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¤~¤ Journal Entry 1: Agricultural renewal in the absence of sustainability ¤~¤

Lore, history and other content by the citizens of Underlight preserved for posterity.
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Coraal
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Posts: 147
Joined: Tue Jun 28, 2016 5:50 pm
Character Name(s): Coraal

¤~¤ Journal Entry 1: Agricultural renewal in the absence of sustainability ¤~¤

Post by Coraal »

~from the pages of the journal of Coraal, written in a flowing script...~

Throughout the annals of time, and across a variety of different places, the foundation of nearly every civilization has been the discovery and implementation of agriculture. A move beyond the wandering nature of a hunter gatherer society, agricultural improvements, and the increase in sustainable food sources, allowed for the rise of cities, societies, and cultures, and continues to be one of the single key most required factors for the continued growth and progress of any standard way of life. This is the way of many shardic existences.

By contrast, consumption of tangible food supplies is removed in the dreaming environment and is instead replaced by a process of latent energetic absorption conducted as an autonomic function of the avatar state dreamers employ to experience as much of the dreaming environment as possible. In addition to removing a requirement of physical consumption, this process also allows for dreamers to bypass other fundamental necessities of waking existence, such as breathing. This state of being thus reduces the presence of agriculture from a fundamental necessity to that of a hobby or personal interest.

A noted exception to this would be the actions taken by the Efflorescent Conservatory in Idoaclesia, who strove to use gardening and agricultural techniques to “grow” personal energy consumables directly from the Dreaming City in order to bolster their energy needs in an environment where additional sources of personal energy were scarce. But even through this application of agricultural techniques to achieve the acquisition of energy for personal growth in the form of Spheres did not supersede the autonomic function of the avatar to absorb required ambient energy to maintain coherent dreamer existence in that City.

It is also true that through the application of many agrarian techniques and disciplines many different forms and species of flora have been successfully planted and grown throughout the history of the Dreaming City. Even now, there are multiple gardens successfully flowering and continuing to offer a beautiful addition to an environment that is composed, literally, by the wonders of a dream.

However, just as in many shards beyond Cloudsbreak, there are places in the Dreaming City where flora finds a very difficult time taking hold and thriving without an extraordinary amount of assistance on the part of the dreamers within the City. An example of this would be the Edgeward Barrows, which once boasted the grandest forest within the history of the City, but has been reduced to an arid zone barely capable of sustaining flora on the surface, though some examples continue to persist in the cavernous areas below ground.

As a SoulMaster, feeling the direct call of the flows and ebbs of Resilience, and with a desire to seek an improvement to the lives and conditions of the dreamers around me, it becomes a personal duty to strive for the betterment of those most impacted by a lack of available resources or personal energy. In no place is this more prevalent a state than that of the Lightless Hollow. To discover that a society of dreaming beings can continue to exist, and in some ways thrive, in such a bleak environment is nothing short of miraculous. But dreaming merely to ensure continued survival at the expense of all other experience is no true dreaming existence at all. It is torturous.

I have therefor begun this journal as a working guide to document my efforts to begin a full and true restoration of this dark and frozen place that lay beneath the feet of we who enjoy so many benefits that are taken for granted, and attempt to effect, even if in the smallest measure possible, a living improvement for the residents and denizens of that realm.

There is no expectation of swift accomplishment or result, and it could very well prove that any attempts to improve conditions within the Lightless Hollow are impossible given the circumstances that led to the formation of the Cold City. But I owe it to myself, and to the many friends from within the Hollow who have shown me kindness, given of themselves when they themselves go without, to make the attempt all the same. To do any less would be the poorest possible reflection upon my character, and make of me no better than any who would turn a blind eye to those suffering from hunger and in need.

I welcome any who are open of mind and heart, willing to look past preconception, bias, and assumption, to join in my journey to truly make an effective and lasting change. To help a people who are, for all intents and purposes, cousins to those of us who dwell above in the light.
~¢~
No one saves us but ourselves.
No one can and no one may.
We ourselves must walk the path.
Buddha
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