Thônvainë (Tyson)

Thônvainë's Notes: Nim, Hearth, Leia, and I -having realized that our present concerns will continue to put us into contact with powerful and inscrutable beings (dragons, deities, and others intrinsic to or from Outside this world) with who we will need to converse and bargain -went to speak with the priests at the shrines of the Dragons and the Brilliant faces to seek their advice and guidance in these matters. Their advice was as follows: Firstly, all beings understand existence (their own and the world around them) through, and in the terms of, their own senses and perceptions. As Outsiders and the like typically have senses which operate on vastly different principles, often far beyond mortal ken, the means, context, and qualia by which they understand a given event or experience can differ so vastly as to make even fundamental concepts mutually unintelligible. To communicate with anyone, one must be able to at least imagine what they might be experiencing not only from their position but *as* them. With fellow mortals there exists the common ground if shared experience or at least shared anatomy and physical senses. When communicating with the personification of a literal river, it can be harder to understand how a river experiences space and time, let alone something mostly outside of its experience like say political events or even the concept of a king. With regard to Dragons in particular, they have much more in common with us than would a deity or similar. Dragons have a physical existence, they respond to sight and sound. Sacrifices and prayers must be physically delivered to them. They have individual personalities, much like a fae or demon (or mortal, for that matter). However they also have senses and abilities beyond ours. They are known to communicate directly, mind-to-mind, across languages. They can work spells that endure more in the manner of a blessing or curse from a deity, which even an elemental cannot. The Brilliant Faces, on the other hand, are much more like typical deities. They accept offerings at shrines and offer blessings and enchantments. There seems to be a many-in-one nature which is similar to that found in a few better known deities (such as Hecate, or certain messianic cults). There are thought to be five primary "facets" with magical and elemental associations: Ruby (Fire), Emerald (Earth), Sapphire (Water), Diamond (Light), and either Obsidian or Onyx (Darkness). There appear to be other minor facets, and these all may be both separate and part of one greater unified whole. There is an ever-shifting and evolving quality intrinsic to the Brilliant Faces. The blessings from the Brilliant Faces also seem unusual and volatile, often behaving in ways inconsistent with the rules of magic as we understand them. I surmise that communication with the Vraak will likely be very difficult, given they natively operate on natural principles very different from our own, and likely have very alien senses and motivations. Even with elemental magic as an apparent common ground, there appears to be significant differences in our understanding and experience of this.