Anomaly

An Anomaly is a glitch in the fabric of reality that corrupts and exhausts all objects and lifeforms within range as a result of a spell failing or being cast in the presence of Dreamers

Ciphers

The player’s characters, also known as the Awoken. Sometimes Ciphers may be referred to as their Protocol type or chosen Domain of study.

Humans that have no awareness of the presence of magic in all things around them. Casting spells within perception of a Dreamer will cause the spell to create an Anomaly, often creating terrible or lethal conditions from the spells distortions.

The reality woven by the Stiffs, a manufactured prison for the minds of humanity that appears as cyberpunk wasteland in a post-utopian society waning into decay.

The realm of Nowhere is safe haven forged from inverted spaces across Nihil. For many Ciphers and resistance forces that rally against the Stiffs it is a place of shelter when they are inevitably pursued by Shills or even the lich lords themselves. It is the space that exists between spaces, a liminal dimension that cannot be perceived by those outside of it and is not easily accessed given its vastness and ever shifting dimensions. Most that travel through Nowhere have seen its landscape as a collection of random structural features that connect or are suspended by impossible gravity. All throughout Nowhere there are countless floating doors back to Nihil, but each tied to a different and constantly changing location. As very little can persist in a fixed position for long in this space, only a few areas are ever in use as settlements for Ciphers at a time. These settlements can only be found through magical means, usually with assistance from an Inspector, otherwise there is nothing to be found in Nowhere but meaningless architecture unfolding across an endless void.

Agents of the Stiffs, Garbage collectors of Nihil that are more artificial construct then intelligent being, they are a hivemind like entity that directly responds to threats and distortings of the Stiffs’ reality with the power of the Source. If a mage attempts to expose the secret magical nature of Nihil, the Shills will manifest to intervene and eliminate the defiant magic user.

The lich-lords of Nihil, originally powerful mages that fled from the Source under unknown circumstances by sacrificing their mortality and betraying humanity to an existence of futility. They are the overseers of the major corporations which produce the relics and infrastructure necessary to sustain their pocket reality of which they each are vying for greater control of through corporate espionage and covert warfare.

When life expires in Nihil, their energy is used to fuel the magics of the Stiffs. In the process of being consumed, the soul of the lifeform is torturously split through the near infinite magical waylines interwoven into the physical and digital infrastructure across the world. Within this magical framework is the Wired, a nexus of magical energy of the dead that have miraculously or erroneously been able to cheat death and avoid falling into the Stiffs’ soul harvesting system. For the spectral or the living masters of Decay magic, it acts as a safe haven and last respite for those still waging war against the Stiffs long after succumbing to death.

The forseen moment in a distant and fragile future where the dreamers awaken to the exploitation they have suffered and rise against the Stiffs. While forseen, it is not guaranteed to come to pass if the Stiffs are left unchallenged, as the future is ever shifting with each defiant invocation and corporate operation.