Aislings - The Dreamers
by Landon in the 183rd Deoch
Introduction
Spirit of the Dreamer
Temuair as a Dreamland
Temuair’s Transformation
Conclusion
A1. Inspiration and Thanks
A2. Glossary of Terms
Introduction
It has been said that Aisling means ‘dreamer’ in the old tongue. Even in the beginning, whoever bestowed on to us that name knew exactly what we were. And it's not that we didn’t realize it ourselves. The very laws of Temuair and the social pressures were organized strictly so that we did not consider speaking the simple truth. Those pressures have faded with time but the taboo has in some part remained.
The Spark of Danaan is what transforms someone from the simple life of a Mundane to the inspired one of an Aisling. Debates about the nature of the Spark are as old and unresolved as the first dawning. I think it can be said without controversy that the Spark is many things, but the focus of this work is the contention that a formative aspect of The Spark is that it carries with it the Spirit of the Dreamer.
Spirit of the Dreamer
When a new Aisling is reborn in Temuair, the Spark connects with a Mundane and creates a new life entirely. As we have all experienced, when you awake as an Aisling for the first time knowledge about your former life as a Mundane is vague at best… memories from the drudgery of your former everyday life is fleeting in the face of your new, more independent reality.
Rinoa, the inn keeper of the Mileth, has guided Aislings back to this forgotten Mundane life since the beginning, through her own good will or the prompting of some greater calling. It is when, through much self-inflection, we reconnect with our Mundane birth that we become a unified whole once again.
How is it that the Spark influences the mind of a Mundane so completely that we have little to no recollection of our former lives after our transformation; leaving us to rely on someone else to help rebuild those memories? A simple explanation is one of ‘replacement’: that when a Mundane is gifted the Spark, their memories are overshadowed by stronger, more prevalent ones.
This explains why newly Sparked Aislings are so disoriented, frequently not recognizing even where they are when they awaken in the Mileth Inn. This is because a part of them -- the part that prevails through the Joining -- is literally in a new place they have never been before. The Spirit of the Dreamer embodies and alters the host body and mind so significantly that it transforms into an entirely new race: The Aisling.
This process is not so much a pairing of host and symbiont as the Mundane that we once were is changed irrevocably by this process. By all known experience, the joining of Mundane and The Spark is violent and non-reversible. Two separate entities literally become a new one.
Temuair as a Dreamland
The Spark contains the Spirit of the Dreamer, an essential and unique aspect that makes the Aisling what they are. These spirits are non-native to Temuair, so we need to establish the origin of Temauir’s ability to play host to these spirits.
To ground our theory, we propose that Temuair is a fixed place in the aether where dreams can occur called a ‘Dreamland’. Before that, however, we must start with the basic concept of a ‘dreamspace’, the foundations of all dreams. Dreamspaces are, simply put, constructs created as a byproduct of dreaming. Limitless locations in the aether that exist so the spirit has a place to exist while the body sleeps.
Have you ever been listening to someone describe their dream only to realize that you also had that same dream? Or that someone recalls you being in a dream of theirs? In this situation, the both of you occupied the same dreamspace -- a rare occurrence, but not unheard of.
The problem with dreamspaces is that they are transient and fickle. Only experienced and dedicated dreamers can ever conjure themselves into the same dreamspace repeatedly but eventually even the most skilled dreamer loses their link to one specific formation.
This is what sets Temuair apart. Temuair, in itself, is not a traditional dreamspace. Aside from minor interruptions, Temuair is perpetually anchored and has yet never dissipated back into the aether. It has been reliably dreamable for nearly two hundred Deochs and is a place that multiple dreamers share with simple ease.
Temuair is unique in this way because it is not a native dreamspace. We know this because Temuair also has a long and rich history prior to its ability to host dream spirits. We see that, looking back on the rich history of Temuair, the term ‘Aisling’ doesn't not exist until Deoch finished Danaan’s work, the Spark. Thus, this paper surmises that we were the first Dreamers to inhabit Temuair. This means that Temuair, in all of its rich history of events, people, and places are not wholly creations of the dream aether but became accessible to dreams some other way.
If this is the case then what was the catalyst that changed the very nature of Temuair? What first brought Dreamers here?
Temuair’s Transformation
As the legend says, when Deoch finished The Spark of Danaan, He created the first Aisling. This theory contends that the moment when Deoch finished the final weaving, He also sundered Temuair open to the dream aether and established its status as a unique Dreamland.
