The White Star

## The White Star that Deceives

### Dreamers and Viewers

Cosette is the only person to have dreamed of the White Star, though Lark has seen it.

### Contents of the First Dream

The silence wakes you. The gentle lapping of the dark green water against the boat had helped lull you to sleep, but its comforting absence has left you unnerved. You look around you in the dim light and see the construct and the crewmember sleeping. Or whatever it is the construct does. This time, however, it does not wave at your presence. It sits in Lark’s bunk, still as death.

You leave your hammock, feet touching the slightly warmed floor. No sound of shoes on wood. No creak of the ropes that hold your makeshift bed in place. The construct and the crewmember do not stir. The air does not breathe.

You feel a pang of loss, just for a moment, and hold your locket close. You absentmindedly open it and the stars burst forth in a cacophonous din that shakes you to your core. Radiant motes of light dance around, growing and expanding while a high pitch whine begins to form. The stars push through the walls of the cabin, the wood bending, then snapping back to place and the stars move beyond them. You recoil in shock, falling back to your hammock. As the din dies down, you note that one star is still moving, slowly, towards the door. The blue-white point of light pauses for a moment, as if to wait for you, before it too bends the wood and slips beyond.

You hold yourself still for a moment longer, before slowly standing up. The world has gone quiet again. Your locket is on the ground, dropped in shock during the episode. It is red-hot, and the wood smolders beneath it. You step around it, moving cautiously towards the door. The faint light of the star can be seen from under the door. You touch the handle and the world comes undone.

A thousand splinters blind you momentarily as the door shatters into pieces in a silent explosion. They bury themselves deep into your flesh, narrowly missing your eyes. You fall to your knees and clutch your chest as you gaze at the sight before you: where there once was a ship there is now only the blackness of space illimitable. Unimagined darkness further than your mind could ever fathom. Something twitches in the darkness.

You awaken.

#### Imagery of the First Dream

* Solitude/Silence
* The blue/white light of the focal star
* Stars warping reality
* Revealing, or rather not revealing, the darkness
* Unseen threat

### Contents of the Second Dream

You are woken by soft blue-white light. You sit upright and open your eyes. It takes a few blinks to realize your eyelids have become completely transparent. It takes several more to realize that the light is emanating from you. Your hands, your chest, your face; every part of you radiates a soft light for only a few feet. You sit up in your hammock and wonder at the strange phenomenon for a few moments, turning your hands over and over.

You stand up, unable to sleep anymore and cautiously curious about the light. You step to the side as you reach for you pack and stop as you notice a hole in the floor. The place you just stepped has become transparent, your light shining down below, illuminating the bilge water. You bend down and carefully reach for the hole, retracting your hand quickly as it bumps into something – the floor. The hole is only visible, it seems, not tangible.

You stand up again and move around, holes trailing behind you with every creaking step. Your companions remain asleep, unperturbed by the light and the noise. Confident you’re not slowly breaking the ship apart, you walk for the door. You hand close around the handle, but as you pull, the handle tears away. It does not tear as one might expect, nails coming out and clattering to the ground. Instead, the handles peels away like wet paper, leaving nothing behind.

You drop the limp handle to the ground in surprise. It hits the floor soundlessly and crumples, before vanishing. After a moment’s hesitation your fingers gently move through the air to the door this time, peeling it away as you did the handle. Great flat, wet, chunks of door fall to the floorboards and disappear, revealing the rest of the ship illuminated by your light.

You turn to the wall, suddenly compelled to see what lies beyond. A quick flick of your hands and the wall is pulled back, showing a dark and quiet sea. You light is useless in revealing what lies beneath it.

Keyleth stirs in her bed, and you turn to face her. You reach out without thinking and place your hand on her cheek. You gently pull the skin from her face, revealing what lies beneath. You look upon a scared little girl, inquisitive but worried; hesitant; lonely. A porcine figure hovers nearby, whispering affirmation or denial to her as she pulls her knees to her chest.

Something snatches your attention away. Something in the room. You cannot see it. Your light does not reveal it. You extend your hand in a defensive manner, suddenly on edge. As your hand moves across the room, it snags on something. You pull, tearing away a veil in the middle of the room. You instinctively shut your eyes, but to no avail – your eyelids doing nothing to stop you from meeting its hungry gaze.

You awaken.

