City of Shadows & Bone

“My Aren’t you just purrrrfect ?”

Bast is alive and well in The City a woman who enjoys scouting out talent by day and hunting serpents by night. Her lives haven’t really crashed on each other making her a BOARDERLINE she is crafty as she is beautiful.  Bast Resides in THE OLD QUARTER and it’s said she knows how to make or break someone. Her oldest enemy SET is also out their in the City, she knows she’s seen him on tv. Pretending to a Holy Man, ah how the might fall. Still his growing power does annoy her to no ends.  A Woman of Drive and Social Connections she is well liked and many young people dream of being taken under her proverbial wing. 

Types of Logos 

Logos theme types represent aspects of your ordinary life:

The DEFINING EVENT theme type  represents a pivotal moment or period in your life that has changed you irrevocably, such as a near-fatal accident, an earth-shaking revelation, or time spent at an orphanage.

The DEFINING RELATIONSHIP theme type represents a relationship with a person, a group, or an organization that is at the center of your life, such as your mother, your mentor, your gang, or the cult you belong to.

The MISSION theme type  represents a goal you have set for yourself and that you strive to achieve, such as finding a cure to a disease, avenging your brother, or bringing a killer to justice.

The PERSONALITY theme type  represents your character, temperament, or personal style, such as being charming, hard-boiled, flamboyant, or paranoid.

The POSSESSIONS theme type  represents anything important you have in your possession, such as your fortune and assets, your old car, or an arsenal of firearms.

The ROUTINE theme type  represents your main everyday activities such as a job, caretaking duties, going to school, doing research, or just bumming around.

Types of Mythos 

Mythos theme types represent aspects of your Mythos powers and the different ways you can use them to affect the world:

The ADAPTATION theme type  represents powers that can change according to the situation or a powers with many different uses such as sorcery, shapeshifting, or gadgeteering.

The BASTION theme type represents powers that allow you to survive harsh conditions and protect yourself and others from harm, such as a body made of stone, invulnerability, or magical protection.

The DIVINATION theme type  represents powers that allow you to know or learn things beyond normal perception, such as special senses, the power to read minds, or the power to communicate with the dead.

The EXPRESSION theme type  represents powers that you can project or unleash to affect or influence the world, such as a warrior’s rage, blasts of ice, a healing touch, or mind control.

The MOBILITY theme type  represents powers that allow you to move easily, fast, and unobstructed, such as the power to fly, to turn your body into water, or to miraculously escape confinement.

The RELIC theme type  represents an object in your possession that channels the powers of your Mythos such as a magic ring, a flying broom, or a diabolic mask.

The Veil of The Mists

Accidentally or intentionally, there will come a point when you reveal your special abilities to others and thereby inadvertently stumble upon the greatest hoax in the City. You will discover, much to your simultaneous relief and dismay, that no-one remembers anything regarding your powers. To say no- one is slightly inaccurate, as you’ll eventually discover, but you will find that the vast majority of city dwellers simply ignore, excuse, or forget any legendary power that you manifest in their presence. Is it that they don’t want to remember or that they cannot remember? This is a philosophical question you may never answer.

This force, responsible for the ignorance of millions of people, is the Mist. Even its name is shrouded, you will never discover it. No-one can know its name; it cannot be spoken in reference to this force anywhere in the City. But you have likely come up with your own term for it: “the Hiding”, “the Brain-wiper”, or simply “this thing that makes people forget”.

In many ways it is a mild, undetectable force. In other ways, its all-encompassing nature is terrify- ing, as your experiments will surely divulge. When- ever the legendary manifests in any way, the Mist ensures that no-one knows about it or recognizes it for what it truly is. You begin to realize that you live in an entire City that is forever in the clutches of this force and that everyone you know and meet is entirely oblivious to what is going on around them. They are “Sleepers”, “groggies”, “fog- heads”; they are unable to see what you can see, no matter how concrete the facts you show them.

This realization alone can tear your psyche apart and indeed countless like you have lost their minds when the gravity of the situation struck them. You are living in a city of sleepwalkers, and that includes the people you love the most. A great chasm opens up between you and those closest to you, a chasm that you can only repress, never bridge. This may drive you to want to know more about the Mist. Even if you survive all this psycho- logical stress, you will face unavoidable questions. “What about me? What am I not seeing? Is there something I too am blind to?” You start, in your own way, to study the Mist. If you continue asking questions, here’s what you’ll find out:

The Mist hides and distracts. Just as one is about to witness the real-life manifestation of your Mythos, something will happen to make them look away or at the very least blur their impression. Fog will roll in, rain will lash at them, steam will blow out from the subway vents, the lights will flicker. Alternatively, their phone will ring just at the right moment, or someone will cry for help, or they will spot their favorite sports player walking down the street. Whatever form it takes, the Mist will make them miss the miraculous display altogether, or at the very least doubt what they saw: “I saw some- thing, but I’m not sure exactly…” If you push them later, most people will respond with disbelief that it ever happened, or even could happen.

