The Main Story:
In the story of GOSSAMER the main character, Jasmine Rose, is found out by the gods who live in the mundane world to be a mortal gifted with and cursed by a power she can't seem to control... Jasmine's every wish comes true.  At first her power to wish seems to be a blessing, but her wishes come with a price.  Every slightest wish, and usually the most horrible ones at that, come true.  Jasmine ends up wishing people to death and soon finds herself alone and vulnerable to the gods who seek to use her power to unravel the gossamer veil which has long separated them from the mortals they either wish to enslave or save.  But Jasmine is more powerful than they suspect.  She may even be one of them...

As Jasmine struggles with her problems, there are worse things going on in the world.  A terrible serial mass murderer has made his mark on her home city of San Francisco.  The massacres are ritualistic and believed to be the work of a doomsday cult.  An Avatar, a known Oracle of the Morrigan, operating as a psychic investigator, believes it is the work of a god and that the murders are a sacrafice to his goddess (The Morrigan is the Celtic goddess of death, war, and sexuality).  But why would one god sacrafice to another?  Few exiled gods are willing to help him and some hinder his investigation.

Jasmine is saved from self destruction by a nymph, Eden, who hires her as her new assistant manager.  Jasmine moves in and soon discovers, quite by accident, that she is surrounded by creatures and gods who use Eden's old Victorian hotel as a haven for their kind.  In every room there is, with the exception of one person, a god at home.  Jasmine, unlike other mortals, is not blinded by the spell of the gossamer veil, and she can see who and what these people truly are.  She begins to think she is losing her mind...

Until she finds she is not alone.  The one person in the building who she sees as "normal" is a lonely young man, Jasper, an aspiring electronic musician who has lost his ability to control the machines he is dependent upon to create his music.  In fact, nothing seems to "work" for him anymore.  Instead of going acoustic, Jasper has invented new devices to create music -- one in particular is a wearable computer which looks exactly like an ordinary trench coat which not only helps Jasper to make music, it allows him to control any machine he wants to with the slightest thought or wish, yet so far it only works for him.  He reveals his "secret jacket" to Jasmine when she reveals to him her "madness."   He, too, has "seen" the true facades of the people who live next door and fears their power as well as his growing own...

As Jasper and Jasmine become more acquainted, they grow in power, and so does the vicious mass murderer in the headlines who is inching his way closer and closer to home. 

What is GOSSAMER..?

1gos·sa·mer
Pronunciation: 'gä-s&-m&r also 'gäz-m&r, 'gä-z&- 
Function: noun 
Etymology: Middle English gossomer, from gos goose + somer summer 
Date: 14th century 
1 : a film of cobwebs floating in air in calm clear weather 
2 : something light, delicate, or insubstantial... 

Gossamer:  According to legend, this delicate thread is the ravelling of the Virgin Mary's winding-sheet, which fell to earth on her ascension to heaven. It is said to be God's seam, i.e.  God's thread. Philologically it is the Latin gossipin-us; cotton.  Gossamer is also the stuff of spider webs.  Thin and nearly invisible, yet strong and impentrable.  It is sticky.  Once you get caught in its threads, you may never get out...

The Story of the Gossamer Veil:
The story GOSSAMER utilizes these themes to describe "the gossamer veil" inbetween the known reality of the mundane and the secret realm of the extraordinary.  In GOSSAMER the ancient world was one where both realities co-existed without barriers -- the gods of old and the mythical creatures of legend lived just next door and were as real as everyday and magic was everywhere...  But something happened to change all that.  Gods and mortals sought to destroy one another.  There was an imbalance of power and so a barrier fell, called "the gossamer veil," inbetween the worlds of the mundane and extraordinary.  Gods no longer walked with mortals.  All of the mythical creatures became extinct.  The magic was dead. 

But the gossamer veil did not completely keep out the gods from influencing humans and pockets of magic and sightings of legendary creatures still abound -- only to be seen and experienced by those who have the ability to travel inbetween realities.  That is, those people who have the strength of will, courage, and imagination to see beyond the illusion of the mundane.  Daring knowledge and truth can break all barriers of deceit and so it is with the gossamer veil in this story...

There is a prophecy that says that one day the veil will be broken by three new born gods.  But since the fall of the veil, no new gods by ordinary or extraordinary means have been born...

Why the Gossamer Veil fell and its lasting effect on the world:
The gossamer veil fell to conceal the power and reality of the gods and creatures of ancient myth.  It happened just shortly after the advent of Christainity which, untrue to its original intent, was soon used to blind and enslave people into a reality where there is only one god and that god is male; justifying patriarchy and the exploitation of the planet.  In this story's mythos, this cosmic take-over took several centuries to set in motion, but to the gods it was like just a few years and suddenly the world was no longer theirs in the minds of mortals.  This weakened them and many fell under a curse -- each curse was particular to their personality just as their powers were -- and even though it did not render them powerless, it severely limited them on earth.  There are rumors that the tyranny of Christianity was created by a vengeful god who has cleverly used the religion that upsurped him to keep his mortal minions in check.  Who this god is, no one has come forward to say.  So all remains in speculation...  And the speculation falls upon the Roman pantheon of gods. 

