Places

Most of the entities you’ll meet in the spirit realm are just that: spirits. They sometimes resemble us, but they’re not quite like us. These beings are embodiments of concepts and consciousness – the literal minds and souls of our world. Technomancers think of them as extra-dimensional aliens, and that’s a fair assessment too. By the standards of our mortal world, such entities are implacably alien.

Trying to describe them in detail is a pointless task. Hermetic tomes and exhaustive demonologies contain the names and ranks of thousands of such entities, and any shaman worth that title can rattle off a bunch of names you’d never find in any of those books. There are idea spirits, animal spirits, embodiments of archetypes, and creatures who don’t seem tied to any human idea at all. The awkward term Umbrood often gets used to describe such entities, but it’s worth noting that many spirit beings find that term insulting. As God is reputed to have said, “I am as I am,” and it’s as good a way as any to think of these entities. They are what they are – Otherworldly Popeyes who must be honored on their own terms.

Remember that word, because it’s important: HONOR. Spirit entities demand respect, and they often have the power to squeeze it out of you. Titles and greetings, offerings and acknowledgements are vital when you’re dealing with the

• the Deep Umbra: Everything past the Horizon.

Access

• the Periphery: Basic spiritual Awareness.

• Node: A place of power.

• Domain: An area of profound spiritual influence.

• Shallowing: A natural hole in the Gauntlet.

• Stepping sideways: Transforming body into spirit-stuff.

• Portal: A gateway to another realm or Realm.

The Worlds Beyond

• Pericarp: The Gauntlet bordering a Realm.

The Horizon and Beyond

spirit world. In the Umbra, a bunny-sized ball of cuteness can become a hurricane, so always – ALWAYS – be on your guard and best behavior. Although wizards and werewolves tend to order such entities around, that’s a pretty unhealthy habit unless you can back up your arrogance with power.

The Three Worlds tend to feature related types of entities:

• The High Umbra hosts angels and demons, archetypes and godlings, personified ideas, and self-willed geometric shapes. You’ll spot naked astral travelers bound by vital silver cords; magnificent fractals in coruscating clouds; and creatures out of nightmares, mythologies, and dreams, most of which wear a dazzling array of faces and forms.

• The Middle Umbra features spirits of Nature, ideal, and corruption – werewolves, totem beasts, majestic animals,

and malignant puddles of spiritual ooze. More than any other realm, this world features mortal humans too… some of whom are centuries old, having crossed over long ago and entered an ageless state of grace.

• The Lower Umbra is the realm of ghosts – the Restless Dead whose lives were cut off before they’d been resolved. Such entities can be pathetic videos of people who got stuck in a single moment of time, self-willed phantoms with agendas of their own, the horrific spectres that come from a person’s worst attributes, and the strange monsters that haunt this shadow of the living realm.

In all cases, remember this: in the Umbra, they’re home and you’re visiting. Be a respectful guest, not an obnoxious pest, and you’ll go farther and live longer in those worlds.

Mages, for better and worse, tend to spend lots of time in our heads. It’s natural, then, that the High Umbra –a.k.a. the Astral Reaches – becomes a typical first stop for our kind. Whether or not they travel by astral projection or step sideways into the High Penumbra, Awakened travelers often gravitate toward this realm of ideas. Peering through the Vidare Astral, you’ll perceive the strands of Creation weaving together in sublime patterns of energy. A sense of magnificent clarity prevails: sharp sensations, vivid perceptions, a feeling of constant epiphany. A friend of mine calls this “the ‘Of Course’ Factor.” It’s like putting on a new pair of glasses or having that light bulb over your head suddenly replaced by a halogen lamp. And although you eventually get used to that extra level of clarity, it never really goes away while

you’re there… and once you leave, the rest of the world feels suddenly duller, as if those fresh new glasses had been replaced by scratched and dirty lenses. That’s a common problem, actually, among astral visitors: upon returning to the mortal realm, that real world never feels quite as real again.