Arcanist's "Perception" & The Unseen World
Hello! I'm back at it again with a fascinating look into analyzing new information from the recent event in global that help solidify certain headcanons and theories I have about arcanist genetics/behavior and how much more they're different from humans.
It focuses on the Meditator's Realm and how it supports something I've already had assumptions on and that is:
Arcanists can tangibly see and interact with things others, mostly humans, can't. This apply to other arcanists as well even if some can theoretically perceive them.
This is a long read, so take your time.
Let's start with what I mean by their perception creating tangibility on what an arcanist can see and interact with. Arcanists are highly sensitive to strong emotions and their thought process works differently on how they manage it. Using Kaalaa Baunaa as an example, we can see how she manifests stress and anxiety as a literal monster stalking her with the proposal papers as its "anchor" or main source of the strong emotions:
This is one of the many ways arcanists "perceive" emotions that makes sense to them and through Deep Meditative Thought (Gnosis), they can compartmentalize it into a more coherent structure that would be more similar to how humans deal with strong emotional response without it manifesting into strong "hallucinations."
But are they really hallucinations?
Not quite. While the emotional state can be seen as delusions, they're very much real to arcanists for one specific reason: Their core. I forgot the actual term they use for it (it could actually just be Gnosis honestly), but one of the biggest biological difference between humans and arcanists is that arcanists apparently have some kind of stone in their brain that's theorized to be the deciding factor of how they can use arcanum and "perceive" wild things.
But the "delusions", according to humans, are actual solid things the arcanists can interact with. They're tangible and real, but invisible to the naked eye with only a particular set of individuals being able to "see" them. These unseeing things becomes what's known as "myths" or "cryptids" to humans. But even arcanists find it hard to perceive these things as they're not specialized in it.
We can see this in Tooth Fairy.
While other arcanists can see the tooth fairies in her jar (which has unique properties meant to contain them), the "other fairies" that surround her constantly and more freely are invisible to them both in sight and hearing.
This leads me to believe that each arcanists see many "unseen things" differently and purely based on their skills and capabilities, but have the potential to "see" what other arcanists see either with the right tools (anchor) or enough practice.
People who try to "perceive" these things without proper training or equipment to "observe" them carefully can lead to a lot of mental distress, even insanity. Commonly humans because:
Humans are creatures that go by the motto of "Fact over fiction" or "Seeing is believing", but when actually facing the truth of things, they buckle under the pressure.
But that doesn't mean arcanists are immune to these effects either.
This is one of Baby Blue's "items" that she brought back from "Wonderland" and it's unstable and imperfect. Even UTTU's arcanist staff slowly lose the sense to properly "perceive" the item if they look too long both because it's incomplete and it's an "unseen thing" that only Baby Blue has fully deciphered in her head. It's a tangible, solid shape to her, but a confusing distorted attempt to mimic the real thing to others. It could also be due to the fact it's not from their world, but from "Wonderland", a place slightly different from their own.
But how did she manage to bring it into reality that even untrained arcanist eyes can "perceive" it with only minor consequences of lengthy observation to it?
This is where the Meditator's Realm comes into play.
It's described as a Realm that "mirrors" reality that can be entered through a special meditative form and connects the Deep Thought (Gnosis) of arcanists to it, allowing them to explore and interact with it to some degree.
Kaalaa Baunaa even compares it to dreaming, but more specifically she's referring to what humans call Lucid Dreaming. It's a form of astral projection where the soul disconnects from the body after entering REM sleep. A deep meditative state achieved through sleep. This is further supported from Baby Blue's interview about "Wonderland":
The implication is staggering as this could mean that even humans can enter this realm through lucid dreaming, but can't achieve as great of an influence there as arcanists who are naturally born to view everything in reality as different. The Meditator's Realm could be proof of a parallel world anyone can access with enough skill and resources.
Like the Manus Vindictae.
Their goals for wanting to reverse the world is still unknown, but with the new insight about the Meditator's Realm, we can speculate that how the Storm operates is through the collapse and bridging between "Reality" and a "Mirrored Reality." And with the Manus' intention of "bringing the world to the right course of history", the possibility of them selecting one of these parallel worlds and attempt to merge it with theirs by "erasing" parts to later glue fragments from another into it is more and more possible.
And an arcanist's ability to "perceive" the unseen realms becomes a very prevalent key to surviving a Storm.
Because with this, they can see the "in between" and the moment "reality" and the "mirrored world" starts conflicting before the Storm takes everything away due to the unstable consequences of bringing two worlds together.
They're still not immune when the Storm actually arrives, but just simply being able to "see" the signs gives them an advantage in braving it.
TLDR; Arcanists not only think differently from humans, but can see and interact with things far beyond the scope of "reality" that even other arcanists find hard to understand without training or an anchor.
The Meditator's Realm could be potential proof of parallel worlds and could be how the Manus dictates the course of what era they want to reach. As well as the unstable collision between "reality" and the "mirrored world" could be how the Storm operates.
Thank you for reading! Hope this fascinates you into thinking other theories about the Meditator's Realm and what could this mean for the world lore and arcanists.
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