Chong Yan Chuah  蔡崇彦

Architect of Meta-Gods, 2023

Infinite Horizons: Atl-Aequus and the Wu-Xing Symphony of MetaGods.
 
Single-channel animated video with stereo-sound
Full HD 1920x1080p
[08:32]

World:Index Water 水︎    Fire 火 ︎    Metal 金 ︎    Wood 木 ︎    Earth 土 ︎︎    Neutral ︎︎     Mythic ︎︎    Dark ︎︎    Light ︎︎    Unknown ︎

Memories	Location	Region	Extract	Element
LABYRINTH OF AEQUUS	WUKOTO	JING-NI	It was composed of a series of elements that became more firmly established in wakefulness and lost contact with their dream origins, as happens in nature all the time when organisms grow from moon-like seeds into slender chakra and vanish. It felt like an evolving ecology...	︎︎
VALLEY OF KUMURA	SUGA'WA	OLINYEN	Atlas 5, 32 hours since dawn. I fear for the future. I fear for the coming of night. The simulation of the disappearance of the sun has not prepared me for this reality. I think I’m staying here for the night, but it may be for much longer......	︎
VALLEY OF KUMURA	AKIMAN	OLINYEN	Atlas 6, 2600 hours. The wind has dropped. I wonder what other changes the atmosphere of this alien place will bring. I’ve found my thoughts speeding up, my memory becoming unreliable. Writing will help to keep them clear.	︎
VALLEY OF KUMURA	DOJOLIN	OLINYEN	Atlas 3411, 18 hours until dusk. The dreams of night are so real, so vibrant and vivid. Soft and vivid, all colour and shades of green and blue light, rainbows and sunbeams. The sound of the wind rustling through gems, the twinkling of glittering diamonds.	︎
VALLEY OF KUMURA	MURI'BE	OLINYEN	...I have constructed a mythic transmitter from the parts left over from the soul gem dust. If anyone is listening, I am inside the crater of the old volcano. I  am sending my location and condition and leaving a log of this journey.	︎
PARABOLIC REFLECTION W_01	ANCHO	INNER-OLINYEN	Atlas 8834, 14 hours until dusk. I could hear the screams of the dying in the wind. Their voices called to me, I was sure, from the mouths of the corpses that lay strewn around me...	︎
PARABOLIC REFLECTION F_02	MANCHEOK	INNER-OLINYEN	The night always hides change, death. The night is so black and black is so terrible. The night. I feel so vulnerable again. The black is endless, it is empty and I am afraid of this emptiness, I am afraid of the day, of the night. I feel so useless and so small. I need someone to be my cover, my saviour, my shield.	︎
PARABOLIC REFLECTION G_03	SOUHAMA	INNER-OLINYEN	I can't protect myself. I am not strong enough to do it. Without you my strength is nothing. I need you. I hope you will still be there to save me. I hope you will still be there to hold me. Need me, love me, don't leave me alone. I am so cold, I am so afraid. I feel so small, so useless, so thin. I can't change anything and I understand that everything I wanted is gone, everything is useless. I can't change what is coming. I want to change it. I want to be sure about everything……..	︎
PARABOLIC REFLECTION W_04	IWASATO	INNER-OLINYEN	Atlas 7843, 500 hours.  I felt fear and excitement combined, like nothing I had ever felt before. I knew that I had to get closer. I turned the camera on myself and muttered that this was the moment that I would never forget. The image of my sweaty, contorted face mirrors the contorted face of the other figure. I crept through the strange, shimmering air, determined to get closer.	︎
FORBIDDEN RAINFOREST of KYLIN-PA	QILINXU	KYLIN-PA	The heat was becoming unbearable and sweat was pouring down my face. I had the feeling that I was being watched, followed by something. I’ve never felt that way before. I pressed on. Up ahead, there was a small structure made entirely out of shimmering, glowing gold. It was beautiful, a solid object amidst the chaos of the surrounding areas. From inside, a faint, eerie sound could be heard. I felt compelled to look inside. I approached the building, suddenly aware of a loud, terrible noise. I started to run, but could not move.	︎︎
BRIDGE OF TRANSCENDENCE	TIANSHOU	KATAKA	Atlas 136, 700 hours. I approached cautiously, until I saw something I'll never forget – a primitive beam of light of some kind, crouching by one of the fires. I know it sounds ridiculous, but the first thing that came to my mind was the description of a human ‘caveman’.	︎︎
BRIDGE OF SKIES	TIAN QIAO	HEBIN-SU	It was so crude, like something from a pre-transition holo. But this was real. The primitive beam just sat there, staring at me. It was a terrifying moment, I remember that clearly. For a moment I wondered if I might be hallucinating, but then the primitive light vibrated, its gaunt frame towering above me, and let out a roar. I orbited around back and forth, trying to get a better view. The primitive was far from the only one there – I could see at least a dozen or more, many of them far bigger than this first one. I had no idea what to do. I couldn’t believe my eyes.	︎︎︎︎
TETRA FORKING PATHS	YANWANGDI	DIYU	Atlas 872, 465 hours. I began to climb, the rocks warm beneath my feet. The smooth surface felt almost like glass, the surface almost wet. The structure was enormous. I began to climb the outermost wall, higher and higher, the structure of the wall changing from smooth stone to a solid, craggy rock. I felt the vibrations grow in strength as I ascended until I was certain that I could be heard for some distance…..	︎  ︎︎
