C.S. Lewis, The Silver Chair

Fast food debris and crumpled newspaperes skitter along the street, pushed along by the gray day's chill wind. Sales clerks and secretaries, released by the late hour from their cubicles, curry out into the streets, navy and slate coats pulled tightly aroudn them as they make their way to their high-rise boxes. Traffic stalls at each light, fuming clouds of exhaust half-hiding the pedestrians. A vagrant skulks near a dumpster, his thinning hair plastered to his scalp by dirty snow. meanwhile, high above the city, secure in glass and metal fortresses, captains of industry count their coins, greedy eeys shining in their sterile boardrooms. Arms dealeres cuckle, waving fistfulls of money, little caring for the slaughter brought about by their sales. Goth children, swathed in black, pale faces searching for something to believe in, gyrate deseperately to the music pounding away the emptiness. Gliding through concealing shadows, campires smile sardonically at these wannabe dark souls, awaiting the feast that is to come. A beaten abandoned child moans in her nightmares, pulling her cardboard box closer around her as she cries. Cityscape in early winter, the World of Darkness. Like our mundane world, but made a little darker, a little more terrifying.

Brightly hued wrappers and balloons dance in the wind, tumbling and rolling along the street. Pale and dark dolls march in time to music unheard as they enter their many windowed homes. Vibrant metal bugs maneuver through elaborate rituals, their breath puffing merilly. An old satyr peers around the corner, laughing at the twinkling snowflakes that softly fall around him. Dreams take shape, born of hopes and fears. Greedy eyes dragons soar aloft on the brisk winter breeze, alert for shiny coins dropped int he darkness below. An artist, inspired by the freshly fallen snow, begins to paint a scene of anceint snow-capped towers set amid a land of fantastic beauty. Pushed to the wall by terror, a child creates an imaginary fanged horror that stalks and frightens, always on the verge of pounding. Children dance merrily in the snow, sharing rides on sleds as they whisk down steep hills, their screams of joy echoing throughout the park. Changleing cityscape in winter. Like, yet unlike, the rest of the World of Darkness, it is a little brighter, a little more colorful, but sometimes no less frightening.