Alvez

The Cosmology of Kroashent

  Alvez is the term used in the Lethaned language to describe reality as its inhabitants understand it, encompassing not only their own world, but also those beyond it. It is widely accepted that the multiple realities that now make up Alvez were once separate parallel realities, divided by a metaphysical barrier known as The Veil, until a violent cataclysm, The Tear damaged the barrier, flooding the realities into each other. During the apocalyptic event, the realities collided, influencing and warping each other into a somewhat stable existence. The Veil remains intact in many places, but in unstable areas known as Bleed, realities can be crossed.
 

Realms of Alvez

  No one truly knows how many realms make up Alvez, but at its core are a select number of prominent, discretely identified planes of existence. These realms all intersect with each other independently and in conjunction.
 

Bedouar

  For more detailed information, see Bedouar.
  The realm of Bedouar forms, in the most widely accepted cosmological model, the solid "foundation" upon which the rest of reality balances. It is a world of consistent, measurable physical laws, governed by Chronos, or "measured time". It is largely stable in the short term, but is capable of great and lasting change to its landscapes and inhabitants over time. Oceans and continents shift, mountains and valleys rise and fall. Species of plants and animals appear, either evolving with the changing world or becoming extinct. Among the Tuath Bediz, the sapient inhabitants of the world, geopolitical boundaries form, shift and fracture, with even the most seemingly ageless empire and great kingdoms falling away, as new communities and factions spring up in an ever-changing dynamic.
  For most Bediz, the distinction between Alvez and Bedouar is largely an academic one, and the terms are used interchangeably, with a self-important belief that their reality is the "primary" realm at the core of Alvez.
 

Old Elfriche

For more information, see Old Elfriche
  If Bedouar is the world of "reality, then Old Elfriche is the world of dreams. Often called Faerie, it is a realm of pure magic, rejecting discrete, repeatable measurement, logical causality and consistent physical laws. It is the world of Kairos, or "experienced time", built around the whims, emotions and feelings of its inhabitants. The measurable passage of time has little meaning here, instead following an eternal cycle of birth, death and renewal. Old Elfriche is a land of chaotic, dramatic and sometimes violent extremes, yet it often remains unchanged on a grand scale. Winterrule follows Summerrule, Summerule follows Winterrule, and the great battles raging between them arrive at foregone and accepted conclusions, regardless of scale.
  Most of Old Elfriche, the original home of the Tuath Sidhe, was rendered inaccessible in the Tear, separated from Bedouar by the vast magical chaos of the Faewylde, but it remains, the source of The Hud, the flow of magic and lifeforce through Alvez. Most Sidhe live in the Bleed, the magic-saturated borderlands between Bedoaur and the Faewylde, but some choose to venture into the ever-shifting detached wilderness beyond.
 

Magh Mor

  For more information, see Magh Mor
  The White Plain of the Dead, Magh Mor is a seemingly endless world of whites and greys, a transitory space where the souls of the deceased travel across the vast expanse to unknown destinations far beyond the horizon. Despite its void-like reputation, it is not a world without features, and its relative emptiness is broken up by landmarks from the crumbling ruins of long-forgotten legends to flowered meadows, flares of colour in the otherwise monochome world. The Hud flows through Magh Mor, visible as rivers of brilliant white, emptying into vast seas on the edge of the plain.
  Nor is it an empty world. The Anaon, the souls of the departed, all travel across this world, journeying by foot, cart and ship, but all traveling constantly. The Ankou, the black clad psychopomp "henchmen of Death" make their home in this realm, as do the Sluagh, the unquiet dead. Other entities, powerful Fae, forgotten Gargan or heroes of legend reside in pockets deep in the mists.
 

