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Lacuna

Started by MysterMe, January 23, 2014, 06:56:11 PM

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MysterMe

This is my attempt to fold some of the setting I described in another post (Between Dusk and Dawn), with something more modern, and add a bunch of mind-gunk that's been sitting around in my skull for too long. It's revealed through a series of in-character documents, and the general tone should be set by a bunch of quotes I've included because I found them inspiring while working on this. I've left a lot to the imagination, but that's only partially because I'm lazy and mostly because I think mystery makes for a much more interesting setting. Also, I want to leave lots of flexibility for things to be created during play. However, if people have questions, I am more than willing to come up with answers. In fact, that's mostly what I'm hoping to get out of this thread. Interesting questions and possible answers to them. Finally, some strong sources of inspiration, if you like weird indie RPG games: Lacuna Part 1 (The Creation of the Mystery and the Girl from Blue City), JAGS Wonderland, Nobilis, Don't Rest Your Head, Call of Cthulhu, Unknown Armies, and also Steerpike's Tenebrous threads. If I ever actually run this, I'd use a homebrew system I've been working on, which I could also talk about if anyone is interested. Also:

TL;DR - The five sentence Elevator Pitch

Somewhere in the Southwestern United states, deep beneath the desert, there's a hole in reality, or possibly in our collective consciousness of what we call "reality". There is a gap, a lacuna, in the otherwise seamless fabric of the world, and since it was discovered or perhaps created by a shadowy organization called the Lacuna Project, they have been finding "agents" from all over the country to enter it and report back. What they have discovered is a world which seems somehow uncannily related to ours, yet utterly alien. Familiar yet strange, real yet... surreal. And being inside the Lacuna too long or too deep... it changes people.

Not the most original premise in the world, I know, but part of what I'm trying to do is twist traditional tropes.

MysterMe

#1

"This wallpaper has a kind of sub-pattern in a different shade, a particularly irritating one, for you can only see it in certain lights, and not clearly then. But in the places where it isn't faded and where the sun is just so - I can see a strange, provoking, formless sort of figure, that seems to skulk about behind that silly and conspicuous front design... There are things in that paper that nobody knows but me, or ever will. Behind that outside pattern the dim shapes get clearer every day."

- Charlotte Perkins Gilman, "The Yellow Wallpaper"

"Much Madness is divinest Sense -
To a discerning Eye -
Much Sense - the starkest Madness -
'Tis the Majority
In this, as all, prevails -
Assent - and you are sane -
Demur - you're straightway dangerous -
And handled with a Chain."

- Emily Dickinson

Project Lacuna Briefing Dossier: Appendix X - 7

What follows is a partial transcript of the psychiatric evaluation of a John Doe who had been arrested and charged with numerous crimes, later identified as Rogue Agent "Warlock". He escaped police custody shortly after this interview, while being transferred to a mental institution, and almost all records of his presence were either lost, accidentally thrown away or shredded, or somehow rendered indecipherable. This was one of a few remaining fragments. It is included in this file in part because it is one of the only clues as to the whereabouts of this rogue agent and his accomplice, "Witch". However, it also includes a fairly accurate description of the apparent metaphysical situation, though of course the agent's "unique" perspective must be take into account, and all such descriptions and explanations should always be regarded as partial and always subject to revision:

Police Psychiatrist: OK. So. Why do you think you're here?