FIFTH CIRCLE :: TREACHERY	HEI BAI	MULIN	Far above me, I could hear the sounds of movement, the cries of a number of people. I reached the top, grateful for my training and the physical strength that I had developed for climbing. I paused, wondering if I should call out. I decided against it. Instead, I began to inch across the rock, towards the light. I came to the edge, carefully peering over. I froze, my mind unable to process the sight ….	︎  ︎︎
UNBOUNDED ORIGIN	ZHONG QUAN XI	ATAKIN	Atlas 1958, 600 hours. The Energy Beings themselves have no form. They are pure energy. They have no form and yet they have a form. The form is only perceived when they manifest themselves in a human body. Their presence in human form is only brief. The form then melts back into energy and only the form is left. They are obviously both male and female and there is no difference between them. They are both equal and yet they are both the opposite.	︎︎
HORIZON 00 ++	UNKNOWN	UNKNOWN	“I am close now, the source is within sight. I see it in the distance, just beyond those trees that mark the edge of the forest. I know what I must do. I must keep going!”	︎︎︎︎
A LEAP OF FAITH	UNKNOWN	UNKNOWN	Atlas 741, 700 hours. They denied rumours of having a special interest in…………. They were fascinated by the idea of a peaceful and loving being. Incole had no God, though there was an all-encompassing and universal awareness. The Incole long ago discovered that it was all energy. The ability to create, as in humans, has been limited. The Incole had no technology and no desire for it. The Incole were never cruel.	︎︎︎︎
COLLECTIVE MANIFESTATION OF KARIGO'YA	TIAN::JIAX	UNKNOWN	What is the energy...and what is the form that we wear? It is the energy that gives life to the body. But what is the energy? Who knows how or why energy...and life...are interconnected as one. Our evolving civilization has made great strides in the understanding of life and death. But it is still a long way from knowing the true nature of Life.	︎︎
KARIGO'YA of KARIGO'YA	TIAN::JIAX	UNKNOWN	These waves are often not felt, but they transmit messages and connect spiritual beings across vast distances.	︎︎
FIRST ENCOUNTER	UISONG	BAKHON	The waves are highly energetic, usually out of range of most people’s physical nervous system because they operate at such high frequencies. They are part of the great lattice of light that connects spirit beingsacross the universe.	︎︎ ︎︎
COLUMBARIUM OF MEMORUS	SHAYLA	UMASAIQ	Atlas 8762, 5000 hours. At first the smell is faint, but the closer you get, the more you can smell. It's salt and earth, decay and the remnants of a long forgotten battle. The scent grows stronger and stronger until it's earthy and unwanted, the memory of a potion gone wrong.	︎︎
UNDISCOVERED	UNKNOWN	UNKNOWN	The cycle of energy is thick and it carries heat, and when it touches you, it sears your skin. You could feel the energy, the heat, and the pressure around you. The force of it, the energy rolling off of it, was so thick that it felt like it was coming at you right through the surface of your skin.	︎
UNDISCOVERED	UNKNOWN	UNKNOWN	Atlas 743, 4000 hours. The water smelled like the sea. The air smelled like the forest. The forest smelled like home. The smell of fire and grass, of burning wood and scorched earth. It smells like a campfire, the kind where you sit by the fire and sing and tell stories around a campfire.	︎
UNDISCOVERED	UNKNOWN	UNKNOWN	Your skin tingles as the wave of light touches you, then penetrates your skin and bleeds off your flesh. The wave of light reaches out to the edges of the earth and brushes the edges of the ocean, touching the mountains and clouds and mist coming off the water.	︎
UNDISCOVERED	UNKNOWN	UNKNOWN	Atlas 1452, 3000 hours.  The particles of light, of fire, are too fine to touch. You cannot hold them, much less stroke them with your hand like you did with the campfire. You have to spend your time watching them and letting them absorb in like a sponge, letting them soothe your skin, bless your body.	︎
UNDISCOVERED	UNKNOWN	UNKNOWN	The wave of light flows over you, flowing out of your fingertips, lower and lower, skimming over your chest and belly and legs, then out over your feet, until they too are light.	︎
UNDISCOVERED	UNKNOWN	UNKNOWN	Atlas 161, 45 hours since dawn. The humans wilted, their bodies turned into flames and streamed with sparks that flickered and died, sparks of blue and pink, of red and gold, like fireworks that never came to rest, that rose and then went out, as if they had never been, leaving behind burnt orange spots of residue on the ground, circles like the remains of melted candles.	︎
UNDISCOVERED	UNKNOWN	UNKNOWN	It was a corporation at the intersection of science and religion, powered by dreams of equations and dreams of deeds, dreams of floating across the sky to distant planets built of ancient bones.	︎
UNDISCOVERED	UNKNOWN	UNKNOWN	A transparent membrane stretched over the universe like a glassy skin of water. It was thick, strong and full of flaws, like a great bubble of air rising under the ocean of all that is, a kind of froth or steam in the whorls of the shapeless, churning forms of all matter, light, and energy. That web of clarity is the entire universe from one edge to the other, from one shard of quanta to the other.	︎