Realms, Beliefs and Legends

Realms of existence
There are several realms of existence, worlds which occupy the same space yet are only visible under certain circumstances. These are:-
* The mortal realm (reality)
* The spirit realm (the Astral World)
* The deep spirit realm (the Beyond)
* The dreaming realm (the Dreaming)

* The empty realm (the Inbetween)

Movement between the realms is possible (though not necessarily recommended) for some beings dependent upon ability.

Reality
The real world. Physical reality, the world that is the here and now. Your apartment. The store down the street. Mortal beings, everything and everyone occupying this world. That's the real world.

The Astral World
This is, for all intents and purposes, what people think about when they speak about the spirit world. It's just above tangible reality, and it's where spirits reside. It's one of the easier jumps to reality or other realms, as it's got weak points, and is intricately connected to those it is between.

The Beyond
The Beyond is the deep spirit realm. If there's a heaven or a hell, that's where it is. Wherever spirits 'move on' to? It's back there. When spirits or demons are exorcised, it's often there that they're sent. Off into the oblivion, the void, the scary abyss that looks back into you as you stare into it. No one truly knows what's there, because no one's stupid enough to try to poke the sleeping beast.

The Dreaming
The Dreaming is the realm of the imagination and is fuelled by dreams. The Dreaming is not where people go when they fall asleep and dream, rather their dreams produce energy which fuels the Dreaming. The Dreaming is the traditional home of the fae. The Dreaming is a reflection of the human world as it is based upon the energies of human's dreams - anything humans can dream about can be found in the Dreaming.

The Inbetween
The Inbetween is an empty sort of realm that is very rarely accessed. It's an ether that exists behind mirrors, a place that exists but holds nothing. Fades utilize it, and rarely spirits have been known to be trapped there. It is seen as endless corridors with 'windows' hanging in the blackness. The 'windows' are mirrors on the mortal realm. It's a desolate void, and most wouldn't contemplate ever trying to traverse it in fear that they would be trapped there.

The Shroud Eaters
Beings that scare the bejesus out of most people who encounter them. They are entities, unknown as to if they're spirits, demonic essenses, or what they are. They can pass between the realms easily and often do. Their job seems to be seeking out any intruders to a plane of existence. They seek to right any disturbances or wrongs between the realms, and show up often where the weak points between the worlds exist. As far as anyone knows they do not retain individual personalities, they are merely a species set out to do a specific task.

Religion, Belief and The Mourning Star
The world is a strange place. So is the mystical element that surrounds it. One thing that ties everything together is belief. The way the world works is that people don't worship gods because they exist...gods exist because enough people believed in them.

Meaning religions everywhere are right and wrong at the same time. It also means that once a deity is brought into being, they don't necessarily have to follow to the letter what the raving loonies that conjured him/her up wrote down about them. Sure, they tend to follow the basic personality functions that were set into place at creation. But their actions aren't dictated by any sort of religious texts.

Meet The Mourning Star. She's an entity that you don't believe in. In fact, more or less no one knows she's out there.That's because things tend to fall through the cracks sometimes in a universe where deities can behave all willy nilly however they like after they come into existence.

She's in charge of balance. She is not Satan. She is not Lucifer. She's not Hades, Kali, Yama, Anubis, Mictlantecuhtli, or any other deity of death, hell, the underworld or any other variation thereof.

She is a truly neutral force in the universe. She maintains the balance between good and evil, because it has to be maintained. She employs a lot of different types of people everywhere, has her own personal positions beneath her to operate within the world, and generally manages to pull it off nicely.

Those who cross sides do so through her. All fallen angels are her territory, as well as ascended demons. She's there for each and every one of them. There to hold their hand as the process happens. Some of them claim allegiance to her after the deed is done, but she doesn't ask for it.

The Shroud Eaters
The myth of the Shroud Eaters is found in many areas. For obvious reasons, it is most commonly spread when DreamWalkers get together, for they are the ones who are not only susceptible to such a creature, but also able to spread the experience. That said, it is not thought that there is a DreamWalker alive today who has ever encountered such a thing.

The story goes that Shroud Eaters are beings of the between - and by 'between' what is meant is that they are beings which exist between the fabric of not only this reality, but all realities - they exist in the spaces between the planes, the dimensions, the realms. They are hunters, some say guardians - their remit is, apparently, to protect the sanctity of the realms, to cleanse them of intruders. Their targets are those who do not belong. Their prey are DreamWalkers in dreams, spirits who remain on the mortal plane. Any other who venture into a world to which they do not belong.

One curiosity is the fact that they do not attack fae who live on the mortal plane. Some say this is because fae belong to both worlds, others say it is simply luck, or that nobody has lived to bear witness to the slaughter of the fae. Whatever the reason, the truth is that legends of Shroud Eaters do not run as strong amongst the fae.

The Haunted Hotel
The Landmark Inn in Marquette, on the shores of the lake, is said to be haunted by several apparitions. Some come and go, only to be seen on certain nights of the year, but one room - the Lilac room - is the haunt of a young woman, said to be a librarian and rumoured to actually be Sally Besley, who worked at the local library in the 1930s. She met and fell in love with a sailor - a whirlwind romance which ended as he left, promising that he would return and marry her after one last trip. Her sailor never returned and she pined away until she died the following year. She now haunts the Lilac Room, which has a view out over Superior, waiting for her love to return.

The Old City Orphanage

It is said that the orphanage on Fisher Street in Marquette is haunted. It is true (thought repeatedly denied by the authorities) is that the place has a horrible history. The children who lived in this orphanage – which was run by an order of nuns – were terribly abused. It is said that one boy was beaten so badly that he died and a funeral was held for him in the basement for only children and faculty, before burying him in the middle of the night in the nearby cemetery. Another girl went outside to play in a blizzard and died from exposure. For days after this, the nuns displayed her body in the foyer as an example to the other children of what happened to naughty children who play outside.

As well as the reports of haunting, people who are sensitive to such things have stated that the building and grounds give off an aura of evil, as though there is a malevolent presence lurking within.

The orphanage still stands, however it has been abandoned now for some years and half of the windows and doors are boarded up.

The Mine Shaft
The local area is littered with mines, some working, others now abandoned. It is not uncommon for there to be reports of such shafts being haunted and strange events happen around these places. One such is a shaft known as 'C Shaft', or Cliff Shafts Mine. In all likelihood, the rumours and myths which hover around this place are simply a result of the design, which resembles an Egyptian obelisk. Whatever the result, tales are told of noises and lights being heard and seen on various nights of the year and back in the 1970s there was rumour of cult activity, though nobody could say what a cult would want with an old mine shaft.