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Veilwalking is crossing the Veil in its entirety, reaching into the other dimensions, and physically transporting one's body and mind into those realms to wander there freely as if it was Aloria. Veilwalking is not something that can be done on the server because we don't have cross-dimensional builds, but it can be something your character can do and adds to their backstory. This page explains how to become a Veilwalker, how Veilwalking is done, and the potential risks and benefits of Veilwalking. This page is part of the wider Magic page, so navigate back to this page for more info.
Becoming a Veilwalker
Every Veilwalker is a mage, but not every mage is a Veilwalker. Veil walking is generally a dangerous thing to do, so most mages do not consider it worth the effort or risk. Whatever the assessment, it is necessary to be a mage before one can consider veil walking. A Veilwalker can only transport themselves to the realms they are Aligned to; see Magic Dimensions for more information. If a mage is aligned to the Eidolon and Anima, for example, this means they can veil walk into these dimensions but not any others. Veilwalking is a skill taught from mage to mage; a Veilwalker can always teach another mage how to veilwalk, and they do not necessarily need to be connected to the same dimensions to do so. Once someone completes their first veil walking and enters another dimension, they are officially a Veilwalker. Note, there is a distinct difference between a person who chooses to enter a dimension by their own act, called a Veilwalker, and a person who is forced into another dimension by a third party force or entity called a Veilpassenger.
Veil Walking Risks
The risks to veil walking are vast, so very few mages ever invest in the skill. Inherently, any kind of interaction with other dimensions is dangerous, as is well described on the Magic page. Any mage may be subject to possession by a Demon if they are careless, and energies from other realms often act as corrosive substances on a mortal body, making the forces involved very dangerous. Outside of the usual problems caused by Magic itself, such as the need to vent and the risk of residual mutation, veil walking has some dangers unique to it:
- While mages are subject to demonic possession, veil walkers have that risk twicefold. Mages are often the only mortal bodies Demons can possess because of their strong connections to the home dimensions of the Demons, but Veilwalkers are so much more tempting, specifically because of their ability to enter and leave dimensions at will. Demons are unable to cross the Veil without outside help either from Aloria or from some greater power, and so if a Demon were to possess or dominate a Veilwalker, they would be able to cross the Veil at will at any time.
- Veil walkers are considered objects of prestige among Demons and entities who reside exclusively in their native dimensions. Having a veil walker pet (even while not possessing them) as a powerful Abyss Demon Duke is considered prestigious among Demons, and also useful as veil walkers speak the languages of the mortal world and are able to inform those who reside exclusively beyond the veil what the mortal world is like. At any given time, dozens of veil walkers live in a captive state in the dimensions, praying to one day break free, though few ever do without outside help.
- Veilwalkers can become trapped in the dimension they have veil-walked into for a variety of reasons. Mortals are always exotic beings beyond the veil, and even non-sentient Demonic entities or forces might be attracted to their presence. The Anima is known to be such an alluringly beautiful world that the enrapturing vistas and views are enough to ensnare a veil walker into not wanting to leave. The longer a veil walker stays in another dimension, the more aspects they take on from that dimension in their mind and body, even if they never fully become Demons.
- A rare risk of Veil walking is becoming trapped in the veil itself and not finding one's way out. The Veil is an immaterial place with no clear beginning or end, no light, and no darkness. When veil walkers prepare to cross the veil, they have to go through an intensive ritual to pre-plan their trajectory, beginning point and end-place, and their return journey. If all works well, the jump into another dimension is near instantaneous, like stepping through a mirror. If they fail, they are forever falling into a shapeless vortex from which few could ever escape without Draconic intervention.
