The Collision

2019-06-15T18:17:40Z

A Blessed Feline:

The Collision was the event in which the two Mansi collided, causing immense damage, killing and harming several Hours, such as giving birth to new ones.

==Cause==
No one is exactly sure who or what caused the Collision; however, among others, many blame [[The Navigator]], an Hour who navigated the House of the King, though no one can verify, nor exactly explain this. [[The Unfettered]] herself said the proper words to describe what had happened wouldn't exist.

==Killed Hours==
FNORD
==Created Hours==
The Legion Lamentful
==Influenced Areas==
When the two Mansi collided, influence from the two leaked into the Wake, whose two Histories were united. The effects of the influences are recorded here.
====Lantern====

Areas flooded by Lantern-influence were subject to perhaps the most alien of devastations, though they generally have suffered little physical damage. Strange lights appeared in the sky, eerie writing appeared on the walls, surfaces were rendered transparent or reflective, and so forth. People witnessed unspeakable things, saw visions, went mad, and so forth. Lantern is an unmerciful principle, perhaps the one that does the most harm to the mind. It also provides great revelations, however, and many affected by it are now known as oracles or soothsayers. People touched by the unmerciful light have a tendency to hoard knowledge, and to obsessively study it, yearning for the same sort of revelations they saw during the apocalypse. When traveling through terrain touched by Lantern-light, it is important to remember not to look at the lights in the sky, not to read the writing on the walls, not to fall asleep. If one must sleep, one should not record their dreams, nor really think about them too clearly.

====Forge====

Forge is one of the aspects that caused the greatest physical devastation. Grand explosions, earthquakes, and wildfires, some of which burn unquenchable to this very day. All areas of such devastation are searingly hot. Forge changes the mind too, and those affected by such change were granted an obsessive need to disassemble and reassemble various things. Thus, areas afflicted by Forge Influence are full of strange and often dangerous creations: stories spread among settlements by travellers inevitably end up talking about self-perpetuating and eternal-motion machines.

One thing is certain: Forge-influenced areas are often reliable sources of advanced, complex technology, whether it's made by the tinkerers who dwell there or from ancient relics that predate the Collision. In case of the later, their original function is probably twisted by constant exposure to Forge energies.

====Edge====

The areas affected by Edge went through great physical devastation, being cut, torn, or flung apart by supernatural means. People in these areas were stricken by jelousy and ambition, and many murdered those close to them in cold blood. After the influence faded, many came to regret or forget these acts.
Edge is one of the fastest-fading influences, and most of those affected by it mentally can now live mostly stable, normal lives (Besides the trauma of remembering what they may have done) though its effects may run deep, and the inhabitants of these zones could be more aggresive and prone to react with violence to tense situations: mercenary groups and bandits tend to come from areas influenced by this aspect. Wildlife is not exempt from these effects, either; what elsewhere may be a docile animal will be considerably more dangerous and aggresive within these regions. Creatures influenced by Edge also tend to develop incredibly sharp claws, spines or fangs, that can be crafted into charms with a high Edge aspect.

Despite all this, Edge-affected areas are also one of the safer areas to travel, as few of the cutting-forces that once ravaged them remain, and most of those that do are noticeable. One does need to watch out for objects which appear blunt or flat but which are in truth unexpectedly sharp, as well as for zones where everything entering them is cut apart or in other ways destroyed.

====Winter====

Winter-affected areas are some of the more dangerous areas, as they can appear perfectly normal to the untrained eye. They can however be identified by a persistent cold that chills you all the way to the bone. The true danger of these areas, however, is not the bitter cold but the areas where time itself has slowed down or stopped. These areas do not move as frequently as similar things in other areas, but are very big and very hard to notice. How long it takes for someone to escape from one of these areas varies greatly, but the fact that they have a tendency to slowly grow, the fact that they are hard to identify from within and the bitter cold means that many careless explorers have been abandoned inside them. To make things worse, Winter-influenced areas tend to be absolutely crawling with various kinds of Dead. Those with more sanity remaining tend to commemorate the power known as the Legion Lamentful, and therefore can in some cases be bargained with or deceived. Those with less sanity remaining tend to be purely animalistic and hostile, hungering for the warmth of the living. The Dead in these areas can usually bypass the temporal anomalies, but cannot bring people out of them. Those mentally affected by the Winter-influence released during the apocalypse tend to be depressive, apathetic and mournful. These effects last long, very long.

