Narrative

A Narrative is a theoric way of describing a whole cosmos as a single path (a “worldtrack”) traced through Hemn Spaces. To minds living within it, a Narrative appears to be the universe entire; many such Narratives can share the same configuration space without intersecting.

First appearance and context

During a messal convened at Tredegarh amid the present Convox, Fraa Jad speaks of the world we perceive as but one Narrative among many, and suggests that the visitors in orbit came from other Narratives. Participants take this as a shift away from talk of “parallel universes” toward the language of configuration space.

Usage in current events

Reports shared at Tredegarh describe laboratory tests on four recovered fluid vials whose nuclei are mutually incompatible with each other and with Arbre‑native matter. This is cited in discussion as evidence that the four visitor contingents—collectively called the Geometers—originate from distinct Narratives. Some speakers now also use the label “PAQD” (Pangee‑Antarct‑Quator‑Diasp) for the same coalition. The term “Narrative” is likewise being prepared for explanations to Sæcular authorities, as a way to frame why contact might involve multiple cosmi.

• Visitor account of Narrative shifts: A visiting linguist from another world recounts voyages that sought to move into a past but instead arrived in separate Narratives, offered as an explanation for successive “Advents” among the visiting peoples. This is presented as his account, not as laboratory result.
• Convergence rationale (proposal): In the same circles, a sketch was offered in which weak inter‑cosmi crosstalk—amplified by consciousness—creates feedback loops that can steer worldtracks together. Some use this to make sense of close similarities between Arbrans and at least one visitor form; others caution that “feedback” covers many behaviors and that only special, stable kinds would yield such convergences.

Explanatory notes and properties

• Compossibility and records: A Narrative is not just a single exotic point in configuration space but a coherent history. Valid worldtracks include the consistent “traces” that events leave behind—memories, recordings, and physical aftermath—that all fit together. Speakers use an “ice‑in‑a‑star” example to illustrate that if such a state appears in a Narrative, the same Narrative must also encode a plausible chain of causes and matching records.
• Forking: From one state there can be multiple lawful continuations. Dialogs describe worldtracks that “fork” when microscopic outcomes differ, yielding distinct Narratives that each obey the same natural laws along their own paths.
• Biological‑scale illustration: Speakers cite cell‑level examples to make the idea concrete. A cell that has just undergone a mutation, and one that has not, lie on Narratives separated by only a single forking in Hemn space. The same reasoning is applied to radiation damage and age‑related transcription errors, treating those outcomes as quantum‑contingent divergences between extremely nearby Narratives.
• Time in the model: Working in configuration space clarifies time as the ordering of points along a worldtrack. This perspective is said to become practically relevant when comparing several cosmi at once.
• Thought experiment: Some avout teach the distinction between arbitrary jumps and lawful continuations with an imaginary “Hemn‑space teleporter,” contrasting random hops to points with the unique continuation that stays on a Narrative.
• Hylaean Flow and feedback (current proposal): Some propose that the “Hylaean Flow” percolates through a network of cosmi—often pictured as the Wick. When such crosstalk impinges on nerve tissue, consciousness can amplify it, leading to decisions and social actions that steer a Narrative’s worldtrack. Because crosstalk only occurs between nearby worldtracks, this yields a feedback mechanism; stable recurrences in such systems are called “attractors.” This is offered as an economical account of convergences across cosmi and a possible reason for morphological similarities with certain visitors; the proposal remains under debate.
• Causality‑preserving “shunt”: Within this vocabulary, travelers’ accounts describe transitions not as moving backward along a worldtrack but as passing into a neighboring Narrative. The claim is that attempts to reach a past state instead arrive in a distinct cosmos, preserving causality; successive Advents would then be entries into yet other Narratives. Presented as attribution, not as established theorems.

Terminology and debates

• Conventional phrasing among theors is to speak of “worldtracks” in configuration space; several speakers note that “Narrative” is a rarer, more loaded term.
• Suur Moyra observes that use of “Narrative” is associated in some minds with The Lineage.
• In Jad’s presentation, “backwards” talk is rejected (“there is no backwards”), treating a Narrative as a path in Hemn space rather than a sequence unfolding in time.
• Speculative praxis myth: A circulating “mythology” claims that certain praxes could mend radiation damage—and later mitigate aging—by favoring nearby Narratives in which those quantum events did not occur. An elder frames this as a plausible, internally consistent story rather than established fact. Some want such talk promoted to fact for comfort, while others warn that it would be explosive if taken up in the Sæculum.
• Opponents and supporters alike connect the topic to wider disputes about the Hylaean Theoric World.

Recent usage and clarifications

• Tracking language: Speakers now use “to track a Narrative” to describe personal continuity of consciousness along a worldtrack. If a course of action ends in death before a goal is reached, they may say their consciousness would no longer track that Narrative.
• Hypothetical branches: Phrases like “in a Narrative where …” are used to point at nearby alternatives (for example, an outcome where a companion survives long enough to enter Orb One). This is a conversational way of labeling distinct, close worldtracks without implying time‑reversal.
• Rhetorical sense in diplomacy: In Sæcular and diplomatic talk, “the Narrative” is also used as shorthand for the working storyline that guides joint decisions and public messaging (for example, the two‑Magisteria framing). Disputes can hinge on whether decision‑makers have “the Narrative” right or wrong. This is a rhetorical use and should be distinguished from the theoric, configuration‑space meaning above.
• Steering and rerouting (attributed): Accounts credit close cooperation between tendencies labeled by some as Rhetors and Incanters with having already altered which worldtrack is being followed. Within the Narrative vocabulary this is spoken of as biasing or rerouting among nearby Narratives; the mechanisms remain a matter of attribution and debate.

Status

“Narrative” remains an uncommon but active term in current dialog at Tredegarh. It is used to frame contact with off‑worlders within Hemn‑space thinking and is being tested for clarity in briefings to extramuros officials.