Table of Contents
The Veil. The Unseen. Heaven or Hell. Tir Na Nog, the mists of Avalon -- or Hades. Manifestations of the psyche. The dream world. The subconscious mind. The Other Side. All those names and more refer to other worlds, alter-realities that residents of Gray Harbor interact with, and sometimes visit. The preferred term depends on the personal belief and experiences of the person you ask.
Topography
There is something beneath the surface -- or through it, or beside it. Something next to our own world, as close as lovers, touching in places. It has no formal name. Those who have seen or felt it often liken it to a Veil: Gossamer thin, translucent -- and it can open, or tear apart. In places, the Veil has thinned enough that the other side seeps through, like grains of sand through fine lace, a sprinkling, a dusting -- but those grains of sand can chafe.
The layout of the Veil near a thin point mirrors the real world. Places where the Veil is thinnest have more similaries to the real world. In the area surrounding Gray Harbor, the Veil mirrors the general topography of the entire town.
Yet, even in the near-mirror areas of the Veil it is not a true reflection. The Veil occupies a spiritual and psychic plane of existence, and the protrusions of the real world inside shift and distort. The landscape is malleable, changed by events of the real world, and by the feelings and bias of the people viewing it. Someone familiar with the layout of the town of Gray Harbor is able to navigate its Veil counterpart with relative ease.
Travel away from the thin points and the Veil unravels into a confusing mindscape with little or no adherence to reality. Here, the dreamscape takes root. It's in the far reaches of the Veil that most Dreams take place: Where things don't even have to pretend to be real. Distance has no meaning and reality has no sway over the events that occur here.
A person using the Physical Aspect to open a door into the Veil in a thin point such as Gray Harbor is likely to arrive at a roughly corresponding place on the other side. (Attempting it outside of one, say in Seattle, is difficult at best, impossible for most, and dangerous -- they could wind up anywhere in the Veil, or even in the fluid realities beyond.) Within Gray Harbor, there are two rifts known to be more or less static: at the old lumber mill, at Gray Pond. These are the easiest spots to cross over, and almost guaranteed to drop you off in their corresponding area. The downside is that then you're going to be in their corresponding area...
Please read the What Your Character Should Know section of this article for specifics about how much your character will know. Much of the information in this article is OOC information that may not immediately be available to your character IC.
Thin Points
The places where the Veil is thinnest vary from stabilized phenomenon to fleeting moments. Sometimes, the Veil thins somewhere for a time and then re-knits itself, sealing away those things that seek to seep into our reality. Sometimes it tears, ripping away. This is where the monsters flock.
When there is pain and suffering, the monsters that feed on dark emotion gather, prodding at the Veil, seeking to pry it loose. But it also parts at times of remarkable accomplishment -- moments when mankind transcends its current boundaries. Does this mean there aren't just monsters feeding on pain, but also unknowable powers which feast on joy and accomplishment? ... perhaps.
The Veil is thin on the Golden Gate Bridge, in Chernobyl, at the Pyramids of Giza, at the Large Hadron Collider, along the Great Wall of China, at the Rock of Uluru, at Chichén Itza... and at Gray Harbor.
There are Thin Points in the Veil scattered across the world. The list below is far from exhaustive. These are some of the longest lasting and thus most prominent and "well-known" places where the Veil has grown thin.
Chernobyl - Pripyat, Northern Ukraine - This is a small, contained thin point that's actually right inside what's left of Reactor Number 4. As such, few people have ever gone over to the other side there and lived to tell about it. The Veil around this region is unstable. The entire exclusion zone is overrun with creatures that feed on the gruesome expectations of the tourists and Chernobyl "enthusiasts." The HBO miniseries has excited new interest in the area, but there's still very little known. Trying to step into the Veil from the exclusion zone leads to the Dreamscape; the only point of overlap is directly inside the reactor.