Dindan, The World Below

  For more information, see Dindan, the World Below
  There is some contention as to the origins of the Korrigan, the Fair Folk of the Armorican Peninsula, and whether it is part of the same world as Old Elfriche or something else entirely. During the Tear, Dindan manifested as great fissures opening in the ground, spewing the same Feth Fiada that rolled in from the Sea. Dindan is a world unto itself, filled with sunken cities, underground oceans, and subterranean forests in great caverns beneath the surface, criss-crossed by countless tunnels and smaller cave systems. Like Old Elfriche, what is known to the surface world and those living near it is only thought to be a small fraction of what lies even deeper. Dindan is no longer specifically limited to being physically underground, but merely associated with "the deep", be that beneath the earth, the sea or even deep in the forest or the winding streets of a sprawling slum.
  The Hud is old here, soaked into the earth itself over countless eons, infusing everything with its essence. It is a primordial, elemental magic in the caverns and forests, raw and powerful.
 

Other Worlds

  There are other realms as well which have had brief, fleeting collisions with the core worlds of Alvez, depositing landscapes, people and artifacts into the world. Notable examples of this include Antobo in The Shatterlands, the Forest of the Erlking and The Lost Peninsula in the far north, The Sea of Wine and Ramaal Mutaharika - The Shifting Sands, the ever-changing desert around Mount Qaf, the floating mountain home of the Djinn. Some of these connections are semi-permanent, while others are fleeting, leaving behind only disparate relics of its passing.
 

Notable Locations

  While Alvez is made of of different realities, there are some notable points of commonality that appear in some form in most or all of them in one form or another.
 

Ariosto, The Phantom Moon, considered to originate in Old Elfriche, connected to the worlds below by cosmic spiderwebs. Lost and forgotten things are said to end up here on the moon's cluttered surface. Ariosto is not always visible in the sky, vanishing and reappearing at different times and vantage points. Its enigmatic cycles do not effect the flow of the physical tides, but rather the ebb and flow of the Hud, the magic of the world waxing and waning under its influence.

 

Levania, the Shepherd Moon, the Moon of Bedouar. It typically appears larger and brighter than its cousin, moving across the night sky in a regular and consistent orbit, keeping the Arch of Stars in stability around the planet. Its lunar cycle and orbit follow regular and measurable paths and cycles, making it a vital aspect of navigation and timekeeping. The tides of the world respond to its gravity.

 

The Arch of Stars - A faint ring of celestial debris encircling the planet, resembling a faint archway crossing the sky, its origins and nature are fiercely debated by scholars, religious figures and storytellers. Kept in stable orbit by Levania and Ariosto, it cools the world during Winterrule. Occasionally meteorites containing Starfall Iron fall from it, crashing into the planet.

 

Rupes Nigra - A mysterious black-stone floating island at the Northern Pole of the world. It can be found in the same place and form in every known realm that makes up Alvez.

The Hud

  In Alvez, all creatures, places and objects possess Foyson, the quintessential life energy at the core of their being. Foyson is a magical energy, carried through the worlds by the Hud, an ever-present cycle connecting all things. While typically incorporeal in Bedouar, Foyson can occasionally manifest, most commonly in the form of Feth Fiada, or Faerie Fog, that drifts in large banks in from the sea or emerges from cracks in the earth. The 12 magically laden Gaoithe Sidhe, or Fair Winds, appear in the sky as aurora or ribbons of coloured, moving light. Lastly, the personal foyson of a magically potent individual may manifest as glamour.  

Meineg and Poull

  In Alvez, magic flows like water along the Hud, traveling from its far off sources in Old Elfriche, speeding across the Faewylde to pass into Bedouar and seeping deep into Dindan before ultimately reaching the shores of Magh Mor and beginning the cycle anew. The Hud flows along channels known as Meineg, leylines of power that act as riverbeds for the river of magic. These lines are strongest with the flow of life, following natural air currents, rivers and roads to connect Poull, locus points of potent energy. Like water, the Hud can have periods of both flood and drought, overflowing from its channels or retreating to a trickle.   The Hud is not a static thing, but rather is ever-changing and ever-moving. It can be channeled through a variety of natural and supernatural means. Movement and gathering along roads and plazas will increase the flow of the Hud, along a path, while neglected paths may fade from disuse. Standing Stones are one of the strongest methods of control, as megalithic alignments can channel meineg, while cromlechs gather the hud in "artificial" poull and Maen-Harz, boundary stones marking the terminus of a community along a pathway, are used to maintain the magical integrity of a settlement.  

