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rainbowfic2025-03-11 09:28 pm
paradoxcase) wrote in rainbowfic2025-03-11 09:28 pm
Entry tags:
Ecru #3 [The Fulcrum]
Name: The Dreams of Mureiyo
Story: The Fulcrum
Colors: Ecru #3: Discuss
Styles and Supplies: None
Word Count: 891
Rating: G
Warnings: None
Characters: Setsiana, Qhoroali
In-Universe Date: 1911.7?8?.?.?
Summary: Setsiana and Qhoroali discuss Mureiyo's theories.
After Peatäro had left, Setsiana had to ask: “Who is that Talamäcuti person she mentioned? Is it a soulwright?” She knew some soulwrights had names in Shayansee, but she couldn’t remember all of them.
Qhoroali’s mouth quirked a bit. “Definitely not,” she said, “but he sure gets up to some nonsense. You’ll probably get to hear about a lot more of it eventually.”
Setsiana returned to the chair and sat lost in thought while Qhoroali made a number of copies with the machine, but was called back to the present (or, well, the future) by Qhoroali saying: “Here, take a look at this.” She held out the copied pages.
Setsiana reluctantly went back to the desk and took them; in spite of herself, she did want to see what Mureiyo had said. She returned to her seat to read. It was a paper about the origins of Sapfita, referencing a number of Mureiyo’s own dreams, but not much in the way of works by other priestesses. She skimmed a largely speculative section on the possibilities of gaining and losing extra dimensions with very few references, but slowed down when she got to Mureiyo’s account of her dreamreadings.
She read:
The principle is proven by my dreamreading of three months ago (Mureiyo, 782.2.2.1). Sapfita clearly recounted Her experiences of the time She spent as a three-dimensional being on the surface of Celyira, bound by its physical and temporal rules, and by the laws and customs of ordinary people. An ancient people, for sure, for they had very strange customs. They lived in the high mountains of the south, where the winter is very cold, and they believed in an evil and capricious god who unleashed the winter on them, and spent much of their material wealth sacrificing to her to end it each year. Unable to get by in this harsh climate without money and supplies, Sapfita successfully impersonated this god with Her own godly composure and was able to claim the sacrifices, which She used to survive. Not so big a lie, that; She is a god indeed, and deserved all that She was given.
“This is dubious,” said Setsiana. “I don’t mean metaphysically, I mean geographically. There aren’t really any high mountains in the south, all of the big mountains are in the north.”
“I noted that too,” said Qhoroali. “Also there isn’t any evidence of any ancient people in NoraCheanya worshipping evil gods. Well, I mean, the soulwrights would play the occasional practical joke and would abide only by laws of their own making, but there weren’t any that invented winter just to torture humanity, or anything like that. Evil gods are a pretty rare occurrence across the whole world, actually.”
“What evidence would there be of ancient people?” Tales of times before the war with the Tuari were generally spotty, and there was no way to go back and verify them, since no one who lived before the priesthood existed spoke a language that any priestess would know. An abortive attempt had been made for a project to go back and study those languages for the purpose of learning more, but it had been decided that this was a waste of the limited availability of the Mirrors.
“Oh, archaeology really takes off in a hundred years or so,” said Qhoroali said conversationally. “They dig up old sites where people lived thousands of years ago and go through their trash to find out what they were up to. They weren’t allowed to use the Mirror for it, so they found a mundane way instead. If there were an evil god, you’d expect to find images of them, some iconography, ritual sites, but it’s all just soulwrights, before worship of Sapfita, at least in the south. They even connected some ancient soulwright worship with the named soulwrights they worship in Shayansee today, it’s pretty interesting, actually.”
“So obviously this isn’t correct,” said Setsiana. “Has anyone else reviewed this dreamreading? Do we have a copy of it?”
“The actual recording? There’s only one master copy of those, so it’s much harder to steal them. It is at a nearby temple, but I don’t know if getting it would be worth it. In theory, dreamreader technology might have improved in all these years, but I think dreamreadings fell out of favor too quickly for that. If you mean, did anyone else ever write anything about it, Li wasn’t able to find anything; there are very few papers that cite Mureiyo about anything.”
Setsiana looked down at the printed copy again. This paper had all of the scientific rigor and peer support that the hypothetical Personalist dream papers that they had discussed the day before would have had, but somehow she couldn’t put aside the idea that there might be some grain of truth in it. She still couldn’t rationalize her experiences with what Qhoroali had told her. Sapfita had said the paper was wrong, but… maybe Setsiana had misinterpreted Her. From what Qhoroali had said, it sounded like it was at least probable that their line of communication wasn’t as clear as Setsiana thought it was. Between Qhoroali, and Mureiyo, and her own experiences, she now felt that she was at a loss as to which could actually be trusted. “I don’t know,” she concluded. “I don’t know what to think, anymore.”
