Rhaegan

Rhaegan (ancient relifica equivalent of Raagan or Rhaagan, meaning Death), oftentimes reffered to as the Void, the Observer, the Hole at the center of all, Nonexistence and the End, is the supermassive black hole at the center of the Arsgri universe. This black hole is expected to one day devour the world as a fitting end to the cycle of existence as it is believed to be the remaining twisted core of the star Shir, which in its supernova created the universe. Void cults or cults of the Observer worship this Entity and believe it to be sapient and omniscient, oftentimes comparing it to an all-wise benevolent panopticon. Opinions on if the Observer is a living being wary between the archei general populace.

Influence

As the most powerful object within the universe, Rhaegan has a tremendous amount of influence of many kinds. It is often credited for the passage of time itself, as its irregularities within Arsgri have been found to relate to the Observer’s own movements and distance, and it is also the Absolute power of gravity and death, being the representation of nonexistence and believed to be the Universe's eventual doom, but also the reason it could exist at all.

Physical Influence

Arsgri is bound to the Observer by gravity, forming a serious of numerous rings orbiting the center of the Universe. This influences both the shape, formation and behaviour of the universe, as well as time and time dilations and energy flow (radiation measurements).

Often mentioned is the Observer’s ability to reach and warp areas, locations and creatures, completely changing their nature. This type of influence often manifests in the formation of Void Seas and other void-water bodies, as Raagan is deeply associated with liquids and liquid formations, especially water, rivers and oceans. One of these examples are the many Watcher springs (in relifica referred to as Gristr) scattered throughout Arsgri, which have limited healing power as well as carrying harvestable and useable Void energy, though prolonged exposure ultimately proves to be harmful, even lethal.

Possibly the most well-known example of a water body transformed by the Observer is the Elder Ocean, which at its peak carried enough power to sink and devour anything that made contact with it along with seeping energy from creatures daring to come close to the unnaturally still water. Elder Ocean carried its own energy as well, and rightfully belonged into the very few true places of power before New Vitravnen’s reign, even if its power lay mostly dormant. With the Sealing, this quality almost entirely dissipated, though the Elder Ocean’s waters are still not safe to drink.

Creatures influenced by the Observer, which survived such influence are few and far between, containing mostly the gariette (particularly Grand Lie, N’ngayah and Ascintiati), although flora and fauna transformed and dependant on the Void exists and prospers in ancient sites and shrines. The Voidfish are only a small part of this unique group.

Notable examples of creatures changed by the Observer are especially the new inhabitants and guards of the Watcher’s peak ruins, all of whom are Voidbeings, similar to gariette but with highly localized and specific powers. One of these, Aza Akorey (the First Eye) played a crucial part in the Third Divine War.

The Bell Theory

Also known as the Hat Theory, the Bell theory describes the shape of Arsgri in relation to Rhaegan as an enormous "bell". This explanation originates from the study o the behaviour of time within different parts of Arsgri (specifically the major temporal difference between Deep Arsgri, Lower regions and Upper Arsgri). In the former, time tends to go marginally quicker and behave in a fluctuating manner - shifting (in comparison to 1 second in Koriatty) from 3 million years/1 KRY second as the recorded maximum to 0.0014 second/1 KRY second as the recorded minimum. More than 5 years/1 K to 10 000 years/1 KRY second is typical behaviour, although the range tends to sway more towards larger numbers.

In Upper Arsgri, the deviations from the norm of 0.003 second/1 KRY second are minimal, ranging from differences impossible to measure but assumed in theory, and 0.5 year/1 KRY s. In Lower Arsgri, the fluctuations stay mostly within the range of 0.004 second/KRY s to 5 years/KRY s, but another behaviour has been observed, often called Rippling, in which an unexplainable major shift occurs. Ripples in Lower Arsgri effect some border regions and appear incredibly random and often impossible; one of these, the so-called Trapper Hole stretched the region of Tarkyry to a concerning all-time maximum of 5.16 trillion years/1 KRY second for a period of 2.3 KRY years. The Rippling is one of the many different points often used to discredit the Bell Theory, as the Bell Theory assumes Arsgri as a whole has a relatively flexible but yet compact character, whereas the Rippling paints the picture of only loosely connected parts that can be ripped out or in at will.

The Bell Theory has existed for an incredible amount of time, first appearing in many scripts done by Voidlings and Void cults in places like Fog's Edge, and seeing renaissance after the falls of both versions of Vitravnen, becoming popular only recently through the works of Chorach the Architect, or Quirrel of the Echir Library who first popularized the alternate title, Hat Theory, claiming the theorized shape of Arsgri looked: "like a giant wonky hat."[1]

Many attempts have been made at measuring the specific distance of Arsgri's deepest point (at Fog's Edge) to Arsgri itself, but they have largely failed and resorted to approximation. The reasons for this are unclear.

Divine Influence

The Observer is also thought to be the prerequisite for Ascension, as it is the other option to it; death, or nonexistence. As such, Ascension is the transformation Raagan offers instead of relief or the end. Creatures influenced by the Observer which survived such influence are few and far between, containing the zrah (particularly Ga'ex, Grand Lie, N’ngayah, Ascintiati and Azharrraja), and many flora and fauna transformed and dependant on the Void prospering in ancient areas near the Fog's Edge, broadly referred to as vacuuphile/raagphile organisms, or vacuuvores. The famous Voidfish are only a small part of this varied, unique group.

