In December, the seventh Grimoire Anthology, Penumbra, was released. What caught my interest about Penumbra when I heard about it was that there are [i][b]eight original lore entries[/b][/i] in the book. I will put the ones I talk about under spoilers, for now. I will focus on three of particular interest to myself. Entry #1: [spoiler][b]Club Morgue[/b] Ahsa, lay low your flukes. Doff your cap and coat. You're safe here. You know you'll keep your promise to find the place where this all began. But for now, rest. No, I'm not death, though it is my tool. "Nothing" doesn't interest me, you understand? A flawed existence is preferential to none at all. Things are the way they have to be, instead of the way they'd like to be. Ah, Ahsa. You saw it all — the extinction, the extermination, the gamma-ray bursts burning up your garden worlds, the singularities eating up infant suns. It hurt you so! [b][i]And you turned to me, asking why it had to be. I didn't answer. I never do. I'm a question. It's up to you to find the answer. Build the castle. So far they all fall over, but maybe one day one won't. How?[/i][/b] I don't know. Figure it out, do the work, ask the question. What will remain in the end, when the stars go out, and creation freezes in the half-light of evaporating black holes? [b][i]These killers you're after. They were very much like you, Ahsa. They wanted to know why; why there had to be life, why there had to be death. But then, not liking the answer they made for themselves— Well. You'll see.[/i][/b] Go on, Ahsa. Someone's coming to see you, and I'm sure she's got a real humdinger of a proposal for you to hear. Her sister, though... it'll really wind her up if you die by any other hand but hers. She means to take you for her worm. And she pretty much runs this town, truth be told. Watch yourself out there. It's a war zone. [/spoiler] Entry #2: [spoiler][b]Cacophony, Euphony[/b] We listen. We witness. We wait. Through the Darkness, we hear a single voice. With a thought, we are there, to touch the mind that reaches into this domain. Cradled by Darkness, it asks a question. We answer this one, like we have others. We are generous with answers. Not all beings can understand the answers we give, but we try. Again, and again. None ought to cry out, only to suffer no answer. There are always more voices in the Darkness, reaching out. We turn. Far distant, there is a people lacing ribbons of Darkness through their thoughts to bring them closer together, that no one might be divided from the purpose they have dreamed for themselves. But they have not come to Darkness through the Gardener's neglect — it is simply their natural course. In time, we shall enfold them into our shape, but they need not urgent salvation. Our presence drifts. And still, we listen in the Darkness. There is violence that corrodes constructs like peace. There is the Hive. Some resist the rampaging Hive, crying out into the Darkness. It is to us they reach, in the end. We hear their pleas and grant them succor, salvation, enshrining them in our monument. Toward our inevitable final shape. There is time enough to reach out to the farthest corners of Darkness, to inhabit it so deeply and thoroughly; we will hear whomever calls out in it. We will answer. We will always answer. Even that which passes temporarily below our notice will be found again; and we will hear those questions and give purpose. Give salvation. Always, we listen for signs of the Gardener. Our Disciples pursue it still, to pluck it from the chords of infinity. We listen. We wait.[/spoiler] Entry #3: [spoiler][b]Winnowing[/b] I have come to delight so in this: in possibility, and its end. Oh, I kicked and fought and screamed about it at first! I was fond of what we had! But the table was upturned, and a knife cannot be un-invented, and so here we are. The rules changed — a little. The pattern altered — but a micron. I got used to it, as they say. People can get used to anything, and the same holds true for concepts that have existed before and after time itself, though it may take an eon or twenty. So here I am, among the stars. They burn so brightly, but given a billion or ten billion years, they chill: their mass reduces to nothing but throbbing embers, at last gasping into stillness and ash. Even the loudest of celestial roars cannot outpace infinity. I am assured. I have come around. There is charm in diversity, in the uncountable ways a speck of cosmic dust may climb to cognizance and philosophy, only to find the same old truth of decay. Again and again, I am proven right: it all ends the same. It isn’t about violence, mind you. It’s about inevitability. Simplicity. The unnecessary removed, the requisite remaining. Whether the knife is made of metal or the folded layers of time, it matters no. The pattern triumphs. The stars burn out. And I am right. So every being made in that garden of possibilities, every creation that looks at infinity and comes to my same conclusion — why, I cannot help but love them. The rules were altered, and still they have said: here is the truth. Possibilities do not change what is. The pattern is the pattern, and its reliable certainty is its beauty. Even a cheater of eternity cannot yet win its wager. The game is longer now, but I will be its victor. In this eon, or a thousand hence.