Volition was formerly the fifth moon of Quire, and is now at the center of the Quire System. It has an unstable, shifting surface of "crackling black glass and bubbling oil shores" that changes appearance, composition and state of matter constantly, but is something like "possibility turned into a sphere floating around a beautiful planet".[1]
Volition was built by the Iconoclasts, followers of Independence who were changed dramatically by Quire at the end of the war against Independence. The Iconoclasts created Volition as their god -- a factory of pure will. Its role would be to create post-Divines (i.e., Axioms) that do not need people in order to exist. Volition is itself a kind of Divine or post-Divine.[2]
Volition was activated just prior to the Miracle of the Mirage, continually creating Axioms by forming them from its surface.
This section contains spoilers for Twilight Mirage 66: Futura Free Pt. 3.
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In the finale of Twilight Mirage, Volition took on their "child" Polyphony as an Excerpt, after hearing their argument that they could work to make a world in which everything and everyone is able to realize their ideal forms. It then allowed itself to exist in relation to people, with a sun at its heart. While it may continue to create Axioms occasionally, it has calmed considerably.
This section contains spoilers for PALISADE 43: Where They Are Pt. 1.
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Rolling with describing Volition as a dark orb in the previous episode, in "Where They Are Pt. 1", Austin says that although "when it became a sun it tried so hard to just be a sun," Volition wasn't able to force itself to always be a sun: "sometimes it doesn't want to be a sun, sometimes it wants to be a weird black orb. And it's allowed to go between those two things, or blend them in strange ways. Sometimes it's a weird black glassy orb that also produces sunlight, and it's sort of like if it just could be its own eclipse." The Twilight Mirage offers Volition the freedom to choose, and "people are not surprised that often when Volition changes at this point."