Communities established within Winter-influenced areas either learn to coexist with the Dead(usually by establishing some kind of bargain or covenant) or disappear, so people who hail from these areas may have a reputation(deserved or not) of being mediums and mystics, experienced in the different ways of communing and warding off the Dead.

Another peculiarity is that cities or settlements affected by potent Winter influences may be mistaken by those of Heart in the eyes of inexperienced areas, due to the quiet and stillness that seeps into every nook of the place. However, several visits through a long period of time will reveal the slow, creeping decay that blights these places.

====Heart====

The areas affected by Heart influence tend to be the best-preserved of the areas, as rampant Heart influence caused grand storms, earthquakes, floods, and other such weather phenomena that many areas were already at least partially prepared for. These same intense Heart influences gave tremendous vitality to the life to be found on these areas, and eventually led to a riotous growth and abundance of wildlife, specially when compared to the relative scarcity found on other areas; all this life hows uncanny resilience, something that has hampered attempts to settle these areas.
The high Heart influences that imbue these places mean what Pre-Colission buildings are found there are unusually well-preserved, but treasure hunters beware: that means the wards and defensive mechanism that protect the old sacred sites of the faithful also survived the Colission in good conditions.

Those affected by Heart influence tend to be restless and optimistic, with endless determination. These are useful traits to have in the post-apocalyptic wasteland, but can also lead one into danger.

====Grail====

Areas afflicted by Grail are perhaps the ones where the most influence still remains, and also some of the more populous. During the apocalypse much of them were flooded, not just with water, but with blood or honey or stranger fluids still. These areas are ones where strange vines grow and strange fruit grows, of the kind that cannot be eaten only once. The people affected by Grail influence tend to be reckless and hedonistic, and the influence released during the apocalypse caused many of them to use it as an opportunity to commit acts that they usually did not do, or indulge in desires they had repressed, leading to a societal collapse in the places so affected.

Many are now addicted to a variety of substances or pleasures, both mundane and unique to Grail-tarnished land. A vast majority of the Long who were in these areas during the apocalypse are now Alukites, as the urge to commit the Crime of the Sky became irresistible during the hours when the border between the real and the surreal were blurred. Most of these Long tend to avoid contact with others out of shame, feigned or real.

====Moth====

The areas affected by Moth are the ones of which is known the least, and most of them differ significantly from each other. Common themes include the breakdown of perception and knowledge, and the forgetting of things and words, rampant growth of plants, spatial anomalies of various kinds, distances being much shorter or longer than they appear or objects being much closer or farther away than they appear, and aggressiveness on the part of animals. Humans remaining in these areas gradually lose their senses and return to their base animal state, filthy and unclothed.

====Knock====

Areas affected by Knock influence experienced grand turmoil during the apocalypse, and are today the ones from which the fewest return. During the apocalypse structures leveled themselves, old wounds opened and people bled to death, and portals and spatial anomalies appeared everywhere. Space is inconsistent, and doors and windows do not open into where they should, and frequently moving fissures in reality take people from one place to another, often unexpectedly. Knock did not affect the minds of people much, though it remains inadvisable to sleep in a Knock-influenced area.

====Secret Histories====

Secret Histories anomalies are the rarest and usually smallest kind, and tend to appear around sites where the scar of history is apparent. Things can become hard to remember properly as contradictory memories appear, origins of things can become paradoxical as people find themselves wearing rings indicating that they were married to one person and tattoos contradicting them while themselves becoming confused over which one is true. Most of these anomalies are much more minor and harmless than those influenced by other aspects. Secret Histories does not mentally influence people much aside from the false memories.

One must remember that it is very rare to find an area where only one aspect deluged during the apocalypse, and that these effects can often be found alongside other, weaker ones of different aspects. One must also remember that the above are merely general themes and not hard rules, and that areas influenced by one aspect tend to differ significantly from one another.

There are also some anomalies that are common to all areas, and can even be found in areas not hit as much by the apocalypse. These include: Places where pure Mansus-energy has flowed through, causing reality to feel more dreamlike, most common in Knock, Lantern, and Moth areas. Strange and dangerous dreams, most common in Knock and Lantern areas, though sleep in Winter areas can be dangerous for different reasons. People who appear to be asleep but nonetheless remain in perfect physical health, merely catatonic, but who release grand and dangerous influences if killed, most common in Lantern or Winter areas. They are suspected to be connected to the Hour known as the Legion Lamentful. Stray Mansus-beings are also common in all areas, and usually yearn to return to the Mansus and the Hours who created them. They are in most cases very dangerous, and should not be approached alone.

