Barriers, Understanding, and Oneness: the Path of the Guilds

Introduction to “Get to Know Your Guilds and their Energies,” by Mekreen Dronnaal, Professor, Naldrin’s First University

Emotion Energy

For Guild members, the purest form of progress is that of becoming one with one or more Energies. This is achieved through hard work, determination, and overcoming the various obstacles — known as barriers — encountered on their journey.

A barrier is a point in the path to Energetic oneness that is consistent for every Channel who treads the path. Barriers represent the culminating effort of understanding and unity with an Energy on one level before proceeding to the next.

Mental Energy

Think of the path of Energetic oneness as a skyscraper. Overcoming the first barrier gets you into the first floor. While there, you can learn about that floor and what it has to offer. After exploring sufficiently, you can piece together the key code that will take you to floor two on the elevator. Once at floor two, you must explore and increase your understanding with a more complex layout, until you can finally move on to floor three. And so on, with each floor off the ground bringing the Channel into closer and closer communion with their chosen Energy.

Body Energy

Each barrier overcome brings a Channel closer to this oneness, and with each step the Channel becomes less “mundane” and more a creature of pure Energy. This is not to say that they cease to become who they are (it is theorized that this would eventually happen, but to date, no one has achieved such perfection), but rather that the nature of their being changes, giving them supernatural powers and abilities related to the Energy in which they have just overcome this barrier.

Physic Energy

Overcoming barriers is an achievement honored by the Guilds, and they distinguish specific stages of achievement for those who have overcome certain barriers.  

• Novices: Those having overcome the first, second, or third barriers are considered Novices. They are early in the stages of learning the Energetic arts, and are generally the object of gentle encouragement by more nurturing Guild members. About 45% of trained Guild members are Novices.*
• Initiates: Those having overcome the fourth, fifth, or sixth barriers are considered Initiates. At this stage, the Channel has proven their worth as a full “adult” in the Energetic arts. Initiates are afforded the basic amount of respect you would show to a fellow Guild member. About 40% of trained Guild members are Initiates.*
  

  Spirit Energy

• Adepts: Those having overcome the seventh, eighth, or ninth barriers are considered Adepts. Overcoming these barriers is a definite achievement, and not something most Guild members reach. They are generally afforded a great deal of respect by fellow Guild members, and some take on the responsibility of helping other, less accomplished Channels in their own journeys. About 10% of trained Guild members are Adepts.*
• Masters: Those having overcome the 10th, 11th, or 12th barriers are considered Masters. Only a few people ever accomplish this task of surmounting the most difficult of barriers to their Energetic oneness. Masters are given not just respect, but outright deference by their fellow Guild Members. They are consulted on matters of great import, and sometimes bestow great honor on a Channel by taking them as their pupil.
  About 4% of trained Guild members are Masters.*
  

  Shadow Energy

• Prodigies: Of course, there are those who have overcome even more difficult barriers, and these are known as Prodigies. While they are few and far between, they are not unheard of. Many Enforcers, the Guilds’ elite police and strike force, have overcome the 13th barrier — and higher — in their primary Energy. Channels of this status are regarded as celebrities amongst most Channels, and even some non-Guild folks, depending on how they use their powers and whether their fame has spread. Such celebrities include Pirixchi, the de facto leader of the GERC; Gill, a continent-class Umbrist and thief; and Ordon of the Whirling Blades, current Commander of the Enforcers. And, of course, the amazing Mayor of Tarnath, Sympriono Ka’nesi. About 2% of trained Guild members are Prodigies.*

*Not all Channels are registered with the Guilds, so these numbers are approximate.

— Shellwan Wah, First Order Naturalist and Head of the Guild Department of the Natural Creatures of Tamarran Continent

Kamari female (left) and male (right)

Somans have known how to change their own biological sex for at least centuries, and perhaps millennia; the first known record of a transition dates back to SP~4,590, when the crawn Soman by the name of Tasziik changed her body from that of a biological male to that of a female. This transitioning is not uncommon among the Guild; hundreds of Somans have recorded their own experiences of moving between male and female bodies (and everywhere in between). It is curious, therefore, that in some societies this still seems to carry a stigma. Ushen culture, for instance, tends to regard gender nonconformity as a perfectly normal occurrence, whether it manifests as a desire to physically transition sex or simply identifying oneself as a gender other than what they were given at birth with no desire to transition. Crawns are notoriously less accepting – which makes Tasziik’s historic change all the more impressive.

Lhavernu Sah is, to my knowledge, the only Soman on Tamarra who specializes in Energetic reassignment of gender in others – and he is one of only a dozen or so Somans who know the process of transitioning bodies other than their own.

Lhavernu, an ushen from the tribes of Lochuum, was originally trained as a medic at no less prestigious a university than Naldrin’s First. He was among the top students in his class, and worked as a healer in the city for years – until one day a patient came to him with a problem he had never faced before. This patient, a female-bodied kamari, had never felt that he had, as he put it, the “right body.” He felt he was a man despite having traditionally female anatomy.

Lhavernu thought that he could solve this problem. That he could do what no one had ever done before: change the biological and Energetic sex of someone other than himself.

The process of creating the Power to transition a stranger’s body was long and full of technical jargon. I’ll spare you the details, but suffice it to say that Lhavernu was resoundingly successful. The technique is difficult to master, but can consistently change the physical body from one sex to another over the course of mere months. And while the population of Somans who have spent the time to learn the procedure is still small, it’s growing every year.

Dorromee Ado, Grand Scholar, the Central Guilds, Tarnath

Dorromee Ado, Grand Scholar, the Six Guilds, Tarnath

Kalkix 53, SP~5,021

The Guild Energetic Research Coalition: the GERC. That’s pronounced “GURK,” mind you, not “JERK.” Yes, we have heard the jokes. They’re hilarious.

