Saving the Void? (Time travel) - future expansion idea?

[ObsidianFire]

It's from this interview: https://gamerescape.com/2017/09/01/l...w-at-pax-2017/

Gamer Escape: Would a “Light-born” void differ from the “Dark-born” void we know?

Koji Fox: Actually, yes. There’s that that “blank, white perfection” line in the game. That’s accurate. The Dark void that we know is void of aether, but you still have the people and animals that were there and they’re aether-starved and trying to break through into our world and suck that aether back into their own. Whereas in a light void there’s NOTHING. It’s empty. Beyond that I can’t say anything.

There is aether in the life that is still "living" in the Void. Only "living" isn't a very accurate term either. There is no Aetherial Sea in the Void for life to return to, so it sticks around after death. This is why killing Voidsent doesn't really work. There's nowhere for their aether to go. The only way we've seen a Voidsent really be "killed" for good was when Diabolos ate Scatch. But really what Diabolos did was eat/absorb all of Scatch's aether, killing her in the process. And even then, we didn't kill Diabolos. We just killed the host he was possessing and sent him back to the Void.

It's not just the lack of the Aetherial Sea that is the problem though. Everything is made out of aether, including physical matter. Aside from all the battle arenas we fight on in the WoD, we don't see anything like a world there. It's just nothing but empty space. So creating an entire world from aether would have to happen somewhere along the line. Not much point in "saving a world" when there is no physical substance to that world.

"Fixing" the Void would somehow involve either adding more aether to the Void and hoping the Voidsent don't eat it or killing everything in the Void somehow to get the aether out of them. Which brings up the problem of Voidsent yet again. No matter what gets tried, the Cloud of Darkness, Diabolos, Feradad... basically any powerful Voidsent we've ever come across would have to be dealt with somehow. And in a world they can't really die in since there's nowhere for their aether to go.

It's important to keep in mind that the Flood of Light on the 1st Shard did not finish and result in a Light Void. On the 13th Shard, the Flood of Darkness did finish and create a Dark Void. We are not fixing a Light Void with Eden; we are fixing a still functioning Shard that has too much static aether.

[Iscah]

There is no Aetherial Sea in the Void for life to return to, so it sticks around after death.

Have we been told this? I assumed there's just one aetherial sea (where Hydaelyn is located) that is accessed by all the shards.

[Ardox]

It's from this interview: https://gamerescape.com/2017/09/01/l...w-at-pax-2017/
/snip

I must say I mostly agree with that reading, but for the sake of curiosity: how do we know there's no more Aetherial Sea? Here there's even a second silent assumption: that the sea is aethertight between the shards, but we know shard's aether affect (at least) the source. Though, if it's not aethertight, then why aether don't leak into the void? There's very little information on how the sea work to begin with..

I mean, you make a very compelling case for why they can't be killed. On the other end we haven't directly killed a lot of voidsent (only their incarnations). The only voidsent of note we killed and we know for sure isn't dead is the Cloud of Darkness (which is said to be the uncontested ruler of the Void in the lore book).. and we know beings with strong aether reserves are hard to kill. As an explanation for not seing any ground, there could be a dense layer of black clouds (mirroring the Everlasting Light on the First). That's speculative, but it's not too far fetched.

I'm personally very septic about healing the Thirteen to be honest, but so I was about the whole ShB premise and I was pleasantly surprise..



On a side note, we know Zodiark's prison is still there in 13th reflection..

[Cilia]

Now, I'm going to go a little crazy here, so please bear with me.

Ahem. What we now know about the Flood of Light is that it did not strip away all of the elemental aether of the First - it simply hypercharged it into an Umbral (Light) state. If that's the case, then what the Flood of Darkness should have done is hypercharge the elements on the Thirteenth into an Astral (Dark) state. This would leave it in a state of "high activity," constantly rising in energy until all distinctions between the elements ceased to be. Fire / Earth would meld into magma, Fire / Lightning into plasma, etc. Logically, it should all eventually collapse into a singularity that devours all aether that gets too near; aether can't be pulled out of it either due to the density and, even if it could, would just be "all-aspected" (Astral Dark) aether. A black hole, in layman's terms.

