The Amiss

The Amiss is not a single place, but rather a creeping wrongness that has begun manifesting in scattered locations across the frozen wastes. Those who have witnessed it and lived describe it as "reality wearing thin," a zone where the natural laws that govern existence become subtly, horrifyingly distorted. The Amiss does not announce itself with spectacle or violence. Instead, it whispers wrongness through a thousand small impossibilities.

"The snow fell upward. Just for a moment—just five, maybe six flakes—they drifted up instead of down. We all saw it. We all pretended we didn't. We left that place and never spoke of it again."

— Survivor testimony from the Ashgray Expedition

Description

The Amiss manifests as zones of subtle reality distortion, typically spanning anywhere from a few dozen feet to several miles in diameter. Unlike the more dramatic magical corruptions found elsewhere in the world, the Amiss is insidious precisely because it is almost normal. Almost.

Common Manifestations

Within an Amiss zone, travelers may witness:

• Inverted Physics: Objects falling at wrong angles, smoke drifting sideways for no reason, footprints appearing before the foot touches down
• Temporal Stutters: Brief moments repeating themselves, words echoing before they're spoken, déjà vu so intense it causes nausea
• Geometric Impossibilities: Shadows that fall from the wrong direction, distances that don't match, rooms with five corners or three walls
• Sensory Contradictions: Ice that feels warm, silence that has weight, the smell of colors
• Existential Dissonance: Knowing with certainty that you've never been somewhere you're currently standing, or being absolutely sure you're holding something that isn't in your hands

The wrongness accumulates gradually. Most don't realize they've entered an Amiss zone until they notice their third or fourth impossibility, and by then the mind begins to fracture trying to reconcile what it perceives.

Origins and Theories

The Aurora Conservatory has documented seventeen confirmed Amiss zones, though the actual number is likely far higher. Scholars debate the phenomenon's origin:

The Frost Wound Theory: Some believe the Amiss represents places where the Endless Winter's curse has pressed too hard against nature, creating "bruises" in the fabric of existence. These zones would be wounds in the world itself, slowly bleeding wrongness.

The Ritual Scar Hypothesis: Others theorize that the Amiss zones mark locations where powerful magic was used in the last days before the Eternal Winter fully gripped the world. The desperate rituals performed by the wealthy and powerful in their floating citadels may have permanently damaged reality in these locations.

The Unmaking: The darkest theory suggests that the Amiss is the world ending—not catastrophically, but gradually, piece by piece. Reality is unraveling, starting with these small tears that will eventually spread and merge until nothing remains but wrongness.

Dangers

Psychological Corruption

Extended exposure to the Amiss inflicts Dissonance—a form of mental corruption distinct from magical taint. Those suffering from Dissonance report:

• Difficulty distinguishing memory from imagination
• Sudden certainty about false facts
• The feeling of being slightly "out of sync" with reality
• Cognitive disassociation, or loss of concept of self
• Compulsive need to return to the Amiss zone

In advanced stages, Dissonance victims may begin to spread the wrongness, creating minor reality distortions in their wake even after leaving the zone.

Physical Anomalies

While rare, some who spend too long in the Amiss undergo physical changes:

• Fingers that bend in extra directions
• Eyes that reflect the wrong color
• Bones that sit just slightly wrong under the skin
• Voices that sometimes come from a few seconds in the past

The Point of No Return

Each Amiss zone has a center, a focal point of maximum wrongness. No one who has reached the heart of an Amiss zone has ever returned. Rescue parties find their companions' belongings scattered and perfectly preserved, but the people themselves are simply... gone. Not killed, not transformed—just absent, as if they never existed at all.

Notable Amiss Zones

The Backward Shrine

Located three days north of Greywater Hold, this ruined temple appears normal from a distance. Upon approach, visitors realize they are seeing it from inside—the exterior walls are somehow inverted, showing interior stonework on the outside. Compasses spin wildly, and anyone who enters emerges from a different doorway than they used, even when the building has only one entrance.

The Echo Gardens

Once a noble's winter greenhouse, this structure now contains plants frozen mid-growth. But they aren't simply frozen—they're trapped in temporal amber. Observers can watch buds slowly opening over hours, then snapping closed and repeating the process. The air inside tastes of tomorrow. Three different expedition parties have reported finding their own frozen corpses among the plants, dressed in clothing they don't yet own.

The Counting Crossroads

A simple intersection of two frozen roads. Every traveler who passes through counts their fingers afterward. Everyone gets a different number, and all are certain their count is correct. Arguments have turned to violence over this disagreement. The snow at the crossroads never settles, never drifts—it simply is, unchanging, like a painting of snow rather than the thing itself.

Cultural Impact

Superstitions

Survivors have developed various folk beliefs about the Amiss:

• Wearing clothes inside-out may protect against the wrongness
• Counting backward from one hundred keeps the mind anchored
• Never look directly at your own shadow in an Amiss zone
• If you notice wrongness, acknowledge it aloud—denial makes it worse
• Salt in your boots prevents your footsteps from echoing forward in time

None of these protective measures have proven reliably effective, but in a world of desperate hope, people cling to what comfort they can find.

Economic Impact

The Amiss has complicated travel and trade routes. Caravans must maintain detailed logs of "safe paths," though zones sometimes expand or relocate without warning. Several settlements have been abandoned after wrongness crept too close to their walls. The town of Stillmarsh was evacuated when residents began insisting that the sunset happened every morning and the sunrise every night—and the sky began agreeing with them.

Use by Cults

Unsurprisingly, some Frost Cults view the Amiss as sacred. The Echo Eaters actively seek out these zones, believing that exposure to reality's breakdown brings them closer to understanding the Eternal Frost's true nature. Some cultists deliberately induce Dissonance, viewing the mental corruption as enlightenment. They speak in riddles and contradictions, their minds too fragmented to communicate coherently, yet they seem strangely content in their madness.

Secrets and Mysteries

The truth about the Amiss remains unclear, but certain fragments of forbidden knowledge suggest darker possibilities:

• Ancient texts mention "reality anchors" that the northern elite were attempting to disable
• Some scholars believe the Amiss zones are actually healing—that what we perceive as wrongness is reality trying to correct the true aberration: the Eternal Winter itself
• Cultist ravings speak of "the spaces between," suggesting the Amiss are gaps through which something is attempting to enter the world
• At least one Amiss zone has been confirmed to appear and disappear—suggesting they may be alive, or conscious, or hunting

Whatever the truth, the Amiss represents yet another way this dying world is coming apart at the seams. As the Eternal Winter grinds on and hope fades, some whisper that eventually all of reality will become Amiss—an existence of pure wrongness, where nothing means anything and everything is slightly, terribly, irrevocably broken.

Related Articles: The Eternal Frost, Corruption and Dissonance, The Aurora Conservatory, Echo Eaters Cult, Reality Distortions