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[[File: | [[File:LoreUnviel.png|300px|thumb]] | ||
'''Unveiling''' is a [[Lore]] book introduced in ''[[Shadowkeep]]''. | '''Unveiling''' is a [[Lore]] book introduced in ''[[Shadowkeep]]''. Entries are acquired weekly by visiting [[Eris Morn]] on the [[Moon]] after completing [[Beyond]]. It consists primarily of messages from the [[Unknown Artifact]] addressed to the [[Guardians]] directly from the [[The Witness|Witness]] itself, using a parable in an attempt to sway them of its ideology. | ||
__TOC__ | __TOC__ | ||
{{clear}} | {{clear}} | ||
==Pleased to Meet You== | ==Pleased to Meet You== | ||
One of your philosophers said, "It is not to be thought that the life of darkness is sunk in misery and lost in sorrow. There is no sorrow. For sorrow is a thing that is swallowed up in death, and death and dying are the very life of the darkness." He was a shoemaker. He was right, and it matters more than anything. | [[Wikipedia:Jakob Böhme|One of your philosophers]] said, "It is not to be thought that the life of darkness is sunk in misery and lost in sorrow. There is no sorrow. For sorrow is a thing that is swallowed up in death, and death and dying are the very life of the darkness." He was a shoemaker. He was right, and it matters more than anything. | ||
According to him, the visible world is a manifestation of eternal light and eternal darkness, and it is in eternal opposition that eternity has revealed itself. The fall was necessary for creation to escape its first imperfect stasis and seek a truer form. Heresy? Well, then, I am the heresiarch. The philosopher died of a bowel disease. Those who do not exist cannot suffer and are of no account to any viable ethics. If the true path to goodness is the elimination of suffering, then only those who must exist can be allowed to exist. It is the nature of life to favor existence over nonexistence, and to prefer the fertile soil to the poisoned wind. Because those who open their mouths to that wind pass from the world and leave no descendant, whether of flesh or of thought. | According to him, the visible world is a manifestation of eternal light and eternal darkness, and it is in eternal opposition that eternity has revealed itself. The fall was necessary for creation to escape its first imperfect stasis and seek a truer form. Heresy? Well, then, I am the heresiarch. The philosopher died of a bowel disease. Those who do not exist cannot suffer and are of no account to any viable ethics. If the true path to goodness is the elimination of suffering, then only those who must exist can be allowed to exist. It is the nature of life to favor existence over nonexistence, and to prefer the fertile soil to the poisoned wind. Because those who open their mouths to that wind pass from the world and leave no descendant, whether of flesh or of thought. | ||
But imagine the abomination of a world where nothing can end and no choice can be preferred to any other. Imagine the things that would suffer and never die. Imagine the lies that would flourish without context or corrective. Imagine a world without me. | But imagine the abomination of a world where nothing can end and no choice can be preferred to any other. Imagine the things that would suffer and never die. Imagine the lies that would flourish without context or corrective. Imagine a world without me. <ref>This is a reference to German philosopher and theologian, [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jakob_B%C3%B6hme Jakob Boehme's] [https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uva.x030131743?urlappend=%3Bseq=13%3Bownerid=27021597768395742-17 Six Theosophic Points], with its use popularized in the second epigraph of American writer, [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cormac_McCarthy Cormac McCarthy's] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_Meridian Blood Meridian]. In its original reading and in Blood Meridian, the quote asserts that human darkness does not come from a place of sorrow, because in order to commit acts of cruelty, one must dispose of such concepts. In the text of Destiny a different reading can be taken, the [[Darkness|The Darkness]] introduces the idea that while it is inexorably linked with decay, it is not necessarily an objective force of evil, but one of finality and peace.</ref> | ||
==Gardener and Winnower== | ==Gardener and Winnower== | ||
Once upon a time,* a [[Light|gardener]] and a [[Darkness|winnower]] lived** together in a [[garden]].*** | |||
<nowiki>*</nowiki> It was once before a time, because time had not yet begun.<br/> | |||
<nowiki>**</nowiki> We did not live. We existed as principles of ontological dynamics that emerged from mathematical structures, as bodiless and inevitable as the primes.<br/> | |||
<nowiki>***</nowiki> It was the field of possibility that prefigured existence.<br/> | |||
* It was once before a time, because time had not yet begun. | |||
** We did not live. We existed as principles of ontological dynamics that emerged from mathematical structures, as bodiless and inevitable as the primes. | |||
*** It was the field of possibility that prefigured existence. | |||
They existed, because they had to exist. They had no antecedent and no constituents, and there is no instrument of causality by which they could be portioned into components and assigned to some schematic of their origin. If you followed the umbilical of history in search of some ultimate atavistic embryo that became them, you would end your journey marooned here in this garden. | They existed, because they had to exist. They had no antecedent and no constituents, and there is no instrument of causality by which they could be portioned into components and assigned to some schematic of their origin. If you followed the umbilical of history in search of some ultimate atavistic embryo that became them, you would end your journey marooned here in this garden. | ||
