Disclaimer: The following document fragment is presented from an in-character perspective, it should not be taken as the truth of the setting.
Context: Life, what does it even mean for something to be alive? It’s genuinely a weirder question than it might seem, with loads of edge cases that display some but not all traits generally associated with a living creature. In a fantasy world where the laws of physics and chemistry are not exactly what we know, things get complicated. (Part 2 of 2)
In the previous volume of this encyclopaedia of life, we briefly mentioned beings that exist as Konzeptionelle Gestalt.
For those among our readers who are not oneiromantic practitioners, we’ll now briefly explain this term before proceeding.
A Konzeptionelle Gestalt is a being that exists within the Gestalt while still functioning based on the rules of the Konzept. In European culture, this has a lot to do with the concept of a Daemon. In the east, on the other hand, it would be referred to as an Avatar (अवतार).
Of course, it bears mention that not all Konzeptionelle Gestalt are alive. Inanimate objects can function in much the same way.
Most such entities, living or not, originate in the Konzept, otherwise called the World of Ideals or World of Ideas. The Collective Unconsciousness or The Dreaming. Whatever the name you choose to give to it, they have been taken from there and made to exist within the Gestalt. Incidentally, this is an existence not that different from that of a Ghost for our necromantic readers. Konzeptionelle Gestalten tend to evoke feelings of wrongness and displacement when observed, as well as never appearing like they are quite there.
A common mistake is to assume Napir is such an object, but the city actually exists wholly within the Welt der Ideale. The Napiri, however, once they cross over into our waking world very much do so as such Konzeptionelle Gestalten. As do their clothes and their weapons.
What properties do such forms of life possess then?
Firstly, it is important to understand that they are not bound by what we would call the laws of physics, and as such also chemistry and biology. In fact, they possess no biochemistry and in no way maintain any biochemical processes within their bodies. The body itself cannot be accurately studied through physical means either and, in most cases, dissipates moments after the begins death back into nothingness. In essence, it does not exist and functions only in accordance with the idea it embodies.
Having that out of the way, what forms of life have we humans encountered that fit into this category?
Our brethren of the Moon deserves the first mention here. Very interesting things have been written about the nature of the Napiri. Though much of it remains speculation. The most certain links we know tie them to the concept of Dreamtime and the hypothesis of the Super Id. Human in appearance, they lack a Gestalt and spend most (if not all) of their lives within the Konzept. Rarely a few Napiri make their way to the other side. These beings are rightfully considered dangerous and should be avoided, if possible.
Ghosts, however, have no place here, contrary to some popular misconceptions they are not alive in any way, so while their nature is similar to a living Konzeptionelle Gestalt their existence is too fleeting and they lack any sort of will to act of their own.
Various entities of the Dreaming can be hard to classify, some of the mare mere projections of a dreaming host, these are hard to consider life, just like in the case of ghosts. However, some entities from within the Dreaming display a full range of independence. Examples of these beings include the so-called Old Gods. While the prevailing theory is that humanity created the Old Gods in their own image, these entities became independent of us over time. Likewise the beings we call Daemons function much the same. When entering the Gestalt both of these classes of beings exist within it as Konzeptionelle Gestalt and display full autonomy.
Perhaps it is best to think of a gradation between the entities existing within the Konzept as a consequence of elemental forces of the psyche and the, shall we say, higher beings that significantly contribute to those forces. Similarly to how when we examine some forms of life within the Gestalt we can become confused if what we are looking at is already a form of life or still, so-called, dead matter.
Esoteric Musings... 