Originals existed as early as 12000 years before the arcane era. Originals are one, if not the most important, of traditions in Twilight.
Held Truce's ideas that mankind may be incomplete, that there could be a divide, provided a background for Originals to appear. Voltaire, the Originals founder, had an intuitive grasp of his own soul like no other. Voltaire could have been called a mudborn initiate, for he was initiated by the dream of the mud pit, darkness and the abyss. It is just that Voltaire felt little affinity for their ways and even less so their art. What made restless was something else. The moment Voltaire woke up from the dream, he felt very different, and he was curious as to why.
Yes, what tempted Voltaire was to know what caused one to be initiated, and in that, he differed much from those who came before him. So in a move that offended the mudborns who thought he had an incredible affinity for their ways, he who had obtained the key to their mysteries threw away pursuit of their mysteries in favor of learning Held Truce’s art of communicating with animals.
In truth, Voltaire felt even less attracted to the mysteries of Held Truce; however, the more he thought about what that moment had felt like, it seemed there was a brief feeling of incompleteness. The moment he encountered a master of lesser mysteries of the Held Truce tradition, he knew intuitively that this man had knowledge he wanted to know. Voltaire felt little problem learning Held Truce’s art, but also felt little compassion for animals, and he could not even begin learning the lesser mysteries. Voltaire felt little loss, for by that time he had already learned the idea that had brought him here in the first place. It was the abstract concept of division that had brought him here, and for truly reaching that, Voltaire had dismantled the entire doctrine of the Held Truce in his mind. As fate would have it, members of Held Truce were ignorant of how little respect he held for their mysteries, and they felt it was such a pity that, despite being talented, Voltaire had little affinity for their tradition. Thus, there was little conflict when Voltaire decided to go on his way.
For Voltaire, the divine symphony appeared in moments where it seemed as if his intuition had jumped a level and had grasped something. It was moments like the moment he knew that man had something to teach, which he wanted to know. It was the same daemonic intuition and the inner lantern that shone beacons of light and brought flashes of brief revelations that had brought him to encounter the mistborns. Voltaire expected some difficulty, but he actually found the breathing art calming and comforting. Within days, Voltaire was a master of the breathing art, and he had been genuinely initiated as a mistborn. He could feel the mist. In truth, this was the third time Voltaire had been initiated. He indeed felt little affinity for the way of the mud, but he did grasp the direction and how the divine symphony manifested to them. Held Truce tradition felt the divine symphony in their heart and felt a bond with the companion they held truce with, and it was true that Voltaire did not feel a bond, but Voltaire did manage to feel the divine symphony in his heart, even for just a second. That was enough for Voltaire to have an intuitive grasp of the way the divine symphony manifested to them. So yes, Voltaire can be said to have been initiated as a mudborn, in the same way it can be said that he was initiated as a member of Held Truce and a member of Mistborns.
Mysteries of the mist had a different allure for him. Voltaire could see himself as a mistborn. It was a hard decision for him. He felt it in his bones that he could master even the higher mysteries of the way of mist. He felt he could be an exalted one here, but it was also true that since he encountered the concept of apurture and the holes on the mistborns' figurines, the beacon of light, that intuitive grasp that there was something for him here, had dimmed.
Voltaire, in the end, gave up becoming a mistborn. He felt he had everything he needed, and he had gathered all the pieces of the puzzle that called to him. All that was needed was to put the pieces of the puzzle together, and what was needed for it was a period of contemplation. The real difficulty of a puzzle is solving it, so it was no easy feat. It was maddening, but each time a part would be solved, the feeling of progress was genuine.
When solving a puzzle, there comes a time when, even though the puzzle is not finished, one can have an idea of the picture that the puzzle paints and the picture terrified Voltaire. No matter how horrible the picture was, and no matter how maddening the realisation could be, Voltaire continued as if he were addicted to his own great work. Neither the darkest of revelations nor the sweetest of promises could sway him from the pursuit of the truth. It was his, and no one could take that away from him. The answer to the question of whether any attempt would be made to sway him from his answer quickly became apparent. A group of mudborns attacked him and tried to take his life, and Voltaire slaughtered every single one of them.
Voltaire eventually arrived at his answer. He arrived at the conclusion that the human soul was torn, or more specifically, could be torn. Initiation was tearing one’s soul apart. The hole, the tearing and the pit could be filled with mysteries, whether it was shaping something from the dark blood of the wound inflicted in your soul, grafting an animal spirit into it or filling it with mist and anything else you have torn your very soul.
Voltaire’s answer drew a revulsion from every tradition existing and made mankind aware of a concept called sin. No tradition thought what they were doing was a sin, but they did begin to try to distinguish themselves from the picture Voltaire drew. As for Voltaire, he was the original sinner and if initiation was truly that which he concieved Voltaire had committed such a sin more times than anyone. This, however, did not bring guilt to Voltaire. There were so many things yet unsolved, but one thing that Voltaire knew was that without such a sin, he would never be able to learn a mystery.
