Karzarai of the Deep
Pilgrimage to Karzarai of the Deep
by Ariveas Av'Tun Dereias, the Explorer
The Journey
For a Mopi'oi to truly experience the dark wonders of Karzarai, it is not enough to arrive there in a capsule. Instead, one must alter themselves to be able to survive in the cold, dark and great pressures of the abyssal plains, five kilometers underwater. My journey there took me a tenth of a gigasecond. I've used nanomachines to speed my body's natural adaptation to the changing environment. As I traveled deeper on the steeps of the plains, my muscles became thinner, my skull turned gelatinous and the scales on my tentacles turned into soft skin, adaptations to withstand the crushing weight of the kilometers of water above me. Three quarters on my way there I encountered a colossal Red Watcher, a treasure of the Deep. Archivists and Scientists will fight among themselves to get their tendrils on the rotten remains of the rare specimen that washes ashore. It dived towards me but my Thaumaturgy sigils and my harpoons were ready. If I was to die there it would have been a fitting end to an Explorer. The great beast ripped apart one of my tentacles but I prevailed. It's flesh fed me on my remaining journey.
The Village of Karzarai
Karzarai is isolated from the rest of the biosphere. Life is instead sustained by a series of hydrothermal vents and brine pools. Pale white mollusks and crustaceans skitter among many meters tall tubeworms growing on corrals, which feed on the elemental mixes of the vents and pools. Translucent fish and flatworms swim between the corrals, searching for prey small enough to eat. At the edges of these pockets of life lie isolated constructions made of sand and corral - abodes for the Seekers of the Boundary. Here is one of the farthest places from the center of the Inner Plane, and thus closest to the Boundary surrounding it, if there even is such a thing. The pulse of the molten rock under is felt through the constantly expanding fissures, places were the tectonic plates move apart, letting lose the energies of the world. And what of beyond the molten layer? Is there a wall there? A sphere enclosing the whole of the Inner Plane? Or pure energy that heats up and puts the rock layer in motion? No one knows. Magic is not unaffected by the distance to the surface. The arcane arts are weaker here, and constant vibrations of the mana causes a shacking in one's body, as if the magic realm itself is trembling in fear of this place.
Seekers of the Boundary
The Mopi'oi residing here have dedicated themselves to searching for the elusive Boundary of the World. They have developed their own arcane arts which focus mana perception not on living beings, but on the ground itself. They see through the skin of the world, through the molten rock, trying to get close to whatever lies beyond. For this, they've theorized that one must become attuned with Nothingness itself, for what else could lay beyond the Boundary? As if the scarce nutrients of the life here were not enough of a strain on the body, the Sages force themselves to not eat and to not move for long periods of time, their muscles and digestive systems devolving until they become almost vestigial, their own beings becoming closer to Nothingness. They require help from Apprentices to feed themselves after a long fasting and not wither away, and they gladly help, hoping that the Sages will share any wisdom gained after such efforts. Communication to Apprentices proved difficult, as they consider any conversation not needed for the search of the Boundary an obstacle to their approach to Nothingness. Talk requires thinking, thinking implies awareness, and awareness is proof of Being, the opposite of Nothingness. However, they are not so immersed in their pursuit as to be unapproachable. The Sages however are, as they communicate only with their most trusted Apprentices and only after their fastings.
Approaching the Boundary
I have befriended an Apprentice, who I will call Quont'un. The Sage who is his master has fasted for 40 megaseconds. At the end of it, he required genetic transference as his genes controlling the digestive system had decayed from non-use. His mastery of the Nothingness is so great, that he can cause a volume of a meter cube to disappear, be annihilated - a vacuum which, given the pressures here, causes quite a spectacular and violent sight. Quont'un tought me the basics of the Thaumaturgy of Nothingness. I started doing short fastings and I was given access to some of their writings. In one of their texts I noticed a pattern. After some study I deciphered a message. The encryption would have fooled the average Mopi'oi but in my travels I have learned many skills. It pointed to a set of coordinates, not far off and a word - tunnel. I made some provisions and told my friend I will be meditating on the abyssal plains for some time, since I supposed an outsider was not meant to find out about the place. After half a megasecond of travel I reached the place. There was nothing like a tunnel there. In the middle of the barren plains stood a small construction. Four thin pillars each three meters tall, arranged in a square with a side of 2.12 meters. I did the first thing that came to mind: stand in the center and focus the art of Nothingness Perception, which I have just learned, on the the four pillars. After all, if a group of specialized arcanists secretly marked this place, it must have something to do with their art. After a while I felt my thoughts blur, my senses fade, that I was somehow separated from my body. Was this the Nothingness that the Seekers were experiencing? Or did I do a terrible mistake and I was actually dying? Eventually I could not perceive my surroundings at all, I could not even perceive time anymore. I was an isolated conscience, perfect, eternal and terrified. But then something like a door opened. I tried using classical mana perception and could see nothing. Then I tried using Nothingness Perception and then I noticed something. A deep, endless abyss, but there were imperfections in it. In the vast Nothingness there were faint smudges of Being. Alive, twinkling I might say. There were hundreds, maybe thousands, I could not tell, for I then passed out. I woke up a tenth of a megasecond later, as indicated by my clock. But I could only move my head tendrils. I was stuck there for another tenth, fortunately I could eat with my working limbs. Afterwards I returned to Karzarai. I remained there for some time, but the place was getting too much for me; the memories of my experience at the pillars and the constant vibrations of the mana would give me no peace. So I took the long journey back to the surface. Then I relayed my knowledge of the arcane art of Nothingness to anyone interested. Hopefully, someone will make sense of what I saw.
1 gigasecond = 31.7 years
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It's a very interesting approach in introducing a place, reads like a book, which is interesting. Some factual information would be good though.