Stoneshades

Referring to a few different phenomena, the primary use of the term “stoneshade” is to refer to the eerie “personality” gimyndine samples and their gimynfire seem to possess. This necessitates one of the major components of scriptlighting and resonating, the ability to shift one’s thought processes to be more in-line with any particular sample. The principle skill of the scriptlighter, then, can be said to be acting.

Another use of the term stoneshade, in many ways identical, is to refer to the actual personality that scriptlighters assume when resonating that may sometimes overcome them. The principal danger of scriptlighting–aside, of course, from glassrot–is in the domination of a stoneshade over a scriptlighter's ego as a result of over-reliance on one gimyn. This process is naturally very distressing, though the afflicted are often incapable of recognizing their own changes. Once a stoneshade fully takes over, the afflicted is rendered unable to use any other gimyn.

There are also rare cases where a stoneshade may take on a physical presence in reality in the form of an autonomous soulfire field, called a descension. Descensions have been noticed to occur most frequently when a glassrote scriptlighter goes through significant emotional distress during a resonation, causing an immediate rejection of the lighter as a soulfire controller but still requiring the gimynfire be controlled. In this case, what is thought to be the scriptlighter's own shade takes control of the cloud and causes general destruction until forcibly dispersed.

Due to the consequences of stoneshades, one of the cornerstones of a flamebearer's skill is the ability to successfully resonate with many different samples. This is especially paramount in the modern religious climate, eager to differentiate themselves from the “demonic tyrants” of the past and their “haunted” actions.