The System
(Updated Jan 2006)

We are a fairly complicated multiple system. These are the people who have agreed to be listed, which means I have to be aware of them and be able to talk to them and they have to have said yes. You can think of them as personalities, but mostly we all prefer people. It's shorter and rounder and less clinical.

Teresa: the 'I' of parts of the site, prior to 2006. I'll go ahead and introduce us the way the world sees us.

Lyria Lin: Lyria is a miracle of hope and joy. She's very artistic and creative, and also very grounded in things like making healthy food and doing yoga. Her mysticism is broad, her capacity to love and trust enormous, and well, she kind of nudges us all onto the path of compassion.

Shandra: I used to think of Shandra as action and political will. She's a CEO-type: driven, hard hitting, no-guff, get-it-done protector sort of person. She's the first to have discovered the mush. Her name used to be Alison but she pretty much goes by Shandra now. She was surprised to learn that she is the leader of a group of warrior women, known as the warrior caste... surprised, I think, that her feelings of being in charge had a reason for them. :) The marvellous thing about Shandra is that she has an incredible capacity to change... more than I do, really. She is the main writer in our blog.

Amber: Shandra's second in command of the warrior caste, a group of protectors/leaders within the system. As Shandra says "she's a 14 year old mouthy girl - how much more of a warrior can you get than that."

Channah (Hannah or Ally): As you can tell there's some confusion about Hannah's name, but Hannah is what I think of her as. She's bubbly and happy and enthusiastic and quite able to navigate the system. She 'feels' preadolescent but sometimes she spits up a flash of insight that seems quite adult! I speculate that she's an early Shandra; some things she's said seem to fit well with that. Whatever it all is, we like her! She has a website that is maybe a bit fictional (or more accurately, a description of Shandra as someone internal might see her) but here it is anyway.

Karen: Karen has not been around for a few years. We miss her. She was an editor and she insisted that she smokes, but I'm not sure how that worked since I'm not aware of any of that rotten stuff having entered into my lungs, except second hand. She's very detailed.

Lynn:There is no easy way to summarize Lynn. Her poetry is always a marvel: it arrives just as it is. I will just let her speak for herself there.

Lynn is a multiple herself, so we also have said "the Lynns," meaning all of them. One of them is Magdalynn, who is a priestess and a gatekeeper. There is also L., a lesbian young woman who loves Lyria very deeply, and used to be the gatekeeper. All the Lynns live behind their gate and their culture is very different.

Eternally Damned: Eternally Damned is one of the Lynns, but she has been removed from the collective in many ways - why, we're not sure. She is a pretty young girl, very concerned about not having a soul, and who has been through some harsh experience.

the kinderlynn: the kinderlynn are the rest of the Lynn children. They range from crafty to feral. They are fascinated with dark things - from The Nightmare Room to The Sixth Sense and lots of serial killer stories in between.

JJ: JJ is really smart, and also seems to know a whole lot about the system's architecture and history. She also is able to overrule Shandra, which is sometimes greatly appreciated! There is some debate over whether she is, in fact, a Lynn.

Marai: Marai was Lyria's baby on the game. It was hard to explain why Lyria and occasionally I heard her crying at night off the game. Now we think she might be a very little part that Lyria was re-parenting. We think she might have come to a hard end. We love her lots and are going to come get her out of the hard end some day.

Amie: Amie is obsessed with fairies. Or maybe she is one? I have no idea but she's very welcome to be here.

Joy: Another happy child, who is obsessed with giggling and cuddling, and who likes rather a lot to put glitter gel in our hair!

Lemarath: Lemarath is our system's dragon. The role of a dragon is to love, support, and protect you always. Some people call these angels or spirit guides. We like dragons because, well, they're big and have scary teeth and talons. Don't mess with ours.

Dominic: The system's only man, as far as we know. He's somewhat gay-leaning, into dancing and rock/alternative music, and learning to cook.