John Doe: Here? Well... this... the material, physical Universe of sticks and stones, bricks and bones, is ... it's basically a cosmic grease-trap... slash filtering mechanism. Not the most elegant or romantic metaphor, I know. But a grease-trap has a very important function, you see. All the grit and grime, all the dust and dirt and cosmic effluvia, all the grease, the sticky stuff of life, it all floats down to the bottom of the trap, to be filtered away from the pure water, the spirit, if you want to get religious about it. The wheat from the chaff. Though it's more complicated than that... there's always a little wheat left... well, you get the picture and I'm mixing metaphors. Anyway, all that stuff, the stuff that ends up here, we call matter. The filter, or the net, or the Hedge, or... well, it has dozens of names... the scientists call it the Higgs Field... Whatever. It's what makes matter matter, what gives it mass, what separates it from energy. The Hedge is what divides possibility from actuality. It 'regulates' the quantum flux, the primordial sea of Kaos, as much as anything can... but there are always mistakes, gaps, lacunae... It... it's also related to what's called Dark Matter and Dark Energy, which are just words they use because they don't understand... they don't... it's difficult to describe... my thoughts run away with me sometimes... The individual human mind, the brain/body assemblage... is also a sort of filter. Part of its purpose is to constrict perception, to only sense what is relevant to its little space-time bubble, to allow the rest of it to... function, to get along. It's like the harp of Eolia... if the wind played all the notes at once you couldn't hear anything... But imagine if you could go through the Net, climb over the Hedge and see the maze from above... if you could open the filter, re-tune your cranial harp. If you could see and hear and feel what's always there but which you don't notice because you weren't paying attention, because you didn't have the right perspective? You could wander off to those other worlds... to the Invisible Kingdoms, to Arcadia, to Wonderland, Faerieland, Neverland, NarniOz... [laughter] but you see, the difficulty is closing it again... Now imagine if the filter broke, if it tore so that some of the grit got out into the pipes. Me? I'm just a bit of grit. Some dirt stuck deep down in the celestial septic tank. As for why? Didn't they teach you in school not to ask silly questions? But I'll tell you that I am only here because I wish to be, despite what you may think.

PP: I'll rephrase: what do you think is the reason for your being here, now, in this room, with me?

JD: You mindfuck yourself every damn day, why do you need me to do it?

PP: Now just a...

JD: Whatever. It's more like masturbation anyway, so I'm happy to oblige, I guess. I am here because I know something you don't know. Won't know.

PP: And what's that?

JD: "Reality" is way, way bigger and scarier and weirder and wilder than your tiny little calcified pea-brain can even begin to comprehend, and it's so squishy and full of holes and everything you think of as safe and stable and sane is just the beach and barest shallows of a vast and stormy sea, and you can call me crazy but what you really mean is that I know what you don't know, can't bear to know, that I've seen what you hope never to see, and it scares the shit out of you. All of you.

PP: Is that a fact?

JD: No. It is the Truth.

"It is a fact that the earth spins, and that this spinning divides the world into day and night. It is also a fact that each night comes when the angel of the Sun of can bear looking at the world no longer, and that day comes when she again uncovers her face. This is not a paradox, however: it is a difference in viewpoint"

- Jenna K. Moran/R. Sean Borgstrom, "Nobilis"

"The sea had jeeringly kept his finite body up, but drowned the infinite of his soul. Not drowned entirely, though. Rather carried down alive to wondrous depths, where strange shapes of the unwarped primal world glided to and fro before his passive eyes; and the miser-merman, Wisdom, revealed his hoarded heaps; and among the joyous, heartless, ever-juvenile eternities, Pip saw the multitudinous, God - omnipresent, coral insects, that out of the firmament of waters heaved the colossal orbs. He saw God's foot upon the treadle of the loom, and spoke it; and therefore his shipmates called him mad. So man's insanity is heaven's sense; and wandering from all mortal reason, man comes at last to that celestial thought, which, to reason, is absurd and frantic; and weal or woe, feels then uncompromised, indifferent as his God."

- Herman Melville, "Moby Dick"

And what if all of animated nature
Be but organic Harps diversely framed,
That tremble into thought, as o'er them sweeps
Plastic and vast, one intellectual breeze,
At once the Soul of each, and God of all?"

- Samuel Taylor Coleridge, "The Eolian Harp"

MysterMe

#2
"Somewhere over the rainbow, way up high,
There's a land that I heard of once in a lullaby.
Somewhere over the rainbow, skies are blue,
And the dreams that you dare to dream
Really do come true."

- Judy Garland/Dorothy in "The Wizard of Oz"

Project Lacuna Briefing Dossier: Section A, Document 4.2

Though the "spaces" beyond the Lacuna cannot be "mapped" in the traditional sense, we have identified eight relatively distinct "layers" or "levels", though these "levels" cannot be said to "ascend" or "descend", or indeed to conform to any traditional geometry, and it is possible to cross from one to another without going through the "intervening" levels. However, they are relatively reliable classifications of general removal from our reality. Agents selected for further briefing on and potential exploration of a level will be issued the appropriate clearance. Agents may apply for higher clearance but must have good reason beyond simple curiosity.

