Frostgage

Symbols that humanity as arbitrarily chosen to represent quantity. For example (don't read the names of the numbers aloud in your head; just look at the symbols) the symbols 4 and 3 are just arbitrary groupings of lines and squiggles (for real. think about how many different ways that people draw fours).

But, when there are four apples on a tree and three apples on another, the first tree undeniably has more apples than the second. No one decided to make this true; it just innately is.

That's my take anyway

I don't mean the symbols those are like the first things I ignore when analysing ideas. I mean the actual concept of 'quantity' and 'how many' and 'there is [Two] of this which is [Fewer] than [Five]'.

See when you only have one thing you don't usually notice the number of things being one - if you're given two vacuum cleaners one of the first things you register is the quantity, whereas if someone gives you a single potato your first thought usually isn't 'there is one potato' but 'this is a brown potato' or something like that. One wasn't even considered a number in ancient times because of this (and is usually placed in a special category as a 'unit' even now) so in terms of number in its most fundamental form unity doesn't involve numbers at all which means the quality of having number directly implies something other than a unity.

Furthermore you can't count the number of any collection of things without placing them in a mental collection (e.g. if you have a stop sign, a crushed papaya, the concept of the colour beige, and the physical universe, the question 'how many' is meaningless unless you first place all four of these things into a collection titled 'these things') and any group of things may be directly analysed to determine how many things it contains, so number is intricately linked not only to More-than-unity but also to the very idea of Grouping. Additionally the concept of Structure is pretty much entirely founded on the concept of Grouping since when two things are placed in relation to one another it's just as valid to say that they're placed in a two-object group.

So numbers are basically More-than-unity and Grouping and Structure all rolled into a series of conceptually opaque analytical packets which is why maths is so far-reaching and complex

But like

What are they