Gyre

The Gyre is a phenomenon affecting Qud, described as a series of seven plagues and commonly regarded as a curse laid on Qud as punishment for some ancient wrong. It is first recorded in the days of Resheph, whose annals deal with his efforts to stop it, and has recently begun again. The seven plagues are:

1. water being poisoned with salt
2. girshlings attacking crops
3. Glotrot
4. Ironshank
5. Darkness blooming from the earth
6. Svardym blackening the sky
7. The Girsh Nephilim rising from their cradles on the Moon Stair and slouching towards Qud to eat its young.

In Resheph's annals, the plagues are described as having occurred in three waves - two triads followed by the final seventh plague. Resheph healed the sick in response to the first two triads, then defeated the Nephilim in battle, and dissolved the Sultanate in order to "lift the curse" of the Gyre.

Mentions

• Elder Irudad explains the Gyre after completing What's Eating the Watervine?:
  • "The Gyre was a series of seven plagues that spread through and out of Qud a thousand years ago. One of these plagues was a scourge of girshlings, and they heralded the coming of the seventh plague, the Girsh Nephilim. These were terrible demons who ate the young of kith and kin. Resheph slew them, but now that girshlings are back, we don't know what to make of the Nephilim."
  • "They were a long-stewing punishment for some trespass committed in the soft sludge of primordium, before even the sultans reigned."
• The annals of Resheph deal substantially with the original coming of the Gyre.
  • In 3 BR, the Gyre widened, and the first triad of plagues afflicted the land. The water was poisoned with salt, girshlings ravaged the fruit and wheat, and tongues rotted away in the mouths of kith and kin. Resheph walked below the chrome arches and healed the sick.
  • In 2 BR, the Gyre widened, and the second triad of plagues afflicted the land. The legs of kith and kin annealed to iron, darkness bloomed from the earth, and the svardym blackened the sky. Resheph walked below the chrome arches and healed the sick.
  • At Starfarer's Quay, Resheph consulted with mysterious strangers and learned the secret of the Gyre. By cause of the misdeeds of the elder saads and sultans, star beings had levied a curse on Qud. Resheph vowed to make right from this wrong and redeem our doomed world.
  • In 1 BR, the Gyre widened, and the final plague afflicted the land. The Girsh Nephilim rose from their cradles on the Moon Stair and slouched toward Qud to eat its young. Resheph rose to meet them in battle and cast them back.
  • In 1 AR, Resheph closed the gates to the Tomb of the Eaters, abdicated the throne, and dissolved the sultanate in order to lift the curse of the Gyre.
  • In 3 AR, Resheph cleansed the marshlands of the plagues of the Gyre and taught Abram to sow watervine along its fertile tracks.
• Goek of the Yd Freehold can be asked about the status of svardym as one of the Gyre plagues.
  • "Yes rrk was once, 'plague' in the sky hundreds of years. Not so now. Longtime rrk, Geeub, Mak hide in the sponge and eat lice. When find Many Eyes, rrk and friends built the Yd. Joyful helping!"
  • "Plagues bloom a thousand year then die back, shrink under the earth-sponge or move here and east. Vanta, girishling, rot die. rrk the hatchling once saw the Nephilim loom! rrk frightened and hid inside a sponge for thirty moons."
• Mak of the Yd Freehold does not directly mention the Gyre, but denounces the "thousands of my kinfolk cut down by that porphyric wasp fools called Lamb."
• Several of the crystals of Chavvah mention the Gyre and a related phenomenon called "Gyredream":
  • Dyvvrach states that the gyredream caused Tau to leave Chavvah, and describes it as "A future shock. My chimeling _ is vision-gifted, a lichen who clings to shorerock on the straits of Tomorrow. Just a short time ago a sea wave crested and broke beneath her, and she saw in its recession all the bright and violent channel paths. We all felt it. A recoming, and the gyre in final tension. I felt..."
  • Miryam describes gyredream as "our pain. Our felt dream? The aching, traveler. =name=, I feel the slump of a Great Dying, the spinning out of all life on Earth, and I, drowning in grief. Or.. do I? Is it but a new spring flowering, the slump having landed us in a meadow, and they, the gods, who are dead?" If Tau becomes Tau-No-Longer, she says "And the gyre tide carries her a darkling way, perhaps never for us to see again."
  • Tammuz describes gyredream as "By contrasts, a q-quake stills even the most anxious trembling... The world... the world becomes and unbecomes. All the nervous, volcanic energy of being. Who becomes who? Three became one, but what of them now?" If Tau is lost in soft, they say "Tau spins within, the g-gyre spins without.". If Tau instead becomes Wandering Tau, they say "Tau l-leaves unfolded but the g-g-g-gyre yet s-spins."
  • Tzedech says that the gyredream caused them and Tikva to separate. If asked about the gyredream directly, they say, "It consumes me. I witnessed so little from the weave of outcomes. If I could remember them all, could I influence the course? Would I know what safe means? Too many questions with no conceivable answer. Was your rekindling the spark that caught fire? I do not know. We are adrift."
  • If asked about gyredream, Tikva says, "It... can scarce find the dream in this light. It thinks of Tzedech and weeps. It was not here, last time the static was in high pitch, but it remembers the pain and fear. It is not ready to feel these, it cannot. Gaze into its light and speak not of nightmares."
  • Thicksalt says, "You thump my crystal arms, you kicksoft me at windfall. Our feltdream did not end. I feel you here, now. Before, when Soft flushed so suddenly, I felt the stones of war smash against my western roots, and the kicksoft of air unthicken into stillness. In the quiet black, I felt the so-hot burning of star exhaust and thrum of roaring vessel. Then.. too much was felt. Threadcount too high for my edgesense."
  • Asking _ about gyredream receives the response: "*Your entire self buzzes at the sound of _'s chime, a shock from the center and radiating outward. Sensation bubbles up to the surface, a tightening of the self. It is as if cresting a great hill atop a cathedra or an oncoming witchwood overdose; the void yawns under you. Something terrible is born.*"
  • Tau mentions the Gyre if Aoyg-No-Longer, servant of Ptoh in the Cosmic Wood is killed and the player states that she will be happier this way. If she has already become Tau-No-Longer, she says "My future twists in the chill wind of the Gyre." If she is instead Wandering Tau, she says "Your prediction warms little against the chill wind of the Gyre."
• Lebah's credo is "An thou art swallowed by the Gyre, sing thee to the last."

