WoD Shadow

Imagine a place that embodies Nature Red in Tooth and Claw. A place whose sole theme is the Predator/Prey relationship. It is a dark place, its shadows like the twilight in a thick canopy in the deepest wilds the world has to offer - the bits of light that shine through serve only to make its shadows longer and darker, creating perfect places for things to hide while they are simultaneously hunting and hunted. If there were a place where Fight-or-Flight were given physical form, this would be it. Everything that dwells here knows it is simultaneously Predator and Prey. Concepts of individuality bleed away - it does not matter who or what you are, only what you hunt and what hunts you.

Welcome to Shadow.

About Shadow

• Shadow is a realm of spirit, made up of ephemera.
• Shadow is separated from the physical world by the Gauntlet. The Gauntlet isn't a physical thing, per se: instead, it is a measure of the difficulty of transitioning from a state of matter to a state of ephemera in a given locale.
• Shadow is tied to the physical world: its geography tends to mirror that of the physical world, and things of importance in the physical world are reflected in some way in Shadow.
• Likewise, though, happenings in Shadow can often "bleed through" into the physical world in some symbolic way.

Ephemera

• Ephemera exists in one of three states in Shadow: free, passive, and active.
  • Free Ephemera is called "Essence" and it is the building blocks of all things in Shadow.
  • Passive Ephemera makes up the non-sentient, inactive terrain of Shadow. It is the landscape.
  • Active Ephemera makes up the spirits that populate Shadow.

Resonance

• All ephemera is vulnerable to strong emotions and themes - this is referred to as "Resonance".
• Resonance imprints on ephemera very readily.
  • Resonance imprinting on Essence (free ephemera) determines the "flavor" of that Essence.
  • Resonance imprinting on passive ephemera alters the appearance of the local landscape, bringing it into alignment with that Resonance.
  • Resonance imprinting on spirits (active ephemera) determines the nature of that spirit.