The Filament

The Filament is a shard of old magic, left over from the time before the creation of the Crystal Spheres, the phlogiston, and Wildspace. It tumbles through the phlogiston, ignoring currents and flow rivers, passing through sphere walls as though they weren't there. The Filament travels the cosmos along its own unpredictable path, and there are competing theories as to whether it is following some incredibly complex orbit based on physics unknown, whether it is directed by some unexplained will, or whether its path is completely random.

Mechanics

As the Filament passes through Crystal Spheres and their stars and planets, it has no effect on the vast majority of matter. In most cases, it is completely undetectable, and passes through entire Spheres without impact. However, once in a very rare instance, the Filament interacts with an individual living being (always a living being!), instilling within them a tiny fragment of itself.
Those with whom the Filament interacts are referred to as touched  or pierced  by those who are aware of their existence. For the touched individuals themselves, the experience is unnoticeable, and if left undisturbed most likely would have no impact on their lives. Unfortunately, various groups - some with good intentions, and some evil - believe that the touched, and the Filament shard within them, are sources of incredible and deadly power.

Affiliations

Several groups, organizations, or religious cults are affiliated with the Filament and the touched in different ways.

• The Filament Protection League is dedicated to seeking out and either enlisting, hiding, or eliminating touched individuals, in order to avert the destruction caused by Colossi attacks.
• The Order of the Weak believes that the power contained within the touched can be extracted and used to fight back against the unknown masters, or perhaps for other purposes...
• The Colossi are a species of gigantic beings who seek out and, seemingly, annihilate the touched wherever they can find them. Previously only known from vague legends, there have been several rumours and reports of Colossi attacks within the last two to three years, including a very recent one on the city of Haffa on Nusif. It is unclear whether these creatures work by their own will or are under the control of some unknown masters.