With us or Against us

Here's a great lie and a great secret. This is perhaps the most important secret of the Hungry Empire, certainly it is the most important secret of the Men of Black and White.

They want you to believe, as heroes are often told in tales, that if you are not one of us, you are one of them. They want you to believe that that whole of the sleeping Flock and all of the Stillborn Army are Men of Black and White in waiting- ready to pounce or betray at a moments notice. They want you believe that only you few who are already awakened are on your side in the fight.

They want you to feel alone and isolated. They want you to feel as though the vast unawakened majority are a vast ocean through which they can swim and through which we must fight.

They are wrong.

We need Villains!

Mad Scientists are often yelling from their secret lairs that "they'll show them all!" Well that's because most of us went to the WRONG SCHOOLS!

We went to schools that told us to sit down and shut up. To get a safe job and not make waves. We went to schools designed to turn us into bystanders, into Godfearing bloody NPCs!

Well, I won't have it! We deserve better! the World deserves better! ALL WORLDS DESERVE BETTER!

Heros want bystanders to save. Leaders want followers to rule. Well, I SAY IT'S TIME TO GIVE THESE ARROGANT PRICKS SOME VILLAINS to CONTEND WITH!

Wastelands Locations: The Altar Stone Region

The Altar Stone

The area of the Wasteland known collectively as the Altar Stone or Altar Stones is a collection of statues and standing stones that radiate out from a central point. The area is apparently sacred to the Giants, as Psychonauts who journey there will find that the area always has a few such visitors. The Giants will prostrate themselves before the enormous humanoid statues, and will leave offerings. Psychonauts should be wary near the Altar Stones, as the Giants visiting the stones are more animated than normal and an unwary Psychonaut may find themselves beaten to death against a rock and then gently placed before one of the stones as an offering from some devout Giant.

Speculation on the relationship between the Giants and the Stones has gone on for as long as both have been known to exist. Some scholars speculate that the humanoid apeparing statues are in fact dead or hibernating Giants. Other vocies have suggested that these are simply altars to whatever gods the Giants worship. Experienced Psychonauts have noted that first time visitors to the Foglands always find themselves deposited in the region of the Altar Stones, and have suggested that the Giant might revere the area itself as a bringer of food. The suggestion being that the giants subsequently built the Altar Stones around the region where unready and easily captured meals appeared with satisfying regularity. Whatever the reason, the Giants aren't telling and certainly aren't going away.

The Altar Stone region is filled with secret rooms and hidden tunnels and labyrinths. Experienced Psychonauts do incursions to explore the Altar Stones frequently. For first time visitors to the Foglands, the Altar Stones are a dangerous place filled with practically unkillable very hungry Giants and ancient death traps that stubbornly refuse to rust or malfunction. The area is confusing and maze-like, with huge stones and statues forming twisting labyrinthine tunnels and troughs in the landscape that the psychonauts must navigate carefully to escape with their limbs intact.

A very very Short and Thoroughly Incomplete List of Locations in Arcadia

• The Village
• The Cematary
• The Lake
• The Mountain
• The Forest
• The Plains
• The Coastline

The Song of All

Nothing begins because nothing ends. Before we were, our parents were. Before our people were, there was an older people. Before humans were, there were other species. Before life was, the earth was. Before the Earth was, the sun was. And so it goes back. But it never reaches silence, and it never reaches a beginning.

Because, before this universe, this song of one existed, there was something else and something more. We cannot see or hear beyond the boundaries of this song- but we know that there is more. We know that there are other songs. Before and beyond the bounds of the one song there is all songs.

But we do not know what that is. And so we can say all this simply.

In the beginning there was Mystery, because nothing really begins and nothing every really ends.

This does not explain things, but it allows us to sing our song, our one song. And this is all we can do. We are bounded by the notes and verses of our song, we sing the lyrics and make it real. We are all so very tiny against the vastness of our one song, that even contemplating it is too much for us, but every one of us sings that song and every one of us is part of the performance. Some parts are larger, but all parts are so very very small- and yet, despite all this, every part is required. Every portion essential to the whole.

And so we sing.

In the beginning there was Mystery, because nothing really begins and nothing every really ends.

If you like this,
you can support Professor Harbinger at https://www.patreon.com/profharbinger

An Abridged list of Locations in the Mirrored City

The City

• The Ward of Gildguld
• The Ward of Mitchuas
• The Ward of Gaibrus
• The Ward of Zeudin Vashas
• The Ward of Lamris
• The Ward of Friedites
• The Ward of Valstaris
• The Ward of Xerfer

The Lef River

• The Northern Waters of Gongin
• The Southern Waters of Lamlex
  

The Frontier Lands

• The Mountain Stronghold
• The Frozen Plains
• The Windswept Plains
• Strongiron Village
• The Living Forest
• The Second Forest

What I can use

I have come to the conclusion that although life doesn't always give me what I want or even what I need, it will always give me something I can use.