Despite drawing the revulsion of nearly every man, or maybe because of it, the original sin gained eternity. The motif appeared everywhere and in many ways. The soul became a taboo which every tradition broke, but never acknowledged it. Originals did not get the acknowledgement they deserved and did not become the age bringers.
Ironically, the original sin became interwined with mudborn symbols much more than it did with mist and animals. Though in time animals would not escape following the same fate, and some animals would be deeply interwined with the concept.
As if originals couldn’t tolerate that there were still dark age traditions that did not hate them enough, their next exalted one made sure to create a deep enemity with the Held Truce, the dark age tradition besides mistborns which still tolerated them.
Voltaire’s truth was already regarded as a taboo almost uniformly, and those who dared to be part of the legacy of originals were few and far between. Mudborns detested Voltair’s founding truth and would actively reject the originals. Few were the originals, and the Held Truce and Mistborns barely tolerated them. It was at this time that Lorent appeared.
Since initiation into the Held Truce tradition, Lorent had became kind of a messiah figure to the Held Truce. It was not so because there were prophecies foretelling his coming, but because of the sheer talent in the art of communicating with animals, he showed. Lorent had chosen a lion as a companion, and he effectively reached such mastery in the art of communicating with animals that he lived among them like a king. For the Held Truce of that time, this was an incomprehensible sight. It was not that the bond between Lorent and the lion exceeded the high members of the Held Truce tradition in quality, but even they could not claim a greater mastery in the art of communicating with animals. Furthermore, it was also true that a lion as a companion animal was by no means common.
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It was because of the sheer potential that Lorent showed and the sheer expectation the Held Truce held for him that Lorent's act of abandoning the mysteries of the Held Truce for mysteries of Originals left a deep wound, a wound that, in time, festered countless grievances and made even the Held Truce an enemy of Originals.
Lorent, though, never regretted it. For him, the mysteries of union were nothing compared to the mysteries of the soul. Voltaire had seen a glimpse of them, and in his opinion, between a glimpse of mysteries of the soul and mysteries of union, the choice was still a glimpse of the mysteries of the soul. Lorent found in the legacy of Voltaire the greatest of secrets he so desired, but it was true that Originals, as a tradition, lacked what Held Truce had. Initiation could be viewed as tearing one’s soul, but what could be used to do that? And yes, upon the abyss of the wound left, one can build entire towers and spires, but how? And even more importantly, why tear one’s soul?
Originals were fragmented and had a weaker tradition, but for Lorent, it was enough that in higher mysteries, they lost to none. He could figure out the rest himself. If other originals were initiated through different circumstances that were too random for his taste and became originals later because they felt the truth in Voltaire’s legacy, he would find a method of initiation himself and would even add to this tradition. Afterall Lorent thought he had found the place he belonged, he was an original, and he would be an extraordinary one.
Lorent was prideful, but in a way that wasn’t simply being prideful. His pride was part of him. It was what had made the lion acknowledge him. He was prideful in a way that he perceived the divine symphony in his own pride. He could perceive the divine symphony because he was already an initiate of the Held Truce, but he could also perceive it slightly in a different form when he was his prideful self.
Lorent did hit a bottleneck. He did not know where to begin to find a reliable method of initiation. He thought maybe if he felt the divine symphony in another way, he could progress, but abandoning the Originals and seeking out, for instance, Mistborns meant a failure and was a loss. So he, in a genius, borderline crazy move, decided he would create a breathing art himself. If an ancient woman could do it, why could he not? Lorent may not have been a master of lesser mysteries of the Held Truce, but he knew animals, and in them he found inspiration. Loren created a breathing art fashioned after his own lion. This was an enormous achievement, but it did not allow Loren to be initiated and hear another form of the divine symphony. Many wished they could say Loren’s story ended at that time, and that was the end of pride, but they do not accurately grasp the nature of pride. Pride of Loren was woven into his very being, and as humility may lead the way for someone, pride could do so for him. The moment he succeeded in creating the art, Lorent had succeeded. He did not need to be initiated into the mysteries of mist or other mysteries that could come of a breathing art. His pride at creating a breathing art helped him reach the intensity to take the final step, and for the divine symphony to be interwoven into his prideful nature. He had managed to wound his soul and be initiated in a form that felt quite in tune with the originals. Intensifying one’s original nature to an unprecedented level created the imbalance required to tear one's soul.
