The MIsts
The Fringe Mists overlap the Umbral shadow, the light of the Astral and the Mortal world. The world of the Fringe is the mortal realm written in wish, dream and memory. Dreams and nightmares roam this domain touched by the memory of the dead and days past. Things are a bit more scary or bright, dark or ominous. The Mists and Dreaming are ethereal watery realms where directions become meaningless and the normal rules don't apply. Vision is limited due to the fog and a rippling wavery aspect to the air. Travel in the Mists is walking, running or riding beasts, or even swimming thru the etheric atmosphere. The Ether of the Mists shifts and flows, with currents pushing and pulling, sometimes twisting around. It resists movement, slightly slowing actions, but may sometimes carry travelers faster or further, or cause them to start to float up and away.
The cardinal points of the Mists are not actual directions but end points:
The cardinal points of the Mists are not actual directions but end points:
- Near - Far: The near is a misty wavery vision of mortal reality. The far becomes foggier and indistinct until all is shadow and light under a pale light that is neither sun nor moons. The normal rules become less and less reliable the farther away one goes until you become lost in the mists or wash up on some realm of consolidated importance.
- Light - Dark: One end is bright light, the other darkness
- Warm - Cold: One end is hot and the other cold.
- Radiant - Close: One end is without clear boundary, radiating outward the other is tight, concealed, restricted and confined. Open grassy plains or worming through tight tunnels or narrow paths in a thicket of thorn.
- Dream - Nightmare: Fantastical pleasant to fantastical painful, terrifying and disturbing.
Geography
The Fringe Mists is close to the mortal world and is the nearest aspect of the Dreaming Realms. Emotion, thought, hopes, dream and fears spawn Chimera. These are semi-real images of things. Or at least real in the Mists and dreaming realms. In the mortal realm Chimera quickly evaporate, vanishing like the dreamstuff they are composed of.
The Mists and Umbra lie closer to each other than to the Astral. Things can cross over or be sensed. Ghosts and spirits haunt dreams. They have Chimeric shadows in the Mists. Some images become fixed in the population and become spirits. Places too have Chimeric shadows related to feelings and memories. Umbra spirits and chimera are not things per se -they are images of things and so are only motes of dust in the Astral.
The Fringe Mists reflect the living mortal world. Daylight is brighter, storms more pronounced. Emotions flare as glowing auras, leaving flecks and tufts of Gossamer. Place is inherently also populated by spirits, chimera and the auras of emotions.
Daylight streets are full of color and all manner of creatures, animals and beings - real, imagined, mythic. Street water becomes rivers. Paving stones are islands in a lake, river or ocean. Children wrapped in imagined images of themselves as heroic, as dragons, brandishing imagined flaming swords. The protective doll or giant teddy bear is their trusty companion. The buildings are mostly less distinct - half formed of cliffs and trees covered in vines, except where emotionally involved - Inns, Taverns, Temples, shrines, scary places, favored trees, memorials, historic places - these are more bright and likely inhabited by Chimera spawned of imagination and feelings - Divine Servants, a Kindly or fearsome Priest, a scary ghost or A hero of the past, or perhaps an enchanting musician that steals away days. Night time streets are stalked by creatures, monsters, fears. Shadowed thieves peer in windows and slink from shadow to shadow. Tiny carriages, fantasy romances, the faces of the lost and dead, The wandering Gods, demons and spirits. People in homes and inns with comforts, fears, fires, jolly lords of feast and drink. Raging demons of drunkenness and anger.
Upside down rooms. Or rooms turned to forests or ruins. Neighborhood or city blocks underwater. A nightmare of fire. As one moves away it gets stranger.
The Mists and Umbra lie closer to each other than to the Astral. Things can cross over or be sensed. Ghosts and spirits haunt dreams. They have Chimeric shadows in the Mists. Some images become fixed in the population and become spirits. Places too have Chimeric shadows related to feelings and memories. Umbra spirits and chimera are not things per se -they are images of things and so are only motes of dust in the Astral.
The Fringe Mists reflect the living mortal world. Daylight is brighter, storms more pronounced. Emotions flare as glowing auras, leaving flecks and tufts of Gossamer. Place is inherently also populated by spirits, chimera and the auras of emotions.
