Invader Lore

From the corpse that never lived of the Unborn God, the vast oceans of dream mana dispersed into the world, sinking out of the Mortal Realm and forming itself into the Dreamwilds. As per the nature of dream mana, the world it formed is shaped by the perception of its inhabitants, time, space and landscape flowing and changing like a living dream.

However, while most of the dream mana formed itself into a reflection of the Mortal Realm, if one twisted and incongruent, reality was not all it found to reflect. At the metaphysical edge of the Dreamwilds, the protean mana found something else to shape it, becoming a reflection of something that was not.

In this space beyond space, it harmonized itself with the Beyond, becoming something that was mana, and yet was not. In this place, the Bleak formed, antimus becoming mana’s dark reflection.

As creatures ceased to exist within reality, becoming of the Beyond, the Bleak hear their pleas to be again. Reaching towards what they had once been, the stuff of the Bleak answered and antimus provided a clay to imitate the forms they once possessed.

From antimus and the things of the Beyond that had once belonged to the world, Shades returned to existence in the shape of their previous souls. However, while those previously of the world are guaranteed to use the open door the Bleak provides to return, it is still an open door.

Very rarely, something that was never of reality will happen upon the gate of antimus, stepping through as if it was a Shade. However, such creatures are not of this world, and never have been. They are Invaders from beyond, things that cannot die, for they have no life; that cannot be destroyed, for they do not exist.

Society: Invaders do not appear to have any unity as a species, if such a word can even be applied to them. Instead, they each act independently, seeming to view other Invaders as no more kin than one fish in the ocean would view another species of fish as their kin. Simply being of the Beyond does not appear to convey any allegiance or similarity beyond the Features of the Invader clan.

In most cases, Invaders who show an interest and aptitude in taking on the form and demeanor of a sapient creature will disappear into society, becoming indistinguishable from whatever they are passing themselves off as. Of course, the varied nature of Invaders makes this far from an absolute, and their low numbers makes it difficult to establish trends.

Ecology: The appearance of a new Invader is extremely uncommon, an anomaly amongst anomalies. In fact, estimates indicate that only one Invader in a millennia would be a frequent rate of appearance.

Of course, it is difficult to gain definitive numbers, since the Bleak is vast, potentially infinite, and most Invaders do not report their arrival. This is complicated by the relative weakness of most Invaders.

While most, if they know of Invaders at all, would think of entities like the Blade Of Minds, Unknown Enigma or even Unborn God when considering Invaders, such examples are actually quite misleading. While these beings are equivalent or even beyond the Gods power, they are clearly the exception, not the rule.

The ability to distort reality of most Invaders functionally falls with the range of a mortal Mage, their biggest asset is less their personal power than the difficulty in disposing of them. Since Invaders cannot be permanently kills or disabled, even by attacking the soul, which they do not appear to have, there is no real way to get rid of those that do exist.

However, those that appear rarely show signs of gaining power, at most growing to the strength a skilled Mage, and have fragile bodies that can be easily defeated in the short term. This makes them of little concern.

The main oddity of their presence is their ability to cross the Bleak’s Realm Dam. Since they lack souls, they can leave the Bleak and potentially find their way to the Mortal Realm via the Dreamwilds. This is a vast journey for most, and reduced the number of Invaders on the Mortal Realm to a scattered handful.

Unfortunately, while most Invaders are what appears to be the minor vermin of the Beyond when compared to the major entities we observe, it appears to only be random chance that prevents a truly powerful Invader from appearing. In such an event, something akin to the Blade Of Minds, or even stronger, could simply come into existence within the Bleak.

This could happen at any time, and is not truly preventable. The only protection from such a concern if luck and ignoring the possible, since their does not appear to be anything that can be done.

Appearance: Invaders can appear to be anything, but will often be seemingly mindless monstrosities. This is less a lack of intelligence than a lack of understanding, many not being familiar with the natural laws they find themselves within. Such abomination usually roam the Bleak without any consistent behavior or form between specimens.

Upon occasion, one such entity will gradually learn about its environment, developing an interest in the sapients around it, usually being Shades, and adapt its form and behavior to learn about them. This may result in integration into society, with mixed rates of learning and adaptation.

Even more rarely, an Invader will appear with either familiarity with something akin to our reality or succinctly fast adaptability to function as a sapient shortly after manifesting. Such Invaders usually use their ability to warp reality to take on the appearance of whatever they encounter, appearing to be a Shade if they are blending into Shade society.

Upon encountering a new group they wish to pass as, or otherwise deciding upon an appearance they prefer, they will shapeshift is able or slowly change with Warping Checks to take on a new form. They have no true natural form, not being entities of reality.

Game Play: Playing an Invader is somewhat different from playing any of the other major clans, since Invaders have almost no population and no true society. This leaves an Invader character something alien to the world, only connected by the bonds they may have formed since entering reality.

We include it as a playable clan not because there are populations of Invaders, but because a few powerful Invaders are defining parts of the world’s cosmology. Everyone knows of the Unborn God, even if they do not understand what it is. Similarly, the Blade Of Minds, Unknown Enigma and Black Goat are all patrons of entire clans.

This gives Invaders and the Beyond a visible sway over the world, one that a new Invader may become part of. While most Invaders are weak, an Invader character may be the next God level entity to enter reality, only needing to gain sufficient influence to take their rightful place.

A player may enjoy playing a newly arrived outer god who sees themselves as a deity, despite being level one. Similarly, growing towards the possibility of a new power in the cosmology of the world can be a satisfying and often varied role playing experience.

Such a character may see mortals as below them, or deal with other entities of the Beyond as an equal. This lets them experience the status of a powerful and ancient cosmic entity without being able to muster the correlating power. This diminished state may change as the campaign goes on, leading to the character’s attitude gradually being matched by their abilities.