Importancia ecológica de los dendrobátidos

The mythic dreamlands of the Marches are the echoes of the Symphony, its haunting reverberations. They’re still a vital part of What Is, vet very different in tone and texture from the corporeal realm. The ethereal world is composed of a near-infinite number of half-realities, sep- arating the corporeal from the celestial.

Theoretically, the Marches are divided between the lands of Blandine (the Archangel of Dreams) and Beleth (the Demon Princess of Nightmares). But the ethereal realm stretches far beyond the areas which either Beleth or Blandine control. There are some dreamscapes angels never tread, where the remnants of myth still wander freely.

The Marches are home to many different kinds of spirits, including the souls of those whose bodies died but whose minds chose to keep dreaming. But the natives are outnumbered by the nightly visitors. When you dream, you go to the Marches.

Entering the Marches

When humans sleep, their minds enter the Marches. Everyone has his own dreamscape, drifting through the Marches. The sort of dreams a person has depends on which side of the Marches his mind travels through. If a person had a good day or otherwise went to bed with a feeling of hope for tomorrow (GM’s decision), he begins his evening’s journey on Blandine’s side of the Marches, amidst fanciful visions of hope and peace. Someone who had a bad day, or went to bed with feelings of trepidation or fear, begins his evening on Beleth’s side of the Marches, and his dreamscape fills with shocking visions of horror and despair. Once in Blandine’s realm, a dreamscape can be reached and affected by her angels. Likewise, Beleth’s demons can reach and affect the dreamscapes which drift through her domain. Daring angels and demons cross the invisible (and, some say, nonexistent) line that divides their mistresses’ lands, hop- ing to help or harm the dreamers.

While a human is awake, his dreamscape cannot be found. If he awakens while visitors are present in his dreamscape, they awaken as well (or are otherwise ejected). When a human dies, his dreamscape vanishes – though perhaps Blandine and Beleth can still find it. Dream to Nightmare to Dream

Skill rolls may be required in dreams – for example, a dreamer might “see” a charging rhino, and attempt a Dodge roll. If a dreamer on Blandine’s side of the Marches fails a skill roll in a dream with a check digit of 6, he is instantly transported to Beleth’s side of the Marches, along with any visitors to his dreamworld – his dream has become a nightmare. If a dreamer on Beleth’s side of the Marches succeeds in a skill roll with a check digit of 6, he is instantly transported to Blandine’s side of the Marches; his nightmare becomes, for the moment, a peaceful dream.

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GMs may allow a human’s dreaming activities to influence his overall emotional state. Someone who ended his evening of dreaming on Blandine’s side of the Marches will be pleasant and hopeful the following day. If he ended his dreaming on Beleth’s side of the Marches, he’ll be apprehensive and generally weary until he gets a good night’s sleep.

Celestials in the Marches

Angels and demons, unlike humans, do not have their own dreamscapes. When they fall asleep (a Will roll is

required; if it fails, wait a half-hour and try again) they walk the overarching dreamscape of either Beleth or Blandine’s March, surrounded by pools of water, floating mirrors, translucent spheres and other objects represent- ing humans’ personal dream worlds. They may observe the dreamscapes of actively-dreaming humans, but may not affect them. Only the Songs of Dreams and various attunements granted to Servitors of Blandine and Beleth allow a celestial to interact with a person in his dream- scape. Waking up merely requires another Will roll.

If a nonhuman enters the Marches through the mind of a human dreamer, his corporeal vessel (if he was cor- poreal at the time) will remain asleep until his return.

While in the Marches, if something happens to a non- human’s vessel he will awaken immediately.

If he enters the Marches some other way (such as through the temple of an ethereal spirit; see below), his physical vessel will vanish, forcing him to find a direct route back to Earth before manifesting again.

The towers of Beleth and Blandine each contain many exits into the Marches. When an angel or a demon passes through such a door, his celestial form vanishes, reap- pearing when he returns to the Tower. There’s no such thing as an “ethereal form.” While cruising the Marches, most visitors look like the last physical vessels they inhab- ited, whatever they were.

Unless he serves Beleth or Blandine, a character will rarely have cause to be ethereal – most of the action in In

Nomine takes place in the corporeal realm.

A mortal’s dreams may give a celestial insight into his character, at the GM’s discretion.

Ethereal Spirits

Beyond the realms of Dream and Nightmare he stranger lands. Here wait various pantheons of gods and goddesses, created through the power of humanity’s col- lective dreams and nightmares. Uriel, the Archangel of Purity, was recalled to the higher planes of Heaven almost 1,500 years ago for slaying all of Earth’s creatures of myth, as well as “purifying” most of Blandine’s side of the ethereal realm. Beleth offered refuge to many, both in hopes of recruiting the more nightmarish of the old gods, and just to vex Uriel. Some of the survivors now make their home in Beleth’s realm and aid her demons, while others have fled to the Far Marches and are rarely seen.

Many of these gods are supported by human worship- pers even to this day. Compounding their heresy, these pagan spirits claim that God, the deity of the Christian, Hebrew and Islamic faiths, has not always been the omnipotent being He is today, but that as His power grew, He rewrote the history of the universe to suit Him- self. Heaven rejects this claim outright, of course. Dominic has yet to find another Uriel, someone willing to

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mount a holy crusade against the spirits of the Marches; most angels agree that while the ethereal spirits are annoying, Heaven has plenty of other problems to worry about.

From Earth, the only direct path to the Far Marches home of a pagan spirit is through a temple consecrated to that spirit. The ritual for ascending to an ethereal dream- scape varies from god to god, from offering food to performing incredible physical feats – sometimes even human sacrifice – but angels and demons seldom bother themselves with these “third world” forces in the War for the Symphony.