Level 0, Clear
Our Universe. Very stable, though its 'rules' can be bent, there is always "normalization". See appendix M.

Level 1, Blue
We have the most information about this level, but there are still many unknowns. Based on agent reports, we know that it seems very similar to our world, yet subtly different. Small things and little details will be "off". Everything looks entirely "real", but there's something "weird" about the air and the light. Buildings and money and brands and clothes and even faces will be slightly different, distorted, twisted. Time passes inconsistently. Cause and effect work a bit differently (sometimes causes have strange or incongruous effects, and sometimes effects have no apparent cause). Weather is unpredictable or follows strange patterns. Some things, particularly people, words, mirrors, images, and screens, often behave in bizarre ways. Text may be backwards, incoherent or nonsensical, may be in an alien script, or may reflect the true intent of the author with brutal honesty. Writing, and other usually static things as well, will sometimes change or rearrange themselves when you look away. There is an analogue, reflection, or "doppelganger" for almost everyone on Level 0, though there are "extras" and other discrepancies. Almost everyone looks human, though they may appear to be "caricatures" of themselves, and will speak and behave in apparently insane though usually harmless ways. This level is subtly "psychomorphic". People on televisions seem to be speaking directly to the viewer, and random graffiti or news articles will also seem to address them directly. Distinct faces and images will often appear in clouds, trees, burn and wear patterns, television static, and other chaotic visual fields. Phantom music and voices are fairly common, as are generally "Fortean" phenomena. Additionally, strange doors and/or passages will often appear, sometimes as normal-seeming doors in odd locations, extra buttons on elevators, stairs that keep going past the building, etc. Often, a "door" will appear in a mirror or other reflective surface (like a body of water), a painting, or a screen. The image in it will usually "open up" into three dimensions, allowing someone to walk or crawl inside. These doors usually lead to the "Labyrinth", which leads to other locations in other Levels. Do not attempt to open or pass through any such openings without accompaniment and authorization.

Level 2, Green
At first glance, in some places, it resembles Level 1, but "humans" are much rarer. Cities are mostly abandoned, ever-crumbling clusters of architecture and twisted knots of roads filled with cracks and holes through which grows a multitude of fecund vegetation. Despite the absence of people, these ruins are filled with words, from loose pages blowing in the wind to intricate graffiti filling empty walls. But it is always fragmented, incomplete, and is often unreadable, nonsensical "gibberish", or simply surreal. Those human analogues who do exist on this level tend to be even more mentally unstable than those on Level 1, and are often more violent. Inhabited cities, some built on top of the ruins, are mostly disturbingly mutated urban dreamscapes filled with much more "Wildlife" than humanity. There are some mostly human towns and villages, often embedded in the ruined cities, but they are few and far between. Between and beyond them stretches the Wilderness, and here there be Dragons. These are the borderlands, the real edge of our Reality and the beginning of the Other. This is the end of the Shallows, the place where the safe, sandy floor starts to drop away and it's sink or swim.

Level 3, Red
These Realms bear little direct relationship to our reality. But many places and beings do indirectly represent or reflect the essences or "spirits" of their counterparts in our world. However, such relationships are often difficult to discern, being buried in esoteric and surreal symbolism. The relationships between these things are also often very distorted, and mixed with entirely alien elements. Thoughts, beliefs and emotions can also be materially manifested here. "Impossible" geographies such as places where the ground continually flows and drips upward into the sky, places where "day" and "night" are static and one must walk toward the "Sun" to feel its warmth, or large islands of earth floating in the air. Space and time are deeply distorted, and are also psycho-responsive. There are more humanoid beings living on this level than on the previous one, but something about their physiology and/or mentality will always be subtly or drastically different, with cultures and customs that are all different from the current modern one to some degree. There are few direct historical analogues, but many groups are pseudo-feudal-medieval, though their "Royalty" are mostly alien and often monstrous spirits, sometimes with an upper-echelon of more or less idle nobility. This level is strongly psychomorphic: almost everything seems to possesses an intelligence of some sort, and the terrain itself will respond directly to focused will and intention.