Void-born gariette

Some gariette have been ascended directly or indirectly via Rhaegan's power and form; all Ascensions, of course, relate to Rhaegan, however, in this case this relation is more pronounced. The first would be N'ngayah's ascension via the failed Voidgate loop maneuver. where his body was torn apart by void itself in the latter half of the maneuver and eventually underwent Ascension during the already doomed escape, leaving the Abyss and crashing with roughly the power of a hydrogen bomb into the face of the Fog Plateau, creating the Fool's crater. The second is based on the record of asCintiati's Ascension, during which, as claimed, the black hole offered him the choice between Nonexistence and Ascension; in this case, the latter option would've have allowed him to save his world by becoming an eternal martyr unable to even rejoin it again. AsCintiati accepted.

Voidkin

Notable examples of creatures changed by the Observer are especially the new inhabitants and guards of the Watcher’s peak ruins, all of whom are Voidbeings, similar to gariette but with highly localized and specific powers, not having undergone true Ascension. One of these, Aza Akorey (the First Eye) played a crucial part in the Third Divine War. Not much is known about this class of creatures beyond their enormous power and the fact that it nearly borders on the powers of the zrah with completely differing qualities; because of this, Voidkin are categorized separately, and given their powers appear in a much more narrow fashion, they are also not placed on the same level as gariette.

Voidkin seem to be the only creatures with a black hole-based soul form, which manifests violently, taking parts of their existence away from them in exchange. They all are capable of becoming black holes completely, and their flesh forms appear to be hollow skin, holding a black hole within.

Most are loyal to the Observer and to the Gardener (Ga'ex), and are immediately recognizable due to their attire centered around durability and protection (most often a loose linen scarf, long gray cape, sturdy gardener's gloves, firm ankle-high boots and loose trousers) and their helmets, fashioned from the skulls of dead or extinct horned creatures with cyan or pink filter glass firmly affixed into the back of the see-through eye sockets. They are also often adorned with gold, silver, or different kinds of voidore, as well as bones, flowers, fungi and scales, such as the scales of Scalekeepers.

Symbols

Raagan is most often associated with the colors black, cyan and electric violet or pink, being the palette that makes up most black holes - the lightless center and the highest energy colors. Most creatures of the Void bear these colors, the most recognizable being the Voidfish and the Scalekeepers. It is also associated with the sphere and the circle as perfect shapes representing its Absolute; the cyclical nature of history, all things came from nothing and must, once again, become nothing at the end. The highest symmetries have associations to Raagan as well through all voidore minerals being solely cubic in their crystalline matrices.

The End is also associated with water bodies, as previously stated - water, seas, rivers (often representing history, trasformation and Fate), and gravity; the movement of the sea as influenced by stellar bodies. It is said that the Elder Ocean's tidal movements correlate the Void's deep below, the water levels tracking the wobbling of the Void.

Most animal imagery of the End consists of different varieties of sea life; fish and molluscs (especially nautiloids), and to a lesser extent crayfish, crabs, coral, clams and other forms of life within the ocean, though the use of ichtyosaurs or sea mammals in connection with the Observer has never been recorded. Creatures related to water bodies may become symbols of death as well, such as herons and most fish-eaters and water species of birds and pterosaurs, excluding most mammals and penguins.

Bones and fossils make up a large portion of Void imagery; the most devout of Voidkin adorned with skulls of past creatures extinct or dead; as well as blooming flowers, many decomposers (worms, fungi, insects) and vines. The worship and study of extinct species and worlds is seen as belonging under Raagan's domain, as a honoring of death and embracing transformation; as such, Raagan is traditionally recognized as the patron of paleontologists and paleoclimatologists, a status that only otherwise belongs ocassionally to the Divine Disease.

Most mysteriously, however, the Void is associated with the concept of the Desert House. It is a symbolic location; a desert island or planet of pure white sand, upon which stands a low, worn-down bungalow, and whoever enters it disappears forever into nonexistence. The myth of the desert house is an ancient one, though notable renditions of it include many legends from the Simulacra divine species, and are corroborated by Maria's story.

Worship

There is no unified religion that worships Raagan, nor has there ever been, and the practice is more scattered in small local groups across both time and space, many devoting themselves to only specific aspects of the End or its manifestations.

Pre-Vitravnen Cults

The earliest known groups with an explicit connection to Raagan are the different cults of Voidfish, Cube Moths and the Four-jawed worms, whose practices and exact beliefs are not well known, as the most that remains of them are statements from memory and physical remains of shrines and statues. However, given their locations, often along or near major water bodies and especially close to the Edge, we can assume a connection with the object of their worship and the End, possibly being influenced ever-greater by Cube Moth or Voidfish communication with these early communities and the sharing of the knowledge of the Void's nature and power.

Similarly lost was most of the information on the worshipped; the Cube Moths especially, whose devotion to the Observer is to this day poorly understood. It is thought that they might've undergone a complex artificial evolution through Void-borne magic and their lifestyle and adaptation as vacuuvores, given their non-resemblance to any existing group of life native to that time in history, and functioned as a community made up of unique lines with slightly differing ideas, leading to multiple Cube Moth species. They are, to this day, the only group of sorcerers known to predominantly utilize time-based magic, a brand of energy manipulation unique and thus strongly connected to the Observer. They most likely embraced complete transformation and transspeciecism, worship of evolution and gravity, hence their focus on time as the harbinger of change.

Sources

1. In Search of Architecture's G-d in The G-dseeker's Guide

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