The Veil

  For more information, see The Veil.   At one point, the Veil was a metaphysical barrier between the worlds, through which the Hud could flow, but through which nothing physical could pass. The worlds could be glimpsed in shadows in the corner of one's eye, or felt as a presence, but never truly interacted with. With the Tear, this changed, the trickle of Hud becoming a torrent, the resulting flood inextricably linking the worlds of reality, dream, death and primordial elements into one connected existence, with people, places and objects traveling between them.  

The Bleed

  For more information, see Bleed   Much of the Veil remains, keeping the worlds somewhat separated, but it is no longer the uniform, monolithic presence it was once. Where the Veil is weakest are points of "thinness", manifesting in liminal spaces between larger conceptual regions. For example, these can include geographic features, such as islands (between land and sea),mountains (between land and sky) and cultural concepts, such as tumuli and necropolises (existing between the worlds of the living and the dead). It can also apply to even smaller, more direct areas "between" larger places, such as alleyways between buildings, doorways, bridges and even crawlspaces within structures, all of which may serve as potential thresholds between the worlds. Like the Hud itself, the Veil's strength waxes and wanes, becoming thicker and thinner at transitional points, such as dawn and twilight, or during the four Fire Festivals marking the passage of the seasons.   Likewise, passing through these points of thinness may lead to regions deeply secluded, where the magic of the Hud is at is strongest, most primordial form. The hearts of dark forests, sunken caverns, deep in the abyss of the ocean, even hidden inside the deepest mazes of city slums, these areas are potent with magical power. Here, the veil has been completely torn asunder, leaving no barrier between the realms.   Existing at these points are magically potent areas of unstable reality, known as the Bleed, borderlands between the realms. With a sudden burst of Hud, these pocket dimensions can dramatically manifest with the sudden appearance of lakes or forests, alterations to gravity, the flow of time or countless other variations as reality itself it town apart and rewritten. The scale of these areas range between fitting within a small cupboard to regions covering hundreds of kilometers, such as in the case of the Mor Ailhenn, Mor Marv and the Shifting Sands. Bleed can be temporary, such as in the case of the Bloodmoon, or permanent. Geography within a bleed may be exaggerated, impossible or inconsistent with its mundane surroundings.   Most magical creatures choose to live in the Bleed, cut off from the centers of their home worlds, but unwilling or unable to separate themselves from the flow of foyson that sustains them and powers their magic. These areas are sometimes referred to as Faerie by outsiders, but are only small fractions of a greater whole of Old Elfriche or other realities. Time and space within Bleed are often malleable, leading to strange phenomena where the interior of the occurrence is larger than its exterior dimensions would allow. Bleed can be shaped and artificially created, such as with Silverkeys

The Tuath

  The Tuath are the sapient peoples of the realms, typically organizing themselves into communities and developing cultures. There are several large families, each distinguished by the original realm of origin, rather than current geographical location, species or culture. Connected by the Hud, the lines between formerly distinct species became blurred with interbreeding and cultural assimilation over the past thousand years. In general terms, the peoples of Alvez fall into the following broad categories.  

The Tuath Alfr

  For more information, see Alfr   The Alfr are a mysterious people, appearing in the cold and sparsely populated Northeast, most notably The Lost Peninsula and Forest of the Erlking. Besides a few particular groups, the Alfr have little direct interaction with the Bediz world outside of Arle and the clans of the Lost Peninsula. Around 0 SI, the Alfr were united under the rule of an enigmatic, powerful figure known as The Erlking, who continues to rule into the present day as the undisputed, almost godlike sovereign.  