#### Imagery of the Second Dream

* Blue/white light of the focal star
* Seeing through/behind facades
* Unable to see past the ocean waters
* Present threat
* Torn illusion and forced confrontation

### Contents of the Third Dream

The screams are drowned out by the cracking of stone as the tower falls. A plume of smoke, composed as much of ash as dust, obscures the broken masonry and shattered bodies. Citizens of the great city cower in terror, unable to run. The enormous shadows over the city shroud it in darkness, telling even those trapped in rubble and blinded by smoke that the carnage is not over. Hands the size of districts raze generations of history with every swipe. Blackened shapes, moving in and out of reality send those that flee to the same fate as their home.

Some people fight back. Powerful magic, siege weapons, god-given miracles – it all amounts to nothing.  Time passes, and the destruction grinds to a halt as structures still standing become harder to find amidst the twisted wood, metal, stone, and flesh.  The enormous hands stop moving for a moment, the last remnant below them naught but a memory. Then they begin to sculpt. Towers and spires, homes and warehouses, shops and taverns, each structure more detailed than the last. Two large hands are crafted in the image of the new dwellers, reaching for the sky. A giant avian creature, a hawk or an eagle perhaps, alights on a freshly birthed bridge and turns to stone, heralding the entrance of new arrivals.

Only when the enormous hands leave does she return. Stepping from between spaces, she enters the city, alone. Soon it will be filled, but right now she is its sole inhabitant. She falls to her knees, scuffing her azure dress. She weeps.

…

The newspaper reports another suicide. She knows who it is before she reads on. The man she met days before. She had told him everything. She had proved it. She had shown him through her eyes, her memories, what had happened. He had stayed with her that night, though she could not say if he was able to comfort her, or if it was she who had tried to comfort him. In the morning the tears had still dripped from his face; her loss had become his. He had left, and she had not seen him again. And she never would.

It was no better than the other results, she supposed. If they did not end their lives, they instead forfeited them, giving into madness and insanity, choosing to reject the reality they had wanted so badly to learn of, to see, to experience.

She clenches her fists in anger. As it passes, the sorrow comes back in full force. The woman, too old to risk falling, steadies herself on dresser. She looks into her mirror, still seeing the dead city behind her in the reflection. She clumsily unhooks the grim reminder from the wall and throws it to the ground, smashing it into pieces. She does not dry her eyes, for there are no tears running down her withered cheeks – they have long since dried up.

Next door a family of tieflings comes together from a hard day’s work. Their hearts lift as they gather together, happy to no longer be apart. Gathered around the table, they eat in merriment, laughing and talking until exhaustion demands its toll. They retire to their beds, hearts and bellies full. They rest easy that night, as they do every night, with their minds empty and their faces smiling.

#### Imagery and Things of Note in the Third Dream

There is a lot to unpack here.

* Shadows over the city
* The hands coming down and tearing the city to pieces
* Siege weaponry is active and present; they knew this was coming? Or were they prepped for war? Anterrande is on the sea and shouldn't need such things unless they were moving it to/from somewhere.
* "God-given miracles" implies that there were gods to give them.
* The destruction becomes construction as the hands begin to reshape the town
* "Two large hands are crafted in the image of the new dwellers" would mean either that the previous dwellers were NOT the same race as the new, or that the hands that are destroying and reshaping are NOT like that of the people who lived here.
* The bird that landed on the bridge turned to stone, meaning it was alive prior. Current canon as Baltimore states it is that the current bronze/copper bird sitting over the gate in Anterrand is not something that lives here or that he has ever seen alive. So either the creature was native at one point, or the "gods" liked the motif and kept it.
* "Stepping from between spaces" implies that one could leave this plane to an adjacent one, or demiplane
* "Soon it will be filled, but right now she is its sole inhabitant." Meaning that people are created to be here, likely, as someone showing up to a complete but empty city would sure as shit put that in the history books and we have heard nothing along those lines. "Croatoan" anybody?
* The colour of the woman's dress is azure, which is an oddly specific way to say "blue" unless it particularly mattered.
* "She had shown him through her eyes, her memories" this lady either has a psionic gift or is using a sort of reverse version of what the lady at the Secret shop can do? I'm getting the impression this is more literal than metaphorical.
* "...she could not say if he was able to comfort her, or if it was she who had tried to comfort him" please compare to the following excerpts from Salt's page: "Those who have lost much ... often ask Salt for **solace**, so that **it may share their grief** and ease their burden" + "...Salt would understand, and **grieve with you**"
* "...her loss had become his" See above, man. Plus the bonus general round of Salt being a deity of loss.
* This lady has tried to share the truth of this world before but everyone loses it or kills themselves, even if they wanted the knowledge or thought they were ready. This sounds like a blatant warning.
* The woman is described as pretty dang old - and if we run with the theme before of Salt having something to do with this, Salt themselves is a god/eldritch being/unknowable entity/concept so that can't be right. However, on a meta-level, Xylis unlocked a secret that states "Salt’s true disciples number but one, though her loss is almost as great as Salt’s". Maybe that's this lady. Losing everything you knew is pretty, uh, fucked. Also, Salt's page states that she was once a ruler who wept for the kingdom they left behind, aka, lost. If you want to get loss on that scale, watching Anterrande get unmade is pretty good go at it.
* She sees the dead city in the mirror, which might be in her head or metaphor, or like the fucking mirror Kothar and Cosette found in Kluub, it can show you things that aren't readily apparent. Maybe mirrors are a thing here.
* Why a family of Tieflings? That would be rare enough in this place, but oddly specific considering the dreamer. Probably a message from the crafter of said dream.
* The family rests easy, with empty minds. Clear comparison between this poor woman and them.

