Insight in the world of The Lands Unbound can be treated as a seventh stat. It is not tied to intelligence, wisdom, charisma, or any other soft stat, nor is it tied to any of the hard stats. You do not gain the stat from any roll, and the amount you begin with is entirely determined in the character creation process, and must be narratively tied to the character. Insight is a stat that must be determined by the DM in collaboration with the player. The stat you come up with can be determined in a variety of ways, but in order to figure the DM must have an in depth understanding of insight as a mechanic.
How to Gain Insight:
Insight and its effects depend heavily on the campaign and what the DM wants it to be. In general, though, insight is the characters understanding of the objective reality of the world. In most cases this is a dark, depressing, and difficult to absorb reality. The avergae sentient human has an insight of about five to seven. This is an understanding of the world around you and its inner mechanisms at a level that is typical for somebody in real life, with seven or eight being life-long philosophers, nine and ten being truly enlightened individuals, and anything above that being outside the bounds of what we know in our true earth reality. It is, though very uncommon, quite possible to go beyond this in The Lands Unbound, but the ways about it are often vague. Typically, attaining knowledge of everything around you, witnessing eldritch beasts, finding eldritch runes or ruins, etc. are solid and consistent ways to gain insight, which will be delved out at the DM's discretion.
Why Gain Insight:
Insight is a powerful and dangerous thing to have in The Lands Unbound. Most obviously, a certain level of insight quite literally changes the way you see the world around you, granting you the ability to see things and view beings you otherwise would otherwise be incapable of seeing. You will be able to see things that someone at a lower level of insight might never be able to visually comprehend. The way that someone on a 2D plane is incapable of viewing something outside of its plane, a 3D person can see everything around them with no issue, someone with higher insight has no difficulties seeng into a plane or dimension that someone more ignorant would be blind to. Beyond just this, similar to the Insight check, having a higher insight score will increase your ability to recognize characteristics of beings you interact with. You might be able to recognize whether or not they can wield magic, what kind of magic they yield, their alignment, whether they have malicious intent, whether they emenate bloodlust or sorrow. There are endless possibilities with increased insight, and the manner in which you go about increasing it will have an affect on exactly how much insight you gain. It is up to the DM to determine how much power a certain level of insight grants, as long as they are consistent.
The Catch:
Insight in The Lands Unbound is undeniably powerful- but it's also incredibly debilitating. The nature of the world is not a kind one. Knowing exactly to what extent it is unkind, knowing precisely what horrors lie behind the curtain, pulling the strings, is rarely a settling comfort. Not to mention, those very horrors don't typically like to be viewed, much less understood. The positive to negative ratio for insight is typically a bell curve, becoming much less attractive the higher you go. While the powers associated with these higher levels can be immense, the toll it takes on a person's mind is often much more than enough to absolutely melt their brain. If not driven to complete madness or suicide, they are often hunted and killed by the beings they suddenly discover. It is advised to exercise extreme caution as you climb the ranks.
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