Chapter 1: The Evil Genius

From Summoner

Contents 1 The Blank World 2 Drawing the Fool 2.1 Cutting the Deck 3 The Alter Self 3.1 The Unconscious 4 Demons 4.1 The Language of Legend 5 The Mirror 5.1 A Bending of Minds 6 The Undefined 6.1 Shells 6.2 Memes 6.3 Phantoms 7 Life as a Summoner 7.1 Walking With Open Eyes 7.2 Estates 7.3 Jokers 7.4 Conception

The Blank World

What if the world is nothing more than a thought? What if everything we know, everything we perceive, is only such because we think it to be so? Why, then, do we live in a World of Darkness, where the shadows are deep and rarely empty? Do we wish this to be so?

Or is something else at work?

Rene Descartes, in his Meditations, considered the nature of existence. What can we know, beyond suspicion? Our friends can lie to us, as can our loved ones. Our religions could be fabrications. Our own senses can lie, with mirages and hallucinations. What can we believe, if everything we know could be an illusion, perhaps some grand fantasy crafted by an evil genius?

Many walk through the world, ignorant of this uncertainty. Some, however, feel an itching in their hearts, a doubt, or a need for an absolute truth. Descartes felt a similar drive, which drove him to his question: What can I know to be true?

His answer is the resounding truth of those who call themselves Summoners. Cogito, ergo sum. I think, therefore I am.

This truth awakens an inner mutability in the souls, spirits, consciousness...in the whatever of certain people, and opens their perspective to a new world. When looking back, the rest of the world seems oddly oblivious. They just don't know. To most of them, they wouldn't want to know if they could. There's a certain comfort in taking one's existence for granted. However, this leaves them vulnerable to many forces, defenseless when the hungry things from behind the Mirror find a way out.

Those called Summoners are not defenseless. By knowing themselves, they can bring to bear their own inner heroes and demons, legends and monsters, and turn them into a weapon to assert their point of view onto the blank slate of the world. They can deny the soul hunger of the Demons with a battle cry and their Arts.

They define their own world, on their terms. The road of Ego, however, can be as much of a prison as the Blank World ever was...

Drawing the Fool

The difference between any other person and a Summoner is Ego. Not to be mistaken with egotism (though you'll certainly find it among many Summoners), Ego in this case represents consciousness. A Summoner, by nature, is aware of himself, and of the world around him. Ego serves as a mediator between the Self and Reality, and that sense of identity is what eventually gives birth to the Alter Self, an ideal abstraction of one part of a Summoner's psyche.

Cutting the Deck

The first step to awakening Ego is to realize that something is amiss. Many walk through this world with the potential to realize their Ego, but never do so. They tend towards looking for answers, either through organized religions, scientific enquiry, cults, drugs, or more unusual explorations of their limits and boundaries. Many forget that uncertainty and return calmly to their sleep. Others, continually disturbed, seek out the answers with renewed vigor.

What, then, triggers the change? Many forces can contribute to the shift. More often than not, a brush with the supernatural can set someone along the road to an awakened Ego. Many suffer terrifying and beautiful nightmares. Others receive a more direct shock, as demons seek out their simmering Id as a rather delicious meal. Most confusing, others are visited by beings of the Mirror, who mentally prepare them for the transition. These last draw the most interest and suspicion from other Summoners. Who is out there, awakening Summoners, and for what purpose?

Regardless of the method, someone with a wakeful Ego but is otherwise normal makes for a shining beacon to Summoners and free Demons. It is usually a race to see if they are found by those with friendly intentions, Devoured into empty husks of matter, or awaken to their power on their own. Most often, it is a close dash between the latter two.

The Alter Self

The Alter Self, called the Persona by some, is an outward manifestation of the Ego, and a powerful one at that. The Alter Self is a need, a desire, or a behavior given shape and truth. Someone who, in Drawing the Fool, had the need to protect and preserve a loved one might call out an Alter Self with great gleaming armor, a shield, or even a 'living shield', riddled with hardened bones and scarred flesh. The imagery can range from platonic perfection to a terror Giger would conceive. It all depends on the psyche and Ego that draws the spirit out.

The first time a Persona is called, it represents the full awakening from simply a being with Ego to a true Summoner. Demons grow wary, or attack outright. The Blank World recoils and warps from the pressure of an awakened spirit. The event is felt by anyone with the proper sensitivity, and in rare cases, even other supernaturals may grow aware of a particularly traumatic or powerful Alter Self's ascension to the fore.

