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Essence Imbalance: The Sickness of the World

Some scholars believe that everything in Creation is meant to exist. That, of the gods appointed to the world, there exists one for every possible thing in the world. These savants postulate that the disasters and hungers and pains that befall humanity do so merely because they are in the wrong place at the wrong time, and that their suffering is a part of the natural order.

These scholars are wrong. The truth is both more hopeful, and more ominous. For those who study the ancient texts, it will soon be discovered that disease, famine, and natural disasters were rare almost to the point of non-existance in the early First Age, gradually growing alongside the Solars' madness. Indeed, such things were taken as a sign of the unrighteousness of the Solars, and used as one of the reasons to overthrow them - and, in fact, the bulk of the Shogunate saw a downturn in such events, although not back to the low levels of the early First Age.

In the Second Age, however, such things are becoming distressingly common. The Sidereals know the truth, as do many gods - these things are a sign of a Creation in danger.

The Nature of Essence Imbalance

Essence Imbalance occurs when the threads of the Loom tangle and warp. It is the result of poorly-executed destinies, of overuse of Essence within a given region, of badly-executed geomancy and poorly-designed buildings, or of the presence and actions of beings who live beyond Creation. When earthquakes strike a town, it may mean that the new mansion being built on the hill is damaging Essence flows, or there could be a monster living in the caves.

The primary task of the Sidereal Exalted is to prevent such imbalances, because if left unchecked, they can lead to a complete breakdown of a region's Essence flows. In these cases, Creation itself wears away, transforming into a Wyld zone or shadowland, depending on the nature of the imbalance. This is also why many deaths can create shadowlands; the sudden influx of life energy into Creation's Essence flows backs up and warps, pulling the lines down towards Oblivion.

While Sidereals work to undo the causes of Essence Imbalance, gods work to mitigate their effects. Ideally, all gods should work to downgrade the power and threat of Essence Imbalance disasters. In practice, some try to focus or ward off the effects, leaving them to wreak havoc on their enemies alone. Others simply hide from them. Still, many gods still do their duties enough to reduce the damage that these effects can cause.

Essence imbalance comes in two primary strains. Neither strain is the result of a given type of warped destiny more than another; however, a cunning person might study any Essence Imbalance and, tracking it back to its origin point, learn more about the problem besetting an area.

Elemental Imbalance

When Elemental Imbalance occurs, a single element (or occasionally two) has its essence flows twisted. The result is a region in which an element runs wild or fades away, which leads to any number of problems for everyone and everything within. Elemental Imbalance can occur for any element, anywhere, and its effects tend to persist for a long time if not checked.

It is worth noting that many weather effects are not the result of elemental imbalance at all; volcanoes must erupt to lead to a more fertile land, storms must carry rain to secluded areas, and flooding rivers spread much-needed nutrients to the soil. In addition, smaller Imbalances occur almost constantly, as elemental Essence flows are unruly. The best way of telling whether an event was the result of Imbalance is based on its fury, and its seasonableness - most dedicated events occur on strict schedules, and are as peaceful as the gods directing them can manage, while powerful Imbalances can wreak havoc on nations.

Air: When a region suffers from an overdose of Air Essence, the winds rage and shift direction, leading to constant weather shifts and unseasonable drops in temperature. In areas where Air Essence fades, the air grows thick and heavy, and the winds will not come. Air Imbalances are primarily dangerous because they lead to other imbalances, setting off chain reactions through a system.

Earth: When a region suffers from too much Earth Essence, the result are earthquakes; the stone is stirred to movement, and shakes at its bindings. When a region suffers from too little Earth Essence, ironically, the same event occurs; fissures shake themselves open as the remaining Earth Essence concentrates where it can. This is dangerous and damaging to the local landscape; earthquakes are almost always the result of Imbalance (or magical effects).

Fire: Areas suffering from increased Fire Essence suffer heat waves, and objects become more prone to lighting aflame, creating great fires that can spread across nations if not stopped. By contrast, reducing Fire Essence leads to a cooling of an area, where fires have difficulty lighting and the people do not feel warm.

Water: Areas where Water Essence rushes into suffer from floods, or tsunamis; water overriding its normal boundaries to wash away the other elements. Where Water Essence ebbs, the result are deadly droughts, a parched and cloudless land and dry air.

Wood: Overabundance of Wood Essence leads to parasites; plants that have little useful purpose except to clog up those more deserving, and which spread across the land to feed from the abundant Essence. Areas where Wood Essence is weak suffer from blight, as crops wither and die on the vine.

Life Essence Imbalance

In addition to the obvious physical effects, there are very common effects on higher life forms - animals, humans, and the like. These beings are often more sensitive to Essence Imbalance than a fairly static landscape, and thus Life Imbalances are more common than the more obvious Essence disasters. Life Imbalances take a single form: disease.

Disease is the result of imbalances within a person. Sometimes, people can cause this themselves, but more often it is the result of imbalances in local dragon lines, or of tangled Essence lines. These diseases spread from the origin points, infecting the population long after their source has died. Their twisted and fragmented Essence lines require medical knowledge to treat, although lesser strains can sometimes be fought off by a patient's own Essence pattern.

Implications

In a setting that uses the above system for fate tears, two things vanish: Causality errors, and gods that promote the spread of many of these concepts. Instead, gods of these concepts exist to curb them, although they are just as prone to corruption as any other god. Sidereals are well aware of the dangers of these effects, just as they are canonically of the causality errors that signify a problem.

Why do it? Thematics, mostly. Many (I dare say most) traditional cultures feel that disease is not part of the natural order, but damage to it. I find that reflecting this makes for a Celestial Order that, while still corrupt, is somewhat less malevolent. In addition, it creates concrete effects for many of the problems facing Creation, and explains to characters why things like proper geomancy and responsible Essence use matter.