“Look, we already know that they’re here. And there’s probable more of them than the government or WATCHTOWER is letting on. They could be your neighbours. They could be your taxi driver, your streetsweeper. They can look just like us, or at least as close as they can manage, but they aren’t us. And they’re not just here on holiday, let me tell you—“
“That’s right, they’re stuck here, they said they came over—“
“That’s what they’re telling you. Doesn’t make it true. The truth is, we don’t know what these Outsiders are really here for, and they’re not telling us. And these are just the ones who are actually pretending to play nice. You walk down the wrong alley, you run into one of the wilder ones, it’s game over. WATCHTOWER will be scraping you off the walls.”
“So what are you proposing?”
“I think we should nuke the Deletion Zone. Bomb the shit out of it. Maybe that’ll seal it up. And as for the rest of these invaders, we gotta cut them off before they bring anyone else over to their side. Acolytes. Practitioners. Traitors, when you boil it down. The best way to prevent another Paris isn’t education, it isn’t corporate training programs, Ted. It comes loaded in a magazine.”
Patriot Radio call-in, Neo Vegas, July 2074
In the aftermath of the Boston Deletion and the subsequent emergence of the Bleed, a lot of confusion and strange terms started to get bandied about in the cybercafes and the boardrooms. We understand the living in this age can be confusing, so we've prepared a helpful guide to ensure you can best understand the changes taking place around you, as well as the newcomers that have begun to appear.
Intruders is a blanket term for anyone and anything that is not from our dimension. From what we've gathered, most of them came over during the Deletion and are just as surprised to be here as we are. Their world is, apparently, a lot like ours, with some significant changes. There are humans there, but they don't exist at the top of the food chain like we do here.
Blighted are either humans or earth-like animals that have been changed in some significant way by the Bleed. Some of these changes were accidental, while others were engineered. While they may appear intimidating, there is very little to indicate they can think and communicate beyond animalistic levels.
Shadows are manifestations that are trying to push their way into our world... think of them as tourists on a very temporary visa. When a summoner calls up what they refer to as a spirit, it's most often a Shadow taking on a certain appearance and expression in our world. They can't remain here for long, not without a sustained commitment of psychic energy... without that, their visa ends quickly and their expression here in our world ends.
Undead are living errors, things that should have ceased to exist but are still being sustained by some misspent energies of the Bleed. Their biological functions have largely ceased to the point that any sort of conscious action should be impossible, but people affected by this condition don't seem to realize that they should have died. Corporate scientists are still working to determine exactly how this is possible, but right now the phenomenon is very small and very localized, so there's no need to worry.
Outsiders are the true interlopers; while many of them are very obvious in their origin, some of them are capable of masquerading as humans and have already begun to integrate into our society. They speak our languages, and if so desired they can wield impressive powers that defy the laws of physics. Some of them even take on human acolytes, teaching them how to interact with the Bleed in dangerous, highly unhealthy ways. Corporate studies show that the average human who dabbles in arcana reduces their projected lifespan by up to forty years or more, so think twice before someone offers to teach you a "cool little trick."
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