Alter Selves tend towards the mythological, and can sometimes surprise even the Summoner, being based on knowledge they never had about stories they've never heard. This phenomenon has many, especially the Wand Peasantry, convinced of some sort of link between the Ego, a Summoner's personal Unconscious, and the deeper wonders and perspectives of the Mirror. Regardless, the Alter Soul resounds with the truth of an Ego's needs, and takes on an arcanum best suited to what it is meant to represent.

The Unconscious

The primary method of communication between a Summoner and his Alter Self is through dreams. In a realm all his own, he may converse freely with his various masks, learning more about himself. To change or create a new Alter Self, he must delve into this Realm, the Unconscious, and shape and mold his inner shadows into a more concrete form.

There are many common threads that delve into the Unconscious, most startling of all being the Psychopomp...or Psychopomps. Wanderers among the dreams of Summoners, these beings are servants of higher forces, and are normally sworn to bring no unrequested harm to a Summoner. They bring their own pocket homes into the realms of the Unconscious, and some even have potent powers to create paths to the Unconscious within the World. However, despite their neutrality, these beings can offer a variety of useful tools, and assist regularly in the shaping and even the Fusion of Alter Selves. Their ultimate goals are a mystery, or even if they truly exist. Many Peasants theorize that they are simply a common symbol, a need within the human soul for guidance in a difficult self-realization. Others find it to be too much of a coincidence...

Demons

Carl Jung describes the shadow as unexpressed aspects of the human psyche. Demons are manifestations of these desires given shape within the Mirror. Normally, these forces are largely harmless, occasionally influencing places to tease unaccustomed actions from a sensitive mind. However, in places where the Mirror is cracked, these Demons can take true shape, weaned on the Id that all beings contain. Once they grow powerful enough, they can even take shape within the World...where they often begin to feast. Alien in mind and concept, they are rarely merciful.

Despite their name, not all demons are evil. There are perhaps just as many unexpressed kindnesses in the collective of man as there are hidden lusts and rages. Each demon can be classified by Arcanum, Virtue, and Vice. The interections between the major arcana or 'Trumps' of the tarot are a mystery to the Summoners, and while they're fairly certain that Summoners predate most modern tarot decks, it is difficult to determine whether the cards were inspired by the Summoners, or vice versa. The only single truth that runs across all demons is that they desire Id to grow and maintain their forms. How far they are willing to go, however...that can depend.

There is often an interesting level of delicate politics between demons and Summoners. For every zealous or murderous demon, there's another who just couldn't be bothered, and is more than willing to trade for whatever their alien minds desire. Certain Arts allow for the exchange of Id, and even for the binding of demons into tarot cards, both willing and unwilling. Perhaps most concerning of all, many demons can be expressed as new Alter Selves with the proper work in the Unconscious...and many show a disturbing similarity to Alter Selves in general, both in nature and appearance. In fact, the only real difference that can be proven is that demons come from without, while a true Alter Self invariably comes from within the Summoner's own psyche.

The Language of Legend

Both demons and Alter Selves tend to draw from lore, legend, and myth in their themes and names. While some, especially Alter Selves, break from this tradition, it is the usual case that one can learn a fair amount about the likely temperament and behaviors of a demon through the proper academic or occult study of its themes. The reason for this is one more mystery of the Mirror, but some theories point towards collective human experience. Demons come from a place where all of mankind's conceptions, both real and imagined, run free and wild. Perhaps demons are 'born' when enough Id wraps around a solid human concept. It is more difficult to assert, "I am lust, desire, and chaos, unbound and bountiful" than to simply say, "Behold, I am Bacchus."
Not all demons follow the common story to the legends they hail from. Medieval knights could carry chainsaws or rifles or stranger things, sometimes integrated into the whole of their form like a body part. Some become monstrous caricatures of the name they carry, only meaningful to those who know where to look for symbolism. A rare few hide their legendary status entirely...until you are too close or too well-played to escape. While many demons proudly shout their names and natures as a challenge against reality, the subtle rule more often than the brash in the realms of the Mirror.

The Mirror

Few Summoners willingly venture into the natural home of demons, and fewer still return unchanged by their experiences. The Mirror is a place of forgotten concepts, of things long left behind. Where the Shadow is a place that lives, breathes, and interacts with the World, the Mirror is a junkyard of ideas, where the forgotten, the unloved, and the too dangerous wander free. It is realm of thought, and of the not-yet-imagined. Some offer theories that the place only takes a shape at all because it is shaped by being perceived. Really, the Mirror is one of many mysteries, and changes just often enough to invalidate most solid research into its nature.

