The Grand House
The Founding of the Grand House
There is a Sea of Black Fluid, and it is vast! From its depths, laying beyond time and space, came the Writhing Masses: a swarm of Planar Spawn, those Greater Presences which are fed by potential and desire yet can have none of their own, the Catalytic Gods of the Sea. From the Masses came the Thirteen Kings, each the discoverer of a Great Desire and the holder of a long and resonant Name. It was the eighth of these Kings who founded the Grand House, having discovered the desires of Things to be made with Intention and of Spaces to have Boundaries; for this, They are called God of Doors.
As the Grand House was erected, it was without delineation or division; their development was inevitable, as the whole construct was derived from a God of Doors, but would not come until the Denizens of the Grand House had built the partitions themselves. These Denizens, descendants of the First Janitor of the Grand House, were not dissimilar to the Writhing Masses in their base formlessness and potential for great change, though within the Grand House were given guidance in their development to divide themselves into distinct groups.
The House was then divided into three levels: the Library, the Colosseum, and the Garden. Between these were the Passageways, the Grand Elevator, the Central Hall (in which the entirety of the Firmament would eventually form/be discovered to have already been formed), and the Spaces Between the Walls (where those Things Between the Walls would make their home, strangers to the Grand House).
The Denizens' Inheritance
In the Library of the Grand House, the Celestials reside. From the division of the Grand House, they had become the sole inheritors and keepers of the word “Illumination.” Illumination is the revelation of things which were made hidden, the guidance and reference of a bright light in the darkness, the attainment and recording of information and noble Truths. Interfacing with these Truths is the domain of the Celestials, and their inheritance grants them authority over the very concepts of sound logic and perception, and with that authority they seek to discover and archive as many Truths of the world as they can. This directive exists in opposition to the other residents of the Grand House, the Fae and the Fiends, as the Fae argue against the very existence of Truth and the Fiends oppose any acts of preservation. While perceived by the Celestials as a wholly benevolent force, Illumination can be a dangerous thing: a bright enough light can blind just as well as it can reveal.
At the lowest floors of the Grand House, the Colosseum stands populated by the Fiends. After the division of the Grand House, they were left to inherit the word “Pulverization.” Pulverization is the total crushing of things into their base essences, the forceful establishment of one will over another, the pressure within a rigid and competitive hierarchy, the stone whose constant grinding slowly sharpens the blade as it wears it away. Theirs is the domain of subjugation, destruction, and Grit, the indomitable willpower at the heart of one’s being, left only after all else has been ground away. The Fiends work to organize their ranks within a hierarchy determined by Grit, which makes itself known through conflict and competition; the weaker things will shatter under the pressure of the grindstone while the stronger will remain to claim conquest. Their ways are opposed by the Celestials and Fae alike, as neither group views the discovery of a stronger thing worth the total destruction of the weaker.
Within the Garden of the Grand House, the Fae had similarly inherited a word of their own: “Mutation.” Mutation is a natural and drastic transformation, the chaos and beauty of entropy, fluidity within the notions of the self, a total change or recontextualization of those things which are considered immutable. Their domain is the erosion of categories, making that which was familiar strange. The Fae work to propagate diverse and indescribable things and to initiate uncontrollable yet necessary transformations. These actions are in conflict with both the Celestials and the Fiends, where Celestials despise their obfuscation of Truth and the Fiends’ conception of Grit necessitates the existence of some essential and unchangeable foundation of being. While the Fae view Mutation as a neutral force, its results can be horrific just as often as it can be beautiful: a cancer is detrimental regardless of its creation being beyond immoral intent.
The Names of Denizens
To the Celestials, a name is an Evocation. A Celestial will have many names, each forged from a powerful Truth about themself. To say this name is to evoke the Truth it represents, and bring the effects of that name into being. A Celestial’s name may represent their protection, and for someone to say their name is to bring that protection to them. It is believed that if a Celestial were to discover all of their names, which would necessitate total knowledge of the self, and someone were to learn them and recite them all as a single phrase, it would be as though they were literally wholly present where that name was said.
