The Occult

While the real occult exists, there also exists a fake perceived occult such as the one seen today with such tripe as devil worship, blood magic, healing crystals and all that crap, none of which really work. Witches, as they were continuously hated feared and persecuted, were made up of a group of undesirable innocents accused of black magic (nigromancy). A few distinctions. Real occultists like to go by the terms occult, arcane, cyndrimic and Hyllic, whereas the fake (sometimes unintentionally) occultists tend to go with wizard, magician and witchcraft. Occultists as opposed to magicians are not inherently malicious but rather secretive for obvious reasons. Things like spellcasting, making gold from lead and voodoo have nothing to do with the real occult. It's all about orkar wheels and psychosophy here.

Eye of Dallana
A metal construct adorned with precious gems and metals (especially opals), consisting of a single glass plate flanked by handles. One of the only known actual mystical artefacts. It bestows true knowledge of whatever one looks at straight to the mind of the looker. Currently, it is kept locked up in the Oxyx Vault with knowledge of its existence kept to a minimum due to its heresy. The Attan and High Priests are aware of its existence and are vaguely aware of what it does, though looking through it is forbidden. They don't really need persuading though because of all the tales circulating about what has happened to those who have looked through it, some true and some false. In short, looking through it too frequently or too long will cause madness.

After Dallana's literal eye was gouged out by a disgruntled Eisel after the Battle of Kings (story elsewhere). At the moment when Dallana was struck and died, everyone surrounding him, since Dallana was celebrating the victory of the battle, saw Eisel resurrected and poised in a plum flash of light. It was such a curious and momentous scene that Aruma Fontara painted one of his famous artworks 'From the Beyond'. As a result, the phrase 'the slaughtered eye' is used commonly in scripture.

The Eye is currently stored safely away in the Oxyx Vault, along with other valuable and original religious artefacts. Once the eye was gouged, it was recovered by a loyal soldier and presented to the religious council, who then processed it with the ancient Gravenian practice of funeral glass. It immediately began demonstrating its mysterious properties, but after an attempt to steal it by the Cult of Hylla failed, it was written off and permanently hidden away.

It requires heavy training and preparation to look through the Eye without experiencing serious side effects. Nobody in the occult quite knows why Dallana became of importance. If unprepared, viewing leads to instant unconsciousness, loss of identity (permanent or temporary depending on preparation, mind capacity and how intense the other soul is) and in extreme cases, severe memory loss, multiple personality disorder, insanity and death. Many of these symptoms have occurred to curious cardinals so now is locked up in the Oxyx vault.

Psychosophy
Although most of humanity is clueless about its existence, there is such thing as a soul although it is not the bodiless essence of a person, rather a lifeless weak vessel that grants consciousness if held.

Souls can be elevated, though not to the scale of supernatural abilites; that is to say, one cannot gain supernatural abilities without a little help. However, you can lift yourself out of the trough of mediocrity through the means of revelation and enlightenment - prayer, sacred texts, intense study and that sort of thing. Whilst this is mainly related to thinking/praying/whatever about the nature of Hylla, it has been known to have been achieved with other religions to a degree, though they do get confused about it. This again is linked to the mystifying connection between Dallanaism and the Cult of Hylla. Naturally it is being studied. Interestingly, an elevated soul of any type which randomly happens to become a ghost retains more rational thought and awareness than some dumb pleb regular ghost. The degree of rationality and awareness increases with elevation right up until you get the strange phenomena of Hylla.

Spiritualism had quite the boom but a few centuries earlier than the Victorian era. Since supernatural beings come about stochastically as part of the soul system, there was an increase in supernatural beings due to the vast increase in deaths from the Great War. Indeed there have been similar increases in reports and folk tales after pandemics, genocides (holy city genocide?) and that. Increased sightings of ghoulies led to to increased superstition to the point where religious authorities began to take them seriously (Dallanaist anti-folk tale policies). Tales got exaggerated through mass panic into monsters and fairytale beings (examples of famous ones?). Unlike spiritualism, fear hugely outweighed fascination but it increased religious power - as spiritual decay occurred, the religious authorities claimed it was due to the valiant efforts of their priests and all that. The fad died out soon after but it has seen recent revivals following famous novels and stuff maybe, though all recent revivals have been much more positive. Heavily put down in the hardcore Dallanaist countries. In the era of chnikagraphs, modern media and natural philosophy, the risk of popular outbreak is increasingly severe and as such the Cult is more and more protective and dedicated to containment.

Ghost/spectre/phantom: a random remaining soul left after the physical body deceased. Like the isolated soul, it is dumb and mindless, incapable of much power or rational thought. Hangs about aimlessly until the soul decays. The connection between sentience and these dumb things (especially considering animal souls) has been under much debate in psychosophical circles. It is unseen but exacts a small amount of undirected force, typically in brief telekinetic bursts, noises, lights and uncomfortable feelings.