As you’ll discover, the Mist is not limited to people’s minds. Its effects are more far-reaching than mind tricks. It can cause interference in electrical devices recording your legendary pow- ers (and Sleepers would claim it’s edited footage, anyway). More worryingly, it seems to be able to orchestrate events with disturbing synchronicity, for example, having your boyfriend arrive at the scene out of the blue just as you’re about to witness the magical powers of a Rift you worked weeks to track down.

You see, the effects of the Mist are not limited to Sleepers. You too, as well as the other Rifts you’ll meet, are subject to its distractions. The difference is that you remember; you know there is something hiding the truth from you. You know that what you didn’t see in a moment of distraction is what really matters, and that if you had seen it, you’d remember it.

The Mist provides excuses and twists perceptions. Sometimes, if you’re lucky or unlucky enough, the Mist will fail momentarily and someone will get to see your legendary power in all its glory. At first, as the unadulterated reality sets in, they may be shocked, eyes glazing over. However, the Mist quickly sweeps up after you. Moments later, the glazed look in their eyes will vanish; if asked about it, they’ll acknowledge everything that happened except its legendary nature. Sleepers will staunchly maintain that there is some mundane explanation to what happened: a freak electrical phenomenon, some kind of scam using movie special effects, whatever. You don’t seriously expect them to believe it was the Big Bad Wolf you just wrestled with, do you?

This normalizing effect also works on a much deeper level. You’ll find that Sleepers subconsciously edit everything they see as it happens. Where you may see a two-headed troll, they will see horribly deformed and obese Siamese twins; when obviously faced with the Queen of the Dead, they’ll remember her as an obnoxious drag queen. The Mist makes it so that Sleepers just cannot see, not even what’s right in front of them. Even you sometimes need an actual display of legendary powers before you can be sure someone else is a Rift. When thus revealed, the magnitude of the power of the Mist over the City’s residents is truly alarming.

The Mist makes you forget. This is possibly the scariest aspect of the Mist. When you experience this effect, you will suddenly grasp how fragile your mundane life is, how in one moment it can all be taken away from you. It seems there is only so much the Mist can cover up at once; sometimes, when it’s stuck for a solution, the Mist will become aggressive and simply wipe out all memory of your Mythos manifestations from people’s minds. For them, and sometimes ‘them’ are very large groups of people, it would be as if the event never happened. “I can’t recall exactly what I did last Thurs- day. I guess I went to Eddie’s, like every Thursday. I might have had one beer too many, though…”

This effect also has a milder but equally impactful aspect, one which affects minds over time. People in the City don’t dwell over mystical and supernatural shenanigans; they forget, they let go, they move on. Their own lives are much more compelling than something weird they can’t understand. Which brings us to the last point.

The Mist exploits the things dearest to you. Your own life is the Mist’s strongest weapon, es- pecially the things you love or hate. If you value your family, the Mist will use them to throw you off. If you like cars or hate rats, you’ll see a flashy ride or a hairy critter crossing the road just as you’re about to witness something important. And since almost everyone either loves or hates themselves, the Mist also employs aspects of your own personality and body against you: a passing thought about your future, an inexplica- ble bad feeling that never leaves you, or a sudden hunger for burritos – all of these can be carefully placed by the Mist at the exact moment some- thing else is happening at the corner of your eye, something legendary, something that will provide answers.

If that’s the way it works on you, imagine how it works on Sleepers. Sleepers are obsessed with their own lives. They don’t care what’s happen- ing around them. Sometimes you think it’s like they wear helmets made of pure noise, constant- ly dealing with “Me, me, me!”. Well, in a way, you’re the same, but at least your eyes are open some of the time.

So while this mysterious force prevents others from seeing you as you are, it also makes it more difficult for you to find the answers you are looking for.

An important fact you will learn is that the Mist does NOT change reality (at least not abruptly enough for you to notice). While trying to get answers from a violent gang of cultists, for example, if you beat them up with your ancient bronze staff and you all end up getting arrested, they’ll report “This freak came at me with some weird metal shaft!” If you do so by turning your arm into stone, they’ll say, “That crazy son of a bitch hit me with a brick!” However, they will still be injured, for real, and forensics may be able to tell if they were hurt by bronze or stone. This is to say the consequences of your Mythos powers are very much real. Just because the Mist covers up all perception of the legendary aspects of your actions doesn’t mean you will not be held responsible for them.

It doesn’t matter who you are: having a Mythos inside you means having unanswered questions. Perhaps you’re already a hard-boiled detective, a self-inquiring Zen monk, or a curious history buff, but you don’t have to be an investigator by vocation to have questions. Maybe you are a suburban housewife who has never really thought about ancient myths and legends before. Maybe you’re a spoiled kid who has never been more than twenty feet away from a supervising adult. Or you could be a lonely elderly man who has no living relatives or friends. It doesn’t matter. Now that the Mythos is alive inside you, you are constantly harrowed by countless questions: What am I? What is the nature of my powers? What is their source? Who else is like me? What should I do with this ability?

