Zeitgeists are beings of immense era-defining power.
And they are terrified of losing it.
In a world where stories have true power, Zeitgeists are the biggest stories around and exist in vast swaths of humanity’s collective consciousness. They are the superpowers of ideas, believed in by thousands or millions, and are gorged on this excessive power of belief. They have swollen from their original Myth, absorbing and amalgamating other myths, and drawing more and more believers to them. They are stories so all-encompassing we don’t even call them stories anymore.
Zeitgeists know their time is trickling away, and that no story gets to stay at the peak of humanity’s attention forever. They will try and buy as much time as possible, however, and crushing the competition is one of the best ways to go about it.
Zeitgeists are like forces of nature and far too large to be interacted with directly or involved directly in the affairs of individuals. They can, however, push their will on normal people to have them act as agents and representatives, imbuing them with a portion of their power. This will often lead to a similar embodiment to that of a myth, by some aspect or representation of the Zeitgeist. All Zeitgeists are so large that most encompass many smaller stories within their purview that are capable of being defined by a single person. These Avatars are often locally relevant manifestations of the largest and most relevant Zeitgeists in the area.
Zeitgeists are not unlimited in their power, and their main rivals are others of their kind. These ideological struggles play out in humanities belife, with political idealologies, religions, and other theologies of thought all locked in a vast match for mankind’s attention. Set among this struggle Myths might seem vastly outclassed, but all stories have to start somewhere, and smaller ideas and stories can still thrive in the peripheries of this conflict.
Zeitgeists and their Avatars can also not interact with Otherside or Inbetween, giving Myths a reliable hideout from their persecution. Their power is so tied to the Waking World that the free form of Otherside rejects their attempts to enter or move within it. The ability for Myths to seemingly disappear and slip through their fingers is a constant frustration to the Avatars.
A favourite method to crush Myths is for Avatars to make their mortal life so difficult that they are pushed in to Otherside compleatly, a fate that will inevitably lead to Untethering permanently. They will wield their influence and power to destroy relationships, rouse communities, and pecsivute through any means necessary to undermine a Myths mortal life. This can be extreamly difficult to deal with, and Myths try their best to simply avoid detection by Zietguests in the first place. When this is unaviodable, the Myth, and their allies will often try to directly combat theiAvatar driving the persicution. This is risky, as Avatars are powerful beings, but this gain, tInhough, they are constrained by their own beliefs in their Zeitgeists. The Witch Finder cant just burn a normal person for being an abomination they way they might a werewolf or foreign deity, party official has to follow the rules and regulations set out by their masters ideology. Corruption exists of course, but an avatar who strays from the path their Zeitgeist represents will find their powers waning as their belief does, and even become victim to the very power they once served.
