forums.rs

Forums

Grimoire of Gielinor

Quick find code: 341-342-828-65625484

of 8
Jakir

Jakir

Posts: 4,506 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
Summerleaf said :
Nice gravebump

It isn't like the topic isn't still relevant and needs to be addressed.

AttilaSquare said :
I only share on here what I think is fitting for the deepening of the lore, and when I started doing this what I thought would deepen the rs lore determined my choice of what to study.

I am glad to see this thread bumped, even gravebumped, because there is so little metaphysical discussion recently, and the Lore Council does not seem to be interested in responding to complex theories.

Sometimes (usually toward the end of your mega threads) it feels to me like you get a bit carried away and start connecting things to theories more so because you like the theory than that it appeared that was what the developer of the content was trying to express when they made that content.

Once again I really love your threads, I just think that they are extremely highbrow and while I can follow them and love reading 20+ pages of in depth theories about how various things in the lore relate to complicated college level real world mechanics I just can't see that kind of thing being explained that way in game. I think what Jagex is looking for is a way to pull everything together in a few sentences and have it make a reasonable amount of sense.

I just really want to make it clear that I'm a big fan of your threads but sadly they don't seem to be something the target demographic of runescape would be able to grasp.

07-May-2017 08:37:51

AttilaSquare

AttilaSquare

Posts: 1,792 Mithril Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
I agree on all counts. I'm glad you enjoy my threads.

I wouldn't say that I get carried away, but I do get grand towards the end of them, like at III.6.2 or
III.6.3 of my latest thread. I don't do this because I think that's what the developers explicitly had in mind. I think I can get away with it because I'm attempting to describe the cultural resources that shape all of our imaginations in the West - that's probably a far more ambitious claim than any particular theory I've proposed.

I think I could boil down many of my points to some brief sentences, but I haven't for a couple reasons: first, it's good to understand these things in context; second, metaphysics is deceptively difficult, and I wouldn't want to give the wrong impression; and third, the lore community is not always receptive to speculative work, unless it's grand and magisterial - then they respect it but don't necessarily engage with it, kind of a lose-lose situation.

07-May-2017 14:46:40 - Last edited on 07-May-2017 15:14:52 by AttilaSquare

AttilaSquare

AttilaSquare

Posts: 1,792 Mithril Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
If I had to cash out some of my work, I might summarize it like this:

Planar theory is the search for the best metaphors for explaining the planar phenomena - planes and the relations among them, the abyss, the void, shadow realms, pocket dimensions, portals, and teleportation.

Planes (understood as planes rather than mere planets) are temporal-spatial-causal manifolds set within the higher-dimensional manifold that we call the multiverse.

Each world has a shadow realm. Each world has a spirit plane. These might be the same thing.

There are many metaphors for grasping the relations among the planes and the abyss; not all of them need to be spatial metaphors.

The void is an extremely difficult concept to address because it has not been developed consistently.

Obviously much more can be said of the planar phenomena, but I think planar theory is best developed if supplemented by theories of magic and anima. Unfortunately I think Jagex is making a mistake by treating the topics of worlds and anima according to the metaphors of cheese and oil, so I've proposed some headcannon for enriching our understanding of magic and anima: three main periods of magic, each providing its own concepts and paradigm for treating various phenomena.

07-May-2017 14:47:35 - Last edited on 07-May-2017 15:14:23 by AttilaSquare

AttilaSquare

AttilaSquare

Posts: 1,792 Mithril Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
Gielinor's humans practiced sorcery in the 1st and 2nd ages. This made some use of runestones but also relied on rare, natural talents among humans for sensing the work of spirits in the world, i.e. what we might today call nature. It was thought that if these spirits had bodies these invisible bodies belonged to the shadow realm. All living things were considered alive because they manifested the work of invisible spirits - 'anima,' life, 'being animate' meant 'the receptivity of the visible to the invisible.'

With the advent of the gods, sorcery got sophisticated - recognizing new spirits from other worlds, and world-transcending spirits to which the gods themselves were receptive. It was thought that if these latter spirits had bodies they must belong to the abyss - a new concept, like a shadow realm for all worlds. (These are non-spatial metaphors for shadow realms and the abyss.) This new sorcery was called mysticism, since it was no longer so practically oriented to daily life on Gielinor; it required theoretical speculation and attention to wars unfolding across the multiverse.

Mysticism also investigated the possibility that there is something to life beyond the spirits of shadow realms and abyss, some indescribable something to which the deepest recess of the heart responds - a nice concept to describe the longing for peace during the Godwars. This new depth recognized in the soul led to a new respect for sapient anima and to the condemnation of necromancy by most humans - thus why many humans consider it evil today.

07-May-2017 14:48:31 - Last edited on 07-May-2017 15:16:10 by AttilaSquare

AttilaSquare

AttilaSquare

Posts: 1,792 Mithril Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
After the Godwars, we no longer had access to other worlds; there was a renaissance of this-worldly-focused sorcery under the druids. They studied the shadow realm again, and learned to summon familiars from Gielinor's spirit plane. Anima - having become terribly complex in the time of mysticism - was re-conceived in a manner consistent with druidic summoning, as spiritual power, to be directed to various ends in lawfully regulated exchange. For more on this, see here .

This reconception laid the foundation for modern runic magics. Once the main rune essence mine was discovered, magic became a science - the testing of laws governing the exchange of spiritual power.

The diversity of theories here allows us to address other phenomena from multiple angles. Consider teleportation. In the modern paradigm, with the help of runestones we direct the anima within ourselves in such a way as to isolate a mystical resonance, "bore a hole" through the plane into the abyss, and return to the desired location within the plane.

In an ancient paradigm, we might say: planes, all places, are nexuses of the work of spirits; in teleportation, we detect a spirit at work within us (think of it like the stirring of emotions in response to a specific value); we focus on this spirit, releasing the work of all other spirits from our attention - so that the world around us is no longer constituted by them; instead we appear in the place most animated by the spirit upon whose work we have focused; we re-attune ourselves to the spirits at work alongside it, and find ourselves in the desired location. (This model is also great for treating pocket dimensions: a spirit no longer works in the plane but in shadow, creating a pocket of space in which it alone works.)

This addresses the main topics of planar theory with extreme brevity, and relies on a lot of headcannon to do so, but I think this stuff is both fun and valuable.

07-May-2017 14:49:02 - Last edited on 07-May-2017 14:52:42 by AttilaSquare

Quick find code: 341-342-828-65625484 Back to Top