Preparing a Veil Crossing
Even the most skilled Veil walkers cannot instantly cross the boundary at will. It is entirely impractical to try and slip into the Abyss in the middle of a fight as strenuous preparations must be made. The first stage of veil walking is to align the position of the celestial bodies and stars, as the Veil can roughly be mapped on the starry night sky, with each dimension having a fixed location corresponding to a series of celestial objects. It is possible to veil walk during the day, but most veil walkers do it at night to improve successfully landing in the right location. Secondly is to prepare a safe place from which to commune with the veil to open the connection. This is not too dissimilar from casting Magic, but instead of casting Magic, one leaves the veil open for a period of time to get used to the feeling, to allow quick transition. Third, the veil walker must weave veil protection wards and hiding wards on themselves, if they have no protections beyond the veil, then Demons will come after them like a bright beacon of light wherever they land. These wards ensure that the Demons cannot smell them out from miles away, and that most lesser Demons cannot even see them. Finally, they cast the spell to open the gateway, which can form on solid objects like mirrors or walls, or be summoned in mid air in front of the veil walker, for them and potentially one other person to step through. Obviously, if other people are involved, wards must be placed on their bodies also, though non-Mage Veilpassengers tend to not attract as much Demonic attention. In most cases, a veilwalker will enter the realm and return in the same location, that is after all the safest way to do it. In an emergency situation, a veilwalker may try to eject from the realm they have entered in case a Demon has started chasing them, in which they may not be able to return exactly where they left, and appear somewhere else randomly. This can be dangerous, as a veilwalker might get stuck in a locked storage room, or be dumped in the middle of the ocean in Aloria after emergency ejecting. In essence, veilwalking cannot be used as a way to bridge distances in Aloria, return trips are not reliable enough when done outside of returning exactly where one left off.
The Veilwalker Experience
Once one has landed in the dimension beyond the Veil, the experience differs greatly from dimension to dimension, and exactly where a veil walker might have entered. While most veil walkers try to land in familiar locations, this cannot always be guaranteed, and subtle differences in celestial object orbits or even error in spell weaving can result in the veil walker landing in the wrong location. Each dimension has places with high concentrations of Demons, and expanded wilderness as it is commonly referred to, but the wilderness is hardly safe to be in either. Each dimension has distinct societies and cultures within it, and even some entities that would pass for wild life and plant life in the mortal world.
The Abyss
The Abyss is described as an endless red-sand desert, where the sky is always a maelstrom of bright red and black, with floating obsidian obelisks and black multiple black suns on the horizon that rapidly orbit. The vast wasteland expanse is occasionally interrupted by tower-cities inhabited by Demons, though unlike Alorian cities with functional societies, these tower-cities act more like huge taverns or pubs where thousands of patrons engage in whatever activity they seek satisfaction in. Demon Dukes lord over the population from the tips of these spires, and make wars across the skies and the red sands with other Demon lords for ego and selfish desires. One unique aspect of the Abyss, is Kemet, a vast city-state that resides in the western portion of the desert that is the perfect resemblance of the Dewamenet capital caught moments before the Elves wove their spells that ended the Allorn Empire. It is almost exclusively inhabited by Kemet Demons, Dewamenet Asha who became trapped in the Abyss when Gahan transported it in. Kemet is both at once a safe place for veil walkers, and an exceptionally dangerous one. Because the city is caught in a forever-loop of the last day of the Dewamenet Empire, and because the Dewamenet Empire was a melting pot of cultures, veil walkers can generally safely navigate the city and partake in city life as it was in the Dewamenet era without being noticed. However, it is also exceptionally dangerous, because the Demon Dukes of Kemet are the most hostile of all Abyss Demons to veil walkers, and always seek to capture them so they can use their bodies as vehicles to escape the Abyss.
