Selyna Mythea Atmosfera

About

Intro and appearance

Selyna was 444 years old when the bore was drilled in the pattern. She went on to live a long time following what began the collapse of civilization, but she carried immense guilt until the end of her days. This inspired her to seek a way to create a safe haven for the poor souls threatened by the taint upon saidin. When she finally passed away, she was considered an old woman even by the standards of the Age of Legends. Among the Aes Sedai who saw the completed construction of the White Tower, rare were those who were old enough to have been alive prior to the drilling of the bore, but Selyna was one of them.

She had golden brown skin, deep brown eyes and silky, dark hair. She was of a cheerful disposition and easy to smile, even during the darkest years of the Breaking.

Relationships

Family life

Selyna was married to another Aes Sedai, Orisen Kaelix. While she was never considered extroverted, she wasn’t particularly introverted either. She was simply always dedicated to her work and seemingly uninterested in romantic relationships until she met Orisen. What began as professional collaboration blossomed into romance, and they were married in an idyllic cloud forest conservatory surrounded by opulent garden towers.

Close friends

Selyna’s easy-going nature and warm disposition made her easy to befriend; however, she was somewhat eccentric and prone to accidentally offending others around her. Her understanding of social norms was thin at best but was made up for by her affable personality.

As a result, her best friend was Alethea Sayre Maelsouvra, a researcher in a related field. They bonded over philosophical discussions of reincarnations, and Selyna volunteered to be an experimental subject in Alethea’s research. The results were strange to say the least, and it was concluded that the data must represent an outlier, and she was excluded from further analysis.

Research

Portalistics

“The Lines that join the Worlds That Might Be, laid by those who knew the Numbers of Chaos.”

-Mirrors of the Wheel

Selyna studied the ancient artifacts known as portal stones. They were not commonly used in the Age of Legends, as the means to journey from location to location was easily accomplished through other means. There were strict regulations that governed permission to visit other worlds, one of which was that it required immense strength in the One Power to channel the requisite flows. Otherwise, circles or sa’angreal may be utilized with permission from the Hall of Servants.

Not only was Selyna the lead researcher of Portal Stones, she was also the author of the pivotal dissertation, Mirrors of the Wheel, the publication of which earned her a third name. Using scientific analysis, she mapped the portal stones to a quantum energy grid that engulfed the planet. Legend said that humans of the past had the power to fly to the stars, sun, moon and other planetary bodies in mechanical birds. Therefore, Selyna hypothesized they may be able to recreate such journeys using the power of portals. Such began her path as the foremost expert in the science of portalistics. She began to map these locations, and devised the math by which a channeler may be able to create a gateway to other planets. However, it was her collaboration with Orisen that inspired her to use portal stones to study other dimensions.

Dimensionology

The Pattern was a common source of study at Collam Daam. Selyna was always fascinated by cosmology, the study of the origin of the universe, and the potential conflicts of universal origins with the notion of an infinitely existing Pattern. She believed, sometimes to the amusement of her peers, that the Pattern had mass and therefore was subject to the whims of entropy like everything else. If it existed, it must have an origin; time, even if it was cyclical, must also have an origin. Therefore, there must have been a first turning of the Wheel. She concocted a bewildering number of theories to explain the origins of the universe and all these fascinating stars, galaxies, and planetary bodies that the Portal Stones revealed.

The Cosmic Egg Universe describes a cyclical or oscillating universe in which a “cosmic egg” containing the whole universe (including the Sun, Moon, planets and all of space) expanded out of a single concentrated point before subsequently collapsing again. The universe cycles infinitely between expansion and total collapse. In this, she theorized that was when time reset and the Ages began again.

The Anaxagorian Universe suggested that the original state of the cosmos was a primordial mixture of all its ingredients which existed in infinitesimally small fragments of themselves. This mixture was not entirely uniform, and some ingredients were present in higher concentrations than others, as well as varying from place to place. At some point in time, this mixture was set in motion by the action of “nous” (the mind of the ‘Creator’), and the whirling motion shifted and separated out the ingredients, ultimately producing the cosmos of separate material objects, all with different properties, into the threads of the Pattern.

The Geocentric Universe postulated that the world on which they lived was the center of the universe, with the spherical Earth is at the center, surrounded by concentric celestial spheres of planets and out of it flowed all the threads of the Pattern. This theory stressed that the universe was finite in size, unchanged and static across all turnings of the Wheel, and acted upon only by the two forces of Saidin and Saidar.

The Island Universe suggested that the planet was in a kind of island in which a finite cosmos is surrounded by an infinite void. The cosmos was in a constant state of flux, and pulsated in size and periodically passed through upheavals and conflagrations as the Wheel turned. In this theory, the universe was likened to a giant living body, with its leading part being the stars and the Sun, but in which all parts are interconnected, so that what happens in one place affected what happens elsewhere. This theory was highly consistent with the cyclical view of history, in which the world was once pure fire and would become fire again.

The Many Worlds Multiverse was based on chaotic universe theory, and was inspired by the Numbers of Chaos themselves. It suggested that the observable universe, with all the bodies of the sun, moon, and planets exists in one of many “bubbles” that grew as a result of a vacuum that had not decayed to its ground state. The universe in which they lived, deemed the primary universe, was just one tiny part of an infinitely big cosmos which is largely in a state of chaos, or where our organized universe is just one temporary episode in an infinite sequence of largely chaotic and unorganized arrangements.

