| Welcome to the realm of Rheia and her servant Yegash, traveller! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It is 10th December 718YE on Iralthia. Latest news: # what precisely did the miners at New Lush krystalline mines dig out? Not a mother lode, definetly. # the unevitable happened at last: all the people of other races than human and saphyne were cast out of Aiekara by the imperials, never to return. # the annual gathering of summoners at the Crystal Temple was attacked! An overhelmeting unknown force knocked down even the strongest masters and severely damaged the whole structure, leaving only chaos and numerous dead at the place # # # # as Aiekara prepares for the new "Protection Law" to come in force, Hvevot Erdri readies for action yet once again... Previous events |
| The latest study on Iontae and their nature | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: 11 Jan 2012, 02:45 AM (192 Views) | |
| Qen-Rae | 11 Jan 2012, 02:45 AM Post #1 |
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written by L. L. A. I. XVII., the regent of Aiekara, 21st October 718YE In this article, I would like to present and eventually also preserve, should anything happen to me, my achieved knowledge in the area of the extraordinary beings the current world knows as iontae. While the nowadays civilisations, especially the human Teimzurr Empire, seem to regard them as some sort of servants, I do not believe they should be treated as second-rated beings. Again, for reasons that are not known to me, the Emperor proclaims numerous other races second-rated as well, a treat of my former dear friend whose motives I hope I will understand one day... INTRODUCTION - THE ORIGIN OF IONTAE The legends say that a ionta is a fallen god, overcame by another minor deity, stripped of much of its power. Whether this is true or not, under guidance of my father, the academists in Aiekara achieved something that was regarded as a peak of arcane arts years ago - the creation of an artificial ionta 48 years ago. Since then, literally mass production of artificial iontae for the needs of summoners didn´t, at least in Aiekara, completely stop until the late summer of 718YE. While I would prefer not to describe the horrific ways of creation of an artificial ionta from a living being in detail here, the procedure itself, together with other knowledge gathered in many fields, turned out to be a key to my final theory about iontae and gods - and, as I believe, explanation of reasons of iontae behaving the way they are. PART ONE: GAINING POWER As far as my theory goes, if the legends are true, a mortal ascending to godhood must attain enough power to defeat the current minor god - and this minor god, indeed, must, somehow, lose it. What somehow, thanks to the known events in the Iralthian history, seems to be the connection between the artificial iontae and a way mortals could attain power to become supernatural beings is - trust, or should one say, belief. A huge mass of followers of one leader, in case of the last minor god, Yegash, inducted by his raise to the head of armies leading the fight against the demon invasion during the War of Tears and Blood. This, in my opinion, is the key. I can imagine a scenario when the powers of a mage are multiplied by "trust" and support of others, most likely by ether sent via supportive spells, or perhaps also in other ways we cannot describe or imagine right now. Taking in consideration the known fact that emotions can furthermore multiply the power of an individual, all of this would seem as a reasonable explanation of a mortal suddenly possessing immense power to challenge a god. What more, this first piece seems to start and fit into other parts of the puzzle I presented. The "past" god, in this case, opponent of Yegash, needs to lose his power. Knowing the legends, the previous minor god might have lost his power because he allowed (or triggered?) the destruction and slaughter during the war. Hence, he lost his followers and believers, weakining him to the point when he could no longer resist Yegash who, thanks to his own followers, aquired enough power to overthrow him. PART TWO: BECOMING A IONTA I hope it won´t do much damage if I, eventually, reveal a little about creation of artificial iontae. The very basic mechanism is clear - to force the living being to "realise" its own existance so much that even after its soul is severed from the body, its "soul" form will not return to Rheia and maintain its previous form. Intentionally, I won´t describe the whole way of preventing the soul to return to the Mother of All in detail here, and I have to warn everybody who might try to use this text as a guide for his own experiments - without the knowledge of this part, you will fail. Personally, I do not see a reason why a defeated minor god couldn´t follow a similar path - no matter if he possesses a mortal body or not, his soul can stay and become a ionta. I believe it would be useful for me to mention my opinion on souls and iontae: while some beginning researchers believe that the substance of "soul" itself is created solely by ether in one of its many forms, I´d like to quote one of the previous researches done in the Academy: "...for a long time, we believed that souls of living beings are formed solely by the pure, "holy" form of ether. It is not so. We all know about the existance of undead beings who seem to operate on different basis, since the ether in their bodies is replaced by nether (or "dark"). After finishing our study and experiments, we came to conclusion that ether and nether