The Eidolon
The Eidolon is described as a pristine world that is entirely flat, like a never-ending slab of white marble upon which everything else is imposed. Instead of forests, there are perfectly arranged crystal spires in geometric placement so that optical illusions of repeated patterns are seen across all angles. The sky is filled with lines and circular shapes that intersect with the golden ratio, and everything is always bright and well lit, despite a lack of light-sources in the world. The Eidolon does not have conventional cities or structures, rather the Demons that reside within it follow eternal processions with their Demon Duke at the head, and lesser Demons following in what can best be described as a solemn and spiritual promenade. These beings levitate across the smooth and clear surface of the world in a long line with banners that seem to stretch for hundreds of feet, each participant dressed in finery and jewelry that gently dances. It is exceedingly dangerous for veil walkers to approach these processions while they are on the move, because they are at once an expression of Demonic culture, and watchdog for the perfection of the world they inhabit. If they witness a veil walker approaching, this is considered an affront to the ordained perfection of the world, and they will try to violently remove it. The only times when veil walkers have succeeded in approaching processions, was during rest periods, where they halt their motion, the Demon Duke enters a state of contemplative trance, and all other Demons arrange themselves in circular rings around the Demon Duke descending by importance and rank. During this time, the Eidolon Demons are less hostile to intrusions, and will even show kindness to veil walkers. On average, Eidolon Demons seem far less interested in possessing veil walkers while they exist in the Eidolon, more motivated by removing imperfect intrusions.
The Anima
The Anima is the most difficult world to describe for a veil walker, because it is so varied. It is equally endless like all other dimensions, but has clear cardinal wind-directions of north, east, south, west, and distinct environments and cultures within them. The Anima is the most Aloria like, in that it has climates, cities, seas, mountains, deserts, forests, and so much more. It does not only have palaces inhabited by Anima Fae Demons, but vast cities inhabited by mortals transported from all manner of timelines and realities, sometimes even alternate timeline versions of the same person. Unlike many of the other realms, Anima Demons are actually very small in number, while the majority of the Anima is inhabited by so-called Moxy Demons, which are like Fae Demons, but not strictly sentient or intelligent, acting more like animals. The Fae Demons themselves are capricious towards mortals and veil walkers, sometimes they are extremely hostile and enjoy tormenting them, and other times they will actively help them avoid capture by other Fae Demons. The nature of the Fae is that they are arbitrary but generally like mortals for the entertainment they can offer. The Anima is usually more dangerous because of the afore mentioned Moxy Fae, which look like cute little critters in Aloria, but can become monstrous and large in the Anima itself. One thinks of massive horned frogs that eat people, murderous rabbits with wings in all rainbow colors, and flying snakes that spew forth rainclouds. Generally, the wildlife of the Anima outside of the cities of mortals are dangerous.
Because the Anima is so varied and vastly different from the other realms, there is more to be told. The whole of the realm is theoretically ruled by one immensely powerful Demon called the Arch-Anima, which the Fae Demons in turn call Eldrican. Eldrican however is pretending to be asleep and has been since the beginning of mortal presence in the Anima, at the very heart of the dimension in the Fae Halls. The Fae Halls in theory functioned once like a parliament for the Fae Demons to do their business with one another, but this place has long been abandoned in favor of the war that the Fae wage on one another, making the Anima an accurate comparison to a nation perpetually caught in a civil war. This war rages between the four Cardinal factions or palaces, the north which is called the Halls of Frostfall, the east which is called the Valleys of Springherald, the south which is called the Plains of Summermore, and the west which is called the Bogs of Fairyfall. Each of these Cardinal factions has their own leader, a Demon who is second only to Eldrican, but stronger than Demon Dukes and should be avoided at all costs because they are the most capricious of all. Ayanoëlla rules in the frozen ice-palaces of the north, Springbokkar rules in the flowery vales of the east, Embressat Reliqon the Third rules in the vast cavern cities of the south, and Puck the Last rules in the sunken castle of the west.
