Part Three: The Modern Era: Contemporary Figures and Powers

[Overview of the Era] In this chapter, “the contemporary era” refers primarily to the period around the year 12760, when the main text of this book concludes, and to the preceding several centuries. The figures and powers included here either continue to exert a direct influence across multiple Stars, Realms, Lands, and Interspaces, or have left writings, paths, organizations, and actions that are still reshaping contemporary society.

[Extant Great Beings] By around the year 12760 of the Stargate Calendar, Xuanzhao, Qichuan, Wu'an, Jihe, Su Luoya, the Reflector, Haman the Water-Bearer, Chenzhu, Guanlan, and the Starbreaker were all widely believed to remain in existence. Ordinary education teaches these names, the path traditions associated with them, and a small number of historical legends; in what form they exist today, and where they might be, are questions almost no one can answer.

The most openly acknowledged connections are those between Xuanzhao and the Beichen Star-path tradition; Qichuan and the Current-Questioning tradition of Luojia and Wuhe; Suluoya and the Realm-plants of Sayong; and Haman the Water-Bearer and the ethics of water rights in Misatuo. Guanlan has long appeared in legends of Luojia’s tidal paths and aquatic peoples; the Reflector is often mentioned in Mirror-Tide healing traditions, while Chenzhu appears in the prayers and stories of practitioners of termination paths and those who dwell at the margins of dead Realms.