Small Wounds

Small Wounds are the nuclear bombs.

When the atom bomb was created, Qyrl knew she had found the way to close the Wound. She recognized atomic spirits; she had seen them before, up close, when she bit into Oversea and opened the Wound to begin with. An atomic blast tears open a smaller wound, releasing these spirits, but the Wound quickly closes. Qyrl believes that she can enter a Small Wound and close the Great Wound from the inside. To that end, she used all the influence she could muster to push the governments of the world toward more expansive nuclear tests. To date, however, she has not been able to enter a Small Wound. This is because of the massive spiritual turbulence created during a nuclear blast. When the first Small Wounds opened in 1945, even the darkest reaches of Sea's Soul (where Qyrl usually dwells) felt the shock. Even during the many tests that followed, she was never able to get close enough to the Small Wounds to enter them. The experience was not totally wasted, however — the turbulence allowed her to engineer Tuma'a. Each time a nuclear bomb is detonated, the reverberations startle horrid beasts similar to Nightmare into awakening. Qyrl learned from her experience with Nightmare; she doesn't try to do anything so flamboyant nowadays. Instead, when she realized that the U. S. Government was testing nuclear devices in the ocean, she followed the tests closely. Each time a device was detonated, Sea's Soul was jarred and another ancient, formless consciousness awoke. Rather than imagine forms for these beings, she gave them names. Three such beings awakened during nuclear tests, and Qyrl named them Silence, Stillness, and Darkness. When the Rokea decided to meet en masse at Turna'a, Qyrl extended her influence to the surface, temporarily weakening herself in the process. The United States chose the waters over Turna'a as a test site, and the three beings that Qyrl had awakened used their powers to stifle the noise, motion, and even sight of the ships and the danger they presented from every Rokea and Remora present. After the Turna'a Massacre, Qyrl rested to regain her power. During her rest, she noticed that some Rokea were going ashore, while others advocated total disconnection from Unsea. Assuming various guises, both remora and Rokea, she has fed the debate ever since. Indeed, some Rokea (mostly Betweeners or Betweener sympathizers) contend that she engineered the war from the start. Those Rokea that hunt Betweeners disagree; some even claim to be among the original instigators of the conflict, saying that it was their persuasive leadership that began the hunt for the traitors. And then some Rokea, commonly Dimwaters, believe that blaming Qyrl for this crisis among the Kunspawn (for crisis it is, regardless of allegiance) is simply a way to dodge responsibility. The Rokea themselves, they assert, must end this conflict (either by acceptance or total decimation of the Betweeners, depending, again, on to whom one speaks), and not adopt such a humanish "Devil made me do it" attitude. Regardless of her actual role in the war, Qyrl couldn't be more pleased that the Rokea are killing each other.