Pageants are outbreaks of ephemera and abstracta acting in the material world. Gods, animae, vestiges, and powerful Astral beings tend to attract and harbor complex ecosystems of such beings. They tend to operate symbiotically with their host. As they work their way farther and deeper into the concrete world, they spread and entrench the host’s memes, making it easier for the host’s rites, stories, and rituals to find fertile ground.

Pageants are at their most basic level idees fixes: contagious thoughts. But they are not just stray words, ideas, or tunes, they are a coordinated contagion. Multiple song-snippets fit together, possibly coupled with verbal fixations, physical compulsions, textural fascinations… each idee fixe fits with others in its ecology, and each calls out to the others. A chance contact with a troubador singing a haunting little ditty can transform a whole village, as the song-snippet embeds in its host and sets up a resonance that draws related memes to manifest.

Pageants break out via dreams and mental networks, and provide extraordinary bonuses to craft and performance checks to manifest the Pageant: spontaneous bursts of song, choreographed movements, crop circles and other mystery sigils (even in tracks and animal trails), masks and costumes, novel slang and phrases, and group and solo dances. Each Pageant is unique, and any individual will only “catch” one at a time. Once mortals are exposed to a Pageant, the next time they sleep they must make Sanity checks to avoid joining the Pageant (one check for each exposure that day). Those who manifest the Pageant consider it a natural part of normal activity, or an interesting and entertaining novelty. The Pageant is fun, and some mortals (especially children) may play along willingly long before they succumb themselves. The Pageant takes a Sanity toll on mortal minds, particularly on those who resist its influence. The rate and severity of Sanity loss depends on the Pageant’s level (see below). Outsiders may choose to participate in the Pageant, and leave it at will, with no ill effects (and Pageants can be grounds for gleaning Dream essence, if appropriate). The only way to cure a mortal from the Pageant is via heal or similar effects, or by persuading/ destroying the lord of the Pageant.

Pageant Level

The level of a Pageant is not commensurate with its geographic scope, but merely the virulence of its memetic ecology. The higher the Pageant’s level, the more aggressively its ideas spread, and the more detrimental its presence on mortal societies.

Pageant Level	Resistant Sanity Loss	Participant Sanity Loss
1	1d4/ week	1/28 days
2	1d6/ week	1/21 days
3	1d3/ day	1/14 days
4	1d4/ day	1/7 days
5	1d6/ day	1/ day

While extended exposure to a Pageant can take a grave toll on mortal minds, some powers have been known to actively employ them to spread their influence. The slow erosion of sanity is still enough to reduce a normal mortal to a gibbering wreck in a year’s time, so even those who cultivate strong Pageants typically provide some healing services to mend the mortals’ minds.

Mummers

Those mortals who succumb to the Pageant and lose their minds to it (losing all Sanity points) become mummers. Their consciousness is entirely subsumed by the memes of the Pageant, and they live only to spread and deepen its ecology. Though they occasionally cultivate new memes for the ecology, so little remains of their minds that they have no real creative ability. They are passive vessels that exist at the whims of the ephemera and abstracta of the Pageant. Most succumb to starvation or accident in the first few months of their existence as mummers, though some (sheltered by opportunistic and insightful ephemera) can live for decades, spreading the Pageant with preternatural zeal.

The crush of compulsions brought by a Pageant in full bloom has hollowed out the mummers’ minds, leaving no coherent consciousness. The agents of the Pageant have so extensively colonized the subject’s mind that there is nothing left but the Pageant’s compulsions and the urges of any ephemera who can wrest control. Ephemera with the right feats can occupy such a vessel until it expires, though they understand so little about material existence that the mummer’s lifespan is unlikely to be long. Occasionally several ephemera collaborate to control a mummer, either because of shared goals or to overpower a more potent ephemeron.

If a Pageant contains ephemera capable of possessing mummers, they are likely to drive the Pageant to create as many mummers as possible. Rather than spreading thin across the world, they push for a deep infection, hollowing out vessels as quickly as possible so they have a ready stable of mummers to control.

Creating a mummer

Mummer is an inherited template that can be added to any corporeal aberration, dragon, giant, humanoid, magical beast, monstrous humanoid, or undead with an Intelligence score of 3 or higher (referred to hereafter as the base creature).

A mummer uses all the base creature’s statistics and abilities except as noted here. Do not recalculate the creature’s Hit Dice, base attack bonus, saves, or skill points if its type changes.

Size and Type

A mummer’s size and type remain unchanged.

Special Attacks

[TBD]

Special Qualities

• Spell resistance equal to HD + 10.
• Power resistance equal to HD + 10.
• Immunity to all mind-affecting effects (charms, compulsions, phantasms, patterns, and morale effects).

Abilities

[TBD]

Environment

[TBD]

Challenge Rating

[TBD]

Alignment

Since a mummer has no coherent consciousness, its alignment becomes effectively neutral (unless the nuances of its Pageant would dictate otherwise).

Level Adjustment

[TBD]