Beyond Destination

Fate is a cosmic force that makes sure what is supposed to happen, happens. It is not one set path — it is all the possibilities added together. Ending things is one of its most important functions.

Fate is not the bottom layer. It runs on older structures that have been working since the beginning of everything.

Fate is not a currency. It is a mechanism of actualization: it makes things real. It cannot be spent or paid.

Free will's most important job is your ability to change your own fate, whether or not you know what you are doing.

Destiny is a guaranteed event: a function fate performs. It will happen however long it takes, but how it happens is up to the people involved.

A destiny can sit on the soul and be felt as a pull — toward a time when conditions are met, not toward a place. Sometimes you can sense what kind of thing it resonates with, without being able to read it yourself; that can take someone or something specialised in souls.

Both fate and destiny can be escaped, at a price.

Karma exists. It is connected to the domains of the Primordial Gods.

Some beings can change fate and remove destinies more easily than others. Some do not appear in the weave of fate at all — the Fateless. Above them are the Godless, bound by almost no law, whose opinion becomes fact within what they can perceive.

These states are valid under the laws. They serve the multiverse: they stress the system so it grows stronger, and they can do things the bound cannot — without knowing they are doing it.

Lacking something is not always freedom. Reality can treat an exemption like an open wound. Being exempt draws attention: from reality itself, from those who want to capture the power, and from those who want to correct it. Lacking and having are equal sources of trouble, and every exemption is also an exclusion.

What cannot perceive you cannot directly affect you. Being small and unnoticed is protection, even against enormous power.

A mark can beat this. A mark is an effect: a lingering signature attached to a being, often for tracking. How hard it is to notice, and who can read it, depends on how skilfully it was made and what forces went into it. A well-made mark can be very hard to spot unless you know to look for it.

Names have power. Saying a being's true name spreads awareness of it, and awareness can draw attention. A title or description reduces the risk but does not remove it — a reference still carries the being's signature.