Island of the Dolls - Mexico City, Mexico - This is a young thin spot that's stabilised since the Storm of the Century. The Veil in the area about a mile around where Santana died of his heart attack is a twisted mirror of the real world, where the dolls are wary and aggressive. Some attempt to drown anyone that steps into their territory. The Mexico City Glimmer set has been attempting to create a relative safe area on the chinampa; their success is mixed.
Capuchin Catacombs - Palermo, Sicily, Italy - Once of notable size, the thin point here has shrunk as tourism has increased. Now, it is only the Monks' Corridor that still serves as a thin point. On the other side, the room is identical, as if its imprint is a perfect mirror of the real world. Leaving the room, though, one steps into the Dreamscape.
Beelitz-Heilstätten Hospital - Beelitz, Germany - Here, the thin point is contained to the surgery ward. The other side brims with wounded soldiers, suffering all the terrible pains that came with hospitalization during World War II. They seem trapped in an infinite loop of their lives as they were right around 1945.
Centralia, Pennsylvania - The entire abandoned down is a thin point here, but only if one is able to enter the underground. A labyrinth of inter-connected tunnels seem to lead deeper and deeper into the earth; it would be easy to get lost forever trying to navigate this bizarre underground. Surrounding the perimeter, there's a ring of impenetrable fire that walls off the tunnels.
The Shanghai Tunnels - Portland, Oregon - Once a dangerous Thin Point, in the wake of the Storm of the Century of June 2021, this Thin Point has stabilized. The primary entrances in the Shanghai Tunnels themselves are maintained by the Portland Glimmer set. Beyond those, the labyrinth spreads out, some say endlessly. No one has quite mapped the extent of the tunnels and where, if anywhere, they might lead.
Roswell, New Mexico - This was a large and powerful thin point back in the 1950s which shrank during the 1990s. After the Storm of the Century, a strange 'desert highway' opened between the town and what was once the distant, winking city. The city itself is poorly defined and shifts constantly, and those who've risked the Veil trip on the desert road have trouble describing it.
South Manitou Island - Lake Michigan - The landscape of the island is a mirror of the real world, with dilapidated buildings and tiny creatures that aren't unlike their real world counterparts. The perimeter of the island is bombarded with ships wrecking themselves against the shore, splinters of wood and bone crashing the coast and flying inland. It makes for a good deterrent to trying to go beyond the thin point.
Fort Point Rock, Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, California - This Thin Point, long thought closed for decades, re-opened some time in August 2021. Word is if you cross into the Veil at Fort Point Rock, the bridge is there, singing a melody that will bring you to tears. The bridge disappears into dense fog, with no view of Lime Point beyond it as you might see in the Real. Phantom, ghostly cars race along both decks of the span. Thus far, anyone who's walked along the bridge into that fog has never come back out.
Oakland Cemetery - Atlanta, Georgia - This Thin Point, briefly closed from 2019-2021, has come open once more. It's not clear why, or if any specific event triggered it. On the other side the sky is a permanent gradient of blue to purple to black, a new moon shining in the sky. Stone and cement statuary roams the area, as do multitudes of ghosts from centuries past.
These are Thin Points in the Veil known to no longer be accessible. The list is by no means exhaustive.
Wrexham, Wales, U.K. - Few people can say they've crossed over here, since it requires going down to the depths of the mines that were once at the site. This thin point is 2,264 feet (690 m) underground, so even getting down there is going to be almost impossible - since it's just shy of half a mile in a mineshaft closed since 1934. There, the scenery is similar to Centralia, made of a maze of tunnels that seem to interconnect with no rhyme or reason. Instead of walls of flame, though, the tunnels dead-end. There's no way to reach the surface, and many who venture here have been lost to the crippling sense of claustrophobia.
Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina - This Thin Point closed completely sometime in late 2019 or early 2020. It was centered on the Markale Market Place.
Yuma Territorial Prison - Yuma, Arizona - This Thin Point closed completely sometime in late 2019 or early 2020.
Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum - Weston, West Virginia - This Thin Point closed completely sometime in late 2019 or early 2020.
