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The Wheel of Life

Page history last edited by PBworks 16 years ago
Lore:General

 

The Wheel of Life

 

Almost all intelligent beings in Akavir believed in the Wheel of Life, the boundaries of Time and Space. It is believed that spirits cannot be created and destroyed, but only the form can. When a being dies, the spirit breaks out of the form and returns to the Wheel of Life to be reincarnated in another form, without memories of its past life. Yet, being bound by time, actions of their previous lives will have long-reaching influence on their present form, which can be subtle or catasthrophic in magnitude. The collective term to describe this "influence", is Karma. It is said that Karma is the only thing that a being retains between incarnations throughout time.

 

The Wheel is believed to be made up of concentric levels of existence. Those near the edge of the Wheel are considered the higher levels of existence, while those near the center are the lower levels of existence. The further a level is away from the center, the less constraints Time and Space has on a being in that level. When beings have gathered so much spiritual energy that they can finally escape the levels of the wheel, they became the gods.

 

Concept diagram of the Wheel (TODO:replace with a proper sketch)

 

Shin

The Outer Surface, The Realm of the Shin

On the outermost edge of the Wheel resides the Shin, the gods who have totally escaped the bindings of Space. They are truly formless and can choose their form at will. (Most prefer the divine dragon as one of their common forms. It is speculated that this is a residue influence from the mythical World Serpent, where the entire Nirn is believed to be but one of its scales.). Their existence is balanced in Time, meaning that while they are not longer influenced by Time (in that they are true immortals and will never age and die naturally), they cannot yet go against the Time flow. These are the dragon-gods of the Akavir.

 

Lore-master notes:

By this classification, the Daedra Princes also belongs to the category of "gods". The Akavir peoples do not make particular distinction between the Daedra Princes and the other dragon-gods. Other examples like the Morrowind Tribunal are *close* to this level of existence, but they achieved this only because they tap on the Heart of Lokharn's powers much like a battery, and once the tap is switched off or runs dry, they will lose this "divinity". Although the dragon-gods have escaped all the levels of the Wheel, they had not escaped the Wheel totally, they sort of reside on the outermost surface of the wheel and is on the brink of the Final Ascension.

Lin

The Higher Levels, The Levels of the Lin

The next higher levels of existence are the semi-immortals (Lin). Despite the name, they are really still mortals, but they are more blessed, with higher spiritual energy and a much longer lifespan. All these are great advantages in that they have a much higher chance and more time to try to reach the divine level within the current incarnation. These higher levels are less-bound by space, which is why many of them are shape-shifters (usually, the races shifts between several pre-determined forms, as opposed to the true immortals, which can adopt almost any form they choose) and also somwhat less influenced by the passing of time, which accounts for their incredibly long life-spans.

Jin

Nin

Yeu

The Mid Levels, The Worlds of the Jin, Nin and Yeu

The levels of the Wheel below the Lin belong to the higher mortals, which are the Jin the "forest spirits", Nin the human and Yeu the "wild spirits". They are bound by Space and Time and are usually restricted to one form. Yet, individuals who have achieved more spiritual energy that they exhibit some of the abilities of the higher levels (such as shape-shifting).

Sheu

The Lower Levels, The Existences of the Sheu

Next lower on the Wheel is the levels of the Sheu, which are the beasts. Although many are not intelligent, there are some cases where members of beast people gained enough awareness that they may learn how to gather spiritual energies to approach the higher levels of existences. Many stories tells of such individuals who gained enough powers to shape-shift into human/humanoid forms that may be undistinguishable from the other people in many cases.

