Piercing the Temporal Veil
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The following article contains player-created lore or theories.
It is not necessarily an accurate reflection of official game lore. |
Piercing the Temporal Veil
(A Lecture on Piercing the Temporal Veil. Lecture given on 4/28/2020 at 8pm eastern outside the moon mage urn)
There are those who believe that none have studied the movement of time, and, as such, the temporal anomalies experienced in recent days are novel and unexplainable. I hope that tonight’s discussion will help dispel all doubt. Time is not a foreign concept, at least not to Moon Mages.
When we discussed Temporal Shadows, we spoke of how shadows may cause temporal distortions. We presented multiple theories about the movements of time on the Astral Plane. In our presentation of the Cosmic Pendulum, we discussed how Grazhir’s mana swings back and forth, proceeding and then reversing its course. When we discussed the Dichotomy of Time, we noted that time appears to be frozen in the conduits of the Astral Plane. But tonight, we turn our gaze instead toward the here and now.
From Grazhir halting time’s progression, to individuals traveling to the Pethian home of Su Helmas, to non-spectacular moon mages causing the world to come to a halt with a mere gesture, time magic has been known, discussed, and even practiced in Lunar Mage circles for generations.
Yes, Moon Mages can stop time.
(In the actual event, Aaoskar cast tezirah’s veil spell, jolting the world to a stop)
That was Tezirah’s Veil, a powerful teleologic sorcery spell.
When a moon mage casts the spell, the caster’s connection to the Plane of Probability is augmented, which gives the caster the ability to alter the flow of time. Indeed, as you just witnessed, “the world about you jolts to a sudden stop” when the spell is cast. The augmentation of fate and probability make time more malleable. We could explain in a grand theory, but such theories mean little when this phenomenon is observable as you have just seen.
In a second, perhaps less controversial example, consider the very nature of prophecy. Without even a spell, by using only our mind, Moon Mages can pierce the temporal veil and gazes upon ages and places that are not our own. We are not wholly bound by time. The future is our servant and with the tangled fate spell, we can even rewrite the past, by loosening the shackles of Fate forged on the Plane of Probability.
Moon Mages can manipulate time. This is not speculation. It is fact.
But this is not to say that Lunar Magic is exclusively responsible for current events. Although we submit that Probability is ultimately the driving force behind the Gorbesh invasions, it could be that something else precipitated the temporal vortices from which the invaders emerge. It is rumored that the Fae dabble in Time Magic. We will not examine that today. But recent experiments with Aether could have created the environment where this “bleed” of probability could surface.
Probability is empowered to the point that it overwhelms aether ---causing a localized temporal anomaly.
It could be that the Aether experiments disrupted the balance between the influences of the Plane of Probability and the Plane of Aether. Whenever Probability is amplified or whenever Aether is diminished, time fluctuates in peculiar ways.
But why is this?
As the Elemental scholar Uryutis teaches, Aether suffuses all things - it is the insubstantial substructure that binds the physical universe together. Accepting this as true, it holds that when Aether is weakened, the physical universe can become unbound. It is possible that the weakening of Aether can affect the flow of time, which is exactly what we are seeing right now.
But why?
Uryutis tells us that they have seen Aether suffuse through open Moon Gates, indicating that a framework of Aether exists within the Astral Plane. Uryutis concludes that Aether is everywhere that isn’t the Void. Consequently, it follows that Aether is also found on the Plane of Probability.
So, as we have seen here today, Time may be manipulated by merely enhancing probability, but possibly also by diminishing Aether or by ripping holes in it. By tinkering with this balance, Probability is empowered to the point that it overwhelms Aether, causing a localized temporal anomaly.
In the not too distant past, a group of lunar mages attempted to thread fate upon itself in an effort to create a curious anomaly in the present that the prophetess Nera would have foreseen in the past. It is possible that this could have caused temporal distortions.
Similarly, when a group of warrior mages created their own anomaly two Elanthian years later, they too could have caused a similar result, but by a different method - by tearing a jagged hole in Aether, weakening the “glue” that holds the universe together. In its weakened state, the forces of probability may have been able to overtake Aether which resulted in the temporal distortions we have recently faced: the return of the Gorbesh, the elpazi, “V” - of which we know little, and other invading forces. Moon Mages cannot claim “V” at this time because we do not know from where or when he comes.
Some may be amused at what I am about to say, but it must be said. I urge our elemental research colleagues to use extreme caution.
Dealing with the Plane of Probability is the exclusive province of Moon Mages, and even we do not know all its secrets. Tinkering with the Plane of Probability should not be taken lightly.
If the Aether experiments did, indeed, cause a rift that led to the recent temporal anomalies, further research in that vein could bring about even greater and more harrowing consequences. And though of lesser import, our elemental colleagues may raise the ire of the Inquisition who opposed similar research by Moon Mages not long ago. But that does not mean that our colleagues should end their search for knowledge! No, they should continue their quest, for knowledge strengthens all of us.
Speaking both for myself and the group of lunar researchers with whom I work, we offer our time and talent, should they be needed, to aid our elemental colleagues.