영계

영계에 대한 탐구는 인류의 역사만큼이나 오래되었다. 인류가 꿈을 꾼 세월만큼 우리는 영계의 뒤틀린 길을 걸었고, 때로는 그 중심부에 있는 도시를 어렴풋하게나마 목격하기도 하였다. 영계는 우리의 생각만큼이나 늘 가까운 곳에 있지만, 현세와는 완벽하게 단절된 곳이다.

테빈터 제국은 한때 막대한 양의 자본, 리륨, 그리고 인간 노예를 사용하여 영계의 지형을 지도로 만들고자 하였으나, 결과적으로 실패하고 말았다. 영계 내의 특정 구역은 강력한 영이 점거하고 있지만, 영계의 모든 공간은 끊임없이 변화한다. 제국은 수백여 종의 영을 분류하여 기록하고, 악마 군주 수십이 다스리는 서로 다른 영역을 발견하였지만, 지도 제작 계획은 중단되고 말았다.

꿈꾸는 자와 영계의 관계는 그리 간단하지 않다. 리륨을 사용하여 영계에 진입한다고 하더라도, 필멸자들은 그곳을 제어하거나 어떤 영향도 미칠 수 없다. 하지만 영계에 서식하는 영이라면 가능하다. 성가회의 가르침에서는 영에 상상력과 열망이 없다는 것이 그들의 가장 큰 결점이라고 말한다. 그들은 꿈꾸는 방문자들을 통해서 본 것을 모방할 뿐이다. 우리의 도시와 사람들 그리고 그 안의 사건을 마치 거울에 비춘 듯 정교하게 그려내지만, 거기에는 결국 어떠한 맥락이나 생동감도 존재하지 않는다. 매우 강력한 악마조차도 필멸자들의 나쁜 생각과 두려움을 모방하여 자신의 세계를 만들어낼 뿐, 생명을 맛보고자 하는 것 외에는 그 어떠한 열망도 가지고 있지 않다.

—수석 마도사 조세푸스 저, 안식화와 영계의 인간 사회 내에서의 역할에 관하여에서 발췌

 

The study of the Fade is as old as humankind. For so long as men have dreamed, we have walked its twisting paths, sometimes catching a glimpse of the city at its heart. Always as close as our own thoughts, but impossibly separated from our world.

 

The Tevinter Imperium once spent vast fortunes of gold, lyrium, and human slaves in an effort to map the terrain of the Fade, an ultimately futile endeavor. Although portions of it belong to powerful spirits, all of the Fade is in constant flux. The Imperium succeeded in finding the disparate and ever-shifting realms of a dozen demon lords, as well as cataloging a few hundred types of spirits, before they were forced to abandon the project.

 

The relationship of dreamers to the Fade is complex. Even when entering the Fade through the use of lyrium, mortals are not able to control or affect it. The spirits who dwell there, however, can, and as the Chantry teaches us, the great flaw of the spirits is that they have neither imagination nor ambition. They create what they see through their sleeping visitors, building elaborate copies of our cities, people, and events, which, like the reflections in a mirror, ultimately lack context or life of their own. Even the most powerful demons merely plagiarize the worst thoughts and fears of mortals, and build their realms with no other ambition than to taste life.

 

—From Tranquility and the Role of the Fade in Human Culture by First Enchanter Josephus