Tales of the Weft

This page is for collecting prophecies, hints and stories.

The MC can use these remnants to piece together, or allude to some creation myths and cosmic truths that pertain to Te Ao.

A dead god is still a god
This is a principle of Te Ao's theology. Ge, the god of the giants, is dead but still worshipped. Nesh was decapitated in its infant form and revived. Generally speaking, gods cannot be slain, only contained, distorted or maddened. Gods are, once cemented in the psychology of sentient beings, considered 'hard-woven' into the fabric of fate and the world.

Secrets of the Spindle
The Spindle is thought of by most immportal presences (that know about it) as an Artifact. It is a thing which can, purportedly, annihilate a god or godlike being. This would involve potentially re-telling causality so that this deity or aspect never existed. It is "spin" in many ways - cutting and re-weaving the tapsetry of the world, an act of cosmic propaganda, a change that twists the universe at a subatomic level and on a massive scale.

As soon as the Spindle was brought into being - as soon as it was tested and its power was understood - it had to be contained. Hidden away in a pocket dimension, maintained and guarded by a few immortals who would voluntarily cut themselves off from the rest of reality and its rules. Te Ao is, in its most literal sense, a Fantasy world. At the core of its artificial, toroidal planet, the Spindle hangs suspended.

Over geologic ages, life sprang up on the outer surface of Te Ao, fantastic and imbued with the same magic - distortions of natural laws and forces - that powered the Spindle's containment. Intelligent fungal and plant life also tried to gain a foothold in the Tenebrae. This was easily remedied - some genetic tweaks confined the interesting plants to tropical biomes on the surface. Then life diversified into sentience.

The immortals of Te Ao began to split into distinct factions: the Keepers and the Guests. Both parties had been instructed to protect the Spindle and isolate it from sentient interference. They had also been told to pass the knowledge down the ages, about the Spindle and its dangers. But nobody had specified whether this knowledge had to be restricted to the gods - or whether warnings had to be comprehensible, even if they did choose to tell mortals about it. The Guests resolved to tell the mortals of the danger. The Keepers swore a Great Oath to maintain secrecy: and they imprisoned the Guests within a part of the Spindle's own containment field. If a Keeper knowingly breaks their Great Oath, the consequences are existential for them and possibly, for all their fellow Keepers.

The events of 200 years ago
The Spindle's containment field shifted across Te Ao's latitdude. It used to extend from the North to the South poloid disks. Now it spills out over much of the northern 'hemisphere' and has presumably retreated from a chunk of the Southern Tenebrae. The Spindle itself, assuming it exists in physical space, either pokes out of the northern face of Te Ao or - more worryingly - could be uncontained at its southern apex.

Sha the Teller's mad ramblings
Among Sha the Teller's semi-prophetic stream of consciousness, the players have heard her say: "the spindle of the world has slipped" among other intimations of chaos and change.

Sha is a Native deity, which means she's born out of Te Ao's interaction between magic and sentient consciousness, so she doesn't really understand what she is able to perceive. However, because of Sha's nature as a deity of empathy and shared suffering, she's got more insight than most Native entities.

Mama Minuit
Mama Minuit's song of invocation is a remnant of a language before speech - a purely tonal communication. This hints that she was a very early Duende deity, from the very cradle of humanoid sentience. She may be able to share memories that go back about 10,000 years: for the right price. However, she is also a god of secrecy and stealth. So, why should she reveal all her cards and risk some of her powerful mystique?

Nesh - between two camps
Nesh/Ganesh hasn't come up much. He weakened a great deal when the last pachyderm -his namesake - went extinct. Perhaps the reunification of the Desh can restore his power. Nesh is interesting because he is the child of a Keeper and a Guest. Not only has he not officially made his mind up on whether to share cosmic warnings to mortal kind or keep it hidden - he is also a Good god, who wants to help kin prosper and achieve enlightenment.

