Pith and Vinegar

For a while I’ve been pondering Changelings in the (new) World of Darkness. First, let me explain the relevant cosmology of the WOD.

Way back in history, there was the Fallen World, which contains Earth, and the Supernal Realms, with the Supernal metaphorically above the Fallen World. For ease of diagramming, listed below as left to right should be visualized as down to up.

Fallen World –> Supernal Realms

Uppity mages from Atlantis pulled a Tower of Babel and decided they’d physically bridge the two, so they could control reality directly from the Supernal. Other mages disagreed, a big war happened, and a vast gulf was created between the two, called the Abyss.

Fallen World –> Abyss –> Supernal Realms

One of these Supernal Realms is Arcadia*, the homeland of the Fae. There’s a sort of mid-realm connecting Arcadia to Earth called the Hedge which bypasses the Abyss, at the cost of one’s soul (important for mages).

Fallen World –> Abyss –>  Arcadia

\——- Hedge ——–/

The Fae like coming to Earth via the Hedge, kidnapping humans, and then twisting them and putting them to work in their fiefdoms. Occasionally the humans return, fighting their way back through the Hedge, but they’ve been twisted and changed by their time spent in Arcadia. These returned humans are changelings.

So I wondered… there are four other (known) Supernal Realms. Do they have their own Hedge-equivalents, by which mortals can access them (although at a cost unpalatable to mages)? What reason would mortals have to go there? What reason would they have to return? Would they be changed by their durance?

The Lost Project is an effort to answer those questions by developing alternate versions of the Lost for each of the other four Supernal Realms: The Aether, Pandemonium, the Primal Wilds, and Stygia.

*There’s some debate about whether or not Mage’s Arcadia is the same place as Changeling’s Arcadia. For the purpose of this project, I consider them the same.