Overview
*"The raw capacity of reality to be other than what it is. Not emotion. Not logic. Not any single thing. The potential energy behind every 'what if.' What if this stone were gold. What if time ran backward. What if this dead leaf held light."* -- Aatos Ilmari
The Wellspring is that force.
It is not sentient. It is not a god. It is a force -- like gravity, like pressure -- except instead of pulling things down, it pushes things toward change. Unchecked, it would rewrite reality every second. A rock would be a river would be a bird would be a star. Nothing would stay.
Reality needs stability. So something holds the Wellspring back: the Loom.
What the Leaks Produce
Where the Loom has thinned, the Wellspring seeps through. Each trickle filters through whatever it touches first, producing a different tradition:
- Through emotion: **Heartcraft**
- Through logic: **Unraveling**
- Through creation: **The Craft**
- Through repair: **Mending**
- Through force: **The Bond**
- Through instinct: **Beastspeak**
- Through time: **The Hours**
- Through space: **The Paths**
- Through movement: **The Current**
- Through consciousness: **The Veil**
Same source. Different filters.
What Different Cultures Call It
The Deep Green. The Old Hunger. The Underfire. The Tide. The Unspent. Pan's Breath. The Blood. The Voice. A character's word choice reveals where they're from and what they believe.
Aatos, when asked why he named it the Wellspring: "Because it wells. And it springs. I don't know what else you'd call something that does both."