Thought and Memory
The woman waited in the small faculty lounge, sipping a cup of coffee which seemed, to her, to be incredibly weak-tasting. Nearby, two professors, both wearing immaculately tailored suits of the finest silk, sat playing a game, touching spaces in a holographic grid projected by a datapad to denote their moves. The woman could not understand their language, but she was quite used to the looks of curiosity, mixed with a bit of supremacy, which they occasionally directed her way.
“I do look out of place...” the woman mused to herself, her train of thought interrupted by a sudden voice.
“Shaman?” the red-haired man, a young Gallentean teaching assistant, cheerfully called in Sebiestor, his rather thick Luminarian accent giving his speech an awkward sound to the woman's ears. “They are ready for you.”
“Ah. Alright.” the woman replied as she stood, stretching for a brief moment. She was nearing sixty years old, and her joints complained terribly whenever she sat for too long.
“We have a schedule, Shaman.” The red-haired man bluntly stated, his impatience evident.
“Apologies.” she quietly said, immediately following him as he turned to walk from the room.
The Central Luminaire University was one of the more prestigious liberal arts schools in the Federation, and as the woman walked through the hallways and atriums, following her guide, she could not help marvel at her surroundings. All around, students dressed in the latest Gallentean fashions talked, hurried to class, played games, texted messages on their datapads.
Virtually all of them paused to take a good long look at the white-haired Sebiestor woman who walked past them.
Kyllsa Siikanen presented an out of place image indeed; she was wearing a gray apron dress, nearly reaching her ankles, with fasteners of engraved copper, over a long-sleeved white top, embroidered with a delicate, flowing script reminiscent of the tattoos which marked her face. Her clothes, her hair – simply allowed to do as it wished – her simple jewelry of wooden beads and a small copper amulet, all marked her as being a relic of another place, another time, a place and time which had no place, anymore, in New Eden.
The lecture hall was immense, and students spoke to one another in hushed voices as the head of the sociology department, Dr. Annette Bretann, announced the arrival of their guest speaker.
“As the final guest speaker for this semester's Religions of New Eden Seminar, I would like to present Seida – that means 'shaman', for those of you taking notes – Kyllsa Siikanen of Mikramurka, Matar.”
Another round of applause quickly rose and dissipated, and Kyllsa stepped to the podium and adjusted the microphone ever so slightly, and then produced a datapad from one of the large pockets in her dress. She set the device on the podium, deftly tapped a few buttons, and in an instant, a large holographic projection of a three-dimensional coordinate space, large enough so that those students in the rearmost seats were easily able to see.
“Hello.” Kyllsa spoke, smiling, the automated translators within the lecture hall's sound system converting everything she said from Sebiestor to Gallentean. “Dr. Bretann has invited me here today to speak with you about the core component of Sebiestor belief, which we refer to as 'the Path'.”
She quickly tapped a few more buttons on the datapad and began the voice-activated program, removed the small microphone from its stand, and stepped from behind the podium, so she could better walk around the projected image and point out specific things. “Let us suppose that the x axis represents time; a value of 0 marks the instant at which we enter the world, and if we set the domain of x to be between, say, 0 and n, then n marks the instant at which we leave the material world, the moment of our death.”
Kyllsa smiled as the realization began to creep across the faces of some of the assembled students. They were not expecting a mathematical explanation. “And, let us suppose that our position in time can be represented by a, such that our distance from our birth is simply our age, a, and our distance from death can be represented by n – a.”
Dr. Bretann gave Kyllsa a knowing smile as the shaman stopped to stand next to her for a moment. Dr. Bretann was easily 20 years younger than Kyllsa, and the two could not present more polar opposites when viewed side by side; the professor in her fashionable charcoal skirt suit, the shaman in her traditional tribal regalia. “So, I am likely a good deal closer to n than your Professor, as you can see.”
A quick burst of laughter filled the room, which subsided before Kyllsa continued. “Now, let us also suppose that this is not mere mathematics, but that two spirits hold some influence here; Thought and Memory, or Huginn and Muninn, as they are known in my language. Memory carefully studies all values of the domain which are less than a, and Thought advises us at all values which are greater than or equal to a. Thought, in constant conference with Memory, guides us as we approach n.”
