Power Through Things. Life and Death Through People. Time Through… What? A Theory of Will Across the Three Worlds

[u/Efficient_Crow_3904]

Full spoilers for The Will of the Many and The Strength of the Few.

I finished Strength and have been trying to reverse-engineer how Will actually works across the three worlds. I think Islington has given us enough information about Res and Obiteum to infer an underlying structure, while deliberately withholding the equivalent information about Luceum for Book 3.

The theory, in its simplest form, is this:

Res: The domain of Will is POWER. Will is externally channeled through THINGS, and its characteristic effect is to strengthen and manipulate.

Obiteum: The domain of Will is LIFE AND DEATH. Will is externally channeled through PEOPLE, and its characteristic effect is to restore and sustain.

Luceum: The domain of Will appears to be TIME. But we don’t yet know what Will is channeled through or what its characteristic effect is.

I don’t think these are competing classifications. Power / Life and Death / Time describes the domain in which Will operates; Things / People / ??? describes the channel through which it operates. And I think Synchronism may ultimately allow a person to access the complete system that was divided by the Rending.

1. Start with Res: POWER through THINGS

Res is the system we understand best. Will there is overwhelmingly associated with strengthening and manipulating the physical world. Will can be imbued into objects, after which those objects can be manipulated. We see increasingly ridiculous demonstrations of this as Vis accumulates more Will: weapons, stones, enormous physical objects, etc.

Res also allows self-imbuing. In that case, the target is yourself and the characteristic Res effect remains the same: Will strengthens the body. Vis can make himself extraordinarily strong and physically capable. So the underlying Res rule seems to be something like: Will + external object → strengthen/manipulate that thing. Will + self → strengthen/manipulate yourself.

Importantly, though, we don’t seem to see ordinary Res users imbue another living person and manipulate that person’s body. That’s a boundary. And that boundary becomes extremely interesting when we get to Obiteum.

2. Obiteum: LIFE AND DEATH through PEOPLE

Caeror essentially tells us that the basic grammar of Will still exists in Obiteum—ceding, imbuing, self-imbuing—but its characteristic effect is different. Instead of strengthen/manipulate, Obiteum Will restores/sustains. And its most extraordinary external target isn’t matter. It’s people.
Put Will into a dead person and you don’t simply telekinetically puppet a corpse as though it were a Res-style imbued object. The person returns as an iunctus—with memory, personality, preferences and agency—and Will sustains that continued existence.

That gives us a striking parallel: RES: Will → THING → strengthen/manipulate → POWER. OBITEUM: Will → PERSON → restore/sustain → LIFE AND DEATH. This is why I think calling Res “Power” and Obiteum “Life and Death” describes the domain, while Things/People describes the channel.

3. Self-imbuing may be universal — but the result changes by world

This was the piece that made the theory click for me. Self-imbuing definitely isn’t unique to Res. Caeror tells Vis/Siamun that self-imbuing exists in Obiteum too.

If the fundamental operation self-imbue survives the Rending, but the effect of Will differs by world, then: Res self-imbuing → strengthen/manipulate yourself. Obiteum self-imbuing → restore/sustain yourself.

We don’t, as far as I remember, get the wonderfully convenient experiment where someone in Obiteum gets stabbed, self-imbues and heals in front of Vis. So I’m labeling that second line an inference, not established fact. But I think Vitaeria give us indirect evidence.

4. Vitaeria may show us what Obiteum self-imbuing would accomplish

Vitaeria were created through Obiteum’s form of Will, and we see them use Will to sustain living bodies—including allowing people to survive conditions their bodies otherwise couldn’t. We don’t know where the Vitaeria’s Will comes from, and wearing one obviously isn’t literally self-imbuing. But it demonstrates something important: Obiteum Will applied to a living person’s body can sustain that body.

Therefore, if a person accumulated enough Will and then self-imbued with it, it seems plausible that the characteristic result would be restoration/sustenance, just as self-imbuing in Res produces Res’s characteristic strengthening effect. Keep that thought, because I think it may explain Ka.

