The Lexicon

Even the least thorough reader is going to notice a lot of strange terminology. What is the Shadowlands? Who are the Psychonauts? What is an Outsider? How does one obtain and Avatar and how does an Avatar Shatter? And so on and so on. The Lexicon will help with this. Not, you know, a lot -if you don't read the rest of this- but some.

A

• Arcadia: This is not utopian or idyllic, but many mistake it as such to their pain and surprise. This is the land of the Free Peoples, and it is wild and independent, so be wary and be strong.
• Aura: The Aura is the energetic force field that keeps your avatar in the Shadowlands during an incursion. You invest your Avatar with Vajra activate the Aura, and if your Avatar is threatened by the stress of the story, the aura could waiver and even shatter. And then you could wind up on your ass back in the Bonelands while your team carries on.
• Autumn: The last season prior to the Dark. The Autumn months are the last months with regular lengths, compared to the variable lengths of the Dark Months.
• Avatar: Blood Red Dreaming is a game that takes place mostly in the realm of shared stories: The Shadowlands. But your body isn't made of story stuff. Your body belongs in the Bonelands. So you need to create a virtual body, a body for the realm of stories: your Avatar. Think about the Matrix and you got it. Your Avatar is you, but just a little bit cooler. Just don't take it into the Shadowlands naked and without an Aura.

B

• Becoming Dark: The variable month of the largest size. The Becoming Dark goes from the end of Autumn until the day of the dark solstice, commonly called the winter solstice in other calendars.
• Blood Feud, the: Used to describe the first conflict that split the Great Tribe in the ancient stories of the Painted Labyrinth.
• Bonelands, the: The so-called real world, the world of flesh and bone, the world of fact and science- the alien world so far beyond the capacity of the human mind that we created the Shadowlands again and again to escape it.
• Broken, the: The mighty giants which inhabit the Foglands, also the Giants and technically referred to as Gregorim. The Broken are mysterious and silent, but near invulnerable and enormous. They will generall ignore psychonauts, unless one breaks their arcane and labyrinthine laws- after which they are wrath and fury personified.

C

• City of Glass: The name of both the third Realm as one descends and also the capital city of the Hungry Empire. The land of the Locust King and his Hungry Empire, his false utopia that hovers- a castle city in the sky. Without secret knowledge of the Free Peoples, wanderers in the Shadowlands will be hard pressed to move deeper, beyond the grip of the False King and his Hungry Empire.
• Corrupt, the: Those who have been destroyed by the influence of the Grey Locust. Notable sub groups include the Wendigo and the Stillborn Army.
• Crescent Sun: a common term used to describe the 6 season lunisolar calendar used in the Blood Red Dreaming.

D

• Darkening, the: The last season of the Crescent Sun, consisting of The Becoming Dark and The Full Dark.
• Demon: Also called the Fair Folk. The keepers of the High Magick and the evil foes of the Locust King's propaganda.
• Denizen: Many beings delve into the Shadowlands on their ill thought out incursions. But many more beings make the Shadowlands their permanent home. These beings are born, live and die in the Shadowlands. The Bonelands is toxic to these beings, they are purely denizens of the Shadowlands and have no power outside it.

E

• Elder: the greatest denizens of the Shadowlands, beyond everything else in the Shadowlands. The Elders have many forms, although none of them are able to fully approximate human form with any skill. They are sympathetic to humans in the Shadowlands, but think in such alien ways that they are very dangerous to deal with directly or from whom to seek aid. The Elders are the personification of concepts, and only Man of Void/Lady of Fire might ever have a connection to some actual human.
• Expedition: These incursions are linked to locations in the Shadowlands and unlocked by reaching that location's counterpart in the Bonelands first.

