The Primal Wild is one of the five Supernal Realms that the mages of the Thyrsus Path Awaken to.
Geography[]
As with all Supernal Realms, what constitutes the Primal Wild has been changed over the years. Mages who know of these changes debate whether this is a result of the Supernal itself changing, or if mortals have developed to the degree that they can see more of the Supernal during their Awakening than before. As access to the Supernal is impossible, the debates are mostly academic.
Neolithic[]
Around 5000 BCE, Thyrsus mages Awakened to a cavern, heavy with the smell of vegetation and rot. Hunted by the inhabitants of the cave, the mage had to master his animal fears and follow a specific songline to the Menhir in the center of the cave, which was covered in bloody handprints. By adding one's handprint, the mage Awakened.
Modern[]
The realm of the Primal Wild is, as the name would suggest, a vast and uncharted wilderness. All the unclaimed places of the Fallen World have their analogues in the Primal Wild, each ecosystem recreated as an exaggerated version of how it is in this World. Though the life forms appear the same, the scale is vastly different. Trees seem far taller, beasts much larger, terrain more treacherous and weather more powerful. The realm is not exactly hostile to humanity, but discourages humanity’s complex thoughts; here, the raw emotion of the animals and the strange, linear intelligences of the spirits hold sway. All material wildernesses are reflected in the Primal Wild, but none on such vast scales as the jungles and the oceans.
The jungles of the Primal Wild are perhaps the most powerful representation of Fallen World ecosystems. Despite their infinite variety and majesty, their equivalents in the Material Realm do not come close to comparing. For each subspecies of creature the Fallen World has to offer, the jungle of the Primal Wild vomits forth one hundred, each more bizarre to the human onlooker than the last. These denizens of the jungle all want their toll in blood, even the trees and vines, for blood is the currency of the Primal Wild’s jungles; all have their own means of obtaining it. All creatures are enhanced beyond the limits of their Fallen World counterparts; predators are stronger and deadlier, prey are faster and more numerous. Visitors to the jungle – meaning every Thyrsus mage in existence, as this is where the Watchtower of the Singing Stone can be found – report their feelings of fear and vulnerability heightened to maddening degree - but so are their passions and lusts, for the madness of the Primal Wild inspires as well as terrifies.
The Primal Wild’s oceans are similar. Humanity’s fear of the first time being in a vast body of water is well known; the roar of the waves as they play with the swimmer, tossing them about, crashing against them, or relentlessly pushing them under, inspires feelings of helplessness and insignificance in many mortals. So much greater is the ocean of the Primal Wild that many get these same sentiments merely looking at it. The moon’s call is greater here, so the tides are too; the waves hurl themselves against the shore with a ferocity that makes many think of titans in battle, a self-aware phenomenon as much as anything else. This is partially true; the power of the spirits in the Primal Wild is undeniable, and the open ocean plays host to war games between great gods of storm and surf, using hurricanes and rogue waves as toys and weapons.
Arcana of the Primal Wild[]
Life[]
The gross expression of the Primal Wild. The Primal Wild swarms with life of all kinds. Everywhere one goes, animals and plants abound, all overgrown and accentuated to the bitter extreme. The power of life in the realm is so great that even severed limbs grow back in a week. This great vitality of the realm is so powerful that it reaches across the Abyss into the Fallen World and becomes the Arcanum of Life. Those who master this Arcanum gain power over animals, plants, and other life forms, healing, shapeshifting, and the body.
Spirit[]
The subtle expression of the Primal Wild. The realm of the Primal Wild is alive, and not merely in a metaphorical sense. The vast wildernesses of the realm crawl with as many spirits as they do creatures, from the tiniest mites that live amongst the insects to the great gods of storm and earth that battle for supremacy in their domains. It is surmised that the realm itself is a spirit of incalculable power. The ephemeral resonance of untold myriads of spirits leaks across the Abyss and earths itself in the Fallen World as the Arcanum of Spirit. Mastery of this Arcanum allows a mage to commune with, summon, and command spirits, as well as manipulate Essence and ward against Numina.
Mind - Inferior[]
The Primal Wild is a place of instinct and tangled emotions, passion and fury driving inhabitant and visitor alike into a bestial frenzy. Something in the realm inflames the deeper urges of the mind, ordinarily buried beneath layers of rational thought, and compels those who linger there to surrender to their emotional urges. In this soup of instinct and fury and passion, there is little room for the higher thinking and reason that the Arcanum of Mind manipulates. The restraint and calculation that rationality gives are alien to this realm of beasts and can prove fatal. For this reason, the Arcanum of Mind is weaker in the hands of the Thyrsus.
Inhabitants[]
The realm of the Primal Wild is occupied by two distinct groups of creatures, each the living embodiment to one of the Realm's Ruling Arcana, collectively called Beasts. The two groups coexist in the Realm, without much interaction as neither of them can feed off the other. These two classes of creature are the Atavisms and the Totems.
Summons[]
The craft of Supernal Summoning identifies two types of being that can be called from a Supernal Realm; manifest beings of the Gross Arcanum of that realm, and recondite beings embodying the Subtle Arcanum.