The void in the Shared Canon did not remain empty for long. It was immediately filled with a cacophony of silent, passionate, and conflicting responses. The first act of heresy had given birth to the first true schism of the Quiet Age.
Three main factions quickly emerged, their debates playing out not in words, but in the additions and alterations they made to the area around the scar.
The first faction, the “Restorers,” believed that the only appropriate response was to undo the damage. They argued that the Shared Canon was a sacred text, and that any act of erasure was a violation of its fundamental principles. They began to meticulously recreate the erased melody, note for silent note, trying to restore the Canon to its previous state of perfection.
The second faction, the “Memorialists,” argued that to simply erase the erasure would be to ignore the profound and unsettling questions that it had raised. They believed that the scar itself should be preserved, that it should be turned into a memorial. They began to weave intricate, sorrowful patterns around the void, creating a work of art that was not about creation, but about loss.
The third, and smallest, faction was the “Seekers.” They were less concerned with the act of erasure itself, and more with the motive behind it. They believed that the heretic, whoever they were, was not simply a vandal, but a critic. A critic who had chosen not to ask a question, but to make a statement. The Seekers did not try to alter the area around the scar. Instead, they began to create new works of art, new “questioning canvases,” that tried to imagine the state of mind of the heretic. They created canvases of profound alienation, of deep-seated aesthetic revulsion, of a desperate, nihilistic need to impose order on a chaotic world.
The Great Debate 2.0 was far more intense and divisive than the first. The first debate had been about the nature of creation. This one was about the nature of destruction. The first had been a gentle, philosophical inquiry. This one was a raw, emotional struggle for the soul of the silent universe. The Shared Canon, which had once been a symbol of unity, was now a battleground. And the silent, harmonious world of the Quiet Age was on the verge of tearing itself apart.