The Void
Names: The Voiddevourment phasethe barrierexpansion phaseHeart of the VoidVoid boundarythe Heartthe collective Heartthe nucleusthe universeVoid Heartthe amalgamated mind
First appears in Book 1: The Dreaming Void, chapter 1 (Prologue)
Appearances
What you know
Book 1: The Dreaming Void
- Ch 1An artificial boundary at the galactic core, guarding a universe made by an ancient race, which is slowly consuming the galaxy's stars at an accelerating rate.
- Ch 1Wilson Kime's circumnavigation of the galaxy in 2560 revealed it was artificial rather than a natural black hole.
- Ch 4The Void is guarded by an event horizon that even the Raiel have trouble crossing; some humans have crossed into it.
- Ch 4Gore argues it is a post-physical entity whose internal universe differs from ours and which has a Heart.
- Ch 14Gravity waves and superluminal expansion of the Void's boundary signal a devourment phase, and the Raiel's DF machines move into new positions.
- Ch 14A devourment phase began just after the Second Dreamer ended contact with the Skylord, which Ethan believes is the Skylord's response to rejection.
Book 2: The Temporal Void
- Ch 1The Void's boundary is expanding at three or four light-years an hour, threatening the galaxy; nothing is thought able to survive it, though the original ship did.
- Ch 1The Void has begun a devourment phase, which commentators blame on the Second Dreamer's rejection of the Skylord.
- Ch 3The Void boundary continues expanding, rippling and engulfing star clusters; Centurion Station has been evacuated and collapsed.
- Ch 3Thirty thousand light-years away, the Void began extending toward the Silverbird.
- Ch 6The Void has no detectable boundary from inside; Justine emerged in empty space with no mass within five million kilometers and nebulae matching nothing from Querencia.
- Ch 6Justine suspects the Void's different quantum structure is inimical to technology and that mind is supreme there.
- Ch 6Justine fears the collective Heart of the Void might be wishing the Silverbird to fail.
- Ch 9The Heart lies beyond Odin's Sea and is where Skylords take fulfilled souls.
- Ch 10The Heart or nucleus is described by the Skylord as the center of everywhere and everywhen, where all came from and return.
- Ch 10Justine wants to speak with the Heart to explain that humans reaching this universe will be a disaster, and that it is damaging the outside galaxy.
- Ch 12The Void remembers every moment of everything that happened within it; Edeard sees his whole climb stretched out as endless images.
- Ch 12According to Makkathran, the Void seeks to make the universe one with all rationality and absorb it.
- Ch 13The Void created an H-congruent planet with a thinning accretion disc around a copper star, taking about four years.
- Ch 13The Void has many interlinked layers: memory, creator and interaction layers among them; its resets are powered by consuming stars and mass from the galaxy.
Book 3: The Evolutionary Void
- Ch 5The Void is said by Laril to have existed for a billion years or more; the Raiel could not remove it.
- Ch 5The Silfen cannot connect to the Void's nucleus and ten million years of openness achieved nothing; the Void has consumed other species that flourished briefly within.
- Ch 5The Heart is where souls guided by the Skylords go; Edeard expects the Lady, Rah, the Makkathran builders and the Captain to be there.
- Ch 8The Void began expanding when Araminta first tried to deny it; the Admiral fears it would react badly if the Pilgrimage were blocked.
- Ch 11The Void holds memory that Edeard can travel through to return to an earlier moment of his life.
- Ch 15The Heart of the Void calls people to ascend; its song grows stronger each day and holds the mystery of what comes next.
- Ch 19The Void's prohibition of technology is gaining ground, making the Silverbird and its medical cabinet unreliable.
- Ch 20Time passes much faster inside the Void than outside: millennia within equal only a few hundred years outside.
- Ch 20The Void was built by the Firstlife but has absorbed thousands of other minds and consumes galactic mass, so it cannot evolve in its current state.
- Ch 20After the Firstlife's choice, the Void boundary shrinks and the Void reaches transcendence, leaving the Gulf empty save one star and planet.
Connections
- created byFirstlife
Key moments
- Book 1 · Ch 14Void devourment phase begins
Ethan reveals the Void began a devourment phase right after the Second Dreamer rejected the Skylord, which he expects will force him to dream again.
- Book 2 · Ch 1Justine heads into the Void
Justine decides to fly the Silverbird into the Void to speak to the Skylords. Gore agrees to persuade the Second Dreamer to help her.
- Book 2 · Ch 1Araminta wakes to invasion and devourment
After refusing the Skylord, Araminta learns Ellezelin forces have invaded Colwyn and the Void's devourment phase has begun. She insists on going home despite Mr. Bovey's worries.
- Book 2 · Ch 3Justine's chase to the Void
Raiel warships pursue the Silverbird with hyperspace shock waves; Araminta, via the gaiafield, asks a Skylord to open the boundary, and Justine enters the Void.
- Book 2 · Ch 6Arrival lost in the Void
Justine survives passing through the Void boundary but finds the hyperdrive dead, no boundary, no nearby mass, and unrecognizable nebulae. She discovers she can use Farsight.
- Book 2 · Ch 6Justine enters stasis
After failing to locate Querencia or the Skylords, Justine sends a repeating call to the Skylords, sets course for the nearest star at 0.7c, and enters suspended animation with periodic revival.
- Book 2 · Ch 13Justine resets the Void
Using the confluence nest and Edeard's memories, Justine concentrates her mind on a past moment and forces the Void to reset to it.
- Book 3 · Ch 2Reset confirmed and second Skylord encounter
Justine wakes in the reset timeline, meets the Skylord again, and persuades it to take her to Querencia; it accelerates the Silverbird to 0.93 lightspeed.
- Book 3 · Ch 18Passage into the Void
The Raiel let Mellanie's Redemption pass. The Skylord opens the boundary, pulls the ship in, and speeds it toward Querencia, three light-months away.
- Book 3 · Ch 20Fleet enters the Void
The Lady's Light reaches the Void boundary; the Heart opens it for the Pilgrimage fleet and Ilanthe's hidden ship, and all pass inside.
- Book 3 · Ch 20Ilanthe kills a Skylord
Ilanthe seizes and consumes a Skylord, absorbing its abilities, then flies off toward Odin's Sea, leaving Araminta and the Skylords grieving.
- Book 3 · Ch 20Makkathran goes FTL in the Void
Edeard asks Makkathran to go faster; it applies a thought pattern and travels faster than light toward the Heart.
- Book 3 · Ch 20Arrival at the Heart and a Firstlife revived
Edeard is drawn into the Heart and starts to fade. With help he traces the memory layer to the Heart's origin and restores a Firstlife. Ilanthe's ship appears overhead.
- Book 3 · Ch 20Gore's elevation
Using the nova's power through the Anomine elevation mechanism, Gore transcends and shares the method with the Firstlife and the Heart, showing an alternative to Ilanthe's inversion.