You don’t always understand the questions echoing in your mind – they could be complete mumbo jumbo to you, like cryptic koans that are meant to lead you somewhere, though you have no idea how. Perhaps details of your inner story float into your waking mind: you see a face and feel compelled to discover who it is or set out in search of a symbol that you know is not real, but…

Other times the questions are very real. Your newfound powers have implications – ethical, scientific, theological, or social. You may be look- ing for a way to control your abilities or reverse their effects. Maybe you have questions about the circumstances of your awakening: why you lived when you should have died or whether it was all planned by someone or something.

You don’t know in advance what your inner call will ask of you but it’s there, egging you on, urging you to find out. You can try to drown it with stimulation, distraction, or medication but it’s not going to work. It will always be there because you want it to be there. When you’re ready to follow it, it will help you uncover what all these questions boil down to: the truth about who you are

Awakening

It starts as a nagging realization that there’s something you’ve forgotten. At first, it’s in the back of your mind, but as time passes it becomes clearer and clearer. It bothers you. You get this urge to break away from every- thing that’s distracting you and try to listen, to focus. It’s like a misplaced memory, something about yourself you can’t remember. It’s there, but your mind just can’t grasp it; it slips through your mind’s fingers like vapor. This is where most people give up and turn back to their lives. But not you. You stayed and listened.

When you finally remember this truth you have forgotten about yourself, words fail you because your waking mind is too constricted to accommodate what you take in. It’s like a spark inside you, but at the same time it’s an entire world. It has too many facets to be accurately described. It’s some- thing that has existed for an immeasurable length of time, vastly longer than you have; and yet, in a strange way, it’s you: your very core, the root of your existence. The more you are in touch with it, the more you see that everything in your life, every action you’ve ever taken, every seemingly random event, it all emanated from this.

What is the nature of this force? Is it violent and ruthless? Is it as old as the roots of the mountains and the flow of rivers? Is it harmonious and benign, a force of healing? Is it mysterious and cunning? All of the above? Only you can know this.

Slowly, it will take shape: you’ll remember faces, places, and distant times. Things that happened long ago – but did they? They don’t seem as real as the life you have now, almost like they were faded pages in a storybook; but they feel more real than any moment you have ever lived. You’ll remember yourself, different back then, playing a role in a clash of forces more ancient than you can possibly fathom: smiting down a terrible foe, stealing a for- bidden item, suffering beyond imagination, loving without limits. For a brief moment, you’ll remem- ber your Mythos.

At the same time, charged with this new memory of yourself, your body will start buzzing. All over your skin, a tingling sensation spreads as you allow this force to enter every mote of your being. If you stay with it long enough, you will become its con- duit. The visions you have seen will miraculously become a reality: perhaps a small tree will sprout from the palm of your hand, or your whole body will burn in cool bright blue flames. You have be- come a Rift in the gossamer veil of forgetfulness. You have remembered who you are. A new and yet very old voice inside you can finally say: “I am.”

Awakening to what you truly are feels like breathing for the first time. Emotions gush in, along with a shocking realization and the thundering question: “How could I have forgotten myself?” You’re awed by this force that has chosen you as its gateway into the world and at the same time you feel immense freedom, as if you yourself have been liberated and become limitless. In a way, you have.

This awakening can happen in a moment or it can stretch over decades. It can happen spontaneously or it can be brought about by events in your life, premeditated, accidental, or fateful. No-one knows what this awakening is; you’ve asked everywhere. But you know others have had similar experiences

Have you ever dreamed you were someone else ? Thought you might be the incarnation of god, maybe a fairytale ? Maybe even a old legends, obscure and hidden ? Then the City is Calling to you...Join us...

Welcome to the City, none of us know how we got here or even when we got here. Most of us have memories of always being here even when we are sure we weren't before. When the world outside of the city is a dull and drab place. Have you been snatched into a new dimension, did you step into the Twilight Zone, at first it might feel like that. However, as time goes by you come to realize your home this has always been home.

A City of Shadows and Bone is a modern city, with many areas to live from rural to upscale. This is a city where legends are real. You won't see a Knight in Shining Armor, or a Dragon on Fifth and Main, but that doesn't mean they aren't there. The fact is in this city the knights, the gods, the monsters and the legends of old are reborn inside of ordinary people. These people are know as Gateways, an open door to their legend or their myth. Where they may live out a modern version of their myth, legends or stories called Mythoi. Where those not effected by the force that hides such things from sleeper might see a giant battling Odin, where you may see gremlins ( yes those gremlins ) running free through the slums or in little china town where a dragon might dwarf out the sun briefly. Yet, they still have their day to day lives as well.