Editing Midnight: the SHADOW KILLERS Campaign SPOILER PAGE (section)

====The Spirit Reflection====
Everything has a spiritual reflection in the Grey Lands, but not everything is around long enough for the reflection to "solidify". It seems to be that the longer a thing is in one place the more "real" it's reflection becomes. Living creatures move around too much for their spirit reflections to be anything more than faint outlines, which dissolve into nothing when they move quickly. Ancient structures or trees may be nearly identical in the Grey Lands as they are in the mortal world. Newly erected buildings may be translucent, and even able to be walked through. In some cases, structures which have been destroyed still maintain their spirit reflection long after they are rubble. Long ago, scholars believed that because time passes differently in the Spirit World, it simply takes longer for it to "catch up" to the rapidly changing mortal realm.

Additionally, things which are normally hidden are plain in the Old World. Magic is visible to everyone, and emits a muted haze of a color which corresponds to the kind of magic it is. Living things as well emit a dim light. When observing from the spirit world, all living things seem to glow faintly from within. This illumination seems to be the only light which can illuminate their form and features to an observer in the spirit world. Some people's glows are brighter than others, though why has never been understood. This glow is almost always a pale whitish blue, and is referred to as 'Spirit Light' by those who can see such things. Strangely, living things appear to those in the spirit world almost exactly the way spirits appear in the mortal world. When they can be seen at all they are only specters.

It seems that Izrador's taint is reflected in the light of the spirits of his worshipers. To the truly pious, their light is dimmed and nearly invisible, it also can become stained with red or deep purple. To those who receive His gifts, such as Legates, their inner light is replaced by a spreading darkness which fills their Spirit Reflections from within like oil in water.

Demons and other Outsiders glow brightest of all, but never with the pale light of mortals, and never from within. Outsiders appear as solid creatures of one single color, as if they had been covered from head to toe with paint. Their Spirit Reflections are always in the shape of their true selves, never the forms they often take in the land of the living. Any traveler would do well to avoid such creatures, for many of them seem to be able to see clearly in both worlds at the same time.

Spirits which dwell in the land of the living, such as ghosts or astiraxes, always have a spiritual thread which connects them to the Grey Lands. Most often this appears as a tiny prick of light or darkness leaving a slight trail as it travels. To those able to see clearly into the mortal realm from the Grey Lands, they might see this trail disappearing into the creature's form. Were it ever discovered how to cut this spiritual tether, it may destroy the spirit utterly. It may also free it completely.

Corporeal undead creatures, including Fell, have no Spirit Reflection, and are all but undetectable from the Spirit World. One of the theories as to why is that their souls are actually cut off from the spirit world. They exist fully, and unnaturally, in the mortal realm. This causes their spiritual energy to slowly dwindle, requiring replenishment. Different undead have different means of doing this. For vampires, blood is the conduit for their spiritual sustenance, for Fell it is living flesh. For creatures like Mummies which seem to have no need of outside sources of spiritual energy, it is theorized that they simply absorb small amounts of energy from their surroundings. Normally this sapping is not enough to effect the world, but over long periods of time this may cause devastation to the surrounding lands. This theory was once popular due to the fact that most mummies were found in areas mostly devoid of life. The exception to this rule is the lich. Somehow, the liching ritual separates the body and soul, attaches the soul to an object which acts as an artificial conduit for their spiritual replenishment and also allows the soul to inhabit it's former vessel. In regard to it's spiritual nature, a lich is far closer to a ghostly spirit than a corporeal one.

: ''Note: the energies required to sustain beings like mummies and liches likely are drained from the surrounding area the way that a tree drains life from the air.  The excess energies of life produced by Aryth flow like a mist throughout the world, and sustenance for these creatures is absorbed from this mist at all times, though in minuscule amounts.  This mist of universal energy is rendered as the gray fog in the Eltharyth.  The amount of flesh needed by a Fell in order to remain sustained for a week would be roughly equivalent.  If this were separated out into the 10,920 minutes in the week, would each piece be large enough to see?  And much of the flesh eaten by a Fell is likely to be filler material existing only to encase the essence of life for which they hunger.  '''Might Kyuad's new powers allow those around him to ventilate or absorb universal energy?'''''

Strangely, a living traveler in the Grey lands bears many things in common with corporeal undead in the mortal realm. While the corporeal undead is a creature who's spirit (and body) exists fully in the Spirit World, a living traveler is a creature who's spirit and body exist fully in the Spirit Realm. Where the undead require a way to replenish their spirits, living travelers find their bodies being slowly drained of strength while in the Spirit World. They too mush find a way to halt or replenish their lost strength if they are to have any hope of survival.

Creatures capable of seeing normally invisible spirits, see such creatures only if they exist primarily on the mortal world. The spirits which live in the Grey Lands are invisible to all but the most powerful Spirit Adepts, who tend not to want to delve that deeply. When you look into the abyss, it may look back into you. This means that living travelers are undetectable by nearly all means while they are in the spirit world. That does not mean that the two places cannot effect or detect each other, it just means that the effects may not be immediately obvious. For example, if a living traveler were to cut off a branch of a tree in the spirit world for use as a torch, it's real world counterpart would slowly wither and die. If a building is burned down in the real world, it's spiritual counterpart would slowly fade away to nothingness. When a creature dies in the real world, it's Spirit Reflection is temporarily caught between two worlds. Most of the time it is pulled fully into the Grey Lands where without an afterlife realm to go to it is doomed to an existence of perpetual madness, and eventually will lose it's consciousness and be sucked into the pull of the Maelstrom. Should it go the other rout and manage to remain in the mortal realm, this spirit becomes cut off from it's source of spiritual recovery and is doomed to some fashion of feasting on the living. In some rare cases, the soul is being pulled to the Grey Lands, but it's will is strong enough to resist this pull. In these cases the poor creature is caught between the two worlds, existing in perpetual torture and in danger of being pulled apart. Usually these rare creatures have some object or person which is the anchor for their drive to remain, and this can make them quite powerful, but unable to stray far from their spiritual focus. We call these creatures Ghosts.

Black Mirrors are strong visible presences in the Grey Lands. Normally the landscape is a thick pea-soup fog. As one approaches a Black Mirror, the fog begins to darken, turning more to smoke. Eventually it becomes so thick and dark that only the strongest, brightest lights will shine at all, and even then only a few feet of illumination is possible. Within this gathering darkness, entropy seems to be greatly increased. Wounds taken will bleed more, metal will begin to rust in minutes, hunger and thirst begin paining the stomach and even simple breathing becomes harder, like a heavy weight has settled on the chest. There are dangerous creatures which live in this darkness that no living person has seen. Spirit Reflections touched by this darkness begin reflecting terrible versions of themselves. Stone appears cracked and seeps black, oily ooze. Trees and plants appear dead and rotten. Metal turns red with rust, leather and cloth rots away leaving only the framework of what it once was. Spirits (and mortal travelers) begin to appear how they be once death has taken them. It may be that this twisting of a thing's Spirit Reflection may actually cause a change in the mortal world, somehow corrupting from within a thing's very essence.

If a traveler could somehow clear the mist far enough to be able to see the sky, they would not see the stars of sun they left behind. Instead they would see the Maelstrom. The swirling mass of crazed spirits which completely surrounds the whole world. In the mortal realm, only the most powerful spirit adepts are able to see this terrifying sight. In the Grey Lands, it is plain to see where the fog is driven back.