RS011



Dal and Qebrus approach their house. It's cobbled together with the remains of several different boats and tattered cloths hang over the door and windows. A larger ship's mast has crushed part of the roof.


Dal


Qeb, no offense, but I think if the Sun was falling--


--And for the record, I am not saying that it is--


--The idea that it's because the imaginary space lady my people worship wants to destroy the world...


S'a little far-fetched, don't you think?


As she climbs down from Qebrus' shoulders, Dal continues her opposition to the idea of fate.


We're not doomed to die in some preordained calamity.


Qebrus faces away from Dal, toward the open water beyond the docks.


Qebrus


We are doomed to endure whatever Nyue asks of us. Even Ybris' wrath.


Even death.


Ending the conversation with a skeptic smile, Dal pushes open the door to their home and leaves Qebrus alone with the setting Sun.


Dal


Yeah, well, I hope she can at least wait until after this nap.

RS011

…And so, as reparation for her gracious gift of life, Ybris bid that all things brought to being for Nyue’s sustenance ultimately be returned; every thing that lives must die, and every stone must become dust. Should this agreement be ever broken, Ybris will enact the Abrogation, assuming physical form on Erj and calling her daughter—and all of existence—back into her perfect Void.

Ybris is nonexistence. The possessive mother of Nyue, she is ubiquitously associated with death, and is therefore widely considered an antagonist to her daughter. Having strictly no form, Ybris is rarely depicted in Erjan artwork, if at all; on occasion, she is reflected in the environment itself, as an ominous void. Only a handful of known examples have been found wherein she is depicted opposite Nyue as a similarly faceless female figure. It is Ybris’ Abrogation—her decree of recompense—and by extension the death of all living things, that casts her as the villain to most. However, this is not the only reason for which she is vilified. Some associate her inability to be known or observed with dishonesty and deception, for she is literally that which is not real. Others consider her nothingness and jealousy of Nyue a tragedy, symbolic of eternal, desperate longing. Still, there are those who champion Ybris, seeing her as tranquil against the chaos of Nyue’s multitudes. Lack of being as the ultimate purity.

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