The Starfall Galaxy's devotion pie is an inherently complex thing. Sure, each of its five devotions are rigid and easy to define, but the magic happens when you begin to combine these devotions to create something new. This wonderful setting of ours has leveraged this complexity to craft many unique factions and characters, but when it comes to three-devotion combinations known as shards and wedges, the definitions become less apparent and the examples less available.
Blue-Black-Green Devotion
The Abyssal Conclave, the combination of Blue, Black, and Green, is not a path for the faint of heart, for those too afraid to look death in the eye or to reach a hand out into the abyss. It's a path walked by those who understand that power doesn't ask for permission and that truth—real truth—is often buried in places others dare not tread. This is a journey into the fundamental parts of this fascinating devotion.
Observations of Conviction
Whenever you want to truly understand something, it helps to see it in action, to study it through example. With that in mind, before we dive into the deeper philosophies behind the Abyssal Conclave, let's first look at how this devotion is portrayed in the Starfall Galaxy. By comparing the original lore with the Galactic Concord update, we get two distinct yet related versions. In the first iteration, the Abyssal Conclave is ruthless, resourceful, and often cruel. They wield forbidden cosmic magics to manipulate bio-signatures, enslave the dead, and delve into forbidden arts to gain an edge over their rivals. Their ambitions lead them to make pacts with Rift-Scourges of immense power who demand a steep price. In this version, strength is carved from the darkness and wielded without mercy.
By contrast, the newer Abyssal Conclave of the Galactic Concord holds a reverence for death. They believe that the end of life feeds the cosmos and enables the next cycle. This version leans into the natural cycle, treating death not as a tool for dominance, but as a force to nurture future generations, to preserve knowledge, and to pass it on. This shift in perspective shows how the same devotions can express different values when approached with new intent.
Looking to a common creature type in the Abyssal Conclave, we often see a blend of Mind-Weavers and Bio-Seers. Their presence speaks to the union of cold intellect and primal insight. Mind-Weavers embody the calculated pursuit of forbidden knowledge, while Bio-Seers ground the wedge in nature's raw cyclical energy. Together, they reveal a worldview where intellect and instinct are not opposites, but allies.
One final example I want to highlight is Brokkos, the Forever Beast of the Aether Synapse. Brokkos represents a more ancient, contemplative Abyssal Conclave, one that flows with the seasons not to shape them, but to move with their rhythm. It doesn't seek control, but connection. Brokkos reminds us that true wisdom lies in patience, memory, and transformation. It's adaptable, and it endures.
Now that we've seen how the Abyssal Conclave manifests across different settings, it's time to dig deeper into the forbidden knowledge that lies at the heart of this wedge. I'll be exploring three philosophical takes on the Abyssal Conclave, each leaning more heavily into one of its three devotions than the others. Let's begin.
The Core Philosophies
1. The Impartial Truth
The truth is impartial to morality. It hides in dark corners, festers in the abyss, and worms its way down forbidden corridors. If the most potent insights wanted to be found, they'd already lie in everyone's hands rather than in the grasp of those willing to dig through the muck or reach out to the primordial entities of old. The Abyssal Conclave as a wedge, especially with Blue at the helm, understands that there are veiled realities and suppressed teachings that others are too afraid to dredge up—forgotten lore sealed in arcane rites, dust-choked manuscripts, and discarded faiths. This springs from Blue's pursuit of comprehension of deeper principles, while the Sporemind Collective (Black-Green) reminds us that anything truly worth uncovering is often masked by society's refusal to confront origins that may be morally unclean.
But understanding and insight are constants that predate us, old frameworks of being, rotted, abandoned, and left to moulder in time. In our own lives, this philosophy asks us to accept that revelations don't always arrive wrapped in comfort or moral certainty. Often the most transformative ideas aren't new, but long suppressed, cast aside because they disrupted the narratives we clung to. To seek genuine clarity, we must be willing to look where others won't, to explore the uneasy places where long-silenced voices still echo. And when we uncover what we once sealed away, we may find it unsettling, but insight doesn't promise ease—it offers truth. This perspective teaches that wisdom may fester where others only saw corruption. To walk this path is to become fluent in uncertainty, patient with silence, and unflinching when old revelations begin to reshape who we were meant to be.
