Editing TheStarsAreRight:EllisMailingVolume2 (section)

==Second Stage Effects: The Rise of Monsters (3/31 -- 12/32)==

As the ambient strengthens generally, two patterns emerge.  One is that the leys and hotspots thicken and begin to spread, while losing their tight edges and distinct separation from the surrounds.  The other is that the rise is increasingly uneven:  In fertile, populous, and well-traveled areas, such as towns and cities and domesticated lands, the ambient rises more rapidly, whereas isolated, barren or uninhabited places have lower ambient psi.  By the late spring of 1931 the ambient in some remote regions begins to fall, countering the trend.  These regions must be watched, as they are places where trouble rises later in the year.  Pay special attention to areas of dwindling energy which contain isolated hotspots or regions bounded by traversing leys.

Patterns of occult or anomalous behavior begin, by May or early June 1931, to exhibit distinctly different characteristics in high- and low- ambient regions.  The first stage effects noted above continue in the high-level regions, and are notable for "miracles," psychic and poltergeist episodes, ghostly or angelic visitations, unusual coincidences and evidence of involuntary mind-over-matter.  Low-level regions increasingly exhibit other things, including antisocial or hysterical fits among the populace, madness, mysterious deaths and mutilations of people and animals, nightmares, sterility or pestilence in crops and livestock, and the like.  By July or August 1931 some of these low regions have been invaded by mysterious and deadly predators, seen or unseen, which terrorize and kill and are a great problem.

By Spring 1932 spreading patches of land show either unnatural fertility or extreme barrenness; these are often bounded by or centered upon leys and wellsprings.  Many such regions acquire "guardians" -- predators or protectors that become increasingly powerful through the year.  Some of these may come in the form of local totems or spirits, others frankly alien and terrible.  Communities with strong central folklore, faith or beliefs may find that their local guardians are a part of that lore and may be relied upon to follow its doctrines.  Such manifestations may be called upon for aid.  The alien apparitions, however, increase in numbers, power and range as the year develops, and pose a threat beyond this writer's immediate power to predict.

Areas where the ambient approaches zero exhibit terrible changes, as the laws of nature change and everything assumes a monstrous caste.

By the end of 1932 it is expected that many people either live in cities and towns, band together in defended communities, or exist at the mercy of things they do not understand and have little means to fight.  Nationwide trade and communication is hampered or halted; armed wariness is predominant and travelers regarded with suspicion or hostility.  "Good" and "evil" miracles are widespread, and many manifestations will be both tangible and permanent within their regions.