The Mirror is most easily perceived at the cracks. Otherwise, it is difficult to perceive at all, and nearly impossible to reach. But when some event creates a fracture in the fabric that kepts the worlds apart, the World is changed. Buildings warp and take on new dimensions. Doors go to places they never did, or to nowhere at all. People can share or exchange thoughts at random, or find themselves caught up as puppets in the games and hunts of Demons. It is usually more a nightmare than a dream, as benevolent shadows rarely surge first through the breach.

Within the Mirror itself are various ley lines in a vast network of nodes, which some Summoners try to exploit for power or rapid travel. This is at best a dangerous exercise, and at worse an act of hubris that could unravel part of the World, if not worse. Demons course through these places of power like tides, and some rarer, more dangerous demons claim this network as their domain. Some claim that the network itself is made out of lost or Devoured souls...others still claim it is the Hindu or Buddhic path of reincarnation given form as a flowing, endlessly branching river. In the end, the network is as much a mystery to those born of the World as anything else that is part of the Mirror.

A Bending of Minds

Some Mages note the interesting anomalies in spacial relations that Mirror breaches can cause, as well as the deleterious effects they can have on the human mind. Is this place Pandemonium, with a Watchtower far into its depths? That is a question that interests the few mages who deal with Summoners, but one left as of yet unanswered.

The Undefined

What happens to a normal mortal who gets caught up in the business of demons and clashing Ego? Rarely something good. There are a rare few who retain perceptions of the Mirror and its denizens, but most people are not so lucky. Most are simply Devoured, and are left as hollow remains of who they once were. Without a proper soul, they come selfish, irrational, and prone to both sweeping acts of Virtue and terrible lows of Vice, with very little middle ground. One who has been fully Devoured feels nothing at all. There's nothing left to feel. A few of their bodies may continue to function in a dull, vegetative rut, but in the deepest truth, they just aren't. Eventually, they collapse into a coma, never to rise, until not just any Id, but their Id is restored. Most never rise, even then.

Shells

Here are the hollow men, the straw men...
Shells are the most common kind of Undefined, and often make perfect servants for a demon's Influences. They are mindless, painless entities, hunks of meat and bone who are highly suggestible. They are fodder for possession, manipulation, and useful shock troops against Summoners, especially the faint of heart. While they retain whatever Attributes or Skills they previously possessed, they are incapable of creativity or reason but that which is given to them by a puppetmaster. There is rarely any salvation for them, because the fight's already been lost. All they have left are to bend to the Ego of others.

Memes

Anonymous is powerful, because Anonymous is no one...but Anonymous becomes oneself, and then there is no self...there is only Anonymous. And Anonymous does not forgive.
Some demons do not take physical bodies, preferring to remain in Twilight and to play their games of Influence to better harvest Id from their victims. They use compelling rumors, internet fads, text messaging scams, and spam e-mails to draw in willing thralls. The process is slower, but much broader-reaching than simple Devouring. And what is left isn't a normal Shell. Instead of being without will, they simply become the Influence. Nothing else matters. Nothing else ever did. They will seek out their desires without morality, but with a full and wicked cunning. They quickly devolve into gibbering madness, but that only serves the purposes of the Meme. They'll bring others...and the Meme will expand through them all, like choking vines through a once-healthy forest.

Phantoms

Everyone knows the story...everyone knows the word on the street. And even if it wasn't true...rumors have a way of seeping into the empty places...and taking root.
Everyone, even the most dull and self-blind fool, leaves a ripple on his surroundings. Laws and reason are, in part, a matter of consensus, some Peasants claim. And Phantom Syndrome, as they call it, is an example of what happens when a lot of small powers combine to create a real thing from whatever bits of matter are about...people already drained of Id and susceptible to influence.
Freddy might walk down any Elm Streets in a city. A serial killer may strike again and again, in newer and wilder ways, even after being killed by the police. Vigilante heroes and famous personalities writ large may be born into the World as Phantoms, raw shells imprinted by the collective Unconscious. Some demons take particular joy in cultivating these figures, and some Phantoms even retain a part of themselves and take the fight to the demons. However, many of these see Summoners as demon worshippers or worse, leading to rather gruesome misunderstandings. After all, not all Summoners are saints, and more than one has personally researched the Phantom phenomenon with their various Arts and Definitions.

Life as a Summoner

Summoners have been at least vaguely aware of themselves and each other since at least the cultural exchange that occured across the Mediterranean. Other bands and traditions found themselves and each other through the Aryan migration. (More to come once I read some history books.) Regardless of which, they found themselves with many things in common, and reasons for both peaceful exchange and outright shadow warfare.
Since then, only the universal establishment of the Estates has really changed. The traditions have been somewhat codified by these groups, but Summoners are notoriously individualistic at times, and as such, knowing that someone is a King of Swords may mean very little about their personality, perspective, or likely course of action.

