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Lore: Childhood Training in the Nine Worlds
🕑 Added 2022-07-09 16:35:03 +0000 UTCSomething a little different for this lore post! Though it will contain a variety of information about soulcrafting, it's also preparation for an eventual visual tutorial with the characters discussing the issue. These two will be somewhat redundant, but your questions and comments can help improve the tutorial graphics once there's time for it.
One thing that TWC skips over, and perhaps should have emphasized more, is the early stages of soulcrafter development. In the first book, I allude to how Theo skips over the training stages and gets out of the basic classes, but this is more work than might have been implied there.
Basic skills that Theo takes for granted, such as passing into a soulhome or absorbing materials, require a significant amount of training. Skilled young students like Fiyu or Nauda learn these within a month, while less talented might require a year or more. Every spiritual skill requires work, as you've seen as Theo branches out in more recent books.
However, this training doesn't begin immediately, because it can't. You may have noticed a lack of children and young teenagers soulcrafting, and this isn't accidental: the soul doesn't develop enough to support sublime materials until later. There are a variety of reasons for this, but from a meta perspective there's the fact that I don't think child warriors and teenage prodigies make for interesting conflicts.
For most cultures, the maturation of one's soulhome is considered the final stage of puberty. After the body completes its development, the soul finishes developing into its adult form as well. Obviously, most of these cultures are pre-industrial, so they don't have our exact view of adolescence, but their view of maturity is shaped by this element. Someone who is physically an adult but hasn't developed enough for soulcrafting training is viewed as not fully mature. This also matches mental development in most species.
All of this means that you don't have people soulcrafting from birth, as seen in some other cultivation-adjacent settings. So, what do they spend this time doing? Getting more into that is one of the reasons I wanted to write this lore post, actually.
At the earliest ages, children help their parents and learn basic discipline and cultural elements. As they grow older, they typically learn reading or other culturally essential skills. Starting at this point, however, their paths in life start to diverge based on their likely future.
For parents who want their children to be soulcrafters, the adolescent years are an essential time for physical training, especially in weapons. In a setting with such overwhelming power, hand-to-hand skill is a bit less important, but it's still relevant. When an adolescent's soulhome begins to develop, they generally have a strong foundation of physical skills and a chosen weapon.
Due to how soulhomes work, all of this training typically shapes the child's soulhome to be appropriate for the skills they've spent their entire lives building. There are exceptions, however, and these are a major concern for militarily-oriented groups.
For that reason, most cultures put significant effort into systems trying to suss out which children will be adept soulcrafters. Because of the variables in the system and delays in results, these systems are far from perfect. How much they impact the development of children and how unfair the results are varies from culture to culture.
Certain children are acknowledged as or expected to be prodigies, and they usually receive accelerated training. By focusing on sublime materials early, as well as certain practices like meditation, their tutors hope that they will finish their soul maturation early and get a head start on other soulcrafters their age. Pushing a soul as hard as possible can potentially backfire, however, either by damaging the soulhome foundation or simply due to the mental and emotional fatigue caused the child.
That about covers what I had in mind! When the tutorial is created, Nauda and Fiyu will give more personalized notes about their pasts, but that's what I intend to cover. Does anyone have questions or other topics they'd like to be included?
Comments
Sarah Lin
Definitely. Expect more on this in the next version on this topic.
Drew
Really puts in perspective how exceptional Tythes was/is, considering the House of Teal lady said he'd won their quarry competition when he was 10.
Sarah Lin
Some. The nature of the soil and plants, the sky, and the atmosphere all vary significantly. But all soul spaces are roughly circular with similar area, and you don't see foundations that are the sides of mountains or jungles or anything like that.
Jormungandragon
How much variation is there to the… foundation? And how is it shaped by the person’s life up to the point that their soul is finished developing? I’m thinking of how Theo had brown grass when he returned from earth, and was no longer suitable for trying to grow all these trees he kept trying to plant. Is there a lot of terrain variety?
Corwin
Not in the tutorial 😳😪🙄
Sarah Lin
Look forward to more on this in the sixth book! Some major answers on certain soulcrafting questions there.
