introductions

what’s happened to me? how did i know how to find this site? where did all this come from? someone tell me i‘m not going insane.

Don’t be afraid. The whole point of this site is that you’re not as alone as you probably feel you are right now. There are others who have gone through what you have - OK, maybe not exactly what you have, but close enough that they know what it’s like and they know how to help. It’s not easy getting used to what you’ve been handed, but if you don’t it’ll only get worse as time goes on, not better, so it’s a good thing you had the courage and the sense to send us all a message. We’re here for you, however we can help; hopefully most of the postings on this site will help you sort out some of the questions you have. If you have more, just drop me or anyone else here a message, anytime; that’s what we’re here for.

After all, if we don’t look out for each other, who will?

Life Before the Call

If you were anything like the rest of us, and I bet you were, life was an ordinary affair in every possible way in the days before you heard the Call. You had bills to pay, a regular job to go to and hobbies that kept you going when the first two seemed too much to bear. Maybe you were single and passed your time with a group of friends, still on the lookout for the one who’d fit everything into place, or perhaps you had a spouse and even kids that you cared for, trading some freedom for a kind of love that just doesn’t happen any other way. Things were tense sometimes, and easy some others, and generally so busy you sometimes worried that your life will be over just about the time you started really understanding what it was all about. You might have had some real disasters or tragedies that helped shape what you were, or maybe you were one of the lucky ones who managed to have fairly smooth sailing, but either way you’d probably figured you’d seen just about everything life was going to send your way, barring some miracle.
Of course, there are a few of us who noticed something was wrong with the world we were given. While I’ve yet to meet many of us that could say for certain that they encountered some kind of obvious supernatural phenomena before the Call, there were quite a few of us who believed in things beyond what we could see, hear and touch. Some were neopagans or New Ager types, open to a world they couldn’t really describe and looking for solutions from sources outside the mainstream, while others were members of more traditional faiths who found comfort in the thought of guardian angels and the power of prayer. While even they did not claim to have all the answers, they thought that they were at least a little better acquainted with what might be out there than those who subscribed to strict notions of science and rationality.
As it turns out, neither side has much of an answer for what happens during the imbuing.

The Imbuing

I don't mean to bring up too many painful memories, but I don't think I'm too far off the mark when I say that nothing in your life before could possibly prepare you for the moment when the Heralds imbued you with the power to see the truth. I've take to collecting different people's stories about the imbuing, and I can tell you now that they are perhaps as diverse as the subjects who told them to me. For some of us, it's a simple realization, with no fanfare or fireworks, that a person you're looking at is wrong in a way that can't be explained any other way but the supernatural. For others , it's like something out of a psychedelic drug trip or shamanistic vision, with strange images and bodiless voices welling up out of nowhere and assaulting their mind until finally relents and acknowledges the truth it has been denying their entire life. No matter what, though, there's always the knowledge, no, the certainty that you're not just hallucinating or tripping or whatever else might explain away what you're seeing in front of you - we just know that what we're seeing right, that our new impressions can be trusted just like any other part of our mind.
Another constant is the voice of the Heralds, which always comes as a message of some kind, either heard as a voice in your head, or written on somethng sight: A "WALK" sign changes to "DEATH", a formerly innocuous billboard now read "THE DEAD RISE AGAIN." Many imbued just get a simple statement - "IT DOES NOT LIFE" or "BEAST", for example - while others get cryptic but emphatic messages such as "IT FEEDS ON INNOCENCE" or "IT FEARS THE LIGHT OF TRUTH."
Some of us even keep on hearing voices or seeing messages like this even after our imbuing, thought they're in the minority. Most of the time you have just this direct communication from the Heralds that you're left with, but believe me when I say that's one message that will stick with you for the rest of your life.
With all of these new realizations, though, also comes an imperative - to act! No matter what the situation might be or how bold (or timid) you were before, you know that you must react in some way to what you’re seeing. I’ve only heard of a few who didn’t, who froze up when the Heralds called on them or even actively slunk away from what thev saw, and from what others sav that moment of hesitation haunts them forever afterward. Of course, as I’ve learned this command seems to mean different things in different situations. Some of us find themselves facing down raging monsters from a child’s worst nightmares, fighting back with whatever they have at hand, while others deal with more subtle threats or even find themselves approached by creatures seemingly seeking nothing more than a simple friendly exchange. Naturally, personality weighs in on how we deal with these situations too: I’ve met some of our kind who would probably try to talk down a raging monster rather than fight it, or more judgmental types who would cut off the hand of any creature that reached out to them for any reason. Whether or not the Messengers intended us to react in so many ways, or whether the light of their purpose was refracted in the prism of human behavior remains a question I don’t think any of us are ready to try to answer yet.

The Heralds

So who or what are these Heralds I keep mentioning? Unfortunately, nobody really knows, though theories abound: they’re aliens, trying to help us save our world from itself; they’re powerful beings recruiting us to return wayward spirits to Hell or some other outer plane; they’re an impulse from the universal unconscious or human overmind; they’re time travelers from a past or future civilization, trying to prevent some great catastrophe from occurring. For the truly cynical, there’s even the idea that they’re another type of monster we just haven’t met yet, using us as catspaws against their enemies in furtherance of some inscrutable scheme. If you like, after you read the rest of this thread you’re welcome to look through some of our past posts on the subject.
Or you can talk to some of the other imbued who claim to be in contact with the Heralds on a more regular basis; most swear that the Messengers return to them to impart information and warnings about impending conflicts, unanswered questions and other useful topics. Again, there’s considerable debate over why some are chosen for this extra level of contact, when others receive only their original message and not one word more.
What everyone does seem to agree about is that they are unquestionably linked to our sudden ability to perceive monsters, as well as the strange powers we find ourselves equipped with not too long after. It’s just too much of a coincidence that we would all be contacted by them otherwise. But as to why they choose us, no one can say for certain. Right now all we can do is hope for the best about their ultimate motive, and see if we can get a better picture of their goals and their identity as time goes on.

The Imbued

As unbelievable as it sounds at first, we now find ourselves in the position of being forced to acknowledge that we are all part of a group of people who have seen the truth of the world, that monsters are real and do indeed stalk human prey, and what’s more that as a whole we feel compelled to do something about it as well. To paraphrase what the wise man said, like it or not we’re through the looking glass now - it’s not a question of whether we will act on this new perspective, but how. I only hope that we make the right choices, hard as they may be to see sometimes.
So you’re probably wondering, do we share any other common denominators: age, sex, race, creed, ethnic background? Well, while there’s been no official census of our kind (and I wouldn’t hold my breath for one any time soon), I think it’s pretty safe to say that about the only thing that we all had in common before the imbuing was the fact of our ordinary lives. Other than that, I’ve heard from or seen signs of just about every type of individual imaginable, from all around the world. This gives me hope - it’s not a question of race or nationality, but of what you’re willing to do to carry on. Some would say it's sad that it could only take a threat like monsters to unify so many different people, but at least that means it can be done. Of course, with so many different types of people involved, you're bound to run into differences of opinion and operation along the way. Reconciling all these perspectives is rapidly becoming the next hardest part to battling the monsters themselves, but it's an effort that must be made if we're going to become any kind of force for change in the world.
Well, enough of just my thoughts for now - since I just explained how different opinions weigh in, take a look at what some of the other members of this site have had to contribute on these subjects in the past. I hope you find their beliefs as interesting and helpful as I did originally.