Anthem of Creation (Library)

**Anthem of Creation** lists all relevant cortex entries of Histories sub section found in the Library main section of the Cortex.

## Collection Details

A total of **16** cortex entries make reference to the Anthem of Creation.

The following Cortex Entries try to explain about the Anthem of Creation.

## Cataclysms (1)

*See Cortex Entry: Cataclysms (1) for More Details*

A violent, unpredictable disturbance created when the Anthem of Creation overwhelms a Shaper instrument. They often appear as an intense storm. While one Cataclysm may create bizarre new wildlife, another may shake the ground or force rivers to flow backwards. The only thing certain about a Cataclysm is that it cannot be predicted.

— From *Cataclysms and their Effects*, 1st Edition

## Cataclysms (2)

*See Cortex Entry: Cataclysms (2) for More Details*

Before them opened a great Cataclysm, and from it perils did emerge. But Helena Tarsis did not falter. She pressed on into the valley, though wind and debris and chimera all bit at her heels. When she finally reached the Shaper's great rings, she did not attack as Stral had, but observed that they needed repair. Through this, the General determined that the wound could be healed and their path to the fortress was restored

— From *The Volume of Tarsis*

## Chimera

*See Cortex Entry: Chimera for More Details*

Perimodes, Urry, and Gillimer spent the night rounding up the unfortunate wolven chimera, until only one remained. Perimodes, who took no pleasure in his task, called his fellowship to halt, so he might speak with the altered beast.

"What would you have me say?" asked the chimera.

"I wish to hear your voice. I must know if all of your kind is as cruel."

The chimera spewed icy breath at Perimodes. "I do not speak with men. I destroy them. I must destroy all."

Urry laughed. "Well, at least it knows what it wants."

— From *The Freelancers three* by Fallon Dalathie

## The Heart of Rage (2)

*See Cortex Entry: The Heart of Rage (2) for More Details*

This Cataclysm affects everything. Wyvern, once rare to this land, burn up the countryside. The Emerald Abyss is now the source of unexplainable disappearances and Shadowmark is sinking into the ground. And titans, creatures that nearly faded into myth, broke through the Shadow Lock and are stomping closer to Fort Tarsis. How soon until they breach the Antium Lock and destroy our city on a whim?

— From *The Heart of Rage: A Discussion*

## Conjunction

*See Cortex Entry: Conjunction for More Details*

Everyone knows what an overload of Shaper energy from a relic looks like—well, maybe not *everyone* except most Arcanists and many cyphers—but inversions of energy are relatively rare. Such events are referred to as “conjunctions” because to all appearances the energy that normally radiates outward from a Shaper instrument is instead pulled into it and... through to connect some other location.

What location? Where is it going? We have no idea. It may not even be a location within our physical reality. Energy goes in and objects—even living creatures!—come out from wherever it's connecting to. How do conjunctions form? What's their function?

Further study will bring us answers.

— M. Sumner

## Echoes

*See Cortex Entry: Echoes for More Details*

Pieces of the Anthem of Creation that often exist as semi-animate globes of energy. Echoes tend to hover around the Shaper relics they escaped from, and can be used to silence Cataclysms, though how and why this is possible is purely theoretical.

Raban Maur's *Theory of Amplifonic Force* proposes that when an echo is put into an active Shaper relic, it provides the relic with enough power to countermeasure the Anthem, effectively using the Anthem to silence itself. Arcanist Boyan Hull believes that the Anthem cannot stand coming into competition with other creative forces and retreats back into the relic. Neither theory has been effectively proven.

While echoes are not as volatile as the Anthem, attempts to use them in human technology have had catastrophic effects and is generally avoided. Over time, echoes deteriorate and aid the formation of chimeric compounds and alloys in soil and groundwater.

## Echo Mirages

*See Cortex Entry: Echo Mirages for More Details*

The first precept of Raban Maur's *Theory of Amplifonic Force* states that the creative force of the Anthem cannot be stopped or contained. An important rule to examine because it is not simply true in the grand sense, it's true at every scale.

In the case of echoes, for example: although they can often seem inert to the unaided eye, they inevitably transform the minerals and microorganisms surrounding them over time, and even eventually create new material. And it is a well-documented phenomenon that stronger echoes, possessing greater resonance, will take on temporary forms.