“These are not the only influences. These spirits, Thought and Memory, speak directly to each of us, but they are not the only influences. Our Path through life, the road we walk, is not a perfectly straight line, now is it?” Kyllsa paused for a moment here for a sip of water before continuing; “All Paths are interconnected, as our decisions and lives are influenced at every instant of time, not only by Memory and Thought, but by the world and people around us, and the graph of a Path is not a line...”
At this moment, the shimmering holographic projection began to trace lines, from 0 to n, along a semicircular path; some above the X axis, some below, some to either side. The lines began to appear faster and faster, more and more rapidly, until a sphere began to take shape, its surface being defined by the myriad curved lines.
“Our Paths endlessly intersect others, and are supported by them, at every instant of time, as we each journey through life on our individual paths and play our part. This totality of all Paths, this forms the basis for our physical world; a tree must walk the path of being a tree, a rock a rock. This totality, this ordered, interconnected wholeness, is the construct we refer to as the Universe, Yggdrassl.”
Kyllsa spoke a bit more quietly now as she began to delve deeper. “In order for Yggdrassl to be maintained, every thing must be free to walk its path, on its own. Memory and Thought can help us, of course, as can any number of other spirits; particularly, Pator and Loki, Matar and Nidhoggr.”
“If we wish to have this remain a sphere, then its diameter must be n. As we have centered on the origin, we can designate the Pator-Loki axis as y and the Matar-Nidhoggr axis as z. We can, to preserve our sphere, therefore designate the domain of y to be between positive and negative n/2, and we can set the domain of z to be between positive and negative n/2 as well.”
“Shaman?” Dr. Bretann said with a smile. “Can you explain what Pator, Matar, and all the rest represent? Who, or what, they are?”
Kyllsa nodded. “Certainly! Pator, Father, the spirit who guides us to walk in the paths of our ancestors. His desire is for us to remember those who have come before, and those who will come after, and to do what we must to ensure that we both honor the Path of those before, and preserve the Path for those who will come after. His domain is duty. Loki, the Deceiver, however, works against him, and forever tries to lure us from our Path. Her domain is desire.”
The students looked at one another, and by now, most had ceased trying to write anything down; a few recorded Kyllsa's presentation on their datapads, but most just listened in silence. “Matar is the Mother, who's concern is all of her children, and who guides us to support the whole, the Clan, the Tribe, over the self. Nidhoggr, the Devourer, however, works in opposition, forever wishing to devour all, to destroy all Paths, to destroy the Universe, to claim all for itself, and to reshape it all as it desires, and who has even consumed its own name, simply now being known as 'the Devourer'.”
Kyllsa stood to one side, facing the large, flickering image, as she continued her explanation. “At any point on the sphere, we if we could take a close examination of an individual path, we could see, from its position, at what point the person valued what most strongly; if a point on someone's path were at a -y but a positive z value, for instance, we could see that they valued personal pleasure, but not at the expense of others, at that point in their lives. Of course, this can, and does, change at every instant of time, and trends become obvious over the Path which traces out one's lifetime.
Kyllsa continued, still looking at the sphere, bathed in its blue light; “Sadly, to do so, to take an actual mathematical measurement of our Path, is impossible. We do receive guidance from the countless Spirits, for good and ill, and from our Mark, but the decisions, ultimately, are ours. What we choose to do, at every instant, every day, changes that vector, changes our Path, and our Path interesects with countless others, likewise at every instant, our decisions change the directions of others, as theirs change ours.”
Kyllsa turned and looked at the students, and smiled quite brightly. “However, none of this is innately “good” or “evil”. While Yggdrassl thrives on order, too much order prevents people from walking their Path. If duty always requires an absence of pleasure, who will do their duty? A balance must exist, for all of us, as we walk our Paths, and the destination is not important; after all, we all end up at the same place, n, anyways.”
Kyllsa waited for the ensuing laughter to die down once more before she quietly summed it all up; “The Path matters. Our Walk matters. Yggdrassl matters. After all, when we die, and begin the next part of our Journey, we will all, effectively, be right back at x = 0.”
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Topic: Thought and Memory (Read 2915 times)