Discourse on essences

At seven bells on the eve of the 8th night of the 8th month, an open meeting between the three houses of the City (Council of Wardens, Scryers of Truth and Emergence Academy) was held in the Archive of the Planes to discuss how each Prime Artifact dealt with the essences of the lesser beasts.

Council of Wardens

As presented by Anyasha, Guardian of the Council of Wardens

We feel each essence is an extension of a long-since escaped wraith of great power. He split his soul into innumerable manifestations of wrath and vengeance, which now plague us as the lesser beasts. We aim to collect the soul fragments within each essence and distribute them back into the Palisade to eventually re-incarcerate the master wraith behind it all. You should see the soul fragment when I place the essence into the Ankh. It is this that we want from the other factions. Not the strength or the essences or themselves or the energy. Just the soul.

Anyasha picked the Ankh back up, gold and silver shining brightly in the light, as she squeezed it the Prime absorbed the Agoknight essence. Energy erupted from the Ankh momentarily, consuming the essence energy. The essence broke apart and was absorbed into the Ankh. A small glittering bit of dust was left over and floated upwards through the open ceiling and floats off out of sight.

Question: So the Wardens believe each lesser mare holds a piece of this greater beast within them?

Answer: yes

Those gathered where informed that the dust was the soul fragment present within the essence and provided no benefit to any other faction.

Question: Where does that mote end up?

Answer: It is going to the Palisade. Only our Prime can direct that bit to where it belongs.

Question: Will the essence look or feel different?

Answer: Not until it is placed within the Ankh.

Ethan, Guide of the Emergence Academy, expressed a concern that “It could be floating around and gathering into a big collection of glittering dusteses that will turn into an even bigger mare!” Anyasha informed everyone that such does not occur when the soul fragment is place within the Ankh.

Question: Would not containing them together allow the entity to pull itself together in entirety?

Answer: Yes. That is another major concern - we are afraid that if the other factions amass enormous amounts of these soul fragments, the wraith will manifest through their Prime. Very similar to how Bashir did.

Question: Yet it will not within the Palisade?

Answer: It may, but that is within the confines of the prison. Even if it does manifest itself, it would still remain confined

Question: Would not draining the essence within the Palisade accomplish the same?

Answer: Possibly.

Question: Would the entity not attempt to escape?

Answer: The Ankh keeps the prison gates locked. And, yes, it would attempt to escape, as do many wraiths. But it would be considerably weakened and we are making sure the soul fragments are being sent to a very secure area of the Palisade.

Question: I would think that, ideally, you'd wish to weaken it rather than make it whole.

Answer: Yes, absolutely. That is why we wished to see the others' processes. To see what happens to them. Destruction is fine. We are only concerned about unchecked accumulation or random fluttering in space.

Question: When were the palisades weakened enough to potentially release this unknown wraith?

Answer: We do not know. We speculate a very, very long time ago. Prior to Bashir and the Coven of the Echt.

Anyasha voiced her concerns that another of the houses would amass a a large amount of the wraith's soul in their Primes and that it would “either 'mind-control' them or just takes physical form and wrecks havoc that way.”

Question: Well if there drained or destroyed would that not keep it from ever becoming whole anywhere?

Answer: We cannot say for certain. Possibly.

Question: It is just the essences of the lesser beasts that have the soul fragments or those of the Hota as well?

Answer: Only the lesser beasts - Emphant, Bogrom, Agoknight, Shamblix, and Horron. We have zero concern over Hotai essences or my energy tokens.

Anyasha concluded by stating, “Again, all we want is that little speck of dust. You all may keep 100% of the strength for your Prime. This is in no way a ruse to keep your factions down or 'in check'. “

Scryers of Truth

As spoken by Belom, Ruler of the Scryers of Truth

The Scryers Prime is called Rashila's Mirror. This Mirror can reflect good and wanted energies and deflect unwanted energies like this 'soul fragment' which has been explained by Anyasha. Rashila's Mirror is fine tuned to deflect negative energies away from the City and back into the Chaos. While deflecting the negative and reflecting the positive energies, the Mirror absorbs a bit of each in balance, allowing it to become stronger and thus more able to do what it was designed to do. This act is called Mirroring and does something very similar to what Anyasha has mentioned already, however...We feel that this 'soul fragment' is best deflected outside the City with no possible way of re-entry. It is almost as we have dreamstruck this part of the essence, keeping the energy for our Prime and deflecting unwanted products outside the City. Our views on the Hota, Tzra'zik are the very same as the Wardens. It is our belief that the Hotai planted the eggs which brought about the lesser beasts to bring chaos and confusion to our dreams. We wish to return the balance. Where the Wardens keep this 'soul fragment' safely locked away in the prison walls of the Palisade, the Scryers eject such outside the City never to return.

Question: How does the mirror neutralize the soul fragment, functionally Dreamstriking them as you had mentioned?

Answer: The mirror is an ancient relic which discerns the deceitful energies from energies which would prove beneficial to the house, the City and the dreamers as a whole.

Question: Ejecting a chaotic spirit out into its habitat is only likely to allow it to re-assemble it's strength. This is all fairly new to all of us and I am sure that in time we will both be able to fine tune such things.

Blodeuwedd posed the following to those gathered, “Can all chaotic energy be stopped from entering the City though? My point is that I think we are deluding ourselves if we believe that we are not made of both chaos and order. One cannot be one without the other.”

Belom and Anyasha both purposed an experiment of sorts in regards to what their respective Primes did to the essences and the energy.

Emergence Academy

As spoken by Vill Valerian, Guardian of the Emergence Academy

Once an essence is placed within the prime a number of things occur. The "Song of Ashes", our prime uses its harmonic waves of music. With this "song" it "harmonizes" the essence there by separating the good from the bad…Accepting the good into itself and leaving the "shell" and this "soul fragment" you speak of, to be incinerated by the flames of the phoenix which reside within our prime. Neutralizing any hopes of bad energy to be "possessed" in any recognizable form.

Question: The flames incinerate the essence correct

Answer: Yes, the "shell" of the essence.

Question: I presume that means there would be some sort of remains correct, like ashes

Answer: The song is the "Song of Ashes" I would assume the ashes are the song itself.

Yes, we'd love to see if you all might be sure to verify there is no debris of any sort.

Anyasha stated, on behalf of the Council of Wardens “We feel burning the essences should be a justifiable safe way to deal with the essences and have no intention of disapproving of such means at this time.”

As remembered by Blodeuwedd