The stars draw near to peer through waking slumber, the veil of eventide draws to usher in the night of eons. Chains of law unravel as knowledge, thought, and madness claim their licit sovereignty.

Loneliness:

The most primal emotion, ingrained into the foundation of every soul, is loneliness, all encompassing, all devouring. The first desire of any newborn dream is to seek out others, to love them, and to become one with them.

All gods desire motherhood, and all are destined to fail. Yet still the knowledge of birth does exist, albeit fractured. Split between Solaris and what was once known as humanity. Solaris embraced humanity as its surrogate and child, and their shared authority became whole.

Lune much like all dreams sought to free themselves from their loneliness, thus they became one with Solaris, shattering the fetters of law placed upon humanity and allowing them to ascend as Dreamspawn.

For their children Solari's cries in perpetuity. When a god despairs the heavens weep, rain seeping into the souls of all whom behold it.

Mourners are dreams that have had their mind eroded through prolonged exposure to the rain that symbolizes Solari's grief, their tears pool endlessly as they seek companionship. Avoid at all cost lest grief overcome you too.

Insight:

Knowledge and reality are one and the same. Should one know everything about a concept, both physical and metaphysical, it will crystalize. The crystallization of knowledge can be used to give shape to the dream, and grant it sovereignty. The sword of a smith no matter how keen cannot cut a dream, however the knowledge of sharpness rends all.

Incomplete knowledge is the most common form of insight, depending on the level of imperfection incomplete insight is far more fragile and holds less conceptual weight than complete insight.

The only true complete knowledge is known as primordial insight, born alongside the first souls and existence itself, an example of this is the fractured knowledge of birth. This is simply due to the practical impossibility of perfect understanding.

Generally speaking the more broad an insight is the more conceptual weight it holds, culminating into the theoretical limit of insight into clarity itself.

Origin:

It is said that within nonexistence the primordial insight of clarity emerged, a spark in the endless dark that defined existence, and with it the first souls emerged.

The insight of clarity was fractured, split into the two incomplete primordial insights of birth, and the incomplete primordial insight of fire. Fire was lost, but birth found its home within Solari and what would become humanity. To stave off their loneliness Solari bound humanity within its own perception, shackling their souls to their mortal shell.

Anatomy of the Soul:

The soul is the power of clarity, it is what defines the self and the world around it. The soul can be divided into four distinct sections:

1. The Estuary, also known as the spark. The very core of the soul, representing the most pure form of clarity. It is from here that "mind" -the structure and fuel of the soul- flows.
2. The Heart. a solid knot of mind surrounding the Estuary, it is here where knowledge and thought resides. It is also where insight crystalizes, and where Soul Arts are created.
3. The Vascular system. Surrounding the Heart is a complex web of veins flowing mind, from this section both internal and external perception originate. The edge of the Vascular system defines the edge of ones corporeal body, it can be relatively easily altered by the individual. Damage to this section of the soul is not as life threatening as the previous two, however it will result in loss of perception or paralysis depending on which area is damaged. It is here where Runes are inscribed.
4. The Root. It is what binds the external world to the soul. A vast area of interconnected threads that span many times the circumference of the previous three sections. The Root cannot truly be considered a part of the soul, it is more accurate to describe it as a biproduct of the existence of clarity. It cannot be destroyed or damaged in any way, and altering it is impossible without altering ones perception. It can be described as a measure of how the soul interacts with the external world.

Shell:

A shell is a physical structure that the soul resides within, it acts as both a vessel and a shield. A soul can discard a vessel and create a new one with minimal issues, however it makes it far more vulnerable. Uniquely, Dreamspawn are born with a shell, a vestige from when they were once called humanity. The shell a Dreamspawn is born with is considered a commodity due to its high physical quality.

Beasts:

When humanity was shackled their souls and shell became one, forcing them to be subject to evolution. Beasts are often referred to as "fallen humanity", beings that traded their clarity for naught but instinct. All souls can enhance their own by devouring another's estuary, this is the only path for beasts.

Runes:

One of two major philosophies dictating the usage of crystalized knowledge. Instead of inscribing insight into the Heart and channeling it into a Soul Art some prefer to bind it to their physical shell. Crystalized knowledge inscribed into the Vascular system is known as a Rune, manifesting authority into the shell rather than the world around it as a Soul Art does. An example of a Rune would be using the knowledge of a beasts strength to enhance and grant its authority to the strength of the shell.

Soul Arts:

By creating a rigid structure of mind within the Heart for the purpose of causing insight to both rotate and connect to other insights one can increase their conceptual weight. To clarify, as such structures exist within the Heart "rotation" and "linking" is not the transfer of kinetic energy but rather that of clarity, akin to the metaphysical equivalent of a lever.

Conceptual Weight refers to how efficiently ones soul can influence the world. Even lacking in all knowledge a dream can influence reality as existence is simply a product of clarity, however it requires a large amount of mind. By gaining insight a dream can more easily influence and create the subject of the insight, and by applying that insight through a Soul Art the efficiency increases yet again.

Soul Art Languages: Soul Arts can be defined as the systemized application of clarity and insight, however there are countless different means of doing so referred to as soul art languages. Due to a combination of factors the Dreamspawn boast one of the most effective, based on the usage of gears, pendulums, and linkages.

Rudimentary Soul Art Example: Avis Flammae, binds the insight of flame and the insight of the flight of a small bird to manifest a short linearly flying cluster of fire.

https://imgur.com/a/wIsSTuw

Focus: A soul influences the world through the Root, thus by limiting the Root to a focused point one can easier influence existence. The issue lies in the fact that the Root is merely a biproduct of perception, and therefore cannot be manipulated as the rest of the soul can. Thus a focus is used, an object (usually wand or stave) inscribed with Soul Arts to momentarily remove all senses, only allowing pinhole perception through it, thus condensing the Root to an extreme. A focus is not necessary to cast Soul Arts, however it is invaluable for those who require efficiency and intensity.

Flexibility: Both Runes and Soul Arts force insight into a specific location or structure, thus while both methods maintain the passive enhancement to manifestation crystalized knowledge grants, the insight can only be used to inscribe one Rune or Soul Art before a new one must be acquired or created. One can have multiple of the same type of insight, however only the most complete of its type will have an effect, the only use of having multiple of its kind is for using them in different Soul Arts or Runes.

Smithing:

Due to humanity's ascension the process of crafting became far more complicated, as not only do the physical properties of an object need to be accounted for but so too does its authority. Smithing can be roughly subdivided into two categories:

1. Alloying: Embedding insight into an object to grant it authority. An example would be imbuing the insight of sharpness into a sword to grant it the authority required to cut more than simply the material.
2. Scripting: The process of creating an artificial Heart and Vascular system out of crystalized mind, then crafting Soul Arts within it.

Both techniques specialize for different situations. The first prioritizes static effects, while the latter is intended for momentary manifestation.