Saturday, February 26, 2011

The Seven Keys of Destiny: The Kaleidoscope of Fate

The Kaleidoscope of Fate (also called the Kaleidoscope of Vision, and the Eye of Fate, or Baolal Koretaram) is one of the sites/artifacts that is most commonly regarded as one of the Seven Keys of Destiny, appearing in 94.3% of the texts dealing with the Seven Keys. Like all of the Keys, its true location is considered to be a closely guarded secret, and there are a variety of assertions of varying reliability regarding the authentic means of recognition. Because the circumstances required for the Kaleidoscope's operation are present in a number of different locations, all of which have had historical access to the relevant technology and biological materials, it is likely that there are in fact numerous sites at which the global experience of the Kaleidoscope of Fate has been replicated, and the differing references are not evidence of textual corruption or deliberate misdirection, as had sometimes been asserted in the literature, but rather records of different sites with the same or similar names and function.

Beneath the translucent orb of the natural dome, cascades of charged particles surging along the crystalline surface emanate shimmering auroras that resonate to the amplified brain waves and magnetic fields of the seeker deep within the Seat of the Oracle, a complex construct composed of nanoscale technology and an engineered semi-sentient symbiont activated, controlled, and nourished by the concentration of pure will. Immersed in the images, which, filtered through the template of the subconscious mind, form symbol sets that are said by many to hold the key to the Seeker's fate, the reclining figure remains entranced, locked in the symbiont's embrace, until the subtle resonances of mind and matter repeat the patterns long enough for the vision of them to be etched indelibly in the seeker's mind. Once the fullness of the vision has been captured, the seeker begins the delicate and dangerous process of disengaging physically and psychically from the symbiont. Done perfectly, it is said the process leaves the symbiont a little closer to true sentience, and the Seeker with enhanced sensory perceptions for the remainder of an enhanced lifespan. Mishandled, (a more probable scenario) it leaves both of them mad, trapped wandering in raving trance until starvation takes them, or dying in agonizing pain from neural overload.

The journey to the Seat of the Oracle is treacherous, arduous, and potentially lethal. The rewards are said to be proportionately great for those who succeed in mastering its secrets and then applying these lessons to meet their true destiny. The nature of the rewards, however, is not always what the Seeker had expected, nor are the visions always as immediately instructive as generally hoped. Seekers are cautioned in numerous texts that many who brave the perils and achieve their quest of finding the patterns of their fate fail to recognize the real meaning of the visions until they look back on nearly the full course of their lives. Halnar of Thoris, founder of the Therian Empire and one of the most famed of all those who mastered the Kaleidoscope of Fate, on his deathbed burned all four hundred standard years of his notes and memoirs regarding the content and interpretation of his visions and scrawled in the ashes: "Koretar manu garethi bar fadar" most commonly translated as "Fate is one sarcastic bitch."

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