Drawing from the Well
As expected, nothing new to talk about here. Maybe in the morning, but not for now. It’s been a really busy week.
Filling the Well
Nothing new here either and for the same reason. Tomorrow I will DEFINITELY get some time to make progress here, though.
Polishing the Well
No exaggeration, this was dinner tonight (okay, not all of it, but this is what it looked like to order). It was fantastically good. I am delightfully full.
Well Chat
Aberrations Make Some Cool Stuff
Yesterday I introduced the idea that when Stratarchs, the “governors” of the strata comprising my fictional universe, acted upon their stratum, they introduced magic. But how does that work? What are the effects? What does magic even mean?
The fabric of each stratum is called its orenda. This is its binding force. You can think of this as water on which everything sits. As long as systems and planets spiral as prescribed, the natural vibrations are subtle, gentle, and cancel each other out. If a Stratarch deems it necessary to intervene in their stratum, they must get God’s blessing so that their action is sterilized to match the natural vibration of their stratum’s orenda.
That’s all cool and groovy until a Stratarch panics and doesn’t get their action sterilized. This interrupts the natural vibration of the stratum and introduces new vibrations to the orenda. As these counter-vibrations collide with the orenda vibration, more vibrations occur. It’s like ripples in a pool except that the orenda keeps replicating them in a natural attempt to return to equilibrium. Therefore, the Stratarch’s introduced vibrations continue infinitely.
Why does this matter? The interrupted orenda creates pockets, aberrations, where strange things occur. Sentient life can interact with these pockets and tap into the power of their stratum’s orenda. Now, no one is aware that is what’s going on; they just think it is literal magic. And as far as they’re concerned, it is.
So each stratum has its own orenda and the nature of the introduced vibrations varies by Stratarch so each stratum’s magical reaction is different. Further, the pockets created but the dueling vibration patterns are different depending on their size, shape, and depth so the emergence of magic varies by system and planet. That is how various magics arise.
For how this affects my stories, I determine the orenda for each stratum and then determine how that is expressed on the planet for which I’m writing. Here is an excerpt from the Stratasphere page of my website to describe various magics so far:
There are four Strata planned so far: Arjun Tar Celek, Carlaas Oganar, Epoch, and Tarion Stratum.
Epoch
Stratarch: Unknown
Orenda: None
Epoch contains the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies, though its limits are unknown. Its Stratarch is also unknown. Epoch is unique for two reasons. It is the only known stratum with a single name and it is the only stratum with a Stratarch that has not interfered with the course of human events. The Earthling humans survive only by God’s direction while the Milky Way Stratarch watches, reports, directs, and protects them. I have stories planned here for an alternate Earth, but that’s down the line.
Tarion Stratum
Stratarch: Nirlos
Orenda: Empowered Vibrations
Tarion Stratum is governed by the Stratarch Nirlos. His sons, Niran and Losan, govern over the Bagi system. Bagi contains the worlds Genesis, Lenore, Noire, Gikena, and other uninhabitable worlds. There is also the Shakra system governed by Kadras and the Aurochs system governed by Oculos (Kadras and Oculos are also sons of Nirlos). The Tidestone Cycle takes place in Tarion Stratum and I have many other stories planned for this Stratum.
Arjun Tar Celek
Stratarch: Bomsma
Orenda: Wave Plasticity
Arjun Tar Celek’s orenda manifested through what became commonly known as wave plasticity. Where vibrations (themselves being waves) in Tarion Stratum are empowered, waves in Arjun Tar Celek are more malleable and durable, allowing odd phenomena to become commonplace. This wave plasticity has also given rise to parallel planets to other systems in other Strata, including Earth, with very different rules of magic.
Carlaas Oganar
Stratarch: Karlotta
Orenda: Sentient Particles (esprits)
Carlaas Oganar’s orenda actually gifted individual particles with sentience. This is not true of every atom in the Stratum, but only some particles of light (let’s not get into the Particle-Wave Theory of Light here for now). These esprits, in their various forms, can empower objects or organisms to do miraculous things. The relationship between user (whether the empowered organism or someone using an enchanted object) and esprit is fully symbiotic. All magic comes with a price. No stories have made it out of this Stratum yet.
And that’s how magic works in a broad sense in my fictional universe. Stay tuned for more details about the Stratasphere!
May the tide carry you to safer shores.
BSG