F

• Fair Folk, the: The Greater Sorcerers of the Shadowlands - also known as the Demons. The Fair Folk are the mythic beings that wear human forms: Elves and Goblins and Gnomes. They are the keepers of Magick and will be teachers and patrons to human sorcerers. Often mistaken for Gods, the difference is that Fair Folk need no worship or offerings. The Fair Folk will normally trade or barter for their favor or their instruction. The Fair Folk may appear most human like, but they are not human. Like the Elders they are sympathetic to humans in the Shadowlands. But also like the Elders, their minds are alien and they do not see things as humans do.
• Foglands, the: The land of ignorance and obscurity. The first place everyone who enters the Shadowlands ends up in after they pass through (or bypass) the Ring. The Fogslands is the unformed land of the unconscious: Urizen and Eden, depending upon how the player enters and what happens. This is how people end up in the Shadowlands if untrained. This is always the first mission. This is the equivalent of the Astral Plane or the realm of dreams and many dreamers end up here.
• Free Peoples: Those who live by the Song of Seven and follow the Freepath are collectively known as the Free Peoples. They are, as one would expect of a group name as such, a very loose affiliation of many disparate groups. The Free Peoples are contrasted to the Locust Touched.

G

• Giants, the: Another name for the Gregorim, also called the Broken.
• God: The Bankers of Vajra and Souls. Gods are composite beings. Incorporeal as Spirits, derived from concepts as Elders, and bearing anthropomorphic avatars as Fair Folk; Gods have one unifying factor. Gods require human belief, human prayer, sacrifice and offerings.
• Great Tribe, the: This term pulls double duty, referring to both the first life to arise back in ancient times, and also for the brought alliance of all Tribes who follow the Freepath and the Song of Seven.
• Gregorim, the: Though they seem unable or unwilling to speak, legends of legends told by people long dead suggest that Gregorim is the name that the Broken Giants give to themselves.
• Greenlands, the: This is another name for the realm of Arcadia.

H

• High Magick: the raw essence of the Shadowlands; a weaponized essence of story. High Magick is learned through the Witches and Wizards. When High Magick is used, the caster is channeling the power of the Demons known as the Fair Folk.
• Hidden Heart, the: Another name for the Hollow Heart, the secret Realm at the heart of the Shadowlands.
• Hollow Heart, the: The Secret Heart of the Shadowlands and the counterpoint to the Ring. The Hollow Heart is the bottom or the 'root' of the Shadowlands. A dimension of darkness. This is the source code of the Shadowlands and the cheat code of the realms.
• Hungry Empire, the: If there is a villain in this tale, it is the Hungry Empire. Lead by the Locust King, powered by Falsenight and guided by the Grey, the Hungry Empire spreads like cancer and consumes its host in the end.

I

• Incursion: When an avatar steps through the Ring and into the Shadowlands, they have made an incursion into the Shadowlands. Incursions can be divided into three types. The first type of incursions are unguided incursions with no intentional purpose or goal. More common are expeditions, and quests, which have goals set at the start of the incursion.

J

• Juggler: Once a psychonaut opens their inner eye and gains access to both High Magick and Low Magick. A psychonaut who specializes in Low Magick is called a Juggler.

K

• Kudavbin King, the: Associated with the legend of Mordred by the propaganda of the Glass City, the Kudavbin King is the older brother of the First Mother. The rebel son of the Locust Kings. He is the king who denies his crown and thus makes his father the Last King.

L

• Locust Touched, the: Those who have drawn their sustenance from the Grey are broadly defined as the Locust Touched.
• Low Magick, the: It stands in opposition to the High Magick. The Low Magick is the illusion of magic- sleight of hand and misdirection. But only a fool would discount the Low Magick and its powerful utility in the Shadowlands.

M

• Magick: Language and story, myth and legend, shaping perception and memory. This is magick. One does not hurl fireballs. Magick is more subtle and more powerful than that. Magick is divided into High Magick and Low Magick and the two cannot be used together. Choose your magick before your incursion and pray your choice is correct.
• Mirrored City: Another name for the City of Glass.
• Monsters: The Misshapen and Gargantuan. The neutral parties of the Shadowlands, predator and prey. The monsters are sometimes intelligent and sometimes not. The common feature of monsters is that they are not human in appearance, although they will often have human features. They grant no favors, either ignoring or hunting those humans they encounter, dependent upon their nature.

