Most of the history I recount here comes from plot kernels I (or another DMP ST) dropped during the various previous incarnations of Dead Man's Party. However, there's one very important, growing change to the Wraith world happening in Dead Man's Party that was completely instigated by a player character. That would be Molly Connelly, played by prettyinpixiedust, herself an accomplished ST. She goes by Madame Butterfly now thanks to her penchant for butterfly-wing masks, but she'll always be Molly to me.
Molly's been in DMP from the very beginning. In life, she was a less-than-successful art student harboring a crush on her roommate. After drinking herself to death, she became a less-than-successful Heretic trying to make her way into the Dream Union. Molly actually had pretty good talent when it came to Phantasm, but not nearly as much as a Guild Leader she met who had developed some pretty phenomenal abilities, including one that allowed she and her Circle to dream-walk through an important person's head in search of answers (more on that later). Still, this experience led to an inspiration greater than any she had had before.
One of her party was a crotchety, inflammatory soulforger who got it in his head to try and shellride an object in the dream. It worked (because dream rules are wonky), but Molly saw a chance to teach him a lesson. Since he inhabited a dream object, she used Phantasm to begin to change the object, effectively "dreamforging" him. She let him escape before she had finished shaping the Gossamer, but she had her petty revenge on him. And, more importantly, she realized how she might be able to lessen the need for soulforged goods.
Even someone as anti-forging as Molly admitted there was a need for the goods. Some things, like weapons, armor, and walls, needed to be of the strongest stuff the Restless could find. But ash trays? Books? Less necessary items? What if there was another material out there, something more reliable than relics but not requiring as great as sacrifice as soulforging. Thus, Molly conceived the Gossamer Project: a research platform whose ultimate goal is to make Gossamer creations more permanent than Phantasm currently affords. These goods could lessen the demand for soulforged goods which could therefore drop the possibility of Enfants being forged straight out of the Caul and making soulforgining a punishment for only severe crimes. This project is still a long way from completion, and will require a wide range of Arcanoi before the secret might even possibly be unlocked, but it's given Molly focus.
It's also made her enemies. Much of her own Guild finds the idea preposterous. They're performers, not mundane craftsmen. If it weren't for the success of Molly's audacious dreamshows, many of the Union would not even give her the time of day. But it's also hard to argue with the woman who , with the aid of her circle, exposed a fake Ferryman in the most audacious, Sandman-appropriate way possible. Furthermore, even among the performers, the fear of the forge is strong, so slowly but surely she has begun to convince local Guild members to support the project. After a bitter competition, Molly secured the position of Guildleader in Williamsburg; not a prestigious Necropolis by any measurement, but still a step on the road to her success. Perhaps her most controversial decision was to officially throw the Williamsburg Sandmen's support behind the Hierarchy. While old wounds still fester, this has allowed the Williamsburg Sandmen more resources and freedom to practice their arts, which is actually gaining Molly support.
However, it pisses the hell out of her chief rivals, the Artificers. That, of course, is the true crux of this plot. Molly has grand dreams and even the staunchest supporter of forging can't help but admire their nobility, yet forging is the backbone of Stygian society. The practice has given the Artificers a lot of power, and they'd like to keep it that way. While Molly has gained help from a few individual forgers, the majority still arrange for various "accidents" to befall her. For all the hope Molly plans to bring to the Underworld, deep down she knows she's on the verge of starting a Second Guild War, a fact her Shadow treasures.
People have asked me if I would allow the Gossamer Project to be successful. And honestly, if Molly was able to learn all the arts of Phantasm (she currently has all the modern ones), as well as Inhabit, Usury, and Moliate, I think I'd probably have to start arranging rules for it. It would take her a long time, but honestly, if a Wraith PC survives THAT LONG, they've earned the right to fundamentally disturb the universe. But even if she doesn't make it, she's inspired others who will keep trying. The seeds for a Second Guild War are there (I mean, why do YOU think I legalized the Guilds?), and as an ST, I couldn't be happier.
