Prologue. and a few secrets of the Universe

Most do not read the prologues of a story if they believe they can skip it.

For those I shall summarize this prologue now and say that this is a Royal Road fan fiction written from the first person perspective of an interdimensional consciousness with a hobby of using its power to make heroes. This being discovers the Virtual Reality game Royal Road and creates a character. It will use its powers within the game to continue its hobby.

For those who enjoy a bit more of an in depth prologue, continue. The details are nothing more than my own origin story and a few of the secrets of existence, having nothing to due with Royal Road or Legendary Moonlight Sculptor, thus can be ignored.

If at any point the prologue becomes unreadable for you, skip to the point near the end where it says, SKIP TO HERE to see how it connects to Royal Road.

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First, I tell you now that not a single reader of these words will think them true. It is a fundamental flaw in the way of thinking of your people so it cannot be helped. You think in terms of absolute facts. To any piece of information you attach either ‘100% True’ or ‘100% False’. When in reality there is no 100%. All things are uncertain. Even in your world, if one delves into the deepest depths of your science in any field, uncertainty increases as one seeks greater detail. However, the greater majority of your population will stubbornly hold fast to the certainty of their beliefs, even if evidence to the contrary stares them in the face. I will tell you now that it is better to think of all things in different shades of grey. Instead of 100%, think of the ‘facts’ in your mind as ‘95% Either True or False.’ If you discover evidence to the contrary, adjust the percent accordingly. Such a belief structure will serve you well in the future, this I guarantee.

Now, a basic introduction. At this time simply assume that I am a normal person writing a fantasy novel from the first person perspective of someone that is not human, and this is that perspective’s origin story written in the way the writer felt that perspective would have written it.

I am not human. I was once, then I died. I had no attachments to the world as I knew it, so my being did not linger there after death and shortly moved somewhere else.

As to where I went, it was not heaven or hell. I am not saying that these planes do not exist, I just did not go there. As to why, it was because I did not expect to go there.

Where the being goes after death is mostly determined by expectation and attachment. Attachment to the world is to be avoided.

The worst case scenario is that one has many attachments, such as possessions, or wealth, or power. People who acquire these things in life and refuse to part with them after death are torn apart. Imagine the attachments like nails that keep you on this plane, but the call of the world beyond pulls at you. With a few attachments, the nails may come undone, and though painful for the being, it is not too bad. But if there are too many nails, the pull of the world beyond may rip the being asunder. Like tying a man to two horses and having them sprint in opposite directions. If consciousness exists in this state, it is nothing but pain. Pain forces the being to shift from the earthly realm where the beyond world pulls to a different realm where there is not pull of the beyond world. However, the nails remain in place. There you exist, in the tortured state of a torn being, forever unable to return to the earthly realm and go to the world beyond. This is hell.

Since I have explained how to go to hell, I shall balance it out by explaining how to go to heaven. It is quite simply. Die without attachment to the earthly world, accept that you are leaving it and do so without regret. As to heaven, which you go to depends on expectations. Yes, there is more than one heaven. Presently, the most popular religion that claims to send one to heaven, does so by instilling certain beliefs in their followers that yield a high success rate of entering that particular heaven. They are told and brought up believing that there is nothing greater than standing beside the one they believe to be their creator, and heaven is where they will do that. When those that truly believe this die, they expect that the beyond world will be greater than the earthly realm because they were brought up believing this, and thus they have little to no attachment to the earthly realm upon death. When their being is pulled through to the beyond world, their expectations guide them their heaven. That being said, although there are many heavens, most are connected. Simply expect that you are going to go there, and you will.

Now, that brings us back to my case. I had no attachment to the earthly realms so I was not nailed there, but I did not expect to go anywhere. After being pulled through to the beyond world, I existed in the between, the space between spaces. The smallest desire there would pull you into the space that you desire, your heaven as it were, but I died without desire. Such an existence is generally impossible for most beings to maintain, but I left more than my attachments in the earthly realm. After I passed through into the beyond world, I let go of my ego, my identity, my personality, and my memories. I let them break away from me without resistance. I did however keep one thing. It was not a part of me that I had gained or developed as I grew in the earthly realm, it was something that was apart of me before I even came into existence on the earthly plane, a part of me that defined my very soul more so than my name defined myself as a human. It was my curiosity. What I possessed then was not true consciousness, but a consciousness driven by curiosity. In other words, my only thoughts came from my curiosity, and I was not even conscious enough to be aware that I thought of nothing else.

