Connecting Jackpoint VPN...
...Matrix Access ID Spoofed.
...Encryption Keys Generated.
...Connected to Onion Routes.
Login
Enter Passcode
...Biometric Scan Confirmed.
Connected to Error NODE Unknown
JACKPOINT Stats:
13 Users currently active in the Network.
Personal Alerts:
*Your "Cl3AN" agent has rerouted 68 messages.
*You have 2 new private messages.
*Turbo Bunny has pinged you, she is on the Khorosho Bar and Grill.
*Reminder: Ammo, Gas, Grub, and Booze running low, grocery runs ASAP.
Your Current Rep Score: 75 (85% Positive)
Current Time: November 18, 2075
Today's Head Up.
* It been almost 60 years since the Awakening that shocked the world, in that time we have seen all kind of magical shit, specially for those in the know about the finer details of the eternal war in the shadows. Now, for its 50 anniversary, I will like to upload an actualized; up to a point; legendary document that became the bible of all the mojo casters all over the world. Have a nice read. [Tag: The Five Spheres].
The Five Spheres
Invited Guest:
The_TRUE_Leviathan
Ice_MaiDen
Post/Files Tagged with "Five Spheres"
5M post more…
The Five Spheres
by Todd Esfall, actualized by Undertaker
Well meet chummers.
Welcome to the madness that is the 2025, where the universe puked magic all over our lawn and forced us to adapt to the new reality when we were barely recovering from the VITA plagues, and several other disasters that had kicked us in the bollocks far too many times.
Now, I get that most of you are already drawing lines, well, more likely carving lines on the stone, about the new "Metahumanity", magic, dragons, Demon-gates, and all that good shit that is making the shadow biz soar, but, and here is the thing, hear me out about What are you poking with a stick before it rips your soul out of your body, followed by the rest of your innards.
In order to work on a KISS principle (keep it simple soldier), I have called this exposition, the Five Spheres, to simplify the idea of how there is more than one plane of existence out there.
Aye, those screeches in the distance are the religions of the world picking pitchforks and torches and running after my ass. Do please ignore them.
Imagine a dot in the middle of an empty canvas.
That's Earth, and the rest of the canvas, the great beyond know as the outer space.
Now, draw a circle around the dot, and draw five spheres at the north, south, west, and east of the circle.
There you have it, a relatively accurate representation of the "Metaplanes" that all the academics circles of the world are yapping around as if they have reinvented the wheel.
Crude, yet, It represents the Metaplanes accurately enough.
Smartest Fly.
At the top of the five spheres diagram, you have the "Otherworld", the deepest, or highest, depends on the perspective, Metaplane.
This is place where all the existence came forth originally, where entities like "Gods", "Demons", "Eldritch whathathings" existed in the first place. Totems, Passions, Gods, and several other concepts had their residence here, this is where our souls, supposedly, are sent, unless you have fucked it up, and you are sent to the other side of the spectrum.
At the bottom of the five spheres, you have the Netherealm, the deepest hellhole in the universe.
This is the polar opposite of Otherworld, the pit where all the negative, primordial, concepts of all possible sufferings and maladies of the universe came to existence. Entities that make Satan look like a kindergarten throwing a tantrum reside in this horrific place, along a cavalcade of demented things that defies all descriptions.
Just to be clear, there is no "good guys" here, the creatures of the Otherworld are as alien as the creatures of the Netherworld.
For example:
The abominable Valkyries that slaughtered Kiev in the 2036?. Those work under the orders of something that calls itself "Odin" on the Otherworld. Do not confuse that abomination with the "Totem" that Norse venerates under that name. They have nothing to do with each other.
The Insect Spirits?. Those are a mere shadow of the horrors that lurks on the Netherealm. The heralds of worse things that dwells there.
I still own Todd a mead, he really knew his stuff and was a great wingman.
One_Eyed_Chad.
And, contrary to you, Todd knew that manners maketh man.
Orange_Queen
To the East, we have the Citadel, that is surrounding by an infinite variety of Metaplanes.
Like the Metaplane of the Elemental of Fire, the Metaplane of the Dog Spirits, etc, etc. The Citadel, at the center of the Metaplanes, is the collective amalgamation of all spirits that have ever existed, I believed, I have no proof beyond the knowledge that all of those that have visited the Citadel have experimented completely different things, and have meet all kinds of spirits, even those that have been vanished, or, supposedly, destroyed.
This place is like "Dream of a Summer Night" on steroids.
On the West we have the Dark World, or Makai, or the Underworld, or the Demon World, this place has been renamed so many times that is hilarious. Anyhow, this place is the one that brings more headaches to the scholars all over the world.
Contrary to the other three Spheres, this one is as solid as our good old blue planet, with landmasses, continents, oceans, mountains, all that good stuff. As homage to the people that actually taught me about the realities of this place, from then on, It will always be refereed as the Underworld in this document.
