The Nephesh - Concept Art Overview

This document builds on concepts outlined in Mechanics Overview and Detailed Core Mechanics.

Introduction

The essence of Dark Garden is wrapped up in the player's ability to see the development of NPC characters in the SUPOX (the SUpernatural Plane Of eXistence).
Actions by the player cause the non-physical attributes of the NPC character to change, and these changes are seen immediately and directly in the shape and substance of the person's nephesh.
Each NPC character's nephesh is represented by both the substance of their form and the substance of their garment. As it changes it will either gain strength and health or regressing into decay and disarray, as well as take on particular characteristics in keeping with the individuality of that NPC's development.
Dark Garden shows the disparity between reality and what is visible. What can be seen in the natural (the NAPOX), is deceptive. In Dark Garden, taking the role of a Guardian Angel who can see both sides, players can discover the reality of each situation as seen in the SUPOX.

In this mockup, the NPC in the SUPOX is a person of some importance, with both power and influence. In the NAPOX the player discovers they're blind and naked.

Success shown visually

In this mockup, a man is shown in two potential SUPOX states, and how he appears in the NAPOX. He is spiritually wealthy and strong in the SUPOX (Figure B and C), even while he is clearly poor and unimportant in the NAPOX (Figure A).
While his appearance in the NAPOX is somewhat consistent and only changes a little throughout the game, his appearance in the SUPOX is constantly changing, a reflection of his changing thoughts, emotions and spiritual health. For example, in Figure B although he is wealthy and influential in spiritual terms, he is ill-prepared for battle. In figure C he is far better equipped and ready to defend himself against attacks with a form or head and chest protection.
Achieving many such transformations (from figure B to figure C) are the basis for success in the Dark Garden game.

The nephesh, through a visual lens

The nephesh, when looked at from a distance, is a combination of the NPC's physical form and their nephesh garment.

• The NPC's physical form within their nephesh remains consistent with their NAPOX form, and this helps the player recognise NPCs when viewing the world in the SUPOX.

• The NPC's SUPOX garment is often missing for an NPC who is weak and impoverished in the SUPOX. They will be cloaked with something that resembles rags.

• When a nephesh is looked at closely it's a tight weave of living botanics, of thoughts and beliefs, and changing in intensity as each is given will-power and intentionality from the heart.

• The nephesh of Spiritkind is either wholly or partly luminescent (as is the case in Figure A and Figure B). The nephesh of the spirit-dead is not. The luminescence of Spiritkind comes from an enveloping flame that hovers over the surface of the nephesh, so close it's like a glove to a hand.

The nephesh botanics grow outwards from the NPC character's back, from the top of their head all the way down to the lower waiste. These elements that protrude from the character's form are easily able to be viewed and assessed by the player. The botanics have a distinct style and form from a distance and are only seen as living when inspected up close.
The nephesh for a healthy person is balanced. The nephesh for an unhealthy person is unbalanced, ill-fitting and burdensome.
If fallen angels inhabit a person's nephesh, they ride in the botanics protruding from the person's back, and can be seen by the player when inspecting the NPC character up close or at a distance.
The nephesh of almost all NPC characters at some point in the game will be on fire. This can be internal fire, evidenced by red shafts of light emanating from within, or by actual flames in the botanics on the persons back. In both cases, there is smoke and ash of different hues and intensities according to the type of fire.
Seeds spoken by NPC characters on fire often carry with them live and glowing embers (especially if words of hate and the such). If they catch in another NPC characters nephesh, it will spark new fire.
If the NPC character is not on fire then the seeds that carry on their words are not alight but resemble something more like floating particles, tiny airborne dandelion seeds.
For more information see Seeds - Universal mechanic.