Civilization's requiem: dreameries of Oceanfree

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Scott Alexander
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Civilization's requiem: dreameries of Oceanfree

Post by Scott Alexander »

The world is weary; so are we
In dreameries of Oceanfree


Astate Tuin barely even noticed when she died.

Her mother, Kerite Tuin, had been the first new High Priestess of Truth. For her entire childhood, she had wanted nothing more than to become a Priestess of Truth herself. In that she had succeeded. She had been ordained just as the Priests of Truth faded into near-irrelevance.

Civilization was dying. The cities on the plateaus were stagnating or even declining, as more and more of their children ran off to join the greendivers, or to seek a new life in the Mountains Beyond The Mountains. Even then, the elders and leaders had barely been able to keep the infrastructure of civilization running.

Then a new threat had arisen. In Oceanfree the green poppies bloomed, green flowers in a green jungle, an offense against nature's color palette. The milk of the green poppies was ainorhak, Beauty's Breast Milk. A civilization that had absorbed a thousand drugs into itself and come out with nothing worse than a healthy skepticism about the privileged nature of its natural neurotransmitter balance warped and staggered under the assault of ainorhak. It brought vivid dreams and little else, but the dreams were so beautiful, and there were so very, very many poppies.

The world has seen too much, too fast
It sleeps now, dreaming of the past


Those most captivated by the poppies built the dreameries, honeycomb-like complexes dug into the soft rock of the plateau. Rainwater flowed through piping into pools and wells at the base, and berries grew from the walls, along with strange glowing mushrooms imported from the Garden's new allies in Kennerext. Upon the roofs, poppies grew like weeds. And so replete with food and water and drugs, the people in the dreameries slept away their lives in the ainorhak haze, growing old in pleasant memories and dreamlands.

At first, people from the other sky-islands held their noses and attributed it to some defect in the Oceanfreemen, some freak it-couldn't-happen-here bolt out of the blue. But the commerce between the cities brought the seeds of the green poppies, and soon dreameries were popping up like...like flowers out of the ground.

The Garden loves us well, it seems
Inviting us to join its dreams


It was the green poppies that led to the collapse on Oceanfree, not the greendivers or the emigrants or the constant worries about the Favored or other bogeymen. Eventually, there just weren't enough people to hold things together, and so things fell apart. It was a very quiet falling apart, not even loud enough to disrupt the dreams of the people in the dreameries. Tourists from Arborvine visited the city sometimes, and found it as quiet as death, though hundreds of not thousands slumbered within it.

On Arborvine, life went on, but everyone knew the center could not hold. Some tired of hiding from the light, and left the friendly stars and ran out naked in the hot sun. They died of the Scorching. Others left for the greendivers, or for the monasteries in the Mountains Beyond The Mountains. Still others tried a taste of the green poppies that now bloomed all over.

We and our plants at last are one
In dreams, we do not fear the Sun


As the economy reeled from the population decline, it was dealt a second blow. Trade collapsed as the resignation of Speaker Iriwande drove the World Government into confusion. Talks to elect a replacement were inconclusive, and stalled when a typhoon flooded the still half-built World Capital. Rumors of the Favored building fantastic unstoppable armies in secret, and of renewed Aryashti aggression, turned most of the world inward into fanatic isolationism. Even the trade routes with Kennerext and Apollantis, once the most profitable on the continent, dried up as fewer and fewer people wanted to brave the seas near the Favored's dream home island, and as the Kennerextith Beacons recalled their people back to the security of their caverns.

The Priests of Beauty, by native inclination, succumbed to the green poppies early, long before even the trade routes dried up. The Priests of Truth were a hardier bunch. They remembered the mission of Eith Korphorin, to preserve civilization, and they fought the collapse as long as they could. Astate was one of the hardest fighters. But eventually the uphill struggle drove her to despair, and in her despair she took a taste of the green poppies.

In dreams, we dance in sunlit lands
And God may frown, but understands


She had only meant one taste, but the dreams were too beautiful, and life too disappointing. As she retreated further into the dreamery, she hoped that something of civilization still survived in the Mountains Beyond The Mountains, and that one day they would rebuild Arborvine and Galinomai and all that they stood for.

But mostly she just dreamt of walking the streets of Tala-nomai, or of walking the streets of Shirekeep or Shelsa. Sometimes her mind wondered where she knew such names, how she imagined dead cities in such fantastic detail when she had barely even read a page about them in the history books. But then she realized such misgivings were fruitless. She had forgotten, but the earth remembered, and the poppies came from the earth.

And all you make, and all you do
Will turn to dreams at some point too


Among the aurorae and icebergs, and the war cries of long-lost armies, Astate passed the years by without a thought for her own aging. And so when death took her, she barely noticed.

She was lounging on an ancient beach, a beautiful beach with white sand beneath a turquoise skies. Turquoise trees grew above her, and dropped octahedral fruits that the real world had never tasted into her hands, and she tasted flavors from alien worlds in their moist flesh. She had finished three of these fruits when Death appeared to her in the form of a quetzal. It landed on a branch of the turquoise tree, and when she saw it, she knew.

"So," she said, "I am to pass from a lesser dream into a greater. I would like to say I regret what I wasted, to say a requiem for Galinomai. But find I cannot."

The quetzal turned into a woman, with eyes the color of the sea and hair as iridescent as mother-of-pearl. "I, too, had hopes for Galinomai," she said. "I may yet see them realized. The green poppies were not my creation, but I do not resent them. They have made life...more interesting."

Astate Tuin had once been a scholar of uncommon acuity. "I recognize you," she said. "You are Stella Maris, the Star of the Sea."

"Some have called me that," said the woman. "I have other names, too. Long ago, I was called Maria Morimoto. I do not have power over Death, yet. But information is a strange and mutable thing. Your people have chosen me as your goddess, and I take my responsibilities seriously. So tell me, Astate, if you had an afterlife, what would you want it to be?"

"I do not think I served Truth very well, after all," said Astate. "I would like to make up for that, somehow."

The woman took one of the octahedral fruits from the turquoise tree, and bit into it. She nodded approvingly as a host of iridescent butterflies burst out of it and flew away. "We have come a long way from Truth indeed," she said, though whether she was talking about Galinomai, Astate, or the present realm, she did not say. "Nevertheless, I may be able to help you..."

The world is weary; so are we
In dreameries of Oceanfree.

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ari
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Re: Civilization's requiem: dreameries of Oceanfree

Post by ari »

Didn't expect to meet this old friend, although I probably should have.
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Scott Alexander
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Re: Civilization's requiem: dreameries of Oceanfree

Post by Scott Alexander »

After everyone totally missed the monster being a tree in that facet of joy story, I finally figured out that no one ever gets subtle hints, even when they're not very subtle. Although I figured Stella Maris = Maria Morimoto should be obvious by now, it's probably best to have her drop out of character to say it explicitly.

Kaiser Reynardine II
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Re: Civilization's requiem: dreameries of Oceanfree

Post by Kaiser Reynardine II »

Not everyone missed the tree bit. I wasn't entirely sure, but I did guess it was probably a tree or something.
AKA Kallinn Ynnetrrr
ALSO Kalasien Baarrnan/Liam ronToketi

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