Games - Umbra

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	Games - Umbra

The Umbra is the spirit world, a shadow or reflection of the real world, in the World of Darkness role-playing game setting. It is inhabited by spirits, gods, ghosts, and various other supernatural beings. The Umbra can broadly be thought of as all realms that exist beyond the mundane terrestrial existence of Earth. Rather than existing as a single universe, the Umbra embraces many mutually incompatible aspects and versions of reality, forming a multiverse of realms that operate by their own laws. Mages and werewolves refer this multiverse as the Tellurian, and are the two populations most likely to travel to the Umbra. Other beings, such as wraiths, are permanent inhabitants and have considerable difficulty interacting with the day-to-day reality of Earth (hereafter simply referred to as 'reality' for brevity's sake).

Cosmology

The Umbra is structured according to nearness or closeness to mundane Earth. However, this is rather matter of resemblance to Consensus reality than physical distance. The exception is Technological Videre where there is direct link between changing laws of surrounding conditions and distance from Earth surface.

Videre

Because the Umbra is especially mutable, beings with different outlooks experience radically different Umbrae. This disjunction was first identified by mages (who have the most diverse outlooks on the nature of reality), and they termed it videre. Importantly, videre is not simply a matter of perception. Rather it seems that different worldview and mental states bring people to different areas of Spirit Lands. Some videres are entirely incompatible with certain realms or regions of the Umbra. Few beings in the World of Darkness can visit every nook and cranny of the Umbra - most are locked out of at least part by their own preconceptions.

The Realm

This is mundane reality as common man perceives it. While it is contrasted with Umbra the Spirit World, it is not completely devoid of spiritual energies. Rather the advancement of rational paradigm (groomed by Technocracy) significantly reduced its amount while hardening the Gauntlet
at the same time. However, Mystics fear that further successes of Technocracy will completely separate Tellurian into mundane Earth and inaccessible Umbra.

The terminology here is similar to that of "the Moon" that denotes the moon of Earth among several other moons. Similarly, some mystics theorize that the Realm of mundane Earth is just one of many realms of similar status. The others claim that the Realm is special as it is root of Tellurian from which all the worlds spring as its emanations.

Periphery

The Periphery is a state in which Umbra seems to seep through the Gauntlet into otherwise mundane reality. At certain times and places the spirit world intermingle with mundane one to form reality as it was at the beginning of time (as some mystics claim). There are clear signs of Periphery, observable to even common man: world seems more vibrant and alive, and spiritual side or (true nature) manifests. Also the Gauntlet is weakest there are it is easy to get from one to the other side of reality.

Peripheries exist primarily in places of great spiritual power: mages' Nodes, werewolves' Caerns, wraiths' Haunts and changelings' Freeholds. Invariably there is strong feel of spiritual power, even though Videre may be different. Other Periperies are passing phenomena that occur at places of mediation between mundane and spiritual.

Gauntlet

The barrier preventing the Umbra from interacting on a regular basis with reality is known as the Gauntlet
, though it goes by other names as well (wraiths call it the Shroud, Kuei-jin call it the Wall, and Technocrats call is the Horizon). It is sort of mystical barrier of strength depending on spiritual power of given area. The Gauntlet manifests as sort of force or plastic wrap causing difficulty to pass through.

The exact form and influence of the Gauntlet varies depending on passing entity. Generally, spirits face great difficulty reaching physical reality and vice-versa: physical entities have trouble getting to spiritual side. However, the difficulty of passing of physical object depends on the object's spiritual strength - while Garou do it with ease, any mundane thing will be certainly fixed in physical world for good.

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