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notsoscaryshadowThoughts and feelings -- rejected, denied -- find their way to the realm of Shadows. That's their nature, and its nature as well. The realm becomes saturated with their energy, and it condenses, becomes like mass, where enough of it gathers.
People fancy themselves good, so they reject their violent urges. They tell themselves they're nice, and deny their darker thoughts, their socially unacceptable desires, and try to cultivare more charitable attitudes.
And the people, doing this, are usually pleasant enough to each other, and thus the Shadow world is filled with what they don't like about themselves. The wants they go without. Their fears, their insecurities... their hopes.
The Shadows are those things. Or rather, they're made of them. They have little form on their own; it's by the minds of those that behold them, that their images are dictated, mirroring expectations and beliefs.
A fog fills that realm of rejected thought, itself a Shadow, for when what's there is unclear, surely it must be for a reason? So the fog was born, an excuse which also helped to mirror people's beliefs. If someone saw a shape in the fog, that shape could be anything.
And people tend to fear what they don't know, what they don't understand.
Lost in a foggy world, where they expect to be becomes the landscape. It's always familiar; sometimes it's a reflection of reality. Sometimes it's a reflection of an inner reality, of where they yearn to be, whether they realize it consciously or not. Finding themselves in fog seems to make all things possible, and with the Shadows (the realm itself, for it's made of them) reflecting expectation, there is no reality to disappoint, to shake the illusion, only more Shadows to reinforce it. Expecting to find one's house, one finds it, and in finding it, expects the familiar details, and so finds those, and like so, one can easily become convinced of what they see around them.
That is the nature of the fog, the nature of the realm's lies. Drawn from people's own hearts, they aren't always easy to deny.
Lost in fog, alone, can be confusing, or even frightening. And people tend to fear what they don't know, what they don't understand. If someone saw a shape in the fog, that shape could be anything. That creeping fear sinks in that the shape may be a threat (a primal survival instinct, certainly, for self-protection) and this thought, a back-of-the-mind suspicion, belief, shapes the reality: the Shadow becomes a threat (the survival instinct, used so long for protection, becomes one's most powerful foe) and the very forms one most hopes it isn't (one's instinct, dwelling on those ideas, if not intentionally, produce a reaction, elicit fear, a feeling which gives power to this realm, as all feelings tend to do) become the very forms the Shadows then take, behavior likewise falling in line with expectations.
One's fear directs the Shadows to become fearsome. Fearsome Shadows reinforce the belief in their aggression. Belief in their aggression prompts their aggressiveness. It's a cycle, a hall of mirrors. But the seed needs to be planted, the idea there to begin with.
The innocent, the unwary, those who hold no fear in their hearts for the unknown... they are the ones who pass safely through the foggy realm.
And it isn't impossible to see a Shadow yet without form; when one fully expects to be able to see through the fog, one can. To alter one's own belief is a trial; to alter another's is far simpler. Frame it in a device: glasses, or eyedrops, or something else convincing, as in the fog's realm, placebos and suggestions are far, far more effective than not. Belief dictates the Shadows' reality.
The energy in the fog realm (people's thoughts, feelings) is free, and it becomes like mass, when enough of it gathers, condenses. Shadows naturally exist in this state: not quite energy, not quite solid, but becoming like either, reflecting what one may already suspect, deep down. They're dark, shadowy (it's so easy, to not see details that don't yet exist, when they hold in all the light, like wisps of black holes, visually impenetrable) and vary in size and strength (for not all energy ends up in one place, nor in equal distribution, all the time) and aren't sapient on their own (not naturally; they're made of people's thoughts and feelings, their denied aspects, but usually of everyone's together, in small parts, and only more rarely of one source strongly enough to be coherent.)
And it is not impossible, that one can see a small Shadow... and not be afraid.
Small enough, it could surely do no significant harm. Small enough, it could surely pose no threat at all.
Belief dictates reality.
One person assumes, projects their expectation (deliberately or not), and the little Shadow is tamed. Seeing it docile, others believe, and thus the trait is reinforced. Behaviors become expected, mental states assumed: its reactions to various things, its disposition. Mind is attributed, beyond random reflection of same. Life is assumed -- and so it is what the Shadow mimics.
Not all Shadows are hostile. As belief dictates reality, so some Shadows have been shaped by those who believe, who want to believe, into something more pleasant. Something small. Something friendly. Something blobby and black, and soft.
