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Anything that comes out of the forges is considered an Artifact. Soul-infused objects are the most durable in the Netherworld, which inevitably makes them extremely valuable. Examples of Artifacts: weapons, armor, ammo, machinery, building material, etc. Not be confused with Vestiges.
♰ ASCENSIONAn ascent to a higher state of being, a beacon of hope. Perhaps the road to redemption, peace, and ultimately, home. It's a counterweight to the omnipresent darkness of Oblivium, the one thing that encourages the Restless to keep resisting its hunger. Some seek it in the fabled paradises of the Far Shores, but others seek it within, and speak of virtuous Restless who suddenly vanished in a bright beam of light, leaving profound feelings of happiness and peace in their wake. Still, despite the lack of evidence — or perhaps because of it — the concept of Ascension hangs on, passed from one hopeful Restless to another like a candle in the darkness of the Netherworld.
♰ FAR SHORESSitting across the Netherworld from Stygia, the Far Shores are an endless archipelago of islands shrouded in mist. Some Restless believe paradise can be found there, or Hell; explorers who’ve ventured that far say they’ve found both, lorded over by would-be gods and devils, but the dangers of journeying there are too many for their claims to be true.
♰ FERRYMENAncient, powerful Restless who guide travelers through the Tempest. Some say they once ascended and came back to help the fight against Oblivium.
♰ FORGES & SOULFORGINGThrough the process of soulforging, souls can be transformed into inert objects, the raw materials of everything from construction to cash. The currency of the Netherworld is a heavy, slate-gray coin made from a single soul, melted down and reforged. Souls are not only the population of the Netherworld, they are also its dearest resource. Spectres can be hunted down and sacrificed in lieu of other Restless, but the bulk of souls that are fed to the forges come from aggressive and amoral Reapers who care very little for newcomers. It is a brutal, inhumane system, and yet it persists because no one chooses to do anything about it; the forges will thus keep burning bright as they turn out the arms, armor, and other indispensable materials Stygia needs to sustain itself...unless someone finds another way. Can you?
Unless the smith deliberately develops a new
metaphysical system, soulforging looks like blacksmithing
with iron that screams. Accordingly, the forges
require the expected tools, even though they don’t
necessarily have the same smithing functions as their
mortal counterparts: a bellows, an anvil,
a quenching trough, tongs, chisels, and hammers. The
finishing workbench includes punches, drills, files,
jigs, wire brushes, grinding stones, etc. The smith then converts a soul into raw plasm, paralyzes
all vestiges of consciousness, and then shapes it into the desired
configuration. This stage turns the soulforged object from a basic shape into
a fully functional implement. The smith uses tools, soulfire, barrowflame,
or alchemical treatments to file off burrs and rough edges,
shape and polish surfaces, increase hardness or flexibility, and add
utilitarian or decorative patterns, coloration, or inlay.
Plasm is soulforging’s ubiquitous raw material. Worked on its own, it yields soulsteel.♰ HARROWING
Stygian steel is an amalgam of exotic ingredients, very strong but very difficult to work with. It requires plasm harvested from dense clouds in the Tempest, for instance, and is both more ductile and more malleable than soulsteel.
Ash iron is produced by burning one of the priceless trees that struggle to grow in the Shadowlands and is prized for its color and flexibility.
Labyrinthine silver is vanishingly rare because of its reliance on a dove-gray, coal-like substance mined deep in the Labyrinth.
Other alloys are possible; the extent of necrometallurgy is unlimited.
When a Restless suffers grievous damage or loses a Tether, they might be pulled down to the very depths of the Labyrinth, which is called a Harrowing. They become the star in a perverse psychodrama concocted by their Shadow in conjunction with troupes of Spectres. In essence, the Restless lands in a nightmare landscape where anything can happen and anyone can appear. Harrowings are nightmares, and it’s nightmare logic that applies there. Within the players’ comfort zones, anything and everything is fair game, and no idea is too illogical or strange. Once a Restless is trapped inside a Harrowing, there’s no way out except by plunging deeper in. If, by dint of awareness, persistence and determination, they survive the struggles of the Harrowing, they're ultimately released back to the Shadowlands. Failure or refusal to engage, on the other hand, force the Restless to pay a heavy price before moving on.
Harrowings can be self-inflicted or provided by the mod team, at random or during events. Whether your character succeeds or fails is up to you: if they succeed, they'll be spat out to their home in the Shadowlands, and if they fail, they'll be thrown into the Tempest and forced to find their way back on their own. For the sake of roleplay, the same nightmare can be experienced by multiple characters at once--think of it as a kind of memshare oppportunity.
Oblivium has also birthed gruesome fiends, and they gnawed endless, twisted tunnels in the very fabric of reality that underpins the afterlife, carving it into a mind-blasting labyrinth. This maze became their prison, an ever-shifting nest that is now home to all the foulness of the Netherworld. At its heart is the maw of Oblivium, always ravenous.
There are some who voluntarily venture into the Labyrinth, either to hunt Spectres or to retrieve materials and Artifacts, and needless to say, it's a rather dangerous endeavor. The same rules as the Harrowings' apply.
Monstrous storms that roar out of the maw of Oblivium to hammer Stygia and the Shadowlands. They carry Spectres and other less identifiable things on their winds, and are generally triggered by too many strong Shadows. A Maelstrom could very well be the consequences of an increase in questionable actions or choices.
♰ NETHERWORLDA catch-all term for the lands of the dead, from the Shadowlands to the Far Shores and encompassing Stygia, the Neighboring Isles, the Labyrinth, the Tempest, and Oblivium, perpetually twilight-hued.