These Fae Princes as they are called, also have their own constituent Fae Lords, who in turn rule over the lesser Fae Demons and the mortal cities that reside in their own domain. In the North are several Lords like the Lady Iskendra, the Lord Zephion, and the Lady Eisenvayle. In the east are Lords like the Lady Tirhin Lavender, the Lady Plum-rose Verblose, and the Lord Lilarond. In the south are Lords like the Lady Embrialla, the Lord Eshmari, and the Lord Dunemaris the Shimmering Dragonlord penultimate the fifth (no relation to Dragons). And finally in the west are Lords like Lord Boggotron the Destroyer, Lady Thrixbane of the Drowned, and Lord Jubbalisk the Swampy Jester. These Princes are cruel tricksters, but generally do not try to kill or possess veilwalkers or mortals, rather they want to add them to their growing subject populations and armies to use in wars against the other cardinal factions. Lower Demons among them are few, and often treated as officers in the armies of mortals who serve them, as there are numerically very few Anima Demons. They generally also look very humanoid to veilwalkers or mortals living in these realms, having a humanoid body in proportion, but always wearing some kind of porcelain mask to hide their true face, the mask itself having an expression pulled in either a happy or sad contortion.
The cities in the Fae lands are otherworldly experiences for veilwalkers to enter, because they resemble vast metropolises that contain within them peoples, heritages, and cultures from all walks of life and periods in time. Demons in the Anima are not so much invested in possessing mortals from Aloria, as much as they want to recruit them to live forever in these cities and add to the domains of their Lords and Ladies by trickster deals. It is as such possible to enter one of these cities and to encounter late Meraic-Empire Maraya, early Sendrassian Allar, pre-extinction Drovv, Avarr with their physical bodies intact and even some proto-Urlan. These meetings are curiosities for Alorian veilwalkers, but not so interesting for the locals. More often than not have these people lived in the Anima for generations, immersed fully in the culture and political systems that thrive there. They have no concept of history, culture, or time in Aloria, and have no homesickness to it, with the exception perhaps to those who were not born in the Anima and still remember Aloria from their own lifetime.
The Hollow
The Hollow is for some considered the easiest to veil walk into geography wise, because its world is a perfect reflection of Aloria, just dead. Its skies are blackened, all green and color of life is sucked out of the flora replaced with bone-white dead mass. All bodies of water are gone, and no living being seems to wander the empty streets of a decaying and collapsing Regalia. That is where the danger lies, the denizens of the Hollow hide from the living, but prowl all the same seeking to extend the gift of unlife to anything living that trespasses. Why this world looks identical to Aloria is unclear, though scholars have speculated that it does not actually look like Aloria, but that the perception of the living projects an understanding on this world from their own memory. This would explain why the Hollow version always looks current and never like a fixed moment in time. The Hollow is highly populated by both Hollow Demons and Shades, remnants of dead living souls that are subjugated to the Demons therein, but they often try to hide from veilwalkers or are more incomprehensible. Massive entities roam the landscape, such as the death-kite, massive jellyfish and mantaray crossovers that have long tendrils dragging through the streets searching for anything trespassing between the ruins of decaying houses and palaces. Being in the Hollow itself seems to invoke a certain miasma, a sickly unpleasant feeling that requires extra wards to hold at bay. There are veilwalkers who have succumbed to the numbing and nihilistic feelings of this world, having seemingly given up on life. Wherever they fell, cryptblooms sprung to unlife creating deadly gardens spewing forth toxic pollen, that nonetheless resemble small patches of living plant life in an otherwise dead world.
