Urban Fantasy: The Astral Border

There is more to the world than our universe as we know it. Some believe Earth and its universe could be the center of the universe, part of (or even a minor fragment) of some great Axis Mundi. Indeed countless beliefs and myths speak of such places and the worlds which exist beyond our own, from the terra incognita to the abodes of the gods. Such places are indeed real. Getting there, however, well that's going to be much harder and one need a starting place to reach the greater Supernatural Realms. As one can guess, the term 'Supernatural Realm' is the generic term for what Silent Legions calls a 'Kelipah'.

The Astral Border

Liminal space(?)

The Astral Border, as the name implies, is (in part) what exist between the material and immaterial world. The reason why the description says 'in part' is because there's a bit more going on there. There are two ways to access it: projection or physical travel, with each version having its own downside. Projection is the classic 'astral projection' where one's consciousness leave the body. It carries the obvious downside of one not bringing their full body to another world and instead walking into another realm with a thought form body, turning oneself into a temporary form of Spirit. The alternative is to enter physically, where one has their full body and capabilities but this carries the downside of making escape infinitely harder since one is fully within another realm.

Defining reality within the Astral Border is a complicated matter, as it is a series of locations (or perhaps just one location?) which exist between solid reality and the higher realms and conceptual locations. It also greatly overlap and connect to thought-realms such as Dreams and even possibly the cancerous pit from which all Demons emerge, a dark reflection of every evil thought of mankind. As a result, the Border is an ever-changing dreamscape-like location which makes mapping it completely and utterly pointless. How fluid the realm is and one's direct surroundings are can vary immensely of course, based on a variety of rather arbitrary factors. Generally speaking, the initial phase of the Border's appearance will be influenced by one's material surrounding and become an extension of it. A wall my suddenly split open, sprouting a new corridor with a door at the end which can either take one to a new location or simply lead to more bizarre reflections of the location, depending on a variety of factors such as: one's mastery of accessing the Border, one's mental state, one's time of day and/or any other number of completely arbitrary points. The Border is not a three dimensional space, it is a thought space and it contain both one's own thoughts and perception but also that of nearby individuals, the general mindset of an entire region and/or even the will of often eldritch Border Entities.

Certain locations which are steeped in history, both real and supernatural, have a habit of having their own 'style' of Border, recurring thoughts, ideas and landscapes which may stretch for miles on end and beyond. For example, London has a habit of its Border stretching into increasingly old fashioned landscaped haunted by fog and lit by lanterns, with abandoned carriages giving off a strange impression of an empty and almost post-apocalyptic London at the age of Jack the Ripper while Cairo will stretch into a mish mash of building, drawing inspiration from a fusion of Pharaonic Egypt, Ptolemic Egypt and of course modern architecture where ancient antediluvian cursed tombs fuse near seamlessly with the Cairo Metro system. Urban center have a habit of forming dense, multi-dimensional expanses of empty buildings inside more empty buildings, a reflection of how these cities are perceived and what they embody.

Travelling The Border

The main use for this strange extra-dimensional space is to use it as a temporary stop from our world to another reality. Because distances have no true meaning within the Border, it can connect to any and all realities and domains, given enough time and effort to travel down its ever-changing paths. The Border can be an interesting GM tools (and is very much how I use it), as it enable travel to far-flung locations without needing too much of securing a specific path or spell. The obvious downside of the Border, however, is time. While time within it can be a tad relative (what with not having any real sun or moon to keep track of), it nonetheless flows 1:1 with one's own reality. As a result, a trip through the Border to a different Realm can take days or weeks, assuming one doesn't get into serious trouble. Even with a stable landscape, it can take days of travel on foot or even on boat across imaginary oceans. As a result, it can be as close as one can get to wilderness travel and exploration in an urban fantasy game, which can be a nice (or annoying, it depend) change of pace.

Travelling the Border is very much rife with 'random encounters' too, some of which indeed are very random even in-universe. The Border is positively crawling with Spirits, or rather Astral Lifeforms. These simplistic entities are given form and shape by their environment, but their function is fairly similar all around. As Astral Predators gather around fresh human mind and souls to consume, they create a temporary shell of existence based around whatever form the Border has taken there. Some may animate from concrete and wires as shambling urban golem while others may take the form of fantastical beasts when inside the Border's wilderness yet they remain the same simplistic life forms.