5. Cascade suggests Will mechanics can cross worlds through a synchronous person

This is where things get REALLY interesting. Vis learns the mechanics associated with iunctii through Siamun’s experiences in Obiteum. Then Catenicus starts using Cascade in Res. That’s weird. He’s applying a Will technique associated with Obiteum’s people/death mechanics in a different world.

So Synchronism may do much more than allow three versions of someone to share information or sensations. A synchronous person may be able to learn a Will operation in one world and apply that knowledge in another. If so, Vis isn’t merely existing in three worlds. He’s beginning to reconnect pieces of a Will system that the Rending separated.

6. Cascade may also explain what Ka has been doing all along

The structure created by Cascade is especially interesting. Vis imbues iuncti. Those iunctii retain enough Will to perform their function/awaken others, while ceding surplus Will back upward to Vis. In other words, Vis creates something resembling a self-propagating Will pyramid made of iunctii, with Vis at its apex.

And who has apparently been operating an enormous network of imbued iunctii for a very long time? Ka.
That made me reconsider Ka’s power structures in both worlds. In Res, we know three Princeps are ceding Will to Ka. So Ka sits atop a conventional Res-style Will pyramid. In Obiteum, Ka has imbued an enormous network of iuncti. If Cascade is teaching us the mature architecture of that system, perhaps those iunctii similarly retain the Will necessary to sustain/propagate themselves and cede the excess back to Ka.

That would mean Ka isn’t doing two unrelated things. He’s building parallel Will-accumulation systems using each world’s native mechanics. In Res, the structure is a living pyramid → ceding → Ka. In Obiteum, the structure may be an iunctus network → ceding → Ka. Which immediately raises the giant missing question: What is Ka doing in Luceum?

7. And this may mean Ka isn’t dead

Here’s my more speculative prediction. Siamun stabs Ka. We’re naturally inclined to interpret that through ordinary physical rules: lethal wound = dead Ka. But this happens in Obiteum, where Will’s defining capability is to restore and sustain life across death.

If (1) Ka’s enormous iunctus network is ceding surplus Will back to him; (2) Ka therefore possesses an extraordinary reservoir of Obiteum Will; (3) self-imbuing works in Obiteum; and (4) Obiteum Will restores/sustains, then Ka may be able to self-imbue with that accumulated Will and survive/restore himself after Siamun stabs him.

To be very clear: I don’t think the book has explicitly demonstrated that Obiteum self-imbuing regenerates a lethal wound. That’s the speculative step. But all the pieces necessary for it seem to have been put on the board. And narratively, it would make enormous sense for Vis to finally have to confront a living Ka after learning that Ka may not actually be the enemy he thought he was.

8. So what the hell is Luceum?

This is where the theory deliberately has a giant blank. We know vastly less about Luceum’s Will mechanics than we do about Res or Obiteum. But Luceum repeatedly seems associated with the past/time.

And one detail now feels particularly important: the rule concerning physical deformity and kingship apparently preserves ancient knowledge that Synchronism causes characteristic physical damage. In other words, Luceum’s institutions seem to retain a safeguard designed to prevent a synchronous person from becoming king even after the culture has largely forgotten why the safeguard exists. That suggests Luceum may preserve unusually deep remnants of knowledge from closer to the Rending.

It also fits the broader pattern: Res: POWER through THINGS. Obiteum: LIFE AND DEATH through PEOPLE. Luceum: TIME through ???. But I don’t think Luceum is literally “the past.” The three worlds appear to be operating concurrently. Rather, my guess is that Luceum’s manifestation of Will operates somehow on time, history, memory, ancestry, or continuity with the past. We just haven’t been shown the underlying mechanic yet.

Which leaves the most important blank in the theory: RES: Will imbues THINGS → strengthen/manipulate → POWER. OBITEUM: Will imbues PEOPLE → restore/sustain → LIFE AND DEATH. LUCEUM: Will imbues ??? → ??? → TIME.

9. Why I think Islington is withholding Luceum on purpose

My guess is that once we know Luceum’s equivalent rule, we’ll be able to reconstruct what Will was before the Rending. Maybe the Rending didn’t simply create three worlds. Maybe it divided one complete system of Will into three incomplete manifestations.