Aokigahara - Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan - This is a constantly shifting thin spot appears to have evaporated some time after the Storm of the Century.
Rancho Santa Fe, California (Heaven's Gate Suicide) - This Thin Point closed completely sometime in late 2019 or early 2020.
Memory Gaps
For those who do not Glimmer, leaving an area around a Thin Spot (such as Gray Harbor) causes their memories to alter. They lose clear recollections of the strange happenings occuring near the event horizon, and their memories re-order themselves to make logical, real-world sense.
Even those who Glimmer feel the effects of this memory shift over time. The stronger their connection to the Veil the longer it takes and the more likely they are to retain the truth. Even so, if they do not remain proximate to the Veil, they will begin to rewrite their own history. Sometimes, they remember the truth if they are re-exposed to it. But not always. Things that were clearly so very wrong change, and what seemed bizarre is repainted in a more tolerable shade.
"I wonder how much - or how little - they remember. I am somehow convinced that they don't remember any of it, because they don't need to remember... And because they're scattered to the four winds, they have no way of knowing the identical patterns their lives have taken. To bring them back, to show them that pattern... yes, it might kill some of them. It might kill all of them." -- Stephen King, It
People living near a Thin Spot learn to cope -- or turn a blind eye; whatever survival takes. Even those who can't feel the effects have to deal with the consequences; the sense that something is off around here. Of course there aren't monsters under the bed. That's just ridiculous.
The further from the event horizon the hazier the memories, until they settle into a vague recollection yet normal. News of strange happenings never seem to hit mainstream media, reports of brutality and savagery die in the cold light of day. Thus, the monsters protect their hunting grounds.
The Veil and Fame
The closer a character lives to a stable Thin Point, the more likely they are to become fuzzy in the minds of those outside the Thin Point who don't Glimmer. This can have a curious effect on fame and popularity, depending on the kind of fame your character has.
Name/Brand Recognition
This functions in a way which is best thought of as the Thomas Pynchon Effect. If a famous person with a brand or business moves to Gray Harbor, they may become uncertain in the minds of mundane people, but their brand continues just fine (assuming it's doing well otherwise). This is named for the author Thomas Pynchon, whose books have been best sellers and are known world-wide, yet almost no photographs of him exist, nor does anyone save his agent seem to actually know him. If 'Jim Bluebaker' of 'Bluebaker Hats', a popular brand of baseball cap, moves to Gray Harbor, over the course of several months he might go from the grandson of the founder to 'that guy who's the CEO of Bluebaker Hats, he lives somewhere in California'.
Face/Personality Recognition
When it comes to personalities like TV shows, Twitch, or YouTube Channels, they become the face their followers can never seem to name or describe despite having watched that show/stream/channel for years. 'Oh, I know that YouTube channel! I watch it all the time! It's by... um... that girl with... the hair... anyways it's great.' This will prevent meteoric recognition, though they can still exist as a local/niche personality or have a cult following. For every streamer with twenty thousand active viewers and a million followers, there are a hundred making a living with a fraction of that. A character who's an internet or TV personality and moves to Gray Harbor will be closer to the later category after some time here, if they're not already in it. (And if they are, nothing much will change!)
What Your Character Should Know
The background skill Veil Lore speaks to how much knowledge a character has about the Veil. Most of this information should be acquired on camera; some characters will know more than others at the beginning of play.
Townies who Glimmer know that there's something off about Gray Harbor. If they are newly experiencing their powers, they may not yet know about the Veil specifically, but they know that they feel less attuned to their abilities when they leave the city. Those with more Glimmer experience have probably already had experiences with the Veil, and some may even have heard the term "the Veil."
Outsiders who Glimmer will immediately feel that Gray Harbor has a strong psychic energy. If they've been near other tears in the Veil, they are able to recognise this place for what it is: a weak point where their own abilities will be intensified. Some may have heard about Gray Harbor as a place for "people like them," and others may have just found their life intersects with the city somehow. They will also notice a higher concentration of people who Glimmer in town than elsewhere in the world.