Level 4, Silver
These are the truly bizarre Realms, bearing almost no resemblance to our "reality". Here, all of our concepts, including those of space and time, begin to break down. It is extremely chaotic and dangerous, though there are stable patches called "Isles". Physics may still apply, but unreliably. It is extremely psychomorphic: scenery can be altered easily, with a thought, unless your will is being opposed by another's.

Level 5, Gold
This Level may be completely beyond human comprehension. Most who try to travel here intentionally generally fail, go insane and/or die. Those who don't can remember or relate next to nothing of their experiences, save that it is far more bizarre and beautiful than anything we've ever known. One agent spent several months recuperating after a visit to Gold level, drawing intricate fractal art on any surface he could reach, while wordlessly singing Mozart's "Ode to Joy", for almost every waking moment, and he slept very little. After the first month, he started singing new songs, and gradually regained his linguistic faculties. Another got his hands on a scalpel and had injured himself and restrained and partially vivisected his "buddy", trying to "find and free their souls", before he was subdued and placed in intensive care. Both subsequently recovered, but his "buddy" never forgave him. Let these stories be a lesson to you: curiosity killed the Cat.

Level 6, White
This is a hypothesized Level containing the underlying "machinery" creating "reality". This is the "projector" playing the cosmic movie, the fire throwing all the shadows on the walls of Plato's Cave. It has been referred to by various books and beings, but never found, or at least, nothing has seen it directly and returned to tell the tale. The doors which might lead there are all apparently locked or blocked.

Level 7, Black
This is another hypothesized Level, which is a total and absolute Void. The End of the Line, the End of the World, the End of Everything. The Abyss. Nothingness. Null. Silence. Sunyata. Divide by Zero. Its "existence" can only be deduced and not observed, because it is theorized that anyone who comes into contact with it not only ceases to exist, but is "wiped" from reality and never existed in the first place.

Level X, Indigo
This is "The Labyrinth", aka "The Mirror Maze", "Backstage", "The Cobweb", "The Alleyways", and "The House of Doors". It is the Level that connects and possibly holds all the others together.

The Other Colors
Also called the "Skerries" and the "Cul-de-sacs", these are seemingly free-floating levels that also intersect with others.

"Curiosity killed the Cat,
Satisfaction brought him back."

- Old folk rhyme

"Come along with me
And the butterflies and bees
We can wander through the forest
And do so as we please
Come along with me
To a cliff under a tree
Where we can gaze upon the water
As an everlasting dream."

- Ashley Eriksson, "Island Song", and the "Adventure Time" ending theme

"We are such stuff
As dreams are made on; and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep."

- The Tempest, Act IV, Scene i

"Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?"

- Edgar Allan Poe

"Row, row, row your boat,
Gently down the stream.
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,
Life is but a dream."

- Children's rhyme

"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one."

- Albert Einstein

"If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to us as it is, infinite."

- William Blake

"Twas brillig, and the slithy toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe. All mimsy were the borogroves, and the mome rathes outgrabe."

- Lewis Carroll

MysterMe

"All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts."

- William Shakespeare, "As You Like It"

[note]Characters

You are a newly recruited agent assigned to Project Lacuna. You were told that it is a top-secret project with almost unlimited black-budget funding. You heard the rumors, about alternate dimensions, weird phenomena, and "occult" experiments. They scared the others away, but only made you more fascinated. Eventually, they noticed you. Hand-picked from the best and the brightest, you were brought to a remote location (blindfolded, by an unmarked black helicopter). For 'security reasons' your death has been faked, and all records of your existence and identity have been expunged. You may be a scientist, a soldier, or anything in-between, but you are the best at what you do. Yet within minutes of being briefed, you've begun to think you may be out of your depth...

