Death. The Pale Sun is death. Death.

In Shadow, we think of it as a state—the opposite of life. But in the Actuality, we know the truth: death is a place, as surely as any other. We travel there to stand beneath the Pale Sun when our life ends, but we can come back as well.

Ghosts are spirits of the dead on their way to the Pale. Once in the kingdoms of death, they take on a more substantive state. They take on—dare we say it?—a life of their own. Before they get there, however, or should they ever return, they can sometimes animate their former corpse. Or they can exert other influences in the material world. They can haunt. They can possess. In some ways, someone smart and willful gains more power in death than they had in life.

The most surprising thing we learn from the Pale, however, is that even things we don’t normally think of as living can have ghosts. A ghost—a thoughtform—is merely something that once existed physically, and had at least a spark of a soul. But many things that were never truly alive—works of art, books, songs, homes, and more—can have souls. We all know that to be true deep down. A ghost can fade into memory, but a memory can also transition into being a ghost. It’s quite complex.

Some say that there is a land beyond the Pale where the dead go when they eventually pass on. If this is true, it is likely a truth that the living cannot know. We’ll discuss death and its ramifications for the vislae at a later date, but for now, we’ll say this: it may not be what you expect.

The Pale Sun embodies the future rather than the present or past (for it waits for us all). Its number is 6. The warden of death, known as the Monarch of the Dead, is named Xjallad. Empress Xjallad takes a very active role in her realm, ruling over a complex feudal system of vassals. She may be the most powerful of all guardians on the Path of Suns. Still, she fights a continual war with her Nightside counterpart, Queen Fazromir.

NIGHTSIDE OF THE PALE SUN

Rumors say that the Nightside of the Pale borders a land so distant that it is known only as the Stillness, and it is the place into which the dead themselves eventually pass, never to be heard from again. The Nightside of death is quiet and desolate, with regions that have names like the Lonely Reaches and the Maddening Quiet. It is a place of fear, but more a place of dread. Its number is 12.