[DL] The Spirit world.

[Brom Clancy <spleen23@webtrolls.com>]

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Okay here’s the idea:

The Hunting ground is the local interface for the 
spirit world, let’s call this interface the Metaphor. 
The Metaphor is the place where humans and spirits 
can meet and various Arcanes can tap into to get 
power for their powers. The Metaphor for a area is 
shaped by the beliefs of the local inhabitants, so in 
America it’s the Hunting ground. In other places the 
Hunting ground is not just called something else, 
it’s truly a different place, in Europe it’s called 
Under the Hill, the lands of the fair folk. This 
would fit in with fairy tales where 20 years can pass 
in a night, or you enter in one place and exit miles 
away, this also fits in with the stories of not 
eating fairy food since food in the spirit world may 
keep you alive there for years, but would leave you 
starved to death the moment you exit if you rely on 
it for substanace. In Egypt it’s the Lands of the 
Dead, in Australia, the Dreamtime, in China, the 
Celestial bureaucracy. 

The Meraphors are home to the local spirits such as 
Nature spirits and Manitou, and the local Powers. 
Powers are the spirits which can be identified by a 
name or at least a description, the Guardian spirits 
of the Indian, the Loa of the Voodooists and Demons 
are examples of these.

Beyond and inbetween these places is a featureless 
void unshaped by human belief, the Astral plane of 
mystics.

Beyond the Astral planes and the Metaphors are the 
homes of the Higher powers, thems being the Divine 
powers that the Blessed serve and the Infernal powers 
such as the Recogners that the Black magicians serve.

Most Metaphors contain a means of accessing the 
Higher powers, the great tree in the Hunting grounds 
is one example.

Under this theory Huckster do not tap into the 
Hunting grounds to match wits with a Manitou, they 
create a personal Metaphor in the Astral plane 
centered on a poker table. This personal Metaphor 
exists only for the amount of time it takes the 
Huckster and the Manitou to play one hand of poker, 
then its gone.

Anyways, that’s is my working theory of how the 
spirit realm works in Deadlands, does anyone know of 
anything published that contradicts it?

Based on this theory, Here is one idea for a lesser 
Metaphor.

The Last chance Saloon:
A Metaphor of a classy Western gambling house set up 
by a group of associated Hucksters as a meeting 
place. Instead of creating a whole new Metaphor every 
time they cast a hex, these Hucksters go to the same 
place each time where they then have the chance to 
meet together at certain set times, or just run into 
each other when they happen to be casting a Hex at 
the same time. The spirit who “Owns” the place is one 
Jack Bain, a formally harrowed Huckster who got 
himself killed rather then let his Manitou take 
Dominion. Bain’s constant presence here is what 
allows the Saloon to maintain its existence. The 
Bartender is a disgruntled Manitou named the Burned 
Man, who everyone calls Mr. Krisps.