A mass of gray and taupe colored clouds that envelopes the whole world at all times, churning and moving in chaotic patterns. To citizens, serves as a constant reminder that the Storm poses a reoccuring threat to human progress, and to historians, conceals much of science that pre-Cataclysm humans had unrestricted access to.
Barrenland Living
Barring extraneous cases, it is impossible to live in the Outside with no Oneirum management. Your chances are significantly better if you are of Aberrant origin, but manuevering Storm surges remains the biggest threat.
Oneirum management devices like Oneirum containment fields are a very good start to making a life outside of a City. Arkworth Storm Panacea is a decent idea for controlled exposures to the Outside, but living with it as your only Oneirum contingency is a bad idea because:
- It gets ludicrously expensive.
- It prevents further Storm Disease development. It will not reverse Storm Disease.
- It does not protect you from Storm surges.
Most people that have actually managed to survive in the Outside are those with highly efficient methods of nomadic living. Some of them might even be on mobile platforms with their own Oneirum containment field.
Manifestations
The Storm is typically a latent entity, but meteorlogical phenomenon known as Storm Surges pose a constant threat to the continued existence of sapient life. When Storm Surges pass over terrain, it transforms the terrain completely and thorougly. What’s left of the terrain incorporates some “latent wish,” or in the case that each wish is insignificant enough, it can embody multiple wishes. When this happens, the resulting objects, terrain or creatures are known as Manifestations, and the original wishes they embody are called Legends.
To get used to thinking in “latent wish” terms, consider the concept of collective consciousness. If only one person acknowledges the concept of a “bogeyman,” it is extremely unlikely a bogeyman manifests, and if it does, it may appear volatile or unfinished. If more people believe or acknowledge the concept of a “bogeyman,” it is more likely the Storm manifests a bogeyman and one that more closely resembles the original wish, or rather, a cumulation of all bogeyman ideas.
Note: This does not mean that manifestations of extinct or expired Legends cannot exist. Because the collective consciousness is always changing, it is possible for a Manifestation to embody some Legend that goes extinct later.
A Manifestation can be created with intelligence or instinct, which is where the word “Manifestation” often sneaks into media: it is more commonly used to describe living Manifestations. If a Manifestation is created with a degree of sapience, it is known as an Aberrant.