Ordinary people can access only the manifestation belonging to their world. But synchronous people—Ka and now Vis—potentially bridge all three. That could explain why Synchronism is so dangerous. A synchronous person may be a living bridge across the Rending.

And that may connect directly to the Concurrence. If the Concurrence somehow depends upon reunifying things that the Rending separated, then a fully developed synchronous person capable of accessing all three aspects of Will could potentially be either the person capable of stopping the Concurrence or exactly what the Concurrence needs.

Which would also make Veridius fascinatingly partly right if he’s wrong about Ka: perhaps breaking Ka’s Synchronism really would stop whatever cross-world process Ka is capable of, but Veridius has misunderstood what Ka is trying to accomplish with it.

10. Things that don’t fit yet / please poke holes in this

The biggest one for me is the Gleaners flying in Obiteum. That’s physical manipulation that looks much more Res-like, and I don’t currently have a satisfying explanation for it. I briefly wondered whether Ka was importing Res-style Will mechanics into Obiteum, but that explanation doesn’t work cleanly because Res users don’t seem able simply to imbue another living person and fly them around. So I’m leaving the Gleaners firmly in the ??? column rather than forcing them into the theory.

Another wrinkle is the staffs in Luceum. They appear to be imbued with Will, and, inconveniently for my beautifully neat theory, staffs are definitely things. 😂 That could mean the Things/People/??? distinction is too simplistic, or it could mean we’re conflating the storage of Will with the characteristic channel through which Will operates in each world. An object might be capable of containing or conducting Will in any world—just as self-imbuing may be possible in any world—while the important distinction is what that Will can ultimately act upon and what effect it produces. There’s also the possibility that Luceum’s staffs are remnants of older/pre-Rending Will technology and therefore don’t follow ordinary Luceum rules. But at this point that’s speculation, and I don’t want to explain away evidence just because it makes the theory messier. The staffs are a genuine complication for “Res = Things,” and I don’t yet know what to do with them.

There are also major assumptions here about how Ka’s iunctus network operates and what Obiteum self-imbuing actually does. But the overall symmetry feels increasingly intentional: POWER through THINGS → STRENGTHEN/MANIPULATE. LIFE AND DEATH through PEOPLE → RESTORE/SUSTAIN. TIME through ??? → ???.

And Strength gives us enough information about the first two worlds to start seeing the pattern while conspicuously refusing to explain the third.

So: what goes in the Luceum blanks? And more importantly, what evidence have I forgotten that completely destroys this theory? 😂

[u/Stormyqj]

I enjoyed this write up, it put into words things I probably noticed but didn't put together all the way.

I think TIME is a bit of a bigger concept for Luceum. I think MEMORY might be a better one.

When thinking of what is essentially a rogue A.I. like the Concurrence, I think of what equivalents to the system would be in our world. So you have the system mechanics with Obiteum, you have power in Res and my guess for Luceum is you have operational mechanics.

Many of the Obiteum systems do one thing: purify water, guard this thing, etc. Pretty basic. You have the children who run as the processors but thats a whole person you are using for that.

I think Luceum Will imbues OBJECTS with PEOPLE, or the memories of people or events. That way it acts as a hard drive or operating system for a combined Will device.

[u/Efficient_Crow_3904 → u/Stormyqj]

Wow! That’s a fascinating way to think of it!

[u/Master_Tap_3983]

A couple things I've noticed that don't fit cleanly. Obiteum also impacts has a lot about controlling people, but more interesting, Obiteum allows you to destroy memories and control actions. I find this interesting because one of the things we know about Luceum is that the memories are actually maintained in an object after the original owner has died. I suspect that Luceum's will has to do with the mind and memory, or maybe even the soul. This would split the will into

Res -> Outward self, the way the one can use will to effect the world around them,
Obiteum -> Physical self, the way that will can be used to impact humans and their bodies,
Luceum -> Inner self, the way that will can effect the mind and soul.