I will spare you the details, but such a state is similar to that of a newborn, and in this state, I slowly matured, very slowly. A true consciousness developed along with an awareness. With awareness came more curiosity, the desire to know suddenly allowed me access to the spaces around the between, the planes known as heaven. There I learned many things.

Before moving on, there are a few things I would like to clarify. Although I was an extreme case, losing memories and parts of one’s personality is common after traveling to the beyond world. Most of the beings are unaware of the loss, they don’t remember having the lost pieces so do not miss them.

Thinking about this on the earthly planes, one might think that heaven is not so great, but that is because what most humans believe about heaven is contradictory. They believe they will be completely themselves in heaven and still be able to be happy. If you do not understand the contradiction, consider this. A person on earth judges happiness based on the distance from suffering. This means that one who has never suffered, cannot measure their own happiness. Therefore, how can a person be happy, in a world without suffering? If you still do not see the contradiction, than ignore it. Simply put, a whole person cannot be be happy without suffering. There are however happy people in heaven who do not know of suffering, this is because they are not whole, parts of them incapable of happiness without suffering are lost when they enter heaven, and they don’t miss it or even remember losing it. Over time, the being slowly breaks down until all that is left is the original spark, free of the extra bits gained during life. Once in this state, the spark is pulled out of their heaven into the plane where reincarnation occurs.

I know that none of you are asking this question, but it is an important one so I will raise it for you. ‘Where do all the extra bits go after breaking off from the original spark?’ That being said, I will not answer it. It is one of the greater secrets of the universe, not meant to be shared, only discovered on your own. I will however assure you that something productive is done with it.

To summarize the heavenly planes, they are places where the being can exist in a happy state until they are ready to be broken down. One cannot be broken down back into the original spark unless one is ready. I am sure some of you readers may believe you will never be ready to be slowly broken down, but think on this. Eternity is quite a bit longer than you can imagine. Do you really wish to exist for eternity? Some of you who fear the unknown may answer yes, but the reincarnation cycle is a better choice. Consider this, which is better? Watching a marathon of your favorite show over and over again for eternity, or watching it over and over until you get sick of it, then wiping your memory of it so that the next time you watch it, it will be brand new, allowing you to enjoy to enjoy it all over again.

Now back to my my point. One thing that all beings lose when they enter heaven, is the awareness necessary to leave heaven. This prevents beings from even considering leaving. I don’t mean leaving their heaven, as most heavens are connected. I mean leaving Heaven altogether. I however was fundamentally different when I entered a heaven for the first time. With the exception of curiosity, I allowed myself to be broken down without a heaven, but not completely so I was never pulled by the realm of reincarnation. When a being breaks down to the point of a spark, it can easily build itself back up again as a new being after reincarnation. But I existed as a spark so long, I eventually built myself up anyways, but I did so without pieces that exist on the earthly planes, like experiences or memories. Eventually, I developed into a consciousness free of earthly pieces. In this state I entered a heaven, but the awareness of how to leave was not apart of me as a piece added from the earthly plane, therefore it could not be broken down.

Thus began my existence as a curious consciousness traveling from heaven to heaven.

Eventually I developed into a complete being. This cannot be described using any earthly terms or concepts, so I will not attempt to define it save this. As a complete being, I could acquire knowledge from the earthly plane without the earthly experience adding pieces to me. These are the very same piece that are broken down in the beyond world, so acquiring any before this point would have been fruitless as they would have broken down.

It didn't take long for me to figure out how to travel between the beyond world and the earthly realm. As a being without earthly experiences, I could exist on the earthly realm without being forcibly pulled into the beyond realm.

Before continuing, I shall explain a bit about the earthly realm. First of all, although it is called the earthly realm, it is not composed solely of your earth. There are many earths and many worlds, all of which is considered the Earthly realm. I would also like to point out that I do not know which earth I am originally from, though I highly doubt it was yours.

While in the earthly realm, I learned several abilities that allowed me to do more than observe. Using what your world would classify as either ‘magic’ or ‘a trick,’ I could take on human form and do things others would call either, ‘witchcraft,’ ‘a miracle,’ or ‘a clever trick,’ depending on your 100% either fact or fake beliefs.