Eidolon/wraith: a randomly remaining soul left after an enlightened human dies (gained through study or contact with higher beings). The chance of this happening is much rarer than regular spectres. Unlike spectres, they are more capable of rational thought and planning and in greater control of their greater power, in different degrees depending on the magnitude of their enlightenment. They usually hang around a certain place or person due to personal reasons. Hence these places and persons are considered haunted and often become ostracised and abandoned. They are unseen but can become temporarily corporeal and can exert considerable influence to the level of being dangerous.

Undead: a body remaining without a soul. It only lasts for a couple of days with little motion and with what seems to be an innate desire for decay/true death. They can be dangerous if provoked. They can theoretically live forever but there are no records or tales of those living beyond 2 weeks. Dumb and subhuman.

Capyhoder: an inanimate object containing a soul. These are very rare as it requires random chance of a ghost forming combined with the concentrated effort of entering an object. There does not need to be a personal connection between person and object and objects are usually close to the location of death. They have typically the same effects as ghosts/eidolons but with a longer lifetime. Its influence is extremely limited but a heavy and unquantifiable uncomfortable feeling is emitted.

Instilvichers: an animal which contains a human soul. Again random, but human souls seem to be able to displace animal souls, provided one is sufficiently close upon death. It is often very difficult to tell because unenlightened human souls are barely more intelligent than animals. Hence the animal might demonstrate certain limited aspects of human intelligence but not unnaturally so.

Ogurvichers: a human which contains an animal soul. Very rare due to the displacement but have been examples. These 'humans' are short-lived, violent and seemingly insane, leading to tales of therianthropy and such.

Gremmotill: a person possessed by another person's soul. I'm not quite sure whether how it will occur without death of the people but maybe there is a way to separate the soul from the body beforehand. Yes, that's good and it usually means the instantaneous evaporation of the soul and death of the body but exceptions can occur. Can be smart, but again more likely insane.

Doctor Jame Sootbrooke - a psychosopher hellbent on quantifying and proving the existence of the soul to popular philosophy. Has managed to survive many assassination attempts by the Cult of Hylla after his tendency to talk jeopardised the operation. Lab full of spooky paraphernalia similar to Hex at Alton Towers. He actually managed to rapidly advance the field by definitively proving the existence of souls. When he gave a demonstration to the Board of Philosophers (reluctant as his device used electricity), it was shut down by Hylla. Sootbrooke held a demonstration about his various soul-based discoveries and Hylla personally intervened to make Sootbrooke look insane, leading to his subsequent incarceration at Meivarg Asylum.

Incidentally, there is an opera bouncing around called A Dog's Lament which just so happens, in appealing to a recent spiritualist revival, features the character Jakob Pikkuma, a mad scientist searching for a way to detect ghosts. Hence Jame 'Pikkuma' Sootbrooke.

Vampires or higher undead are not psychosophically included but probably exist in folklore.

It is possible for a Hylla to degenerate into a ghost after the term is up. This is highly rare but has already occurred with the 4th generation. Hylla is probably the highest stage of enlightenment and being a human can achieve and while they remain completely rational, they lose omniscience and teleportation and so are left as defunct relics of the past. For example, number 4 of original name Ferguam has been wandering about now for 9000 years and is only really recently showing symptoms of spiritual decay - he is linked to an abandoned settlement in the forests of Yvinndt. This state is known as Morga.

Soulmates do in fact exist and are characterised when two people have the same soul. Maybe some sort of soul code, even though the soul is individable, but then there is the supposed incompatibility between science and the occult. I think that's bollocks.

Lonardo F'Iey, as you may remember is the famed athlete from Lararey who somehow manages to vastly outrace all opponents with mocking ease. This is because he naturally draws power from the Cyndrim to power his body (though he does not willingly do so nor know of his condition). While he still needs food and water to repair/rebuild cells and all that, calorific intake is seriously diminished and oxygen is practically unnecessary. This well of energy allows his body to perform at superhuman levels in strength, speed and stamina. Also thermoregulation. Being able to draw from the cyndrim (aether??) like this can happen with or without a soul. Sentient conscious beings naturally draw little bursts of cyndrimic energy to power the soul and nothing else. So the cells draw their energy from the cyndrim and not respiration so the body is very withered and all that.

This function also theoretically applies to objects, though it does not seem to occur naturally. It has the potential to create golems - objects of any shape or material which have been treated to draw energy from the cyndrim to power movement and lower level thought as a replacement for a soul. The process of creating a golem is highly highly compex and so far, only one exists, toling away in a cave deep below the earth unknown to the world.

It's very hard to draw from the cyndrim on a mass scale and is difficult to transfer the energy into anything useful - so no industrial machinery powered by magic. Littoral cell style of energy conservation so can't draw too much power too quickly without grave consequences (ie. mass consciousness extinction/heat death)

Love, or so it's called, is also related to psychosophy and is simply the connection that links between two or more souls. Only form with extreme emotion and passion. Visible between souls when viewed through the Eye. Passion, soul and aether all form the basis of the field of psychosophy, slowly being unearthed and studied by the Cult. The Eye is important as it allows some degree of quantification.