Character Sheet:

Name:
Codename:
Age:
Clearance:
Buddy:

Strength:
Speed:
Stamina:

Smarts:
Senses:
Spirit:

Skills & Abilities:

[/note]

Project Lacuna Briefing Dossier: Appendix A

Seven Simple Rules to Live By

1. Do not UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES attempt to enter the Lacuna without authorization.

2. Do not UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES enter the Lacuna alone.

3. Do not attempt to enter Levels of the Lacuna you are not cleared or briefed for.

4. With some exceptions made for extreme situations and emergencies, do not engage with or respond to any denizens of the Lacuna without orders or authorization.

5. If you, your "buddy", or any other agent believes you are suffering from symptoms of mental stress, or manifesting any abilities, they or you must contact a staff psychiatrist immediately.

6. You will be given a (mandatory) leave period of recuperation in the civilian world after each expedition, though for your own safety, you will be under surveillance during that time. The length of this period is determined by the Level of the expedition, among other factors.

7. All rooms are opened with a keycard, issued to you upon your arrival. All agents are cleared to enter the center's dining area and common areas, while dormitory doors and offices are keyed to each individual. The kitchens, laboratories, storage spaces, maintenance areas, archives, armories, the medical and psychiatric wards, and the management meeting rooms are all off-limits except to specially cleared personnel. The Lacuna, contained deep beneath the facility, is not open to agents at all times, but temporary clearance will be issued if and when a mission calls for an agent's particular talents.

Project Lacuna Briefing Dossier: Appendix B

All agents will be assigned a shared dormitory. The other occupant will be their "buddy", and they will be responsible for one another's physical and mental safety at all times. Dormitories are identical, each 20 x 20 feet, all are climate controlled, each come equipped with two bathrooms, and a shared central room which includes the following furniture:

2 Full-size beds with mattresses, pillows, covers, and blankets
2 Desks with chairs and built in shelving and storage drawers
2 sets of shelves and 2 sets of drawers, built into the walls and beneath the beds

Dormitories are windowless but are lit by full-spectrum "daylight" bulbs.

All agents will also be issued a uniform, standardized but tailored to each individual's measurements:

7 undershirts, black
7 collared shirts, black
7 pairs of slacks, black
7 pairs of undergarments, black
7 suit jackets, black
7 pairs of socks, black
4 ties, black
2 leather belts, black
1 pair of leather shoes with laces, black
1 pair of leather gloves, black
1 pair of sunglasses, black

Other personal possessions are allowed, and most items can be ordered through the Commissary, but no weapons of any kind are permitted anywhere except in the armory and when in use during missions, though some personnel are cleared for the use of non-lethal weapons, usually to subdue victims of psychological breakdown. Other gear will be issued as individual missions require.

Project Lacuna Briefing Dossier: Appendix M - 4

The Baker's Dozen

The original thirteen agents. Of them, only five: Agents Seer, Smith, Wraith, Wires, and Librarian, remain loyal to the project. The others are AWOL. Some are still on Level 0, though several have settled in the deeper layers. All have extraordinary abilities which are effective on Level 0, though they are "normalized" here and are much more dangerous on the other Levels. Each set of abilities also seems to come with a "catch", as well as some sort of severe mental illness. Although the mechanism and precise source of development of these abilities and their side-effects has not yet been determined, it is known to be caused by intense and prolonged exposure to the Lacuna. However, our new procedures should minimize the risk of long-term mental instability.

King is able to telepathically communicate with and directly control the movements of anyone and everyone around him. Catch: he can never directly acknowledge another's authority. Psychological Diagnosis: Megalomania.

Queen can sense, create and control emotions within people, and enthrall them entirely with prolonged effort. Catch: she can never refuse a direct request. Psychological Diagnosis: Nymphomania and Bipolar disorder.

Dryad is able to communicate with, change, and control plants, and to transform her flesh into plant matter. Catch: though she must eat normally for nutrition, her powers are fueled by photosynthesis; she must spend several hours a day "eating" sunlight. Psychological Diagnosis: Claustrophobia, Nyctophobia, Anorexia, and Dissociative Disorder.

Dragon can communicate with and control reptiles, can cause spontaneous combustion, and is himself immune to any damage from fire or high heat. Catch: she is very vulnerable and sensitive to the cold. Psychological Diagnosis: Pyromania and Psychopathy.