♰ OBLIVIUMThe corrupting hunger of entropy to devour all things. It fuels the Shadow and marshals legions of Spectres. Most believe that Oblivium is the inevitable end of the road, which is why they cling so tightly to the Tethers that anchor them against Oblivium's pull. It wants you.
♰ REAPERSSome of them are peaceful, even friendly. Others are called Harvesters, and they hunt down newborn Restless for the express purposes of transforming them into material wealth. This process is called Soulforging, and whether souls remain self-aware after they’ve been soulforged is still uncertain. What is known is that soulforged items have an uncomfortable tendency to wail and moan softly to themselves, often at the worst possible time.
♰ SHADOWThe devil on the shoulder, the imp of the perverse, the little voice in the back of your head telling you to do the thing you really shouldn’t. It's the self-absorbed, self-destructive, sentient side of a Restless' personality bent on eventually dragging them down to Oblivium. To be a Restless is to be divided, and it's nothing entirely new: every living person sometimes feels torn between rival goals, or impulsively does something they wouldn’t have chosen after a moment’s thought. Will, desire, hope, fear and everything else that influences choices of action add up to a messy churning stew of the soul. It gets more complicated and dangerous across the Netherworld, because Oblivium’s all-consuming power can — and does — echo inside each ghostly soul. Your Shadow is your self-condemnation, and everything in you that yearns to destroy your own accomplishments and lash out at the world. Selfish, sadistic, and seductive, the Shadow will bribe, cajole, threaten and occasionally take control, all in the interest of edging you one step closer to the eternal precipice. It would be very convenient, morally, if this were all forced on the Restless by Oblivium and had nothing to do with who they are, but it doesn’t work that way. Oblivium calls to the urge toward destruction in everyone and everything, giving power to what’s already there; baser impulses, some drives anchored in fear, envy and the like rather than nobler feelings like hope and joy. Essentially, you are your own enemy.
It's good to note that every Restless will eventually realize that every other Restless has also a Shadow, which means that every Restless will eventually be aware that there’s a good chance that when someone they know does something out of line, whether it be an outburst at exactly the wrong moment or the inappropriate use of a Spark, the Shadow may very well be at fault. That can produce a certain level of understanding, but also a certain level of frustration as “we’ve all been there” wars with “get your shit together.” If they've never had trust issues before, well...
*listening to their Shadow may not always be in your character's best interest, but as a player, you're 100% encouraged to go wild! it's up to you to find the right balance; we won't be policing how you choose to play their Shadow.
♰ SHROUDThe amniotic sac of a Restless' birth into the Shadowlands, thick, green-ish, and egg-shaped. It heals injuries and minor infections, but does not get rid of scars or chronic illnesses.
♰ SPARKPowers/abilities. Every Passion fully experienced will produce one small wisp of energy that will then merge with your Self to become a Spark. ICly, your character will gradually feel its magical potency, a light buzz in the back of their mind, a tickle beneath their skin, an ability inherently learned. OOcly, one wisp can be exchanged for one Spark, and each Spark can only be used once. This basically means that every time your character intensely experience an emotion, let us know here and we'll provide a Spark for your character! After 4 months, unused Sparks expire, and one character can have a total of 6 active Sparks at any given time.
♰ SPECTREA Restless who has given into Oblivium. Their Shadow is now dominant, and they work to serve Oblivium's goals, aka making your life a living hell. Spectres are creatures of unbridled emotion, of dark rage and complex melancholy. They are cold, cruel, and twisted, and they exist to inflict their suffering upon others, to end their own pain through the extinction of all reality.
♰ STYGIAThe Netherworld's capital, also called The Eternal City, which is scavenged from the destroyed monuments of history and sits in the middle of the Tempest. Ancient beyond comprehension and constantly inhabited by thousands upon thousands of Restless, it sprawls for miles across its original island as well as a few nearby islands. It is simultaneously altogether unlike any living city and deeply familiar in its parts, since it includes the memories of famous buildings, monuments, roads, and features from across the entire universe.
♰ TEMPESTThe endless storm that rages through the Sea of Shadows where Spectres roam free, where Ferrymen silently pole their rafts to unknown purposes. It does not consist of mere water, wind, and cloud; it's also made of broken glass, magma, nightmares, acid, and any other horrific substance one can imagine. Rare islands of stability exist within; Stygia is built on one, and other smaller realms are known to stand against the storm. There are safe paths through the storm, but their locations are known only to a few, namely the Ferrymen.
♰ TETHERA Tether is a person, a place, an object that anchors you to the Netherworld all the while tying you to your old life. Every new Restless has Tethers, and the best ones are singular and easily identifiable -- an individual, a home, a car, a pet, a book, you name it. You'll find them in your home, usually in the form of small sculptures representing your tethers, wrapped in a blueish glow. Some may be holograms, especially (but not necessarily) if they represent people. Whatever your Tethers are, protect them. They're some of the most important elements in your afterlife, and some of your greatest sources of vulnerability. They can be used against you, held hostage, damaged, or even destroyed, which would automatically plunge you into a Harrowing.
Note that losing all your Tethers would eventually sap you of all your hopes, making room for your Shadow to grow even darker, bringing you ever closer to Oblivium.
*if one of your tethers is a person that is eventually app'ed (or an item from their home world that they'd request/receive), that particular tether would simply disappear. while it might induce a little panic if noticed (esp. if your character is unaware of their literal presence in the netherworld), there's no need to fear a harrowing, as it's not exactly considered "lost" or "damaged".
Echoes of things that have been destroyed or abandoned. Think of it as the death of an object, if you will; any item retrieved from your world would be considered a Vestige, for instance. Unless reinvested with soul energy, Vestiges eventually crumble and fade, as they’re simply not made to last in the Netherworld. Artifacts, on the other hand, tend to endure the ages exceptionally well, and thus are generally more desirable.