Editing Magical Realm Cyoa/Sempiternitas (section)

====Fate and the Cycle====
The last common point that the natives' explained to me was their concept of Fate and the Cycle. If I am to believe what I am told, for all its transient and fleeting exterior, for all its sudden shifts in ecology and geography, at its core Sempiternitas is a place of almost-oppressive stability. Fatalism is no mere philosophy here: it is an inescapable fact, a veritable law of nature which cannot be defeated even by the power of all the Ancients combined (and I am told they have tried). Though they appear free and self-determining, the inhabitants are all quite sure that they play a prescribed role in some grand play, wittingly or not, to what end, none are exactly sure. They say that the island's development proceeds on a particular, well-worn course which has been repeated innumerable times. In the beginning of this rehearsed play they call “the Cycle” is the period they call “the Ascendency”, marked by births, growth of understanding of the Realm and its magics, and progress, both technological and cultural. However, after this comes the period called “the Descent”, marked first by stagnation, then by a decline in understanding and society, and finally by deaths. The details of how this plays out are always different, they tell me, but the results always the same in essence – a period of great accomplishment followed by a period of decline back to a much lesser state.

I have arrived, apparently, well into the Ascendency, and from all appearances, the island is host to some of the most advanced magic, technology, and culture in the known multiverse, but apparently in the depths of the Descent life on the island is more akin to pre-industrial Earth, full of superstition and mystery. I would be fairly disinclined to believe all this, after all, given the immortality of the population, how could things become so bad? Yet, many people I interviewed reported having lived through several Cycles, and though their memories are understandably hazy after so much time, they all report the major events consistently. Not only that, but records remain from past Cycles, detailing this path. It might well all be a cultural fiction, but it is an incredibly elaborate cultural fiction if so. I find it hard to dismiss the evidence that they present, in spite of my initial incredulity.