Wild is able to communicate with and control non-human animals, and can transform itself into any human or nonhuman animal it has killed and eaten. Catch: he must eat only meat he has personally hunted and killed, and his proximity causes complex technology to break or malfunction. Psychological Diagnosis: Multiple Personality Disorder.

Witch and Warlock are able to manipulate luck, coincidence and chance. Catch: they are regularly beset by improbable accidents. Psychological Diagnoses: Codependency and Antisocial Personality Disorders with Paranoid, Schizophrenic, Psychopathic and Sociopathic tendencies.

Wires is able to communicate with and control computers and electronics, and can create and control electric and magnetic fields. Catch: Her body is mildly magnetic and radioactive, though it becomes more so in proportion to her use of her powers. Her presence will turn on and sometimes short-circuit non-insulated electronics. Psychological Diagnosis: Autism Spectrum Disorder and Agoraphobia.

Wraith can become invisible and insubstantial, and has telekinesis which can be applied to living beings. Catch: he cannot completely turn off these abilities. Psychological Diagnosis: Sociopathy.

Seer has extremely enhanced senses and a precognitive "sixth sense". Catch: she is vulnerable to sensory overload. Psychological Diagnosis: Schizophrenia and Synaesthesia.

Smith is able to communicate with, control, create and change inanimate objects. Catch: he cannot speak, though he can understand speech and can use sign-language. Psychological Diagnosis: Obsessive/Compulsive Disorder.

Magus is able to locally distort space, time and gravity, and can "vanish" objects. Catch: his powers become less effective the more people there are to witness them. Psychological Diagnosis: Narcissistic Personality Disorder.

Librarian can absorb and process information at astounding rates, and retains and recalls everything perfectly. He can also manipulate information, knowledge, and words in subtle but powerful ways. Catch: he can never tell a lie. Psychological Diagnosis: Serial Monomaniacal Obsession.

"Do I contradict myself?
Very well then, I contradict myself.
(I am large, I contain multitudes)"

- Walt Whitman, "Leaves of Grass"

MysterMe

"The time has come, The Walrus said, to talk of many things.
Of shoes and ships and sealing wax, of cabbages and kings.
Of why the sea is boiling hot and whether pigs have wings."

- Lewis Carroll, "Through the Looking Glass"

"“Tell me one last thing",” said Harry. “"Is this real? Or has this been happening inside my head?”"
"Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?”"

- JK Rowling/Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore

Project Lacuna Briefing Dossier Appendix F - 7

"Nothing ever really changes.

That's a lie! Things change all the time! Something huge has changed very recently. It started with the yew-mans, of course, the upstart apes. Off in their static reality, the Far Folk had largely written them off and forgotten about them. They were in prison, after all, their fallen spirits held tight in cages of matter. How could such sluggish things, such gross and heavy beings, ever possibly pose any threat or even be of any relevance? Their fleshy bodies kept them focused on the world of feeding, fighting, and fucking. But then the moneys found a backdoor. They would visit the World in their dreams, through the eyes of their avatars, and every once in a while, one of the monkeys would make a jailbreak, and pop its head out of its skull and into Reality, and it would run around for a while and then either go back to jail or die. If it went back, the other monkeys would either call it a genius or call it crazy or call it a heretic or call it a prophet, and sometimes they'd worship it, and sometimes they'd torture and kill it, and often they'd do both. And they started changing, but we dismissed it, they took the word and then they took fire and then a thousand thousand other things and they bound it into their tekne. They figured a few things out and their tekne, that alien matter-magic, it took off like one of their rockets. Everything in the world changed, all almost within the blink of an eye, and then something happened that had never happened before. You all know what I mean. A hole opened up. No-one knows how, but there was a tear, a wound, a crack, a real portal, that let the meat-monkeys actually enter the World. Not just their souls, but their heavy, solid, powerful flesh and blood bodies, still welded to their soul-minds. Worse, their tekne can apparently also cross the barrier. They have made little progress so far, and they can certainly be damaged, killed, and tend to be driven mad by exposure to the True Reality, and their tek breaks down the further they travel, just as our magic does in their land. But it is only a matter of time before the human demons of curiosity and greed drive them to pour through that gap in their million and billions, or even make more, and destroy us all! We must unite, brethren, and drive the human menace back before it crushes us! We must close the Gate before it's too late! Say it with me! Close the Gate, before it's too late! CLOSE THE GATE BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE! CLOSE THE GATE BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!"

