Dark Ocean

In Flesh Kernel, the Dark Ocean (DO) is a unified substratum underlying the physical plane and inextricably connected to it, acting like a sort of universal subconscious. Phenomena related to the existence of the DO which appear to violate standard laws of logic and physics are termed subnatural, to emphasise that those very rules of consistency are just a high-level accident of the natural world and do not apply to the simpler, less structured realm of the DO.

The properties of the DO were studied rigorously by the scientist Xladislax Novaq̌.

Whenever anyone enters an altered state of consciousness (like sleep) they effectively "dive" into the dark ocean. In the DO, thoughts, memories and identity are plastic and mutable.

The manifestation of the DO in the physical plane is through hidden connections, which are the true general mechanism behind all subnatural phenomena. Specifically, objects, people or concepts separated by great spiritual, physical or structural distance can actually be entangled in a deep meaningful relationship in a connection passing through the DO. In that case, the meaning might be extremely hard to decipher, and impossible to translate into logical thought, but the connection will still be extremely strong and have measurable consequences. The two items at the endpoint of this ineffable cable will be psychically conjoined or might even overlap, the conceptual boundary between them giving in to the osmotic pressure.

Subnatural phenomena include all sort of traditional "psychic abilities" and more. A subclass is related to the effect of traumatic experiences - these include:


 * Trauma transfer, in which a different person is traumatised rather than the one which experienced the traumatic event
 * Antichronistic Trauma in which a person is traumatised before the traumatic event happens, and in fact the entire interior journey of processing is chronologically reversed
 * Interference Trauma in which a person is traumatised by an event that never happened, but might have

these can also be compounded.

Other subnatural events relate specifically to dreams. Some examples are:


 * Shared dreams, self-explanatory
 * Incarnation, in which a dreamer might inhabit an awake person's body with varying degree of control
 * Oniric Anachronism, in which the above phenomena happen with a temporal mismatch

Intentionally controlling or manipulating the DO is close to impossible for most mortal beings. The Reticulans are a partial exception thanks to their Cranial Gland.