The Last Keyholder

To the Members of the Honorable Council of Shiryoku,


The nature of the Infinite Tapestry has been the subject of debate for as long as history has been recorded. At your request, I have compiled my notes on the Infinite Tapestry and enclosed them herein. Should you require any further enlightenment on the subject I remain—as always—at your service.
 


By the Weavers' Grace, 
 Tengan


 On the Infinite Tapestry, the Kamigumo, and Seeing the Future


 Existing both separate from and inexorably interwoven into all of creation, the Infinite Tapestry is quite literally the fabric of reality. It is the weave and weft of every moment that has ever occurred, is occurring, or will ever occur in the Multiverse, embroidered with the innumerable lifethreads of every living thing.


It begins with a star.


Each star in the 'verse serves as an anchor point for a single lifethread; whenever a new life comes into being, a new star ignites. We call this a person's birthstar.


From that star plays out the lifethread of that being. As the lifeform interacts with its environment, it affects the lifethreads of other—crossing them, becoming entwined with them—and they with others. In this way is the Infinite Tapestry woven.


When a life comes to an end, the Kamigumo—The Weavers of Threads—tie off its thread, but its birthstar continues to shine as long as the accompanying lifethread continues to have an effect on other lifethreads in the Tapestry. Some stars shine brightly for ages after their threads have been tied off. Others glimmer feebly enough to begin with and are snuffed out in the same instant as the life that gave it birth.


Thus, for every star you see in the night sky, there is a life that fuels its light. Every star that vanishes is the conclusion of a life's effect on the Multiverse.


The Infinite Tapestry can be observed by those mortals who possess the Sight: by reading the designs woven into the Infinite Tapestry, a Seer can observe the past and the present—That Which Has Been and That Which Is. If he so chooses, a Seer can look ahead to See what designs are being woven in the future—That Which Will Be—but even the most skilled Seer is unable to See more than a day or two beyond That Which Is. To mortal eyes, the future is an inconstant thing, seemingly caught in a continuous flux between what might be and what will be, between possibility and certainty. This is a phenomenon we call the Tangle.


It is said that the Tangle is That Which Will Be being woven, unraveled, and rewoven a hundred million times in every moment; that the future that would be in one moment can be made impossible in the next by the smallest decision made by the simplest mind anywhere in the Multiverse. This is inaccurate—albeit understandably so.


The fact is, the ability of mortals to See the future is restricted by our limited perception of time and our even more limited awareness of the complex web of causality that governs the Multiverse. We see time as a straight line, only able to perceive its flow in the moment of our awareness and in our memories of what has happened. Our awareness of causality rarely extends beyond our immediate surroundings—the impact that we have and the impact had on us within our tiny sphere of influence, no more than a bubble in an infinite ocean.


Only the Kamigumo are able to perceive the innumerable threads that exist, only They are able to comprehend the staggering complexity of their interactions—both past, present, and future—culminating in their manifestation within our narrow window of perception. To us, That Which Is constantly moves away from That Which Was into That Which Will Be; what we See as the Tangle is in reality the nearly infinite threads of causality coalescing just beyond the threshold of That Which Is. To the Kamigumo, however, it is always That Which Is and That Which Was and That Which Will Be. They See all times in all 'verses at once.


This honourable Council has asked me to expound upon the Tangle and how we might See beyond it; to that request I say only this:


Content yourself with the mysticism and theater of soothsayers, of serpent eaters and the counsel of those Seers you can trust to content themselves with Seeing only the immediate future. Those who claim to know the Tangle or what lies beyond it are either mad or lying.


Do not seek to know the Tangle. Madness lies within it.