### Contents of the Fourth Dream

The figure does not move. Were in not for the wind causing its cloak to flutter in the icy wind atop the tower, one might think it a statue. It simply stands, arms clasped around its abdomen, perhaps for warmth, or perhaps for comfort. Its face cannot be seen. In the dim light not even colour can be made out. The figure stands, and it watches, gazing off into the horizon.

Miles away, a city collapses. Tower by tower, brick by brick, the great empire is reduced to rubble by massive hands sweeping over it as a child might clear a drawing in the sand, ready to create anew on a blank canvas on an infinite shore.

The figure does not recoil. It does not reach out in a futile gesture of trying to hold onto the city. Its head moves slightly, though in what direction or in what way you cannot tell. Perhaps it is thinking. Wondering why this city had to go. Why this city needed to be rebuilt from the nothing from whence it was born. The figure stands, and it watches, gazing out at the world beyond.

Miles away the dust settles. The hands stop, though only briefly. They sculpt now, building towers anew. They finish in what seems like moments, but surely must have been years. Intricate details clearly in view, though too small for even the keenest eye to truly appreciate from this distance.

The figure does not marvel. It does not lean forward to try to see the lovingly-crafted statues and buildings the tiniest bit more clearly. Perhaps it is thinking. Perhaps it wonders what will be next. Perhaps its mind drifts now to the other old nation it saw disappear, smothered with dirt and plants and life. The figure stands, and it watches, gazing nowhere and everywhere at once.

Miles away, a small being emerges into an empty city. A being familiar to the figure. The being wanders the streets. It touches the new stone, the new wood, it sees the new people. It collapses, and it weeps.

The figure does not remain. It turns and enters its tower, ice crawling behind it as it walks. The tower will finish itself. The figure will not remain. It will leave. It will head eastward, where it knows it cannot go. From where it cannot return. But where the figure goes, it knows not. The figure leaves, and it watches ahead, gazing at the future and the past.

…

Time passes. The world has flourished. Atop the bones of the old, a new future stands tall. The past is buried deep, the sins of the old world never to be seen again, never to stain what is with what was. Everything is as it should be, in balance. The people of the world bask in paradise. Up above, a white star shines bright.

#### Imagery and Things of Note in the Fourth Dream

There are a lot of very vague statements that could be used to obfuscate plainly spoken truths, or maybe just for artistic flair. It makes the few absolutes presented stand out more starkly though. That said, let's go:

