Rifters

Pilgrims of Dusk and Dawn

Oh mankind, pray!

What does deep midnight have to say?

"From sleep, from sleep—

From deepest dream I made my way:—

The world is deep,

And deeper than the grasp of day.

Deep is its pain—,

Joy—deeper still than misery:

Pain says: Refrain!

Yet all joy wants eternity—

—Wants deep, wants deep eternity."

-

- Zarathustra's Roundelay, Friedrich Nietzsche

Everyone calls them Rifters. Silent, hooded figures in flowing, dirty garments, always covered in dust, their faces hidden behind bizarre masks, bearing tools and weapons speaking of ancient technology and a bizarre lifeline to a time before the world ended. Never welcome anywhere, they wander in small or large groups, exploring the odd places of the world from the tops of the Baltic Sea Rim to the Devil's Foot of the Crimson Empire, from the Sunken Cities of the Western Marshland to the End of the World behind the Alliance's Graveyard of Wings.
Most settling cultures see them as harbingers of bad luck and disaster, as they always seem to appear shortly before a place is turned upside down by the effects of a powerful phenomenon, while chevaliers of fortune use them as Geiger counters for their own treasure hunting endeavors. For some reason, Rifters know long before anyone else if a Rift in the worlds will appear, and sometimes even more importantly, when it disappears again - and will be the first to exploit it.
As the farmer reads the flight of the swallow to determine the weather, you do good to keep a close eye on Rifters and their movements when you want to exploit or elude a phenomenon's erratic ripple effects.
In the proud, yet chaotic enclaves of the Narbenland and well-established cities of the Crimson Empire or Allied Territories alike, Rifters are a common, if unpleasant sight for most citizens. These nomads will often make camp near civilized settlements and frequent facilities and trading posts to barter their strange, aether-infused goods in exchange for coin or supplies. Rifters don't grow crops or herd cattle, they don't take on work for others or submit themselves to local lords or laws, so they have to trade, buy or steal basic goods like food, water, fabric or medical supplies to sustain their clans. As a people, they seem to bow only to the tides of the Other World and their erratic outbursts. As a result, their abilities to reveal Olde Tech, Aether Artifacts and Assembled Anomalies, are unparalleled, but they have become so accustomed and attuned to this strange rhythm, that they are incompatible with other human beings.
In fact, many people will question the fact that Rifters are to be considered human beings at all.
They never reveal their faces or bare skin to anyone; wear hoods, veils and masks with strange designs obscuring their features. Women and men are seemingly indistinguishable in Rifter culture in apparel, behavior or rank, and even their children are dressed in similar attire and masks than the adults. Their only occupation is stalking permanent phenomena, aether abnormalities and even chaos rifts to unearth an unparalleled amount and quality of tainted goods they then trade for supplies, and then move on with no interest in ever joining any other society or human company than their own kin. So rumor has it that they are in fact Otherbeasts of some sort. As they even raise their children on the road and near aether infused anomalies, common belief is that they hide their bodies and faces because they are hideously deformed.
They hardly speak at all, using a strange sign language among each other. When communicating with outsiders, they will usually speak some variety of Babble, with a very distinctive accent; a manner of speech that is only ever found in Rifters: Harsh mid-tones and throaty sounds pared with melodic vowels occasionally accompanied by abstract click-noises seemingly coming from deep down their gullet. These peculiar phonetic quirks give them a very distinctive accent that makes them the butt of many jokes around campfires, beer pints and furnaces on the continent.
Even though Babbel is a pidgin language with little universal rules, only held together by local color and the need to trade beyond borders, and that therefore everyone speaks badly, Rifters butcher grammar and context rules so rigorously and distinctively, they manage to stand out. It can be very hard to have as much as a basic conversation with them. The fact that masks are covering their faces doesn't help either, as that includes the mouth as well, so that their voices always sound muffled, sometimes even distorted.
Fortunately, they as well as you will most likely be happy to scrap small-talk and niceties and limit conversation to business related topics before everyone is on their way again. Rifters never speak out about their culture or customs in front of strangers, not even in exchange for money or a good trade. If pressed for information, chances are, they will just shrug and suddenly have lost any ability to understand any Babble at all.
Because Rifters are so rigorously odd and don't have any interest in abiding by any local rules, customs or cultural guidelines, they are often subject ridicule and mistrust at best, crimes of hate, discrimination and even persecution at worst. Even in regions where there is a certain status quo, involving some human rights or laws of fairness, Rifters are usually excluded from these benefits without the need of even mentioning it. They are a necessary evil for many, as their repertoire of items and artifacts is just too good to pass on for more technological advanced settlements, so they are tolerated but never really invited.
And then, there are the rumors and stories of curses ravaging land and population of settlements daring to kill or attack Rifter clans settling in their area. Some say, if you kill a Rifter, you will be haunted by a phenomenon that will never leave, but start to expand and grow bigger, wider, more chaotic, follow you, even, until it swallowed your soul.
Who dares to take a closer look at Rifter practices and behavior around phenomena will observe, that Rifters are fearlessly devoted to the Rule of the Rifts which implies they are having a special connection to them. Their Sinners usually wear more complicated or ornate masks than their Lambs and practice complicated and strange rituals to attune to the veil around them before Diving into the Abyss. They act unafraid and almost devoted in the presence of big, supernatural unrest, and don't hesitate to enter unstable ruins or chaotic rifts. They dive deeper than anyone else with seemingly no equipment, and it has been reported, that even the ones who don't wear the Mark of the Beast have been seen entering rifts without fear.
Rifters in general are known to be more open to talk to Sinners than regular people. If you meet one, make sure to try and barter for information about local anomalies or rifts. Chances are, they will ask you to pay them for a lead, but they are surprisingly open to sharing their knowledge about where and when something will tear the veil apart, if you are willing to pay the price.

Culture

Major language groups and dialects

Rifters speak any language, but badly. No outsider has ever heard them speak to one another in public though. It is questionable if they even have one unified language. Instead, it has been observed that Rifters communicate in a mysterioussign language when they meet each other.
Signum aka 'Signs' is an umbrella term for a set of gestures and hand signals predominantly used by Rifters when venturing beyond the veil, but also very much useful if you are trying to communicate with others while your face is covered with a mask.
It was supposedly first picked up by Agrippa's Alchemists which are unarguably the civilized tribe closest to the enigmatic Rifter people. They have had trading arrangements with Rifters since the dawn of the new age and developed this sign language alongside them as a way to communicate with each other, peacefully, as it respects the Rifters' religious beliefs by not requireing to lower their masks to speak. Nowadays a more or less universal set of gestures has been established that is used by all those who regularly cross the line between waking world and dreamspaces. Roman Erebiti and Ally Voidwalkers make use of them when on a mission and in the here and now, various traders who do have re-occuring contact with Rifters have picked up a vocabulary of the most important gestures.

If you want to know more and dive deeper into the mysticism behind this enigmatic people, consider becoming a supporter of the Sinner or Archon tier. Join our EDEN Undone Discord server and learn more!