Selyna’s Many Worlds Theory was proven correct, in a way. These Mirror Worlds as the public came to refer to them, were discovered as shadow realities of their primary one. Each Mirror World had its own Pattern and its own source of the One Power. However, exploration of these Mirror Worlds was highly dangerous and highly regulated. Never did the explorers fathom a version of earth where the atmosphere was incompatible with life, but the first time one was encountered, it was to tragic ends for all involved. It was never discovered what led action among mankind led to such a husk of a planet.

Collaborations

The world of dreams

The best known dimension studied among those of their age was certainly tel’aran’rhiod, the World of Dreams. Alethea and Selyna spoke often about its existence, but also that this dimension was special and quite distinct from Mirror Worlds. Selyna hypothesized that tel’aran’rhiod was a layer to the Pattern, although others believed it to be the void between threads of the Pattern self. Asristin Kyrineas Somneus claimed that he could visit and mold the pattern of tel’aran’rhiod of mirror worlds, indicating that with infinite worlds, there were infinite tel’aran’rhiods as well. Selyna was once granted permission to visit tel’aran’rhiod in company of Alethea and Asristin to see if she might witness such a feat, and as a result of the profound experience there, her study of other dimensions became a fervent passion.

Drilling the bore

The one constant among every dimension under investigation was the One Power. It existed in all worlds, mirror and parallel, and in a way, existed also in the World of Dreams. Selyna, like all Aes Sedai, believed the Source was the power that moved time onward, the notion of which was many a topic of conversation with Alethea. Yet when news reached her that a new power may have been discovered, Selyna was eager to investigate further. She had never worked directly with Elowen, but she was respected and, most importantly, she held the keys to this other power. Selyna suggested that they must have finally encountered a new type of dimension, and if this power was reachable from it, that meant it was within their own universe. She was incredibly excited, and energetically assisted Elowen by making the correct calculations to open a portal to this newly discovered dimension.

What they had found, of course, was the Dark One.

The Breaking of the World

The War of Power

Years passed before the researchers began to accept the reality of their discovery, for the truth was not immediately apparent. History named this period, The Collapse, when the influence of the Dark One spread rapidly, twisting hearts and turning souls.

Her husband, Orisen grew worried, then paranoid, and finally, he pleaded with the Council to intervene, but even if there was a way to seal this bore into the Dark Dimension, as Selyna named this void outside of time, too much evil was unleashed. The damage was done.

“All things age. All things die. In the end, everything is for naught. The Wheel turns endlessly cold. But the Dark Dimension, it’s a place beyond time.”

Alinur Sarin Drenai

It was a tense time. Some Aes Sedai, particularly Alinur argued that there was an intelligent entity within the Dark Dimension and claimed that it called out to chosen individuals. Others, like Selyna, believed it was simply a type of collapsed matter with a gravitational pull so strong that the intensity of its forces warped rational thought into hallucinations.

Selyna would not relinquish her theory until the War of Power broke out and she realized how terribly wrong she had been. Orisen was tortured by dark and terrible visions that grew around him. Only when it was too late did he escape Asristin’s hunt, and even then, when upon glimpsing his best friend’s many possible futures, he believed yet that he was not truly of the Dark.

Refuge in Steddings

Following the attack of the Hundred Companions at Shayol Ghul and the bore was sealed, it soon became apparent that the male half of the Power was tainted, and Orisen was not immune. While Selyna was desperate for a cure, they followed rumor to a stedding, where other male Aes Sedai were seeking refuge. Orisen possessed an unique gift of foretelling, one where he glimpsed alternate realities of significant events, but this gift did not extend to non-human races like Ogier. As a result, he spent much time around them for reprieve, and Selyna hoped that they would find solace among their gentility.

The Ways

As the breaking waged on, a core group of male Aes Sedai remained secure in the stedding; although, from time to time, one would depart to assess the continued presence of the taint, only to succumb to its poison. This core of men began to discuss how they may journey from one stedding to another without exposing themselves to the One Power, and Selyna broached the idea of creating permanent routes that anyone may be able to utilize without the engagement with the Power. Selyna worked out the theory, and the men began to experiment. Gifting The Ways to the Ogier that offered such a refuge was only natural.

A New Age begins

Selyna lived on in grief over all she had lost. With the death of Orisen, the last male Aes Sedai, the Breaking of the World came to an end and civilization attempted to pick up the pieces. It took almost 100 years for the remaining female Aes Sedai to complete the construction of their new home, located on a refuge island named Tar Valon. The masterminds of the city were the Ogier that she grew so fond of, and among their kind she found the greatest sense of peace, as they reminded her so much of the slivers of solace with Orisen these past three-hundred years. Selyna was one of only a handful of Aes Sedai who survived the entirety Breaking and were old enough to remember the Age of Legends before the bore was drilled. The day the construction of the White Tower was complete, she ascended the heights and peered upon Dragonmount, a new river, and the horizon of a world she didn’t recognize. She wept for the bittersweet solace of the moment and that night, passed away peacefully in her sleep.

Reincarnations

1st Age – Danika Zayed, theoretical astrophysicist

2nd Age – Selyna Mythea Atmosfera, researcher in portalistics and dimensionology

3rd Age – Zenitha Saldun, Aes Sedai of the White Ajah

5th Age – Nisaba, Sumerian goddess of knowledge, wisdom, writing and the heavens

6th Age – Urania, Muse of Astronomy