abraxaslogs | How does the earth around your feet

Jon, for his part, will wander at least a little into any domain that looks as though its owner has the same sort of eye for the green things of the world that he does -- forests, lakes, mountains, anything new. He does not mind people wandering through his own, so long as they do not trouble Ghost.

It isn't really Ghost, but his memory of his direwolf is a warm enough thing, and he thinks it has the right eyes, the right fur, the right number of teeth and claws. And Ghost follows him just now, at a distance.

And he sees, sitting deep inside the Horizon near an inner edge, Istredd, seeming to talk to someone. Something. He doesn't really know the man, but he's attended his classes now and then, supported his candidacy, agreed with some of his ideas. Now, he approaches quietly, and says,

"Do you ever get an answer?"

There's nothing mocking about how he says it: he genuinely wonders.

Istredd has just finished telling the Singularity about the Nether and saving the dragons when he hears Jon talk. He's only slightly startled as he gets very absorbed, but he has a passive awareness of his surroundings. He turns his head to look up at him and smiles, turning his attention back to the giant monolith that represents the Singularity in this space.

"No. Sometimes if I touch it, I can feel a buzz, but that's true for everyone. There are some people here with closer connections to it that do feel or see things."

But he's not one of them. A fact he is sometimes disappointed about, given his intense focus on it, but it's probably for the best. He is a much better person to study and get facts based on observation more than feelings. He doesn't know what it takes to become a chosen of the Singularity, a mystery even to the people who are. Rhy doesn't know why, only that he does.

"That angry message we got after the Rifts is one of the few times."

It was not happy at the man in Solvunn who caused them.

He moves closer, squats, and gives Istredd a thoughtful look.

"That was the Singularity speaking to us?" He hadn't fully grasped this. He supposes he would have thought about it more, understood more, if he had not been injured then, and for a little while after. He had healed quickly -- faster than he has ever healed before -- but pain is pain, and he'd still had to spend some time abed.

"That was a warning. Where I come from, we have heart trees. They're sacred to the gods. But the gods never seem to let you know much unless you're cursed and damned. They don't have to tell you not to break your oath.

"Do you think it cares for this world?" It would explain the message, the anger in it.

"I suppose we don't know for certain as the vision didn't have a signature, but I think it was." It could have been a god maybe, but it feels like the intensity of the vision reminded him more of the power of the Singularity. It also reminded him of the visions that happened in the Pit, that were forced on people, and experiences with the gods too. It's all intertwined but he doesn't know fully in what way yet.

"The Summoned who did that was ripping apart the fabric of reality. Which already happens every time they take one of us, so to do it on a level like that ... it was extremely reckless and dangerous. People should not be playing with things they don't understand."

And Istredd is not saying that as someone who does understand it. That's the point. None of them understand because this is not their sphere but also it's not what they're supposed to be doing. He is someone who thinks that the safest thing for this realm is to stop Summoning entirely, not that he can do anything about it. He thinks the factions also don't know what they're doing.

"I don't know if it cares, in terms of, it's not human so I don't know that it feels as we do. But this is its world, and it has been here possibly from the start of its creation. So it's at the least connected. In the history of the continent, the Singularity has always been here, as far back as I've found texts."

To the first part, Jon only nods. People shouldn't play with things they don't understand -- at least, not things where they don't have a good idea of what the dangers might be, and not things that might endanger others. What people take on themselves is their own affair.

But he thinks of things that have always been, and from where he stands, where he comes from, there aren't many. His people might be called the First Men, but the Children of the Forest were there before them. He doesn't know where the Children might have come from. Stories say that Bran the Builder built the Wall with the aid of giants, and that he built Winterfell. That means there was a time before those things, the time of the Last Hero. It also means that the White Walkers were always there, just as the Children seem to have been. And the Old Gods, watching over all of it.

"This place has its own gods, but it might be that the Singularity is one, for all that they don't call it one. It doesn't demand worship. It doesn't seem to ask much at all, does it? Doesn't seem to have had any anger when the queen used magic to rain fire on Libertas, either, maybe because she is of this world. War is the way the world is. But this, the matter of the beasts, angers it -- more than us being here has ever seemed to."

Istredd has not asked Wanda who the man in the vision was because he suspects she might get protective; she tends to be, of her fellow Solvunn Summoned. If he is the type to learn from his mistakes, he doesn't need them all coming down on him, reminding him of what a terrible decision it was. He trusts Wanda to handle it, she wouldn't let that happen again. He's surprised stupid choices like that don't happen more often with the power the Summoned come here with, but he's glad it is a rare occurrence.

"The term god can mean any type of thing. To some, it's merely an extremely powerful species, same as humans or dragons or Fey." In this sphere there are vampires and werewolves too, the Draconae, many creatures who are not humans and also not worshipped by them. The gods could simply have been older and came first. Istredd has no religious mindset, so this is certainly blasphemous, but he doesn't think the Singularity is the same.

"Perhaps it is because it is unnatural, what was done. The Singularity may be more concerned with the overall world than the creatures living on it, as you say." Ignoring the queen and the factions and their war because that's mere mortal squabbles. The rifts could have threatened the fabric of reality. It's a bigger concern. "There are some who have a special connection to the Singularity and can understand it slightly better, but I am not one of them."

Alas.

A thoughtful nod.

"The Old Gods that I spoke of -- they simply are. They are part of the world, in every tree and rock and river. They were the gods of the Children of the Forest." A pause, and he adds, "My people, my father's people, we're called the First Men. Crossed from Essos long ago, before there were any people in Westeros. But the Children were there first, and were not the same as men. Smaller. They've been gone a long time now.