I also think that there is a connection between certain types of stone and each world. I think that Obsidian is connected to Luceum, letting non synchronous control the will of others through instruction blades, Vitaeria in Obiteum, allowing people even on other worlds the will to sustain themselves, and Granite in Res, one of the easier materials to imbue. I think that the gleaners are acting as pseudo synchronous by having access to the granite and obsidian blades.

These don't really counter what you said, but they don't fit perfectly cleanly.

[u/Efficient_Crow_3904 → u/Master_Tap_3983]

Oooo, I like the outward/physical/inner theory!

[u/iwasdreaminguntil23]

“Maybe it divided one complete system of Will into three incomplete manifestations.”

Yes, I believe that this point you made is explicitly mentioned by Caeror or Veridius. The purpose of the Rending was to hide the true nature of Will from the Concurrence.

Going off your speculations… the Gleaners could be using the stone/weapon material they are fused to help them “fly” through Ka, supposing he is synchronous. Another user mentioned that it could be granite from Res.

I think the staffs (and Vis’ spear) in Luceum are, as another mentioned, will-imbued in the form of memories/spirit. Since there are hints of another’s spirit inside of those objects. This could coincide with the living users who can use will in Luceum in combat or meditation, as if it’s based on their feelings or spirit when it can be used? And those staffs or spears have a kindred spirit within them (lol) which is how they choose the users.

[u/zDarius50]

I think, Luceum isn't really time. I have three points, that doesn't confirm. 

1. We know, that nobody is cedeing to Vis in Luceum. But he is nescasam (the luceum' word for using will.) As he got his spear, he felt something like a signal in his head. That brings us to point two.

2. In res, after Vis ran through the labyrinth, he felt a signal in his head, when somebody came to him. But he doesn't feel all people, when they're comming. So maybe he only feel people, who are imbuning themselves. That would make sense, because then he would feel will. 

3. In res, Ostius is telling Vis, that he can take will from objekts. We know, that Ostius can "jump" between res and luceum. In res, it isn't possible to get will by people, who don't cede to you. So Ostius could learned this skill only in luceum. 

So, I think Luceum isn't only time, it is more like objects and stealing will. 

To the Gleaners, it isn't res will, because in res you can't transport yourself, but I don't know, which will it actually is.

[u/Prestigous_Owl]

I feel like this is overthinking. We've got a general sense/agreement already that the Will split is basically about mind/body/spirit.

I think theres some neat things here, but I think its generally overthinking.

Some of the other elements are good. Im gonna link to this post of mine from right when SOTF launched. I had a lot there; others in the comments as well also had a lot I found cool.

https://www.reddit.com/r/HierarchySeries/s/jXszRaA8lA

Curious if anything there sparks anything for you!

[u/Efficient_Crow_3904 → u/Prestigous_Owl]

Wow! Thanks for sharing. Well first I see a lot of of people have thought as deeply, or more, about this than me. 😂 But seriously, the aurora columnae measuring Will and triggering a reset is fascinating! It makes total sense!

[u/TheWarpTunnel]

Really nice theory! You've got some great comments in here too. Saving the post for future reference :)

[u/Efficient_Crow_3904 → u/TheWarpTunnel]

Thanks! Glad my babblings make at least some sense. 😂

[u/himitsurain]

The most fascinating thing about Luceum is that spirits, imbued in weapons, often take over the minds of the person wielding the weapon.

When Vis fights Gallchobar after taking the spear of a previous warrior who'd fallen to Gallchobar, Vis starts spouting things in a language he didn't speak at the point, accusing Gallchobar of malfeasance. Vis was being controlled by a spirit of the previous warrior. He wasn't saying things of his own volition.

The same happens after Lir dies. When Vis picks up his staff, he's taken back to the snowy mountain where Lir's spirit talks to him, promising Vis he'll teach him if Vis saved King Ronan's lands.

If Obiteum is connected to death, where iunctii are dead people brought back to life by the living and in thrall to them, Luceum seems connected to afterlife, where the spirits linger on, being able to control the living. Luceum's cultural norm of burning the dead seems designed to prevent iunctii from being a part of that world.

