Proposed New Realm - With Inhabitants

[Shiress]

Im totally captivated by this idea (sorry, late to the party) and have a couple ideas.

What if the ancient gods banished the insids there and then sealed off the realm? Say, it was the only 'elsewhere' safe enough that was also uninhabited by living souls to banish them. I say living souls because it could have been a go-between for the dead. They go there before they move on to where ever they go on their final journey, but since the gods sealed it off, the dead are stuck there in a sort of stasis.

The only way in is through death, but there's no way out now.

The djed storm of 512 weakened the veil but didn't entirely cause a rift (or maybe an earlier catastrophic even), and the insids have discovered that through magic they can reach the living realm and have begun harvesting the souls of dead mages trapped there and enslave them for that purpose; to further weaken the veil and learn how to better traverse it fully. Still, though, only through death (the more the violent or emotionally charged the death is easier, the manipulation) can the insids travel. Plagues, murders, suicides all draw the magic of the enslaved mages and thus the attention of the insids.

Maybe even have lore for a type of magic with a potential to allow a living mage to communicate, if not directly travel to, the realm. Maybe by a blood sacrifice and a longwinded incantation, one can walk the border or even pass through the weakened area and into the domain itself. That could make it for PC's to somehow explore the realm. Strict rules and guidelines can be presented to keep every tom, dick, and harry from continually trying to. Maybe even have a type of gnosis or mark given by the insids that allows the marked to approach the realm, the more times they are marked, the better the communication becomes before finally being able to travel the realm as you please.

Eh, just my imagination running away with me, but still, I love the idea!

[Rigel Nebula]

I recently came upon this idea and I am absolutely in love with it!

I've noticed that many ideas surrounding the form of the Insids are their lack of form. Would it not then make sense that the Insids can only really stay in Mizahar if they form a kind of symbiotic relationship with a physical being? The more powerful and intelligent the being, the longer and easier it is to maintain this relationship.

I can imagine that this "relationship" would be similar to possession and/or the connection formed by Familiary. Maybe this could, in fact, become an entirely new "World Magic" (I use the term loosely) of its own; something of a Lost Discipline, or an event could be created in which this becomes a New Discipline.

Perhaps this symbiosis can only be attained if both parties agree to it in some sort of magical contract, much like the Grand Oath. The twist on this contract could be that some sinister ritual will have to be performed by both parties, ending in the Insid residing in the body of the Bonded (thought this would be a nice term), a pseudo-gnosis mark appearing on the base of the neck of the Bonded, tying into Shiress's idea of a gnosis-type mark.

The way this Bond would work would be something similar to two people holding remote controls to the same video game character. Both the Insid and the Bonded would then have to learn to work together to operate the body and get accustomed to living in one body. Perhaps it would even make sense for a tiny pocket universe of sorts to be created within the mind of the Bonded, in which it would almost be a "dream world", in which both the Insid and the Bonded can virtually interact with each other. This "dream world" could be different for every Bond, giving PC's creative freedom in that field.

This Bond could come with many pros and cons.

I was thinking that a few of the pros of this Bond could be that the Bonded gains power in some form through his/her Bond with the Insid, as well as limited contact with the Insidious Realm, be it travel and/or telepathic communication with other Bonded and/or Insids who are temporarily visiting the Mizahar, limited to physical distance on Mizahar.

A serious con to this Bond could be that the Insid could somehow maim the Bonded in the "dream world" and take full control of the Bond Vessel (shared body of the Bonded and Insid). Another obvious con is that bodily function is now a lot more difficult, since the Bonded literally has two minds. A third con could be that a dramatic change in the emotions of the Bonded, such as great anger or sadness, could make the Bond very identifiable as the Bond Vessel's irises could turn red and the scleras black or grey (the intensity of the color would be determined by the intensity of emotion), with its aura even becoming more cold and eerie. Perhaps you would not even need Auristics to feel this incredibly foreign aura change.

I feel I could think of more, given time, but that's all I could come up with for now...

[Gossamer]

http://www.mizahar.com/lore/Insidious_Realm