To the Fiends, a name is a Contract. To know a Fiend’s name is to have total control over that Fiend, and they are powerless to resist it when it is recited back to them. A Fiend will have only a single name, the most powerful ones being long and unpronounceable, and tell only fragments of it to others who are owed it. Within the Colosseum of the Grand House, their name is what is on the line when they choose to compete with others. To have their whole name revealed is to invite their own destruction at the hands of those who would control them.
To the Fae, a name is a Riddle. It is a representation of the self by way of apparent contradiction, a mystery born of the Fae’s conceptions of their life’s path. To understand a Fae’s name is to entirely change one's perspective of the world. That is, the world itself will not change in any way, but the name will make known something which was previously incomprehensible and irrevocably change one’s perception of the world, to the extent that it is exactly the same as if they had changed something.
The Firmament
There is a border on which the metaphysical and the physical meet, where the Grand House may have contact with the corporeal Universe and all locations contained therein; this border is the Firmament. It is unknown even to the Denizens of the Grand House whether the Firmament or the Universe on the other side were created as a result of the construction of the Grand House or had simply been discovered to have existed already upon the founding of its Central Hall. To the Denizens, the distinction between the two options is unimportant, as the result is the same.
The world beneath the Firmament is bound by physics and chronology, while the Grand House and its residents exist beyond time or physical space. However, the residents of the physical world have something that the Denizens of the Grand House do not: souls the capacity to desire. As descendants of the Catalytic Gods of the Sea of Black Fluid, the first Denizens of the Grand House possessed infinite potential power yet no desires to lead their use, besides those discovered by the Thirteen Kings and those Words they inherited. Because of this, the world beyond the Firmament was an ideal place for them to direct their various influences.
Each Denizen with access to the Firmament work to locate and cultivate desires in line with that of their inherited Words. Some would take corporeal forms to pass through the border, Celestials taking the form of Angels to help further the cause of Illumination. Others would more distantly assert their influences, Fiends supplying those willing to make a pact with infernal strength. Their access to the physical world is not universally consistent, as the Firmament is thinner in certain areas, allowing for more supernatural influence to pass through.
Ominous Synchronization
Existing out of time, yet observing a Universe bound by it, the Grand House introduces some complications in chronology whenever the Firmament is breached. To account for the possible effects on the passage of souls or bodies across time and variable corporeality, the Firmament imposes certain rules on those residing below it. These rules collectively are known as Ominous Synchronization.
The core of Ominous Synchronization is the assignment of a single soul across all iterations of an individual across all possible timelines. This is not without additional caveats; from the Grand House, these divergent timelines are equally accessible. If a Denizen of the Grand House were to transfer someone either across different timelines or to a point earlier within their own timeline, it would mean that there are two bodies with a single soul. In response to this, Ominous Synchronization ensures that the body to enter the timeframe most recently is instantaneously eradicated upon entry. The memories encoded to that body are immediately transferred to the other body present in that timeframe via the soul, alongside any memories they previously held.
In exceedingly rare instances, a soul can transfer memories from one timeline to another without the dissolution of either body. This typically happens when one is only temporarily dead, the soul vacating the timeline and being returned.
Additionally, souls are drawn inherently to their body until their death. Typically upon death, the soul is vacated from the timeline, "joining" the single collective soul that remains beneath the Firmament. If this is prevented, usually by the intervention of a Denizen of the Grand House, the soul can not move far from the body. If the body is divided, the soul can travel instantly from one disconnected part of the body to the other.
Though a body can not pass through the Firmament (nor can anything physical), the soul can, if drawn into the Grand House by a Denizen who deems its desires to be especially befitting of its domain. This soul will be comprised of the combined memories and desires of that soul across all timelines, a representation of the collective self.