_The Null — Lore

Premise

A world without sight or sound. Any glow or noise summons hunters. People navigate by touch and a sixth sense called Sensate—a felt outline of nearby mass and intent. Life is rope, ritual, breath control, and courage.

First Principles

  • No Light. No Tongue. Move Soft. Breaking these draws predators.

  • Sensate (everyone): Feel shapes/emotion within 5 ft (10 ft if you hold still and focus for one round). Gives outline/charge only—no text, colour, symbols.

  • Pings: The world “hears/sees” disturbance. Track a scene clock 0–10. At 6 a Hunter arrives; at 10 a Major Hunt or calamity.

Common Ping sources

  • Whisper/cloth rustle: +1

  • Fast pace footfalls: +1/round

  • Metal-on-metal, verbal spell: +2

  • Any light: +3 on ignition, then +1/round sustained

The Dark Itself

  • Pressure-Wind: Air moves like tide. Pressure fronts announce colossal beasts.

  • Texture-Ecology: Moss, fungi, and stone “sing” by touch: vibrations, grain, heat.

  • Deep Hush Zones: Natural pockets where sound dies; good to rest, bad for Sensate (it blurs).

Peoples & Customs

  • Rope Etiquette: Everyone clips to a lead line (Aura Thread). Order on the rope is sacred: Scout–Line–Keeper–Tail.

  • The Three Oaths: No Light. No Unmasked Breath. No Bare Metal.

  • Greeting: Palm press + two slow squeezes (“I’m here”).

  • Craft Marks: Art and writing are knotwork, bead-strings, carved reliefs.

  • Foodways: Lichen, cave fish, root bulbs, pressure-farmed fungi. Meals are eaten by hand from quiet cloth bowls.

Faith & Thought

  • The Murmurless (monastic): Salvation through perfect quiet. Study the hush as prayer.

  • Lamplighters (zeal): Believe a Great Flame will banish hunters. Build beacons—often disasters.

  • Cartographers by Touch (pragmatic): Map the world with ropes, bead-maps, and toll lines.

  • Choir of the Last Bell (apocalyptic): Seek to ring a forbidden bell to “summon dawn”.

Settlements & Travel

  • Hollows: Carved avenues smoothed by centuries of cloth.

  • Braided Districts: Entire towns tied together by triple-braid main lines; side-lines are double-braid.

  • Way-Shrines: Stone niches with Muffle Moss, Quencher Powder, and prayer-ropes for lost travellers.

  • Ferries: Flat skiffs on the Ink Sea; rowers use breath-baffles and rhythm-breaking strokes.

Travel Procedure

  • Clip in. Assign Keeper (tracks Pings), Scout (front), Tail (rear), Mapper (beads/knots).

  • Choose pace: Slow (0 Ping), Normal (risk), Fast (+1/round).

  • If anyone loses contact: they are Unmoored (WIS save or drift 1d4×5 ft and disorient).

Communication Systems

Hand-Squeeze Code (core)

  • 1 squeeze = I’m here

  • 2 = Stop

  • 3 = Danger

  • 4 = Turn left

  • 5 = Turn right

  • 6 (long) = Climb/Descend

  • Rapid double = Drink/Rest

  • Pulse-hold-pulse = Help

Rope-Tap Code (at distance)

  • Knot slide toward you = Come

  • Knot slide away = Retreat

  • Rhythm break = Split path/branch

Bead-Map Legend

  • Smooth bead = Safe node

  • Faceted bead = Hazard

  • Hollow bead = Water

  • Knotted spacer = Elevation change

  • Twinned bead = Faction presence

Tools & Materials

  • Muffle Moss: Paste for boots/gear; reduces movement Pings.

  • Blackglass: Ceramic that swallows glow; used to hood lamps and line halls.

  • Aura Thread: Rope that transmits micro-vibrations; used for silent messages.

  • Breath-Baffles: Mask that breaks exhale rhythm; removes breath Pings.

  • Pin-Compass: Always points to your last palm-press imprint.

  • Step-Abacus: Toe beads for counting turns/steps in the dark.

  • Quencher Powder: Extinguishes flame quietly.

  • Felted Iron: Metal wrapped in layered felt; prevents armour/weapon clatter.

Magic in the Null

  • Verbal components are perilous (Ping +2). Many casters learn Threadcasting: tracing sigils on Aura Thread to replace speech (takes +1 action unless trained).

  • Radiant/Light effects attract Photovores; treat ongoing glow as constant Ping.

  • Tactile Divination: Spells reveal temperature, pressure, emotion, not images.

  • Quiet Schools: Murmurless teach Veil of Absence, Stolen Footfall, Null Resonance (see Spells).

Creatures (feel their coming)

  • Gloamhounds: Track warmth and breath; pack hunters.

  • Photovores: Moth-like light-eaters; heal in brightness.

  • Echo Wraiths: Drawn to repeated patterns; mimic familiar touches to split parties.

  • Hushmother: Smothers sound; feeds on heartbeat cadence.

  • Attenuator: Tall jointless presence that dampens Sensate; you’re functionally blind near it.

  • Rope-Ghasts: Sever lines; leave frayed “fingers” in the cord.

  • Silence Leviathan: Arrives as a moving pressure front; entire towns vanish.

Signs by Touch

  • Stone “trembles” like breath → Gloamhounds

  • Air turns syrupy, Sensate blurs → Attenuator

  • Rope vibrates with no pull → Rope-Ghasts

  • Skin prickles under steady exhale → Hushmother

  • Warm wind toward you with no sound → Silence Leviathan

Places (tactile landmarks)

  • Black Basilica: Pillars hum when palmed in sequence; sanctuary if you keep the rhythm.

  • Quenched Lighthouse: A dead heart-coil; something hungry circles the lantern cage.

  • Still-Market: Trade by weighted tokens and palm oaths; guards wear bead-alarms that only they can feel.

  • Gloam-Garden: Lichen beds that “scream” if stepped wrong; safe paths are a dance of pressure patterns.

  • Subsonic Warrens: Humming stone makes teeth ache; Sensate unreliable.

Law & Justice

  • Quiet Wards: Blackglass plates at thresholds; crossing loudly earns Shunning (cord cut from public lines).

  • Oath-Cut: Crimes that risk the town (lighting flame, ringing metal) can sever a person from all braids—civil death.

Rest & Recovery

  • Short Rest: Only at 0 Pings for 10 minutes, with at least two palms on wall/rope.

  • Long Rest: Requires a Deep Hush (basilica alcove, warded dome, or sanctified niche). Loud rests attract Hunters.

Rumours & Hooks

  • A child with no Ping—monsters ignore them. Miracle or bait?

  • The Last Bell’s clapper has been found; the Choir plans a procession through the Hollowways.

  • A main toll-line slackened overnight; the Cartographers offer sanctuary to anyone who can re-string it.

  • The Lamplighters have a new heart-coil that “doesn’t draw Photovores.” Too good to be true.

Play Tone

  • Build dread with touch, breath, proximity—not gore.

  • Failure moves the story forward: lost time, resource strain, separation, Ping—not stalemates.

  • Keep hope alive via craft, trust, and prayerful quiet.

Glossary

  • Sensate: Sixth sense for outlines/intent within arm’s reach.

  • Ping: Measured disturbance that calls Hunters.

  • Deep Hush: Natural/sanctified pocket where sound dies.

  • Aura Thread: Message-rope transmitting squeezes and traces.

  • Blackglass: Light-swallowing ceramic.

  • Unmoored: Separated from rope/ally; navigation peril.

End of Lore v1 — add bead-maps, faction charters, and a hand-squeeze reference card to your GM screen when ready.