Daylight streets are full of color and all manner of creatures, animals and beings - real, imagined, mythic. Street water becomes rivers. Paving stones are islands in a lake, river or ocean. Children wrapped in imagined images of themselves as heroic, as dragons, brandishing imagined flaming swords. The protective doll or giant teddy bear is their trusty companion. The buildings are mostly less distinct - half formed of cliffs and trees covered in vines, except where emotionally involved - Inns, Taverns, Temples, shrines, scary places, favored trees, memorials, historic places - these are more bright and likely inhabited by Chimera spawned of imagination and feelings - Divine Servants, a Kindly or fearsome Priest, a scary ghost or A hero of the past, or perhaps an enchanting musician that steals away days. Night time streets are stalked by creatures, monsters, fears. Shadowed thieves peer in windows and slink from shadow to shadow. Tiny carriages, fantasy romances, the faces of the lost and dead, The wandering Gods, demons and spirits. People in homes and inns with comforts, fears, fires, jolly lords of feast and drink. Raging demons of drunkenness and anger.
Upside down rooms. Or rooms turned to forests or ruins. Neighborhood or city blocks underwater. A nightmare of fire. As one moves away it gets stranger.
Ecosystem
The things of the Mist are things of Dreaming. They feed off the drops of gossamer emotion spilled in wishing, dreaming, fearing, hoping, imagining and recalling. Living and nonliving interchange and have little meaning as the perception of spirits of things or beings take shape from the imaginings of the living....mostly. There are some Chimera that are formed of the thoughts and imaginings of other things, undead or deathless.
Mortals experiencing strong emotions each generate small numbers of motes of gossamer (mote spirits which last a few minutes to maybe hours). Strong emotions cause condensation of Ether into a mote of Gossamer 1: enjoyable company, play, music, mild fright or sadness 2: moderate fright/fight, great entertainment, joy/love or sorrow. 3: wounding fight/ fright representing major threat or fear, anger and hate, exceptional/ excellent food, drink, entertainment. depressed or despondent. 4: severely damaging fight/ fright representing massive threat or panic, deep love or wild inspiration or wrath. Misery or despair. 5: deathly fright or fight or terror or great passion, jubilation or all consuming destruction and rage. Wretchedness, woefulness or shattered/ broken.
The principle residents of the Mists and Dreaming are Chimera, Hobgoblins, roaming Fae, the occasional The Sidereal Fae Spirits and a handful of the ethereal creatures unique to the Dreaming like the Mindeater, Psychic parasites and Dream Butterflies that drain away sanity.
Spirits of higher rank may spawn motes which will fade or be consumed or may feed and grow if they have a fetter to occupy them. Spawning Motes is a conscious and intentional act for spirits. Chimera grow and strengthen just by motes of gossamer consumed and incorporated into their substance or ripped from smaller or weaker spirits.
Most Chimera form substance based on the amount of gossamer available to them from the imaginings of mortals. So frequently one may find a popular perception or understanding of a God or significant person or some creature that fires the imaginations of many. It is not that thing. It is what that thing is imagined to be. One advantage in the Mists is that being defeated doesn't kill mortals, it only leaves one depleted of energy and ejected from the Mists. This doesn't apply in the Dreaming where dying in the Dream means you die in the mortal world, or a Chimera that has crossed to the mortal realm that can be deadly in the hours before it evaporates.
Mortals experiencing strong emotions each generate small numbers of motes of gossamer (mote spirits which last a few minutes to maybe hours). Strong emotions cause condensation of Ether into a mote of Gossamer 1: enjoyable company, play, music, mild fright or sadness 2: moderate fright/fight, great entertainment, joy/love or sorrow. 3: wounding fight/ fright representing major threat or fear, anger and hate, exceptional/ excellent food, drink, entertainment. depressed or despondent. 4: severely damaging fight/ fright representing massive threat or panic, deep love or wild inspiration or wrath. Misery or despair. 5: deathly fright or fight or terror or great passion, jubilation or all consuming destruction and rage. Wretchedness, woefulness or shattered/ broken.
The principle residents of the Mists and Dreaming are Chimera, Hobgoblins, roaming Fae, the occasional The Sidereal Fae Spirits and a handful of the ethereal creatures unique to the Dreaming like the Mindeater, Psychic parasites and Dream Butterflies that drain away sanity.
Spirits of higher rank may spawn motes which will fade or be consumed or may feed and grow if they have a fetter to occupy them. Spawning Motes is a conscious and intentional act for spirits. Chimera grow and strengthen just by motes of gossamer consumed and incorporated into their substance or ripped from smaller or weaker spirits.
Most Chimera form substance based on the amount of gossamer available to them from the imaginings of mortals. So frequently one may find a popular perception or understanding of a God or significant person or some creature that fires the imaginations of many. It is not that thing. It is what that thing is imagined to be. One advantage in the Mists is that being defeated doesn't kill mortals, it only leaves one depleted of energy and ejected from the Mists. This doesn't apply in the Dreaming where dying in the Dream means you die in the mortal world, or a Chimera that has crossed to the mortal realm that can be deadly in the hours before it evaporates.