Shades require some extra information, as they are a unique speudo-Demonic entity in the Hollow that does not exist in any of the other realms. By default the Hollow Demons are all unliving beings, born of the Hollow itself with barely a concept of what it feels like to be alive. These Demons attempt to break into the mortal world of the living not necessarily to kill (though this may sometimes happen by happenstance), but to turn the living into undead, or at the very least remove the concept of being alive in whatever creative way this can be done. One byproduct of this, is that sometimes, they drag souls with them into the Hollow. Souls that enter the Hollow without the safety of veilwalking or being a veilpassenger, are violently ripped from their bodies and turned into pseudo-Demons. They are referred to as pseudo-Demons because while they function like Demons in terms of summoning, banishing, and their mechanical existence on the world of Aloria and/or the Hollow, they are natively born to Aloria and thus remember what being alive was like. These Shades are not entirely the same person as they once were in Aloria, as the longer they exist in the Hollow, the more a sense of dread and melancholy makes way for sorrow and defeatism. Shades cannot by themselves travel back to Aloria, and even if they did, they would not be accepted by the living there. While Hollow Demons see the living identity of veilwalkers as a threat to their existence and something to end, Shades are actually quite helpful. Shades are invigorated when exposed to living beings near them, and there are countless stories of Shades having helped veilwalkers escape Demons in pursuit, or even several Shades fighting a Demon to give a veilwalker the means to escape. Unfortunately this is often the best Shades can do in the Hollow. If they are summoned by Demon Summoners in Aloria, they are often immediately sent back, because Shades are much less powerful than proper Demons, and thought of as worthless to bind.
Kur also bears some acknowledgement, even if it has a page for itself. Kur is a city of the living, made by Eronidas who broke into the Hollow for religious reasons, and built a city there to guard the gates into the Hollow, a portal that connects the Hollow and Aloria through the Veil. It is technically possible for veilwalkers to reach Kur in the Hollow, and then use the portal inside Kur to return to the mortal world of Aloria, which sets the Hollow apart as the only dimension that has an alternative way back to Aloria. However, the approach to Kur is very dangerous, as its high bastion walls hide a highly militarized city of Draconists and other like minded allies who may not look kindly on veilwalkers tempting fate by wandering the Hollow. They would also have to convince the gate guards that they are not Demons themselves, and also cross likely battlefields or permanent warzones as the Hollow Demons send chained Shades to assail the bastion walls daily.
The Vortex
The Vortex is a mass of undulating landscapes and ever-changing geography and climates, a bright vortex landscape that is never quite the same and even moving but a few meters can cause the whole landscape to shift. The Vortex is considered exceptionally dangerous to navigate because the landscape is never the same and never familiar. Its only fixed point of navigation are the massive vortex cities, built in the shape of an inverted tornado with rotating rings and shifting streets. The cities are always found in a fixed location, even if buildings and locations within the city constantly shift up and down the levels or in different orientations. The cities themselves are bustling with life, all manner of possible creature manifested through Demons wander the streets, more often than not completely ignoring veil walkers. It is mostly the non-conformity police that veil walkers have to be careful of, Demons who seek out those who are too stagnant and force change on them. Veil walkers who enter the vortex often invest in Body School Magic, to learn how to shapeshift, and constantly change their appearance every few minutes to avoid the attention of the non-conformity police. Not changing shapes, or staying stagnant and the same results in non-comformity, which essentially involves Demons forcing all manner of potentially harmful mutations on a veil walker to make sure they never look the same when they leave, as when they entered.
The Eternum
The Eternum is a quiet and peaceful place, an inverted reflection of the Vortex in that nothing ever changes, all celestial bodies are positioned motionless in the sky, and even the clouds never seem to move. The landscape is always extremely familiar, and denizens of this realm can always be found in exactly the same spot, meaning that there is a whole veil walker industry in Aloria involving the creation of maps to plot safe routes around the domains of dangerous Demons, and marking safe Demons neatly on the map. The Eternum is generally considered a very peaceful domain, because of the fate-bound distinction of its Demons within. Some Demons consider it their fate to slay veil walkers, but other Demons consider it their fate to only possess or slay a specific veil walker. This means that veil walkers play a lottery each time they run into a Demon, which more often than not is not attuned to their fate. All the while however, they know that somewhere in the Eternum, is a Demon who will absolutely possess or kill them if they meet, and that no wards can protect them against the completion of that prophecy, thus always adding a tinge of extra risk to entering the Eternum for the next time. The Eternum does not have cities or large populations, most Demons within it live solitary lives in caves, temples, and ruins that dot the landscape from all manner of civilization, architectural style and culture. The land itself is blanketed in soft bright beige sand, with vast rock outcroppings of dark brown and red stone, caught in a forever twilight. It is the oracle temples that can be used as navigational tools, their light towers seen from far away both drawing in veil walkers interested in hearing prophecy, and warding them away for the dark secrets they might learn and never be able to forget.