* Icy wind. We know that there are places where the temperate weather doesn't hold, but ice is referenced later as well.
* "arms clasped around its abdomen" is really vague. It could mean just that, from a humanoid physiological perspective, but it could also mean anything else along those lines. Could be the eight "arms" of a drider for all we freaking know.
* In regards to warmth or comfort, I don't know. It doesn't give any outward appearance of giving a shit about the town getting destroyed so I doubt comfort, but it also trails ice later on, so doubtful it's warmth either.
* Anterrande getting wiped out like a zen sand garden is giving us an outside perspective of the third dream, likely.
* "Infinite shore" might be an artistic metaphor, or something creepier.
* The creature possibly questioning why the city has to go implies that there are at least reasons that it is aware of, and that this kind of destruction is brought about by something rather than at random intervals or whim.
* The hands finish reconstruction "in what seems like moments, but surely must have been years". Must it have? Guess that comes down to one's perspective or perception of time.
* It doesn't marvel because this shit is old hat to it, wah... or it's an eldritch horror and doesn't care in general.
* Whatever this thing is, it's seen this before. The other old nation it refers to could rightly be anything, but we know know that Stone and Salt are missing kingdoms (Storm's is upstairs so likely not that one), but the "smothered with dirt and plants and life" might refer to something under Durthan?
* If something can gaze "everywhere and nowhere" it's not human, son.
* The mysterious woman from before is familiar to this creature... so either it's simply aware of her, or they've encountered one another before. In what capacity they know each other isn't stated.
* The figure turns and goes into the tower at this point. If that's because they're irritated or made sad due to the person they know in the remade city, or if it's just timing or whatever, who knows.
* "Ice crawling behind it as it walks" well hello there creepy icy friend.
* "The tower will finish itself." wait, what? How? It's not finished now?
* "It will head eastward, where it knows it cannot go. From where it cannot return." So either death, imprisonment, or the gate simply closes behind them.
* Now it says the figure doesn't know where it's going, so I guess it's just a vague "let's walk in this direction" thing? What we know about the east is basically summed up in "there are horrible monsters and even Salt said fuck that noise" so I'm not sure.
* Whatever/whoever this person is, the line implies that they've either been around a very, very long time or they actually have the ability to see into the future and past. Considering the "everywhere and nowhere at once" line from earlier, it's likely that this is literal.
* After the time skip, it talks about burying the "the sins of the old world" where they can't be found to taint the present; are these "sins" what cause civilizations to be razed to the ground? The dream references a blank canvas before, so maybe the gods here regularly pull a Noah's Flood type thing whenever the mortals figure too much out? It also mentions balance; balance of what, exactly? And what tips it?
* Everything is apparently as it should be, for now. Paradise. Everybody has what they need, then?
* Hello again, white star. You fickle bastard. Does the appearance here herald the fact that it is sending the dreams? Is the figure from before a manifestation of it, or just another character? Does the fact that it is tied to illusions and its entry at this point in the dream point merely to the fact that this paradise is a lie? Did it have a hand in the creation of said lie, or is it just interested? WHO KNOWS.

### Contents of the Fifth Dream

You awaken lazily. You sit up, pulling your head from Baal’s shoulder. He chides you gently for having fallen asleep on him while you two relaxed on a bench near the public fountain. You smile and fix your hair. He says he has to go fulfill his duties. He’ll meet you back home later. You decide to go for a walk.

The air is full of voices as you move through the market. Dozens of people from dozens of lands are gathered together. Anterrande’s businesses are thriving. Several devils walk through the crowd, but nobody pays them any heed. Nor do you. It is, after all, a common sight.

Several business owners recognize you as you walk by. They wave, eternally grateful to you for your work in uniting Parvaestus and Anterrande. Your delegation and treaty-forging have benefited the entire Sea. The name “Guillory” is the most well-known name throughout the plane. Besides ending the rivalries between several factions (and establishing your own power), there has been a noted decrease in the activity of aberrant horrors in the regions under your influence.

You eventually return to your house. Situated just south of the Labyrinth and east of the Better Inn (which you now own as well) your house, a veritable mansion, is the newest structure in Anterrande. Paid for by the government, it replaced an old, unneeded building.

You glance upwards, towards the white light of Ulban shining down on everyone. You smile.

…

You awaken lazily. You sit up, pulling your head from Baal’s shoulder. He’s cold. You glance around at the other frozen corpses littering the snow-covered ice. You managed to slip Riff’s *ring of warmth* off what was left of his hand and attune to it just as you passed out. You feel the wind, but not the cold.

Your attention is drawn toward the ship as you hear yelling. The captain is cursing the Sea and all that it holds. It’s not Hans. He died long ago, betrayed by those who were after what he knew. The next captain was killed by Anterrande officials, enraged at the discord he had sown with the secrets he had unearthed. This captain is being cut down by his hubris. He wanted to know about the hidden truths of this world more than you did, and his crew paid the price.