The Tuath Bediz

  For more information, see Bediz.   The human-like natives of Bedouar, residing on the Northern continent of Kornôgel and the Southern continent of Alkebulan. Original thought to be incapable of casting magic, humanity has adapted and been altered in the centuries since the tear. Those capable of manipulating the Hud are Boermerzh. The Bediz are highly susceptible to the warping effects of Bleed, and may eventually take on the traits of the Fair Folk with enough exposure, evening becoming full Fair creatures. Those who exist in this hybrid state are called Milliget, or Fey-touched  

The Djinn

For more information, see the Djinn   Powerful elemental entities from a passing reality, the peak of a mountain, Mount Qaf was ripped from their home reality and deposited unceremoniously in Ramaal Mutaharika in what is now the Caliphate of Ubar. Despite their immense power, they are unable to exist in the world on their own, their physical forms are bound to vessels.  

Tuath Fomorii

  The Fomorii hail from the same lands as the Alfr, but mostly rejected the rule of the Erlking, instead venerating the Gods of the North. Large and strong, they have a reputation both as bloodthirtsy barbarians, but in reality are skilled mariners with a complex culture of their own. Geographically widespread, some have assimilated into new cultures, while others cling to old beliefs. They are the historical enemy of the Sidhe.  

The Tuath Korrigan

  For more information, see Korrigan   The Korrigan are the native inhabitants of Dindan, the World Beneath, emerging early in the misty times on the \Armorican Peninsula. Numerous, organized and magically powerful, they have spread beyond their original homeland.  

The Tuath Sidhe

  For more information, see Sidhe   The native inhabitants of Old Elfriche, forced out of their homeland by the Tear, they fled through the Black Fortress of Rupes Nigra to the mist-covered waters of the Mor Ailhenn and the Fortunate Isles, displacing the native Fir Bolg and entering into a prolongued war with the Bediz of Cotentin and Armorica. A highly regimented society, they are divided into two equally balanced factions, the Unseelie - The Court of Winter and the Seelie - The Court of Summer, each ascendant during their respective seasons.  

The Beasts

  Alvez is home to numerous creatures, both magical and mundane, that do not collectively rise to a level of social construction to be considered Tuath, nor a level of sapience or malice to be considered Croquemitaines. Some individual animals may attain tuath-level intelligence and inter-species communication through magical means however, but this is not at a scale to merit declassification of the species as a whole.  

The Croquemitaines

  For more information, see Croquemitaines   Monsters that go bump in the night, literally and figuratively, the Croquemitaines are twisted creatures corrupted by the Tear and dark magics to unleash terror and their own dark goals upon the world. They at times possess intelligence and organization, but more often tend to be solitary, anti-social creatures.  

The Sluagh

  For more information, see Sluagh   The Unquiet Dead. The Sluagh are sometimes empty husks, driven by singular base purpose. Other times, they are the echoes of life, carrying on their unknown purpose after death.  

Other noteworthy groups

 

The Dragons

For more information, see Dragons   The Dragons are a wide-ranging group of lizard-like creatures, from the animal-like Amphitere and Drakes to the sophisticated Wind Dragons and colossal Wyrms, on par or surpassing the social complexity and intelligence of the Tuath.  

The Gargan

  For more information see The Giants of Letha   The Gargan are a race of giants believed to predate most, if not all of the Tuath in what is now Alvez. They are viewed as primal spirits, progenitor deities and a lost civilization by many Tuath, but have vanished from the world almost entirely, though it is rumored that some remain in the misty White Plain of Magh Mor.

Prior to the Tear, the worlds that make up Alvez today were things of supernatural and religious belief, falling into the realm of folklore and legend. At most, the other worlds existed as shadows, glimpses in the corner of the eye in liminal spaces where the Veil was thin. Stories would tell of people and things crossing between these worlds, but these were typically relegated to the realm of fiction. All that changed with the Tear, when the Veil between worlds was irrevocably torn, bringing the worlds crashing together in a great cataclysm, forming the reality now known as Alvez.