A not-so-scary little Shadow.
People fancy themselves good, so they reject their violent urges. They tell themselves they're nice, and deny their darker thoughts, their socially unacceptable desires, and try to cultivare more charitable attitudes.
And the people, doing this, are usually pleasant enough to each other, and thus the Shadow world is filled with what they don't like about themselves. The wants they go without. Their fears, their insecurities... their hopes.
The Shadows are those things. Or rather, they're made of them. They have little form on their own; it's by the minds of those that behold them, that their images are dictated, mirroring expectations and beliefs.
A fog fills that realm of rejected thought, itself a Shadow, for when what's there is unclear, surely it must be for a reason? So the fog was born, an excuse which also helped to mirror people's beliefs. If someone saw a shape in the fog, that shape could be anything.
And people tend to fear what they don't know, what they don't understand.
Lost in a foggy world, where they expect to be becomes the landscape. It's always familiar; sometimes it's a reflection of reality. Sometimes it's a reflection of an inner reality, of where they yearn to be, whether they realize it consciously or not. Finding themselves in fog seems to make all things possible, and with the Shadows (the realm itself, for it's made of them) reflecting expectation, there is no reality to disappoint, to shake the illusion, only more Shadows to reinforce it. Expecting to find one's house, one finds it, and in finding it, expects the familiar details, and so finds those, and like so, one can easily become convinced of what they see around them.
That is the nature of the fog, the nature of the realm's lies. Drawn from people's own hearts, they aren't always easy to deny.
Lost in fog, alone, can be confusing, or even frightening. And people tend to fear what they don't know, what they don't understand. If someone saw a shape in the fog, that shape could be anything. That creeping fear sinks in that the shape may be a threat (a primal survival instinct, certainly, for self-protection) and this thought, a back-of-the-mind suspicion, belief, shapes the reality: the Shadow becomes a threat (the survival instinct, used so long for protection, becomes one's most powerful foe) and the very forms one most hopes it isn't (one's instinct, dwelling on those ideas, if not intentionally, produce a reaction, elicit fear, a feeling which gives power to this realm, as all feelings tend to do) become the very forms the Shadows then take, behavior likewise falling in line with expectations.
One's fear directs the Shadows to become fearsome. Fearsome Shadows reinforce the belief in their aggression. Belief in their aggression prompts their aggressiveness. It's a cycle, a hall of mirrors. But the seed needs to be planted, the idea there to begin with.
The innocent, the unwary, those who hold no fear in their hearts for the unknown... they are the ones who pass safely through the foggy realm.
And it isn't impossible to see a Shadow yet without form; when one fully expects to be able to see through the fog, one can. To alter one's own belief is a trial; to alter another's is far simpler. Frame it in a device: glasses, or eyedrops, or something else convincing, as in the fog's realm, placebos and suggestions are far, far more effective than not. Belief dictates the Shadows' reality.
The energy in the fog realm (people's thoughts, feelings) is free, and it becomes like mass, when enough of it gathers, condenses. Shadows naturally exist in this state: not quite energy, not quite solid, but becoming like either, reflecting what one may already suspect, deep down. They're dark, shadowy (it's so easy, to not see details that don't yet exist, when they hold in all the light, like wisps of black holes, visually impenetrable) and vary in size and strength (for not all energy ends up in one place, nor in equal distribution, all the time) and aren't sapient on their own (not naturally; they're made of people's thoughts and feelings, their denied aspects, but usually of everyone's together, in small parts, and only more rarely of one source strongly enough to be coherent.)
And it is not impossible, that one can see a small Shadow... and not be afraid.
Small enough, it could surely do no significant harm. Small enough, it could surely pose no threat at all.
Belief dictates reality.
One person assumes, projects their expectation (deliberately or not), and the little Shadow is tamed. Seeing it docile, others believe, and thus the trait is reinforced. Behaviors become expected, mental states assumed: its reactions to various things, its disposition. Mind is attributed, beyond random reflection of same. Life is assumed -- and so it is what the Shadow mimics.
Not all Shadows are hostile. As belief dictates reality, so some Shadows have been shaped by those who believe, who want to believe, into something more pleasant. Something small. Something friendly. Something blobby and black, and soft.
A not-so-scary little Shadow.