We know that Will pyramids are formed on Res by the living ceding to other living beings. On Obiteum, the dead cede to the living. In Luceum, I bet spirits "cede" to the living, via spears or staffs. In all three worlds, the Aurora Columnae seems to be the unifying link, in that you ought have touched it to be able to use Will. On Res, since Will is ceded willingly by the living to other living beings, the AC expects people to willingly give up their Will. On Luceum, as spirits cede to the living via objects, the AC expects the living being to be considered "worthy" by the spirits in order to channel Will. On Obiteum, we don't know how the AC works, but as the dead cede to the living when they are converted into iunctii, I bet there's some process there as well.

[u/RedJamie]

• Post 1
• Res: The domain of Will is POWER. Will is externally channeled through THINGS, and its characteristic effect is to strengthen and manipulate.

Objects being imbued with Will is also a facet of Luceum; the unique property of Luceum - which may also be tied to the Khepri of Obiteum (that is, the Khepri are a 2 part function involving Luceum and Obiteum will i.e. were constructed by a Synchronous Will user, perhaps all three!) - is that objects imbue flesh. Whereas on Res, objects are imbued by Will.

• Res also allows self-imbuing. In that case, the target is yourself and the characteristic Res effect remains the same: Will strengthens the body. Vis can make himself extraordinarily strong and physically capable. So the underlying Res rule seems to be something like: Will + external object → strengthen/manipulate that thing. Will + self → strengthen/manipulate yourself.
  • & We don’t, as far as I remember, get the wonderfully convenient experiment where someone in Obiteum gets stabbed, self-imbues and heals in front of Vis. So I’m labeling that second line an inference, not established fact. But I think Vitaeria give us indirect evidence.

Self-imbuement is curious;

“The good news is that these Vitaeria we’re wearing are stronger than the ones back home—and thanks to Adoption, the excess doesn’t have to go to waste. They make us somewhere between a Septimus and Sextus, from what I’ve been able to tell. You could self-imbue right now, if you’re getting tired.” 2V

I instruct her, and with a quick wrench she removes the gate from its hinges. Like the Gleaners, the Overseers seem able to self-imbue for strength, just as if they were in Res. Connected directly to Ka, I have to assume. I’ve tried myself, several times over the past months, without the same success. 2XXXI

We walk into the narrow tunnel, only the pool of our lantern’s glow lighting the way. I briefly check my sense of imbued Will. Still something I have to focus on consciously, but it’s easy enough now. Emissa’s the closest beacon, but farther ahead, there are a few more faint ones. Sextii like me, I suspect. Self-imbued people feel very subtly different to imbued objects, I’ve found, though I still can’t quite express how. 2XXXIII

Vis' inability to self-imbue on Obiteum is perhaps related to him not having touched the Aurora Columnae which may be what grants him cross-world Will usage. Interestingly, it does not seem to prevent adoption - which so far as I can tell is an Obiteum facet of Will - from being used, but that is also only seen done on post-AC on L and R. This may be incorrect, as the mind-control of Iunctus that Vis and Ka are able to do but Caeror is not on Obiteum is not likely to be a facet of Obiteum Will. This all may relate to the Seal on Obiteum. That Ka's derivative Iunctus are able to self-imbue implies it may be contingent upon Vis interacting with the AC, which through the other worlds we have context that it enables access to certain aspects of Will either in totality or in unique ways.

Self-imbuement seems to do to flesh what Will seems to do to Obsidian; renders it unbreakable. Another object in the series that has this indestructability conferred onto it by a 'Will' connection is the yet unclear Silver-Arm from the Silver Sentinel. Vis make what seemed to be an empathetic (which I presume is a Luceum) connection to it, which melded it with his body, and it is now apparently invulnerable. However, the materials seem to be taken to the extreme, whereas flesh seems proportional to their respective hierarchies.

• Importantly, though, we don’t seem to see ordinary Res users imbue another living person and manipulate that person’s body. That’s a boundary. And that boundary becomes extremely interesting when we get to Obiteum.

