The Material

This article is about the Dictian mountain. For other uses see The Material (disambiguation).

In Dictian religions, the Material, also known as Luh-roo, is a mountain described in Excitations, Dissolution, and Obliteration.

The mountain holds major significance in Dictian religions for being the site of the creation of humanity, namely Kyoo-luh and Geh-roo, who are held in Dictian religion to be the first male and second female respectively. It is described in Excitations as being "immense in abundance and unruled by repugnance". Further in the text, in Obliteration, it is described as "barren of bread and governed by the dead". Dictian scholars believe this is an intentional contrast to the earlier text, indicating that the world is in a fallen state. This is supported by the fact that Obliteration describes the last two humans on the Globe as dying on the Material.

The location of the Material is highly contested by Dictian scholars. Excitations 3:7 describes its creation by the Architect as follows: "And thus, the mountain had been placed where it could always be faced, and where the central peak could always touch the ventral creek". The most accepted theory is that the Material did not actually exist, but served a literary metaphor for early Dictians to describe the loss of their fortune. Another prevalent theory is that it describes a large volcano that once existed in the Amaranthian Archipelago. Fringe groups like the Globe deniers believe that it still exists and is located at the center of the Cardinality, but this has been widely disproven by satellite imagery.

Dictian narratives

Excitations

Main article: Excitations creation narrative

Excitations 1–2 discusses the Architect (left here in its original translation, Kyoo-geh) shaping the Globe. Excitations 3 focuses on how he specifically shaped landmasses, and Excitations 3:5–6 focuses on the Material specifically.

> And Kyoo-geh saw the ground and said "I shall withdraw a mound." And he named it the Material because he deemed it was not ethereal.

Later on, in Excitations 5:3–6, the Architect is described as in despair, because there was no one to share in his creation. He goes on to give his essence to create the first man, Kyoo-luh.

> And Kyoo-geh's heart wept as his grief kept. So he spoke his essence into the Luh of the Material demanding his presence take a form arterial. And Kyoo-geh became Geh at that moment and Luh became Kyoo-luh from the bestowment.

A prevalent understanding of this account is that the early Amaranthians saw language itself as the fundamental elements of the physical and spiritual world, and this practice got syncretized into the belief system of early Kyoo-geh worshippers.

Dissolution

Main article: The Demolishment

Dissolution opens focusing on the perspective of the Confusion (left here in its original translation Tuh-day). The Confusion is described in Dissolution 1:1–3 as seeing Kyoo-luh on the Material and wishing to corrupt him. He therefore creates Tuh-fruh, the first woman.

> And Tuh-day spied Kyoo-luh and felt pity, for he saw the Material as a monument to futility. So he spoke his essence into the Fruh of the Void hoping to create a presence that would have Kyoo-luh destroyed. And Tuh-day became Day at that moment and Fruh became Tuh-Fruh from the bestowment.

The account goes on to describe Geh forbidding Kyoo-luh from speaking to Tuh-fruh, which Kyoo-luh eventually disobeys in Dissolution 5:3. From there, Kyoo-luh and Tuh-fruh develop a sexual relationship, which greatly displeases Geh. Geh, in anger, destroys the Material, says to Kyoo-luh in Dissolution 6:2:

> "Leave now and never return, for the earth you will plow and forever yearn."

Kyoo-luh and Tuh-fruh leave, and go to a location that is debated by scholars, but the most prevalent theory is that they went to the Cerulean Keys. Geh then looks at the destruction of the mountain and feels immense regret and pain at what he had done, deciding in Dissolution 7:1 that the only solution is for him to give up his essence in order to create a worthy companion for Kyoo-luh. This was Geh-roo, the second woman.

> And Geh's heart wept as his grief kept. So he spoke his essence into the Roo of the Material demanding his presence take a form arterial. And Geh became Void from there on and Roo became Geh-roo, her creator gone.

This moment is referred to as the Demolishment by scholars.

Obliteration

Main article: Obliteration

The Dictation occasionally makes allusion to Material in books subsequent to Excitations and Dissolution, but the mountain returns fully in the book of Obliteration. The unnamed prophet that the book is dictated by recounts his visions in this book, ending on his vision of the Material being restored by unnatural means in Obliteration 30:8–11.

> And I saw the mountain being reconstituted by the beasts of ethereal nature, and I wept. And I saw the first man and the first woman at the feet of the queen, but I saw their presence was not arterial. And I saw the queen speak out demanding they worship her.

The intended interpretation of these verses is heavily debated and no consensus has been reached. However, the mountain reappears in the last verses of the Dictation, in Obliteration 38:12–16. These verses discuss the last man and woman on the Globe returning to the reconstructed mountain after the "beasts of ethereal nature" wipe out the rest of humanity. Scholars believe this could be a metaphor that human nature is unchanging, and the past is ceaselessly repeating.

> And I saw him in the image of the true first man, and his tongue was cut out. And I saw her in the image of the second woman, and her eyes were gouged out. And I cried out as they ascended the mountain, but they could not hear. And I watched as the beasts of ethereal nature descended upon them and they met their end.

Proposed locations

Excitations 3:7 gives the only information about the Material's location.

> And thus, the mountain had been placed where it could always be faced, and where the central peak could always touch the ventral creek.

There are three main theories as to where it could have been located. The first and most widely accepted is the Human Condition Hypothesis, proposed by Samuel Voegelin. It takes the fact that the mountain was "placed where it could always be faced" to mean that humanity will always be reminded of their inherent shame, which is represented in the Dictation as disobedience of the Architect. As Voegelin wrote in his book Forbidden Sex, "The human condition is to face inwards towards their material self-interests." Likewise, the "ventral creek" is believed to refer to the artery of the heart that connects to the right ventricle.

The second theory is the Amaranthian Assumption, and is based on geological studies of the Amaranthian Archipelago. In 1954, a construction crew found what was later determined by geologists to be a large caldera where they were to begin excavation. Further geological studies determined the presence of high amounts of igneous rock. This is theorized to be an uncharacteristically large volcano that would have informed the religious mythology of the early Amaranthians, and therefore integrated into the beliefs of the Kyoo-geh worshippers.

The third theory is espoused by Globe deniers and is heavily debunked by empirical data. They claim that the Cardinality is the central landmass of the Globe that all other landmasses surround and therefore the mountain is in the center of the Cardinality, "placed where it could always be faced". This is based on their flawed assumption that the world is a flat rectangular plane, when in reality, a globe model of the planet has no central landmass to an outside observer. Furthermore, researchers in Cardinality outposts have found no evidence of a unique central mountain, as the whole region is mountainous.