- Senator Xavias Victual, delivering a speech to the Parliament of Rooks, mentally recorded by Agent "Librarian"

Lacuna Project Internal Report: Vernacular Categories Used by Agents for Non-human Entities

This is by no means a comprehensive list, a complete taxonomy would be impossible, especially since these entities do not seem to subscribe to what we fondly think of as the "Laws" of genetics, or indeed many if any biological constraints at all. But this list does describe several broad categories of commonly encountered non-human entities. These beings are most often found in the Green and Red levels. Though present in Blue and Silver, in Blue they are far outnumbered by the human analogues or "Dops", and in Silver by entities so bizarre and variable that there has been little attempt made to categorize them. Such beings and many others exist on all levels, and these categories are, again, only approximations. There are exceptions to every 'rule', variations on every theme, and endless novelty to be found. That said, there are at least noticeable morphological trends...

Humanoids

The "Faeries" or "Fae" are shape-shifters who can also transform others. They each appear to represent some specific aspect of nature, but they generally try to keep the knowledge of their true self secret since any action taken against their particular animal, tree, or stream could harm them as well. Some have only two forms: a humanoid one and their "true body", though others have a much wider transformative range. They appear to be generated spontaneously, or by some mysterious mechanism we have yet to uncover.

Each "Nom" looks different, though most have claws and sharp teeth and are roughly humanoid, but they appear to absorb characteristics of whatever they eat. They will eat almost anything they can chew up, and they grow bigger the more they eat, though they get smaller if they don't eat enough, and will eventually waste away if starved. They reproduce as others would excrete, usually a few times a day. Sometimes they produce litters of smaller children, and sometimes a single larger child, with a size depending on that of the parent. Most are semi-nomadic, settling briefly in an area, then hunting and raiding until there is nothing left for them to eat, and moving on, often returning when it has regenerated. They are divided into five general categories based on their size, though they can all shift between them. over time. From smallest to largest they are called: "Goblin" (smaller than an adult Human), "Orc" (about the size of an adult Human), "Ogre" (larger than a Human), "Troll" (larger than a building or adult tree), and "Giant" (no apparent upward limit).

The "Elves" or "Elv" are humanoid but androgynous beings with skin, hair, and eyes in an endless variety of colors, and each many hues at once. All have intricate fractal patterns running across their whole bodies, embedded in the contrasting tones of hair and skin, even in the colors of their eyes. These all change at varying rates, and their particular patterns constitute a complex visual language. They reproduce only once: when one of the Elv dies, a baby begins to form in an egg within the corpse. It feeds on the body and emerges once it has decayed. All seem to be telepathic and telekinetic, to different degrees.

Most "Dwarves" or "Dwr" are male, and all males are very short, stocky, and strong. They are, in fact, physically identical. But each clan is centered around a single female, each of which is unique in appearance, though she is always an extremely powerful user of "Magic", (another vernacular term) and is always very tall. No male Dwr can use "Magic", though they can absorb and redirect it. Male Dwr have copious and intricately styled facial hair, as well as a multitude of tattoos and piercings, all of which identify them as individuals. The Queen of each clan births a litter of male children whenever she wishes, and births a female (though twins and triplets do occur) once, always unexpectedly. When a new female is born, she is raised to maturity and then leaves to create her own clan with twelve male volunteers. They live underground, mostly in caves beneath mountains, though there are a few clans living in burrows beneath hills and in the subterranean labyrinths beneath some cities.

The "Spooks" or "Zoms" are the dead who didn't die, and who hang on in the other levels of reality. They generally eat only rotten meat and/or ashes, and drink only blood and/or strong alcohol. There are many varieties, zombies, vampires, ghouls, ghosts, ghasts, revenants, "frankensteins", barghests, wraiths, spectres, and banshees, among others. Most but not all are apparently ex-humans.

