Shadowlands

Every location in the living world that has emotional content, such as a town or a city, a battlefield or a plague pit, will have some analogue in the dead world accross the Shroud. The cities of the dead that reflect the cities of the living, are referred to as Necropoli (sing. Necropolis).

Terrain

The landscape beyond the Shroud is different to the land of the living; there are similarities and there are familiar land marks, but the world seems very different through the eyes of one of the Restless Dead. Colours are muted, sounds come from unexpected directions and travel in all but a familiar Necropolis can be disorienting.

The geography of the Shadowlands differs from the Skinlands; starting from what is familiar, the streets of a city are similar to the streets of a Necropolis. However, the "ground" of the Necropolis is a skin, floating on a roiling storm called the Tempest. If a wraith starts walking from the centre of a Necropolis towards the outskirts, as the emotional ties weaken, so the ground becomes less reliable. Sink hole-like rents appear in the ground, called Nihils, gashes in the fabric of the Necropolis that plunge any traveller directly into the Tempest. Eventually, the ground gives way to a shore and before the wraith is the Tempest, the waves of plasm (and other things) crashing against the solid shores.

If the wraith looks skyward, they can see a moon but no stars. Just an inky blackness reaching into eternity.

Objects

The first principle a young Enfant learns is that all of the buildings and objects in the Skinlands are visible in the Shadowlands, albeit with a changed appearance. The innate ability of wraiths to see the health of a person or object, known as Deathsight, also tarnishes the appearance of things. A shining new building with gleaming rails and crystal clear windows in the Skinlands, will have rust pitted rails and grimy, cracked or broken windows in the Shadowlands. Mortals often bear the marks of their death, even if it is decades in the future. Objects that exist in the Skinlands also have a slight, transluscent look, as if they are part-mirage. In a sense they are, they do not have the emotional content, the attachment of the living or dead to their existence and they are not fully in the Shadowlands. What this means is a wraith, with a little effort, can pass through such a barrier with relative ease. A wraith can walk through a hail of gunfire in the Skinlands with minimal disomfort, they can walk through a speeding vehicle, have a shipping container dropped on them or plunge ten stories to the street all with only minor disruption to their corpus.

The second principle is what exists in the Shadowlands does not necessarily exist in the Skinlands. A building gutted by fire and torn down in the Skinlands, may well exist, in whole or in part, in the Shadowlands. Sometimes, when objects are destroyed or buried, they cross over the Shroud and gain existence in the Underworld. Their stones, metal, wood glass or any other materials become relics, prized material in a place sorely lacking in resources. The corrollory to this principle is that a Shadowlands structure or object is solid to a wraith - they cannot be walked through.

The third principle is some things that exist only in the Shadowlands are made from souls; the wrought items fashioned from the souls of the dead. The most common substance is soul steel, a fashioning of the plasm of a wraith, a spectre or a plasmic creature into a useful object - an Oboli, a chair, a piece of armour. Soul steel is worked by the Artificers in the forges and is a strong and durable material. The rarer and harder material is Stygian Steel, fashioned in the forges as an alloy of Dark Iron and plasm. Dark Iron is mined, primarily, in the Veinous Stair, a spiralling passage that leads into the heart of the Labyrinth. Stygian Steel is used to make weapons capable of inflicting terrible wounds upon wraiths and spectres, as well as being worked with Arcanoi so the items have relic-like effects - such as the Loyalty Blades, the Stygian Manacles and the lobotomising muzzles of the Barghests. Such items are commonly referred to as Artefacts.

The fourth principle is that soul steel and Stygian steel can be used to support, reinforce or add to structures in the Shadowlands. The rickety bridge that was destroyed and mostly crossed over can be steadied with Stygian steel bolts and soul steel plates to fashion a useful carriageway.

The fifth principle is the most abundant resource in the Underworld is souls; there are many ways an Enfant can trip up and be consigned to the forges. Some say the soul forged are no longer conscious, yet Oboli moan when you break them into bits for change and the soft susurration of cries as one traverses a Stygian Byway can leave room for doubt.

Shroud

No-one knows exactly why but some time in the distant past, a barrier grew up between the living world and the world of the dead. The wraiths refer to it as the Shroud. The strength of this barrier affects any influence a wraith may wish to cause with Arcanoi in the living world. If the wraith can overcome the resistance to their Arts affecting the living world then they can work their will upon it. If they cannot overcome the resistance of the Shroud then their efforts are frustrated for a time. (The resistance in game terms is called the Shroud Rating.)

The strength of the Shroud is affected by emotion; a sterile laboratory might have a high resistance, while a cemetary at midnight might have a very low Shroud rating. In some cases, other supernaturals can affect the Shroud rating, either by their presence, their behaviour or some of their supernatural powers.

Haunts

A building of any size that has a naturally occurring Bulwark against the Tempest. While the protection against the Eternal Storm does not preven Spectres from entering, the cyclonic winds and abrasive and reductive elements bourne on Tempest winds are prevented from harming those within. The rating of a Haunt is a measure of the force of a storm the Bulwark can withstand. A level I Haunt can be as small as a Mini Cooper or as large as a Warehouse. More powerful Haunts are generally larger in area than the lesser Haunts

A Citadel of a Necropolis is the largest and most powerful of the Haunts of the city of the Restless.

Underworld: | Shadowlands | Tempest | Labyrinth | Nihils | Wraith