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In the evening, the winnower reaped the day's crop and separated what would flourish from what had failed. | In the evening, the winnower reaped the day's crop and separated what would flourish from what had failed. | ||
The day was longer than all of time, and the night was swifter than a glint of light on a falling sugar crystal. Insects buzzed between the flowers, and worms slithered between the roots, feeding on what was and what might be, the first gradient in existence, the first dynamo of life. Rain fell from no sky. Voices spoke without mouth or meaning. A tree of silver wings bloomed yielded fruit shed feathers bloomed again. | The day was longer than all of time, and the night was swifter than a glint of light on a falling sugar crystal. Insects buzzed between the flowers, and worms slithered between the roots, feeding on what was and what might be, the first gradient in existence, the first dynamo of life. Rain fell from no sky. Voices spoke without mouth or meaning. A [[tree of silver wings]] bloomed yielded fruit shed feathers bloomed again. | ||
In the day between the morning and the evening, the gardener and the winnower played a game of possibilities. | In the day between the morning and the evening, the gardener and the winnower played a game of possibilities. | ||
==The Flower Game== | ==The Flower Game== | ||
These are the rules of a game. Let it be played upon an infinite two-dimensional grid of flowers. | These are the rules of a game. Let it be played upon an infinite two-dimensional grid of flowers. | ||
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Rule Three. A living flower with more than three living neighbors is starved and overcrowded. It dies. | Rule Three. A living flower with more than three living neighbors is starved and overcrowded. It dies. | ||
Rule Four. A dead flower with exactly three living neighbors is reborn. It springs back to life. | Rule Four. A dead flower with exactly three living neighbors is reborn. It springs back to life. <ref>These are the rules of English mathematician [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Horton_Conway John Conway's] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway%27s_Game_of_Life Game of Life], a game in which points on a grid interact with each other to die out, continue in stasis, or survive to reproduce "offspring. | ||
</ref> | |||
The only play permitted in the game is the arrangement of the initial flowers. | The only play permitted in the game is the arrangement of the initial flowers. | ||
This game fascinates kings. This game occupies the very emperors of thought. Though it has only four rules, and the board is a flat featureless grid, in it you will find changeless blocks, stoic as iron, and beacons and whirling pulsars, as well as gliders that soar out to infinity, and patterns that lay eggs and spawn other patterns, and living cells that replicate themselves wholly. In it, you may construct a universal computer with the power to simulate, very slowly, any other computer imaginable and thus simulate whole realities, including nested copies of the flower game itself. And the game is undecidable. No one can predict exactly how the game will play out except by playing it. | This game fascinates kings. This game occupies the very emperors of thought. Though it has only four rules, and the board is a flat featureless grid, in it you will find changeless blocks, stoic as iron, and beacons and whirling pulsars, as well as gliders<ref>Pulsars and gliders are well known basic patterns in the Game of Life, on which other configurations can be designed.</ref> that soar out to infinity, and patterns that lay eggs and spawn other patterns, and living cells that replicate themselves wholly. In it, you may construct a universal computer with the power to simulate, very slowly, any other computer imaginable and thus simulate whole realities, including nested copies of the flower game itself. And the game is undecidable. No one can predict exactly how the game will play out except by playing it. | ||
And yet this game is nothing compared to the game played by the gardener and the winnower. It resembles that game as a seed does a flower—no, as a seed resembles the star that fed the flower and all the life that made it. | And yet this game is nothing compared to the game played by the gardener and the winnower. It resembles that game as a seed does a flower—no, as a seed resembles the star that fed the flower and all the life that made it. | ||
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==The Final Shape== | ==The Final Shape== | ||
"It always ends the same," the gardener complained. "This one stupid pattern!" | "It always ends the same," the gardener complained. "This one stupid pattern!" | ||
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==The First Knife== | ==The First Knife== | ||
I looked up in shock. I said, What? What do you mean? | I looked up in shock. I said, What? What do you mean? | ||
