History[edit]

Hundreds of years ago, Highborn alchemists of the Scions of Atun discovered that extremely rarely, a dose of liao would mature into a different form, which came to be known variously as "Pure Liao", or less commonly "True" or "Imperial" Liao. Properly prepared in an intricate alchemical process, this drug allows human beings to witness events which took place in the past.

Imperial theologians believe that these Visions are of events which happened to one of the Visionary's past lives, and that they can teach the Visionary important lessons about Virtue. It is widely held that the Visionary's soul "travels" into the Labyrinth of Ages to participate in these events. Most Visionaries find that the events they witness are in some way relevant to the concerns of their present life, even though they may have taken place hundreds of years ago in other parts of the Empire or even further afield.

The Selection Process[edit]

Gatekeepers[edit]

The Cardinals of the seven Virtue Assemblies (not the Assembly of the Way) choose a single Gatekeeper each. The Gatekeepers of Virtue choose, by a means agreeable to them all, people to receive a single dose of Pure Liao at the following Anvil Summit.

There are usually fewer doses of Pure Liao available per season than Gatekeepers to assign them. For this reason, in recent years the Gatekeepers have chosen a co-operative, rather than an adversarial, approach to nominating Visionaries.

One dose per summit from the total is reserved for the Virtuous Auction at the Bourse, and its sale contributes to the Imperial Synod's Virtue Fund.

In addition, when there is an Empress on the Throne, one dose per summit is reserved for her or him to assign. This comes out of the total number which it is possible for the Gatekeepers to assign, reducing their allocation by one.

Visionaries[edit]

A Visionary is any person whom the Gatekeepers have nominated to receive a dose of Pure Liao. At the next summit, they will be given their dose. Most choose to consume it and undergo a Past-Life Vision, although this is not mandatory.


Other uses for Pure Liao: Once the Gatekeepers have assigned a dose of Pure Liao to a character, that dose is the character's property. Instead of undergoing a Past-Life Vision, they may choose to use their dose in place of Ceremonial Liao in another religious rite. Pure Liao can be used to create permanent and unique Anointings, Hallowings and Consecrations, and has powerful and sometimes unpredictable effects when used in place of Ceremonial Liao in other religious rites. If you wish to use your Pure Liao dose for anything other than a Vision, the Civil Service need to know at the summit beforehand.

Guide-Priests[edit]

It is possible to create a "secondary" dose of Pure Liao from the Visionary's dose, which, when fed to a person who has the Dedicate skill at the same time and in the same place as the Visionary, allows them to accompany the Visionary into the Labyrinth of Ages. This is the role of the Guide-Priest. Exhaustive experimentation has determined that it is not possible to use this secondary dose for any other purpose.

Visionaries are advised to consider carefully whether they wish to take a Guide-Priest with them, and if so, what they want from their Guide. Their Guide should be a source of help and advice, and will also witness the events the Visionary undergoes (so she should have a good memory) - and most of all, the Guide should be someone the Visionary trusts.

The Vision Process[edit]

Timeline[edit]
1. By midnight on the last night of the event, the Gatekeepers must submit their nominations for the next event's doses of Pure Liao.
2. The next event, the Civil Service will post a sign in the Hub early on Friday evening to request Visionaries and their Guide-Priests to attend a pre-Vision interview.
3. At that interview, Visionaries will have the chance to ask questions about the Vision process. They will also be informed of the time they are expected to attend for their Vision (which will also be posted in the Hub).
4. At the appointed time, the Civil Service will collect each Visionary and their Guide-Priest from the Hub and take them to the Gateway.
5. Upon reaching the Gateway, the Visionary and their Guide-Priest consume their dose of Pure Liao, and undergo a Vision.

The Vision[edit]

The Visions granted by Pure Liao are vivid and realistic scenes indistinguishable from a Visionary's everyday life, and are called "Echoes". When they wake, they may find themselves anywhere from an office to a battlefield, from Anvil to Axos to Asavea, and at any time in the past history of the human race (although, for some reason, recent Visions seem to be more common than historically distant Visions). They find themselves occupying the place that their past-self assumed at that moment - which means that they may be any gender, age, Lineage or nationality, and have any name.

However, the Visionary has no privileged knowledge of any of this; they awake in the Echo ignorant of their past-self's name, gender, age, Lineage, nationality, and so on. Sometimes, rarely, they may remember skills which their past-self knew. Discovering who one's past-self was can pose a challenge in itself.

