The Eclipsed
A Coterie of the Transcendent Order
According to the tenets of the group, there are three states of sense a body can adopt. They’ve styled themselves after the sun and moon, for they’re the two things that Fash the Tacit misses most from her home on the Prime. Fash reckons the senses are like the sun: glaringly bright, brash and harsh, while senselessness is like the moon; subtle, silvery and gentle.
“The Full” are most cutters, those who’ve got all their senses intact. They bumble around, seeing and hearing things, but not really appreciating how precious those senses are. See, you don’t understand how they work and how you depend upon them until they’re gone. “Full” means full moon and full sun. It’s just that when the day’s at its brightest, the glare of the sun blots out the light of the moon. That’s why most bashers never realise they could see more than just with their eyes.
“The Waning” are the members of this group; those who’ve lost some of their senses, but not all of them. They’re learning to cope with the few that remain, slowly removing them as they feel ready. They’re blocking out the sunlight and the shape of the moon’s getting more and more apparent, though still not quite observable.
“To Do is To Be” – Socrates
“To Be is to Do” – Plato
“To Do is to Do” – Cipher
“Do be do be do” – Xaositect
“Eclipsed” is supposedly the perfect state; where mind and body are separate. The senses are the link between the two, and once they’re destroyed, the mind is free to transcend. Fash herself hasn’t quite reached that state yet, though she’s got precious few senses left to spare. ‘Course, it’s still all theoretical as to whether she’s got the right idea in the first place. This is the state where the sun’s light is blocked out completely by the moon. The senses that mortals are born with are eclipsed, and the brilliant aura of what’s unknown shines like a halo around the soul. It’s poetic, at least it is compared with the Ciphers’ normal rhetoric.
By losing the senses they have, the Eclipsed find their remaining senses are strengthened to compensate. Even when they’re gone, however, there seems to be a ‘hidden sense’ behind the sight, sound, taste, touch and smell. It’s a combination of all of them at once, yet none of them. Most cutters don’t even notice it’s there at all until they’ve lost three of four of the others, then they begin to realise that they just ‘know’ things that they shouldn’t be able to know. It’s often a turning point in belief.
The Eclipsed are growing in popularity, especially with cutters drawn to the motif of the moon like moths to a lantern. These include priests of lunar powers like Selune or Hecate, as well as lycanthropes. They make a motley bunch, with varied powers and very different goals.
The rest of the Ciphers see the Eclipsed as a bunch of barmies, but at least they respect the “let’s go and do something” attitude of the group. Too may other Visionaries preach and that’s it, Ciphers reckon. It’s about time one has the courage to live up to their convictions, even if those convictions are addle-coved. It’s not always the result that matters, it’s the doing!
See also: Visionaries—Fash the Tacit
Source: Jon Winter-Holt, mimir.net
