User blog:Oriana Anima/The Phantom and the End

"Phantom" - something apparent to sense, but with no substantial existence. Something elusive or visionary.

"End" - cessation of a course of action, pursuit, or activity. The ultimate state.

The primal chaos of Oblivion is shaped by perception, and it is this same perception that seems to give rise to the countless realms within it. Oblivion is timeless, dimensionless - a primal void that is the origin of all. It exists without bounds, with naught but the simplest of causality and interactions to give rise to apparent order.

The Silent Ones are old things, and their will extends their desires into the primal void - giving rise to structure, to order and law. From the silence came time and space, force and energy, matter and antimatter - all things that forge the foundations of existence. From their song they spun worlds upon worlds, universes forged throughu the indomitable will of the old gods.

The Wraith, strange beings that live beyond, within and without - the original masters of primal oblivion. Their music is different, spectral songs giving rise not to order, but chaos - true chaos that gives rise to order with time. From this chaos came the first - the Silent Ones that forged the universes we exist in. The Wraith are untouchable, beyond all - the true gods of existence.

The subjective nature of Oblivion gives rise to stories, and stories weave worlds. As time passed within the Silent Webs, stories of what lay beyond emerged, and some of these tales and their storytellers found themselves among the Wraith, beyond the Webs, and they laid the trail of memories that led to the ultimate truth - Cal'baroth.

Seven gates were laid before the Wraith, seven paths to walk to reach that which existed at the heart and beyond all - the nexus, the origin of chaos - Cal'baroth, the heart of Oblivion. These paths were set in stone as travellers walked upon it, each seeking the old world, and their tales gave rise to their own answers.

Within Cal'baroth, now perceived as an endless spire at the heart of all, was said to be a phantom, a ghost that reflected the world and spoke the ultimate truth. But it was hidden by the light of the Wraith known as Terrus, its influence shrouding the Seventh Gate from the echoing cries of the living. Exaron, the Wraith that watches the First Gate, stands in contrast - freely allowing passage to the chaos beyond the Webs.

It is this phantom that is said to be the beginning - a reflection of the creator, the phantom power that flows throughout all of Oblivion. Perhaps the phantom is just that - a phantom, born wholly of stories and a mere shadow of what could truly be. Perhaps it is something more - a glimpse of true infinity, piercing the veil of its own creation. But ultimately, as all things have an origin, so shall all things have an end.

When the Seven Gates open, and the Neverborn rise, the black flame of the End shall be called forth, devouring the phantom and spreading among the chaos like fire in a forest, cracks in a pane of glass as the music of the Wraith falls forever silent, the world speaking no more.