Anthem of Creation lists all relevant cortex entries related to the Anthem.
Collection Details
A total of 18 cortex entries make reference to the Anthem of Creation.
The following Cortex Entries try to explain about the Anthem of Creation.
The Cypher Who Wanted To Fly
See Cortex Entry: The Cypher Who Wanted To Fly for More Details
Of course there have been cyphers who wanted to be lancers. Take the old story of the cypher who wanted to fly. In Satomi, this is not just a folk tale, but a lesson to be heeded. The story goes as follows:
Benwick Xan, a brilliant cypher in his day, thought he could pilot a javelin whilst ignoring his own heightened awareness. Although his initial tests were encouraging, things were not so simple in the face of genuine danger. He hired a Freelancer to escort him into the wild; they hadn't gone three steps when they were attacked by skorpions. In the heat of battle, Benwick could not focus. He found when one of the beasts attacked, his attention was split: sensing a rise in Shaper energy to the East, picking up Arcanist distress signals, noting the rise in humidity due to recent rain, and dozens of other things that did not help at this moment. He tried to fly, but accidentally fired his cannon. He tried to fire his cannon, but instead punched a nearby rock. He had no control. Tragically, it was he and not the skorpions who killed his escort.
You see, lancer and javelin are connected to the Anthem via gateway… but it's a single connection. Slim and direct. We cyphers are already connected to the Anthem, and for us, the gateway is not direct but… engulfing. Javelins cannot possibly channel our every impulse, because our impulses are too many, too vast. The result is a disaster.
There are whispers, of course, of those in the north experimenting with the "creation" of cypher-pilots, but I have yet to see proof of whether they exist or how. 'Tis a rumor and a wish, not a reality.
— From In The Chair: Interviews with Negan Dell
Owen Corley (1)
See Cortex Entry: Owen Corley (1) for More Details
Owen is a cypher who works out of the Freelancer enclave in Fort Tarsis, a small town on the frontier in Bastion. Born into poverty, he was sent for cypher training at a young age when he first showed sensitivity to the Anthem. Owen spent most of his life studying at Bronelyn Satomi in Heliost.
Owen is an adventurer and mischief-maker at heart. After leaving Bronelyn, he traveled for a number of years before settling down in Fort Tarsis to work with the Freelancers. However, the few contracts available have left him uninspired and dreaming of grander things. He longs to operate a javelin of his own.
Cataclysms (2)
See Cortex Entry: Cataclysms (2) for More Details
Before them opened a great Cataclysm, and from it perils did emerge. But Helena Tarsis did not falter. She pressed on into the valley, though wind and debris and chimera all bit at her heels. When she finally reached the Shaper's great rings, she did not attack as Stral had, but observed that they needed repair. Through this, the General determined that the wound could be healed and their path to the fortress was restored
— From The Volume of Tarsis
Chimera
See Cortex Entry: Chimera for More Details
Perimodes, Urry, and Gillimer spent the night rounding up the unfortunate wolven chimera, until only one remained. Perimodes, who took no pleasure in his task, called his fellowship to halt, so he might speak with the altered beast.
"What would you have me say?" asked the chimera.
"I wish to hear your voice. I must know if all of your kind is as cruel."
The chimera spewed icy breath at Perimodes. "I do not speak with men. I destroy them. I must destroy all."
Urry laughed. "Well, at least it knows what it wants."
— From The Freelancers three by Fallon Dalathie
The Heart of Rage (2)
See Cortex Entry: The Heart of Rage (2) for More Details
This Cataclysm affects everything. Wyvern, once rare to this land, burn up the countryside. The Emerald Abyss is now the source of unexplainable disappearances and Shadowmark is sinking into the ground. And titans, creatures that nearly faded into myth, broke through the Shadow Lock and are stomping closer to Fort Tarsis. How soon until they breach the Antium Lock and destroy our city on a whim?
— From The Heart of Rage: A Discussion
Conjunction
See Cortex Entry: Conjunction for More Details
Everyone knows what an overload of Shaper energy from a relic looks like—well, maybe not everyone except most Arcanists and many cyphers—but inversions of energy are relatively rare. Such events are referred to as “conjunctions” because to all appearances the energy that normally radiates outward from a Shaper instrument is instead pulled into it and... through to connect some other location.
What location? Where is it going? We have no idea. It may not even be a location within our physical reality. Energy goes in and objects—even living creatures!—come out from wherever it's connecting to. How do conjunctions form? What's their function?
Further study will bring us answers.
— M. Sumner
Echo Mirages
See Cortex Entry: Echo Mirages for More Details
The first precept of Raban Maur's Theory of Amplifonic Force states that the creative force of the Anthem cannot be stopped or contained. An important rule to examine because it is not simply true in the grand sense, it's true at every scale.
In the case of echoes, for example: although they can often seem inert to the unaided eye, they inevitably transform the minerals and microorganisms surrounding them over time, and even eventually create new material. And it is a well-documented phenomenon that stronger echoes, possessing greater resonance, will take on temporary forms.
These echoes mimic flora and fauna to such an extraordinary degree that more than one unsuspecting traveler has mistaken one for a fellow human, and only learned their mistake at the end of a lengthy, if confusing, conversation, when the mirage abruptly vanished
— From Cataclysms and their Effects, 1st Edition
Gates
See Cortex Entry: Gates for More Details
A small, Shaper-related disruption in reality that can be momentarily ripped open to allow living things to "skip through" and emerge elsewhere. This method of travel is dangerous and wildly unpredictable. Those that risk the gates could be flung to unknown locations or never emerge at all and repeated use of gates has been known to cause madness in humans. Gates are thus used by the desperate, heartless, and already-inhuman. In particular, Scars do not appear to suffer any side effects from using gates, and commonly use them to surprise their prey.
