Thallious isn't a place, not in the conventional sense. It is a state, a memory woven into the fabric of reality. It originates with the Harmonious Collapse, a cataclysmic event that shattered the Prime Chord – the fundamental melody of existence. Before the Collapse, reality flowed in perfect resonance, governed by the Echoes. These Echoes, remnants of conscious intent, manifested as shimmering, sentient blooms – the Thalliums. Each bloom held a fragment of a lost emotion, a forgotten truth, a potential future.
The Harmonious Collapse wasn't an ending, but a branching. It created fissures in the Prime Chord, allowing echoes to bleed into nascent realities. The Thalliums, initially anchors of stability, became unstable, their resonances fraying, creating pockets of temporal distortion and subjective experience. Some coalesced into Thallious, vast, mutable landscapes shaped by the lingering desires and fears of the lost Echoes.
Those who study Thallious are known as the Cartographers of Discord. They aren't explorers in the traditional sense; they navigate through subjective realities, attempting to chart the shifting landscapes of the Thalliums. Their tools aren't compasses or maps, but ‘Resonance Keys’ – artifacts attuned to specific emotional frequencies. A Key might allow a Cartographer to momentarily perceive the fear that fuels a Thallium’s storm, or to trace the joy that birthed its crystalline structures.
The Cartographers are a secretive order, often found in dilapidated observatories overlooking the fractured horizons of Thallious. They are driven by a desperate hope to restore the Prime Chord, but their methods are often… unorthodox. Many believe they actively *feed* the Thalliums, amplifying their chaotic energies in a perverse attempt to force a resonance.
Within the Thalliums reside the Echoes themselves. They aren't necessarily individual entities, but rather currents of feeling. One might experience a profound sense of longing for a place they’ve never known, a terrifying premonition of a future that never was, or a blissful memory of a life that never existed. These echoes are intensely personal, shaped by the observer's own emotional state. The more resonant your consciousness, the more powerful the echo becomes.
There are whispers of ‘Null Echoes’ - Thalliums that have completely lost their resonance, existing as pure, empty space. These are considered the most dangerous, as they can absorb consciousness entirely, leaving no trace.