essence will need to be poured into the object to restore its substance, and large or magical objects require ruinous amounts.

Lastly, the past lies outside of fate by definition. The past is what you get when fate has happened. The past also is not filled with ghosts, like the Underworld, or demons, like Malfeas, making it a peaceful choice for those who wish to avoid the eye of Sidereal Exalted.

How to Get There

Celestial Circle sorcery is powerful enough to allow someone to detach from the standing wave of Now and remain in that moment as it becomes the past, but offers no additional protection.

Solar sorcery could cause a village to detach in such a manner, or allow one to travel to moments further in the past, or offer limited protection against the essence-draining nature of the shadow-Creation - those within a ward still could not regain essence, as there is no essence present to gain, but they would not have to spend motes to continue living.

The underworld does not have a separate shadow, so necromancy has few uses. One exception is a simple Shadowlands Circle spell could hasten the essence-draining process and cause all maintainance spending to double, but it would not protect the caster from this effect.

Notes

An idea I intended to use in a campaign of mine, but later decided not to. I'm purposefully vague on the spells as the use of the Wake of Creation was unlikely to get to that point in my game. It's inspired by the vision of the past in Steven King's novella, "The Langoliers". - AliasiSudonomo

Neat. Not sure if I'd use this, but it's certainly something I'll keep in mind if it becomes necessary to dabble in Wyld weirdness or time travel. - Quendalon

- Yeah, part of it was just because I figured, even given the "travel into the past is impossible, and to the future only by existing in stasis" rule of magic in Creation, I figured SOME sorceror during the First Age had to have tried it. I think this fits Exalted pretty well, and eliminates a lot of the problems with "time travel" by changing the basic assumptions.

So it's quantum physics (standing wave of NOW?) meets the Langoliers, with the part of the eaters of the past played by Chaos and the Fair Folk...I like. ^_^ -- ReallyBored