The Underworld is massive, and I mean it, around ten to twenty times the size of the entire landmass of the Earth, and prone to change, depending on the fluctuations of the dimensions around, the conflict between their inhabitants, and the "mana" present on the specific spot of the Underworld at the time.
And finally, at the center of the picture, our good old ball of mud. The bluest pearl of the cosmos. Pick up an Encyclopedia, the history of our planet is a bloody one, and in this document, I am more concerned with the other 4 Spheres than with Earth.
Filling the space between the Five Spheres is the Astral Plane, that acts as the sea that separates and unites the planes. This spectral realm is filled to the brim with mana, spirits, and travelers from the Underworld and the Metaplanes going back and forth.
To be considered a full-fledged magician, one must be able to "Astralize", that is, to perceive, interact, and sent your spirit into the Astral. There are people, commonly called Adepts, that are capable of amazing magical feats, but are unable to project themselves into the Astral.
The only known species capable of going back and forth the Astral and Earth in solid bodies are the inhabitants of the Underworld.
They are so unique that they deserve some special mention, and, to advise to all the readers of this document to be extraordinarily cautious in any deals with them. The inhabitant of the Underworld are Not spirits, and trying to treat them as such will go badly for the idiot that tries.
Perhaps the most famous inhabitants of the Underworld are the Devils, True-Blood Vampires, the Succubi, The Shape-shifters, and the Orcs. The Demon Orcs, not the poor sods that mutated drastically with the rise of the magic in the world.
The Demon Orcs, or Yokai, to prevent confusion with the orcs that are now as part of the Metahumanity as the rest of us, are a nightmare.
Relatively as intelligent as a human, taller than one, stronger than one, slightly overweight aspect, and obsessed with sex. Nay, really, they are an entire race of brutal rapists. They will go far and beyond to get some tail, and due to their nature as Yokai, they are all hung like horses, their fluids are aphrodisiac, and capable of fertilizing a toaster in one go.
The only ones with a higher sex-drive were the Incubi, but something happened during the middle ages; a magical experiment of some sorts, that screwed up their entire species irremediably, and reduce them to two varieties.
The beak head Incubi, that all Parazoologist knew about, a para-critter capable of impressive magical illusions to catch their preys.
The Injuu, also known as Sex Beasts, or, even more commonly known as Tentacle Monsters. Yep, those tentacle monsters, you anime-fans, that will show you how low can the mighty fall when you play with magic, and you screw up.
Since the Awakening of 2015, when Howling Coyote believed that it was a good idea to put the Ghost Dance on the table, magic returned to the world, and with magic, well, your orc neighborhood, the dwarf cashier, or the elf hobo, could attest that things were never the same anymore.
Not to mention the dragons posing like divas on live TV, but the furthest I am from the hyper-inteligent masses of magical and mundane destruction, the better.
With the arrival of magic, people was freaked out on a daily basis, and after the colossal clusterfuck that was the Night of Rage, and the domino tiles that were the consecutive conflicts all over the world, it was not until 2020 that another VITAS II hit the world like a jackhammer, and the establishment of the Corporate Court, that we did not reach a semblance of stability.
Of course, by 2025 [The original date of the post of this document on Shadowland, a lot of parts of the document has been actualized since then by Undertaker, and others, until this document today -Fastjack], magic was still a big mystery, and a lot of experimentation was in order, sadly, experimentation without caution was synonym with clusterfuck, and that is what happened more often than not, when a bold magician decided to push over the line, and the line pushed back, hard, long, and without lube.
The mojo users on the world are a minority, barely 15% of the total population is able to toss mojo, of course, I am only referring to "Humanity", with the arrival of new species in the form of dwarves, orcs, trolls, elves, and their cavalcade of metavariants, numbers about the exact numbers of mojo tossers around are subjective at best.
The problem was that a magician, be it a shaman from the deepest corners of Somalia, or a Shinto Priest of Shinjuku, is capable of a lot of damage if his magic goes out of control, or, worse even, if something gets a hold of magician and puppets the poor sod around.
Sheddim, Insects, Vampires, Mummies, Shape-Shifters, Revenants, and Toxic spirits are just an example of the kind of horrific shit that a magician can unleash if he screws up. Also, a [Fireball] spell out of control can cause a lot of damage, to the people and the world around, not to mention how an idiot with a powerful Air Elemental can cause plane accidents at will.
Speaking of which, and to hammer the difference between Citadel Spirits, Netherealm, Otherworld, and Underworld, I will speak about the Conjuration fad that all mojo tossers out there seems to be experimenting, and that can only end well.
Heavy sarcasm involved, just in case you don't get it shitheads.
