u/Entire-Review4571

Introduction
The World is the Dream-Child, and the Dream-Child is the World. Its mother is asleep in a tomb in the sky. Its umbilical cord is a cursed path upon which the nightmares and the knowledge tread. The mother in the sky is three twin  rings that journey endlessly. The Mother is Mother Six, and the Mother is Mother Three. Mother is Three: Ā-Kal, Da-Ri, Ē-Maaan. Mother is Six: Mother is Kal, Da, and Ē; Mother is Ā, Ri and Maan. Ā is Kal, Ri is Da, Maan is Ē.

Ā is Earth, Water, Presence and Denial. Kal is peace, understood as inaction.
Maan is Sky, Fire, Potential, and Writing. Da is conflict, understood as action.
Ri is Void and Connection. Ē is order, understood as balance.

The Worldchild creates and changes itself, with but a thought shepherded by the Umbilical Midwife.

Key concepts
Fire Worldblood of the World Uterus
Fire Worldblood comes from the Maan Lake, the World Uterus, connected through the Celestial Umbilical Chord and its Forge to Mother-Six. The Dream-Child bleeds during its cycle, through which Maan Lake overflows and sips into the world. An even more potent form of Fire Worldblood comes from the skies above in the form of Celestial Fire - lightning. Sap from lightning-struck **trees (**usually birches) are another source of Fire Worldblood. One last source of fire worldblood is menstrual blood of spirits and chosen sky nuns. Fire Worldblood is a source of change and transformation.

Water Worldblood and the World Urethra
Water Worldblood comes from the frigid  Ā Lake, the World Urethra. Some of the Water Worldblood makes its way to the rivers and clouds of the Worldchild, blessing it with holy rain. Water Worldblood can also come from the sap of trees growing from Ā waters or the urine of Water Spirits and chosen sworddancer priestesses. Water worldblood is a source of life, longevity and healing

Celestial Umbilical Forge was established long ago by the Celestial Midwife, holy creator and medium between the Worldmother-Six and the Worldchild. To this day, she still forges spirits into divine protectors of the sky. She is a mother to Clayfolk (Pot People), craftsmen and masters of metal forging. Celestial Midwife has taught amaenae of the Worldchild many crafts, amongst which working with clay is by far the most significant. 

Singularities or miracles are memories of the Worldmother-Six, alien and unnatural concepts and technologies foreign to the serene plains of the innocent Worldchild. Some forge magicians and sky nuns attempt to reconstruct them, though usually to no avail.

Worldchild magic
Magic is channeling Maan (potentiality) into Ā (presence) or presence into potentiality. People (amaenae) have eyes of Maan (fire) and Ā (water), but no eyes of void (Ri). As such, they either have to grow third eyes or don  don forged spirit masks and eye diadems in order to channel magic. Amaenae drink Fire and Water Worldblood, which allows them to warp their own body and understand the breathing of the Worldchild. After drinking fire and water from the divine-touched trees, amaenae sprout horns, branches of the trees raised like arms praying to the celestial powers and the Worldmother-6. In order to call upon magic, one’s legs need to be touching earth (water) and their arms need to be raised to the sky (fire). Branch-horns seeking the sky are such arms.
Magic may be harnessed through alchemical witchcraft, an art of drawing potency from plants drunk with Worldbloods. Another way is a more direct attempt to evoke memories of Mother-Six, usually through singing or painting. A circle or shape painted with Fire Worldblood becomes a gate to the deeper mind of Mother Six, which can spawn any object - among them singularities. It is safer to practice magic only on paper, not on one's body, as sky nuns do. Greatest of spells are channeled through gigantic, landscape-spanning geoglyphs.

Sky Monasteries
Nun-mystics usually gather in high mountains, close to astronomical observatories. They are places of high art, prayer, learning and invention. Amaenae that live there attempt to discover new spells, catalogue them and change their bodies into evershifting chaos, which they perceive as sacred. They treat singularities as relics and attempt  to recreate them. Nuns of the Sky Monasteries practice magic through drinking alchemical concoctions and painting their own flesh with fire worldblood, which transforms them  into the most hideous of beings. They hide their bloated bodies under layers of cloth. They believe in staving off death through constant transformation.

Sworddancer nomads
Plains and riversides of the Worldchild are inhabited by semi-nomadic communities  deeply focused on ritual, tradition, history and spirituality. They seek out lightning-stricken and Ā-drunk trees, harvesting precious Worldblood. Sworddancer nomads traverse large areas on top of bound vacuous sky spirits, unlucky enough to be determined by the accursed numbers of five and seven, rather than holy three and six. Amaenae of those communities are cautious to preserve their body in a state of unchanging perfection, staving off death through drinking Water Worldblood and refusing from practicing magic from their own bodies. To prevent stagnation, they encase parts of their bodies in ceremonial, undying soul-armor. Some Sworddancers choose to settle down, usually in palace complexes built with the help of Clayfolk.

Clayfolk (Pot People)
Smith-Midwife of the Umbilical Forge has supposedly created Pot People in the ages past, teaching them how to work clay and metal. They became skilled smiths and craftsmen, possessing a knack for arts, but alas, no affinity for magic or the capacity to absorb worldbloods. They cannot birth children, and as such are confined to smith and sculpt their heirs. Amaenae have attempted to sculpt Pot People just like the Celestial Midwife did, though theirs were but  meager imitations. Where their skills were lacking, amaenae chose to imprison sky spirits in the chosen vessels, bestowing higher intelligence upon their creations. Clayfolk smiths are, on the other hand, able to give intelligence into their clay offspring on their own, for such is their power. 

Umbilical Spirits
Through the Umbilical Cord descend various families of spirits.Unforged spirits are formless and chaotic. They are unfinished and uncreated, and as such can only create. They come from the sky and are an essence of potentiality. If their essence is Three or Six, they are purposeful; if their head is five seven, they are vacuous, little more than animals. Forged spirits were forged from the Unforged ones in the Celestial Forge by the Umbilical Midwife; they lose the power to create and instead they destroy. They don masks and are contained in terracotta, clay and metal. They fight nightmares in the sky with lightning and light. Once their masks get shattered and they lose their heads, forged spirits can go rogue and become dangerous.

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