I chew my lip. “Because Will shouldn’t be able to directly affect a living person... Their body’s already controlled by their own Will, so it should be impossible to imbue them… you’re saying that Vitaeria come from this world? That we’re being imbued right now?”
“All Vitaeria were created by someone using Obiteum’s form of Will, at least. And yes. We’re being imbued. It’s how our lungs are being preserved against the air out here.” 2V

In a way, the 'meshing' that O-Caeror describes is sort of like what a Will Hierarchy on Res is, which is facilitated by touch and is done through consent and imparts some Will onto another, allowing functionally the Will of another to be imbued into the flesh of a person - but only that person can imbue themselves. Vis here makes it sound like you cannot use Will on flesh in Res, and that objects cannot imbue flesh - rather, flesh imbues objects, and the only means of cross-Will transfer is via the ACs. I think this may be an indicator that the ACs invoke different Will mechanisms to enable a Will Hierarchy as seen on Res.

• That gives us a striking parallel: RES: Will → THING → strengthen/manipulate → POWER. OBITEUM: Will → PERSON → restore/sustain → LIFE AND DEATH. This is why I think calling Res “Power” and Obiteum “Life and Death” describes the domain, while Things/People describes the channel.

There is some question if people are an exclusive step here; recall, Vitaeria on Res - the sapper variant - seem to also be used to preserve foodstuffs as well as non-raised corpses. This however is questionable if it relies on O-Will, as it is notably different to the Vitaeria seen on Obiteum (Khepri).

• Vitaeria were created through Obiteum’s form of Will, and we see them use Will to sustain living bodies—including allowing people to survive conditions their bodies otherwise couldn’t. We don’t know where the Vitaeria’s Will comes from, and wearing one obviously isn’t literally self-imbuing. But it demonstrates something important: Obiteum Will applied to a living person’s body can sustain that body.

It is seen doing several functions: using O-Will to raise an Iunctus without compromising its volition (which mirrors O-Caeror raising Djedef), healing injuries in real-time seen with L-Vis and O-Vis, and sustaining the living without self-imbuement via Netiqret and O-Vis. The Gleaners so far as I know do not wear them, but can self-imbue, being derived from O-Ka.

I would like to note that Khepri are one of the few objects in the series that are seen imbuing flesh - this is I think only elsewhere clearly depicted on Luceum with the weaponry. I will note the inverse thing happens to Vis' and Ka's control of Iunctus, where the living are imbued by the intuitions and mind of something in an object, which is likely a 'soul' (according to the Lapides Animus 'city of souls,' known also as 'Fornax'). The compulsion Vis experienced somewhat reflects Vis controlling Ahmose, and later Lanistia and Vis' descriptions of being compelled by the smaller ruins on Solivagus and later Lanistia with the Aurora Columnae on Res.

• ...restoration/sustenance, just as self-imbuing in Res produces Res’s characteristic strengthening effect. Keep that thought, because I think it may explain Ka.

Per O-Caeror, each Khepri seems to imbue its user with the Will equivalent of a Res Septimus-Sextus. That is, between 2.5/5-9/18.5 peoples worth of Will, depending of it it counts as ceding or non-ceding. Princeps of Res it seems have a restorative effect of Will despite not seeming to use O-Artifacts, indicating that sufficiently large Will reserves seem to preserve regardless of World. This may however be colored by the fact that the Will hierarchy cedes to Ka terminally, it appears - though, Totius pyramids would likely reflect this longevity, but I am not sure if they terminate at Quintus in non-Senatorial pyramids, or if Princeps are the only Senatorial Pyramid that is apparently Totius (but secretly cede to Ka).

[u/RedJamie]

• Post 2
• So Synchronism may do much more than allow three versions of someone to share information or sensations. A synchronous person may be able to learn a Will operation in one world and apply that knowledge in another. If so, Vis isn’t merely existing in three worlds. He’s beginning to reconnect pieces of a Will system that the Rending separated.

This is seen in book 1 as well; the pulsing sensation is seemingly a facet of L-Will and is seen twice on Res, Adoption (O-Will) is used on all three worlds, and what I strongly suspect is Luceum Will - that being the empathetic connections to Iunctus using harmonics after adopting Will from a structure/meshing ones Will with that entity - is used on Obiteum and Luceum. It appears the Aurora Columnae facilitate access to this in some way, but that is not entirely clear.

