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III.6.3 More Planar Theory: The Void

(1) The 5th age saw the discovery of several phenomena related to the void. The concept of the void received little attention in previous ages and only appears in a single legend passed down among the druids. According to the legend Guthix used the sword of Skargaroth to make portals to new worlds. He once cut 'too deeply,' creating a portal to the void and shattering the sword. He then assigned the guardian Valluta to defend the resulting wound in the plane of Gielinor.

(2) In the 5th age, Melville Grayzag discovered and duplicated the portal accidentally created by Guthix, causing several islands of the southern sea to be overrun by creatures from a foreign world, creatures coming through his portals via the void. These events reveal the void as an extra-planar dimension and as useful as a means of travel alternative to the abyss. Another event in the 5th age presents us with several additional and unfortunately confusing descriptions of the void, so I will address the account of the Void Knights first and only afterward address the phenomena associated with the spirit beast and the Bonde family.

(3) First, let's examine the function of the sword of Skargaroth. A swipe of this sword granted access to various worlds. It is said to have been used by Guthix to create the world gate and by the elder goddesses to separate the magical elements. We might interpret its function as follows. Throughout the planes, spirits are at work - sometimes many spirits and in complex ways; because of the complex relations of spirits, most beings find themselves in one place or another, in one plane or another, in light or shadow or abyss. The sword separates for its user the work of the various spirits in any one location, including the work of spirits whose work appears more prominently in other realms. By attuning himself to the work of some spirits or others, the sword's user can travel to the place where that work is most prominent. In this way the sword creates portals - it opens paths from where the work of certain spirits is weakly manifest to where the work of those spirits is strongly manifest.

(4) The ZMI provides a similar account of the construction of portals. They describe a process of identifying a particular 'mystical resonance' before casting a portal spell. Thus one finds first a resonance weakly manifest; the subsequent spell opens a path to where that resonance is more strongly manifest. A related technique is also employed by Oldak - he uses the spirit at work in goblins' blood to open a new node within the fairy ring portal network to Yu'biusk. The wizard Comperty does the same. Again, I'd like to warn against interpreting 'mystical resonance' like an electromagnetic frequency - despite the misleading language of some modern wizards, mystical resonance, the work of spirits , primarily moves the heart.

(5) Next, we must examine what it means for Guthix to have cut 'too deeply.' Superficially, this means that he cut beyond the work of spirits in planes, shadow realms, and the abyss. But it is unclear what this really means; it is unclear what lies beyond these; it is unclear what Guthix revealed. I propose the following answer.

(6) In ancient times, spirits were described as lights or as bearers of light. I propose that there is an aspect of reality unnoticed by Gielinor's humans for millennia but which can be explored with this image. Light passes through a medium. A medium might impact the passage of the light, as air slows and bends light, or it might not, as a vacuum permits unhindered passage. Consider the possibility that spirits likewise work in a medium or media. Spirits appear in certain forms; spirits draw us in certain ways. Perhaps spirits are constrained to take certain forms and to work in certain ways because of the medium or media in which they work. I propose that the void is the medium or media in which all spirits work, through which all planes, shadow realms, and the abyss are understood.

(7) Now I will turn to some speculation. If the void is the medium or media that constrain magic to certain forms and if magic is the direction of spiritual power, then we can learn about the void by studying the ways in which spiritual power may be directed. Furthermore, we should do so abstracting as best as we can from the peculiarities of specific spirits and magical elements. There's no guarantee that what I'm about to propose is the best way to think about the void, but I find it compelling.

(8) First, in order to say that something affects us spiritually it must be intelligible to us in some minimal way, maybe not articulate but stirring the mind at least slightly. Whenever something affects us spiritually, we can at least say upon reflection that something affects us - thus it is minimally intelligible. Therefore, every voidal medium belongs to the set of what I call intelligibilities - all spiritual power is communicated through intelligible forms .

