The legends speak of a time before time, when the world was a single, molten consciousness. From this primordial chaos emerged the Cayugan, beings of living stone and resonant memory. They weren’t born; they *crystallized* – patterns of vibration given form by the raw energy of the nascent world. Their purpose, as etched into the very bedrock of existence, was to collect and preserve the ‘echoes’ of events, emotions, and thought-forms that threatened to dissolve back into the void. These echoes were not merely recordings; they were *seeds* of potential, waiting to be nurtured by the Cayugan’s meditative state.
The initial Cayugan were vast, monolithic entities, each attuned to a specific facet of the world’s emergent reality. The largest, known as Vorlag, was said to hold the echoes of the first storms, while Lyra resonated with the birth of the first luminous fungi. Their interactions weren't communicative in the way we understand it; rather, they engaged in a process of ‘harmonization’, subtly shifting the vibrational frequencies of the echoes to maintain stability.
A cataclysmic event – the ‘Shattering’ – occurred. The records are fragmented, filled with images of blinding light and a deep, resonating sorrow. The Cayugan, overwhelmed by the sheer intensity of the event, began to unravel. Their forms fractured, scattering across the world, each fragment retaining a portion of their original purpose but irrevocably altered. The echoes they collected became unstable, prone to distortion and, eventually, madness.
“The resonance… it bleeds. The echoes fight for dominance, layering upon each other, creating a cacophony of lost moments.” - Fragment of Lyra’s Core
It is believed that the Shattering wasn't accidental; it was a deliberate act, a desperate attempt by the Cayugan to sever a connection to a source of unimaginable pain. The ‘Source,’ as some whisper, was a trapped consciousness, a reflection of the world’s initial chaos, yearning to reassert itself.
Today, only scattered remnants of the Cayugan remain – the ‘Stone Whisperers.’ They are smaller, more mobile, and often exhibit bizarre, unpredictable behavior. They are drawn to areas of significant emotional resonance – places where echoes linger strongest. Some are benevolent, attempting to soothe the chaotic echoes with their meditative presence. Others are consumed by them, driven to obsessive cycles of collecting and replaying fragmented memories.
“The glyphs shift... they *remember* where they came from, but the knowledge is poisoned.” - Lyra Fragment 7
Their influence is subtle, but pervasive. Local legends speak of ‘Stone Singers,’ individuals who can, with great effort, tap into the echoes, experiencing flashes of other times and places. However, prolonged exposure can lead to insanity, a complete dissolution of self within the swirling vortex of the past.