Mensajes de fallo

Mortals do not do well when embroiled in the politics of spirits. Some modern-day occult vanguards or shamans possess the belief that they can play a pantheon against itself, working to collapse the invisible bu- reaucracy. This rarely succeeds, and worse, usually brings lasting harm to the mortal. Such humans can be drawn into the Shadow by the pantheon and used for labor or entertainment. Other times, the spirits send one of their own to possess the fool, using him as a vehicle for the spirits’ own needs and desires in the physical world. Inevita- bly, those who attempt to glean control — much less understanding — of the spirits in a pantheon find themselves faced with a lunatic shell game that lures them into overconfidence. It puts everything in danger, including their sanity and souls.

Examples

Below are three examples of domains and their resident pantheons.

Bureaucracy of Numbers

In the halls of the Internal Revenue Service, it’s all about numbers: numbers bound up in a million labyrinthine tax codes and urged through ceaseless logistic equations. Those who work there must possess a deft skill in such things, an almost irrational focus on learning this secret language of numbers and tax code. This has given the spirits of these halls a powerful opportunity to enforce their own needs well above the needs of any other. Conceptual-spirits of numbers, math, government

including their sanity and souls.

Humans Enslaved

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Chapter Two-The Shadow Realm

and procedure rule the Shadow and the physical world that reflects it; other spirits must tithe pro- found Essence if they even want to survive. The spirit of a simple houseplant placed in the maze of cubicles will die soon if it fails to tithe; and when the houseplant does give its Essence and service to the pantheon of numbers, the plant begins to grow strangely, as if given over to some off-kilter formula, some mad mathematical rubric. The people, too, find that their emotions are deadened and soon they can only really conceive of the numbers and the algorithms that eat such numbers. They soon cannot conceive of human relationships easily; normal behavior becomes difficult. Here, these con- ceptual-spirits have created an unnatural brood that rules by intimidation and force. Those entities that deny the bureaucracy are churned through crushing equations, screaming as they dissipate. (This is an example of a mob rule domain.)

The Harvest Carnival

Once a year, at the end of October, the carnival comes to town to celebrate the harvest. The towns- folk come, play games, eat fried food, ride a few rides and watch as judges pin blue ribbons on pigs and pumpkins and pies. The people always leave a little bit fatter and a whole lot happier — and, when the tents are pulled down and the rides again dismantled, the town always has one fewer citizen. Someone always goes missing at the Harvest Carnival, and the town fakes mourning for the most part, because it just can’t seem to feel too sad for too long. It’s all because of what happens in the Shadow. Not long before the carnival comes, the attendant spirits in the Shadow awaken anew. The most powerful spirit among them, the spirit of a carnival ride called the King’s Crown (it looks like a glittering crown with neon jewels in its diadems, whipping in a circle while people scream in delight) awakens and begins to glee- fully demand service. Spirits of gluttony suck mud from its gears as fun-spirits go out into the town to ensure that the townsfolk are appropriately exuber- ant. The King’s Crown — sometimes simply called The Showman — is the ruler of this court, and all work for him, contributing Essence so that on the day of the Harvest Carnival he is the undeniable center of attention. The goal is to make sure that the town has fun, and that the people eat, and that they are so lost to their own bliss that they can think of nothing but how happy this makes them feel every year. And yes, as the King’s Crown spins in the physical world,

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the ride’s dominant spirit reaches out and draws one rider into the Shadow. That human will serve the carnival for a time. The pig-like gluttony spirits will eat parts of him, and the fun-spirits will make him dance and laugh so hard that he weeps and trembles. Sated (the King’s Crown Showman sated most of all), the spirits then throw the bones away and rest for another year until the carnival comes back to town. (This is an example of a feudal court.)

The Dominion of Churntide, the Hungry Undertow

Churntide is one of the most powerful spirits in the ocean, aside from the Mother Sea herself (but few see or feel her presence, and her rule is a truly distant one). He is the spirit of a whirlpool that sits out above a deep dark trench, and this whirling mouth of briny water sits in both the physical world and the Shadow. In the Shadow, though, Churn- tide’s watery maw is lined with sharp coral teeth, and at the center of the pool waits a single eye (ge- latinous and oblong, like a frog’s egg). Churntide’s cruel power lies in the fact that his vortex draws any spirits that are near him ineluctably inward. They cannot escape his pull, and are doomed to give him worship and Essence or be pulled into his mouth and chewed into chum. He is their god, and as a water elemental he believes himself to be one of the oldest things of the ocean. All will serve, or all will be drawn into him. Rumor has it that this whirlpool, known as Charybdis by sailors, lurks off the coast of Greece somewhere. Legends suggest that boats go into it but then disappear, wreckage and all. The reality is that these boats are not being drawn into the waters of the physical world, but are instead pulled into the Shadow’s ocean — entire boats full of people dragged into the spirit realm. (This is an example of a gods and monsters-style pantheon.)

Spirits