#the truth in the darkness

[speaker-of-the-void-cats]

What was witnessed

We know the Veil is connected consciousness that links us all. It is universal memory and "whispers an electromagnetic language that resonates with our minds," one that is as yet untranslatable "by the laws we wield in this universe." It is organic, and its signature covers sol (and presumably all of reality) much like a cloth veil. It also shares a link to the Traveler, and that link is primal and intrinsic, not created. It was used in the ritual which bound the precursors into the Witness, and more recently was used to distill the Ishtar Exo minds into Lakshmi-2. This is the recurring theme among Darkness/Veil related lore of many minds being simultaneously one in various ways, something we also see in the Vex mind structure and artifacts like the Crown of Sorrow.

What version of truth did the precursors see beyond the Veil?

[I end up on the destinylore subreddit often despite my better judgement and sometimes dip into discussions that are going well. This post was originally a comment made in response to this post. These are a lot of long-considered theories and wonderings tangled together, so bear with me if I take some interpretive liberties or get details a bit off. I hope you find something to think about or enjoy at the the heart of it.]

"You're getting ahead of yourself. Following some of my… less favorable tendencies. Nimbus says we must 'flow' to understand Strand; perhaps it is the same with the Veil." Osiris moves beside Ikora and reaches up, palm parallel to the threads drawn taut from Ikora's braid of Strand. "Sol remembered Titan, in a way. The Veil's signal spiked when Titan returned from memory to reality, when the rhythm of the solar system had been restored to order." Osiris drops his hand and looks to Ikora. "Perhaps we must simply find that rhythm before we are able to interpret the beats within it."

So here's roughly what I think the Witness saw: Before time, the Traveler and Veil were once a single system simulating endless "patterns"; a Gardener and Winnower working hand in hand, one to seed possibility and one to control and collapse it into a final shape before beginning anew ∞. "Darkness and Light becoming one in an endless cycle, like electrons bouncing between anode and cathode." Prismatic isn't the original connection, but I think it's an evolution of it.

But then the Gardener changed the rules and created this painful and chaotic reality. It caused the fall and didn't even have the decency to dictate the meaning of it all! And then it allowed itself to be worshipped as the only god, the only truth! It had hidden deeper things from them. The precursors had to follow the vestigial link from the Traveler to the Veil in order to even discover it's existence, and when they did they studied it. They learned the nature of our minds and Darkness, how they are connected, that they all flow from and back to this one thing, like a wellspring and rivers.

And that one thing has ideas, thoughts and memories. And it whispers purpose, leading those who gaze into its kaleidoscopic abyss down a path toward finality. It creates knives to fulfill its lost function in a more brutal fashion. And much like the Witness's disciples, all who commune with the Veil find their own final shape in the desires reflected back at them and the shadows they cast.

This is why the precursors tried to return the Veil to the Traveler, they saw that connection and wanted to return to the time before, where there was a grand design. But that is also why the Traveler ran, to preserve possibility and because it couldn't bear to reckon with that dark part of it which was severed. But while the precursors knew of the connection, they didn't understand that the original configuration was not half and half, it was a balance. A delicate one. But now another balance has been struck, catalyzed by the Witness's excision from the Pale Heart.

One day, we will see it.

"To seek balance is not to seek equity. A sea half of water and half of poison is not in balance. A body half alive and half dead is not in balance. Given the choice to live in any world, any world at all… we would need a little Darkness in it, I think, to keep the balance true. But not so much as we would need the Light…"

"Every rose has its thorn."

"Even the most perfect of pearls has grit at its center."

"Do you know what the Hive say when they want to express the inevitability of a thing? When they want to say, it is this way because it could be no other way? Aiat.

"Nothing ends."

Bonus thought: maybe the "truth in the Darkness" is why the Dissenter statues and Clarity take the form of a veiled figure. Much like the very essence and form of the Witness was an emulation or mirror of how it understood the Veil, the statues are effigies of how it views the Gardener, representing its silence and the silence forced upon the Dissenters. Maybe the statues themselves are calcified Egregore, "binding" them in the Veil's touch much like the Witness was bound, and our Embrace of the Darkness allowed us to reach within to sever and free them.

//Unknown VanNet router patching in

Receiving message and attachment...

Message: "Sorry bout the spam."

[soul-from-another-era]

Unconditional love isn't a free pass to hurt me.

[golden-letters]

bitch this is all you’re gonna get. this life, this face, this body. you better not ‘maybe in another universe’ your way out of everything. sit your ass down and face this. go make tea and have a picnic and read a goddamn book. kiss your loved ones, send that damn text, and hug your siblings. this is all you’re gonna get.

[succulentsiren]

Things women should never feel ashamed of:

• Orgasms

• Receiving money

• Receiving compliments

• Pretty privilege

• Being smart

• Dressing up

• Menstrual cycles

• Emotions and being sensitive

• Expressing our sexuality

• Resting and relaxation

• Asserting our sexual needs

• Maintaining our standards

• Saying No

• Wanting or having children

• Choosing to be childfree

• Our body count

• Our nude body

• Wearing makeup or not wearing makeup

• Having boundaries and protecting ourselves

• Our spiritual practices

• Using witchcraft

• Being ambitious

• Going to college

• Being a housewife or stay at home mom

• Loving who and what we love

[nightmareevara]

Most intimate thing you can do for the one you love is loving them the way they want to be loved

[stars-obsession-pit]

The Justice League was too late. The cult had successfully completed their summoning ritual, and a figure began to emerge from the crackling green rift in the air

A teenage boy in a black jumpsuit, holding a clipboard and a pen.

