Written by Sifan Tu
Illustrated by F. G. Rice
The Taosians were born architects. They were the spatial artists of the psychic domains. The dreams they created branched into luxuriant foliage, as if pagodas of thousand layers, or myriad fractals. Some Taosian master architects wandering near Lyra could even construct tunnels that spanned the entire eleven dimensions of the Universe. They were also able to traverse the expanse of parallel worlds via mere spiritual embodiment.
Two different theories attempting to explain the birth process of Taosians have been developed. One theory held that even when a Taosian embryo was still in the womb, it has already learned to taste the warmth of the amniotic fluid, while building the first layer of its dream at the same time. The second layer quickly followed suit, then came the third, the fourth, etcetera. The other theory held that after birth, the Taosian cubs would untwirl their tentacles and take in the world around. They would then enter an extremely long REM period lasting over tens of thousands of years. Once the first petal of their dreams unfurled, the elders witnessing the child delivery would cheer and cry in their own respective dreams, tossing out mind candies to their younglings as if blessings.
For the mere purpose of survival, the dreams seemed to be nonessential to the Taosians. Even during their slumber, they could still breath, dine, excrete, and touch each other with their tentacles to enter other’s dreams. Yet the Taosians defined their social classes according to the extent of complexity of their dreams. Their philosophers from ancient times believed that the ability to weave more intricate dreams reflected a higher intelligence level of an individual, and it was a born responsibility of the wise to lead the unenlightened. Hence, millions of years have passed, and the Taosian aristocrats were already able to manipulate the stars, while ordinary civilians could still only dream of fragmented mountains, rivers and plains, most of which shrouded in mist and do not possess clear silhouettes.
Some nobles were merciful enough to let the commoners move into their dreams, merging the territory of their minds into one, thus forming a collage of dreams. This was potentially dangerous: the dreams of nobles, who indulge themselves in the games of minds, can become extremely complicated, with only a few hidden exits. One might find it hard to leave their dreams upon entering one. The dream of the Taosian King was the most expansive and the most entangled. The King’s dream was filled with jagged trails and winded stairs, mazes full of closed-loops and recursions, as well as hills and valleys, which made it a wonder famous throughout the entire Universe. When a new King ascends, almost all living creatures in the whole Universe would come to explore the inner worlds of the King. Out of reverence, the adventurers used a special title to address the King: The Crafter of Labyrinth.
The Taosians have unique understandings of the fate of their race. One of such believes holds that one day, amidst the ebb and flow of energy, the dream of the dream-owner will give birth to the owner of the dream, and the encountering of the two will unavoidably end the dream in question, subsequently bringing all dreams to an end. Thirteen generations had passed when part of this apocalyptical prophecy was proven true: it turned out that such reflexive dreams would indeed burn out all the brain cells of a dream owner, yet it only expelled all who dwell in such dreams back to their own shells, instead of terminating all dreams in the world.
The real extinction of the Taosian began with a genius King. On the day of his ascension, the King was lost in the illusions that was built by himself. Some of the ministers volunteered to dive into the King’s dream, yet in the end, they became engrossed in the dream as well. In great distress, the rest of the counsel came up with a warrant, asking for brave souls to enter the dream and salvage their lost sages. Nevertheless, when all their three suns have set, they ended up holding vigils for the huge amount of heroes that have been lost. These people were not technically dead but live on in the King’s dream. They have merged into the King’s dreamscape, forming an ever-growing mental black hole. The black hole was initially regarded as a catastrophe. However, it was not long before its identity started to shift. The dream went from an ultimate challenge to the adventurous souls quickly to a notorious suicide site, then a metaphor beneath authors’ pens, or a heaven for all those defeated and depressed. With the efforts of all who enters the dream, the dream of the King has become symbiotic, its layers getting deeper, like an endless pit winding its way towards the end of the universe.
In the end, as the last remaining mind entered the dream, the entire Universe fell into a dead silence. The body of the King becomes a tiny door, connecting the psychic world to the existence outside. On the outside, the physical shells of the Taosians still grow, age, get sick and face the inevitable death, yet they are no longer under the command of souls. Other living beings that cannot separable souls from their bodies end up trapped. As time goes on, they gradually rot into piles of dust.
The last King of the Taosians is the greatest King ever on the world. He is both the lead actor of a comedy, and the epicenter of a tragedy. He rules the Universe, yet it is also forever lost at his hands.
