Anthology of Stellar Stories and Perspectives

[Dremen]

Anthology of Stellar Stories and Perspectives

With this collection I seek to ask the people who have come to Ephia's well what it is they see when they look at the Night Sky. What stories do they have from their life before now of those Stars above us? There a thousand way to see the world, and a million more to see the stars. I hope that these stories reveal to you the same beauty I see in each one of these people's minds.

My family, and those we know had rites and rituals of our own. Our belief is that there are powers in the world Ancient and inscrutable. They watch over us, providing Bane and Boon in even measure according to their own fickle whim. You may know them as the Fey, we knew them by other names, as many as there are grains of sand in the desert. The belief was that they held Court among the stars. Each little orb, a Manse unto itself. The brightest of them all belonged to the Ferryman.

Our tales claimed that the Ferryman was responsible for the safe passage of all who departed from this realm. Its star was their guesthouse. A place where the dead went to linger and be weighed. Judged. The verdict would determine which Manse they would go on to next, depending on the measure of their Vice and Virtue and the worth of the offerings given on their behalf. After all, the dead have no voices to speak with. The living must speak for them. This is why, incidentally, our funerals are such elaborate things, It is custom to burn a great deal of wealth, or cast it into the sea with the ashes of the dead.

There is a certain romanticism to the idea that all that is and shall be is written up in the stars somehow. In truth, I oft spent the clearer nights on the road flat upon my back, staring up and trying to make rhyme or reason of it all. They were a guide, and companion, at least for me. It seems so childish I must admit, to imagine that things hung in the firmament so distantly would distract themselves over our lives. Yet these are the sorts of things one uses to comfort themselves when the road gets hard and the times tough. I was told, once, that they were like distant eyes, watching us, guiding us so that we might find the road anew, when we get lost. Literally, and spiritually, at times. Though I know not if that is true, the notion is one I enjoy in my heart. it is good to have friends in high places, is it not? To be watched over, even loved.

In their simplest form, Stars are a guide. They can point in a certain direction or sometimes, even, tell us what season it is, what month. As the stars, much like the wheel, do seem to shift once in a while. There was always that question of whether there is a hidden meaning behind the stars. A way to interpret them, their glittering, the sudden appearance of certain colors and hues... Perhaps not the most apt comparison but it reminded me of fortune tellers, who would draw their cards to foretell one's future, or the result of great events... Here too, they draw symbols, and the cards can be interpreted in many ways, just like the stars... And each man looking upon the same cards, or stars, could draw entirely different conclusions.

Who is right in their interpretation, or is there no "right"? One could ponder on the symbolism many have drawn from events around them.  A man could say, a pot fell and crashed because it stood too close to the edge, and the forces pulled it to the ground, making it crack.  While somebody else could say, "It was my Grandmother's favorite pot, this is, for certain, an ill portent."

Hmm.  I would say I see the master painter's muse, or perhaps the celestial beings that live inbetween the void. What I will see in the stars will be pedestrian, however, to hear them. All things that are given life sing, and so, yes, the stars play their part in the Alem's ballad. Of course, even you at this moment play your role within the symphony of deafening melodies. In regards to the evidence for this, I challenge you to listen to the stars, and not see them. To hear  is to understand, and to know. Perhaps, I believe this concept could touch upon the very foundations of all truth then..   I know one thing. An undeniable truth..  A star's song is one that lasts millennia.. One that sounds through the annals of time.. 

~More to come