The GERC is the largest research coalition on the Tamarran continent – and that is giving generous credence to the other “organizations” that float around like so many seeds in the wind. We fund over 15,000 researchers, once you’ve tallied up all the lab assistants and principal investigators and whatnot.

We developed the hammool tracks that now allow for fast travel across the continent. We mapped the spines of the oceans, developed the Sound that allows living folks to travel safely in undead Quiets, and crafted the thread-thin metal okku that stabilizes buildings to five, six, even ten stories across the continent. We are the force of innovation on Tamarra, the wind of scientific change. Ahem – but I wax poetic. You must not let me carry on like this or we’ll be here all day!

Speaking to some specifics, the GERC is an umbrella entity comprising many teams:

• Acquisitions and Archival: A&A is the backbone, in many ways, of our organization. A&A maintains our libraries, our archives, our records of all known Powers and – thanks to the NGEI’s work (see below) – records of Spells.
• Mnemonic Division and Division of Geographic and Fexoanatomical Surveys and Research: The mnemonic division is a special group. They are our memory, our eyes and ears on expeditions. Mnems (“nems”), as we call them, train to use Mental Energy so that they forget nothing – absolutely nothing. They accompany Sojourner expeditions to provide accurate records of everything that happened, and transmit it Energetically into the minds of others. We call the other organization mentioned here, the Geo, because lord is that full name a mouthful. They explore the world around us, mapping and exploring. In one of  their most thrilling projects, they have explored the so-called “Spines” of the seas to our east and west. Someday we may find a way to travel beyond these, to other continents – if they exist.
• Energetic Experimental Group: The curious heart of the GERC. EEG researchers fiddle and tinker with the very core of the Six Energies, developing new Powers and new technologies at a tremendous rate.
• Materials Development Division: The stolid older sister of the EEG, the MDD works with physical materials. They developed okku (see above), and they work with the EEG constantly to craft previously unseen wonders.
• Non-Guild Energetic Investigation: The division that preserves and records the culture of the few remaining sorcerer tribes. The Guilds have a spotty history with the sorcerers, to put it lightly. I personally think the NGEI is the absolute least they could do. Terma Lanchet, who leads it, is an absolute wonder, though.
• Sojourners: The explorers, with a dash of derring-do and a dash of sheer insanity on top of a heap of genius. These intrepid adventurers go where most will not to explore the farthest reaches of our world.
• Voices: The Voices occupy an interesting niche within the GERC. Diplomats, linguists, and cultural savants all in one, they developed as a kind of independent branch within the Guilds. They were lumped into the GERC through a stroke of chance, and now provide services both to us specifically and to the Guilds as a whole.
• Wyrd Division: The Wyrd Division is… a little off. They work with that intriguing energy called Wyrd that seems to be some sort of breakdown product of Shadow, or perhaps Shadow catalyzing breakdown of the other five Energies. Kemmfaut Lap-Kep, who leads it, is among the most bizarre and yet most brilliant people I have had the pleasure to meet.

And of course, within these divisions are subdivisions and smaller teams and little groups of inquisitive minds prying into every force you’d care to mention that the Ten were not meant to meddle with. Around the GERC we don’t take well to limitations.

Achrovach, Teller of History

“I will conclude this series about the Crown of Drawnwyn by discussing rumors about the current whereabouts of the base of the Crown and its seven Eyes, each separated from the others.” — Achrovach, Ushen Teller of History.

It is believed, with some level of certainty, that the base of the Crown of Drawnwyn is now possessed by Bardan Mamfrost, a human, and one of the richest folk on the Continent. Bardan owns many homes and properties throughout Tamarra, including a luxurious compound on the First Tier of Naldrin City.  Most speculation concurs that the base of the Crown is being kept in this compound; a number of reports say that Bardan is hoping to reassemble all the parts of the Crown.  According to these same rumors, he is offering a rich reward for each of the Seven Eyes, and he may already have one or two of them in his possession.

There are many rumors about the location of the Eye of Edet, which works with Soman Energy.  Many powerful (and not so powerful) warriors claim to have found this Eye.  Of course, they have also claimed that the Eye has made them into the single finest warrior of the Continent.  These rumors seem to be much more about bravado than fact, and none are taken seriously.  However, there is reason to believe that the Eye of Edet may be in the possession of one of the crawn leaders in the Kingdom of the Szaskar Crawn, in the northeastern part of the continent.  Substantive rumors of powerful Soman feats have passed out of this typically closed-mouth society.

The Eye of Amdrath, which works with Emotion Energy, is also the subject of many rumors.  There are far too many to consider here; however, the thread of truth throughout most of them indicates that this Eye is currently in the possession of a powerful leader on the Tamarran Continent.  If so, it makes a great deal of sense that this leader would dearly want to hide that fact, given the lengths that others would go to in order to possess it.

Perhaps the most persistent rumor is that the Eye of Mark, the Eye aligned with Shadow Energy, has been hidden somewhere in the Shadow Plane. There it is accessible only to those with sufficient power, not only to enter this strange plane of existence, but also to navigate it.  Some say that a blink bat* may have taken this Eye into the Shadow Plane and lost it there.

What of the other Eyes?  There are too many rumors and too much hearsay to recount.  However, there are frequent mentions of places on the continent where the Eyes may yet be found.  The list includes the Merrill Gorge (the deep and wide cut in the surface of Ethem), Martown, and the Delfan Mines.

All that remains to say is this: if you decide to search for the Crown or one of its Eyes, good luck and safe travels!

* Blink bats are those small, bat-like creatures that have the ability to blink out of existence in one place and immediately reappear somewhere else.