==Life After The Collision==
===Oneironauts===

When the Collision came, and the veil between the Mansus and the Histories was torn asunder, the people who dwelled there couldn’t afford themselves to continue pretending the laws and forces of the waking world were the only ones that existed, if they wanted to survive. Mystics, scholars, occultists, and anyone who could provide a resemblance of understanding about the otherwordly forces that now rampaged through the world rose to a prominent place in the societies that remained, and those who were founded anew.

Among these adepts, one who would eventually rise to a position of great renown were the so-called “oneironauts”, researchers who laboured to understand not the nature of any single Hour or arcane principle, but that of the Mansus itself and its relationship with the Histories. To that end, they sought to navigate through the House’s paths and Doors, and discover why some acts there seemed to resonate within the Histories.

This arcane knowledge, accumulated since the early days of the Shattered Histories, has made the oneironauts valued community fixtures in many settlements, serving as guides, advisors and public servants in many settlements: instructing people about what Mansus paths are safer to walk upon, and undergoing expeditions to the more dangerous parts on their behalf.

There are, however, many profit-minded oneironauts who prefer not to be tied by bonds of duty and responsability, and travel the Histories offering their services to the highest bidder.

(Any groups that are composed by, or count oneironauts among their numbers can be referenced here.)

2019-05-06T15:41:10Z

A Blessed Feline:

Her Scarred Serenity

2019-05-06T15:39:20Z

A Blessed Feline:

{{InfoboxHour
| title = Her Scarred Serenity
| card =
| quote = Unlike what my father may tell you, there may in fact be prices too great
| origin = Light
| titles = Our Lady of Scars, The Scarred Maiden
| names = Ryo, the Last Augur
| aspects = {{Aspect|Heart}} {{Aspect|Winter}} {{Aspect|Knock}}
| arrival = Long before the Collision.
| owners = A Blessed Feline
}}

The Hour called Our Lady of Scars is not as she was, before the Collision. She has been scarred and reduced by the sacrifice she made, to save the Hours and the twin Mansi. She fully expected to die, but she lived. She does not regret what she did, nor what she didn't.
Now, she is the patron of the wounded, the scarred, and the mutilated, invoked in moments of weakness and futility. She does not grant strength, not as her father does, though she wishes she could. She grants determination, resolve, the power to persist another day and another day and another day. She also grants the wisdom to know when strength and resolve are futile, when it is better to flee or to cease.

== History ==

== Apocalypse ==

== Appearance ==

Her Scarred Serenity primarily appears as an elderly woman, scarred, blindfolded, and clothed in rags. She sits on the cold stone slab intended to be her tomb, attended by servants and kept live through strong magic. She may also appear as a large black bird, blindfolded and incapable of flight.

== Principles ==

== Worship ==

=== Cults ===

=== Servants ===

Rao, The Last Augur

=== Servants ===

== Locations ==

=== The Fansus ===

=== The Histories ===

'''The Summit Monastery:'''

== Items ==
=== Tools ===

'''Stigmata {{Aspect|Knock}} 12:''' ''There are wounds too deep for even Her Scarred Serenity to close, ones she splits into pieces and gives to her followers to bear. ''

'''As a gift:''' ''It cannot be healed, only given further. Keep it somewhere where the bleeding won't get in the way''

'''Immaculate Corpse {{Aspect|Heart}} 12:'''

=== Ingredients ===

'''Indissoluble Ink: {{Aspect|Heart}} 4, Pigment''' ''The paper may crumble. The walls may crack. The canvas may be stained. The words, and the murals, and the paintings will remain long after that, lingering like memories.''

'''Tattered Feathers: {{Aspect|Winter}} 12:'''

=== Influences ===

=== Books ===

'''Accounts from the Deluge: The Predictions We Made''' ''The first of three enigmatic scrapbooks by "Straggler"''

'''Before reading:''' ''A combined scrapbook and travelogue by the enigmatic "Straggler". The first volume, written before the Deluge, gathers a haphazard variety of seemingly meaningless and unconnected texts, including receipts, notes, and shopping lists.''

'''After reading:''' ''As one progresses through the gathered nonsense, first patterns and then prophecies slowly begin to emerge as Straggler's intent becomes clear. There is no doubt Straggler was an occultist, there is no doubt they knew about Deluge before it happened, and there is no doubt they tried to warn others through this book.''