"None of that matters here, I know, but what I mean is, their gods still live, and they are part of the world. But they are silent. I've never heard from them the way the Singularity tries to tell us things from time to time. Who does it speak to more?"

As he talks, Ghost begins to chase a leosylph some distance away. For the time being, the creatures appear playful. And because Ghost is only a part of Jon's mind and what the Singularity will let him do, Ghost will remain playful, making no move to tear at the other animal.

"It matters," Istredd says firmly. "Most spheres have their own versions and they may be relevant." So Jon might not think his story is relevant, but Istredd feels differently. "As a historian, I feel most things matter." For all they know this sphere is connected to theirs and the Children could exist here. There are many things they have yet to learn about the land they currently occupy.

"The gods did try to talk to us that one time. Just ... not in the most pleasant of ways." The heralds, sweeping across the land, damaging everyone along their past. "I don't know that their actions were intentional to hurt anyone though. It could be them trying to reach out and causing harm due to miscommunication." A kinder reading than most people would give them, but Istredd tries not to make assumptions about the intentions of others. The gods have their own priorities.

"I cannot say, it's private to those people who have the deeper connection." Rhy, Sabine, that woman from the Free Cities, Julie. He knows not of anyone else. "But they seem to be able to communicate with it, yet it communicates in feelings and images I believe, not words." So perhaps the gods are the same!

Jon appreciates the firmness with which Istredd says that his gods matter. So often, with no heart trees here, and few followers, they do not seem to. And by extension, little of his life before he came here seems to matter much: only what sort of friend he is, what sort of man, and sometimes, what he can do with his sword.

"The gods of this place aren't people, and most of the people of this place... they don't seem to want to have much to do with them anymore. But there's no reason to think that a god would always talk in a way that a person would understand at once, rather than at last. We must be small to them. Our lives are short. They can harm us, if they wish: why wouldn't a god just come out and do it if they wanted to? If I don't understand their messages, or you don't, might be that someone does, or it might be that we will -- in the end."

As to the idea that people who have a connection to the Singularity might wish to keep it to themselves, he only nods. How much would he give not to have a connection to the Lord of Light?

Where would he be if he did not?

"It is surprising how few people believe or worship after we've actively experienced the heralds crashing through the land." Istredd doesn't know what to make of that, really. Perhaps they believe in terms of understanding these creatures exist, but don't worship them as their gods. Or they have their heads in the sand. It's hard to know but Istredd knows that humans can be very stubborn. If they don't want to put stock in the gods, they simply won't.

"There's a theory that has been going on for some time about the gods." Well, it started with Kyle and then him, but it has been discussed since. "Over a thousand years ago, the first Summons happened with a high mage who was exiled and founded Solvunn. It is possible those Summoned became what is known now as the new gods." Since it originated in Solvunn, where those Summoned might have ended up with their mage, it still makes the most logical sense to him.

"The heralds were all the old gods though. I do think they communicate differently from us. We're a different species at the very least, not everyone can talk the same way."

At the first part, Jon just nods, thoughtful. Back when the Andals came to Westeros, they'd brought their seven gods in one with them -- the new gods. They'd had no foothold in the North, had never been able to conquer it thanks to the easy defensibility of the southmost borders, but their religion had been picked up by many of the Houses of the First Men below the Neck. He is not sure why anyone would have given up the Old Gods to take the Seven in their place, unless they were made to at the point of a sword -- but the Old Gods have mostly been tolerated in the South where people wished to hold to them. What made people give up their gods here?

It seems, from what Istredd is saying, that he must have had thoughts on the same lines.

"It stands to reason that the Heralds wouldn't talk like us, think like us. That any god wouldn't. But those Summoned, their power -- how great did the power of those Summoned grow?"

The idea makes him uneasy. He is no god; he does not like it when people begin to treat him like one, the look in some people's eyes when they know what has happened to him -- something he has been blissfully free of since Thorne pulled him out of his life. And here, he has found himself able to do things he shouldn't, that no man should be able to do, past the magic they teach him: the hours he's spent as a wolf, the flames that comes to his hands easily. He seeks no greater powers than those he needs to save his people. He never seeks for them to grow, though they do now and then nonetheless.

But if you were a real god, or something that had become accustomed to worship, how much would you resent whatever came to supplant you?

[OMG holy pete it has been longer since I hit this than I thought. It's interesting, and I definitely want to do more with them, but absolutely feel free to wrap this one if you want/need to. Jon can pretty much be like "I'm sorry, I'm taking up too much of your time" at any point.]

"How great does our power grow already? We get magical gifts, magic is stronger when trained here, we can manipulate the entire psychic plane here in the Horizon to our needs. We've been here over two years. In the history, they were here for centuries before the Summoning was stopped."

So take the power that the Summoned currently have gathered over only a few years and multiply that. It seems very obvious to him how realistic the new gods being former Summoned truly is. They're already otherworldly, they're already over-powered. In Solvunn they're worshipped. It's a slippery slope.

"We don't know for sure though, it's a theory for now." One that Istredd believes in otherwise he wouldn't have said anything. He gets up though, and glances over at Jon. "I must go to my next class, but thank you for spending some time with me and the Singularity. You should visit it again. It may like that." He doesn't know for certain, but it is alive, and it never seems to mind him talking to it.

He salutes and disappears from the Horizon to get to class!

How does the earth around your feet

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let's wrap on this one yes!