These echoes mimic flora and fauna to such an extraordinary degree that more than one unsuspecting traveler has mistaken one for a fellow human, and only learned their mistake at the end of a lengthy, if confusing, conversation, when the mirage abruptly vanished

— From *Cataclysms and their Effects*, 1st Edition

## Elementals

*See Cortex Entry: Elementals for More Details*

Unlike chimera, which are fauna transformed by Shaper energies, elementals are sentient beings brought into existence by the clash between Shaper instruments and the violent energies of the Anthem of Creation found at the center of a Cataclysm. While the fire-spewing wyvern is commonly referenced as the example of an elemental, the most notorious and universally feared is the monstrous titan. Pioneering researcher Gelhold Fraf theorized that if we could unlock the secrets of an elemental's formation, we would gain profound understanding of the Shapers' design for this world.

## Gates

*See Cortex Entry: Gates for More Details*

A small, Shaper-related disruption in reality that can be momentarily ripped open to allow living things to "skip through" and emerge elsewhere. This method of travel is dangerous and wildly unpredictable. Those that risk the gates could be flung to unknown locations or never emerge at all and repeated use of gates has been known to cause madness in humans. Gates are thus used by the desperate, heartless, and already-inhuman. In particular, Scars do not appear to suffer any side effects from using gates, and commonly use them to surprise their prey.

## The Anthem of Creation (1)

*See Cortex Entry: The Anthem of Creation (1) for More Details*

The source of pure creation the Shapers used to create the world. The Anthem has existed since the beginning of time and permeates all aspects of existence. The Anthem has been the subject of much debate over its origin, limits, and if humans should attempt to channel it. Some believe it is nothing more than story and myth.

## The Anthem of Creation (2)

*See Cortex Entry: The Anthem of Creation (2) for More Details*

Famed Arcanist Mederines: "The Anthem is not a toy or a tool. It does not serve to help anyone but itself. The Anthem will always be an unknowable, ever-changing tune. It has... a will. It must create, for it is creation. In that way, it must also destroy, for creation and destruction are merely two edges of the same sword. It cannot be tamed, and for it to be controlled would be... unimaginable."

## The Gateway (1)

*See Cortex Entry: The Gateway (1) for More Details*

An "interface" that acts as a buffer between the human mind and the Anthem of Creation, making it possible for humans to channel their will into ember-based technology. Arcanists believe that it was repeated exposure to ember that possibly brought about the discovery of the Gateway and while *The Volume of Tarsis* begins with the Gateway's discovery, it does not specify when it happened in relation to the Legion of Dawn.

The Gateway has made direct exposure to the Anthem rare, but cyphers are often at risk of madness or even death because the Gateway seems to behave differently through an amplifier than other technology.

## The Anthem of Creation (3)

*See Cortex Entry: The Anthem of Creation (3) for More Details*

Oh! When did the world start singing? Who brought forth the song?

Did the Shapers write the music, or did they just sing along?

Why did their choir so suddenly abandon all they made?

Did they choose to leave their instruments, or were they just mislaid?

Mothers won't you sing to us, teach us how to play?

Fathers take us in your arms, and hum to us the way.

The Anthem of Creation lives within us all.

Will you sing your melody? Will you hear its call?

— Traditional Spiritual

## The Gateway (2)

*See Cortex Entry: The Gateway (2) for More Details*

Upon this discovery, he knew what he must do. The urgoth, hungry to use the Anthem for their own purposes, must never know that humans had discovered the buffer, the gateway they sought. He feigned ignorance to his master, yet whispered his findings to his apprentice, and they to their own kin. From settlement to settlement, and through many years, it carried, until it was whispered to Vassa, who possessed the clarity to use this knowledge for the liberation of all humanity

— From *The Volume of Tarsis* by “Garred”

## The Heart of Rage (1)

*See Cortex Entry: The Heart of Rage (1) for More Details*

An unending, violent Cataclysm created when the Dominion attempted to seize control of the Shaper relic known as the Cenotaph. The ensuing forces destroyed the city of Freemark.

The Heart Of Rage is like no Cataclysm we've seen before. The wind throws around enormous debris like children's toys. Striders have little chance of surviving the Cataclysm intact, and lancers have died attempting to travel inside. There is no immediate solution, but if its expansion remains unchecked, the creatures and destruction it creates will ravage the countryside. Shadowmark has already been evacuated. Fort Tarsis may eventually be next

— From *Cataclysms and their Effects*, 44th Edition

## The Heart of Rage (3)

*See Cortex Entry: The Heart of Rage (3) for More Details*

Remember Freemark! Our thriving city to the north, gone in an instant. Many thousands of voices swallowed by the Shaper's tool. Remember! We *must* remember them... for in telling their tales and singing their song, we honor them, and bring them life once more. Only when we cease to remember is anyone truly gone.

— Valus Dell, 12th Emperor of Bastion