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“There are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns—the ones we don't know we don't know.”
This document is an attempt to compile information on the entities of Arcadia. It contains firsthand accounts of encounters with the immortal beings known sometimes as the Others, Gentry, Old Gods, Kindly Folk or, to put it simply- the Fae. There is a distinct possibility that the information enclosed can qualify as an infohazard . While it is not a proven fact whether knowledge of the fae is inherently poisonous, we strongly advise you consult with mental health personnel before, and after handling this document.
These are first hand descriptions, and have not been altered. These descriptions have been compiled with the intention of tracing out the shapes of the True Fae, no matter how difficult to rationalize they are. They may be difficult, but, despite the common opinion, not impossible. It is the position that our organization takes that the ceiling of human- or changeling- understanding can be advanced, and that all that is unknowable can one day be known.
We are dealing with many levels of unknown here. The only way to start understanding, is to start knowing.
True names have been redacted for the safety of the participants.
“The Firmament”
Testimony given freely by a fairest going by P ███ . Entity described is not tied to any known location, and is perhaps a location herself.
Audio transcript begins.
“If you asked me to draw her, I think I’d run out of paper… Also, the color blue? Or maybe black. Or maybe white? I don’t know. I think about color a lot, these days. There’s so much contained in color that we don’t understand- why do you think Red is so angry, anyway? Who hurt her? Who burned her in such a way, that she exists in every fire at once? Sorry, that has nothing to do with the question, does it? That’s the problem, though. I- I don’t think I could draw you a face of The Firmament. She doesn’t have one, she’s too- beautiful for that. I sort of think that you could get a good idea of what she looks like, if you trapped yourself in a sphere of seamless mirrors- and also, if you didn’t exist. Then, the light could just pass through you, untainted by the ghastly human form- and that’s what she is. The Firmament. She is just light, refracted, forever, and ever, and ever…”
Subject now becomes unresponsive. Notes show xe is now staring out the window, multiple eyes fluttering. The tape shuts off, and resumes when subject is talking again.
“-And thats why I keep coming to the color black to describe her? Even though- when I picture her, it’s just brightness. Blinding, glorious brightness- but it’s the sort of brightness that happens to be all the colors at once. It isn’t an empty brightness, like the color white. It’s- full . Saturated. It’s alive, it’s layered in a cosmos of living color and infinite spectacle and you could zoom in on it and understand everything, feel every color . There’s more colors than you can see with the human eye. I know it, because she showed me them. She showed me the ennui of Ultraviolet, the sonder of Gamma rays. I danced with the shades of radio waves. The visual spectrum is so small, and- that’s why it’s so hard to describe her? People can only see a slice of what she is.
The truth of the matter is, there isn’t enough blue in the sky for her. Which is strange, because I think the sky is our best chance at understanding her? I was looking at the sky when she called out to me. The clouds parted, and I looked up, and- upwards stopped feeling like a direction at some point? It just was. I was only technically falling, but it actually felt like I was being lifted up- it felt like something was guiding me, ever so gently into the maw of the universe. The horizon opened up to me, expanding inside my eyes and inside my mind until the world dissolved away and I dissolved away and the Sun held her arms out to me, cupped me in her celestial grace, and-
And she said the strangest thing to me- Do you know what she said?
‘Be not afraid’,
And- I wasn’t! I couldn’t be! Suddenly, this harmonious calm washed over me- she entered my body through my eyes and connected to my mind and to my soul, and just as I know that red is angry and blue is sad I knew, I simply knew, I knew the color and the emotion that The Firmament was and I welcomed her to consume me. Blue isn’t just sad on it’s own, blue is sad because we look at it and we remember our own despair- witnessing The Firmament was like unlocking a homesickness I hadn’t known I had had, for another universe I had forgotten. I know understand what stardust feels for the light it once shed.
It was- she was- beautiful.
Simply everything at once, every sublime emotion I had never thought possible. Two eyes weren’t enough. Celestial bodies are described as having wheels of them- that might have been me, if I stayed. I wish it was.
I still go looking into the sky for her sometimes, looking for holes to fall into. I wish she would take me back. It feels so- so disgusting to have flesh once more. I can feel my blood crawling through my veins and it infuriates me, because I am supposed to be light, I am supposed to be purity. I think she would find me abhorrent right now, living down among the dirt. I don’t know how you all do it.”