Editing Magical Realm Cyoa/Sempiternitas (section)

===="Fateweaver", "Fate", and "the Fateless"====
Fate and the Cycle is related to the least well-documented figure that my studies as well. He is the closest the people come to a deity, though he seems to be more a common philosophical speculation than an object of worship. Most frustratingly, he lacks a consistent name in the various mythoi of the population here, which made him the most difficult to study in the first place, and what he is called seems to attach to several different philosophies of his role in the plane: the Weavers, the Unitarians, and the Dualists. The Weavers, who seem to be the most numerous, call him the Fateweaver. They believe that he is an agent of the greater power they call Fate, who has empowered and directed him in his task of maintaining the stability of the Realm. The Unitarians, only slightly fewer in my study, call him Fate, believing that he is not an agent of some greater power, but rather the power of Fate personified – as aspect of the force that drives their lives in its predictable path. The Dualists, the group who I encountered in the smallest numbers, named him the Fateless. In this philosophy, he is neither an agent nor aspect of Fate, but rather its enemy, unbound, a force that seeks to overthrow the prescribed pattern and way of things, to usher in a new age.

There are some commonalities between all of these philosophies. First, all three groups believe that this figure lives in the maze-city of the afterlife. What his relationship to that city is depends on further views that cut across the earlier boundaries – the Unitarians say he built the city, while the Weavers and Dualists agree that the city predates him, though they disagree about why he is there. Second, all three agree that he exerts some control over the path that souls which enter the city take, though disagreement about his exact role in the process vary in ways that cut across the three larger divisions.

Curiously, none of the three philosophies have a unified view on the question of whether this figure is a benevolent, malevolent, or indifferent force – though their positions on that can be predicted well by their views on Fate itself. The Necessitarians, who believe that Fate is a good and important feature of the world, staving off chaos, will tend to think of the figure as a benevolent or indifferent one when they are Weavers or Unitarians, but as a negative one when they are Dualists. The Libertarians, who believe that Fate is a bad and unnecessary part of their world, and that they could live better without it, tend to view him as a negative or indifferent figure when they are Weavers or Unitarians, but as a benevolent figure when they are Dualists.