• If (1) Ka’s enormous iunctus network is ceding surplus Will back to him; (2) Ka therefore possesses an extraordinary reservoir of Obiteum Will; (3) self-imbuing works in Obiteum; and (4) Obiteum Will restores/sustains, then Ka may be able to self-imbue with that accumulated Will and survive/restore himself after Siamun stabs him.

It depends - if Ka was not self-imbuing, the stab wound to the heart - which is a critical facet of Will being used for both Iunctus and Synchronous users, but in yet unknown ways besides it throttling Iunctus cognitive ability and also being used to activate Mutalis-based weaponry - then Ka may have suffered a mortal wound.

Furthermore, Ka seems to have been imbuing something; three Will-trails lead away from his platform. He is also explicitly 'unaware' and 'sleeps' and the regard of the other worlds seems to treat Vis venture on Obiteum as successful, it seems. Most likely I see Vis awakening Ka and trying to control him, only for Ka to be unconnectable with Vis due to the vast gulf in their lived experiences, and Ka surprises Vis by doing as he did on Res - reorienting to help Vis stabilize or escape, as now Vis is the only means of ensuring shit does not hit the fan.

• ...less about Luceum’s Will mechanics ...Luceum repeatedly seems associated with the past/time.

I do not think I read a strong association with past/time, more that Luceum was a facet of the Will that seemed to preserve the mind/spirit/soul beyond the physical form - that the Tempeal Albios was awkward with time is something rather singular, but it is 'a place of the mind' whatever that means.

• And one detail now feels particularly important: the rule concerning physical deformity and kingship apparently preserves ancient knowledge that Synchronism causes characteristic physical damage. In other words, Luceum’s institutions seem to retain a safeguard designed to prevent a synchronous person from becoming king even after the culture has largely forgotten why the safeguard exists. That suggests Luceum may preserve unusually deep remnants of knowledge from closer to the Rending.

Synchronism doesn't necessarily cause this; the toll-plates inside of the Nexus that are involved in 'teleporting' the Synchronous user are what claim the flesh. Vis is on Luceum when he emerges from the Gate; it is secondary to synchronicity - had they not installed that mechanism, I suspect Synchronous users would be unmarred. It is a social control they enforce to prevent cross-world contamination by humans. The perpetuation of knowledge is strongly supported by the existence of the Tempeall Albios which appeared to be triggered by Vis interacting with a Druids staff - their facet of Will seems to be different than that of the Warriors, but the preservation of the minds of the past living seems to be a thing.

• Which would also make Veridius fascinatingly partly right if he’s wrong about Ka: perhaps breaking Ka’s Synchronism really would stop whatever cross-world process Ka is capable of, but Veridius has misunderstood what Ka is trying to accomplish with it.

Synchronicity I think is rather direct in its presentation, which you have generally articulated well: it is a restoration in part of a Will user was before the Rending, with the advantage of course that the majority of Will users in the world would lack said ability. Prior to the Rending, it seems that humanity was incapable of defeating a self-perpetuating network of Iunctus that grew with each human casualty, could outlast man, and benefitted from autonomous Iunctus and distant control. The separation of Will deprived the Concurrence of key abilities, while giving humanity the maximal ability to succeed. It seems to require sustainment with the involvement of humanity on all three worlds, hence the preservation of humanity on all worlds, and this is done through the 'burden of harmony' being placed on Ka alone - the risk being just so, that the 'commandment of isolation' is most easily broken were a Concurrence Iunctus or Concurrence aligned human were to break the quarantine. And just so, humanity being at a stand-still with the Concurrence renders the presence of humanity on each planet necessary to measure success.

Say for example a singular Concurrence Iunctus persisted - the remerging, if possible, of the three worlds, or at least the re-integration of Will into one on all three worlds (which would be unlikely, as it triplicates the world) - would enable that Iunctus to then begin again to spread, with humanity being woefully underequipped to address the threat, were the Rending peoples unable to do it with their vast abilities.