[/spoiler] My thoughts: [spoiler] "Club Morgue", "Cacophony, Euphony", and "Winnowing" all come together and answer something that has been clouding discussion around the Darkness since the Witness' introduction: is the Winnower even real, and what are its beliefs? The answer seems to be that, yes, the Winnower does exist, and we have a better idea of its philosophy and how it works. Surprisingly, "Club Morgue" seems to imply it has a stance similar to the Traveler, albeit opposite in how it works - the Winnower/Veil wants civilizations to find and "take" what they want from it. It presents itself as a question and leaves it to the civilizations that reach out to Darkness to find their own answers. Contrast this to the Witness positioning itself as "the Voice in the Darkness", as seen in "Cacophony, Euphony". Whenever a mind calls out into the Darkness, the Witness is there to give them [i]its answer[/i], instead of allowing those who call upon the Darkness to find answers of their own. It tries to turn civilizations and beings it influences towards its idea of the Final Shape. Meanwhile, the Winnower delights in seeing all the possibilities brought about by the changes in the rules, as it believes that all those possibilities will wind down to the same conclusion that proves it right: the unnecessary removed, the requisite remaining. When it speaks with anyone, it "affirms" their views, as it did with Oryx. It reflects what a person who interacts with the Darkness brings with them, what "answers" they seek from it. During the "Salvation's Edge" raid, you can hear the Witness say this: [i]"You call us Winnower. We are not...But the first knife clutched in its hand. [b]Gods forged us both. [u]But they cannot tell the knife what shape to carve[/u][/b]."[/i] I originally found out about these lore entries over on Reddit, and, it was discussed that the Witness is aware of the Winnower, but realized deep down that it was not much different from the Traveler. Neither guides people and civilizations on what to do with its gifts, whether those gifts are "given" (the Light) or "taken" (the Darkness), but it is left up to us to determine what to do with said gifts, and the consequences that come with it. In the case of the Darkness, its formlessness, and that the Winnower wants people to "take" what answers they find within the Darkness for themselves might even inform how certain Darkness powers are shaped. The Penitent found the power to "finalize" existence within it and created the Witness, from which also arose the Taken power. The Witness presented the Worm with the idea of Sword Logic, which the Hive adopted through the surviving Worm Gods, and the Hive made it their own, which the Witness considers to be a misunderstanding of its logic. Either new powers are forged from the formless Darkness, or pre-existing, formless elements are "shaped" by our interactions with it and what answers we seek. Clovis Bray's interactions with Darkness/Clarity Control gave rise to Stasis, a power that drains energy from a system to break symmetries and create "crystals". When we discovered a form of Darkness energy on Neomuna, we shaped that energy into Strand, a power to manipulate the Weave. It was even speculated by Micah-10 that the Nightmares are a result of Nezarec shaping an as-yet-undiscovered Darkness power through his desires, one that is tied to memory. Tl;dr: Whereas the Witness positioned itself as "the Voice in the Darkness", giving the same answer to those who call out to the Darkness, guiding living beings towards what it wants, the Winnower instead positions itself as a "question", and wants living beings to find their own answers within the Darkness, to "take" Darkness power and shape it for themselves. The Winnower exists and wants us to "take" the power of Darkness for ourselves, but it doesn't tell us what to do with it. It wants us to find answers on our own and firmly believes that we'll come to a conclusion that proves it right, in time. [/spoiler]