Theorem Of The Midpoint

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Excerpts from the studies of the sparsely-known Knave of Graves found themselves across the shelves of Athera by some mysterious means and without notice; at least until the pages themselves, scrolled in yellowed parchment, would be found by the curious. This theorem would provide the following information:

“... the forces of the unexplored or otherwise forgotten outer-realms (or, in other words, realms yet to be occupied) have been undocumented for some time. However, through-out a sum of years dedicated to the search of the legendary ancient Wraiths that the King Olivier de Savoie had been assigned to hunt down as per the offer of my venerated Lord, I have been allowed to make extensive studies and observations regarding the status of the lands beyond the known world’s borders- specifically what is not known, not what was left behind.

My searches had led me far from the mainland of Athera and into the unknown - the northern steppes, the southern wilds, and far into the east and west that only hold ruins of civilizations that I, in earnest, cannot truthfully care enough for to pillage and search for what treasures they may hold. In my travels, I have witnessed men (mostly of humane blood) wander these very untouched wilds, often on their lonesome, and likely with intention to wander. I followed them for at most months at a time, individually, and it was not until my later observations of these various men and women that I realized that something was not right with them.

Initial intrigue had sparked when I found myself dumbfounded at the study of an elder adventurer who, likely in some bout of senile reason, decided to dedicate his last years to exploration, likely until his life was taken by age. I searched his crude encampments during his time away to hunt, discovering his age and purpose amidst notebooks and old scrolls. I watched this man for five years - this man, at the age of one-hundred and twenty three (123)- and at no point in time had I seen his health falter as per the high and taxing count of his age. His hair remained grey, and did not become any more white as it had been as I first saw him. He did not go bald, nor did his brittle frame further deteriorate under the stress of time. His distraction of adventure led to receiving a variety of wounds, certainly, but beyond these few points in time, the old man had retained a status of health that was perpetual and barely dissimilar to when he first embarked on his journey.

The conclusion of the elder’s adventure had rewarded him with sparse treasures. After five years, he made the same trail back to the mainlands of Athera, where civilization still thrived. I dedicated two more years to my likely questionable and distant observation of the old man’s twilight years, and upon the end of these very same years, the old man succumbed to age and passed away peacefully. In this time his health eroded as the Curse of Horen would normally inflict. This had only brought confusion, initially, but I had made the vague realization that some force beyond the borders of inhabited land had kept the old gentleman alive. I was incorrect (partly) in this assumption, for the old man was not kept alive - it was time that paused for him, as if it forgot he existed.

I applied my crude theories to small observations of various other travelers who challenged the wilds farthest from the borders of Athera - individuals and groups. Primary targets, being humans that were nearing their “graying ages”, displayed similar effects to the old man. A restless swordsman of fifty years left to wander the wilds, and the sparse wrinkles upon his worn features and the rare gray hairs failed to intensify as he lingered beyond the domain(s) of the four races for a time of three years, marking him to be fifty-three (53) upon his return to Athera. A year after his return, the effects of age, continued to progress, and the progression of his “graying age” continued naturally. This very example repeated with others, even for those of younger years, whom while they did not display the effects of elderly features, did not progress in the complete maturity of weathering of their mortal coil as per the passing of time. It all continued when they returned to the land in which all people still lived.

Traveling far from Athera had allowed me to discover a small number of simple tribes, often human, that were likely established shortly after the occupation of the land itself. Their territory was marked far from the kingdoms of the four races, as deep in the east, west, north and south as the travelers I observed for so long. However, their abundant numbers were not affected by this strange stall in time. Still, the farther I traveled from them, and the smaller of groups of people I found, the more prominent this disfunction of time had I seen. I returned to mainland Athera later on and sought information on societies that existed beyond Athera; studying histories and peoples such as the Mori’quessir, Kharajyr, and more intensively the kingdoms of Aeldin. All of these societies bore records of their people succumbing to the toll of age - again, more frequently for Aeldin as per it’s humane rule - and passed it off as normalcy just as much as the folk of Athera always had. There is no suggestion of a lack of aging beyond their borders; only the fact that many who wander away into the unknown become lost, and do not return.

Building upon these studies, I may now acutely establish the “theorem of the midpoint”; the suggestion that time itself is unstable and uncertain beyond the lands that had not been tamed by prosperous, abundant peoples. To further layer this theory, it is apparent that there is no single midpoint, such as the one that keeps the lands of Athera accurate and aligned with the complicated process of chronological time. The larger the civilization, the stronger the midpoint becomes. Otherwise, those who travel in small packs or alone, endlessly, often remain stuck in the same state they left civilization in. However, there had been a number of observations I made where some individuals were still aligned with time, and had succumbed to age alone. Any other deaths within the wilds, or the lands untouched by these midpoints, were likely caused by wildlife or haphazard, dangerous choices. Whatever keeps the process of time ticking and consistent seems to focus more on lands more relevant to peoples who settle there in abundance, and not those who wander into the emptiness of the wilds, where the accuracy and understanding of chronology is, in other words, broken and unmoving.”

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This is essentially an extensively explanation and justification on why some characters are able to wander off into the unknown (ie, become unused or “shelved”) and return in the same state as they left, if the player chooses. This does not prevent exceptions where some characters still age while being away. I leave the ambiguous nature of the “distorted, broken chronology” concept to handle that.