Treatise on the Soul part 3

So it was that Purpose began manifold, reflecting in a myriad of ways the desires of those complex creatures who could will it into objectives varied but simple, such as Dominance, Freedom, Lust, Procreation, Feeding, Drinking, Health and physical fitness.

Farms, villages and cities were built as large canvases to bring forth Purpose into specific directions and objectives. Dominance, and the freedom from the tyranny of other predators, was the main theme guiding the conception of places that were carved larger and larger as the centuries passed.

On the local level, although the design of the farms themselves tamed the land, locals held into greater esteem the more concrete goals of the well, the home and the village gathering house where villagers gathered for support and comfort in a world still dreadful.

As the basic needs for survival were met, other inspirations grew within the minds of the Apes. Amongst them, one was born mostly in the dark corners of society: ill intent. Apes, like the men we know in the modern age, put survival and procreation beyond any other purpose, with Dominance the most marked source of survival in this and, really, any world. But when survival turned matter-of-fact, when thirst could be quenched by holes in the ground that never dried up, when walls staved off wolves and bears, Apes obtained free time.

And Ape, like Man, tends to brood when caught within the grasp of endless time to ponder. He turns to jealousy towards his neighbour. He turns to philosophy, losing his focus the village on the real world. Coming short on threats real, he turns upon threats imagined. He who does not share his taste for a meal, the color of his pelt or the village of his birth has to be hiding something, for nobody would choose so poorly as to differ from oneself.

People today view evil as a unique force of malice pervading and corrupting all it touches. The truth, especially in that time, is far more complex. A hundred billion objectives, most petty and unrelated, built up over decades and centuries of accumulating leisure time. All objectives of ill intent were so unique and unrefined that none could be given a proper name. Thus, no ill intent could be generalized, and only petty squabbles dimmed the prospects of a perfect future eternal for the Apes.

Then stroke the first Downfall of the Apes: conformity. For an Age hamlets grew into villages which grew into burgs which grew into towns which grew into cities. Tribes grew into nations which grew into empires. Families grew into households. Throughout the centuries whence it occurred, the Apes proudly became more powerful, more decisive, more dominant. The pride of the best amongst them swayed large swathes of land under their glory, and naught was seen in progress but unrelenting advancement!

Every time a family was taken into a household, an identity was lost at the profit of a larger entity. Every time a tribe joined a nation, or was beaten down by one, a portion of the Apes' variety and greatness vanished. In time, the Apes lost the unique techniques of thousands of skilled craftsmen, sigil workers and warriors in favor of the strongest technique of the time. In their unity was strength, but also their fallibility, for if one thing could overpower an Ape, than that thing could overpower all Apes.

And so it did.

To be continued in part 4.

Treatise on the Soul part 2

Let us continue with the Treatise on the Soul where we started last night.

I recommend reading the previous post before this one for new readers.

So the Apes became dominant, and free, and desirable. They found purpose aplenty, and grew to become a society, and later a host of societies.

So life passed on from generation to generation, until Magisters realized that not only could Purpose be directed using sigils, but it could also be made to manifest directly through matter and energy. As bits and pieces of the world could become rife with planned intent, the Apes thought, and that planned intent could be made to serve the Apes, domination of the world could become eternal, and never be flexed away from them like it was flexed away from the predators of old.

That was the idea anyway.

The Apes had a working knowledge of sigils and influence between matter and Purpose, but their theoretical understanding of such phenomena was scarce at best. The Apes understood that they could influence the intention and purpose of the land itself, and of all that dwelt on it, but something else had escaped their notice: Purpose brought with it thought. Once manifested into the world, the Purpose that the apes had summmoned began forming into full-fledged intelligences, almost beyond their control. These beings became known as spiritual hosts.

All of those intelligences were friendly to the apes, as they were made to be by their creators, but they were their own purpose, as is the way of such things. In a world defined by the apes and for the apes, the newly-formed spiritual hosts had no take on dominance. The cities, the farms and the countryside had all been designed as sigils to direct Purpose towards the dominance of the Apes, and as they were, even without the help of spiritual hosts, their mastery could not be challenged inside their domain.

Thus, the spiritual hosts concocted a plan, unknown to their masters, to bring their own Purpose of dominance in favor of themselves. Through millenia Purpose had been shaped into the concept of dominance, and thus the spiritual hosts were like avatars of dominance, and this shaped their actions.

In assistance to the Apes, they advised the construction of a Capitol at the centre of the world, with roads of brimstone converging towards the capitol, focusing a flow of aether towards it, as a means to bring the whole world even more under their control. Unbeknownst to the Apes, the treacherous spiritual hosts had another plan altogether with these constructions.

The brimstone roads and the cathedral built in the centre or the World Capitol were meant to reshape the Apes themselves into something else. When all constructions were done, the spiritual hosts began a chant which infused a bit of their Purpose straight into the Apes. The Apes became amalgams of beast and spirit. The Apes were twisted in a grotesque demeanor in the process, shedding all their skin and losing a lot of their strength. Ape had become Man. The world was still mostly theirs, but their age-old sigils ensured them not their dominance as they did the apes, allowing the will of the spiritual hosts to become dominant.

On this day, the traitorous hosts took on a new name so as to redefine their Purpose. They renamed themselves Gods.

Later aspects of this mythology will be revealed in later articles.

Author's note: I do realize that I have not named people, places or spirits yet, so the story is not yet personal. I have gone straight to the cosmology itself, because I was mostly worried about the originality of that part of my world. Personalizing this mythology can very well be performed afterwards.