Written by
@Reynal
@Durin, something to help the Primordial Sea action when we do it.
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To Survey the Sea
The Primordial Sea. Perhaps the sole underpinning of reality, immense in importance, yet even its existence could only be deduced from the tangential effects it had upon all that was through beings that despite their might by all rights should not have been able to so much as touch its immeasurable power.
For all his faith, his knowledge, and even the neigh-impossible resistance to corruptive forces gifted to him by the Emperor and developed through those few trials that could strain even it, contemplation of such a thing held dangers of death and far worse uncountable. It was a humbling reminder that for all that he could seek those secrets that others could not even learn of else the mere knowledge warp them that he, too, had his limits in such an arena.
There was much to be done before he could take the time to truly contemplate those thoughts unthinkable and truths impossible. Always so much to be done, always too little time—it was a fact of life in general made obvious on Avernus in specific, but there had been blessedly few circumstances where it was writ as large as it was now. It was not hubris to state that none could take up the mantle for discovering such things when he passed, a day that came ever closer.
No, before he took that risk it would be best to ensure that as much of the work that only he could do was done and that the secrets he had learned so far did not die with him. It was not from cowardice that he delayed his contemplations. Death held no fear for him, he had resigned himself to its inevitability long ago, and the thought of shunning work that could benefit humanity simple to put it off was repugnant. Practicality was what kept him from digging into the perilous depths of the truths and concepts found in the sea.
Practicality, however, also dictated that he take the time to properly consider what shapes the Truths he would seek to find might form. To do a survey before an excavation, to think not contemplate. He was no fool—he would never seek to plunge into the depths without a clue as to what he might find there even if it posed no threat to him, simply for efficiency's sake—but the prospect of danger warranted further care in his approaches. Consideration had to be made for not just where Truths might be found, but where dangers could lurk. What order to investigate things in, while both minimizing the risks and maximizing the odds of finding what he sought. There was a difference, after all, between to
think and to
contemplate, as he could take as much time as he wished to think on such things without danger. It would not allow him to directly probe at and discover the truth, no, but it was still potentially productive.
Intellectually speaking, the topic in question was fascinating. Little was known, and all so far from his own efforts. A layer of existence from which reality was born and that will outlast its eventual death. Powerful beyond comprehension, or perhaps something beyond power, merely exhibiting the traits of power at the observable level of reality. A force of change, twisting those it touches.
While he had learned such things about it already, there was still so much more unknown, both in its specifics and in its fundamental nature. Was it a force of destructive change in the universe due to the Primordial Sea's inherent nature tilted towards destruction, or was it because the existence of reality made the overall nature of change within it favor destruction? Or is it due to Ridcully's recently discovered Law of Attraction causing the power drawn from it to seek to return there through the unmaking of reality? Did reality spring from it alone, like foam on the surface of the sea (or, as that technically requires air, as a cavitation bubble forms in water), or was there another layer of existence that acted with the Primordial Sea to form reality? How did it form a connection with the Chaos Gods, or anything in reality in the first place? How does it spread? Can the connection be severed, the spread curtailed? All valid questions, all vital knowledge, all unknown, and all unknowable without truly contemplating the true nature of the Sea.
However, just because they were unknown and could not be discovered without difficult, time consuming, and dangerous plunges into the borderline incomprehensible nature of that facet of reality, it did not mean that likely theories could not be developed ahead of time and tests designed to show one from the other. The fundamental process of science, one of the Emperor's great loves in life, and one that mankind as a whole had been rediscovering since the stagnation and fanaticism of the past had been slowly shed. He would no more test these theories without proper preparation than a Magos would play with uncontained antimatter next to a plasma reactor, but they could still be examined for their agreement with what is currently known, refined to better explain observations, and tests of their truth designed and examined for imperfections. Progress was slow, and payoff was far from immediate, but it had long since been demonstrated to be the safest and surest way to learn the secrets of the universe.
He had high hopes it would allow him to learn the secrets beyond the universe as well.
..... alright, if you guys are sure, I'll add it to the original list.
