Shadowlight & Personae Core Guide Introduction
What is Shadowlight?
It’s an extraordinary substance that defies explanation, that makes the impossible possible in the hands of those with a depth and breadth of imagination matched only by the strength of their convictions.
Scholars express it as the empty space at the center of Nortat's Matrix, their model that shows the interconnectedness of the Powers of the omniverse.
It’s the middle ground, the deep breath before the plunge. It depends greatly on your point of view. It's the ultimate expression & the ultimate abstraction, the behind & the between. It's the myth of truth and the truth of myth.
In Shadowlight & Personae, you play curious people captivated by mysterious phenomena or circumstances, in settings with details of the group's own choosing, seeking out to reveal their hidden truths. You’ll investigate mysteries, explore paradoxes and delve into the hidden truths of the omniverse.
You’ll
explore: unravel mysteries, solve puzzles, and decrypt myth, metaphor, riddles & prophecy
question: evince fact from the preconceived, unearth the established, the accepted & the expected
illuminate: discover the concealed, reveal what's hidden, and elucidate truth from beneath the dissembled
The omniverse of Shadowlight & Personae is a
meta-setting: a collection of settings where each is a monad in the omniverse;
meta-cosmology: a set of common characteristics of how the omniverse is organized and a framework for how the supernatural works in the omniverse’s monads;
meta-cosmogony: an explanation for how the omniverse was created, the progenitors who may have had a hand in the omniverse’s creation and framing, and how their “grand experiment” resulted in the omniverse’s present-day framework, as well as the involvement of the shiruul, shaleth, and beleshedaux
metaphor: recurring themes of mystery, paradox, and revealing the unknown
Shadowlight & Personae exists on a continuum, like a Mӧbius strip: Personae functions as a stage for players to put on the masks that both hide the truth and show it, obscuring and revealing the wondrous, manifold characteristics of the omniverse suffused by Shadowlight in varying shapes, sizes and degrees. As a group you’ll consider the following questions, though all may not have answers before play begins:
Setting
Where does the mystery take place (The “real” world, fictional world)?
When does the mystery take place (past, present, future)?
Dramatis/Personae
What is the mystery?
How (by what means) has the mystery come into being?
Why is it a mystery? What about it has prevented it from being solved, from its truth coming to light?
Is the mystery causing a problem or problems?
Can the mystery be solved?
Are there truths beyond the mystery? If so, are they reachable?
Who is involved in experiencing the mystery? (Player characters, chorus characters)
Stakes
Who could gain from the mystery being solved?
Who could lose from the truth being revealed?
Implications
What expectations could be challenged by the mystery being solved?
What preconceived notions could be subverted from the truth being revealed?
Inspiration:
Anthology fiction television, e.g. Twilight Zone, Black Mirror, Electric Dreams, Cabinet of Curiosities
Early 20th-century short stories and weird fiction, e.g. Poe, Dunsany, Lovecraft, Chambers, Derleth, Verne, Wells, Conan Doyle, Baum, Dumas
Immersive, atmospheric mystery and exploration-style computer games, e.g. Myst, 7th Guest, Zork: Nemesis