Walking With Open Eyes

On the surface, very little is distinguishable between any other human being and a Summoner. They tend to have jobs, eat food, indulge in personal activities and petty vices, and build relationships with the people around them. The difference, however, becomes more apparent when the Mirror's presence makes itself known. Most are unaware when strange rumors of serial killings appear to have no source and no sign of stopping. Few bat an eye at an unusual shape in the corner of their eye. Indeed, if they looked, it would vanish. People convince themselves that their memories are at fault when hallways seem longer than they were in the past, and the shadows seem deeper. A Summoner knows. And for better or for worse, that knowledge often begs an answer.
Summoners tend to deal with the problems with the Mirror as much out of necessity as they do out of any sense of responsibility. Quite frankly, demons tend to seek out stimulation or Shatters, both to gain what sustains them. A Summoner makes for poth a potential threat and a possible feast. If the Summoner does not seek out the demons, often the demons find them. As such, most Summoners stay in contact either with their Estate or with a few other Summoners, for the sake of safety and rapid response to dangers. Besides, who else could understand?

Estates

Across the world, the Estates exist. Rumor, myth, and legend - all very real forces in the Mirror and the World that Summoners walk- speak of powerful Summoners delving deep into the Unconscious, and wresting truths from the collective dreams of the world. Existential truth. Consensual reality. Brahman. Many concepts and ideals are attributed to this long-forgotten act, but the only verifiable result of this delve are the Estate Arts. Built around the concepts of the minor arcana, the Estates have built up orders and goals around them.
Not all Summoners are members of Estates, though most at least pay lip service to one creed or another. Those without an Estate gain no benefit from membership, but at least feel no obligations of service. In truth, most Estates ask little of their members. Do as you claim to believe. Shelter fellow members. See the Mirror in the ways that suit our interests. Occasionally, do little jobs for us. See to the needs of the other Estates in our name. Some consider these 'little favors' to be likely to grow into large ones, and keep to themselves. There is little social stigma, however, to being Untouchable. Individual opinions may vary, but with Summoner society, they always do anyway.

Jokers

Not all Summoners take part in the Estates. In fact, some find the idea of banding together against the intrusions of the Mirror to be naive at best, and counter-productive at worst. These few Summoners consider the benefits of having ready access to the Mirror world's bounties to be more than worth the costs. In fact, many of them seek out their own enlightenment by attempting to tear down the rigid barriers of the World. These few have chosen the world of demons and distortion over the world of definitions and solid truth. These Summoners are referred to as the Jokers, but rarely by themselves. And few, if any, Estate members find them to be funny.
While Summoner versus Summoner conflict is as common, if not more so, than any other human competition, when it comes to the Jokers, the choice is usually clear. Join or die. Powerful demons either serve or are outright ruled by the Jokers, and they are rumors to possess their own, potent Arts...though the costs to use them may be sanity itself. Regardless of the truth, when a Summoner becomes a Joker, they become more a Mirror entity than one of the World, and their Alter Selves take primacy...in essence, the mortal flesh becomes a small part of the Summoner's Ego, rather than the guiding core. Few Jokers maintain Identity for long.

Conception

What does it mean to possess a stronger Ego? Why do the Alter Selves become more powerful, and why are more of them able to reside within the Summoner's dreams? What would happen if the Ego developed to a complete level? Some theorize that all facets of a personality would express themselves. The number of potential selves would become mutable and innumerable. The self of flesh may fade into something truly greater, an infinite possibility. Some call this potential pinnacle Drawing the World. Others simply call it Conception.
Only a legend among the Estates, some believe that Conception grants a Summoner power over the very laws of the World. The limits of Trump would either fade or become conduits to rewrite reality as the Summoner sees fit. The World itself would buckle to the perceptions of a masterful being. In essence, one would become a god.
Others believe that Conception is an ultimate divorce from self. The limits of the Unconscious are burned away, and the Summoner becomes a part of the concept of all things. A separation from selfish want, the Summoner communes with the divinity of all things, and becomes one with all things. Whether he or she remains aware enough to guide others is a mystery. Some factions among the Summoners believe that this break from the chain of life and death has already happened numerous times, and is a possibility of all enlightened souls. Others consider this theory arrogant or mad.
In the end, as with many mysteries of the World, no one knows the absolute truth...expect perhaps the lords of the deepest parts of the Mirror, or the darkest depths of the Unconscious.