Revelation 3/4/21

Introductory insights regarding effigy definition

By Dr. Saito Hanako

Commissioned for the Third Ark Project

I am Dr. Saito Hanako, leader of Path Virgil, a Darker Dream expeditionary team with a focus on data collection, documentation, and discovery. We’ve completed nine delves into the Dream and made it as deep as the Flesh Fault. I am honored to contribute to the Third Ark.

An effigy is a oneiric construct that serves as a buffer between the Darker Dream and a mortal mind. Because of the inherent risk of our profession, the explorers of Path Virgil protect ourselves by constructing a false mind and body for the Dream to act upon. Our effigies take a beating so we don’t have to.

This process isn’t unnatural. Your mind creates an effigy of sorts whenever you enter any sort of dreamscape. That’s why you can dream about all your teeth falling out, but wake up perfectly whole. Mortals have been intentionally catalyzing this natural process for millennia; reference McDunham’s entry on the connection between effigy definition, astral projection, and dream-walking (McdunhamC-01). Remember playing pretend as a kid and imagining you were something you weren’t? That, too, is a rudimentary form of effigy definition. 

The difficult part is building an effigy that can interact freely and safely with the Dream. After all, such an effigy must be simultaneously:

• Strongly identified with its wielder, so that they can exert precise control over it and resist the depersonalizing influence of the Dream.

• Distinct enough from its wielder’s identity that the Darker Dream can’t corrupt the wielder’s waking-self through their effigy.

This is, indeed, a difficult tightrope to walk.

In Path Virgil, we’ve found that ritualistic practices facilitate effigy creation. Before we embark on an expedition, we participate in both group meditation and concrete identity definition exercises. Essentially, we ground our effigies in our own identities by choosing qualitative aspects of ourselves and “defining” them quantitatively. It’s important that these exercises occur communally, so that members of the team can reinforce the fidelity of each others’ effigies. We put a bit of pomp and circumstance into it; atmosphere is everything when it comes to the human mind. Reference recording SaitoH-05 for documentation of such an exercise.

I tend to give my effigies my own physical appearance, with at least one significant modification. This ensures proper identification with the effigy, without synonymizing the waking-self and the effigy-self. I am partial to a simple censor bar over the eyes of my effigy, which serves as a reminder that the effigy is not actually Saito Hanako. Other members of Path Virgil opt for more subtle aesthetic modifications, such as an unnatural eye color.

We also use the BadCat method for maintaining effigy coherence. This method was first proposed on a parapsychology forum in 2012. It involves the incorporation of a “shroud” and a “wreath” into an effigy’s form.

The “shroud” is a barrier between an effigy’s body and the environment of the Circles. Typically, it’s a shapeless swath of fabric, but I’ve seen effigies wearing suits of armor, leather jackets, and similar garments as shrouds. When properly defined, a shroud protects its effigy from the worst of the Dream’s corrupting influence.

The “wreath” represents an effigy’s connection to its wielder, and takes the form of an adornment for the effigy’s head. The most common wreath is a circlet of laurels, but I prefer to use the image of a black hachimaki my father used to wear. Whatever its form, the wreath provides both a focus for effigy control and another level of insulation between the wielder and the Darker Dream.

Based on our own experience and surveys of two other expeditionary teams, we estimate that the BadCat method results in a 54%-62% reduction in fatality rate. Path Virgil plans to incorporate it into all future expeditions.

I can’t emphasize enough how vital, and difficult, proper effigy construction is. The explorers at Path Virgil are the best in the world, and we’ve still lost nine people to the Dream. To the best of our knowledge, imperfect effigy binding caused seven of those losses.

When an effigy binding fails, the most common scenario is that a wielder loses control of their effigy (“second degree effigy corruption”). This occurs when an effigy is not bound closely enough to the wielder’s identity. At best, this means that the effigy vanishes and ejects an explorer from the Dream. At worst, it can result in an effigy run rampant. Reference account SaitoH-06 (corruption of Leroy Mark).

Far more dangerous is a failed binding resulting from too much identification between effigy and wielder. (“first degree effigy corruption”). These are the really nasty ones. If an explorer fails to properly distinguish between their waking-self and their effigy, it won’t properly protect them from the Darker Dream. Corruption of the effigy-self begins to result in corruption of the waking-self. Nightmares, illness, and paranoia usually mark the early stages. Late-stage corruption results in complete deterioration of the mind. Usually the waking body deteriorates as well, via atrophy, macroparasitic infection, or malignant anatomical alteration. In the case of an especially weak binding or extreme trauma to an effigy, such corruption can progress to a terminal or pseudo-terminal stage in a matter of minutes.

First-degree effigy corruption is existentially dangerous. It represents an incursion of the Darker Dream into the waking world. Essentially, the corrupted explorer becomes an effigy for the Darker Dream, able to influence the waking world on its behalf. Such an event could theoretically initiate a “domino effect” that results in further fatalities, potentially of uninvolved persons. Due to this risk, every explorer in Path Virgil has authorized extreme measures in the case of first-degree effigy corruption. We recommend, in the strongest possible terms, that other individuals exposed to the Dream take similar precautions.