are solely energies into which the soul "weaves" itself and uses them to carry out its will... and we named the "core", or the "soul" of the being itself, for futher studies, "anima"." In other words, the meeting with undead beings led to questioning of the original, old opinion of soul being formed of ether, and also led to conclusion about the existance of "anima", which is separate from the usual known forms of ether. The question is: does a ionta have this anima? And if so, where is it located? The second question might seem strange, but let me the reader remind of this: the undead beings, or at least the known ones, somehow move this "core" anima out of their body, into an unliving object. This way, even after their body is destroyed, the anima continues to control the nether and thus the body the nether resides in... in other words, acts through a remote body. Living beings, indeed, carry the anima inside themselves. While I still lack solid proofs of it, I believe that either during the ascension or descent from power, since the anima doesn´t seem to be located anywhere in the eatheral "body" of a ionta -which can undergo repeated materialising and dematerialising-, the ionta loses its anima in the means of a living or undead being. I believe that iontae are pure "reflections" of their former self and their spiritual energy, and that is a connection that further leads to their actual (and otherwise unrational) behaviour. PART THREE: LIVING AS A IONTA By the seemingly "unrational" behaviour, of course, I mean nothing else than submitting to the will of a summoner. Why would a being that is descending from the power of godhood ever need to obey somebody´s will? Why to risk yourself being abused to the deeds of a mortal who is actually weaker than you were at the peak of your reign? By challenging the summoner to a mental battle before joining him, you have a great chance of finding out what kind of person he is and what sort of powers he possesses, but is that sort of test enough? In my opinion, there has to be a further need, a reason, to do that. And here, we return to the creation of artificial iontae. The future artificial ionta has to "realise" itself, and this brutal self-awareness is usually inducted by immense pain caused to the subject. The "natural" iontae, of course, do not seem to have such need. But - what if the necessity of "faith" into them, just like during their ascension to godhood, remains? That would, in my opinion, explain nearly anything. A ionta, a being formed solely by one of the many forms of ether, "held together" by its own self-awareness and its surroundings percieving and believing in its existance. Once the people stop believing in them, their existance is forgotten, and their "body" loses its otherwise plentiful abilities to change its shape and freely pass between eatheral and material world. It starts degrading. And the less people that are aware of them, the weaker they grow, until they eventually return to Rheia in their obvilion... Of course, many might raise up to oppose this theory. However, at least in my own, weary and elderly mind, it seems to make perfect sence, not to mention that I have witnessed many failed attempts to convert saphyne specimen into artificial iontae that only further confirm my speculations. It would also explain why there are so many iontae of so many different forms, abilities and levels of powers. Some of the iontae I know are incredibly powerful beings, capable of vivid communication and sometimes even changing their shapes. Some of them, while still able to clearly communicate telepathically, cannot shift their form... and some of them, such as one of my iontae, Pegasi, seem to completely lose their ability to respond to the summoner. PART FOUR: CONCLUSION In my opinion, iontae simply accompany the summoners and undergo the huge risk of becoming servant of a wrong person for a reason - their own survival. The more followers or persons knowing about them they "have", the stronger they can be - in other words, if a strong ionta joins a strong summoner, it can be sure of having enough fame and knowledge between other people in order not to vanish from our world, while a weak, nearly faded ionta will go easily with a simple beginner summoner, a single person that will know about the creature being there for him and prevent it from disappearing. This could be why some of the iontae never choose to go with a summoner and rather simply stay at one place, "haunting" their surroundings. Because by demonstrating their existance, they cling to it. Theoretically, a ionta that is known well enough through the whole world can never die... In the end, I would like to say that even if my thoughts are correct, many of the questions about iontae remain unanswered. For example - why can they be controlled and mentally contacted only by people carrying at least a bit of Neeva heritage in their blood? Could that have a link to Neevaes and their affinity to nature in general? Where are the iontae -or their consciousness- while in un-summoned state? None of them are truly capable of telling and most of them simply compare it to our sleep. And what precisely happens with the anima after one becomes a ionta? People should view the iontae as more than mere tools to be used to achieve their goals. They are not like spells that are formed by a caster. They are self-aware beings, living images of great gods of the past. They are much like us, children of the same gods they used to be. L. L. A. I. XVII. |
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9:37 AM Jul 11