But what if you could slow it down? Light aether can do that. If you pumped enough Light aether out you could, theoretically, slow down the constant activity of the Void. If you were able to do that, slow it down to the point where you could filter out and separate the elements, then you could, in theory, reconstruct the Thirteenth from the Void it has become.

In theory.

It's not like this would necessarily be a bad thing, either. Sure, the Ascians would have another chance at rejoining it to the Source... but it would put the long-suffering souls of the people who became voidsent to rest, as well as stop voidsent incursions into the Source. Permanently.

If you could do such a thing, and as a famous scientist once said...

[Atamis]

I don't think it would be impossible to restore the 13th to some form. I was half expecting them to dump the light-bomb-WoL into the 13th since it clearly has plenty of room for some aether. If we can find a way to link the 13th aetherically we can just use it as a trash receptacle for excess aether until it eventually regains some form of being. Sure the voidsent might eat it, but if we dump enough of it in there surely they couldn't eat it all fast enough without exploding.

[Ardox]

Now, I'm going to go a little crazy here, so please bear with me.

Ahem. What we now know about the Flood of Light is that it did not strip away all of the elemental aether of the First - it simply hypercharged it into an Umbral (Light) state. If that's the case, then what the Flood of Darkness should have done is hypercharge the elements on the Thirteenth into an Astral (Dark) state. This would leave it in a state of "high activity," constantly rising in energy until all distinctions between the elements ceased to be.

It's all conjecture, but this is also my lecture of what the Void is: All aether tipped astrally (dark).

Fire / Earth would meld into magma, Fire / Lightning into plasma, etc. Logically, it should all eventually collapse into a singularity that devours all aether that gets too near; aether can't be pulled out of it either due to the density and, even if it could, would just be "all-aspected" (Astral Dark) aether. A black hole, in layman's terms.

However, we have no idea what elemental aether turned entirely astral looks like. Since it's the case for umbrally charged elements, I don't think it's too risky to hypothesized they lose their distinction. However, the collapsing / black hole conjecture seems a bit too far fetched for me. In fact, if it's in a "hyperactive" state, I'd see the elements having too much energy to even interact (just like neutrinos in real life), that conveniently explain the (apparent) absence of aether in the Void: the denizen can't use it in that heightened state.

[Theodric]

I'd rather explore more of the Source. The First is interesting, don't get me wrong, but so much has been put on hold or cut short in favour of going there. It's also very far removed from what a regular inhabitant of the Source can experience which means most people role-playing something 'humble' aren't going to be able to go there. So a lot of role-players are missing out by adhering to the established lore/limitations.

As flawed as WoW may be in many ways it at least made it more plausible for people portraying 'adventurers' to get involved in stuff - even if they were a faceless soldier in a large army.

[Edax]

I don't think it would be impossible to restore the 13th to some form. I was half expecting them to dump the light-bomb-WoL into the 13th since it clearly has plenty of room for some aether. If we can find a way to link the 13th aetherically we can just use it as a trash receptacle for excess aether until it eventually regains some form of being. Sure the voidsent might eat it, but if we dump enough of it in there surely they couldn't eat it all fast enough without exploding.

They already setup that the Crystal Tower can travel the shards and that the tower itself is a giant repository of energy. Summoning the Crystal tower into the Void would be the first step to fixing it, although from a meta perspective, a world of darkness would require the devs to seriously overhaul their lighting system. I actively avoid doing the MSQ at night currently because I can hardly see anything, especially when I screenshot. There would be a great chance to make the game very atmospheric if they gave the WoL a toggleable light source that he/she could carry at will. It would aid with the horror aesthetic.

[KageTokage]

I feel like Eden is setting up something regarding the void; namely that it might not be as hopeless of a case as everyone thought it was.

Or at least I don't know why else a warrior from there who's suggested to be the Oracle of Darkness would show up out of the blue, as if her role is the same as that of the Oracle of Light, it's to bring balance to her world.

[Iscah]

I think the biggest problem with repairing the void via Eden is that it seems too much of a "world-shifting" event to be relegated to an optional sidequest - unless we're perhaps only "planting the seed" of restoration and it will take a long time to actually return the aether to normal. Which seems to be the case for the Empty as well.