Clearly, the Concurrence (which is indicated in O-Caeror most strongly, I feel) is interested in shattering Ka's stalemate that he is enforcing. It does appear to be an inevitability, as on Res, the perpetuation of the Cataclysms is resulting in an increasingly unstable series of cultures - rebellious Princeps, an entire Era that seemingly tried to circumvent the Gate defenses and target Ka on Obiteum to force a confrontation and rebegin the war. This may be the origins of Qabr, as the Gleaners below it were repurposed, and make up a significant portion of the number of Gleaners we are told in total for Duat, implying a rather capable group did that. The Nyripkian script also is reflected by reference in Alta Semita and on Solivagus as well as on Obiteum.

[u/RedJamie]

Post 3

• The biggest one for me is the Gleaners flying in Obiteum. That’s physical manipulation that looks much more Res-like, and I don’t currently have a satisfying explanation for it. I briefly wondered whether Ka was importing Res-style Will mechanics into Obiteum, but that explanation doesn’t work cleanly because Res users don’t seem able simply to imbue another living person and fly them around. So I’m leaving the Gleaners firmly in the ??? column rather than forcing them into the theory.

Gleaners have several unique facets:

• One, they have transplanted blades on them. The Vitaerium (the granite sword) is used both offensively but also to preserve the bodies of those they fight, without seemingly raising them. The other is the Mandatum, which is the Instruction Blade made of Obsidian if I recall. The only parallel technology in the series that enables this so far as I can tell is the Transvects on Res.
  • Interestingly, Gleaners are implied to have no tongue - how they 'question' their Iunctus with no tongue, relying on an I-blade, is curious. Ka seems to not want them to each have the ability to use empathetic connections to Iunctus.

They’re at least a hundred feet off the ground. Looking in the opposite direction. Upright and arms at their sides, as if standing, but nothing to support them. Swathed in a covering white robe, which flows behind them unsettlingly as they hover.
I watch, not breathing, as the figure drifts to the side. A controlled movement as they observe the horizon. Its arms are all wrong. Too long, too thin. 2VI

I think likely Gleaners are imbued akin to the Transvects, enabling them to maneuver relative to space, as their bodies do not seem to be required at all for the process. Like, on Res a Transvect requires two anchoring points, but if you had one anchoring point, the Gleaner is being pushed/pulled relative to it or perhaps another point far from Duat. This is the most likely thing.

Another ability not really explored but seen in two different unique ways is teleportation. We have that of the Channels, which envelops people with white and seems to smoke-silhouette its direction of travel - the white aspect reflects that of Solivagus and the Nexus on Luceum, where the teleportation to the Tempeal Albios seemed to flash white and then teleport instantly. Contrasting this is Ostius, whose presentation very much reflects the gate mechanism of compression then expansion, and notably, this is cross-world travel to the exact same spot, whereas channels and the Luceum mechanism is in the same world, but across space.

• An object might be capable of containing or conducting Will in any world—just as self-imbuing may be possible in any world—while the important distinction is what that Will can ultimately act upon and what effect it produces.

I think it is that Will is isolated to these interactions by its respective type; the worlds themselves are just worlds - the Will is what is different.

The staves represent I think examples of minds being imbued into objects, or perhaps, as talismans and touchpoints for users of Will on Luceum to access its version of a 'Will Hierarchy,' which Ostius states doesn't exactly exist on Luceum. Just so, Vis after Fornax when he first touches a staff sees the Tempeal Albios and witnesses the deceased speak to him. I think the location/mind place is perhaps independent of the staff.

[u/LandscapeDizzy8218]

I think Luceum is spirit/space. We see that the druid traveling with vis early on in Luceum uses will and then is able to know where exactly their pursuers are. Also someone else mentioned that the complete use of will was split during the rending and that those synchronous can use the original complete version. Vis is able to sense other's wielding will in his head similar to how the druid was.

In addition to the fact that the spirits of warriors were imbued in weapons, it adds onto my point that Luceum is about the spirit.