Those who don't Glimmer know very little about the Veil, unless someone has gone out of their way to enlighten them (and even then it rarely sticks). They may be party or witness to strange things happening, but they invariably find some way to rationalise these occurrences. When they leave town, their memories quickly slip, so that anything other than the idea that Gray Harbor is a sad little town gets overwritten by a perfectly reasonable explanation.
When you are 'in the know'
Veil researchers and others with long term exposure to Gray Harbor's weirdness may know that the term 'the Veil' has been around too long to trace its origins. Cultures around the world inevitably have legends about veils and gateways and dark spirits, all of which may vary in terminology but seem consistent with the kind of weirdness that goes on near thin spots.
- There are thin points across the globe. Most are in a state of flux, forming and dissipating over time as the course of human events shift psychic energies. A few are semi-permanent; the thin spot in Gray Harbor is one of those.
- Thin points frequently accompany bursts of inspiration of periods of human ingenuity, such as the Renaissance, the space race, the American Civil Rights movement, etc. This gives rise to the surety that the Veil itself is neither good nor bad; it just exists.
- Although there are no records from prior to Gray Harbor's original "western" settlers, there are indications that the Quinault tribe knew the area as dark and dangerous. They aren't inclined to share much of their knowledge about the region. Indigenous tribes worldwide have legends of dark spirits predating humanity.
- There is no single physical place in Gray Harbor where the Veil is truly thinnest. The whole town seems to be very 'close to the surface'. There are persistent local rumours and stories of hauntings and cryptid sightings near the old lumber mill and near Gray Pond.
More information should be acquired on camera if at all possible, through events and through talking with other characters with first-hand experience. If there are specific issues that you feel your character should know more about or is investigating, you may also direct questions to staff via plot requests.
Out of Character Info
"The Veil" is the term we're using to suggest the unseen world. It can be used interchangeably to suggest the thing that separates the "real" world from the spirit or supernatural world, or the actual psychic plane itself.
While there is a physical place where the Veil is thinnest, the entire town of Gray Harbor is so close to the Veil that whatever is on the other side bleeds through on a regular basis. Almost everyone in the world is completely oblivious to this other world. Normal people might feel it sometimes - when the hairs raise on the back of their neck - but they are largely able to live normal lives, unmolested by the existence of anything 'other.' Or they aren't, in which case they become statistics.
Because of the thinness of the Veil at Gray Harbor, it has a much higher concentration of those who Glimmer. Their lives naturally order themselves so they arrive at places like Gray Harbor. Sometimes, they're aware of it, and sometimes they aren't. The events of their lives play out to bring them here, where they can either help keep the monsters at bay. Or they can let them in.
Over time, places where the Veil thins may heal naturally on their own, or they may be ripped open until something catastrophic escapes. When a place of thinness closes, those that feel the Veil's power often find the course of the lives shift, and they disperse.
To borrow a metaphor, the Veil can be like a Black Hole: Nothing escapes its event horizon. The strangeness that comes from being proximate to the Veil dissipates when the tear is mended, and the sense of what happened there blurs as one moves away from it. About 25 miles outside the city limits of Gray Harbor, the strangeness of the city blurs into a general sense that it's just a weird town. Rumors leak out about bizarre happenings, but -- by and large -- people justify the strangeness somehow.
Think of the Salem Witch Trials: the entire town went mad, convinced there were witches; through the lens of history, we tend to assume there was something else at foot (ergot poisoning or simple mass hysteria). Or the Mandela Effect: the rest of the world remembers it differently, and that becomes truth, and people are forced to assume they're just wrong. That's how the Veil protects itself. Outside its influence, people come up with logical reasons that something happened, and their memories rewrite themselves.
For those who were exposed to the Veil, there may always be a lingering doubt - the knowledge that something happened, but the inability to pinpoint exactly what it was.