When you summon a Citadel Spirit, of any sorts, you call in for a spirit, you "negotiate" with it, and it will serve you for a limited number of times, or, and specific set of time, it depends on the conjuration.
Even if you managed to summon a Great Form of the Citadel Spirits, the strongest of their kind, or managed to convince one of the rare Free Spirit to give you a hand; careful, this guys are the real origin of the expression a Faustian Pacts; most of the time, the Spirits will just obey your orders as if you give instructions to a computer.
When you summon an Otherworld or Netherealm Spirits, you are dead.
I mean it.
If whatever you have summon does not use your soul to make themselves a new strapjock, the moment the rest of the world knows about the successful summoning you will have a bounty on your head, ALL governments and corporations offers a handsome rewards for the heads of anyone stupid enough to deal with those two planes.
Look, just don't do it. It's a sure way to kill yourself in the most horrific way possible, and slaving your soul to a hellish afterlife. Just a quick Matrix search about Chicago's Confinement Zone hybrids and you can see what happens to any imbecile that decided that it is cool to meddle with that shit.
CZ is a nightmare, and almost two decades later is even worse.
Frosty.
When you summon someone from the Underworld, well, I always compared it more to a biz deal than the usual magic contest thing with the Citadel Spirits. With the adequate name, a summoning circle, and a nudge of magical power, you can summon even one of the big names down there.
Of course, being able to summon them does not means that they are going to be submissive at all.
Be very, very, wary of whom are you summoning.
Names are important in this game, it is not the same to summon a low knight of the Gremory House, of the Nine Great Demon houses, than directly summon one of the Satans and start barking orders at them as if they were an Urban Spirit bounded to you.
Sure, if you are a magical badass, it is possible that you could dominate whomever you have summoned, and dick around with the poor sod subjugated.
I know that there is individuals in the Underworld that got their rocks off with this kind of magical S&M play, but remember that the Underworld is a society that mirrors our own in way too many ways, and if you are an asshole, unless you have some serious backup, be assured that the next time that you summon you will find a nasty surprise instead.
Don't believe me?. See for yourself [ ]
That meanie totally deserved it!.
TwinkleTwinkleMagicalStars
Of course a childish buffoon like you is the responsible for this.
The_TRUE_Leviathan
At the same time, the Underworld is filled to the brim with all kinds of mystical beings that are not subjected to Conjuration; this is not Pokemon, you wankers; furthering proving the theory that the Underworld and Earth are mirrors, and that the Metaplanes were the consequence of millennia of belief, mana, and several other shenanigans crystallizing into entire new planes.
The so called, "Aeon and Passion theory about the origin of the Mana on Earth and Beyond".
This theory is the one that notable individuals among the recently appearing Elvish tradition seemed to be very vocal against it. Of course, we are talking about the same individuals that pulled an entire new language out of nowhere; Seperethiel; and did all they could to sweep under the floor the Or'zet language, pretending to be the top dogs of Metahumanity.
Without proclaiming myself as the owner of the absolute truth, I am convinced that the truth lies in the middle. So, I do not believe the "Elves are Superior" bullshit that the Tir Nations is trying to shove down our throats, and by all that's sacred do not make me start of the Tir nations themselves, that's so wrong, in so many levels, that I can not even laugh at it.
Anyhow, the Underworld is also unique in the peculiarity that it can be visited by mundanes as well.
The methods of traveling are always kept hush-hush, and with good reasons, but since the Taiwan Peninsula crisis and the Demon-Gates events, the government and corporations of the world knew of the possibility of traveling back and forth the Underworld and Earth.
The siren songs of power attracted all kind of people, but the fad soon vanish.
First of all, mundanes suffer in the Underworld, the natural, dense, mana in the air overwhelms anyone that is not strong enough to endure it.
According to the Initiate Charts of the Dunkelzah Institute of Magic, one must be a tenth level Initiate, at the bare minimum, to be able to move relatively freely on the Underworld. Of course, being able to simply walk around is not enough. The entire Underworld is filled with powerful paracritters and mystical creatures that present a challenge for even entire high-spec military forces.
In the words of one of the natives of the Underworld:
"The Underworld is like a shonen anime, and Earth is like a low-fantasy setting".
Not entirely sure about what the adorable redhead devil girl was speaking about, but the comparison kind of catch on on the Matrix, and I have put it verbatim on this doc, to illustrate the point about the differences between the Underworld and Earth.
She is the most than adorable little girl ever!
RedBigBro
Behave.
Ice_MaiDen
For any of you, mojo tossers, that is interested in take a peek beyond the rumors and the bullshit that the usual rumor mills toss around, I will speak about the two more common methods, and the impossible method.
First of all, do not ask me how, in the name of sanity, did it happen, but the fastest, more secure, method of transportation between the Capital of the Underworld; the city of Lilith; is an underground train station. Kept and protected by the houses of the 4 Satans of the Underworld, in Izumo, Japan.
Aye, that Izumo, the same one that the Japanese myths said it was the entrance of Yomi. Fitting, I will say.
This is, possibly, the most secure, but also, the more expensive, bring a fat credistick chummers, and for fuck's sake, be polite. Even the janitor of the station can twist a chromed up Troll into a pretzel without even breaking a sweat.
The second is the smuggler den called Yomihara, 300 meters under Tokyo, and the house of one of the Demon Gates. Due to the presence of this thing there, the place is a magical ingredients heaven; or hell more likely; and one of the biggest dens of sexual biz on the world. This place is lawless as fuck, and crowded with paracritters and metasapiens of variable strength.
Go there under your own risk, the demons are not the worst predators there.
The impossible way consist on being so utterly badass that you can travel the planes on your own free will.
I have only seen three individuals do that.
Ghost-walker, Black, and the Aensland lass.
Do not ask me how in the fuck did they managed to do it, I suppose it will have something to do with their status as powerhouses, and, to be honest, I don't even want to get close enough to any of them to ask. To rich for my blood.
Of all the three methods, the poor man's method, meaning the one that most of us, poor shadowrunners, could afford, is Yomihara. Practically all of us knows a competent enough smuggler crew, and through them, it should be relatively easy to organize a voyage to one of the world's smuggler heavens.
At the same time, remember that Japan is under Section Three watch, meaning that those of you that have unusual blood heritage, or have an Underworld inhabitant somewhere in the family tree, may receive a visit of the boogie women of Section Three, the infamous Taimanin.
Those girls rocks!.
Y-kazeX-chan
Indeed, in so many exhilarating ways…
Thrill_Seeker
Bad Lass [Bonk Gift] go to Horny Jail.
Undertaker
Private Message:
From: Turbo Bunny
To: Undertaker
Taker, look, I knew that you said that No biz at Vladivostok, but one of Balalaika's goons needs someone to drop cargo in Yomihara. 50k payment. I am on my way to the meeting point, meet me at [Coordinates].
Logging out of Jackpoint, slowly going through all the process of exiting the Matrix and back to real space, the shadowrunner known as Undertaker massaged the bridge of his nose, trying to easy the stress headache that he was already nursing.
The private message of Turbo Bunny; the pilot and rigger of his small crew of smugglers; blinked in the PAN of the commlink of Undertaker.
Since the 2060, more or less, with the Crash 2.0 of the Matrix, comlink tech, and the universality Wii-Fii of the Matrix has become a staple of the world. Even those with magic capabilities; and by so, unable to access to the everyday common cyberware, unless they damage they magic capabilities; could buy a comlink the size of handbook and have all everyday needs of electric communication covered.
Undertaker was...a bit of an anomaly in that front, and took a lot of measures to kept such secret under wraps. The last thing that he needed was the curiosity of the powerhouses of the worlds, and the ideas that they could have because of his abnormal, and extraordinary, existence.
Reading the private message for the second time, Undertaker closed the screen, and mentally opened the contacts tab of his comlink. Out of ingrained paranoia, one of the many consequences of the life on the shadows, Undertaker always kept his commlink under a custom mode that kept him out of the sight of the flood of data that is the Matrix nowadays. Seeing the Matrix, but hiding from the sight of the Matrix, so to speak.
In less than a second, the commlink had filtered the list of contacts, sending a call to the contact "Balalaika".
Balalaika was a disgraced Russian Military captain that flipped the bird to the UGB; the new and shiny KGB of 2075; when they ordered her and her entire battalion of paratroopers to execute an entire camp of Siberian Refugees from the mysterious cataclysm of Tunguska, the UGB suspected the presence of metasapiens; shapeshifters to be exact; among the refugees, and wanted them executed.
Three months later, Balalaika was the top fixer of Vladivostok.
Even if the Neo-Soviet that rule over most of the former Soviet Union had disown Balalaika, there is no need to say that the Russian Mafia was more than happy to give her and her men, a place where they can get a sense of purpose. The Vory v Zakone sent her to the unruly Vladivostok, and even if Balalaika never really ascended as her own Zakone faction, well, she was listened, attentively, by even the Corporation that set up shop in Popov Island, the rebranded EVO Megacorp.
On a side note, Undertaker had more than a passing interest in EVO; one of the 9 AAA Corporations in the world; that has become quite Metahuman friendly. Undertaker had kept an eye on them since the moment that they started to act like that, despite the dramatic tale of the Orc CEO of the Corporation, and the Free Spirit that owned a third of the Entire Corporation.
Not much after making the call, a new window opened on the left upper side of the view of Undertaker, setting up a connection between two commlinks.
Time for biz, for shadows do not wait for anyone.