**Mel**

In Shmim all intelligent life is actually a single intelligent super being. A giant divine ego who can only be described as ineffable. He/She/It has gone by many names. For the purpose of this text, we will refer to Him/her/it as Mel. Celestials in the Material Plane are manifestations of Mel that take on independent agency. Mel means well, but he/she/it really doesn’t understand imperfection. His/her/its manifold of reality is basically shielded from chaos. Apparently Mel has a plan for humanity. But it basically consists of humans acting just like him, and re-creating Shmim on the Material Plane. Which sounds like heaven, but basically amounts to eliminating everything about humans that makes us … human. The plan also suffers from the tiny flaw that every one of his plans seems to evaporate on contact with reality.

Mel has been implicated in several attempts to wipe out humanity. He is suspected in the extinction of several sentient life forms who existed in ages past. Whether these extinctions were actually Mel’s will, or a misinterpretation of his plan on the part of corrupted subordinates is, shall we say, a mystery. On the other hand, Mel has also been seen as a guiding force of humanity on the path towards civilization. The invention of writing required several inexplicable coincidences that can best be put as divine inspiration. Cults surrounding his worship promoted the first food safety regulations. They also introduced human rights as a concept, not to mention laws. The deeply spiritual who have interacted with Mel all walk away with a profound desire to bring peace, order, and dignity for all mankind to the world.

Every so often Mel attempts to exist as a human being. His reasons for doing so are ineffible. Every culture has their own telling of when Mel came to visit them. They unfortunately end as often as they do not with Mel being nailed to a tree or burned at the stake. He seems to be very, very averse to people getting anything from him in writing while he is Avatar form. Especially given the number of times different cults have gone to war over how to interpret Mel’s teachings.

**Celestial**
A Form of Life. A supernatural entity from Shmim. All celestials are manifestations of a single super mind, Mel. They range in power and intelligence, as do vistors from other realms. Humans who glimpse at a Celestial can’t comprehend its actual form. Our reflex is to simply forget what we saw. If we actually interact with them, we remember a disembodied voice, and nothing else. Celestials in the wild are generally engaged in an ineffable mission from Mel. Celestials are naturally attuned to Custodian style magic, and struggle to produce other forms.

*Low level manifestations are experienced as strange coincidences. You don’t sense them at the time. But if you put 2 and 2 together, something doesn’t add up later.

*Medium level manifestations occur when Mel is trying to directly communicate. Humans perceive this as a series of incomprehensible sensory experiences. A disembodied voice. A fugue of geometrical patterns. Beings with 8 sets of wings. A burning bush that isn’t consumed. This message drives a person Insane. As a coping method, people try to rationalize the message as something profound. But the end result is like trying to extrapolate an entire jigsaw puzzle when you only have one piece.

*High level are the most powerful and intelligent manifestations of Mel can take on human form. They appear as impossibly beautiful people, as they are built from tropes in our collective unconscious. (Mel’s idea of our idea of perfection.) While there is no limit to how long they can remain in the Material Plane, it is believed that prolonged exposure to the disorder in our realm corrupts these manifestations. After a certain period of independent action, they develop their own ego and motives that are fundamentally incompatible with being part of Mel. To return to Shmim they must undergo a painful period of reconciliation, and once their individuality is purged that are subsumed back into the super-mind. Shemyaza are rogue manifestations who try to build a life on the Material Plane. High level manifestations reside around temples. The temple contains a sepulcher, which acts as a gateway to Shmim. Temples are furnished with ritual purification facilities for visiting humans to wash off as much of the corruption of the world as possible.

**Shemyaza**
Shemyaza are a form of Undead. They are created when a Celestial is cut off from Shmim, or when a high level Custodian mage takes on unnatural life. They are also known in some cultures as Incubi or Succubi. Shemyaza must maintain their fortune by extracting Quintessence from the living. Their preferred form is Yellow quintessence, drawn from the Manipura chakra, located in the abdomen. When merely hungry Shemyaza are known to extract Mana through sexual acts on Enchanted or Unconscious victims of either sex. In extreme deprivation, they have been known to violently access the chakra by tearing through the naval, anus, or genitals of a victim.

**Shmim**
The plane of existence from which Celestials come from. It is accessed from the Material Plane through the use of Custodian Tegic. The word form Shmim comes to us from ancient Semetic texts. And despite constant corrections from the vistors from the realm, it seems that humans can never actually pronounce it correctly.