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--- supernatural_primer [2025/10/15 09:29] – created taliadumbdog
+++ supernatural_primer [2025/10/27 22:20] (current) – [III. THE DWELLERS] taliadumbdog
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 ======= THE SUPERNATURAL PRIMER =======
+The universe as it is, not as it ought. Seeking the supernatural in MIDNIGHT ARRIVING is an invitation to adventure, horror, and hope. Become the gasoline to this wildfire, or seek to escape into the eaves of the waking dream, and embrace what has shunned the Adversary.
 ----
 ===== THE SUPERNATURAL IN BRIEF =====
+==== I. ABILITIES ====
+>There exists two umbrella kinds of power that beings of a sentient kind have access to while in the material world. Outside of specialized interest groups, the average person within the Emergency Coalition is likely to believe these powers to be superstition. However, folklore is common, and the end of the galaxy has brought upon an age of tolerance for eccentric belief.
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-What Is
+**PSI / ESP**
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-  * Occultists, Arcanists, etc., derive power from without, forming bonds with immaterial reality.
+  * Exploitation of thoughtforms or paradoxes on a personal level.
-  * Psionicists, ESPers, etc., derive power from within, exploiting paradoxes in reality.
+  * Personal will-to-power, using emotions or bodily health as batteries.
-  * The supernatural is an expression of the mysteries of the setting.
+  * Associated with the "spark" of sentience that binds higher-order beings.
-  * The supernatural is intrinsically tied to horror in aesthetic and theme.
+  * While seen as generally mystical in a social sense, it is considered a personal affair.
-  * The supernatural is extremely personal, as well as existential.
+  * The ill-described "knack" of certain sentient beings.
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-What Isn't
+**OCCULTISM / MYSTICISM**
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-  * Reality as it ought, is not reality as it is. Accept this out-of-character.
+  * Bringing powers beyond the mirror into material reality.
-  * The supernatural isn't to be used as a Lit-RPG, TTRPG, or anime-style resource, it is a literary device with narrative consequences.
+  * Connections and deals struck with the planes behind the mirror.
-  * The supernatural in its totality is not casually understood. Most people in MIDNIGHT ARRIVING do not understand it beyond the basic theories.
+  * Associated with traversal through the mirror, to dimensions beyond the material.
+  * Socially, this is considered to be closer in association with "magic".
+  * The often-felt connection to systems unimaginably larger.
  </WRAP>
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+==== II. THE MIRROR ====
+>"The Mirror" is a term used to describe interconnected locations not of the material world. Occultists will traverse rifts in the material world to access The Mirror. These places are shaped >by the actions and impressions of sentient beings in the material reality. Typically, access points include surfaces with a mirror finish, zones of weaknesses in material reality, and can even >be created through concerted effort.
+>\\
+>Individual areas within The Mirror are known as "Shards". These are domains associated with specific impressions or actions. A Shard is a living thing in its own respect. Though it comprises a >great deal of creatures and locales, these are best thought of as organs and organelles of a far larger creature. Many creatures manifested from Shards are unable to leave The Mirror due to >this distinction, as they are expressions of a Shard, and are not in possession of individualized intelligence.
+>\\
+>Folklore and superstition sometimes find their roots from interactions with The Mirror. Shards and their organs often have strange, sometimes unknowable, motivations. There are societies and organizations dedicated to researching The Mirror and its Shards, but public knowledge is sparse.
+>\\
+**Manifestations of The Mirror on material reality include:**
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+  * A mirror that seems almost kin to you, leading your gooseflesh forward.
+ </WRAP>
+ <WRAP 30% column>
+  * A shadow which hides its inhabitants presence from predation.
+ </WRAP>
+<WRAP 30% column>
+  * A man-made sacrificial altar with no cultural or mundane context.
+ </WRAP>
+</WRAP>
+**Common sights upon entering The Mirror and seeing its Shards:**
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+  * A fleshscape made of Human walls and half-remembered bodies.
+ </WRAP>
+ <WRAP 30% column>
+  * A comforting glade that invites all comers with unending peace.
+ </WRAP>
+<WRAP 30% column>
+  * A labyrinth of glass leading to an impossibly distant space-time.
+ </WRAP>
+</WRAP>
+[[mirrors|Click here to learn more about The Mirror.]]
+==== III. THE DWELLERS ====
+>"Dwellers" are creatures whose origins are not from material reality. In effect, these are the "organs" of a given Shard, or even The Mirror itself. Many are unable to leave the immaterial >worlds, as they lack the inherent spark required to do so. They are, typically, an expression of a larger being rather than a truly independent organism. Exceptions apply, however, in both >directions. Sentient beings can lose that essential spark and end up trapped within The Mirror, or a Dweller may gain the agency to leave.
+>\\
+>The layman struggles with understanding what a "Dweller" is. An inhabitant of a mirror-world? The horrors of the Adversary have opened the minds of many to esoteric forms of life, but it can >be safely assumed that the average person will sooner believe a Dweller is merely a pest, monster, or particularly novel person or alien. A Dweller is a complex creature, which may not be as >benevolent, or malevolent, as it immediately seems. The long-lived practitioner of the arcane knows to exercise caution with all matters to do with The Mirror.
+>\\
+**Examples of potential Dwellers:**
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+  * An almost-Human, a half-remembered wretch, drawn to the warmth of living beings; it unknowingly chokes all that it touches.
+ </WRAP>
+ <WRAP 30% column>
+  * A small moth-like being with luminescent eyes peeking from beneath a heavy cloak; a friendly emissary of a quiet land.
+ </WRAP>
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+  * A mirror reflection of yourself, faded and terrible; it is not you as you are, or you imagine, but the public perception of your totality.
+ </WRAP>
+</WRAP>
+[[mirrors|Click here to learn more about The Mirror.]]