N

O

• Old Ones, the: Another name for the Elders.
• Outsiders: Another name for the Elders.

P

• Painted Labyrinth, the: The place of trials, the deepest part of the Shadowlands, a realm of initiation and the keeper of ancient mysteries. All who seek to become warriors must journey here, but have a care- the labyrinth devours the unwary.
• Poison Tree: A great limbless tree, bleached white by age, the Poison Tree is the version of the Glass Tower as it appears in the Foglands.
• Psychonaut: Those who venture into the Shadowlands are known as Psychonauts.
• Psychopomps, the: As the Shadowlands are the lands of fiction and story, so are they also they also the lands of the afterlife. The Psychopomps are the caravans and carriages between the Realms. If a psychonaut wishes to move between realms without braving the Glass Tower.

Q

• Quest: These story driven incursions enable Psychonauts to re-enact the legends of the old and thereby gain access of artifacts of legend and learn the secrets of various High and Low Magicks.

R

• Rains, the: The second season of the Crescent Sun, following Winter and preceding Spring, consisting of Cold Rain and Fresh Rain.
• Realm: The distinct but connected worlds of the Shadowlands. The Shadowlands are divided into six Realms: The Ring, The Foglands, The Mirrored City, Arcadia, The Painted Labyrinth, and the Hidden Heart. The non-liminal realms of the Foglands, the City of Glass, Arcadia, and the Painted Labyrinth are connected by the Glass Tower.
• Ring, the: The chamber at the end of universe, but is it this universe or the last one? The Ring is the permeable shell through which avatars enter the Waking Shadowlands and through which they must pass to use any gates to move from gate to gate. Think 'Event Horizon' or Nightcrawler's teleport ability. But it's a drug trip. This implies that drug trips dip people into the ring unprotected with their minds exposed.

S

• Serpent Lines:
• Shadowlands, the: Human minds cannot handle the cold reality of the Bonelands. And so humans built new worlds of fantasy out of their stories and fled their to protect their minds from running over. And these worlds of illusion are the Shadowlands. You will spend your whole life in the Shadowlands, but only by entering consciously as a Psychonaut can one take an active role in the shape of the Shadowlands.
• Sorcerer: Once a psychonaut opens their inner eye and gains access to both High Magick and Low Magick. A psychonaut who specializes in High Magick is a Sorcerer.
• Spirits, the: The personification of illness and disease, of medicine and of places. They are beings without a form or body, though many bear a ghostly image; humans in the Shadowlands are unable to interact with spirits in a corporeal manner.
• Spring, the: The third season of the Crescent Sun, following the Rains and preceding Summer, consisting of New Spring and Warm Spring.
• Stillborn Army, the: Former humans, these are victims of the shrapnel of the Hungry Empire. The Wendigo Hordes and other Locust Touched unaligned with the Hungry Empire formally.
• Storyteller: When people invest their auras and launch an incursion into the Shadowlands, one must remain behind and guide the incursion. This person is the Storyteller and since magick is story, the storyteller's role is sacred. Groups should swap Storyteller duties regularly.

T

• Tribe: A group of people not yet beholden to the Hungry Empire.

U

V

• Vajra: The fuel on which the Avatars function. Vajra is the mystical energy of the human will and of story.

W

• Wendigo: a type of Corrupt who are always hungry, and always starving. Their hunger has warped their senses and a psychonaut will be hard pressed to communicate with any of the corrupt... unless one considers the sounds of digestion to be communication.
• Witch: Resistance to the Hungry Empire, and mentors to Psychonauts. It is through the teaching of the Witches and Wizards that Sorcerers learn Magick, both High Magick and Low Magick.
• Wizard: Like the Witches, the wizards are the guerilla war against the Locust King and the Obi-Won to many Sorcerers.

X

Y

Z

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