Opinion

This section is opinion-based. Your mileage may vary.

The "star beings" who cursed Qud with the Gyre are presumably the coven of interstellar civilizations of which the Eaters were once a member. Barathrum the Old states that the coven placed an "injunction" on Qud in response to some unknown transgression, preventing the Eaters from leaving Earth or communicating with interstellar civilization. The first recorded widening of the Gyre appears in Resheph's annals immediately after his attempt to found Starfarer's Quay to receive visitors from other worlds. This suggests that the Gyre may be a means of enforcing the injunction, although this leaves unexplained why the Gyre is presently widening.

The name of the Gyre is derived from William Butler Yeats's poem The Second Coming, which opens with the line "Turning and turning in the widening gyre". The description of the Nephilim in Resheph's annals references the famous ending lines: "And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,/Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?"

The seven plagues of the Gyre are inspired by the Biblical ten plagues of Egypt:

1. Dam - Water turning to blood
2. Tzefarde'a - Frogs
3. Kinim - Lice or gnats
4. Arov - Wild animals or flies
5. Dever - Pestilence of livestock
6. Shechin - Boils
7. Barad - Storm of hail and fire
8. Arbeh - Locusts devouring crops
9. Choshekh - Three days of darkness
10. Makat Bechorot - Death of the firstborn

Water turning to blood parallels water turning to salt, the svardym are frogs (and their name is directly derived from "tzefarde'im", the plural of "tzefarde'a"), glotrot and ironshank parallel the diseases, girshlings parallel the various insects but especially the locusts, vantablooms parallel the three days of darkness, and the Nephilim eating the young of Qud parallels the death of the firstborn.