The Flow

 

The Flow isn't cables and servers — it's an ambient ætheric medium that saturates the world, the way radio waves saturate ours. Every settlement with warded infrastructure sits inside a "tide pool" of accessible signals. Casting into it, listening to it, or fouling it are all applications of ordinary magick repurposed as tech.

Who Maintains It

• The Wardens — a licensed cabal that anchors the major relay-nodes ("buoys"). Losing a buoy doesn't kill the network, it just makes that region's signal thin, laggy, and easier to eavesdrop on.
• Maintenance is done by tideworkers: low-level casters who physically walk warded conduit lines and re-key drifting sigils. Blue-collar magick.
• Access is frequency-based, not password-based: your badge, sigil-brand, or attuned item literally are your credentials. 

 

How "Connecting" Works

• To use The Flow you need a resonator — anything from a cheap earpiece to a fully warded terminal. Better resonators mean clearer signal, lower latency, and resistance to spoofing.
• "Browsing" or accessing public info equals tuning into constructs called echoes — semi-permanent recorded workings anyone with the right key can replay.