The Dictat
Unlike the other dimensions which in the mortal understanding resemble somewhat an open world with a clear distinction between sky and surface ground, the Dictat lacks such a clear distinction. It is a forever library, with a clear ceiling and floor, walls, pillars, and endless rows of book cases and display cases and lecture halls. The whole of the realm is vast, not separated by rooms but by pillars and tall book structures. Massive Dictat Demons roam between the endless rows of book cases, organizing, indexing, categorizing, and reading. Some areas have large lecture halls where Demons drone on about subjects that have no purpose and meaning, but veil walkers can safely participate. It is said that Dictat Demons who are busy with some form of learning or pre-learning do not at all pay attention to veil walkers, and that only certain Demons which appear like large black owls with the faces of mortals, are truly dangerous. For they are the Ectolectors, Demons who seek to understand the mind and bodies of the living. When they sense the presence of a veil walker nearby, their body transforms into that of a giant centipede, and it will begin chasing the veil walker with the speed of a big predator cat. If caught, the veil walker's body will be disassembled on a molecular level over and over while their mind remains intact, until that too is drawn out by the centipede's many legs into a long string of soul essence. Few veil walkers can survive this Ectolection, and if they do, even less of them remain sane enough to tell the tale, having their whole essence and being extrapolated into a long thin strand of substance and mind, before being put back together. It is even said that the Ectolectors are more attracted to veilwalkers who enter the Dictat looking for a lot of knowledge and information, so veil walkers often practice mindfulness and meditation to clear and focus their mind so that no wandering curiosity or interest in knowledge can attract the Ectolectors.
The Silence
It is hard to explain the Silence as anything a veilwalker would want to visit. It is an endless ocean, only occasionally interrupted by rocky islands of no noteworthy appearance with no plants or animals or people living on it. The ocean is caught in a forever twilight of a burning horizon and a dark night sky, and the whole realm is blanketed in a permanent silence. No waves can be heard, wind is completely absent, and even the steps of a veil walker produce no sound. The ocean itself is dotted by vast black granite obelisks, each of them representing a piece of information, a story, knowledge, or a memory that was removed from the world of Aloria and left to die in the Silence by a Demon. These obelisks are empty, there is no text upon them that would detail what had once been on them, though many veilwalkers have tried through the millennia to figure out whether any information could be extracted from the pillars. Unfortunately, as many would find, only the Demons native to this realm are willing to share, and never in equivalent exchange. To make matters worse however, the Silence Demons have no love for the living or those who can remember, and Silence Demons are nearly always hostile to veilwalkers, making the Silence an all around difficult place to be.
Legality of Veilwalking
Veilwalking as a concept is about as legal as general Magic is in Regalia, which is to say, legal in the comfort of one's home, but illegal outside. It is legal to teach others, though the State has a very strong ban on taking anything out of a dimension back into Aloria. Objects, people, Demons and entities found in these dimensions often have a high amount of magical energy on them that is corrosive to the world of Aloria no matter how much venting is performed to try and drain the errant Magic. This is also why mortals native to the Anima for example are not welcome in Regalia, because they have been in the Anima for so long that they behave in essence like Demons, even if they are mortal and do not have the powers of Demons. They are so deeply touched by Magic that they are part of it, and cause a lot of problems in a mostly mundane world. Veil walking can be done with other people in Regalia, but it is generally advised to remain quiet about it, because Purists have an increased problem with veil walkers, and are likely to put extra effort in hunting them down if one were to advertise services. The Regalian state also doesn't care about those lost in the Veil or the dimensions, anyone who is careless enough to get in trouble while engaging in veil walking, is essentially abandoned.