Natural Personification is the tendency of phenomena in Nature to enter Reality as new unique phenomena. Natural Personification is not a true metaphysical rule, but rather an emergent property caused by the formation of Reality. According to the Universal Strata Model, Reality is the result of an imperfect interaction between the Real and Unreal. Imperfections and inequality in the Real and Unreal may require the other to compensate during their interaction, drawing from phenomena within Nature.
Generally Natural Personification is broken into three distinct forms, each corresponding to a distinct imperfection within the interaction which creates Reality. Material and Relational Concentration are defined by an excess of Real and Unreal respectively entering the interaction, requiring the other to compensate by drawing from Nature. Natural Diffusion is the third type, and occurs as a result of Nature constantly entering into the interaction which creates Reality.
Material Concentration
Material Concentration occurs as the result of excess entities in an area, resolving itself through the materialization of one or more Gods—though this does not appear to have always been the case. The First Epoch Star documents the creation and subsequent materialization of the first Gods, the Gods of What Is and Is Not, via Material Concentration. All Gods following this event were created via the process of domain subdivision. This initial stabilization seems to have been enough that the Unreal has not had to compensate via creation of Gods again.
The amount of a material that is considered excess and causes Material Concentration appears to vary drastically from material-to-material and is actively researched by scholars. It is believed to correlate to a materials given percentile makeup of Reality—the measure of how much a material naturally makes up the Plane—though this is not confirmed and there may be other unknown factors.
Materialization of Gods, described in works like Historical Depictions of Gods, The Nature of Gods, and Encounters With The Quadrinity, is a strange and poorly understood phenomenon. Materialization of Gods exists along a scale, and Material Concentration appears to have a gravitational relationship which draws Gods further along the scale of materialization. A God’s level of materialization has been observed to impact the size of their heart.
Too little Material Concentration may cause a God to dematerialize—it is unclear where Gods go when they dematerialize, but their heart ceases existence in Reality. Excessive Material Concentration can trap a God in Reality, preventing voluntarily dematerialization. This has been demonstrated in the recent Iridium Experiments, wherein researchers purposefully and successfully materialized the God of Iridium.
The passing of the Harmonic Treaty appears to have been the catalyst for many of the strange laws surrounding Material Concentration and the materialization of Gods and is believed to have been the cause of the Great Disappearance. Some astronomers have hypothesized that the laws surrounding materialization are a result of God’s attempts to lessen their interference with the Plane. Material Concentration and materialization do not appear to have played as major of a role for Gods during the God-War as they have following its end.
Relational Concentration
Relational Concentration occurs as the result of Unreal entering Reality in excess. It is unclear how this presents itself, but it is believed to be resolved through the creation of a star—a physical entity capable of expressing metaphysical law. There is no recorded instance of this occurring in history, though it has been supported by various interactions with Gods. Instead, the creation of all known stars are credited to Gods.
The creation of the Gods of What Is and Is Not, and their subsequent creation of the First Epoch Star, appear to have been enough to stabilize the Unreal so the Real has not had to compensate.
Natural Diffusion
Natural Diffusion differs from both other forms of Natural Personification as it does not occur as a result of compensation and it is not known through a single expression. Natural Diffusion occurs as a result of Nature naturally seeping into the interaction between the Real and Unreal. This diffusion into Reality is what causes the generation of limn across the entirety of the Plane. Limn, being entirely composed of Nature, has its own unique physical and metaphysical composition.
Flaws in the interaction between the Real and Unreal can allow Nature to seep into the interaction in higher quantities than it would otherwise. Events like this lead to an influx in the generation of limn across certain portions or the entirety of the Plane for brief periods.
Natural Diffusion plays an important role in the works of wizards and mages, who need limn to forge artificial stars. For that reason it is closely monitored by theogenists and astronomers, who track the spontaneous generation of limn via various methods.
See Also
This article is considered complete for the moment, but is missing sections which can be elaborated on as the setting develops! If you think it needs expansion now, suggest an edit through a GitHub issue!
This article could use a section on the history of its discovery. It could also probably use some elaboration on how the different forms are important to science or societies. Natural Diffusion can definitely use elaboration on how it’s studied.