Curse

Gmr Leon · Nov 26, 2009, 07:36 AM // 07:36

A brief introduction to the Mists.

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Manuscripts

Before there were humans or dwarves, before there were even worlds or the stars that light the night sky, there was but one thing in the universe—the Mists. The Mists touch all things. They are what binds the universe together, past present, and future. They are the source of all good and evil, of all matter and knowledge. It is said that all forms of life, no matter how simple or complex, can trace their origins back to this one place.

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Manuscripts

The protomatter that makes up the Mists strains toward creation, often spawning demonic creations in nightmarish forms. Not all creatures from the Mists are demonic, however. When the Mists come into contact with a suitable human template, for example, it can copy that form, creating a sentient entity with a humanoid appearance and an almost human mind.

An overview of planetary formation.

In our universe, this is a (poorly done) diagram of star formation and the, sometimes, resulting planetary formation. I'll explain the process as I understand it below, and any astronomers or astrophysicists better versed in it can correct me on any points as they see fit. Skipping over the Big Bang area, stars form from interstellar clouds called nebula, which are clouds of various materials, dust, gas, that sort of stuff. As time proceeds, these materials begin to clump together due to gravity, as shown in the second image, eventually getting to the point of a protostellar core surrounded by an accretion disk, which is a ring of materials that are attracted to the core due to gravity, and make it into a protostar, shown in the third, fourth, and fifth images. During the formation of a protostar, as the materials collapse into themselves forming, well, the protostar and its core, but, as this occurs, bipolar outflows begin from the collapsing materials, basically, jettisoning some of the materials, with whatever is left existing in the accretion disk and forming part of the protostar.

At any rate, eventually the protostar may become a star like our own, once nuclear fusion initiates in its core, producing the outward forces that maintain its spherical form and the ultraviolet light and heat that we are quite familiar with. After the accretion phase ceases, that is, the buildup of the star via surrounding materials, and the bipolar outflows cease, there is yet another disk of materials left around the star. These materials may or will become planets around the end of the star's formation, and whatever is left after that will just be interstellar debris such as asteroids and comets and the like.

Why on Tyria this matters.

The reason for the previous explanation is simple. The Mists are much unlike the materials in our universe, they actually strain towards creation and can copy existing creatures to make a somewhat similar creature. Now, one could say that this is in fact a very interesting similarity with our universe due to floating materials forming into stars and planets and, given the right circumstances, life, but this is rather not the case. In our case, gravity is God. It is because of gravity that the materials clump together and form stars and planets. However, Tyria also displays this characteristic, as when a character jumps or an arrow is shot, it always comes down, thus gravity is not the only crafter in our game of existence.

In our universe, cores are either hot and liquid, or solid. This is essentially due to a variety of factors that I can only speculate on due to my lack of knowledge in the matter, but I would imagine it's due to the high amount of pressure and gravity involved. Now, this may also, and probably is, due to the materials that play a part in the planet's composition, which leads me into my next point.

At the very start, we have an intriguing description that I think is essential to our understanding of Tyria's universe, the protomatter of the Mists. The very definition of Proto is:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dictionary.com

A combining form meaning “first,” “foremost,” “earliest form of,” used in the formation of compound words (protomartyr; protolithic; protoplasm).

This goes in line with our understanding from the Prophecies Manuscripts, that is, the Mists being the origin of all things. Yet this may also imply that the Mists is not exactly matter, in other words, a ghost matter, likely the ether that was proposed in our own universe as a cosmological constant. This drastically changes things if this is the case, and due to its properties, may also affect the formation of the planets and the stars in some manner. Another way of saying this is, if you're well versed in the old theories surrounding ether or aether, then please, if you can think of anything that may be relevant, feel free to posit it, as I am only mildly versed in the etheric universe models.

Attempting to understand the properties of the Mists.

Let us accept, for the sake of discussion, that the Mists have formed matter in its forms as we know them in our own universe. These are, solid, liquid, gas, and plasma. As such, we have the appropriate materials to form a universe similar to our own. Let also accept the basic forces existing as we know them in our universe, these being, electromagnetic, strong nuclear, weak nuclear, and gravitational forces. Again, these permit us the forces to form a universe similar to our own, assuming our understanding of our universe is correct.

Now, the only wrench in the gears so far then, is the Mists. We have very little understanding of them as a whole, but we might be able to speculate that they interact with the forces of gravity and electromagnetism. I say gravity due in part towards its characteristic of straining towards creation, and electromagnetism due to its apparent ghostly nature and the descriptions of it pervading all things and its ability to bind together everything, past, present, and future. In the case of electromagnetism, it could simply be another wavelength of electromagnetic radiation, and may explain the peculiar comments of Asura and some Ritualists.

For example:

Quote: