Blog, Jvstin Style

IMC: Shadow Paths

I've been thinking about these as late, as I did make peculiarities of their nature a plot point when it comes to Iolaus' Syracuse. in A Grand Affair.

What is a shadowpath?

A shadowpath is an inter-shadow conduit that connects two worlds.

How do shadowpaths originate?

There are several ways they originate. The most common, ironically, is that they are made. Paths require the use of a High Power, or High Sorcery¹ to form something permanent. The best known examples are the shadowpaths laid down by Oberon and his line around the Golden Circle.

Paths can also form naturally, following the topology of the metaverse. Shadows can be in the right alignment so that a pathway can form and be maintained between them. These are relatively rare and are usually short.

Paths can also form as a result of cataclysmic events. Conduits and paths can be created as a side effect of strong magical or technological events. The wave that spread through shadow after the rewriting of the Pattern, or in SB's timeline, the Shockwave are events which no doubt changed, altered, destroyed and created new paths in its wake.

How do they work? What do they look like and what is the experience of traversing one like?

Shadow Paths are subtle things. In the oceans of the Golden Circle, for example, a captain often has little more than a current and their own foreknowledge to judge where the path lies in the trackless sea. In some convenient cases, the path's route lies between two islands, through a strait, or some other coastal feature that makes it easier to locate.

On land, paths are usually right on a road or path itself. There is usually a marker that designates the border or the alignment of the path through which the travelers must travel.

The key thing to a shadow path, however, is intent. The traveller must usually *want* to use the path to go from one world to another. This is absolutely essential where there are no clear borders to the shadow. Shadows which only consist of a finite area and the shadow pathways are at those borders have routes which don't need such intent.

This is why ecologies are not usually devastated by the creation of a shadow path. Not a lot of the local fauna from either side is going to migrate through the path and onto the new world. Now, a more destructive power, like the Labyrinth in Strange Bedfellows is ecologically devastating since the "rips" in shadow it creates are readily useable without the concept of "intent".

In any case, the experience of travelling a path is rather anticlimating. In a short series of footsteps (or whatever vehicle she uses), the traveller goes from one world, to another. The law of similarity makes it likely that two shadows connected by shadow paths are going to be similar--or similar at the point of contact.

How can my character create a path between two worlds? How are they maintained?

Pattern, Logrus and High Sorcery¹ are the most well-known ways, as mentioned above, of creating a path. This is a time consuming and arduous process, however. It is not as simple as shadowwalking or casting a single spell to create the initial path. It takes effort, concentration and diligence to push the fabric of two shadows together so that a path runs between them.

Even a full Basic Pattern initiate can do this, although those with Advanced Pattern can do it far more readily and with much faster results. Since it is not as attuned to this sort of manipulation, a Logrus scion needs the advanced power Manipulate Shadow in order to achieve shadow path creation. The Black Road is another matter entirely, too. High Sorcery usually requires a long spell-casting, or even better, a metaconcert of several sorceresses casting in unison. This is the schemata I envision occured in Syrcause, in A Grand Affair, to allow Iolaus access to the outside world.

Now, once a path is made, the best way to maintain the path is to use it. The more use, or well-trod, a Shadow Path becomes, the more stable it will become. Thus, if the canny Syracusians continue to exploit their new path, it will become more and more stable and part of the Golden Circle network.

How can Shadow Paths be blocked or destroyed?

It's much easier to block a Path than to destroy it. Destroying a Path utterly takes time and effort equivalent to the creation of one. Much more practical is to block one end of a shadow Path. In that way, the Path does not go anywhere and is thus rendered unusable. Sand and Delwin in A Grand Affair did this...as did Sand and Delwin in Strange Bedfellows. As Sand and Delwin found out in A Grand Affair, this sort of blockage can be undone as well, by events natural and unnatural alike.

¹High Sorcery is defined as Sorcery beyond the standard 15 point power. Examples in my own canon include Eso-Elemental Sorcery, Runic Sorcery, Pattern(or Logrus) based Sorcery, or Unity Sorcery. See my ADRPG Sorcery page for more details.

Posted by Jvstin at September 4, 2003 4:29 PM