Denseshifters
"Leave your name at the edge. It's too heavy to carry in." — The first words said to a novice
The Denseshifters are the order of mages who travel through the Dense on purpose. Because every foot outside the Dense is five hundred feet inside it, a Denseshifter can step into a crossing in the City of Or and step out again near Scholar's Rift an hour later. Everybody else takes weeks. They are Iridia's fastest couriers, and one of its most dangerous trades.
The order's art is called Transitorium Densae, and its ritual is described on the page for the Dense.
Oath Names
A novice gives up their birth name at their first crossing. They say it once, quietly, at the edge of the Dense, and then never use it again. In its place they take an oath name in the old ritual tongue, chosen by the Denseshifter who took them across:
- Tacita, "the silent one"
- Vagans, "the wanderer"
- Serus, "the late one"
- Perpetua, "the one who keeps going"
Denseshifters say that a name is weight, and in the Dense, where everything weighs double, you carry as little as you can.
Ranks
| Rank | What it means |
|---|---|
| Unnamed | Novices before their first crossing. They are addressed as "you". |
| Stepper | Has made the first crossing and taken an oath name. Carries letters only. |
| Folder | Trusted with cargo, passengers and long routes. |
| Mother / Father | Leaders of the order, addressed as Mother Perpetua or Father Serus. There are never more than three. |
The Rule of Silence
Inside the Dense, Denseshifters do not speak. The incantation is said at the edge, and then nobody says another word until they're out. They communicate with a hand-language of about two hundred signs.
The reason is the Longmouth, which hunts by sound. Every Denseshifter has a story about someone who sneezed.
Fees
Crossings are priced by weight, because everything is twice as heavy inside and a Denseshifter carries it on their back.
| Cargo | Fee per crossing |
|---|---|
| A letter | 5 gp |
| A parcel (up to 10 lb) | 50 gp |
| A passenger | 500 gp, and the passenger must learn twelve signs and swear to silence |
| Anything that breathes, hums, ticks or sings | Refused |
The Empty Step
Denseshifters are sometimes lost. A misstep can throw them to a random corner of Iridia, or leave them wandering inside for years. When a Denseshifter doesn't come out, the order waits a full year, and then holds the Empty Step: their boots are left at a crossroads or a Dense boundary, laces tied together, as an offering to Xal'Zyra. If the boots are gone by morning, the Denseshifter is believed to still be walking.