Despite a few short forays into the world beyond the Void, Revaliir, Icarus found himself present in the great emptiness once more. He had previously perused the works of Mora, the mage that had chronicled much of the mysteries of the Void. There were some deficiencies, as expected, but it was also granted that none had reported staying there for a duration as great as he had.
The Void, to him, was akin to a home outside of his own realm. In fact, when the others fell from the first world, Icarus had returned to the Void, remaining at the edge of the juncture of realities that comprised the furthest reach of what would be labeled “the Unstructured”. There, he saw the progression of countless realities simply because he stood briefly on the edge of them all before choosing to follow the others. It was a conscious decision as his own world had averted ruin, though he felt discouraged that the world the others had fled had not.
Silently, he often found himself cursing the Tree of the other world for its sheer arrogance in how it selected its representatives. None had experienced Obelisk before and when it had approached, the world swiftly fell to ruin, forcing the exodus to this new realm. Still, he found a measure of hope amongst the “gods” of this realm as it seemed most were not continuously wrapped in personal squabbles to the point of weakening the world almost as if by design. Sure, there were issues, but at least the possibility of existential crisis was a unifying factor at times.
As he collected his thoughts, Icarus produced his notebook, focusing on perhaps the best way to detail his knowledge of the Void and its subsequent connections to all parallel worlds.
”My name is Icarus Valeon. There are a few that know my name, but most do not due to an extended life of seclusion. I write this as a means of explaining, to my knowledge, the Void, and everything within. First, the Void itself is merely a passage between realities, where the greater the distance from a reality, the more subjective it becomes to one’s will. I speculate that a powerful enough will and force of magic may make it possible to generate a new reality. I base this on two things:
”1: Within the portion identified as ‘the Unstructured’, reality becomes increasingly subject to the will of intelligent beings present. I state this after recreating the capital of my empire as a tangible experience through simple memory. Portions of it remain a bit fuzzy until I focus on finer details such as the textures of stone and rock, indicating that it is dependent on a degree of clarity beyond normal human comprehension. Additionally, even I, having lived several years here, am only capable of generating roughly a mile of terrain with full focus. It’s possible that collective minds unifying such as a hive-mind could generate potentially dozens or hundreds of miles of terrain.
”2: It seems residual thoughts and possibilities collect in the furthest reaches of the Void. I have met children between individuals that never had such a child, armies that never existed, and inversions of familiar terrains changed by the course of events. Imagine, if one would, that every choice made was no rather than yes. That’s a portion of this subjective reality lying beyond the more traveled terrain.
”The denizens of the Void do not exist beyond the ‘Semi-Structured’. In fact, it seems that most of the creatures detailed in Mora’s work are actually foreign entities to the Void entirely. These ‘Void Stalkers’ referenced are actually not native to the Void, nor are there any residents aside from myself. This leads me to believe they are individuals like myself who originated in one of the connected realities and through either intent or mishap, progressed beyond the boundary of their own reality. Every one of them should be considered dangerous as the power requirement to transmigrate in such a fashion may rival those granted boons by the Tree, though it seems to cost them almost the entirety of that power to do so.
”The creatures that seem predatory are apparently lingering thoughts from dreams and imagination that were vivid enough to create fictional life here. As such, they are limited in power due to the fact they don’t truly exist and are relatively stupid as well due to that. There have been two such apparitions of considerable power, likely the result of truly vivid nightmares, but they proved less-lethal than I expected.
“The remainder of Mora’s work is fairly accurate, though I do have one addition to make. Those who use the ‘Gate’ spell are capable of stopping the spell prior to crossing fully to the other end. This creates a tether point within the Void as the Void functions as a passage. Imagine the world, as described, is a series of walls within a labyrinth. The ‘Gate’ spell, as it pertains to the Void, basically connects a point above the labyrinth and from there, a point into a new part of the labyrinth. Interrupting the spell removes the destination and keeps the caster within the Void. Expertise in the use of the spell can dictate where in the Void the caster arrives, making it useful to arrive quickly in the ‘Unstructured’ and take full use of its subjective reality and temporal distortion.” Icarus wrote, satisfied at his report.
Feeling he had made a job well-done, he changed the immediate scenery to that of a bright beach, with mild humidity and a pleasant temperature. Some day, he would present this report to a school or library. For now, however, he contemplated how likely it was anyone would even believe he had lived here for years.
