Shards of Awakening

What is in a name? A philosopher's question to be sure, but an illustrative one if only for the purposes of this discussion. The simplest way to discuss names is to discuss the order in which they occur. Thus we come first to names familiar to even the most ignorant of mortals: the first an identifier of clan or family and the second an identifier of individuality. These are the weakest of names, given to an individual before individuality, and as a result carry none of the insight of the self that later names do.

A Daoist name by contrast carries within it both the story and themes of an individual. To whit, as one grows in power, one's Resonance begins to express itself upon the world. This manifestation provides the seed from which the first of one's Daoist name will emerge. As a most simplistic of examples, one who cultivates a Resonance of Wind may find themselves with a Daoist name relating to the motion of air: breeze, zephyr, storm, as accords the specifics of their Resonance.

The second of a cultivator's Daoist names, conversely to the first, occurs through more mundane means. In the simplest of explanations, while the first Daoist name can be considered the cultivator naming themself, the second is the world naming the cultivator. Thus as one's accomplishments become renowned, as one's Resonance becomes potent, as one's path treads toward that of the Greater Souls. As any or all of these states are met, thus may a cultivator earn their second Daoist name.

On Names and Meaning, Scholar Feng Jiao, Third Age, 15th year of the Third Interregnum


Conversation flows above and around and through Quan Jia without meaning. Her eyes trace without pattern between friends gathered for an evening of relaxation and her plate, filled with slices of bright red vegetables sitting atop noodles in an olive green sauce. Beneath dark brown wood and silver inlay her feet itched, not in the literal sense… an itch I could at least scratch... but more in a restless tapping of toes. A tapping that she was entirely unable to still. Tap. Tap. Tap.

Words, distorted as though echoing from some great distance bounce aimlessly against her ears and draw a frisson of her fractured attention over toward where her oldest and best friend sits. For a moment, a muted sort of contentment warms within her at the sight. A small smile flickers across her face as she watches Xiao Lien gesture animatedly to an equally engaged Dai Qiao. It was everything she had hoped: that her friends would become friends with each other. And yet, the warmth brought on by that growing accord was helpless against the restlessness welling in her chest. The tapping of her feet. Tap. Tap. Tap.

Relentless, fogged anxiety draws her attention away from where her friends hopefully becoming friends and on to the next small group. Three chairs clustered against the balustrade are drawn close together and occupied by her frowny chef and her cute maids. Frowny chef was holding up a pair of silver bowls, the first filled with mixed fruits and the second with caramelized vegetables, and gesticulating wildly. Whatever the excitement from frowny chef, it was clear, even in her distracted state, that only one of her cute maids appeared to be even the slightest interested… poor Screeching Monkey… unfortunately, amused pity is equally useless before the feeling tightening her throat. She swallows dryly against that lump and her feet tap. Tap. Tap. Tap

Disquiet, dull and gnawing, scratches at the back of her neck and drags at her attention, drags it onward to where friends she should have made years ago are sitting. Meng Chao has commandeered one of the small, round, dining tables that had been set up for the night and was sitting on one side, his head and shoulders leaned forward so he could talk to his tablemate. Shao Cuifen occupies the other and sits almost perfectly straight, her posture like something out an etiquette book. Despite that, her friend's head nods in the peculiar way it did when she was actually listening. It makes Quan Jia wonder just what else she had missed while sleeping. It tightens the iron bands wrapped around her chest. Her feet flutter without rhythm. Tap. Tap. Tap.

Everyone she'd met in the time since they'd first arrived at the sect, everyone she'd grown to care about in these first few weeks was here eating dinner and enjoying the atmosphere. Everyone except for Fu Zian, who apparently never left his mountain… I didn't think he was that boring... Conversation and food and a pale rice wine all flow with equal ease. A soft breeze cuts the last of the afternoon heat and stretching out below the balcony, the lake had turned to molten golden in the setting sun. Even Mei Mei was partaking, her attendant's faint, amused smile flickers briefly as their eyes meet. Quan Jia looks away. It was almost perfect, and yet despite all of that, she couldn't stop her feet from tapping. Tap. Tap. Tap.

Her eyes drift out across the lake as that soft breeze ruffles a strand of blonde hair that had worked free of a loose plait. Her skin feels hot, too tight. Darkness crashes down around her. The indistinct thrum of conversation stills into silence. Fate teeters on the edge of an endless moment. A weight lifts from her chest. A Lady's Blessing illuminates gloam as though midday. Quan Jia exhales. The last piece of a Dreamer's Endless Journey settles into place. Restlessness fades. Certainty rises. A kaleidoscope shatters within her soul. Shards of rainbow bright iridescence cascade in her eyes. The brightest, looking like a fragment of liquid sunlight crashes to earth amidst the tall trees of the lake's far shore. Delight and jubilation twine across her face, as she stands.

Eight faces, each distinct in appearance, each identical in concern turn her way. Dreamily, distantly, she speaks, "There's somewhere… it's calling… I have to go…"

A bandaged woman moves first, vanishing from where she'd been sitting and reappearing next to her in the same instant. Hands shoot out, but Quan Jia drifts like smoke through the grasping attack, "don't worry… Fate… Fortune… calling..."

Around her the world shifts, not with the shattering kaleidoscope of Dream, but with a gradual blurring of distance. Colors bleed into one as the balcony around her disappears. Grasping tendrils of shadow and blade flicker toward her, wrap around arm and leg. A light laugh, her laugh, echoes amidst the rainbow colored fog as she slips effortlessly from those restraints.

Free from thought and worry, she floats, carried on gossamer wings across a golden sea.

Spectral feet brush against the far shore next to a shard of infinite potential.

Sparks fly as feathery fingers reach out toward a fragment that burns like a lodestone in her soul. Light bends, bounces around her, as that shard shatters and carves three fragments of certainty against the endless mutability of dream.

The first, a broad highway paved with perfectly interlocked stone. High stone plinths, emblazoned with the panoply of Empire line the road. In the distance rises a city, glimmering and golden promising Wealth beyond measure to those who walk this well-trod path.

The second, a winding path broken and faded with age. Stelae, covered in faded web-like script litter the space between path and wilderness. In the distance, wrought from stone and column, a ruin heavy with antiquity stands and promises knowledge of things ancient and forgotten for those willing to explore this crumbling land.

The third, a suggestion of purpose through ever-shifting fog. Swirling motes of rainbow light flicker into transient existence in spaces where fog grows thick. Within this endless murk, distance loses meaning and space twists unknowably whispering of mystery revealed for those who can unravel these twisted skeins.

[We have reached a point where Dreamer's Endless Journey will be modified according choices made here. There may also be larger implications for the spirit story-line as well based on the choices made here. The rewards of and difficulties associated with mastering each of these options is not necessarily the same.]

[] Take the first path. (Modifies DEJ to more easily find material wealth.)

[] Take the second path. (Modifies DEJ to more easily reveal forgotten knowledge.)

[] Take the third path. (Modifies DEJ to more easily uncover ancient mysteries.)