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cosmomancy

originally published on discord on April 11, 2024

written by Voxel(s) and Wonderlight

note: the discord message timestamps are localized to your computer's reported timezone!

wonderlight —

By the group of people do you mean all of us on the server?

Voxel(s) —

yeah

wonderlight —

Alralr

I would call us.. alterreality users?

But ik you want one word for that

OOO

Beliefmancers

Voxel(s) —

  • one word isn't actually necessary
  • I was thinking "alterreality practitioners" as a general descriptor (not of us in the server specifically but it would describe us)
  • mancer is a really good suffix for that yeah! although beliefmancer doesn't roll off the tongue well since it has that "fm" cluster

wonderlight —

Paramancer?

Or alterrality practitioners

Beings can use the term they prefer

Voxel(s) —

how about
cosmomancer

wonderlight —

YES

(biased cause space)

Voxel(s) —

ok official-looking definition, Wikipedia-style:
Cosmomancy (alternatively spelled cosmimancy) is the practice of creating and managing universes. A cosmomancer (or cosmimancer) is a person who practices cosmomancy. A cosmomancer's universe may be called an alterreality, an alternate universe, an innerworld, a headspace, a wonderland, a paracosm, a fictional universe, or a built world, depending on the creator's reason for and method of creation. Cosmomancy many be intentional, unintentional, or have elements of both. A cosmomancer may exist in their created universe as themself, as a self-insert character, or not at all. Some cosmomancers are able to travel between this universe and their own, while others may be able to exist in both universes simultaneously, and still others may not travel at all.

this section written on July 11, 2024 by Voxel(s)

I&'ve had some more thoughts about this concept of cosmomancy after initially discussing it. Mainly, the question of whether a creator deity is a cosmomancer. I& would argue that they are. This would, of course, extend the possible types of universes a cosmomancer might create to really any at all, including this one depending on one's beliefs.

In the context of a procedurally generated universe, the question of who the cosmomancer is is a very interesting one. One could argue it is the programmer(s) and artist(s) who created the generation code. It might also be the generator itself, which would open up the possibility of non-sentient cosmomancers. It may be also that the universe does not truly exist until there is someone to perceive it as a universe, in which case the cosmomancer is the end user.

There's a lot to chew on with this concept. It brings together mundane worldbuilding, plural systems' innerworlds, alterrealities, creation stories, and more. I&'m honestly surprised we haven't seen it named and discussed as an overarching thing before.