Story: The Fulcrum
Colors: Ecru #3: Discuss
Styles and Supplies: None
Word Count: 891
Rating: G
Warnings: None
Characters: Setsiana, Qhoroali
In-Universe Date: 1911.7?8?.?.?
Summary: Setsiana and Qhoroali discuss Mureiyo's theories.
After Peatäro had left, Setsiana had to ask: “Who is that Talamäcuti person she mentioned? Is it a soulwright?” She knew some soulwrights had names in Shayansee, but she couldn’t remember all of them.
Qhoroali’s mouth quirked a bit. “Definitely not,” she said, “but he sure gets up to some nonsense. You’ll probably get to hear about a lot more of it eventually.”
Setsiana returned to the chair and sat lost in thought while Qhoroali made a number of copies with the machine, but was called back to the present (or, well, the future) by Qhoroali saying: “Here, take a look at this.” She held out the copied pages.
Setsiana reluctantly went back to the desk and took them; in spite of herself, she did want to see what Mureiyo had said. She returned to her seat to read. It was a paper about the origins of Sapfita, referencing a number of Mureiyo’s own dreams, but not much in the way of works by other priestesses. She skimmed a largely speculative section on the possibilities of gaining and losing extra dimensions with very few references, but slowed down when she got to Mureiyo’s account of her dreamreadings.
She read:
The principle is proven by my dreamreading of three months ago (Mureiyo, 782.2.2.1). Sapfita clearly recounted Her experiences of the time She spent as a three-dimensional being on the surface of Celyira, bound by its physical and temporal rules, and by the laws and customs of ordinary people. An ancient people, for sure, for they had very strange customs. They lived in the high mountains of the south, where the winter is very cold, and they believed in an evil and capricious god who unleashed the winter on them, and spent much of their material wealth sacrificing to her to end it each year. Unable to get by in this harsh climate without money and supplies, Sapfita successfully impersonated this god with Her own godly composure and was able to claim the sacrifices, which She used to survive. Not so big a lie, that; She is a god indeed, and deserved all that She was given.
“This is dubious,” said Setsiana. “I don’t mean metaphysically, I mean geographically. There aren’t really any high mountains in the south, all of the big mountains are in the north.”
“I noted that too,” said Qhoroali. “Also there isn’t any evidence of any ancient people in NoraCheanya worshipping evil gods. Well, I mean, the soulwrights would play the occasional practical joke and would abide only by laws of their own making, but there weren’t any that invented winter just to torture humanity, or anything like that. Evil gods are a pretty rare occurrence across the whole world, actually.”
“What evidence would there be of ancient people?” Tales of times before the war with the Tuari were generally spotty, and there was no way to go back and verify them, since no one who lived before the priesthood existed spoke a language that any priestess would know. An abortive attempt had been made for a project to go back and study those languages for the purpose of learning more, but it had been decided that this was a waste of the limited availability of the Mirrors.
“Oh, archaeology really takes off in a hundred years or so,” said Qhoroali said conversationally. “They dig up old sites where people lived thousands of years ago and go through their trash to find out what they were up to. They weren’t allowed to use the Mirror for it, so they found a mundane way instead. If there were an evil god, you’d expect to find images of them, some iconography, ritual sites, but it’s all just soulwrights, before worship of Sapfita, at least in the south. They even connected some ancient soulwright worship with the named soulwrights they worship in Shayansee today, it’s pretty interesting, actually.”
“So obviously this isn’t correct,” said Setsiana. “Has anyone else reviewed this dreamreading? Do we have a copy of it?”
“The actual recording? There’s only one master copy of those, so it’s much harder to steal them. It is at a nearby temple, but I don’t know if getting it would be worth it. In theory, dreamreader technology might have improved in all these years, but I think dreamreadings fell out of favor too quickly for that. If you mean, did anyone else ever write anything about it, Li wasn’t able to find anything; there are very few papers that cite Mureiyo about anything.”
Setsiana looked down at the printed copy again. This paper had all of the scientific rigor and peer support that the hypothetical Personalist dream papers that they had discussed the day before would have had, but somehow she couldn’t put aside the idea that there might be some grain of truth in it. She still couldn’t rationalize her experiences with what Qhoroali had told her. Sapfita had said the paper was wrong, but… maybe Setsiana had misinterpreted Her. From what Qhoroali had said, it sounded like it was at least probable that their line of communication wasn’t as clear as Setsiana thought it was. Between Qhoroali, and Mureiyo, and her own experiences, she now felt that she was at a loss as to which could actually be trusted. “I don’t know,” she concluded. “I don’t know what to think, anymore.”
no subject
Aw, poor Setsiana! And this all continues to be fascinating!
no subject
Thank you!
no subject
no subject
Thank you!