Anyway. Another topic I've been wondering about...
Voyaging Realm civilizations, and sources of supernatural power for humans, seem to have a Power:
eril tension thing going. That, for every source of power or wealth that the Voyaging Realm has and which people try to extract or use... The Voyaging Realm will send Tribulations against them. The ability to construct Evangelions, comes with the fate of being attacked by Angels; the ability to delve deeply and gather Mithril (or tap lava or Hell itself for power), comes with the risk of unleashing Balrogs; the Healing Springs... are met with the emergence of the Rotbeast.
The Progression-type Cursebearer, and the Apocryphal Curse...
So! What is the Tribulation or Calamity of the Temple civilization? Because it surely
can't be the adventurers being called here, right? I mean, the civilization has way outlevelled the adventurers at their doorstep... Or does that mean that it "won" its Evangelions vs Angels conflict equivalent? That, they
used to be imperiled by raiders, this
used to be their Rotbeast equivalent... but they won, by outpacing the adventurers? If yes, If the Mooncalled Adventurers were their "peril" then... does that mean the Voyaging Realm will go "Nah, screw that, you don't get to win!" and throw a new narrative enemy/threat against the civilization? Or, does the Voyaging Realm go "Okay, you won, grats. You've outpaced the adventurers and so long as you remain vigilant, you've 'won.'" and it was just sheer bad luck for them that a ring-bearing Cursebearer happened by?
... But anyway. The reason I ask is... What if their Tribulation is
something else?
What if the adventurers on the doorstep are just small-fry, and the 'real' challenge for them is something that the Moon throws at them? Perhaps Eldritch monsters from Bloodborne. Or a powerful Astral Lord seeking to emerge and wreck their shit. Or... something.
And how/when does it manifest or appear? e.g. Does it perhaps naturally come as a result of 'mining' the Stars -- that, when they drain energy from the stars, they also have to fight off Star-Monsters? (Hence the reason they carefully parcel out the energy, as I speculated in the previous post. And why they can't go full bore on the Adventurers; because most of their energy is being spent on keeping a lid on the monsters. 'course, the other speculation was that creating Immortals is risky somehow -- maybe it's like having an Active Armament around; you have to deal with shit like the Decimator's Affliction -- or that Immortals themselves are unstable or weird or unsettling somehow.)
On a different note... I gotta wonder -- how the heck do you mine a Ring of power for energy anyway? It doesn't quite make sense. It's just a ring if nobody is wearing it; you can't just take a mining pick to the band of metal, and get gold out. And yet, they talk about this thing, as if it created a Sub-Dimension; which they are then siphoning and draining the stars out of. But, how the heck did they get a Ring to activate and make a dimension?? You, probably, can't do something like that unless you've got a ring wearer or possibly a master of said ring around to use its magic, right?... But in
that case... Did they enslave a Ringbearer or something? Forcing them to use their power to create worlds entire?
So basically, the issue I'm having here is it feels like there's a contradiction; that, the amount of effects and power given off by the Ring, feels like it's something that should only be doable by a Ringbearer or a Ringbearer who has mastered it. And yet, the Temple people are still getting such effects anyway... while not being the master of the ring? That seems contradictory; if you've got so much control over the ring that you can do this, then it sounds like you have mastered it. And yet, there is a call going out anyway? So... did they entrap and enslave a Ringbearer who had mastered the Azure Ring? They exercise control over the bearer, who then uses the ring. That'd make sense... but. If there is such a Ringbearer, how the hell did these guys trap them in the first place? Would said Ringbearer had to have been pretty badass? Or, is the civilization managing to get more out of a ring than its bearer would; whether due to having magics and resources and technology of their own (heck, perhaps Foremost tech or an Armament or whatever), or due to a willingness to drain its very lifeforce/nature/etc... maybe over time, an advanced civilization was able to get more out of a ring. Eh.
Or... Or,
is there no Ring at all?
And instead, it is some kind of dimensional-strangeness or Astral Phenomenom or trapped Astral Lord they are mining for power; and it's just that it
sends forth a siren call; and it's just we weren't high-enough Rank to be able to see through it, and were tricked by it. Maybe we were able to shrug off the forceful compulsion to rescue it... but weren't able to shrug off the illusion/deception entire. So, while not being forced to rescue it, we still are at least tempted by the call and led by our nature (and curiosity and desire for shinies) to do it
anyway.
