The Physhbowl

The Vast

5 min read

Entity inspired Tarot by Grace Holsten

“Vertigo, agoraphobia, the dread of deep water, of our own insignificance before the universe.”
- Gerard Keay, MAG 111

The Vast is one of The Entities. Its domain is our fear of our own insignificance in this universe, of losing yourself in too much space, as well as heights, falling and open spaces.

It commonly manifests as void, vertigo, and falling, as well as anything to do with openness and open spaces. It often appears as huge, unfathomable creatures that are too distant and immense for humans to properly comprehend.

While The Buried also manifests as deep water, it will usually have a focus on crushing, drowning or sinking.

Aliases

  • The Falling Titan
  • The Void

Fears

  • Acrophobia
  • Agoraphobia
  • Thalassophobia
  • Bathophobia
  • Apeirophobia
  • Megalophobia
  • Insignificance
  • Casadastraphobia

Manifestations

  • Voids
  • Skies
  • Falling
  • Outer space
  • Open spaces
  • Deep water
  • Giant creatures
  • Lovecraftian horrors

Episodes

Statements

Other Appearances

Characters

  • Michael Crew: Was struck by lightning and marked with a Lichtenberg Figure scar by the Vast from a young age, and was followed and tormented by an aspect of The Spiral that smelled like ozone and looked to have a similar design to the scar. He later used Ex Altiora to bind his tormentor to the book, becoming an Avatar of The Vast.
  • The Fairchilds: An affiliated group of people connected with The Vast. While not an actual family, they take the names and identities of others.
  • Jan Kilbride: A victim of the Vast whose unwitting connection to the Entity made him powerful enough to be used to stop The Buried’s ritual. 

Locations

  • The Vast: A separate, void-like dimension that is absent of any life, with the exception of any victims sent there. Victims within the Vast will find themselves either surrounded by endless sky or sinking through oceanic depths, with little chance of escape. It is the direct manifestation of the Entity itself, but it is unknown if it can appear on its own.
  • The Great Beast(MAG 174 - The Great Beast): Simon Fairchild’s Domain in the post-Change world. It consists of a huge creature made of people clinging to each other, as it slowly walks over a large area with people living in it, scared of the colossal being casting a shadow over them.
  • The Ocean(MAG 195 - Adrift): A Domain of the Vast with possible aspects of The Dark and The Lonely. A victim is infinitely drowning in it with an unknown creature swimming around them. When they break the surface they find the ocean goes on forever and allow themselves to drown again.
  • The Precipice(MAG 198 - Precipice): A Domain of the Vast. The inhabitants climb a rickety, rusted iron ladder until they eventually realize that they do not know which way is up or down.

Artefacts

  • Ex Altiora: A Leitner written in Latin that tells the story of a town jumping off a cliff in the face of destruction by an unfathomable creature. Smells of ozone and induces vertigo. 
  • A Strange Book of Astronomy: An unnamed book that Emma Harvey(MAG 167 - Curiosity) used on Sarah Carpenter(lMAG 167: Curiosity) in one of several attempts to break her. The book left the reflection’s of “uncanny” constellations within her eyes long after she had attempted to used the book to chart the stars. She is described as nearly having been “lost to the cosmos.”

Ritual

In the 1800s, Simon Fairchild devised and attempted an ocean-based ritual for The Vast called “The Awful Deep”, descending deep underwater with a group of sacrifices in a specially designed diving bell. The ritual “fizzled” both because the fear of the deep ocean wasn’t prevalent enough to take advantage of, and a Hunter interrupted it, though Simon admits the whole ritual “wasn’t a very good idea”.

He figures that he’s at least a century away from being able to try again, as he hopes to attempt something with outer space.

Connections with other Entities

  • The Vast and The Flesh have similar trauma related to being insignificant or meaningless.
  • The Fairchilds and the Lukas Family have been serving their entity for around two centuries. However, “Fairchild” is apparently an assumed name (the current “Simon Fairchild” stole the identity and wealth of the actual ppSimon Fairchild]] in the 1920s), whereas the Lukases marry “spooky singles” and bear children with them.
    • Simon Fairchild has actually been serving The Vast for centuries. He mentions having been an apprentice to the Venetian painter Tintoretto, which would put Simon’s birth somewhere in the mid-1500s.
  • The Buried is in many ways the opposite of The Vast, as they represent opposing forces of not enough space vs. too much.
    • These entities were proven to be somewhat antithetical to each other, given that the body of a single person touched by The Vast was able to destabilize The Buried’s grand ritual 
    • However, it is noted that entities like this that oppose each other directly would struggle without one another, implying that the Vast and The Buried may be closely connected.
  • The Lonely, The Vast and The Buried are the only Entities that can manifest themselves as separate realms
    • The Vast is the only one of the three that has not spawned without being summoned.
    • The Vast is also the only one that has multiple variations.

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