The Order of the Broken Line (The Infinites)

"To exist merely as one being is an illusion. 'I', or the concept of it, is the blurring of countless individual thoughts and desires. So too does this apply to spacetime; it is only the nearly imperceptible collision of probability and compossible states. Nothing is beyond sight or measure. Nothing is outside the bounds of probability." -Hadronax the Cartographer

*****



To understand the purpose of the Broken Line is to understand the riddle of their name. If time and space are thought to be a thread of yarn, the minds of the Infinites could be considered a scissor, a needle, or a vat of dye. They are the oldest lineage of arcane magic known to anyone, though they do not refer to it as such. They performed those first dangerous and painstaking tasks of peering through the veil of sensory limitations and into the sacred heart of reality. Once they were called the Measurers, an ancient caste of Bearers that sought to map out the topography of Ausra. Once they finished their task, they charted the topography of everything else. Theory became praxis, and that praxis was so inscrutable and awesome that no outsider could distinguish it from divine power. Their secrets are held at ranks of initiation, and some are considered so powerful that they willingly sabotaged their proofs with the help of the Unspeakables.

Few of them remain. It is said that some are still lost in traps laid by The Lord of Mirrors. Others died in the sacking of Bearing. Still more are thought to have perished in desperate attempts to thwart the mimetic failsafes created by the Unspeakables. Of the survivors, some have sworn off the discipline entirely. It is even said that the masters of the discipline have ascended into a higher plane of existence - or descended into the maddening simulations of their own design.

You will likely never encounter one directly, but scattered across Ausra are the many remains of their artifice. Many contain a simulacrum of their personalities and tasks at the time of their disappearance. Should you ever encounter a true master of the Broken Line, it would suit you well not to threaten them; You should treat yourself as if you are teetering on the dual precipices of time and space.