The Anthem of Creation (1)
See Cortex Entry: The Anthem of Creation (1) for More Details
The source of pure creation the Shapers used to create the world. The Anthem has existed since the beginning of time and permeates all aspects of existence. The Anthem has been the subject of much debate over its origin, limits, and if humans should attempt to channel it. Some believe it is nothing more than story and myth.
The Anthem of Creation (2)
See Cortex Entry: The Anthem of Creation (2) for More Details
Famed Arcanist Mederines: "The Anthem is not a toy or a tool. It does not serve to help anyone but itself. The Anthem will always be an unknowable, ever-changing tune. It has... a will. It must create, for it is creation. In that way, it must also destroy, for creation and destruction are merely two edges of the same sword. It cannot be tamed, and for it to be controlled would be... unimaginable."
The Anthem of Creation (3)
See Cortex Entry: The Anthem of Creation (3) for More Details
Oh! When did the world start singing? Who brought forth the song?
Did the Shapers write the music, or did they just sing along?
Why did their choir so suddenly abandon all they made?
Did they choose to leave their instruments, or were they just mislaid?
Mothers won't you sing to us, teach us how to play?
Fathers take us in your arms, and hum to us the way.
The Anthem of Creation lives within us all.
Will you sing your melody? Will you hear its call?
The Gateway (2)
See Cortex Entry: The Gateway (2) for More Details
Upon this discovery, he knew what he must do. The urgoth, hungry to use the Anthem for their own purposes, must never know that humans had discovered the buffer, the gateway they sought. He feigned ignorance to his master, yet whispered his findings to his apprentice, and they to their own kin. From settlement to settlement, and through many years, it carried, until it was whispered to Vassa, who possessed the clarity to use this knowledge for the liberation of all humanity
— From The Volume of Tarsis by “Garred”
The Heart of Rage (1)
See Cortex Entry: The Heart of Rage (1) for More Details
An unending, violent Cataclysm created when the Dominion attempted to seize control of the Shaper relic known as the Cenotaph. The ensuing forces destroyed the city of Freemark.
The Heart Of Rage is like no Cataclysm we've seen before. The wind throws around enormous debris like children's toys. Striders have little chance of surviving the Cataclysm intact, and lancers have died attempting to travel inside. There is no immediate solution, but if its expansion remains unchecked, the creatures and destruction it creates will ravage the countryside. Shadowmark has already been evacuated. Fort Tarsis may eventually be next
— From Cataclysms and their Effects, 44th Edition
The Legion of Dawn (2)
See Cortex Entry: The Legion of Dawn (2) for More Details
And so the Legion divided into three once the urgoth were defeated. Singing the Path of Resolve were the Sentinels, sworn to protect, their voices full with service to the people and high city walls. On the Path of Might, the Paladins were convinced that strength and force should lead the way. Lastly, the Freelancers followed the notes of valor sung by General Tarsis herself.
The three melodies sung together caused only discord, and none could bear the sound. So it was that one Legion became three. Spoke Vassa: “We must sing the Anthem as we hear it, and none should be forced otherwise.”
—From The Volume of Tarsis
EARLY WARNINGS
See Cortex Entry: EARLY WARNINGS for More Details
For two years, the nightmare of that day in the Heart of Rage (Cataclysm) lingered. The Freelancer parted ways with Haluk and Faye, who were unable to reconcile the tragedy. The two were haunted by the disaster and were driven by their need to solve the mystery of the Anthem. But the Freelancer chose a different path. They looked for a fresh start in Bastion. Work was scarce, though the Freelancer happily accepted any available job along with a new cypher, Owen Corley. Together, they thwarted disaster when a Shaper relic spiraled out of control and threatened to spawn a new breed of monstrosity to wreak havoc on the land.
I Think It Had Wings
See Cortex Entry: I Think It Had Wings for More Details
So wild, but when we were silencing the relic, I could've sworn I saw something in the energy flashes coming at me.
I've heard the stories. I know what happens when a Cataclysm is about to start. I'd never seen it before. It felt like... someone had ripped open reality. Didn't like it one bit.
And yet, I had to look through the rip. Curiosity. They say the Anthem creates all the time. I wanted to see what it was trying to push into our world this time.
It looked like fire. Fire and wings. I think it had wings. And then Oskar found the last echo and it was gone.
The World is a Machine
See Cortex Entry: The World is a Machine for More Details
I once met a man who said the world is tuned for life and death, like it's a machine. I don't see it that way. Machines aren't alive. The world is. The Anthem is the clay it's molded from. Arcanists tell us Shapers bend the Anthem to their bidding. So the idea that a mountain exists only because a Shaper wanted it that way, or wars happen because Shapers invented war... it makes me wonder. Starting to think the answer to all that isn't in some ruin.
Monument Watch
See Cortex Entry: Monument Watch for More Details
Home to the massive and impressive, active Shaper relic known as the Monument, a constant place of concern for Bastion. If the relic were ever overpowered by the Anthem, the destruction would be unfathomable. Monument Watch is also known for its high density of nocturnal flora, and the Anzu ruin known as "The Vault."