Horror

Those Others created when practice goes wrong.

Variants

A classical horror is generally formed through the use of realms practice going wrong, the drawbridge coming down and smashing someone as the gate opens.<ref>Horrors

Horrors are most commonly wrought as a result of practice run amuck, or the folding in of spaces. They may appear at the fringes of a town heavily affected by practice, or when a quarantined place gets put 'out of the way', sunken or elevated into another Realm, or made inaccessible by some warping of reality. They were never human (or animal, or whatever the source was), but the lingering human-ness of a place can be compressed into jumbled, disturbing forms with their own consciousnesses. Multiple arms, heads, or body parts are common. They are most often associated with Prices and Realms practices.

Common Horrors are those horrors who may arise as a place or person is elevated, dropped, or moved to another realm. Abyssal influences are common, even if the path isn't to the abyss; a distorted or accidental relocation to the spirit world may suffuse the horror with complex spiritstuff, while outer limbs are tainted or bent with the abyssal influence. It may have ulcerous, startlingly red spirit-growths at its upper chest, framed with branches of cherry blossoms, and blackened, bent limbs at its twisted extremities. They bring a little bit of 'crookedness' wherever they go, and may have an enhanced ability to access spaces, as well as warping the presence of whatever realm they were derived from (warping the spiritual, or the emotional, for example). They often place survival as their first priority, and gravitate toward those places most connected to their origin, making them sometimes accidental watchdogs of gateways and access points, taking payment through their territory, which may just so happen to be the easiest local way to get to a given realm.

With the High Horror, enough power is expended to break them free or give them more of a 'beating heart'. The human-like representation is drawn out across the bridge or gap, and the outside influences pour into them as vessels. Stretched out, detached from reality, they are more likely to be finely decorated with motifs, to float, and to have some fair amounts of crude power at their disposal. The edges, crown or motifs are often touched with the abyssal. They may, in their own crude ways, try to open the holes bigger, so to speak, but if stable, may be intermediaries. - Wildbow on Discord</ref>

Horror Debauchee are tied more to specific rituals over realms practices, and hew to time specific elements constraints.<ref>Horror Debauchee

The Horror Debauchee is a variant of horror most commonly derived from a ritual (gone wrong), with at least two of: a time-specific aspect, a group participating in the ritual, and a broader observance of some associated events, times, holidays, or symbols. They may be religious or associated with mass casualties in disaster or war, or may be linked to times like midwinter or midsummer. They swell in strength and presence and roam more as the linked occasions draw near, and are often content to drink in the occasion, though they may defend it against those who would defame it or cause some chaos by the fleeting glimpses people get of them, or damage they do in sating the appetites that awake at the same time they do (potential missing pets or store break-ins). Outside of the set occasions, they are very dormant, and at worst a child exploring the woods may look into a hole and see a contorted, greasy, half-asleep figure curled up inside (in such a case the Other may seek out the child when the occasion rolls around, as a link gets formed).

Where the Horror Debauchee is most problematic is when the event falters. They live for and because of the event, the ritual, or the idea, and without it they diminish. Should the event cease to be minded, they may target those diminishing it, or make crude and sometimes macabre attempts at reminding people. - Wildbow on Discord</ref>

Immaterial Others can be caught in these effects as well they are usually given the label "plicate" like a plicate ghost and similar.<ref>

Email Reply From: Verona (VHayward@tbaynorth.ca)

Yep. Yepyepyepyepyep. Elemental seems to map to this yes.

:thumbsup:

Looked up folded spirits and didn’t find much but did find about Plicate Spirits. Fits Monty here.

Um. So when you do big rituals, especialllly realms practices like opening doors between our world and spirit or our world and abyss (loooking at you Ave) you can catch bystanders in the way as space folds and worlds bend to make room. Especially if you rush it or do a bad diagram. If that bystander is a human you can get a horror that’s all stretched out and bent and operates by slightly different rules. Horrors. The plicate spirit is this but for spirits (or plicate echo, or plicate elemental). Folded up, stretched out, twisted up with something else, and operating by different logic. Think implicate and ‘plicate: folded, crumpled, or corrugated, in biology.’

This book sums a lot of it up as ‘each one is different so no one thing works perfectly’, ‘apply lots of fire’, and ‘here’s how you should diagnose or deal with a plicate spirit overriding your diagram’ (which is basically cut off all power and run). Not very useful stuff.

Email Reply From: Matthew Moss (Mossball@Mooseboop.ca)

Elemental makes sense. - New Other Correspondence #1</ref>

Notable Examples

Montague

Trivia

Plicate is used in the sense of folded and is sometimes used to describe Prions.

References