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Understanding the Black Tide

Perceptions and Contrasts between Two Volumes

 

A First Research Log written by Aekatli

 

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Not many volumes concerning Lady Sarye the Black Tide seem to be available on the shelves. The views of her are extrememely divergent and controversial. She is intriguing in all the mysteries surrounding her and which she does not allow us to unveil. Though she certainly is another aspect of the Waters, an unforgiving one which inspires great respect and deserves further attention from the Aquamancers. By studying her and what the Black Tide might mean, I hope to bring a missing piece of culture to the Aquamancers or even to push other generations of scholars to ponder about the teachings of the enigmatic Black Tide (and perhaps, even form the Black Major branch of studies). I believe that all Tides have the potential to be destructive if their fury is unleashed. They also all possess healing aspects and the Black Tide is not an exception. This text is a short survey of the knowledge or references we currently possess and which are of interest for an extensive study of Lady Sarye the Black Tide. It is also considered as notes and a preamble for a different, more personal book being written at this moment.

 

 

The Aquamancer Telperion Eli'Silar offered an interesting vision of the Elemental Lords in his scholarly volume titled 'A Treatise on the Nature of Elementals'. He formulates the theory that elementals are beings entirely composed of the element and the magics which contitute their plane. They are imprints of the mages who have used the powers of the concerned element, through actions or thoughts which have merged within the essence of the element. Elementals are a collective memory of all mages who have used the powers. As such, they can take approximately known shapes, humanoid for example, though they are only shapes animated not by will but by echoes from the past. They are not sentient, per say, they appear so for they are meshed, remnants of the past Aquamancers. Many elementals also serve an unique purpose attributed by the mages who summoned them or they are presented as the faint memory of mage qualities, characters or passions. They would also serve as a compass for the intellectual Aquamancers who perceive tangible proof that all our actions must be pondered for they will persist and affect all around us for a very long time.

 

I wish to comment on the character of Lady Sarye, which is dismissed as pure 'rage' within this volume. She is an imprint of all the minds touched by the tragedies which occurred in her Tide. I think that this is very complex for she, in a sense, expresses the regrets of the drowned, their agony, their last memories and their feelings without being, at the very core of what she as other elementals are, truly defined by this. She would present an unpredictable and ever-changing mood because this is what the victims were feeling. They were in the immediate mourning of their own lives, mourning for lost lives of others, and it is natural though essentially hard to accept. It would be normal that this process comprises violent emotions, from overwhelming rage, bitterness to serene acceptance.

 

 

Another Aquamancer, Gracia Atleron, wrote upon her understanding of Lady Sarye the Black Tide in her scholarly volume titled 'The Tide Lords, Expounded'. She proceeds in a summarization of important aspects of each Tide Lord and Lady in an exhaustive fashion, and she attempts to do the same for Lady Sarye. The Black Tide is described as a frozen water so deep where no light could ever pierce and where the depths will crush any drowned body under its pressure. It is a Tide where nothing can surface. Within herself is reflected the anger, the resentment and the agonizing last thoughts from the victims. She also portrays Lady Sarye as the counterpoint to all other Tide Lords for she is in a different location which is not connected to Celestia or a plane of Light. She reflects the parts of us which the Light will never touch.

 

I disagree to Lady Sarye being the example of what we should not follow. To understand the truths one must step out and walk in the shoes of someone else for an instant to truly gain an objective insight. Understanding of one's sufferings can be terrifying but one could be in a very dark place and still walk with the teachings of the Light, or strive to reach them. She is a Tide Lady with teachings to unveil, for she is not defined in her core by what thoughts surround Her. She is complex and she deserves to be thoroughly studied before we are allowed to make such a judgement upon her. It is not because we do not understand her that we must reject her as a 'counterpoint'.

 

 

To conclude, both were interesting readings with two different views. With the first one we can try to explore possibilities regarding her fate by understanding better the notion of what exactly an elemental is, while the second one is almost complete rejection of her. Even though the tempestuous, unpredictable, ruthless and a few other attributes of the nature of the Black Tide are easily seen and can be dissociated from the core of what she is (as Elemental Lady), it is difficult to extract logical teachings of her from the examined volumes.

 

 

N.B. : After exploration of the Elemental Planes, I have noted that through her physical isolation on the Glacier Sea and her temperament, she does seem to embody the cycle of mourning of the lost ones or the feelings of sickness felt when taken away from home (the comfort of a known world and loved ones) while traveling the deep seas. Further terrain research will be required.

 

 

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References

 

 

'A Treatise on the Nature of Elementals',

Telperion Eli'silar.

 

'The Tide Lords, Expounded',

Gracia Atleron.

 

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Wether I have agreed or disagreed with the authors, I did appreciate their will to explore and write on their knowledge or interpretations. I also wish to thank Lorina Amar'gein and Telperion Eli'silar for their great support. Manchal, the Scholarly Aquamancer should also be thanked for his insight.

 

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