Looming
Introduction
A Looming is the term to describe the social, political, and economic outcomes emergent from extremely strong influences or potent habits?. These habits may arise spatially, chronologically, logically, or informationally, may range in subtlety and in permanence, and often can derail an entire timeline from running its natural course. Loomings only occur amongst beings above a certain power-potency threshold, which is usually only noticeable around the power range of a primordial.
History
Antivian Era
The first recorded usage of the term "Looming" is attributed to Qherza I: Question?, the first in a two-volume series by Qherrexes Terva?. Qherza I, written in 3,547, is one of an endless number of historical texts which came out during the War of Great Death?. Qherza is, for its time, remarkable in its analysis of influence empires? and potent habits. Up until Antivis?, the space had seen very little in the way of unified states, let alone potent habits or influence empires which really began with Antivis. Arconecei? was the first entity to have a conflicting potent habit, one which was not only able to interfere with Antivis', but overtake it entirely.
The effects of Arconecei's Looming was immense, being that it was an Arcite with a somewhat strange affinity for violence, deaths increased, wars increased, more pessimistic works were released, and there was a great societal reversal away from unified states. The solidity of the Garden? also began to falter. Upon its arrival, the Garden had become so politically unstable it collapsed almost immediately. Within Qherza I, Terva discusses the possible ways influence empires could function, citing the mannerisms of the Garden and Antivis as supporting factors. The later Qherza II: Answer?, written as a post-war response to unanswered considerations from the first volume in 3,992, also expands further on the Looming of Arconecei. Qherza II talks on Terva's estimations for its effective time and space ranges, as well as laying the foundation for understanding post-mortem habit decay?.
Old Empires Era
By around ~4,000, Antivis and Arconecei had both lost their influences, and Ouroboros? and Osporos? had appeared to fill this influence void. Through the course of the Forewar?, and the ensuing Primordial War?, the cultural idea of a "Looming" had been fully explored, but the usage was rare, due to the associated rarity of such powerful beings.
Serkosian Eras
By the time Serkos' ascendancy had begun, a new wave of thinking was appearing to answer certain unanswered questions from earlier eras, primarily a set of events which was believed to be artificially skewed by unknown forces. These unknown forces began to be distinguished as even more mighty than Arcites, such that whatever they were, they operated on a much more fundamental and yet powerful level. The only known, dated instances of such a force were both related to Am-Heh?, the first appearance very briefly in 17, and then later in 3,858 where it killed Arconecei. These two instances have been traced to over six thousand unique events which are artificially skewed. Despite these, a large number of these instances would go unanswered until the later pulses of the Serkosian Eras, with the appearance of the Prophet Norn, the Argands?, 16?, and the awakening of Serkos. These became known as Heavenhearkener? Loomings.
Types
Drains and Blooms
The most common distinction between types of Loomings is the way in which they affect space, that being positively or negatively. Blooms are positively associated Loomings, they often bring with them great stability, low death tolls, less warfare, less on average violence, and more imperial unity. On the other hand, Drains are Loomings which have negative associations. Drains are the complete reversal of Blooms and are often the death of entire civilizations, movements, races, or empires.
Stationary and Roaming
All Loomings occur due to the potent habit of their associated being. These habits have a radius around the being which informs the effective radius? for their Looming. As a being moves, the radius of their potent habit moves with them. This creates a roaming effect, where the Looming events travel as the user travels. Often a being's potency is too weak and too short-reaching to have a Looming effect, but around the power level of a primordial these influences become semi-permanent to the environments they impress upon. When a being such as a primordial moves great enough distances, the movement of their potent radius can be felt. This causes the roaming phenomenon.
At a greater scale, roaming can be hard to detect. This is because the effective radius is so immense that even for cosmic standards it is no longer easily discernable at this scale. Beyond this, greater potent habits tend to be more fundamental and subtle in nature and this can also make determining the decay of the potency at any point very difficult. This all culminates in the appearance of a stationary Looming event, which is often referred to as a "pseudostationary Looming."
Finally, truly stationary Loomings are something commonly seen with constructs or objects which remain in some way unmoving. This could be in space, in time, or informationally. Often times a Looming is only stationary in one aspect. If it is stationary in space, it is usually not in time, as it carries through the timeline's progression, this is a form of roaming. A purely stationary Looming is a unique situation where the Looming is not moving physically, it only occurs at one instantaneous quantum of time and has no informational spread beyond its instantaneous effect (which is redundant in 0-Norm? discussion, as informational spread in this case is directly limited by the prior limitation of time).
