Thesis on the Fading Winter
by
The Lady Alexus DeMorghanThe Seasons of Arcadia
It is widely known that Arcadia is bound by the seasons. These seasons turn, following an eternal pattern. Spring is followed by Summer, then to Fall, and then the cold of Winter sets in. With the passing of Winter, Spring arives once again, and the cycle is renewed.
For Fae, Spring means the time of fresh Dreaming. The mortals, whom we depend upon for our very existance, dream always, infusing into the world glamour, the magic of our kind. Summer is much like the Spring, when humans dream, and Arcadia is near.
During these times, The Dreaming is always accessable to our kind, and glamour is commonplace. Arcadia is true to Earth in these times.
As the cycle rolls on to Fall, mortals cease to dream. They become more concerned with Fact than they are with Fantasy. Proof is required for all things, and nothing is left to faith or fate. This is the time when our kind begin to die, when The Dreaming pulls itself away from this plane.
This is not entirely a bad thing. Some would have me dead for saying these things, but it is truth. Mankind requires a time for science, a time for facts and solidity. Autum and Winter are their times.
The cool, banal breezes of Autum warn of the season to come. Winter is a deathly cold time. It is said that during this time, all Fae on the Earth will die, and all glamour will vanish. It is thought that even The Dreaming and Arcadia themselves will all but disappear. I am not of that opinion, as I will explain in the next section.
Recorded History of the Seasons & an Alternative View
To most, this history is common knowledge, but I shall briefly reiterate it, in order to refresh it in your mind.
As it stands, Spring was long ago, before human history. Summer came after, about the time of the Sundering. Fall began at the Shattering, during the 15th century of man, and has been growing closer to Winter ever since.
It is currently believed that Winter will destroy us all.
But it will not, because it has not. Boldly, I say that Winter is here, now, and that it began at the time of the Shattering. The Shattering is analogous to the first freeze, or the first day of snow. The sign of this freeze was when the Trods became impassible, and Arcadia became unreachable to those Fae who were left on Earth. Though I was but a Childling, I remember the Shattering well.
You see, fall gives no major sign when it arrives. The days just slowly get colder and colder. Perhaps one day in October is quite a bit more chilly that the days preceding it, but no great line has been crossed. Arcadia's passage into Fall would not have been so blunt as the Shattering was.
Winter, on the otherhand, does make itself known. Though fall is a cool time, winter is abruptly cold. A great barrier is crossed when the tempeture falls below 32 degrees. This barrier, for Arcadia, was the Shattering.
Winter is not a time of death, but a time of sleep. Humans will never stop dreaming completely.
Signs of Spring
In 1969, a strange thing occured. Mortals began to dream again. Previously blocked doors to Arcadia were opened. Fae were able to come from Arcadia to Earth. This is how the Sidhe were able to return, and it is known as the Resurgance.
No one knows exactly why this occured, although the specific cause of it is traced to the landing made by humans on the moon. But still, it has not been explained why it happened so close to Winter.
I believe this was not merely an "Indian Summer" near the end of Autum, but a sign of spring, a first thaw. And the most ironic thing is that it was facilitated by the banal technology of mortal science. Which leads me to my next point.
Full Circle
or, Mortal Technology Brings the DreamingJust as NASA, with all of it's banality, brought the Resurgance, so shall technology overcome all banality, and bring Spring to us again.
Many of those reading this will probably not know very much about computers, cyberspace, or about a relativally new development known as Virtual Reality, so I shall explain.
Cyberspace is a sort of "place" created by computers. It is a plane where people from all parts of the world can meet together, while remaining in their physical locations. It takes merely seconds to reach this plane. You may or may not realise it, but you are co-existing in cyberspace right now. You are physically located in your chair, clicking a mouse at a computer. But you mind is in here, inside this thing we call a place because we have no better word to describe it. It is a place with you imagination, and yet it is also a place within the imagination of mortals. This place does not require one to be Fae to be seen.
But how different is this place from The Dreaming? It is a place the does not exist in the physical world, yet it is superimposed over it. Granted, it is not as colorful or as three dimentional (or one-hundred and seventeen dimentional?) as The Dreaming, but that is soon to change.
Virtual Reality is a new technology which creates a world of seeming realness, yet it is not. I shall spare you the banal details of it all, and put it into simple terms. By putting on goggles and gloves, a new world is simulated. Within the goggles a picture is shown, and the gloves send signals back to the computer each time you move your hands. The effect of this is that you really are in a new place, even though you are still standing in the real world.
This is not unlike cyberspace, in fact, the "places" that one goes using these tools are exactly the same in nature. What virtual reality will do is make cyberspace more realistic, and fantasy more atainable.
Currently, virtual reality is clumbsy and not very realistic. Your view from within the goggles is limited, the graphics blocky, and the response from the gloves incomplete. But things are progressing rapidly, and within a few short years, man and fae alike will be able to visit a completely real virtual world.
Within this world, man and fae alike will be able to conjure at will any creature or item that can be imagined. The once painful and banal act of tedious programing will be reduced to simple command words. What now requires a Kithain and glamour, such as the creation of chimera, will require merely a mortal dreamer. And just as chimera are seen only to Fae and to those in The Dreaming, so shall these creations be seen only in cyberspace, and only to those the creator whishes.
The Dreaming and Cyberspace
There are too many similarities between The Dreaming and cyberspace as it will be. As mentioned above, chimera creation is a perfect parallel. The plane of cyberspace co-existing with the physical plane, as The Dreaming once did before the Sundering, is another perfect example.
Just as humans create and feed The Dreaming, so do humans create and feed cyberspace, and it will continue to grow in this way. Cyberspace allows greater creativity, and Glamour will be generated to an abundance. New Trods will be formed, and their paths will lead through the computer, through cyberspace, and into Arcadia. New freeholds and fountains will be generated in this world, at the sites of great imagination in the cyberspace nearby. All shall be as it once was, and all shall be Spring.
In Summation
Winter is already here, and Spring is nigh. The Resurgance is a great testament to this. We should not become dreary because we think we are to die in the comming season. This will only delay the Spring, as our feelings affect The Dreaming. Instead, we should prepare ourselves to celebrate the Spring when it arrives.
Technology is not to be feared, as it inevitably will be the cause of Spring's return. Instead, all Fae should learn its secrets, so that when it becomes one with The Dreaming, we will have the power to use it, much like we have power over The Dreaming now.
In closing, I hope that my words have left their impression upon your mind. Please, do not think me simply as a foolish wilder. Even if you do not agree with what I have said, please give it the intellectual credit it deserves.
May The Dreaming always shine, may Arcadia return to us soon, and may you always find glamour,
Lady Alexus DeMorghan
Daughter of Duke Wilhelm DeMorghan, Duchy of The Westernmost Mountains {Known better to we mortals as the Western half of Washington State, i.e. Seattle, Taccoma, etc.}
Return me thus, unto Arcadia
{I shall infuse this page with a little banality, by saying that all writings herein are Copyright(C)1996, by Becky Flesher. Changeling:The Dreaming and all words and refferences to it are copyright or trademarked or what ever to White Wolf Gaming Studios. Please, don't steal from either of us without permission!! Using this stuff for the benifit of personal gaming is fine, but copying it to other websites or copying it in any other way without getting the go-ahead from me first is inexcusable.}
bored souls have wandered in this realm.