Sarah Lin
Hmm, various things there. Sublime books will be a major part of the second phase of the series, so I think I'll leave them for later. A living inheritance, though... that won't be covered until the seventh book, so maybe it would be good to address earlier.
Corwin
This would also be a great place to discuss some of the more unique architecture, such as balconies, courtyards, and basements/cellars. I can't imagine a Tatian building a basement, but a courtyard or balcony set up I could. Or Ichili being one to build multiple basements and sub floors.
Corwin
We have discussed with Theo about the importance of languages he has learned on Earth, which would segue into how many languages one of the Nine has on any given planet, so if Fiyu or Nauda learned other languages or heard of different languages on their own planet. We have discussed different materials, legacies, and inheritances. But we haven't discussed how someone might give a living inheritance to someone. Such as a material that went through one or two ascensions that a relative gives to a relative at the start of their journey. We haven't learned much on books as well. Most books pre industrial revolution were prized as much for their illustrations as their writing. Which would be a great introduction to them.
Sarah Lin
Your latter case is correct: anyone can go through gates, they just can't soulcraft if their souls haven't developed. People are almost never lost when transferring between worlds (basically only when there are unusual circumstances).
Sarah Lin
Physical skills don't always translate directly to spiritual soulcrafting, but some do. This is a good thing to emphasize, thanks for your comment. ^-^
brennon Petersen
There are a variety of outsiders that show up in the nine worlds from multiple different places from what I have gathered. Are the only ones that arrive those whose souls have fully matured? And if so does that imply that others whose souls had not mature didn't survive the journey or that the gates simply won't open for immature souls? Or vice-versa and anyone who enters one of the gates makes it over and some just can't do anything with there soul yet?
Slightly Morbid
I'd thought their background would be more artisan. Learning architecture, carpentry, wood carving, stone masonry, glass ware and so on. All characters are constantly using skills like that with no information if they are learned or inate.
Sarah Lin
An excellent question I have to defer. You'll get to meet another Siatan character in the sixth book and you'll get more information about them then. They're the most unusual in the Nine Worlds in terms of the arc of their power.
Sarah Lin
It definitely does. There are minor differences, such as Tatians maturing faster than Fithans, and there are so more drastic life cycle differences. Arbaians have similar linear growth, but the process is slower and more intentional. The Aathali have different things going on. Siatans are the most unusual, but I'm going to remain mum on them for now (see below).
Sarah Lin
Outsiders with suspicious advantages also disappear suspiciously quietly. There are others who form known organizations, like the House of the Lost. And there are a few who have passed into history or legend, though that heavily depends on the region. Remember that there are a lot of people far away from hub cities who aren't very aware of other worlds at all.
Sarah Lin
There are absolutely celebrations - good thought for an addition! But this is also a situation where the cultures break down more finely grained than worlds. You can certainly make generalizations: Tatian celebrations are more communal than Ichili customs, obviously. But some Tatian groups celebrate within the family, others celebrate with an entire village, and so on. More radically, in some groups an entire year of new soulcrafters officially "graduates" at once in a single united ceremony, even though some barely scrape in and others have been waiting.
Jerek Kimble
Siatians have odd lifespans. How does this interact with early soulcrafting for them?
Martin Kalum
Does this change for other species? Like get soulholmes later since they live long life and mature later then human? Or get a soulholme instantly since they may not be producing children, but kinda cloning themselves indstead or similar
Runcible Technician
It's suggested in the narrative that other outsiders have walked the nine, somewhat frequently in fact. If even some are front loaded with artifacts and a supposed 'destiny' are there legends of these people? Or is this one of those strange 'they faded into history...' type things. I just wonder if it operates like the Chandrian in The Name of the Wind, like the people who knew them best were just fucking killed off or somesuch.
Luke
Great info! I wonder how different cultures celebrate the formation of one's soul home? I'd imagine a village-wide feast in Tatian, but what about the other cultures? It seems like it would be a pretty momentous occassion.