The Secret Realms of the Gods:
After the fall of the veil, many gods left for the secret realms of the spirit which was now obscured (after the fall of the veil) to living human beings.  This doesn't mean that these gods died, for their existence is one that moves beyond death and the only way mortals can pass into the realm of spirit is to become a spirit themselves (i.e; you have to die). In the world of the spirits, the gods are free from the meddling of mortals and the mortals who pass into their spiritual realms are suceptible to their powers.  Gods who reside in their "comfy" secret realms are what is widely termed by the gods who remain in the mundane world as "in retirement."  In the secret, spiritual realms of the gods, each god resides in their own pocket reality known by various names which are indiginous to the human cultures they presided over (examples: Olympus, Avalon, Asgard, you name it) with only their most loyal mortal servants and other gods to keep them company. 

The gods and creatures of legend who have chosen to remain (either of their own will or out of banishment from the Secret Realms) are known as Exiles.  There are basically three types of exiled beings and there are three kinds of Exiles... 

Exiled Beings:
God or Goddess: your local neighborhood deity who, for reasons of their own or who have been exiled by other gods, has chosen or has been forced to stay within the confines of the mundane world.  They are very human-like in their physical forms to begin with (even though many of them have several forms at their disposal) so they have no trouble disguising themselves as mortals when they want or have to. They come from all cultures and walks of life and, contrary to legend, they do not all abide by one alignment that can be defined as "good" or "evil."  Just like mortals, they can be good or bad depending upon their mood or outlook.  Just make sure to catch them in a good mood on a good day. 
Creature of Legend:  these are your unicorns, fairies, goblins, ogres, etc. (the list is as endless as time and space itself as well as particular to the creature's native climate and surrounding mortal culture from which sprang its history).  These beings have a harder time disguising themselves as human, so their human guises often reflect their true divine origins... 
Avatars:  these Exiles are beings of magick and illusion who work with or are the "spokespersons" of the gods.  They may have once been mortal once, but since they made such devoted servants of the gods, they have been gifted with powerful abilities and are eternally young -- as long as they continue to serve their divine friend.  Mortals used to consider these beings as angels, magicians, and oracles (to name just a few). 

Exiles:
Hermits: the "self-exiled" who prefer to keep to themselves or who prefer to be around humans over other gods and magical creatures, disguising their divinity to interact with mortals normally and lead ordinary lives.  Their disguises are so good that often times it is very hard for other Exiles to recognize them -- even their astral forms (known as Auras *see following description, sometimes called Haloes or The Halo and not to be confused with the angelic kind) are near impossible to detect. 
Champions: these Exiles considered themselves, from the very beginning of their existence, as the champions of humanity, and have vowed to remain in the mundane world to protect and watch over their precious mortal allies, friends, and lovers.  These Exiles like to be around humans and have their own clever disguises and masks to make themselves seem mundane.  They usually go about their business as police or other civil servants.  Some are even celebrities -- cashing in on the wealth and fame of being worshipped in a more ordinary, accepted form by mortal beings. 
The Unlawful:  Exiles who were very naughty to their own kind.  We're talking from the gods who murdered other gods to the gods who just merely played tricks on the other gods a bit too much.  Not all Unlawful Exiles are especially "evil" -- they're just too much to handle for the other gods and are impossible to control by mortal means.  It's usually the job of Champions to
defend humans from the crimes and tricks of the Unlawful. 

The Aura and The Sight:
Usually gods can recognize each other and see through each other's mortal disguises.  This is what's called "seeing beyond the veil" or simply "using The Sight."  The Sight is the ability to recognize divinity in its mundane guise.  The Sight allows you to "pick up" on a god's aura which, unlike the aura of a human, is "a metaphorical astral projection" which, underneath the mask of mortality, lies the true form of the god's divinity.  All gods have, in various levels of ability, the ability of Sight, but every once in a great while, a mortal or two have been born with The Sight.  Such an individual either becomes hunted or taken advantage of.  She may have a very hard time finding help from her fellow mortals because most humans no longer can believe in the fantasic and powerful beings she sees all around her.  She will either succumb to the power of the gods who want to use her for their own purposes or go insane -- usually both -- unless she has the courage and strength to face her fear and transcend the
dangers of the immortal world.  People with The Sight are rumored to be born a dozen to a century.  If they survive with their wits intact, they go on to become great mystics.  And if they don't...  Well, it's best not to think about it.