Macrodesire

Fractures carry with them the potential to express Macrodesire: a means to shape reality outside of traditional, mechanical methods. This animating force intersects desire and scope to realise the will of a living mind.

Macrodesire interacts with culture and the material grounds themselves. Each community has its own understanding of its capabilities and methods to draw upon it. If all a soldier learns is how to light a fuse, the same method could fail to stat the central brazier of their village.

At the world-level perspective, Macrodesire acts as a tool of the earth as much a tool of society. Ever since The Great Split, the earth itself feeds on Macrodesire. New matter is reclaimed form Nullspace, storms destabilise weather patterns and stop abruptly, and chilling winds breathe with the ebb and flow of our world’s own desire.

Categorisation

Macrodesire is a complex system. Looking one level lower, we identify three polarities—foundational pathways that lend themselves to certain ideals. The following descriptions are derived from how communities intuit their Macrodesire systems, e.g., the social standing, morals, and tendencies that shape their culture’s acquisition:

• Binding is multifaceted. At its core, it is the setting force that changes conviction into truth. As the kernel of most Fractured Remnants, its role in our world is both as the tool to fix consequences of The Great Split, to preserve the chance for life; and, as adjudicated by empires and tyrants, the edge of the blade to enforce hierarchy. Binding is inherently juxtaposed in this way: it grants us control over spacetime, heat, entropy, physical interactions, but the most notorious use case associated with the name is violent and oppressive. The most famous example of Binding at its extreme is The Binding Stone, capable of reconstituting fate itself.
• Nullspace is the proprietor of absence. Vacuums are space without matter, but Nullspace does not permit the matter to exist; it is the boundary of space itself. It lines different Fractures like mucus, diluting and corrupting information that passes through it. Exceedingly few communities harness Nullspace in their Macrodesire systems, but we recognise just how much it influences our world.
• Irrealis is spectral. While Binding revolves around certainty and Nullspace the lack of possibility, Irrealis presents the chance for gradation within Macrodesire. To harness its power is to accept doubt and probability, to bisect between what exists and what does not, and construct the states in between. Only truly recognised as distinct since the War of Patrons, Irrealis in its purest form requires communing with the force itself. One must step into its domain and bring it forward to our material reality.

Acquisition

Just as Macrodesire usage varies across cultures, so too does its acquisition. Learning Macrodesire is most effective at a young age. For the communities that embrace it, schools offer basic lessons from the beginning, teaching simple light tricks to small enhancements. However, teaching is a misnomer; acquiring Macrodesire is an internal process, self-contained and instinctual. Teachers can correct posture or pronunciation (or however the community uses their system), but the child must learn the muscle memory and feeling of using Macrodesire. There is an internal logic to decipher.

Polarity has little effect on the ‘difficulty’ of acquisition. A Binding-majority system will tend towards absolute control, and therefore focus on command in lessons; Irrealis-heavy systems, rare as they are, look more towards communication and clarity. Nullspace systems are the least documented: none are known to exist in the present day, and modern pedagogy is vastly different from ancient technique.

Heritage also has no direct influence over Macrodesire acquisition, but is a factor in cultural perception of it. Historically, Snow Elves had the most latent capacity for Macrodesire from birth. For some, this can make it hard to develop healthier technique if the child self-trains. In terms of species, the Coraxi are a unique case given Pakaru’s Augmentation.

Fractured Remnants

Main article: Fractured Remnants.

To catalyse ability, harnessing the power of a Fractured Remnant is crucial. While their day-to-day use is in trading or cosmetics, they are batteries to be embraced. On the other side of the scale, the most potent—and the rarest—Fractured Remnants are reality-shaping. To be allowed near one, let alone touch it, is an experience few will ever have. They are more valuable than London gold, more elusive than what lies beyond the Nullspace, and more potent than the sharpest blade—in the right hand.

Many believe their wielders indominable. This is not strictly true. Remnants can cause intense physical strain on those who use them: burns, broken bones, nerve damage, paranoia; using their power is a two-way relationship. Each has character: Fragmented Gravity is most potent when defying mechanics. It is raw strength, but it cannot fully shield its holder from its own pressure waves. They are not a key to godhood. Do not chase them for the sake of power.

Exceptions

Our model of understanding Macrodesire cannot completely encapsulate all that is attributed to it, especially at the sternus world-level. Perhaps it is best to find a theory that includes all these intricacies, or perhaps we should consider them rogue data. Nevertheless, we observe these outliers.

Pakaru is neither god nor species nor a Macrodesire system. It purposefully flouts our attempts at categorisation. The self-proclaimed guardian of adversity and survival acts on its own will to preserve life. It uplifted the Coraxi, prevented their total extinction, but it also sectioned off the southwestern Forests for its own bidding. It takes the dead and reanimates them as agents of its own bidding. It is an enigma that refuses to conform; perhaps that is the universal to life.

The Dragons are even less well understood than the Artefacts. If they do exist, they evade our world entirely. Centuries ago, they were said to nest in Mitost and, rarely, commune with passers-by. They have not been documented since.

With the discovery of Irrealis, we find ourselves inundated with questions about how it functions as a spectral system. How one chooses to perceive Irrealis changes its capabilities, its appearance, and the prerequisites to manipulate it. It feeds on reputation in unprecedented ways. Is it sentient?

The Coraxi, too, hold myriad questions. Their Macrodesire system, Mutability, is rumoured to have immense potential, but they have always refused visitors to study it. We don’t even know its polarity. Likewise we don’t know the consequences of their Augmentation: are they innately connected to Macrodesire? How can we best help with our technique?