Nihilgenesis

From LSWiki

Description

a black-leather-bound papyrus book.

The writing is in Caladan, and reads:
   Nihilgenesis

This is a thin volume of papyrus bound in black leather.  A title is etched upon the front cover.  It is closed.  It is closed.
You estimate its value at about one thousand three hundred twenty gold.  
It looks about a quarter of a dimin long, one and seventeen twentieths dimins wide, and two and nine twentieths dimins tall.
It weighs about one hundred sixty-one two-hundredths of a dekan.

The commands 'open <item>', 'close <item>', and 'turn page [in <item>] [to <number>]' may be used with it.  Keeping the black
-leather-bound papyrus book costs ten keep points.  The black-leather-bound papyrus book was created by Twilight; the source code
was last updated Fri Dec 11 16:31:55 2015.  The material leather was created by Lost Souls; the source code was last updated Tue
Mar 15 02:18:23 2016.  The material papyrus was created by Lost Souls; the source code was last updated Tue Mar 15 02:18:42 2016.

Text

                                NIHILGENESIS          
                          by Marcus Lucretius Maro

                                     I

               I had a dream, which was not all a dream.
               The bright sun was extinguish'd, and the stars
               Did wander darkling in the eternal space,
               Rayless, and pathless, and the icy earth
               Swung blind and blackening in the moonless air;
               Morn came and went -- and came, and brought no day...

               The waves were dead; the tides were in their grave,
               The moon, their mistress, had expir'd before;
               The winds were wither'd in the stagnant air,
               And the clouds perish'd; Darkness had no need
               Of aid from them -- She was the Universe.

                                     II

From void, breath; from breath, life; from life, void.

Nothing from nothing into nothing -- and between, all creation.

                                    III

From poetry and koan, from astronomy and metaphysics, come difficult truths
and strange solutions.

There is a place where nothing resides, as a thing: a place of pure aether
which compresses all within to naught.  This place is Void.  It is a physical
space, one which I have traversed, though it's relationship to our continents
and cities is perhaps not truly spatial.

Void is a location but is also a principle.  It may be taken up within oneself,
and is incompatible with neither body nor mind.  To nothing we return in death,
but from nothing we become; Void may suffocate life, but may also bind life
together.

                                     IV

Void is generated from matter.  Matter is generated by life.  Principle among
the living is man.  Principle among creators of matter is man.

Void may bind together not only an individual, but an entire city.  Keep what
is useful, and let what is useless return to nothing.  Keep that which actually
functions and let the rest become pure potential: nihil, Void, from which use
might once again arise.

In this manner we close the circle of our existence, and perhaps prolong it --
but only for a time.  To nothing all return.

                                     V

The initiated, after meditating for a period, positions himself under Void by
concentrate on stilling his mind.

One casts a spell by its name; one may cast on, with, without, and circa.  On
will establish a basic aim, with will establish components, and without, for
the more skilled, will skip certain operations to hasten the spellcasting.
Circa selects general properties from an array of options; it is only relevant
for certain spells.

The basic fuel for one's spells is Void, and the basic source of Void is
matter.  One sends matter to the aether to be compressed into an ever-densening
globe.  This compression generates Void, and one may siphon off a portion of

it for one's own use.

                                     VI

I, Lucretius, hold the key to the initiation procedure, so that this power may
be neither diminished nor lost.  Potential initiates are urged to seek me out.
Find me in Terlo.

Long live the Empire -- until it too returns to Void.

Total pages 4.

Relevant Skills

You feel that reading this material has broadened your perspective and increased your knowledge of Caladan, arcane lore, cosmology, garbology, history, metaphysics, and poetry.