Practical Philosophy, Tuesday

[endsthegame]

"We've had a pretty quiet first week," Ender observed, sitting on a blanket in their usual spot on the lawn. "So we might as well continue on a theme we started on last week."

He reached for his bottle of water.

"Where we come from colors the way we look at the world," he said. "We take our principles with us. Along the way, we might lose some and gain others, but some bedrock will always remain."

He looked around the group. "What do you think your bedrock is?" he said. "And what is something you're surprised you lost along the way?"

Comments

Re: Talk.

[deathsmajesty]

"I am a Planeswalker," Liliana said confidently. "At the end of the day, that is the core of my identity. It is more than just a means to an end, or a handy trick, it informs my outlook, my abilities...everything that makes me Liliana has been shaped by that single fact. As for things that I was surprised to lose...I cannot particularly think of any--" that she was willing to share in class. "Everything I have lost or given up has been done deliberately, to further my own ends. I suppose one could argue the fullness of my spark, after the Mending, as that also affected my sense of self and my understanding of the Multiverse."

Re: Talk.

[endsthegame]

Another lie. But an expected one. Ender nodded, showing no sign of whatever he was thinking.

"Being a Planeswalker must give you a much wider frame of reference," he said. "A way of looking at possibilities, moreso than restraints?"

Re: Talk.

[deathsmajesty]

Liliana lied like she breathed. You were meant to perceive her as she wished to be perceived, thank you.

"Precisely," she said. "Each plane that I spend a significant amount of time on manages to expand my view of the world, of how things are done and can be done, of different ways people think and speak and feel. I have never been much for tradition, nor upholding ways simply because they have always been so, and being a Planeswalker only underscores that."

Re: Talk.

[endsthegame]

"Are you born a Planeswalker?" Ender wondered. "Or do you wander into it?"

Re: Talk.

[deathsmajesty]

"A bit of both, actually," Liliana said. "To have the potential to become a Planeswalker, you must be born with a bit of the Blind Eternities stitched into your soul, which we call a spark. This is incredibly rare, mere chance, and we're talking one in...any number of millions, possibly billions. But people's sparks may lay quiescent their entire lives - one doesn't become a Planeswalker until and unless that spark ignites. Unfortunately, there's no good way to figure out how many people's sparks ignite versus how many people are born with one, so..." Liliana shrugged.

"I've heard a number bandied about - eighty-four," she said, thinking of the Astrotorium and the attraction that had been closed. "I do not know whether that is the number of Planeswalkers alive now, or ever inexistence, but I do feel confident in saying that the total number of Planeswalkers who have ever existed is likely somewhere below five hundred. Possibly well below five hundred. And that's in the entire Multiverse and at least ten thousand years of history.