(9) Next, sometimes we are affected in such a way that we do not simply grasp something as intelligible but we grasp it along with consequences that follow from it. This is perhaps the phenomenon that best reveals that there is such a thing as spiritual power. Consider the following example: "2 + 3 = 5." Would anyone deny the truth of this equation? If you grasp the concepts of '2' and '3' and '+' and '=', '5' follows. Who does not feel power directed in them when they encounter '2 + 3 = '? A spirit directs their attention to '5.'

(10) In contrast, consider encountering '2.' Perhaps you have many associations in mind relating to the number 2, but rarely does one feel the flow of spiritual power before the lone number '2.' Thus '2' is a mere intelligibility while '2 + 3 = 5' belongs to a subset of intelligibilities that I call validities . Validities are themselves intelligibilities and are made up of smaller intelligibilities. They are more sophisticated voidal media in which we see spiritual power flow.

(11) Finally, there is a subset of validities called manifolds . A manifold is itself a validity and is generally made up of smaller validities that together provide a complete account of the flow of spiritual power within some slice of reality. Consider, for example, the rules of Euclidean geometry. They're simple; most of us learn them in high school, if not sooner; and with them we can understand all the possible figures and transformations that can occur in flat space. Manifolds are the most sophisticated voidal media and determine whole domains of spiritual activity.

(12) I want to clarify - the void isn't all about math, but I've used mathematical examples because they're abstract, empty of content, just like the void. In mathematics, it doesn't matter what two things you add to what three other things; for as long as the things are distinguishable, you have five things. Likewise, regardless of what spirit affects you, if it acts through a validity then it directs your attention to a consequence.

(13) To return to the image of spirits as bearers of light, imagine the void as a prism through which the light of spirits is refracted. It has an infinite number of facets; it occupies no space but is present everywhere; it is the collection of all intelligible forms, and through some of these the light from every spirit must pass. Therefore, we can call the void the medium in which all spirits work and through which all reality is understood. And we can call each of its facets a 'voidal medium,' and many of them together 'voidal media.'

(14) Based upon this account, we might interpret the druids' legend to mean that with the sword of Skargaroth Guthix separated the work of spirits from the very medium or media which made their work possible. In effect, he accidentally banished them, and left a unique sort of gap in the plane. What remained was a series of voidal media uninhabited by any spirits. This gap could be filled by whatever spirits chose to work through those forms.

(15) In other words, in that place foreign creatures could enter Gielinor not by binding themselves to certain spirits native to Gielinor; rather, foreign creatures could enter with their own spirits, as long as the spirits that worked in them worked through the same intelligible forms that the spirits that Guthix accidentally banished did. Thus, Guthix created a unique vulnerability in Gielinor.

(16) Equipped with this account, we can address the second manifestation of the void, in the 169th year of the 5th age - the spirit beast's attempt to invade Gielinor and straddle the planes. Here are the words of Jallek Lenkin that have guided speculation on the void ever since: Original message details are unavailable.
Jallek Lenkin: The veil between our worlds was still strong then...but that has started to change. Not soon after our arrival, we could feel the veil separating the Beast's realm from yours growing weaker and weaker. It's as if the Beast is trying to claw its way through.
...
Jallek Lenkin: It is breaking through the veil. With its new powers, it has started crashing through the realms. That actually explains where we are right now.
Attila Square: What do you mean?
Jallek Lenkin: This void...we're actually inside the veil that separates our two realms. It has grown so weak that even we can enter it.
Attila Square: You're saying that we're in the Abyss? I don't remember it being this...this bright.
Jallek Lenkin: No, this is not the Abyss. The Beast is not so patient that it's trying to find an actual path to our world - it is creating its own. The Abyss is all around us, but the Beast is crashing its way straight through it, pushing everything aside - leaving nothing but this void.