The challenge is increased by the need to avoid explicit questioning. If the Visionary acts as if they are not their past-self, the Vision can collapse suddenly and abruptly, and the consequences for the Visionary's soul can be catastrophic. This is likely to happen in one of three ways:
1. Declaring yourself to be from the future,
2. Declaring that you're in the Labyrinth of Ages or that the Echo isn't real,
3. Conversing so obviously with the Guide-Priest that other figures in the Vision take notice.

Their Guide-Priest awakes at the same time in the same Echo, but does not fill the role of any person who was there in the past. They can communicate with the Visionary and are free to move in the Echo, but to touch anything may cause serious problems for the Guide-Priest or the collapse of the Vision. Nobody else in the Vision will notice their presence or react to them in any way.

The Visionary will often, but not always, be presented with a challenge or a choice of some kind. The result of that decision may help to illustrate the nature of their present-self's Virtue.

When the Visionary and Guide-Priest emerge from the Vision, they remember everything that happened to them, and may also suffer some side-effects from the process. If they can communicate details about their past-self to the Civil Service, it may be possible to identify records pertaining to that past-self - though, of course, the Imperial records are highly irregular and variable, and the Purge of Nicovar makes events further back than 209 Y.E. especially difficult to research.


Example: The Visionary Barak wakes to find himself in conversation with a figure in deep red, feathered robes. Looking around, he can see straw bedding, a stone hearth, a table laid with mead and meat, and a chainmail hauberk hanging on a cross in the corner. Barak's Guide-Priest looks around the scene and notices characteristic decorations on a book and some armour, and suggests that he is in Wintermark. This is confirmed when the figure respectfully refers to him as "Morcar Tursson", a Steinr name, and calls him a General.
The figure refers to the Iron Empress, and appears to be suggesting that Morcar take action against her. Barak knows, therefore, that the Echo must take place some time during the reign of the Empress Varkula, possibly before one of the many assassination attempts she faced. The figure - from his costume, presumably a Kallavesi mystic - describes corruption and murders which he claims the Empress is responsible for, and begs Morcar to respond. Barak considers his Virtue - Loyalty to the role of General and to the Empress, Pride and Courage in the light of the claims being made by his past-self's trusted mystic. While he stares into the fire, his Guide-Priest advises him, unseen to the mystic.

Before he can respond, however, members of the Militia arrive to arrest the mystic, whom they address as Aelfas. Aelfas begs Morcar to defend him; the Militia, meanwhile, thank Morcar for delivering Aelfas into their hands. Barak, of course, did not know that his past-self had agreed to trap Aelfas - and he disagrees. He takes up a mace with a roar and defeats the Militia, then flees with Aelfas. The Vision then ends.

When he returns to the Gateway, he does so knowing his past-self's name and title, nationality, (presumably) gender, and a forty-year period of Imperial history in which the Vision must have taken place. Provided with his past-self's name and title and involvement in some kind of conspiracy against the Empress Varkula, it is possible that the Civil Service will be able to identify records pertaining to him.
Barak, however, is too busy feeling sick that he chose to kill members of the Imperial Militia in order to further a plot against an Empress. His Guide-Priest gradually talks him round to the idea that he acted with Pride, Ambition and Courage, and he stops feeling guilty sometime over the following season.
Record-Keeping[edit]

Many Visionaries choose to tell their stories to an interested third party - the Seer of the Gateway, Livia of the Spire of the Celestial Cascade. A skilled Torchbearer with years of experience helping Visionaries to recall every last detail of their Echo, as well as dealing with the side-effects of the process, Livia will often approach Visionaries to ask for permission before their Vision, and wait for them to emerge afterwards.

Accessibility[edit]

Scheduling[edit]

Past-Life Visions are strictly-scheduled encounters. This means that we cannot move them from their assigned time-slots once the event has begun. If you have out-of-character reasons why you cannot attend a Vision at a given time (such as that you have to be off-site by a certain time, or will arrive late to the event), please email empire.plot@ in advance of the event.

Physical Accessibility[edit]

Almost all Past-Life Visions take place in a large tent off the main Anvil field known as the Gateway. It is usually no further to walk than the Hall of Worlds. Lighting can be adjusted if it is a concern, and effects such as smoke can be withdrawn if they are likely to pose a problem. Please email empire.plot@ to inform us of any concerns you may have before the event.

Triggers and Phobias[edit]

Past-Life Visions can be intense and sudden, and it is not possible to retreat from them without risking serious consequences for your character. For this reason, if you wish to inform PD of any out-of-character triggers, phobias, dietary requirements etc. by emailing empire.plot@, we can avoid these in writing your character's Vision. We are committed to our players' safety and comfort: it is their characters we want to challenge.