A "Cyber" or "Cyb" is a non-organic being: robots, golems, animate statues and objects, including all wholly or partially cybernetic or artificial entities and also those which also incorporate plant material. Most but not all are patterned after human, animal, or insect bodies, though some are quite simple or surreal. One of the most common kind to appear in cities are the "Junk-folk", tatterdemalions composed of junk, scrap, trash, detritus, rubble, lost and broken objects, and cast-away clothes.

Non-Humanoids

"Dragons" or "Drakes" are all different, but they all share certain qualities: they are all reptilian, scaled and often serpentine, with sharp teeth and claws, most but not all have wings and most but not all can sing songs in a language which can make their breath into fire, among other things. They are of all colors, shapes and sizes. Their size seems to depends partially on their age, as do their other powers. The Dinosaurs who dwell in the Jungle and on the plains are a type of flightless dragon without the power of flight or magical breath, though they are still quite deadly. Some quite closely resemble the dinosaurs which once existed on Earth, but many are only loosely related to extant species.

"Demons" are horrifying abominations all, hideous patchworks of flesh and bone and metal. In one agent's words, "HP Lovecraft's Great Old Ones crossed with HR Geiger's Aliens, Clive Barker's Cenobites, the works of Salvador Dali, and a dash of good ol' fire and brimstone".

"Angels" are sometimes humanoid, sometimes bizarre or abstract, but each and every one is beyond beautiful, each is radiant, effulgent, glorious. Agents have been known to collapse in tears or laughter at their presence, and prolonged exposure can lead to obsession, among other side effects. Other phenomena have also been witnessed in their proximity: phantom music, flowers and other plants sprouting and growing spontaneously, animals speaking and singing, spontaneous combustion, vortexes of air centered on them, and nearby objects and creatures turning to gold and/or diamond. It has been theorized that both Angels and Demons are partial projections or "sections" of larger creatures on the Gold and White levels. Whether the hypothetical Black level could contain such creatures is unknown.

The "Beastfolk" are various groups of beings which seem to be hybrids of the human form and various other creatures: there are the Rat-folk, the Cat-folk, the Bird-folk, The Goat-folk, the Wolf-folk, the Bug-folk, and the Lizard-folk, though these are only the most common. Some seem to be able to shift between various levels of anthropomorphism, while others have static forms.

"Aliens" are a sort of catchall term for beings that don't belong in any other category, though it is also used to describe a certain type which appear in flying ships, often seemingly from nowhere. They sometimes resemble the aliens of popular folklore, but more often they truly live up to their name.

I am he as you are he as you are me
And we are all together
See how they run like pigs from a gun see how they fly
I'm crying

Sitting on a cornflake waiting for the van to come
Corporation T-shirt, stupid bloody Tuesday
Man you been a naughty boy, you let your face grow long
I am the eggman, they are the eggmen
I am the walrus, goo goo ga joob

Mister City Policeman sitting, pretty little policemen in a row
See how they fly like Lucy in the sky, see how they run
I'm crying, I'm crying
I'm crying, I'm crying

Yellow matter custard dripping from a dead dog's eye
Crabalocker fishwife pornographic priestess
Boy you been a naughty girl, you let your knickers down
I am the eggman, they are the eggmen
I am the walrus, goo goo ga joob

Sitting in an English garden waiting for the sun
If the sun don't come
You get a tan from standing in the English rain
I am the eggman, they are the eggmen
I am the walrus, goo goo ga joob goo goo goo ga joob

Expert textpert choking smokers
Don't you think the joker laughs at you? (Ha ha ha! He he he! Ha ha ha!)
See how they smile like pigs in a sty, see how they snied
I'm crying

Semolina pilchard climbing up the Eiffel Tower
Elementary penguin singing Hare Krishna
Man you should have seen them kicking Edgar Allan Poe
I am the eggman, they are the eggmen
I am the walrus, goo goo ga joob goo goo ga joob
Goo goo ga joob goo goo ga joob

- The Beatles, "I Am the Walrus"