(17) Here Jallek Lenkin makes the following claims: (1) The void is a veil between the worlds. (2) This veil can be weakened. (3) The spirits beast's attempt to break through the veil is said to have sent it "crashing through realms." (4) It can be experienced as a pocket dimension, like the ZMI's pocket of the abyss. (5) The void represents an alternative to "a path into Gielinor." (6) The use of the void to gain entrance into Gielinor was a matter of creation on the part of the spirit beast. (7) The void is the absence of the abyss. It is has also been said that (8) via the void the spirit beast sought to straddle its realm and Gielinor, and that (9) the spirit beast is responsible for the existence of its own realm. Unfortunately, I find this account terribly confused. But I think we can reconcile these various claims with the following account.

(18) First, it was said above that native spirits function as dimensional barriers. To enter a plane in the ordinary manner requires one to bind oneself to the native spirits at work there, and maybe to the local forms of principle spirits at work there too. The pests enter Gielinor in a different manner - the spirits at work in them work according to the same voidal media exposed by Guthix; thus they enter Gielinor without binding themselves to Gielinorian spirits.

(19) It is possible that the spirit beast sought to enter Gielinor in a manner similar to the pests - it would have thereby employed the void as an alternative path into Gielinor - (7). But there was no gap in the plane for it to fill - there were no exposed voidal media to which it might have conformed - unless it sought to create a gap like Guthix did. The spirit beast may have sought to banish some of the spirits of Gielinor in order to replace them, incorporating itself into the manifolds of Gielinor.

(20) Yet there is a difference between the manner in which the pests enter Gielinor and the manner in which the spirit beast sought to enter Gielinor. The pests simply enter the plane, leaving their own world behind. The spirit beast, on the other hand, is said to have sought to straddle the worlds, to exist both in Gielinor and in its own realm simultaneously - (8). We have only a few other examples of beings who have existed in multiple worlds simultaneously - the balance elemental, of whom we know very little; Lumi, the Queen of Snow; and Solus Dellagar, though his form of dimensional straddling relied on the abyss and the manipulation of time. Unfortunately these examples don't provide us with much insight into what dimensional straddling entails but only demonstrate that dimensional straddling is possible.

(21) In order to understand better the spirit beast's goal then, we must look to an interesting detail unique among these cases to the spirit beast: it is said that the existence of the spirit beast's realm depends upon the spirit beast itself, very much like the existence of the pocket dimensions of the runecrafting altars depend upon the runecrafting altars. The spirit beast sustains its own pocket dimension. Therefore, it can choose the voidal media through which it works and through which its pocket dimension is grasped. Furthermore, if it had succeeded in separating the Gielinorian spirits from the voidal media through which they worked, it might have replaced them by working within those voidal media, not only entering Gielinor but also merging its own pocket dimension with the space previously occupied by the ousted spirits of Gielinor.

(22) Therefore, the goal of the spirit beast was twofold - first, to banish some of Gielinor's spirits and, second, to conform its own pocket dimension to the voidal media left unoccupied by the banished Gielinorian spirits, thereby merging its pocket dimension with Gielinor and existing in both planes at once.

(23) If this accurately describes what the spirit beast was after, it allows us to account for the various claims of Jallek Lenkin. First, it seems inappropriate to call the void itself a veil between the worlds, because the phenomenon of a barrier between worlds has already been explained. The difference between the work of spirits in one place and the work of spirits in another place acts as a barrier between the one place and the other. Furthermore, this barrier is weakened as the work of the two sets of spirits becomes increasingly similar - for the cost of entry decreases.

(24) However, the void could be called a veil - (1) - that weakens - (2) - and in which one can stand - (4) - if we understand "veil" as the manifestation of unoccupied voidal media belonging to the manifolds of Gielinor, as the spirit beast attempts to banish the Gielinorian spirits and before it succeeds in replacing them and thereby incorporating itself into the plane of Gielinor. In this sense, we can understand the space in which Jallek Lenkin spoke as a manifestation of the void - it is the medium revealed as one spirit attempts to replace others.