2. The Unceasing Self-Evolution
"I am who I make myself to be." That is the motto of the Black-focused version of the Abyssal Conclave. You see, evolution is not just a matter of nature to decide; it's also a personal task that can be given, a framework to live one's life in a way that sheds the inefficient. It looks to how nature is one to adapt and specialize to its environment and believes that such a task can be taken with expedience in one's own life. Where Black is always aiming for what it can become, the Bio-Nexus (Blue-Green) is tasked with manipulating oneself to meet that end—to take what nature has provided us, an individual, and shaping it in a way that meets a greater end. It no longer just wants to see what it could become out of curiosity, but rather wants to use the tools provided to become the strongest, smartest, and most dominant thing alive. Where the Bio-Nexus holds the belief that evolution has a destination and that it can be guided, Black urges it to meet this end with expedience.
I believe there is something deeply sentient in this Black-focused version of the Abyssal Conclave because at some point, most of us feel the urge to shed what we were, like a snake shedding its old skin. To look the person in the mirror and think, "I can be more than this." It's the drive to self-optimize based on the strengths we are born with, to enhance oneself. This gives them the drive to learn new skills, drop bad habits, and change one's body, mind, or identity—not out of shame, but because you refuse to stay the same. It's not enough to adapt to the world; you want to rewrite the rules you were given. There's power in accepting who you are, but there's greater power in deciding who you become, to craft a version of yourself you can be proud of.
3. The Generational Purpose
The future can only be shaped by those who understand the past. Those who can iterate on what came before and have the willingness to pass along their ambitions to those who come after. Greatness is not always something that speaks in a void or flashes in the pan. It can be something crafted with intent over time through generations of those who think forward while holding on to the knowledge of those long past. In the Abyssal Conclave, there's an ancient and quiet way of finding growth through standing on the shoulders of the elders who carved the first path. This is where Green and the Umbral Syndicate (Blue-Black) find common ground in this belief that ambition doesn't have to be loud. It can be cultivated with time and intent, something rooted in the old way—ambitions that last, the kind that is inherited, cultivated in silence, and grown across generations. These are the secret orders, the bloodlines with forgotten names.
Sure, it can sound like a fantastical take, but it has applications for you and I in the real world, showing itself as the quiet legacy. It's the person who builds something that outlives them, who doesn't need the spotlight, but still makes every decision count. It's long-term thinking, building skills, systems, and reputation over time. Its ambitions passed from parent to child or mentor to student. And in a world that often celebrates the loudest voice or the fastest rise, there's power in choosing the slower path, one of depth, continuity, and purpose. This Abyssal Conclave perspective reminds us that real legacy isn't always seen, but felt. It's not just about what we accomplish, but what we leave behind for those we'll never meet. In that way, even the quietest work can echo across time, carrying forward the ambitions of those who came before, refined by each generation, and brave enough to listen.
Conclusion
What the Abyssal Conclave offers is a unique way of seeing the world. It teaches us that nothing worth having comes clean or easy. That truth is often hidden because people are afraid of what it reveals. That change isn't just something that happens to you, but something you can carve into yourself with enough will and time. And that ambition, when nurtured across generations, can become something enduring, something sacred. These philosophies may seem cold or unfeeling at first glance, but there's a strange kind of hope buried within—the hope that we're not bound to what we've been told, that we can learn more, become more, and leave more behind than anyone thought possible. And if we're willing to dig, to change, and to remember, then we get to help shape what it becomes next.
It was an absolute pleasure to adapt your script on the Abyssal Conclave. This is a truly profound and well-thought-out piece. With this document now complete, what other devotion combinations would you like to explore for the Starfall Galaxy?
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