AKA lacuna, lacunae, scars, unspace(entropic)
The fabric of reality is fragile and malleable. Each time something terrible happens it permeates the fabric like a rock falling to a pond’s surface. Traumatic death or a dark power can tear the fabric asunder – creating a scar in it’s wake. These scars are known as Echoes.
These chaotic and decaying scars exist hidden on top of our reality. Often worlds to themselves, superimposed on our reality like static filled shadows. Most of the shadow realms inhabit only the loci of their creation, but the most powerful can stretch blocks or more.
Entering an Echo by accident requires an open mind, and extremely bad luck. On purpose it can be done with craft or power. Inside the realm everything feels cold, thin, distant, and decaying. Like being inside a photo in a wet, but slowly freezing newspaper. The real world can be seen and heard like through a bad instagram filter. The real can not be touched, or manipulated from the Echo without supernatural aids.
Sometimes an Echo smells like burning matches, metallic or dry like a desert. These realms are often home to terrible beings or are connected to deeper realms beyond the real.
Even as Echoes stay mostly hidden, more sensitive mortals can sense them. A Quick is fast to identify the cold shivers and metallic tang an Echo creates around it.
From the premise:
An Echo is a shadow realm left behind by traumatic events such as a murder. These Echoes are holes in our reality, letting things beyond to our world. Thematically Echoes resemble first and second level twilight (aka gloom) from Sergei Lukyanenko‘s Ночной дозор (Night Watch).
Psyche roll
A character entering an Echo gains a point of psyche on a failed Psyche roll.
Featured image is beautiful but haunting photography by Han Cheng Yeh. Used with Creative Commons License.
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