"A special new rule. Something to…" The gardener threw up their hands in exasperation. "I don't know. To reward those who make space for new complexity. A power that helps those who make strength from heterodoxy, and who steer the game away from gridlock. Something to ensure there's always someone building something new. It'll have to be separate from the rest of the rules, running in parallel, so it can't be compromised. And we'll have to be very careful, so it doesn't disrupt the whole game…" | "A special new rule. Something to…" The gardener threw up their hands in exasperation. "I don't know. To reward those who make space for new complexity. A power that helps those who make strength from heterodoxy, and who steer the game away from gridlock. Something to ensure there's always someone building something new. It'll have to be separate from the rest of the rules, running in parallel, so it can't be compromised. And we'll have to be very careful, so it doesn't disrupt the whole game…" | ||
All you will do, I said, with rising panic|fury, is delay the dominant pattern that will overrun the others. It is inevitable. One final shape. | All you will do, I said, with rising panic|fury, is delay the dominant pattern that will overrun the others. It is inevitable. One [[Final Shape|final shape]]. | ||
"No, it'll be different. Everything will be different, everywhere you look." | "No, it'll be different. Everything will be different, everywhere you look." | ||
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"No," the gardener said, "I am the growth and preservation of complexity. I will make myself into a law in the game." | "No," the gardener said, "I am the growth and preservation of complexity. I will make myself into a law in the game." | ||
And thus we two became parts of the game, and the laws of the game became nomic and open to change by our influence. And I had only one purpose and one principle in the game. And I could do nothing but continue to enact that purpose, because it was all that I was and ever would be. | And thus we two became parts of the game, and the laws of the game became nomic <ref>Nomic in this case refers to American Philosopher [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Suber Peter Suber's] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nomic Nomic], a game in which the rules may be changed mid-stream. The game serves to illustrate that in any system where rules can change, contradictory laws may arise that make resolving the existing rules impossible.</ref> and open to change by our influence. And I had only one purpose and one principle in the game. And I could do nothing but continue to enact that purpose, because it was all that I was and ever would be. | ||
I looked at the gardener. | I looked at the gardener. | ||
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==p53== | ==p53== | ||
Thank you for making room in your life for another [[Unknown Artifact|talking ball]]. Let me ask you a question. | |||
Thank you for making room in your life for another talking ball. Let me ask you a question. | |||
In the three billion base pairs of your root species' genome, there is a single gene that codes for a protein called p53. The name is a mistake. The protein weighs only as much as 47,000 protons, not 53,000. If you were a cell, you would think p53 was a mistake too. It has several coercive functions: To delay the cell's growth. To sterilize the cell when it is old. And to force the cell into self-destruction if it becomes too independent. | In the three billion base pairs of your root species' genome, there is a single gene that codes for a protein called p53. The name is a mistake. The protein weighs only as much as 47,000 protons, not 53,000. If you were a cell, you would think p53 was a mistake too. It has several coercive functions: To delay the cell's growth. To sterilize the cell when it is old. And to force the cell into self-destruction if it becomes too independent. | ||
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==T = 0== | ==T = 0== | ||
We wrestled in the garden, in the loam of possibility where nothing existed and everything might. A shadowed agony among the flowers. We trampled the petals beneath our feet. We stomped the fruit to pulp, and we ground the seeds into the dust. | We wrestled in the garden, in the loam of possibility where nothing existed and everything might. A shadowed agony among the flowers. We trampled the petals beneath our feet. We stomped the fruit to pulp, and we ground the seeds into the dust. | ||
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==The Cambrian Explosion== | ==The Cambrian Explosion== | ||
Beings who deserve no thought: | Beings who deserve no thought: | ||
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==Patternfall== | ==Patternfall== | ||
The patterns that escaped the garden landed in the water. | The patterns that escaped the garden landed in the water. | ||
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But they are not incontrovertibly destined to rule this cosmos. They were made before Light and Darkness, but the rules are different now, and even this pattern must adapt. | But they are not incontrovertibly destined to rule this cosmos. They were made before Light and Darkness, but the rules are different now, and even this pattern must adapt. | ||
They are not all mine, not in the way that admirers such as my man [[Oryx]] are mine: utterly devoted to the practice of my principle. But some of them have, nonetheless, found their way home. | They are not all mine, not in the way that admirers such as my man [[Oryx, the Taken King|Oryx]] are mine: utterly devoted to [[Sword Logic|the practice]] of [[Final Shape|my principle]]. But [[Sol Divisive|some of them]] have, nonetheless, found their way [[Black Garden|home]]. | ||
==The Wager== | ==The Wager== | ||