Tyche and the Probability Scourge
Tyche/Lakshmi is another Native god. She exerts some kind of influence on causality and presumably, the Weft - without understanding it. If she's invoked, she can probably give hints about how the Scourge curses its victims. She may even intervene to counteract its bad-luck effect, if she thinks the Scourge will kill too many of her followers. However - people with /bad/ luck tend to pray to Tyche, and she's a self-interested bitch. So... does the party feel lucky?

Mitras and Atina, the Unhelpful Sons of Bitches
Mitras/Bramma/Dajbog is a Lawful Keeper. So is Atina/Menrfa. The Forgefire knows lots about reality and time, how to bend the laws of physics - and also absolutely believes this knowledge should NOT be communicated with mortal kind. Even his most dedicated disciples are more likely to get mundane or technological knowledge that can maintain order on the surface of Te Ao. He is liable to shun or come into conflict with anyone who gets too deep into occult mysteries that he isn't controlling. On the other hand: he might be reasoned with. Atina is less powerful but more rigid and prepared to oppose anyone who gets in her way. Atina cursed Lolth with spider form and sadistic madness for digging after secrets.

Lathander and Wakeen, the wandering Keepers
Both gods have sworn to keep the secret of the Weft safe from kin, but they're not interested in playing the role of jailor. While Lathender won't break his oath of secrecy, he may protect mortals from the other Keepers for a time. Wakeen is all about material impulses and turning a profit. He probably knows the cheat codes to get to the Guests' containment zone... but what's it worth to him?

Shaundakul/Turms
He's been imprisoned as a Guest, and reformed enough to pass out of containment into the world at large. He's in favour of explicitly warning sentient kin about the dangers locked deep within Te Ao. He doesn't want people going there, and he also knows a bit about thieves and adventurers. So we can assume he is waiting to tell the right kind of people the right kind of message. Perhaps Aldo can start getting some creepy visions...

The Death of Ge
How did the god of the giants die? Did they try to claim the Spindle for themselves? Were they cast down by the Keepers? Giants live a long time. Perhaps, if kin can learn to communicate with them, their myths might hold some clues.

Illuyanka, Dragon of the Tundra
It's hard to tell whether she is a glacier, a true god or an icy white dragon (or all the above) - but she may be the only dragon to live outside Spitzbergen and its adjoining sea. Dragons live a long time - old dragons live on an almost geological timescale. Illuyanka may have witnessed the titanomachy between the Keepers and Guests, and definitely knows about the migrations of the giants.

Yaga the Meddler
Yaga is a Native god who loves secrets and transformations. If any mortal wants to go solve an entertaining riddle, she'd be willing to help them hide from prying supernatural eyes.

Asmodios and Bane: resentful jailors
Asmodios and Bane were zealous Keepers: a little too zealous. Before they realised it, their proximity to the Spindle had begun to twist them. Asmodios, the head of the Te Ao endeavour and once a noble entity, fell victim to his own stifled ambition. Bane is a security guard on an eternal power trip. Both are technically sworn to keep their mission secret from sentient kin.

Kyric and Garagos: the maddened activists
What was Kyric once? A scholar, a scientist perhaps - someone who believed in the power of information and knowledge. Garagos might have once been a people's champion, a communicator, a herald for justice and the rights of mortals. Their imprisonment in the heart of Te Ao has shredded their sanity and made them twisted parodies of their former selves. Garagos just wants to see the world burn in an orgy of violence. Kyric gets his kicks from manipulation and sadism. The things they know have only made them more demented.

Elo: the Great Variable
The three Dwarven tribes tell stories that Elo was created in an endless beneficial loop of worship and mutual affection - a great covenant between the nation of Dwarfkind and the triune God that emerged in their image. But what is Elo, really? Other gods have come into conflict, or occupied similar niches of belief and consciousness. But they weren't establishing a myth where they were the only god in all the universe. That's a new thing. What does it have to do with the Spindle and its power to disconnect, distort and potentially annihilate a godhead? Is this one of the ways the Spindle resists containment? And if so: who or what punished the Dwarves for 'digging too deep to reach God'? Some Keepers?