Localized Phenomena
Doorways into or out of the Fringe (or even the Mists or Deep Dreaming) may be found via Dreams, Mushroom Rings, a doorway or a real or symbolic threshold or entry (cave, waterfall, fire) or passage that is suddenly misty and strange once passed. Most of the Fae may also pass into the Mists by pulling themselves across if free of iron or carrying limited amounts of steel.
Natural Resources
Chimera are hunted for sport, safety of their areas and food by the fae races. The fae also harvest gossamer while in the Mists, sometimes cultivating humans and others with story, song, music or visiting nightmares and terrors. Gossamer is the basis of Fae glamours which place a layer of dream substance over the world. Dwarves harvest Aetherium that they pull from the Mists and Dreaming by simple reaching and collecting. Aetherium is fused into Dwarven makings and bestows the magic aspects. Purified and refined Aetherium metal is a luminous yellow green.
Deep in the Mists are Fae realms called holds. They may be a meter or two upto huge mansions, cavern complexes or islands or regions like a forest or mountain. Holds frequently have some door or path between them and the Mortal world.
In the Dreaming are deep realms. Islands of sanity and stability under different laws and rules than the Mortal world. Fae who have mastered the art of Trods may navigate between known points. Random explorers risk becoming hopelessly lost or running aground on some remote isolated shoal perhaps inhabited by other lost souls, chimeric creatures , escaped prisoners and pets of the Sidereal, or the warped and strange Hobgoblins who are humanoid or bestial with aspects of element, strange dimensions and effects or abilities from arcane eldritch magics and mutation. Every hobgoblin is different and reflects the compass points of the Mist: radiant, cold, glowing, dispersed, warm to flaming, solid or fluid and dominated by an aspect like Force, speed, flight, sight, hearing, touch, thought, time, youth or age. Graceful and beautiful or things of horror with tentacles and teeth or representing death and decay.
At the distant edge of the Dreaming there is a Hedge of thorn and tangle. Beyond the Hedge are domains of the The Sidereal Fae . Realms they rule as gods, shaping every aspect to their whim, impulse and nature. Their hosts and slaves battle, scheme and play roles cast by the Sidereal in their play at mortal actions or alien immortal and ageless games and distractions. Captives are carried back here to be used for experiment, play, recreation, labor, pets, food and/or decoration/ornament or things inconceivable and sometimes twistedly understandable. Flesh and minds are warped and transformed at the Sidereal's desire to fit their realms and purposes and few are ever seen again.
Beyond the Sidereal, the Dreaming reaches the realm of Chaos where there is no constant form, time, place or being.
In the Dreaming are deep realms. Islands of sanity and stability under different laws and rules than the Mortal world. Fae who have mastered the art of Trods may navigate between known points. Random explorers risk becoming hopelessly lost or running aground on some remote isolated shoal perhaps inhabited by other lost souls, chimeric creatures , escaped prisoners and pets of the Sidereal, or the warped and strange Hobgoblins who are humanoid or bestial with aspects of element, strange dimensions and effects or abilities from arcane eldritch magics and mutation. Every hobgoblin is different and reflects the compass points of the Mist: radiant, cold, glowing, dispersed, warm to flaming, solid or fluid and dominated by an aspect like Force, speed, flight, sight, hearing, touch, thought, time, youth or age. Graceful and beautiful or things of horror with tentacles and teeth or representing death and decay.
At the distant edge of the Dreaming there is a Hedge of thorn and tangle. Beyond the Hedge are domains of the The Sidereal Fae . Realms they rule as gods, shaping every aspect to their whim, impulse and nature. Their hosts and slaves battle, scheme and play roles cast by the Sidereal in their play at mortal actions or alien immortal and ageless games and distractions. Captives are carried back here to be used for experiment, play, recreation, labor, pets, food and/or decoration/ornament or things inconceivable and sometimes twistedly understandable. Flesh and minds are warped and transformed at the Sidereal's desire to fit their realms and purposes and few are ever seen again.
Beyond the Sidereal, the Dreaming reaches the realm of Chaos where there is no constant form, time, place or being.
The cardinal directions being things like near, far, light, and shadow is a really interesting concept. I love some of the language you use to describe the Mists also. I feel like there is a lot more to explore about this plane - I'm really fascinated by chimera, especially. :)