The Sleepwalkers' Tale

"It is probable that the events described in the Sleepwalkers' Tale are a consequence at a failed attempt to perform the ritual described in Report #1459. If so, there are sure to be other attempts in the future." - excerpt from the Librarian's compilation of the Sleepwalkers' Tale

"The Sleepwalkers' Tale" is one of the more unusual and unique texts found in the library of Foxbridge College, and is either the ultimate vindication of the Lorekeepers' decision to create the Librarian. It was assembled by the Librarian from a vast number of fragments the Lorekeepers had collected from across the Great Ring.

At some point shortly after the Becalming, a strange plague of automatic writing swept across the islands. People would suddenly wake up finding that they had been writing in their sleep. If paper and ink was readily available, the sleepwalker would use it. If not, they would improvise, covering clothing, walls, and their own flesh with words drawn in whatever was at hand and would leave a mark. In at least one case, a Mu'o'a sleepwalker used their own claws to scratch the words into their scales, and there are other unconfirmed cases where the unconcsious writer injured themselves or others, all without waking up.

Language was similarly improvised. If the sleepwalker was literate, they would write in the languages they knew (although oddly, those who knew multiple languages would blend them together indiscriminately). Those who were illiterate would draw pictures of varying quality, depending on their own skill. No species, culture, or age group was excluded from this strange phenomenon.

While the records are unsure of exactly when the first and last incidents occurred, but do agree that it was relatively short-lived, less than a month in all. Scholars were fascinated by what had happened, and many of them took it upon themselves to gather or record what the sleepwalkers had written. Any particular item was often difficult to comprehend, but many believed that there was some sort of connection between them all.

It was with this in mind that the Lorekeepers of Foxbridge decided to bring as many of the fragments as possible to the Librarian, to see if their small god could make sense of the chaotic jumble of fragments. Agents were sent to collect as many of them as possible, and bring them into the library's collection, and thus into the mind of the Librarian.

As the fragments came to me, I began to see how they would fit together. Many of them were duplicates of each other, or variations - I suspect that the source concepts were filtered by the mind of the sleepwalker, and their own understanding and vocabulary. Even the pictures were like that - versions of the same thing, as cast by the sleeping mind of a mortal being. These duplications helped link the fragments together, and I began to compile the tome you are reading right now. - excerpt from the Librarian's compilation of the Sleepwalkers' Tale

Faster than anyone really expected, the Librarian analyzed the fragments and compiled a book that united all the fragments. This they named "The Sleepwalkers' Tale", and it tells a story of a world that never existed. In this world, giant bulbous ships sail over an endless desert, held aloft by swarms of tiny insectile sky-fish trapped in silk bags and tethered to the vessels. The people in the tale are strange to the reader, and seem to be able to morph their bodies and identities, joining and dividing as the situation demands. Pictures show the animals and plants of that world, but more of them are dedicated to studies of the sky, and the many eyes that peer down upon the world, who grant terrible power when their gaze falls upon a mortal, and destroys them utterly when it passes on. The Librarian particularly focuses on the descriptions of the Founders, who are described as having made this world, and come to it from another. This, and numerous other details, is what they found their assertion that this is connected to the ritual known as 'The Turning of the World', as described in Report #1459.

The Lorekeepers are unsure of what to make of this document, now that they have it. Some believe it proves that the Librarian has all the powers they hoped to instill in them when they created the conditions for their manifestation. Others are concerned that the text is essentially a hallucination or confabulation, and that it proves that the Librarian has serious flaws that compromise their reliability. Each side can point to evidence for their argument in the text, but neither can conclusively prove anything. The book has been mostly set aside for the moment, until someone can find some purpose it can be used for.

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