Miranim

The term Miranim is a combination of the word mirage and ophanim. Note that Miranim is the plural form, while the singular form is Miran.

Miranim are genius loci (essentially a sentient/sapient place) which are sometimes created when a Story has ended. They are made from souls who have intense creativity, though not enough to become a Dreamer. An individual Miran is effectively just one 'small' location, and not an entire varied world like a full Story. Miranim may or may not have the same qualities as the Story they come from. They can appear as a humanoid within their boundaries for the sake of convenience (and will often be themed around what type of place they are), but otherwise usually just appear as some sort of place. A palace with a garden, a seemingly infinite library, etc.

They are sometimes referred to as “Mirages” or “Glows”, though both terms are incorrect. The latter term is used for what are essentially the ghosts of angels in some Stories (actually more like an afterimage of an angel that fades overtime; think of the light of a long-gone star that can still be seen from Earth).

They can exist in the Nothingness, appearing as a door rather than a tree. The door has a unique design to each Miran, usually being thematically similar to whatever the inside of the Miran looks like. Sometimes they will move into a Story to exist in that universe, as a door through which people can enter into the actual Miran. Sometimes these Miran end up being relevant to the main Story, but sometimes not. If it becomes a threat to the Good Ends of a Story's Tales, Janitors will be sent in to try and get the Miran to move out, either by force or otherwise convincing it nonviolently to get out.

They originate from the Endless Hallways, where their door will first appear after the end of the Story they came from. This location is a layer of existence 'within' the Nothingness, though it is certainly not a Miran itself, nor is it a Story. As the name implies, it is an endless set of hallways, with each door representing a different Miran. If a door disappears, that means the Miran has moved out of the Hallways and into the Nothingness or a Story.

The Miranim must feed by luring individuals into their location. However, what they feed on changes from Miran to Miran. Some feed off of objects like currency. As an example, a Miran of a town square will have a wishing well or donation box to feed off of the money thrown in. Others may feed off memories, usually not removing them entirely, but the victim may have a hard time remembering certain memories for a while after the feeding. Others still may feed off of emotions, for example, a Miran that has signs and posters in place to enrage visitors. Some may even feed off of energy from certain actions, such as a bowling alley Miran that feeds off of the energy of bowling balls hitting pins.

Miran have seemingly infinite resources of energy and matter, and will use them to create whatever they need to feed within their boundaries. However, it has been observed that sometimes they will steal objects from Stories as well. How they do this is an ongoing mystery that is being researched to this day.

There has not been a recorded Miran that caused permanent damage or problems to its victims/visitors. There may be some cases where visitors end up killing themselves or other visitors while stuck in a Miran, but that is not the Miran’s direct fault. It feeds off of its visitors in one way or another, but unfortunately they are usually quick to bring in visitors and slow to let them back out. Older Miran tend to be better at letting go of their visitors relatively quickly, especially once they’re satisfactorily fed. Still, if the Miran is enough of an inconvenience that it derails a Story from its Good Ends, they need to be removed from the Story.

That being said, Miran certainly have their own personalities, and some of them can very much be considered evil. Unlike Payaphim, they are more than happy to torture and severely hurt their victims in order to fed on what they want, just making sure not to do so to the point of death.

Miran can die, but they are incredibly long-lived. The oldest recorded Miran was a little over a thousand years old, and passed away from a natural death. Miran can also die by sustaining too much damage to their location. However, in this case it would require a large amount of people to destroy a Miran.

Examples of Miran
The following are examples of various Miran that are known to the Janitor Menagerie.


 * An infinite library; Humanoid appearance: Anthro old goat with glasses; Feeds on: people’s thoughts while enjoying a good book
 * A palace with an expansive flower garden; Humanoid appearance: unknown, appears to have been asleep for a long time, and remains asleep, though still somehow feeds off its visitors (this is the place where Veronica Phlox works) Feeds on: People enjoying and appreciating the palace and its flower garden
 * Awesome bowling alley, with infinite free snacks and great utilities; Humanoid appearance: Friendly black human man, bald, in a bowling alley uniform; Feeds on: the energy of bowling balls hitting pins
 * A rustic European-style town square, with a large wishing fountain, two wishing wells, and various donation boxes; Humanoid appearance: Spade object head, seems to be a baker in an argyle vest and gaudy looking socks; Feeds on: Currency of any type, as long as it has considerable value to the person who gives it away (it will give food treats to people who donate well; otherwise it will immediately eject visitors who try to give it garbage)
 * A network of backalleys in what looks to be a large city, tons of garbage, graffiti, signs, and posters around, plus locked doors and blacked-out windows; Humanoid appearance: “man in black” human with dark sunglasses, ignores all visitors until it’s ready to lead them out; Feeds on: anger/outrage/disgust from visitor’s reactions to the signs/posters/graffiti/garbage/being lost in the alleys.
 * An infinite theme park with lots of amenities, restaurants, and rides with all sorts of themes; Humanoid appearance: A short woman (based on the voice), who wears a costume of the park’s mascot. If the head of the costume is removed, the only thing underneath is the stump of a neck (i.e., there’s definitely a living body in there, just no head) Feeds on: Memories, especially happy ones (unfortunately visitors will have a hard time remember those memories for a long while after leaving this Miran, but at the least the memories will come back some day)
 * A rust-infested industrial area with abandoned hospitals scattered about in addition to factories (basically Silent Hill as a town full of nothing but rusty factories and hospitals Humanoid appearance: A rusted metal mannequin with barbed chained wrapped around parts of its body; Feeds on: Fear and Pain
 * A carnival/country fair area stuck in perpetual twilight with a moonless/sunless/starless sky (but slightly cloudy), with plenty of small rides, games, food stands, and sideshow oddities; Humanoid appearance: A skeleton with a horse skull in place of the head, in a sideshow leader outfit (striped vest, straw boat hat, cane, etc) Feeds on: Frustration from the rigged games, overall enjoyment from the rest of the carnival
 * A large temple area surrounded by water, clean blue sky with clouds, this is also the host area of the Way of the Blue Wind; Humanoid appearance: not really humanoid, but simply a blue fireball; Feeds on: Worship and praise, the followers of The Way of the Blue Wind worship this Miran as part of their teachings

The palace garden, town square, and bowling alley are all familiar to those in the Janitor hierarchy. They allow Janitors to visit and relax as long as they help feed these Miranim while they visit.

Other Miranim, like the theme park and rust area, are known trouble-makers for various Stories. The rust area in particular is infamous for trying to interfere with Stories, but has yet to be truly successful.