Mind Domains

"Mind is tricky, Hithéan. You need to remember that", Llawenaid's voice was calm, but over the years he learned to interpret that as a warning.

"Yes, yes... You worry too much", calm and steady he was not. The excitement was raging inside like a wildfire and controlling it was becoming difficult. "I have the Adhair under control and Lark to help me with Ithrós. Their polar opposites, everything will be fine."

"The Depth is not Lark's domain, Hithéan. What you take for truth is but a troublesome myth.", she paused for a second and pierced at his gaze. "Your eyes are gleaming, boy. Are you ok?"

"She sounds concerned...", his thoughts raced, the ideas growing and blooming and withering; he saw and knew more, than he could ever imagined, more than Llawenaid, the famed Tameress of Æter, the Weavress of Fate, his grandmother. She doesn't want me to know something. There was something withing the Depth, she didn't want him to get. And he felt it... It was almost at his reach, only fingertips away! "Yep! Everything ok.", he responded a bit too abrupt, risking more questions. "So, as said, I have Lark and Summer heat on my side, so..."

"You need more than will and wit to deal with Ithrós", her voice gave up a tinge of dissapointment, the words coated with faint bitterness. "At least have a talk with Scáthach. The girl has more experience with the Depth than many of the Gathering." The way she emphasized many felt like a personal insult.

"Will do", he nodded assuringly with a wide smile. "Right after I get my hands on the Depth. I don't want to lose my braging rights now do I?"

— The last shard of Hithéan's thoughts

The basics

Though considered basics the following topics by no means settle a common ground to all inhabitants of the Sávenian lands. One of the reasons to this is the strong connection to the creation myth — the Awakening of Form. Because of that, there is only a handful of people, who know for a fact that this structure is the applicable one and that it affects everyone and everything around them.

Mind levels and paths by Angantyr

Mind Domains

Not simple enough

In the most widely accepted model, the mind consists of Adhair and Depth separated by the Surface. Adhair is what in everyday life one would call all that is conscious and of what one is aware of. Whatever slips away from the grasp of senses is thought to be submerged under the Surface, falling slowly into Depth, its shape and attributes becoming more and more unrecognizable. That said, the Surface is by no means a fixed boundary between the two levels. It was a concept developed in the early days by the Core of the Gathering to spread the knowledge across the Sáveni, but sadly with a poor result.

Two levels, two paths

One could note that the two levels are by themselves static, i.e. have no capacity to undergo any visible change. This is where paths come into play, namely Ascend and Descend. The former governs the movement of concepts to and through the Surface and up into Adhair. The latter is responsible for sinking them towards Depth. One must remember that all four are considered their own separate Domains, which cannot be accessed by the other. A popular misbelief pairs up opposing Domains just as elements are combined, e.g., Adhair (fire) with Depth (water). While invented for tutoring purposes it has evolved to drift further away from the truth, now causing more harm than good. To make things worse many commonfolk have their own, regional element–Mind Domain pairing system. Since vividness and clarity of the concepts witnessed in Ædeos are strongly linked to the land and culture which shapes them, to the Gathering this complicates and blurs their Ædean links. It also makes navigating through the Charted Form more difficult and dangerous as blured concepts are closer to the chaotic Æter.

Artistic impression of concept molding by Bamdad Norouzian (edited by Angantyr)

The cost of failure

A danger more concerning individual adepts of "magic" would be connected to thinking they could master one Domain to control the other. The cost of such mistake is strongly dependent on the Domain and its ruler — the lowest price is null, the highest — erasing ones physical existence and memory recollection of the individual on the Material Plane. It cannot be stressed enough, that Domains cannot be treated as polar opposites. Adhair cannot exist in Depth and Depth cannot last in Adhair. If anything, one can separate the Domains into strictly static (Levels) and purely dynamic (Paths).

Practical use of "magic"— forming concepts with mind

Informally one could go as far as to use the commonfolk term for concept manipulation, namely, magic and use it to describe the interaction between the mind and the Immaterial Plane, i.e., Ædeos. Each mind is a set of thoughts, emotions and sensations, i.e., immaterial concepts. The connection between mind, entrapped within (and thus linked to) the physical body and the Immaterial Plane is governed by the Four Domains. To perceive an object is to identify the known concepts, e.g., shapes, colours, sounds, and then, often unconsciously, mold them together to form a separate concept and perform descent into the unconscious Depth. It is worth noting that the identification, molding and descent are fully consciously performed by skalds only. In everyday life many will do that more than less entirely unconsciously.

Connection to the Seasons

And then spoketh the master: "If the knowledge of the world were to be engraved on a single topaz tablet, it would embody four principal truths:

Spring is Fire. It lifts the Air up into the Sky. It is in the nature of fire to consume and to move.
Summer is Air. It is the nature of Air to be moved by the Fire but by itself remain still.
Autumn is Water, for it is in the nature of water to descend deep into the Depth.
Winter is Earth. Steady and firm, and unyielding. It is in the nature of earth to remain stagnant and adamant.

Every Season has its ruler as was told in the myth: The Awakening of Form and every Season is linked to the particular Domain of the Mind. Svîs, the Marmot of the Spring governs the Ascent and thus, to recollection, remembering, reminiscence, recognision. Lark of the Summer, governs the Adhair, which translates to calm, warmth, peace of mind. Àncéarmâr, the Stag of Autumn, governs the Descent and leads to understanding, losing, forgetting. Finally, Ithrós of the Depth, rules over Winter. His is the cold, the oblivion, the quiescence.

Limitations

"Can any of you weave a flame that would not consume and yet burn?" The master was is a playful mood today.

"Why should it be a difficult?" Mìchinnt felt it was a trick question but had no problem imagining the task done.

"Ah, but it is in the nature of fire to consume and moreover, how there can be fire without a wood to fuel it?" the concept Mìchinnt had perfectly pictured in mind started to blur and fade with doubt. The master saw right through it. "Doubt is your enemy. When you doubt, you question. And when you question you search for alternative concepts to explain it. You add and subtract until you find a pliable solution. But what you really need, is to know when to stop. You need to adopt the idea of the perfect imperfection — a concept being ideal in its current state. Everything is transient on the Material Plane."

Mìchinnt looked down. A small orange flame was dancing sideways on his open palm and becoming more and more blurred. He put it out. The burning concept now fully reclaimed the molded creation, leaving the sking reddened and dotted with blisters.

Two type of limits can cause the created concept to deteriorate or to render it unusable: the individual and cultural restrictions. The individual limit is the capacity of one to visualize and immerse a part of ones self in the concept, similar to what is often clumped into a single word — imagination. With a strong individual limit, the concept cannot be created. The second type of limit is of a cultural nature. It is the superposition of expectations and beliefs of the community towards a concept or a group of concepts. If a created concept does not fit the cultural boundaries it can chip of and start to deteriorate very fast. In short — its lifespan is degraded. Thus, many times, to overcome the cultural limits skalds would often use deception, e.g., by making it seem like the natural laws are obeyed or by weaving a dash of dream concept, to make uncommon seem acceptable and normal. The most powerful skalds and most of the Trickster skalds, however, will force their will onto the molded concepts, creating their own reality. And even those creations can be difficult to maintain, should they be moved to a different culture, that will interpret the molded concepts differently. Unless a more general concept is used, in which case it will be open to individual interpretation. Such is often the case with creations utilizing Siâp hylif.