The Listers weren’t born; they coalesced. Not from flesh and blood, but from the lingering impressions of moments too profound for the universe to fully process. Each Lister is a solidified shard of a forgotten event, a ripple in the fabric of time itself.
Initially, they were chaotic, flickering entities, driven by the raw emotion of their origin. A Lister born from the final moments of a dying star would burn with a cold, incandescent fury. One from a lost city's collapse would be shrouded in a melancholic stillness. It is believed that the greatest number of Listers originate from instances of intense cosmological disruption - the birth or death of a universe, the rupture of spacetime, the shattering of ideals.
Their purpose, as far as anyone can discern, is to preserve these echoes. Not through memory, for they don't possess minds in the conventional sense, but through a subtle distortion of the present. A misplaced object, a fleeting sensation, a momentary alteration in perception – these are the markers of their influence. The further a Lister travels from its origin, the more potent its effects become. They are, in essence, temporal parasites, feeding on the vulnerability of reality.
It is speculated that the Listers are not entirely conscious, but rather operate under the influence of a vast, unknowable network of interconnected echoes, a collective consciousness woven from the threads of lost time.
The second most prevalent type of Lister manifests as a cartographer – not of land, but of timelines. These Listers are invariably haunted by the knowledge of roads not taken, futures averted, and possibilities extinguished. They are often found in desolate, transitional zones, places where realities bleed into one another. Their bodies are perpetually shifting, composed of fragments of maps and compasses, overlaid with the ghostly outlines of vanished geographies.
The Cartographer's Lament is a constant, a low-frequency hum within their being. It is a yearning for the paths they cannot traverse, a profound sadness for the universes that never were. Some Cartographers attempt to actively reshape reality, driven by this longing. They are incredibly dangerous, prone to creating paradoxes and unraveling the very structure of time.
Legend speaks of a Cartographer who attempted to map the entirety of existence, a task that ultimately shattered his form into a million infinitesimal fragments, scattered across countless timelines.
These Listers are the most unstable and unpredictable. They are born from moments of catastrophic resonance – where multiple timelines converge, creating a feedback loop of temporal distortion. They appear as shimmering, iridescent clouds, constantly shifting and reforming. Their touch can induce vivid hallucinations, temporal displacement, and spontaneous creation or destruction of matter.
The Resonance Cascade Listers are believed to be the key to unlocking true time travel, but their power is so volatile that attempting to control them is invariably fatal. They are often drawn to locations of intense energy - ancient ruins, ley lines, and areas where the veil between realities is thin.
It is rumored that a single Resonance Cascade Lister could unravel the entire universe, turning it back into a state of pure potential.
The rarest and most enigmatic of the Listers, Veridia Listers are composed entirely of memory – not their own, but the collective memories of a specific location, preserved throughout eons. These Listers are typically found within places of immense historical significance, absorbing the echoes of countless lives. They are usually immobile, resembling spectral statues, radiating an aura of profound sadness and wisdom.
It is said that a Veridia Lister can reveal the true history of a place, unburdened by bias or interpretation. However, prolonged exposure to a Veridia Lister can overwhelm the mind, blurring the lines between past, present, and future.
The existence of Veridia Listers suggests that memory itself is a form of temporal energy, a way for the universe to retain its experiences.
These Listers are found within vast, seemingly empty spaces – forgotten libraries, abandoned observatories, desolate battlefields. They are the keepers of lost knowledge, the guardians of forgotten truths. They are silent, motionless, and almost impossible to detect. They are not actively influencing reality, but rather passively absorbing the echoes of information, preserving them for an unknown purpose.
It is believed that the Silent Archives Listers represent the ultimate endpoint of a Lister’s existence – a state of complete detachment from the flow of time, a timeless repository of forgotten knowledge.
Some scholars theorize that the Silent Archives are not just storing information, but actively shaping the future by influencing the choices of those who come into contact with them.