Raksha Feeding Concept Test

DEVOURING SUSTENANCE The second most important necessity in Creation is that the raksha must feed. The Essence of life, which is unique to Creation, imposes this restriction. By the Primordials’ design, in order to sustain its life, a living thing must take in that which is not itself, change in some fundamental way what it takes in, and integrate it with that which is already itself. So too, then, must the raksha do when they come into Creation. Their definition of what makes them “alive” does not match the criteria understood by the Creation-born, but it resonates in such a way through the medium of the shinma Nirvikalpa that it allows the appropriate rules to apply. Despite the seeming similarities of their physical shells, though, that which sustains the Creation-born does not sus- tain the raksha in Creation. They gain no nourishment from food or water. The heat of the sun does not replenish their energy, nor do they respire Creation’s clean air. They need only one form of sustenance, one as ephemeral and insubstantial as are the true raksha themselves. This non-substance is the very stuff of sentience that glows so brightly within the souls of Creation’s sapient beings. It consists of dreams and passions and emotions and pure will, in which are contained shades of the infinite Wyld. These qualities express themselves in the Virtues and Willpower of the Creation-born, which most closely resemble the parallel qualities of the raksha. These qualities make the Creation-born desirable to the raksha and enable communication between them. Devouring the essential qualities of the Creation-born is accomplished when a raksha opens one of his feeding maws and latches it onto the object of his hunger. To describe the act thus, however, is only to allude metaphorically to a pro- cess that Creation-born minds can barely comprehend. That which is called a feeding maw is one of the patterns of Essence of which a raksha consists, which creates a condition of nega- tive pressure in the vicinity of a quality the raksha desires. When the feeding maw opens, the desirable quality that exists in abundance outside the feeding maw is drawn inexorably into it until either the quality is completely consumed or the raksha closes the maw. Most of the time, a raksha conceals a feeding maw behind his strongest Graces, which protect the maw just as they protect the raksha’s corresponding Virtues. The Grace behind which the feeding maw is centered (i.e., the feeding Grace) determines the quality that the raksha draws off when it feeds. The Virtue that corresponds to that Grace is called the raksha’s feeding Virtue. Those Creation-born who understand this feeding re- quirement consider it a reason to fear and shun the raksha. Ignorant, fearful mortals focus only on those most depleted objects of raksha hunger, those soulless, once-human shells who have been drained of every Virtue and every ember of Willpower. They believe that such a state is the only possible result of raksha feeding. But just as the raksha are capable of passionate excess, so too are they capable of restraint. The raksha know well that the sustaining qualities of sentient beings are not infinite within such beings, so they have learned to ration the resources each being represents. This is not to say that all raksha are so conscientious, but they all know how to be. It should also be noted that some raksha who have come into Creation can circumvent this necessity altogether. If they stay in the Middlemarches, the raksha can sustain themselves on the formless madness that overlaps Creation there. Likewise, if they can make their way to an uncapped demesne within Creation, or into a freehold built on such a site, the pressure of the laws of Creation slackens enough that feeding is no longer a strict necessity. The raksha who dwell in such places are still able to feed on human dreams, but the only force that impels them to do so is the insis- tence of their base desires. Only those raksha who dwell unprotected in stagnant, banal Creation must feed in order to continue to exist.