Since Lorent, Originals began to have initiates caused by the actions of the other traditions themselves. Each time someone would appear with certain characteristics that a tradition absolutely suppressed to the point they tipped the balance in their members' souls, originals would inadvertently gain a new initiate. This had the side effects of fanning the flames of hatred between originals and other traditions. Interestingly, traditions that encountered this problem usually classified sins. There were many such classifications. These classifications served only to heighten suppression within traditions and ultimately served as aids for originals’ initiates. They would help the aspirant originals, particularly those that absolute suppression had caused them to lose themselves, to identify the characteristic suited for intensification.
Lorent had achieved his great work through his initiation, and despite making an enemy of the Held Truce and making the originals more hated than they had been before, his contributions more than made up for it. The number of originals increased significantly since Lorent. Of course, the increased numbers did not make Originals a united tradition. Originals tended towards a more individual life, and many members of Originals would have personal initiations with no personal master guiding them. The doctrine itself was the guide. This did not mean that originals lacked cohesiveness, at least not in all cases, but it did, however produced difficulties. As a result of some of these difficulties, the doctrine had to be more about the truth discovered and less about beating around the bush.
Twilight is a world with the characteristic of torches of wisdom being passed on, a characteristic briefly explained before. There have been traditions that have studied the phenomenon, and they have different names for it: the astral light, river of Mnemosyne, and so on. Among those names is aurora and, by extension, auroras. It is the name the Originals used for it.
There is an exalted member of Originals and a fervent listener of divine symphony named Aurora Reuleaux. Aurora Reuleaux was at first an initiate of the Mistborns. Aurora succeeded in learning the art of breathing mist and felt the mist. Aurora was quite sensitive, not emotionally but to her own soul. In that sense, she resembled Voltaire, but their sensitivity came from different places.
Aurora perceived the divine symphony in the way the mistborns percieved but the apurtures fascinated her far more than they did them. She perceived the apurtures like any initiate of mistborns doing any serious work would do; however, perhaps it was that she perceived too deeply, or it was because of her uniqueness, that what she saw began to stop looking like the picture that mistborns painted of it. Other traditions experienced the divine symphony differenly and so there was nothing to explain what she saw. She was a seeker, and the problem eventually led her towards the Originals. She felt that what she felt of the appurtures was closer to their ideas. Aurora felt enough attraction to the mysteries of mistborns to pursue them, and that the originals may have the answers she sought did not immediately lead her to abandon the mistborn tradition. That was not the whole story, though. There was another reason that Aurora had stayed among the mistborns. Aurora's sensitivity could be described as her being like a psychic. Specifically, she could be described as such because of how history resonated with her. There are stories of psychics reading an object's history; it could be said that, while on a less intense level, Aurora's sensitivity was on the same spectrum of abilities. Aurora did not really know this trait of hers deeply; she knew, however, it was what had brought her to Mistborns and what made her linger there even though in her heart she knew the truth of the originals resonated far more with her than the truth of the Mistborns.
Aurora eventually would show her uniqueness. It was unfortunate, but a mistborn's elder, who was aware of Voltaire’s story, began to feel like Aurora somewhat resembled him, even if he could not explain it. He acted on his intuition and actively suppressed Aurora’s characteristic. It was amazing in his action of suppression how he quickly grasped the nature of Aurora’s sensitivity. Oftentimes, such elders perceive more than even the person does of their own characteristics. It is unfortunate as such that they tend to make an irrational choice in favor of the tradition they uphold. In the end, Aurora did not escape the fate common to many Originals’ members. She left the mistborn in absolute hatred. The conflict with the elder, however, had deepened her understanding of her trait and like all similar originals, her trait began to intensify at an alarming rate. Her ability began to look similar to, if not more than, the psychics. Perhaps she can be described as the first such psychic and an ancestral figure to them. She actually could glimpse the very founder of Mistborns from their aurora, and while that may not be exact, she knew she could learn the true mysteries of Mistborns. It was too late, however. She was already an original. She read from auroras, the history of Twilight; how she could perceive it. She wrote Twilight's history from an original perspective. From then on, originals had an intuitive understanding of other traditions in their own doctrine. If there was a very surprising thing in her contibution is that she wrote “In the oldest aurora, I once barely got a glimpse of an older tradition than mistborns, they are not the oldest. They are deceivers.”
Most claim it is unclear whether she wrote that out of hatred or truth. The great work of Aurora was the history she wrote, and in fact, her trait would have interwined with the divine symphony to reach the level it did. Aurora's skill of reading auroras, in fact, was her listening to a form of divine symphony. This makes it so adepts know that she did not lie. She could have perceived wrong, but that is unlikely. Aurora did not cast a curse, but she did bring the validity of Mistborn's claim of being the oldest tradition into question, and as such, this could have been a form of righteous revenge. Only she herself knows whether she thought she succeeded in her revenge against the Mistborns or not; however, one thing is clear: the Mistborns thought she did succeed, and they came to hate the Originals with passion. Thus, no dark age tradition tolerates the originals.