You don’t bother listening to his raving, his cursing. It won’t do either of you any good. The ship is in pieces, and your carpenter, even if she was alive, couldn’t even begin to fix it. You rations are all but gone of course. Why wouldn’t they be? It took months to even find this place, much longer than expected. No other ships will pass by – nobody else knows of this location, and if they did, they’d never find it.

So here is where it’ll end. At the base of this old, forgotten tower. You’ve lost everything this time. You can’t change your fate. The only choice left is how it happens.

You slip the ring from you hand and let the cold rush over you.

You glance upwards, towards the white light of Ulban shining down on you.

You awaken.

### Contents of the Sixth Dream

*Of all the creatures that exist within your young realm, your species are decidedly intelligent. Though not all are of the same intellect, I do believe you are at least amongst their common numbers, if not perhaps of a greater stock. Your particular breed understands the need for order and structure. For orders to be carried out without question or knowledge. If the orders were questioned, if everything had to be explained, the system would collapse. Ignorance is an asset to be used just as knowledge is.*

*And yet you persist in dismissing me. I understand. Too much ignorance, and one may even be unaware of its position. You have seen much. Your eyes are open enough now to hear me clearly, and you have uncovered enough knowledge of this failed realm to muster an idea, I believe, of what has transpired here. But I will ask nonetheless. I will confirm. For perhaps you are not as observant or deductive as I had thought. And clearly you need answers to fall in line. You are not the first. But it is that burning lust for knowledge that leads me to quell desires like yours, whereas others, like Khirad, would feed your desires until all was burned away.*

*Tell me, and tell me true, why I have sought to close your eyes.*

**[To keep me safe]** *How self-centered a thought. I am not the embodiment of empathy, nor am I one such as Caiphon. I take no interest in the individual. I quell your desires so that this failed realm may die quietly. You endanger everything with your actions, your fervor. You think only of yourself, yet ponder not the consequences of your actions. Ask yourself this: if you break open this realm, if you leave,* ***what else will follow***?

### Gifts and Powers

Once per tenday, [you] can see through the deception of reality over the world. [You] can see through illusions and sense malicious intent of those that look [you] in the eyes. These effects last for 1 hour and two people respectively. [You] can attempt to use this a second time in a given tenday.

**Missive from Ulban**

A book taken from House Delam after their eradication. When opened, it shines a brilliant bright white light tinged with blue, obscuring the contents of the pages to anyone who is not chosen. Notes from the house explain that a previous "reader" told them that the book belonged to The Deceiver and would not be of any use to them, and that the book itself was retrieved from an adjacent plane referred to in the texts as Nadir.

When Cosette opened the book she saw geometric patterns drawn over the pages, all in straight lines. As she attempted to follow them, she discerned that they were possibly a spell or form of communication without words, and knew the following:

* The patterns prevent people from reading the contents, allowing them to see only the brilliant glow
* The author of the book goes by the name of Ulban
* Ulban decreed that those who read this book should continue on as if nothing was happening; everything is fine, and one should turn away from unpleasant realities and truths. They should live happy, and die quickly.

### Assumptions/Questions

* Sweet fucking god, ok, so the White Star is the Deceiver. The missive follows in that path. **Why, then, are the dreams and boon about peeling away such illusions?** You'd assume it would be about creating them.
* On that note, maybe the third dream is to show that **there aint any point in learning the truth since it only leaves you miserable?** Could tie in with the happy Tiefling family at the end. Happy, but empty.
* If, and this is a big fat if, the figure in the fourth dream is Ulban and they are aware of the disciple of Salt who can step between worlds/planes... does that mean that Nadir is a place that they can/could go? Because evidently that's where Ulban lives, since House Delam retrieved the book from there.
* According to Secrets 19 and 15 the gods want to remake this world. Dreams 3/4 clearly show this happening. But the secret also says that the gods are locked out; how did they get locked out? **Is the fact that this place is a closed plane a direct result of the inhabitants actions in an attempt to preserve it?** Was this, in fact, not the gods or circumstances that did this but the people who lived here trying to save themselves from the cycle? And on that... if this guess is correct, poking holes in the veil is *probably a really fucking bad idea*. The gods can send their essence through holes in reality, eh? Wouldn't colours that don't fit with this reality be a great way to *open a gate* so that this place can be remade again?
* As of dream five, Ulban is practically beating Cosette over the head with "plz stahp and settle down, only misery and death are out there". And you know what? She believes him. Ain't gonna stop her though.