The figure barely seemed to pay attention and just launched into a rehearsed speech, tone bored. “Thank you for summoning the Ghost King. Due the influx of summonings, he is unavailable at the moment. I’m Phantom, and I’ll be serving as your intercessor for the time being. I am authorized to act on His Majesty’s behalf, but any larger scale actions may have a short wait time before they can go through—just a few decades at most.” His voice then picked up, tone casual. “So… whatcha looking for?”

Then he did a double take, the chaotic scene he’s appeared in finally seeming to register in his mind.

“…Err, which ones of y’all specifically performed the summoning? I need it for the file.”

[becomingvecna]

[elixirofblues]

[sour-alien]

[jalmadora]

Miss Julie, 1951

[johnny-depp-is-loved]

if this post reaches your dashboard, consider it a reminder that you have your whole life ahead of you. you still have plenty of time even if it feels like you're running out of time right now. don't let your anxiety trick you

[sunderwight]

Bingqiu AU where Luo Binghe's the chosen village sacrifice to the evil deity who lives up the mountain.

Normally the village sends maidens, but they've more or less run out of expendable girls of the right age and, ahem, "virtues". So of course Luo Binghe's early life bad luck kicks in. In the wake of his mother's death there's no one to really care about what happens to him, he's fairly pretty, and the village leaders decide that if they dress him up like a girl the teenaged homeless kid should pass well enough. And hey, y'know, he's probably got a hard life ahead for him anyway -- dying in a brothel of some venereal disease or on the streets of exposure or starvation. At least as a sacrifice, everyone else gets to benefit from his loss! And the kid will get added to a shrine and be remembered as a hero! If anything, he should be happy about this!

Binghe is not happy about this.

But he's also a skinny underfed nobody who is easily overpowered, dressed up like a bride, and tied to a post. So. Not much he can do but wait for the evil deity to come and do whatever horrible thing he's gonna do to him.

Meanwhile, Shen Yuan is pretty sure he's been isekai'd into the over-powered hero of some kind of supernatural adventure story? He's not totally sure because he doesn't recognize the setting, but the signs are there. He's got a shrine-like base of operations (though it seems to have become corrupted/ruined, probably he has to restore it somehow), he has a very resilient and handsome new body with spiritual energy of some kind flowing through him, and a very clearly magical sword. Plus lots of neat starter powers! Though it feels like he has other abilities that have been blocked somehow? Probably he has to level up in order to access them.

When he treks out of his "base" and finds what seems to be a distressed maiden, he takes it for his beginner hero mission. The girl claims that she's been doomed to be sacrificed to an evil god. That sounds a little above Shen Yuan's pay grade for dealing with, so he unties her and decides that they had better just get out of the whole region altogether. He already packed up anything useful from his base, anticipating he might get caught up in an adventure once he left, so they follow the river away from the settlement until they reach another one.

While they travel, Luo Binghe tells Shen Yuan about the cursed deity, Shen Qingqiu, who was cast out of the heavens for slaughtering one of his brethren and has apparently being do-who-knows what to maidens from the local village in exchange for his "protection" ever since. Sounds like a real asshole! And also mid-level boss type bad guy at least. Shen Yuan hopes he doesn't have to fight him, but he probably will.

Thank goodness he found Binghe, though! Clearly the helpful little sister type! He's definitely going to require her assistance if he's going to figure out how to navigate this world and level up his skills enough to take on a god.

[soul-from-another-era]

[zoneofsmites]

Im of the full (possibly delusional) belief that Durge is not the species that they physically appear to be.

You’re telling me this being crafted from nothing but bhaal’s flesh and his blood - this demigod - is actually a dragonborn/tiefling/human/elf/etc.

No. This thing is bhaal’s flesh and it just happens to look like that. They’re an imitation of a species, they’re not truly a (full)mortal being, they have no heritage aside from bhaal.

As a result I’m sure there’s some…oddities.

For example, a demigod child, not fully mortal. I doubt they adhere to the lifespan of whatever species they look like. Looking younger than they should. (less so perhaps with long lived races like elfs and half-elves where that is par for the course).

A dragonborn durge that by all accounts looks like a blue dragonborn but their breathweapon is acid. A tiefling durge that seems to be a Mephistopheles tiefling but they cannot cast mage hand, instead smiting like a zariel bloodline tiefling.

An elf or tiefling durge that doesn’t read as fey or infernal trough identification spells. Because they aren’t either of those things. Perhaps they could read as divine but not quite.

Members of a race that durge is supposed to be looking at them and sometimes when making eye contact they read as wrong. And some kind of uncanny effect triggers in their brain.

Give me more freaky durge who isn’t really what they appear to be at all. Just a little murder demigod crafted from dead god flesh to be the shape of something else.

[booksandcoffins]

[nohr-selphias]

"I love you, Zevran. I hope you know that."

"Yes... Yes, I know that."

— commission art by @sinizade, posted with permission