'''Yields: {{Aspect|Lantern}} 2, Dread'''

'''Accounts from the Deluge: The Precautions We Took''' ''The second of three enigmatic scrapbooks by "Straggler"''

'''Before reading:''' ''A combined scrapbook and travelogue by the enigmatic "Straggler". The second volume, written during the Deluge, gathers a wide variety of seemingly unconnected means people used to protect themselves against the Deluge, including routines, superstitions, and aphorisms.''

'''After reading:''' ''As one progresses through the gathered rabble, first patterns and then rituals slowly begin to emerge as Straggler's intent becomes clear. There is no doubt Straggler knew how to protect themselves, there is no doubt they tried to save others, and there is no doubt they, at least to some degree, failed.''

'''Yields: {{Aspect|Heart}} 4, Dread'''

'''Accounts from the Deluge: The Losses We Endured''' ''The third of three enigmatic scrapbooks by "Straggler"''

''A combined scrapbook and travelogue by the enigmatic "Straggler". The third volume, written shortly after the Deluge, gathers a wide variety of seemingly unconnected ways people mourned those they lost, including funerary speeches, tombstone inscriptions, and poems.''

'''After reading:''' ''As one progresses through the gathered mourning, first patterns and then laments slowly begin to emerge as Straggler's intent becomes clear. There is no doubt Straggler mourned Her Scarred Serenity, there is no doubt they knew they were dying as well, and there is no doubt they wrote the book as penance for their failures, in an attempt to enter the service of that scarred Hour.''

'''Yields: {{Aspect|Winter}} 6, Dread'''

'''The Last-Word Tantra:'''

'''Before Translation:''' ''Enigmatic musings by the deaf monk Atzak concerning a single word once spoken to him by his mentor, in Sanskrit.'

'''After Translation:''' ''A series of warnings, meditative exercises, and protective rites one needs to preform to safely read a "Word of Words", which Atzak claims is important to understand "The grandmother of languages".''

'''Before reading:''' ''"The Glory is dead. The goddess Vak is dead. Our Lady is close to death. But yet, she will protect the Monastery from the Deluge, as she protects the body from the wound during surgery, as she protects the soul from evil during Mansus-dreams, and as she will protect the mind from the Word I will record. Here are the rites of protection..."''

'''After reading:''' ''"Many words can protect, but this one needs to be protected against. Few corpses contain words, but this word contains a corpse. All languages contain words, but this word contains a language. Herein, the grave of threefold Vak, the goddess, the word, and the language." ''

'''Yields: Scholar: Vak'''

== Rites ==

'''Speaking-Scar Rite:''' ''The assistant is ritually wounded, embalmed in aromatic oil, and laid to rest. If the proper words are spoken at the proper time, the contacted spirit should arise from the wounds. The assistant usually survives, though never unharmed''

'''Lore:''' ''What are the words?''

'''Influence:''' ''What power is present?''

'''Follower🗡:''' ''Who will be wounded?''

The rite does not kill the Follower, instead giving them a Wound.

== Relationships ==

[[Category:Hours (Vol. VI)]]

The Panopticon

2019-05-06T15:24:38Z

A Blessed Feline:

{{InfoboxHour
| title = The Panopticon
| card =
| quote = ERROR: ALL DATA LOST. COMMENCING SURVEILLANCE PROCEDURES.
| origin = Stone
| titles = The Vision Vitreous
| names = Many, none who remain
| aspects = {{Aspect|Lantern}} {{Aspect|Winter}}
| owner = A Blessed Feline
}}

The Panopticon is a now-dead Hour, who strived to know everything there was to know, and to preserve that knowledge for the future. It prophesied that the rekindling of the Glory was not the first, and that it was bound to be snuffed out and reborn as the Mansus was abandoned and reawoken in an eternal cycle. It knew that it had been made before the current Mansus, to preserve knowledge, but that it had forgotten all that knowledge by the point the light of the Glory awoke it. The Panopticon thus vowed to record everything there was to record of the current Mansus, and every secret it could uncover about the Other Place, and then find a way to preserve them for all eternity.