Let me give you a small lesson on something the people of your world has long forgotten. Magic is simply another level of energy storage. Another field of existence that can interact with itself and your world. Your world’s science has discovered that an object can hold heat, that an object an object can hold radiation, but it has yet to discover how all objects also contain the energy of magic. Not entirely their fault of course. There are many worlds where magical energy is naturally prevalent and usable, perhaps you will see one after you reincarnate, but your world is not one of them. Magic exists of course, but only is specific areas. Where the energy of magic comes from and why it is stronger in some worlds than others is not something I intend to discuss.

At the very least though, consider the possibility, change the 100% fact in your mind that magic isn’t real to 99%, I would be satisfied with this.

Another point I would like to put into focus. The odds of what happened to me, happening to another are low. I won’t bore you with the numbers, but just take my word for it that it doesn’t happen often. That being said, in the infinite worlds over an immeasurable period of existence, many beings just like me have come into existence. I would go as far as to say that the number of beings throughout all of existence is greater than the current population of your world. Of course not all of them started as a curious spark like I did.

Another point. Time exists in space, they are inseparable. Thus, in the space between spaces, there is no time. Not only that, but if one travels through the between space, time travel is rather simple.

So, as to what I did with my knowledge of magic and access to every century of an uncountable number of worlds, I bet you’re curious. To put it simply, I created heroes. Have you ever heard a story of a righteous young man who suddenly gains great power? Yes, that was me. Not every story of course, but a few, even in your world. Of course they do not all become heroes. Most do not even know that I played a part in what changed their life. It has become a hobby of mine.

Of course there are limits of what I can do. They are set by other beings such as myself. For a being such as myself, I am reasonably powerful. But I do not have the power of beings that are called gods. Your world has rules for beings like myself. I won’t tell you anything about the god(s) that set the rules of your world, because there is a rule against it. But to summarize it, I cannot use my powers to cause any great changes that affect the world.There are actually many such gods that have similar rules.

So I can’t declare myself ruler of the world, but I can give power to someone else. If that person gains great power over the future of the world, I am no longer allowed to use my power to help or influence him, thus preventing any being such as myself from setting up a proxy ruler.

This next bit is something many of you will find insulting, so I recommend you skip this paragraph. Many of your religions claim to focus around a god they believe to be higher than all other gods. To all of these, I say this. Any god that came to your world and influenced your culture directly was a being such as myself or something similar. If you believe in one god, the god who created the earthly realm and the beyond world, then know that such a being does exist, but it is rather indifferent. There are many worlds, it does not play favorites. The only thing the god that created existence does, is maintain the balance between chaos and order throughout the universe and every piece of it. If you could comprehend how large such a task is, and how vital it is to the universe as a whole, you would understand how small the world you stand on really is, and not fault the creator for not playing favorites.

Most of the supernatural things in your world are caused by interaction with the magic field or beings like myself messing with the world.

Back to my hobby. If you are wondering why I would pursue such a strange hobby, they answer is obvious. Because I’m curious. I’m curious to see how individuals with certain characteristics will change or what they will do when I give them power. I do not regret the times things have gone bad. I understand that things will go bad sometimes regardless of what you do, and sometimes when all hope seems gone, something good will happen despite all expectations.

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SKIP TO HERE

Now here is where the real story begins. While exploring various eras of various worlds, I came across a world similar to yours, but different. In this world was another world. A whole world within a world. The inner world was a virtual reality video game. The amazing thing about it was, that anyone from that world could enter this virtual world and become a hero. They gained the ability to become strong, and could take any path they wished to do so. And although it was different from reality, the world also contained magic.

I decided to enter this world. Why? Because I was curious.

Now, one last thing. A few of you may wonder at some point why I posted this story here, on this site, in this world. I choose this site because it hosts a copy of the story Legendary Moonlight Sculptor. This is in fact a true story from the world I found. This should not be surprising. In an infinite universe with infinite possibilities, the odds are good that every story you have every heard occurred somewhere. Your world is not the only one with a version of that story being told either. I however choose this world because I intend for this story to influence its reader. Perhaps even, make a few heroes among them. After all, 100% true or 100% false, all knowledge is power, and giving power is how I make heroes.

Chapter 1 http://www.royalroadl.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=4733