Now games and wagers are the life / Of sailors, pirates, fisher′s wives; / But do beware the yellow eyes, / Don′t bet to serve, your soul, your life / Always beware the yellow eyes. (2701 Words)

The way this scene is set up has been subject to a long process of evolution, usually being a reflection of the zeitgeist that signifies the corresponding period. Records of old Guantil-ya plays from the Age of Awakening are said to have used a lot of steam to obscure the stage, having Vinclav and Sanatana step to the front of the stage in alternation to become visible to the audience, while the contemporary staging by Johan Vandervelt in 919 GE went with painted sets of surreal landscapes while deliberately producing noises reminiscent of clockworks and machinery with choirs providing subtle backup.

- J. Winterweiss

While most Yamato philosophers and Clockwork Seekers of old have agreed that the thing the Clockwork most appreciates in human beings is their capacity for “desire”, the Church of Pure Souls claims that there is a fundamental division between worldly and spiritual desires, the worldly being the domain of Vinclav, the spiritual the domain of Sanatana, who is the avatar of the Great Clockwork. In the eyes of the church, it is the human struggle against their lower desires that makes them worthy of the divine.

- J. Winterweiss

It is unclear whether Borgerat initially intended for the play to be performed on stage since he never officially commented on this, but his lackluster stage directions have led to a variety of fascinating interpretations. For example, Bruiner in 48 AH had Vinclav enter not through the steam, as so many directors had before him, but revealed him as a member of the audience that had sat among the ranks in disguise, who at this point in the play stands up and walks on stage. Brilliant.

- J. Winterweiss

In many performances the Vinclav actors will turn to the audience here in a conspiratorial way, attempting to better frame the defiance they cleverly hide in this line that, when spoken, sounds harmless. I still recall seeing the famous Vinclav actor Heros Mantala on stage, saying that “never” almost shocked to Sanatana, then turning to the audience with a brilliant, sly smile and a wink.

- J. Winterweiss

This concept is one of the reasons that the church has such disdain for blighters and magic, thinking that they lessen this ‘mighty spark’.

- J. Winterweiss

— Prologue from Heinrich Thadeus Borgerat's "Glint"