Min

The Bottom Levels, The Prisons of the Min

At the lowest levels of the Wheel near the center are the Min, who are trapped in Space-Time and their own desires which cannot be sated. These includes the various undead which are trapped in the time of their death. Certain ghosts are also bound to the place of their death or the object of their desire while living. Some are trapped in the state of eternal hunger that cannot be sated no matter how much they try to devour (this is part of the reason why most undead will attack any living creatures within range. The other reason for the more intelligent undead is the jealousy of things they once had but now can never have when they look upon the living)

 

The Center, The Negative World

At the "center" of the Wheel of Life is the Negative World. This is not merely another dimension like Oblivion, which is still considered part of the positive world). The Negative World is a different level of existence altogether: a world where there is no material, no energy and where time stands still and space has no meaning. It is believed that this is were spirits return to after their mortal form dies and await reincarnation. In some culture, it is believed that some greater being rules this Negative World and judge each spirit on its past life: the good will be rewarded with a better life in the next reincarnation, while the evil will be punished according to the level of their crimes for a period of "time" (the more evil, the longer) before they are allowed to re-enter the wheel for the next incarnation. And that the really really evil people will be imprisoned and tortured in the Negative World for eternity. But this is considered just a story by most others, who sees this as just a means of self-consolation by the "good" (and powerless) common people.

 

Beyond the Wheel, The Door to Ascension

There are some who believed that there are higher levels of existence beyond the Shin, where a being escaped the Wheel totally, and thus totally escaped the bindings of Time and Space. Similar to the Negative World where matter and energy, time and space have no meaning, but unlike the Negative World whose no meaning comes from total stasis, beyond the Wheel lies the realm of total freedom. It is believed that when this happens, and being finally free from Time, such an "ascended being" instantly recover all the memories from all past incarnations upon the Wheel of Life. Time no longer has meaning for such beings as they can swim in the Rivers of Time in whichever way they please, regardless of the direction of the flow. Time to them is not linear or even ordered at all. (it's like where a River of Time splits into smaller rivers, it sort of signify that a particular choice at that point splits the timeline into alternate parallel existences. These ascended beings can travel to any of such parallel existence or even all or none at once.) After being free from Time, this "ascended being" will seem to disappear totally as if they had never existed. They are usually no longer interested in mere mortal affairs of a particular point in Space-Time. However, their influence may still be great as even after they leave. The "echoes" of their existences (or some speculated: the removal of their existences) may still interact with the Mortal world much like individual beings, and can be seen to be similar to the other "godly" beings, with the exception that they don't usually take corporeal form.

 

Lore-master notes:

It is most likely that the Aedra belong to this cateogry. Or quite possibly, the Aedra are just the "echoes" of existences of higher beings who have ascended. This can sort of explain why the Aedra are not as "existential" as the Daedra, to the extent that some people think that the Aedra don't exists (which surprising isn't far from the truth. Aedra are sometimes more like ideals than actual beings). Unlike Tamriel, in Akavir, such beings, due to their lack of interaction with the mortals, are often overlooked and rarely worshipped.

 

The Wheel and The Way

Just as almost all Akavirii beings believed in the Wheel, they also believed in The Way, which is believed to be the fundamental principles of Life and Everything. Seeking of the Way refers to the desire and action to try to unravel this mystery, usually with the purpose of rising to higher levels on the Wheel and ultimately to reach the level of divinity (become immortals).

 

Lore-master notes:

The Tiger-Dragon is an example of a mortal achieving divinity. By reaching the level of divinity, Tosh Raka broke through his former form and final emerged in the form of a dragon-god.

The Tsaesci Lords are more complicated. Their powers were "stolen" from the dragon-gods like the Morrowind Tribunal stole power from the Heart of Lokharn. But Unlike the Tribinal steals the powers from the residue of a dead god, which will fade once the "tap" is tightened or runs dry, the divine power within blood that the Tsaesci consumed became theirs, though the curse attached made the whole Tsaesci race unable to feed on anything else other than blood (of their blood). Although this power is stolen, the Tsaesci Lords have, after defeating and absorbing the powers of several more dragon-gods, gained enough power that is equal if not surpassing the dragons-gods of ancient Akaviri. However, perhaps due to the curse or the stolen nature of their powers, they do not seem to acquire the freedom in form (they are not unlimited in their ability to shape-shift, as like the dragon gods were, but they still retain the basic Naga ability to shape-shift between a few forms), and all except one do not gain the dragon form. The only exception, The Serpent, did not really achieve the divine dragon form, but just came close. After the Betrayal, The Serpent is believed to have absorbed most of their dying god's powers and have hence shapeshifted into a giant serpent, which is different in looks from the usual divine dragons.

 

References

The levels of existenceShinLinJinNinYeuSheuMin

(sphr)

 

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