I do not think He could have fully anticipated this outcome. For what the myths and teachings of religions tell us of Danaan and Deoch; they are essentially polar opposites. Danaan, a goddess of pure Light and Deoch, a creature born of Darkness. Again, keeping with widely accepted religious teachings: prior to Danaan’s disappearance, She had begun work on what we would later call ‘The Spark’. After Danaan’s sacrifice to seal away Chadul, Deoch took place in Her stead to finish the work She left behind.
The combination of Her initial weaving and His subsequent work could not have been immediately compatible; everything we know about the elements suggest it is more likely that it must have been drastically and violently incompatible. The lengths Deoch must have gone through to keep Danaan’s building blocks stable while He tied it all together are unthinkable; unknowable. This impossible pairing is so antithetical to the concepts we know in elemental theory and metaphysics that it is my contention that its finished creation shattered Temuair’s underlying magicks irreplicability.
It is my theory that it was this violent moment that Temuair cracked open to the dream realm and because the creation of the newly finished Spark caused the rift, it became the de facto vessel that bridged this world and the aether of dreams. The Spark; newly created with fresh, unique energy drew in dream spirits and delivered them to Mundane hosts.
Without both the sundering of Temuair and the creation of the Spark as a pure vessel for spirits, this outcome could not have come to pass.
Conclusion
In the early Deochs after the creation of The Spark and the awakening of the first Aisling, laws against heresy were commonplace; the guard forces of both Mileth and Rucesion were stocked with multiple guards that kept a watchful eye against Heresy every single day. I, myself, was even a multiple term guard of Rucesion around the turn of the second decade.
I did not need to be told what heresy was, none of us did.. Although the law books attempted to define heresy, none of us needed such granular guidance. We Aislings had an intrinsic understanding of what constituted heretical speech. The reason for this innate knowledge is simple: a part of our being originated from a heretical world -- a very different world than the one that we inhabit now. Each Aisling carries with them varying remembrances from these memories and many choose not to ever speak of them if they do have them.
For this paper, I do not make a value judgement of those that remember their waking lives and choose to speak the heresies we were so long forbit from speaking. However, I instead offer an affirmation: As Aislings, we are born into a new life. Whatever form we take while we are awake, that life is one best lived in that waking world. While in this world -- this Dreamland of Temuair, we have the opportunity to live an entirely different and unique existence. I encourage everyone to celebrate the fantastical set of circumstances that brought us here to Temuair as Dreamers and gave us a whole new life to live.
Inspiration and Thanks
Many thank yous to current and former guildmates of Tuatha de Deo, some of whom have balked when I mention that I have over a dozen unfinished papers and their prompting of me to finally finish one of them. Additional thank yous to the scores of friends and family I have made in Temuair through-out the many cycles. Never could I have imagined a life so full of inspiration and friendship before I dreamed as an Aisling.
Glossary of Terms
Aether - The space between everything; where you are when you aren’t anyplace else. There are multiple categories of aether, each a domain of different cosmological forces. This work in-particular concerns itself with the dream aether: the aether plane where dreams take place.
Aisling - A race of people created from the joining of a Mundane with The Spark. Aislings are characterized by independence, creativity, and ability to pursue their whims. Aislings are sometimes referred to derogatorily as ‘mutants’ because of the way they are created.
Danaan - The Goddess of Light. Led multiple wars against Darkness and the forces of Chadul after the discovery of the Light element. Danaan is said to have sacrificed Herself to seal away Chadul in the year Danaan 3292.
Deoch - Although stories of His origins vary; Deoch was originally the God of Debauchery, a powerful creature of Darkness. The legends say that Deoch fell in love with Danaan, betraying His nature, and becoming the God of Inspiration for His role in finishing Danaan’s work on ‘The Spark’.
Dreamland - A unique type of dreamspace that persists; resisting dissipation through some intervening force.
Dreamspace - A location within the dream aether. Typically a fleeting space that exists for one spirit to dream, although exceptions do occur.
Mundanes - A race of people native to Temuair. Ostensibly, Mundanes are said to lack the willpower or creativity to alter their predestined fates.
Spark - A metaphysical force created from the work of both Danaan and Deoch. From the legend of the creation of the Aisling: The Spark was the work of Danaan that was finished by Deoch after Danaan’s disappearance. It is said that in being granted this finished Spark is what transforms Mundanes into Aislings.
Spirit of the Dreamer - A consciousness that occupies the dream aether when its originating mind is asleep.
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