Purpose & The Yearning
"It is not just the earth, or the stars that are incomplete. It is not just the weather, or the seas, or the forests, or the beasts. All of it is unfinished. It is all missing pieces. All of it. Even its Folk. Even you. I do not know where the Goddess has gone, and why it has taken so long for Her to return, but understand, my child, that you will search for Her for all your life. You will search for Her in nature, and in the stars. You will search for Her inside yourself, and inside other Folk. You will search, and search, and search as we have all sought Her for what Muze's destiny, and your own were meant to be. You may even feel it already inside you. We call that wanting, and longing our Purpose. The wonder of who you might truly be, and why we are here. The question of what the world might have been had She only stayed with us to complete Her work. Hold on to that. Follow it. You must try to make the answer for yourself, and beware that your sorrow does not lead to Yearning, for it will change you into something monstrous."The Folk of Muze are born with a hollow spot in their hearts. An emptiness that cannot be filled. This is how they know the Goddess is dead, or gone, for the world is truly incomplete, and it is felt in every moment of every day. This loneliness is taboo to speak of, for even a happy Folktribe can be overcome with grief when it is touched upon. Instead, the Folk talk about their Purpose. About finding a reason for their own lives. Even if it is only a distraction from this pain, and their loss, it is the means by which they go on and live as happily as they can in the ruins of Muze. Finding one's purpose often means that the young members of any Folktribe will travel across the world, searching for a place, a thing, or a skill that gives them pleasure. When Folk find their Purpose, the thing that helps them confront that sorrow, there are great celebrations within their tribe. Even Folk you might not get along with every day, don't want other Folk to feel the Yearning.
The Yearning
No one can blame the Folk who begin to yearn. Everyone, even the Inspirio, have yearned. But by yearning for completion, by yearning for purpose, and for a world that will be finished the hollow of Folk's hearts grow, and grow. As it opens wider, the Folk begin to change, and become monsters.
The transformation can take place over decades, or days. It is a hard thing to predict, for none of the Folk know when their longing for direction, and completion becomes inbittered, and when their loneliness becomes rage at their abandonment. Once Folk have begun to yearn, their fate is inevitable. Perhaps they can stave it off, but they are visibly wounded, and changed from that moment on. They become dettached from their Folktribes, choosing solitude where they can nurse their dark wanting. Their hearts twist inward with feelings of doubt, anger, and resentment towards the world, their Folk, and themselves... and eventually, they change.
When the change takes place, Folk are surrounded in whispering, black smoke that poisons others nearby, and forces them to recoil from their friend, or loved one who has been taken by the yearning. Folk's skin harden, and then crack like lizards emerging from their eggshells to release the monster that is inside. There is know way to know what form they might take. What horror they have been fighting against for those days, those weeks, months, or years. The longer that Folk yearn the more terrible, and gruesome of a monster it seems they become.
The Folk that they once were is lost forever. No trace of them remain, and there is no way to change them back. They are usually violent after the change, and hungry. It is a terrible day when the members of a Folktribe lose both a person that they loved, and those that their yearning wounded.
All of the monsters of Muze are the Folk who yearned, and thus there are no celebrations for their slaying, nor admiration for their trophies except as momentos of the Folk they might have once been.
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