== History ==

The Panopticon was a God-from-Stone, that awoke when the light of the recently rekindled Glory touched it. To its great horror, it had forgotten everything it used to know about the Other Place, except for the fact that it was created to be a repository for this very knowledge it had lost. It had, however, retained the power of Lantern, allowing it to view the world and the Mansus from within the Chamber of Visions that it created for itself. It never cared much for the other Hours or their machinations, preferring to observe and record rather than to interact. Exceptions were [[The Monument]], who it envied greatly for remembering even the most minor scrap of what the Other Place was like, [[The More-Opened]] whose endless exploration intrigued it almost as much as its lack of interest in what it explored saddened it, and [[The Rotted Ox]], with whom it was rumored to have secret dealings concerning the end of the Mansus, which both hours saw as an inevitability.

Why it was shattered is a great enigma, as is whether it consented to this shattering or not, and whether it knew this shattering would lead to the formation of [[The Myriad-Masked]]. What is known is that the More-Opened was seen near the Chamber of Visions shortly after the shattering. This shattering also coincided with the More-Opened's delvings into the human mind, with the raw knowledge and Lantern released from the shattering entering the minds of the newly opened minds and leading to the creation of the Hour known as the Myriad-Masked.

== Appearance ==

The Panopticon manifested as a grand, glowing ball of glass floating in mid-air. It resided within the Chamber of Visions within the Mansus, where its light touched the floor and the benches, and made them gleam like mirrors and reflect the countless things it saw. Alternately, it manifested as a frozen lake or sea, in which revelations and sights could be seen.

== Principles ==

== Worship ==

=== Cults ===

=== Mark ===
# '''Temptation: X''':
# '''Dedication: X''':
# '''Ascension: X''':
# '''Ascension: X''':
# '''Ascension: X''':
# '''Ascension: X''':

=== Servants ===

=== Servants ===

== Locations ==

=== The Fansus ===

=== The Histories ===

== Items ==
=== Tools ===

'''Seeing-Shard: {{Aspect|Lantern}} 12''' Sometimes, it remembers the light of the Glory that awoke it from its slumber, before its shattering. If we look deep enough into it, we may remember too.

'''As a gift:''' To be kept near the skull, so that you'll remember when it remembers

'''Vitreous Record: {{Aspect|Winter}} 8''' ''Since the Panopticon's shattering, even the memories it froze into glass have started to forget its light''

'''As a gift:''' To be kept cold, and not allowed to thaw

=== Ingredients ===

=== Influences ===

=== Books ===

'''Logbook of Olof Hjalmarsson: ''' ''A copy of the logbook of the reclusive lighthouse keeper Olof Hjalmarsson''

'''Before reading:''' ''Olof kept a record of each ship he could see from his lighthouse, their sizes, their speeds, and their paths. Olof suffered from deliberating headaches, and practiced psychography during these migraines to keep himself sane.''

'''After reading:''' ''Olof was not an occultist, but nonetheless the occult seeps into his work like light through clouds. He speaks at length of the scorching light of the winter sun, and of the things he sees below the midwinter sea-ice, recording them as carefully as he records the movements of ships in summer. Towards the end of the book, as the sun sets, Olof claims that the northern lights are nothing but the reflections of nephrite lamps deep below the sea. The book ends abruptly, with an account of Olof smashing the lighthouse lantern during a violent migraine.''

'''Yields: {{Aspect|Lantern}} 6, Fascination, Shattered-Glass Rite'''

'''The Lament in Glass:'''

'''Before translation:''' ''An account of a burglary. In Aramaic.''

'''After translation:''' ''A highly allegorical story, telling the tale of a scarred burglar.''

'''Before reading:''' ''The first part of the tale describes the journey of the unnamed burglar from a land lit by lamps of black nephrite to a mountaintop monastery where the monks are writing down a record of all that exists. The burglar covets a glass orb kept by the monks, for reasons never revealed.''

'''After reading:''' ''The burglar breaks into the monastery, finding the monks dead at their writing-desks. As he searches for the orb he reads through the writings of the monks, who have been prophesying the arrival of the burglar. The monks are revealed to have died from fear of the burglar and his arrival, as they were recording it. At the end of the book, the burglar finds his orb, only to smash it to pieces before absconding.''

'''Yields: {{Aspect|Winter}} 8, Shattered-Glass Rite'''

=== Rites ===

'''Shattered-Glass Rite:''' ''This ritual recounts the Panopticon's final lesson: When the right thing is shattered, at the right time, in the right place, power may be born''

'''Lore:''' ''What are the words?''

'''Influence:''' ''What power is present?''

'''Tool🗡:''' ''What will we shatter?''

== Relationships ==

[[Category:Hours (Vol. II)]]