Orkography
Golems are typically encoded by drawing symbols in a circular chakraesque pattern on the floor. By getting the symbols in the right place, one can pierce the cyndrim and form instructions so as to direct the energy and form logic paths. Such a circle would be tens of metres in radius at a respectable font.

The Cult somewhat knows about it, in extremely basic levels, as evidenced by Klaufmon's Design but lack the skill and knowledge for in-depth designs. Hylla has teased them about the tomes and manuscripts kept by the Golem Master. These patterns work because they mimic the encoding of the universe - the instructions for the laws of physics and all fundamental particles are written in this form, though incredibly complex. By writing the instructions in a compatible form on any surface or in any medium, one can do pretty much limitless things from rewriting the laws of physics to conjuring heat energy. Some of the more universe-breaking instructions would be millions of light-years across and feature symbols incomprehensible to the human mind.

This forms the basic of 'magic' as one can channel energy into any purpose or mass so long as you have the knowledge and time to spare. Powers have their own instructions, it seems, presumably designed by a higher being.

Theoretically you could encode an orkar wheel that would itself construct larger and more complex circles. Plus, the designs delete themselves after one use by burning up or smearing the material or something. I guess you could make a large stamp. The general procedure is to draw your wheel but leave a small segment of the perimeter free at the top to prevent it from activating. Glow and air vibrations. The simplest form of orkar wheel farts out a unit of heat energy.

Joseph Orkar was a member of the Cult of Hylla who formalised the philosophy of orkar wheels after discovering them from a wise old man somewhere. Developed very primitively throughout the world in isolation. He dedicated his life to creating the concept of Orkar Dust (enchanted ash which could rearrange by itself telepathically to form more complex wheels) and trying to find that golem.

Roba Claufmon is hailed, along with Orkar, as one of the founding fathers of modern orkography amongst the select few who are privy to it.

Quantum effects and observation

Willem Reffilibor is the current Head of Orkography for the Cult of Hylla. Whilst Orkar focused on the concept of Orkar dust and Klaufmon on the Golem Master, Refefiliborr has dedicated his career to discovering more functions and finding abbreviations where possible. A significant amount of his studies are dedicated to locating various isolated communities with a basic grasp on orkography and seeing if they have stumbled across any new functions, symbols or systems. Vision of his team doing research in a cave, canvas hung on the walls. I know what I'm talking about, don't worry. The Cult's orkography department probably has use of modern philosophical aides like mechanical engines and such. I suppose orkography is a unique mix of linguistics, programming and maths/physics. Maybe Willem is fluent in Orkar wheels.

True names and their concept have been identified as a major step forward in terms of efficiency - Willem has began extensive research into it but it's very slow going process.

Aiming for partially dissembling orkar wheels.

The cyndrim (or aether) is kind of a dimension but kind of not. Its space is warped and stretched compared to the regular universe. Its just a pool of energy and the purpose hasn't been discovered, but theorised to do with God or the origin of the universe. There is constant energy exchange between the aether and the real world. When sapping energy via wheels, a negative feedback occurs, mainly in the form of absorbing heat energy from the universe ubiquitously. If too much energy is taken, fears are that positive feedback would kick in and lead to horrors - heat death or the complete extinction of all unconscious beings in the universe. This is partially why they refuse to publicly release knowledge of Orkar wheels).

Jumpdrive theory through the cyndrim

Not many true names have been discovered but the people that do usually tend to go by them because it is more fitting than their given name (The Golem Master, Yogsai)

Interdimensional orkar wheels, also known as Isherwood wheels. Basically, whilst orkar wheels have the ability to warp energy and mass and even the rules in the universe, orkographic theorist Bryony Isherwood is a pioneer in multiverse theory and has gone a step further by mathematically proving the existence of so-called Isherwood wheels, wheels that can warp the multiverse. Currently, no progress has been made concerning their shape/grammar, or even what they actually specifically do, or if they're accessible. Some have suggested that they would come in the form of a 0-sided shape, or a sphere, though no further details have been presented. Transdimensional orkographics deals with forces beyond reality and the universe - eldritch unknowable forces that madden and curse. It also deals with the concept of Backstage. the realm behind the multiverse. Empty like that one Spongebob episode, and supposedly the realm of God. I suppose that while regular Orkar wheels are inspiring and wondrous albeit slow and mostly ineffective, Isherwood wheels (or at least Isherwood's theory) are maddening/eldritch at worst and bleak at best. I also like to think that Isherwood wheels deal with the nature of God and the origins of the universe, with a God that is Lovecraftian and Cthulhean in tone.

Also, I suppose that the beginnings of quantum theory emerged with developments in orkography, psychosophy and the various other occult philosophies I haven't come up with yet.

Although orkar wheels will not be getting the prime treatment they deserve during the chosen time period and will be virtually ignored for the most part, portals are able to be created through orkar wheels. It would, as ever, require a lot of coding, especially when harnessing the energy, warping it and focussing through the cyndrim to the target location. Aesthetically, it would function like the portals from the Portal franchise, but with a perfectly circular hole of about 2 metres in diameter, with a plum glow emanating from the rim.