Introduction to the Realms

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Appendix

Appendix Preface

While writing this book, it came to my attention that I speak pretty freely in realmwalker slang, and discuss more advanced topics regarding the realms without a lot of forewarning at times, and sometimes I'll only discuss something once or twice in the main text. Since this is often disconcerting to many people not familiar with the Realms, I've compiled this appendix of basic historical facts, terms, realm concepts, and other information which should be quite helpful in reading the rest of the book, or as a reference guide for mine, or any other, realmwalker's, written stories.

The Realms: A Beginner's Guide

Marking

A mark is a form of buy-in protection in realm, and can also indicate alliegance. A mark, once received is (almost always) permanent and cannot be removed or altered by normal means. The individual's spirit/soul/essence is 'marked' by the god. Some gods also include external signs, such as 'tattoos', or body alterations, to make the mark more obvious. The relationship is symbiotic; the god gains power from all marks currently in realm, and the mark gains limited protection from the mark, primarily limited to the fact that he cannot be marked again, and is thus no longer of value to those who would forcemark someone.

A person in realm is either "Marked" or "Unmarked", depending on whether or not they have a mark. Extended forays in realm without a mark of some kind are dangerous at best, due to the fact that many gods see no issue with forcing a mark upon unwilling individuals. This process is known as 'forcemarking', and frequently involves a forced bodily transformation into an alternate form (which, again, is usually permanent).

Marksense is the ability of any Marked individual to, while in realm, detect the mark of anyone else nearby that you're already aware of (IE you cannot use marksense by itself to detect someone lying in ambush), as well as the 'feel' of that mark. In practical terms, using marksense will give you the deity that owns the mark, and a 'feeling' on that deity's relation with your own.

For example, an Odin mark and a Tyr mark would generally have positive resonance(on a mark level), while Typhon and Echidna marks don't 'feel' nearly as positive.

It should be noted that on a practical level, this is just a feeling, and a marked individual is in full control of his own actions towards or against another individual, regardless of the marks involved. It's essentially a bit of a 'cheater' of, in the absence of other connections with an individual, the level of trust your own deity would place in them based on the mark. Most people with marks have one solely for protection from forcemarking, and may not extensively use marksense, or make judgements based on it.

Unmarked individuals do not show up on marksense.