Fai Tala

Among the Mu'o'a of Motu, there is a specialized kind of shaman known as a Fai Tala. The Fai Tala spend most of their time as storytellers, learning and teaching the myths and folklore of the Mu'o'a. But they are also trained in the difficult art of traveling into the Dream, in order to return with things than cannot be obtained from the physical realm.

Traveling into The Dream is no simple task. In order to do so, the Fai Tala first must locate an entrance to The Dream that will accommodate their physical body. While all thinking beings are interacting with The Dream realm all the time, you must enter The Dream physically if you wish to bring anything out of it. Entrances into The Dream can be found in the world's Wild Places, and a trained Fai Tala will know of many of these locations and how to access them. Choosing the correct Wild Place is also a critical skill of the Fai Tala. The entrance into The Dream is connected to where the Fai Tala will arrive once there, and what portions of The Dream are readily accessible. It is usually faster and safer to travel to the correct Wild Place that will bring you close to your objective, rather than try to travel extensively within The Dream itself.

Becoming a Fai Tala is no easy process. Those who wish to follow this path will study under a master for many years, learning about the connections between the physical, spiritual, and dream realms, the location and nature of various Wild Places, and most importantly memorizing the vast body of stories that the Fai Tala must know to understand and navigate The Dream Realm. Fai Tala are master storytellers, and will always seek to expand their stock of tales, wherever they travel.

When the master deems the student ready, the next step is to form a bond with an Aku, or spirit. This spirit will serve as a patron for the Fai Tala, and grant them the power to slip into The Dream Realm physically. The Fai Tala will bear the signature of their Aku while they travel, which can create complications if they encounter rivals or enemies of their patron.

Once the ability to enter The Dream has been granted by the Aku, the nascent Fai Tala enters the next stage of their education. Their first trips into The Dream will be made in the company of experienced Fai Tala, retrieving more common items from locations near to their home. Eventually, the Fai Tala will be sent on their Malaga ole Matai, a solo mission into an unfamiliar region of The Dream. Those who return from this mission successfully are considered full masters of their art, and equals with of other Fai Tala. 

Nearly anything that can be imagined can be found somewhere in The Dream. But there are several warnings and caveats about what should be brought into the real world. Most of the time, the Fai Tala will seek out mythical plants that have special properties, such as the ability to cure diseases or heal wounds. These things are relatively safe to bring out into the physical world, especially if they do not persist there once used. A Fai Tala must always be aware that anything they bring out of The Dream carries its story with it, and that bringing one piece of a story into the Physical realm can cause other aspects of it to manifest as well. For example, if you were to draw a famous sword from legend and bring it out of The Dream, you would also be inviting the monsters it slew into the physical realm as well. Another danger is that of conflation - in The Dream, stories form associations with each other, with similar themes and concepts becoming deeply entangled. This means that when you pull an object from The Dream, you must understand as much of the connected and related stories as possible to truly understand what you have retrieved. Even something as simple as a flower will have a variety of ideas and concepts tied to it, and it can be difficult to know all of the aspects and properties the manifested version will exhibit.

Fai Tala are forbidden from manifesting anything that thinks from The Dream. This includes anything living, and anything that might participate in The Dream itself. A thinking being manifested from The Dream into the physical realm becomes a focus for increasing change, transforming the area around it to reflect its story. This can cause other thinking beings from The Dream to spontaneously manifest, causing even more extreme and rapid transformation. Fai Tala lore contains a few stories where whole islands and peoples were manifested, only to wreak havoc on the area around them as people and places are sucked into the story's narrative. If this happens, the Fai Tala must attempt to return as much of the transformed material into The Dream as possible, to limit its spread into the Physical Realm.

Type

Religious

Related Locations

• Motu