Subtlety Ranges
Subtlely ranges refer to the breadth-to-depth ratio of different potent habits and their associated Loomings. Generally speaking, there are three "constructible ranges" which define most Loomings.
The first range is generally defined as greatly impactful on a spatial level, such as spatial distortion, molecular scrambling?, motion stuttering?, and various other chaotic reactions to powerful beings. This also includes more emotional, social, or chemical influences, which is more common in primordial habits.
The second range is more impactful towards the timeline as well as the space. As the Loomings enter the second range category, they also become more similar to ranges of like potency. This is simply because the beings become so powerful that their potency does not simply impress upon time and space in a way which is more uniquely fitted to the being's form, but often simply becomes entropic and purely chaotic. A primordial of the first range may increase the aggression within a range of space, but there is a much greater chance that a creature such as an arcite of the second range may simply overrun the entire range of space with pure chaos, its very presence inciting wars, peace treaties, movements, riots, deaths, births, creation, and destruction all simultaneously.
The third range is the range which we expect to see the most subtle of changes. Ones which, without extensive systemic analysis could simply be passed off as the progression of time and space as usual. Norn is a common abuser of such timeline subtleties, and at multiple points is the culprit behind huge divergences off of the rigid line? of Serkosia?. Furthermore, these changes may even occur at a logical or informational level such that the timeline and space are affected, but only indirectly through the manipulation of the actual guts of the system?.
Other proposed ranges have come into existence as well, the most commonly used being the "fourth range" which essentially postulates that the Conjecture of Living Reality? is a natural extension off of one being with enough power to manipulate the infinite number of baselines? which divide reality into logical norms?, and that the very existence of systems, souls, and constructs in general are due to the impression of this proposed being upon these baselines. The extensionality would therefore lie in the fact that this one proposed being would hold the power to manifest all fathomable, unfathomable, and perhaps even unreal things within the baselines it affects. If we assume this set of baselines to be all baselines, what we come to is the conclusion that this proposed being is a god?.
Antiranges have also been proposed in order to classify the ability of an entity to erase its own presence in a system, but these are less commonly used on account of the inability to detect what has erased itself from existence.
Examples
Out-of-Lore
Development
The concept of Loomings was formalized in October 2024, and expanded upon since. However, the origin of a Looming can be traced to the concept of potent habits, which still have a great importance within the lore and in relation to Loomings. Potent habits, being a development of the science lore have less of a natural placement within the story (as most science concepts are made to be realistic, they can elude superficial audiences in their intended complexity). Loomings became a good way to bridge both the science-to-story gap and the plot-to-symbolism gap, as is made clear below.
Symbolism
The Loomings are particularly important within the process of bridging the symbolism to the literal plot. Loomings allow for a physical sense of foreshadowing, such that even with the addition of actual literary foreshadowing, it could be explained as an actual process happening within the in-lore spaces at any time.
Loomings are also extremely important in adding more cultural depth to the cosmos. In the quest to create a unique but in someway relatable setting, Loomings are a good distinguishing element which we do not have ourselves, the gut feeling of great societal change manifested as a physical happening upon space, time, or logic.
Specific Loomings also hold their own significance. The Loomings of Antivis, Faeratas, and even to an extent the Theos Primordials, show examples of stability eras, when stable influences impressed on space, values of loyalty, life, or benevolence. These Loomings primarily serve to enhance the symbolism of other elements, The reign and Looming of Antivis are the prelude to the events concerning Arconecei, the reign and Looming of Faeratas and the Looming of Qalhades both serve to reflect the greater potency of the other entities of conflicting influence, such as Ouroboros and Osporos for Faeratas, or Nicovis for Qalhades. The Loomings of Osporos, Ouroboros, Tarivinius, and Nicovis show examples of low catalysts, beings whose reigns and Loomings represent great changes, but also act as the gears for even more influential and core elements of the story's symbolism. Finally high catalysts, such as Serkos, Am-Heh, The Prophet, and Nicoraqel serve as agents for the greatest changes within the narrative's direction, and their Loomings are capable of informing the atmosphere of each being's intentions and personality.