THE MIST
AND THE MYTHOI
The Mist is a mystical veil that prevents the unwitting City residents - or Sleepers - from seeing legendary powers.
It hides the legendary and distorts it, making it look plain and mundane, or distracts Sleepers just as they're about to see something magical.
Accidentally or intentionally, there will come a point when you reveal your special abilities to others and thereby inadvertently stumble upon the greatest hoax in the City.
You will discover, much to your simultaneous relief and dismay, that no one remembers anything regarding your powers. To say no one is slightly inaccurate, as you’ll eventually discover, but you will find that the vast majority of city dwellers simply ignore, excuse, or forget any legendary power that you manifest in their presence. Is it that they don’t want to remember or that they cannot remember? This is a philosophical question you may never answer.
This force, responsible for the ignorance of millions of people, is the Mist. Even its name is shrouded, you will never discover it. No one can know its name; it cannot be spoken in reference to this force anywhere in the City. But you have likely come up with your own term for it: “the Hiding”, “the Brain-wiper”, or simply “this thing that makes people forget”.
HOW DOES THE MIST WORK?
The Mist hides and distracts. Just as one is about to witness the real-life manifestation of your Mythos, something will happen to make them look away or at the very least blur their impression.
The Mist provides excuses and twists perceptions. When they do see something legendary, Sleepers will think that there is some mundane explanation to what happened.
The Mist makes you forget. When it’s stuck for a solution, the Mist will become aggressive and simply wipe out all memory of legendary-powered events from people’s minds.
The Mist does NOT change reality. The consequences of your Mythos powers are very much real. Just because the Mist covers up all perception of the legendary aspects of your actions doesn’t mean you will not be held responsible for them.
A Mythos is a story that is trying to manifest itself in the City. It can be an existing myth or legend, like the Mythoi of most player characters, or an abstract concept, like anger itself or the spirit of well-being.
The Mist prevents the Mythoi from directly influencing the City. This allows the City to exist as it is; otherwise, it would become a chaotic canvas where stories mix, clash, and rip each other to shreds.
To influence the City, Mythoi must manifest through Rifts, portals through the Mist. Some kind of awareness or an awakening of the soul is needed to become a Rift, so the most common form of a Rift is a human resident of the City. However, even animals, places, and objects can be infused with enough awareness to serve as Rifts. They are called Familiars, Relics, and Enclaves, respectively.
Nevertheless, the Mythoi are not an alien force trying to invade the City – they are its heart and the blood that runs through it. Everything in the City only exists because the Mythoi live inside it and animate it, despite the Mist. It’s possible that without the Mythoi the City would simply cease to be.