#projected

(art by GeoKorf on DeviantArt)

I’ve said recently that the difference between a cosmology and a multiverse is that a cosmology explains where spirits and stuff come from, and a multiverse explores what-if scenarios. It kinda feels weird to include both in a single setting, particularly since the latter term sometimes gets used interchangeably with the former, but this is where we are now.

The act of witchwarping brings temporary things from across the multiverse into reality, this much is true, but such power is a “safe” way of doing it. Material and energy from another universe is sent back at the end where it doesn’t have to worry about interfering with slightly or radically-different laws of physics or anything like that.

But, there still remains the possibility of bringing things in on a more semi-permanent basis. There already is some precedence for this in the world, what with kobolds having hidden from whatever happened during the Gap inside a pocket multiverse, easing themselves back out in such a way that reality subtly rewrote itself so that while everyone agrees that kobolds just showed up again one day, they already had homes and jobs waiting for them, which is WILD.

However, even they were not unscathed by this process. Kobolds are sometimes affected by the aftereffects of such multiversal phenomena. Things like slightly changing appearance or suddenly getting a stomachache because your guts decided to replace themselves with a version with an allergy to the food you just ate. The point being that reality… kinda struggles with kobolds at times.

Now, with that in mind, imagine if someone were to come to the “Prime” universe from another just out of the blue. Maybe they got zapped by a multiversal scientist, maybe they were trying desperately to escape a dying universe, Either way, they are here now and reality ain’t happy about it.

Indeed, if kobolds sometimes struggle with multiversal flux, imagine that being tenfold because today’s “projected” witchwarpers don’t have the benefit of whatever the kobolds did, their very being clashing with local reality on a core level. For the most part they can eat and live and breathe like anyone else, but they struggle to retain cohesion or even the right size, and plus now they have weird powers too.

Indeed, while some may have already had witchwarping powers which may have been how they managed such a hop across the cosmic expanse, others may have such powers only because reality is becoming slightly loose around them, letting them coax other things through with magic.

What sets these beings apart from other witchwarpers, however, is how many capitalize on how their bodies struggle with this reality and use it to their advantage.

As beings from another reality, these projected witchwarpers struggle at times to stay in it, but they’ve developed fine enough control to step a little closer to that edge, their bodies flickering in an out of reality not unlike the blink spell, giving them a defensive edge as attacks have a decent chance to miss them entirely. As they grow in skill they fine tune their control to better avoid such attacks.

Additionally, they can take advantage of reality struggling to parse them to distort their apparent size, allowing them to shift to slip through small spaces, or shrink down or grow in size for the advantages, if only briefly.

Finally, they learn to slip along the edge of reality while moving, phasing through other creatures and solid matter before returning to physical reality on the other side.

A good defensive ability, combat/utility, and mobility aid are all pretty solid options mechanically in a clever framing, and it only costs a skill buff and the ability to reroll certain rolls. If you’d rather have a miss chance and the ability to effectively short-range teleport and shift sizes, this can be a fun alternative, and it’s one of the few alternate forms of witchwarper that doesn’t have weird interaction with the enhanced version of the class, requiring errata or GM fiat, so that’s a bonus. In any case, this lends itself well to a combat build, particularly taking advantage of that reach with a melee build enhanced by buffing and control spells.

There is a lot you can explore with a class option like this. Characters in this sort of position have been literally separated from their home reality. Everything they’ve ever known and was familiar to them is likely beyond their reach now. How they deal with that depends heavily on what sort of reality it was and why they left. Some may yearn to return, while others are happy to have left it behind. Others still might not have a reality to go back to in the most extreme cases.

It's been fuzzy, but Dr. Lodus, a brilliant osharu scientist specializing in multiversal theory, has made contact with a version of himself in a parallel universe. The good doctor believes that they’ve established enough tests to perform a universal transference with a live person, but the full depths of their misunderstanding with their counterpart becomes apparent when the test subject is revealed to be a hardened criminal banished to the near side of the portal… and now sporting dangerous new reality-warping powers.

Many jububans are nomads, but Bolpop has more reason than most to wander. The truth of the matter is that he comes from another timeline going to sleep in one and waking up here. Worse still, he can feel this reality resisting him in his bones.

Union Jack projected on a Swiss mountain, literally “In The Wild”