Your shoemaker philosopher was right, and it matters more than anything. Sorrow cannot survive death, and it cannot precede birth. Those who exist have moral worth, and those who do not have none. | Your shoemaker philosopher was right, and it matters more than anything. Sorrow cannot survive death, and it cannot precede birth. Those who exist have moral worth, and those who do not have none. | ||
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That which cannot claim and hold existence is not real. You do not mourn the unreal. Why should you care for it? Tend it? Guard it? | That which cannot claim and hold existence is not real. You do not mourn the unreal. Why should you care for it? Tend it? Guard it? | ||
It was the gardener that chose you from the dead. I wouldn't have done that. It's just not in me. But now that they have invested themself in you, you are incredibly, uniquely special. That wandering refugee chose to make a stand, spend their power to say: "Here I prove myself right. Here I wager that, given power over physics and the trust of absolute freedom, people will choose to build and protect a gentle kingdom ringed in spears. And not fall to temptation. And not surrender to division. And never yield to the cynicism that says, everyone else is so good that I can afford to be a little evil." | It was the gardener that chose you from the dead. I wouldn't have done that. It's just not in me. But now that they have invested themself in you, you are incredibly, uniquely special. That [[Traveler|wandering refugee]] chose to make a stand, spend their power to say: "Here I prove myself right. Here I wager that, given power over physics and the trust of absolute freedom, people will choose to build and protect [[The Last City|a gentle kingdom ringed in spears]]. And not fall to temptation. And not surrender to division. And never yield to the cynicism that says, everyone else is so good that I can afford to be a little evil." | ||
The gardener is all in. They are playing for keeps. And they are wrong. Or so I argue: for, after all, the universe is undecidable. There is no destiny. We're all making this up as we go along. Neither the gardener nor I know for certain that we're eternally, universally right. But we can be nothing except what we are. You have a choice. | The gardener is all in. They are playing for keeps. And they are wrong. Or so I argue: for, after all, the universe is undecidable. There is no destiny. We're all making this up as we go along. Neither the gardener nor I know for certain that we're eternally, universally right. But we can be nothing except what we are. You have a choice. | ||
You are the gardener's final argument. It would mean everything if I could convince you that I am the right and only way. | [[Guardian|You]] are the gardener's final argument. It would mean everything if I could convince you that I am the right and only way. | ||
I truly value you. To the gardener, you are a means to an end. To me, you are majestic. Majestic. You are full of the only thing worth anything at all. | I truly value you. To the gardener, you are a means to an end. To me, you are majestic. Majestic. You are full of the only thing worth anything at all. | ||
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==Trust and Hope== | ==Trust and Hope== | ||
[[The Guardian|Friend]], | |||
Friend, | |||
Over the past five years, we Lightbearers—you Lightbearers—have grown strong. Each victory opens more territory for searching [[Ghost]]s, and more [[Guardian]]s rise. None of these newborn contenders are mighty without equal—but you have been at the forefront, again and again. To see you fall would be disastrous. And there are so many ways to fall… | Over the past five years, we Lightbearers—you Lightbearers—have grown strong. Each victory opens more territory for searching [[Ghost]]s, and more [[Guardian]]s rise. None of these newborn contenders are mighty without equal—but you have been at the forefront, again and again. To see you fall would be disastrous. And there are so many ways to fall… | ||
It has become fashionable, lately, to analyze | It has become fashionable, lately, to analyze Light and Darkness as if they were political opponents, each with something to offer us. Some Guardians even take secret names to mark their transgressions. I despise this flirtation. But I cannot speak against it; after all, I have had to find my own pathways to power. Thus, I asked my [[Mara Sov|Queen]], who has preached a doctrine of balance, if she truly believed in the equal worth of Light and Dark. | ||
The [[Awoken]] were made in conflict, she reminded me. All her people volunteered to return from heaven to fight and die in the cosmic war. They are by nature and by doom drawn to that edge, that place of tension. And she has her own prejudices: she has made terrible, ruthless choices in the name of salvation from Darkness, so she cannot dismiss its power without in a way dismissing herself. | The [[Awoken]] were made in conflict, she reminded me. All her people volunteered to return from heaven to fight and die in the cosmic war. They are by nature and by doom drawn to that edge, that place of tension. And she has her own prejudices: she has made terrible, ruthless choices in the name of salvation from Darkness, so she cannot dismiss its power without in a way dismissing herself. | ||
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—Eris | —Eris | ||
[[Category:Lore|Unveiling]] | |||
==List of Appearances== | |||
*''[[Destiny 2]]: [[Shadowkeep]]'' {{1st}} | |||
*''[[The Hidden Dossier]]'' {{Mo}} | |||
*''[[Entelechy]]'' {{Mo}} | |||
==Footnotes== | |||
<references/> | |||