Alvez

Geography

The Cosmology of Kroashent

Realms of Alvez

Alvez is the name commonly used to describe reality as its inhabitants understand it, a collection of interconnected worlds formed following the cosmological catastrophe known as the Tear. Prior to this reality-warping cataclysm, the worlds of Alvez existed in parallel, separated by a largely impermeable metaphysical barrier, The Veil.

Bedouar

See also: Bedouar The realm of Bedouar forms the “solid” foundation upon which reality is built, a world of consistent, measurable physical laws. It is the world of Chronos, or measured time. Bedouin is largely stable in the short-term, but is also capable of great change to both its landscape and inhabitants over time. Oceans and continents shift, mountains and valleys rise and fall. Species of plants and animals appear, evolving or becoming extinct. Geopolitical boundaries form, shift and fracture, as even the most seemingly ageless empires and great kingdoms falling away, new factions and peoples springing up in a constantly changing dynamic. For the inhabitants, the distinction between Alvez and Bedouar is largely an academic one, used fairly interchangeably, with a self-important belief that it is the “primary” reality at the core of Alvez.

Old Elfriche

See also: 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 a world of Kairos, or experienced time. Entropy and the measurable passage of time have 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, but remains unchanging on a grand scale. Winterrule follows Summerrule, Summerule follows Winterrule, and the great battles raging between arrive at foregone conclusions. The majority of Old Elfriche is inaccessible beyond the vastness of the Faewylde, but still serves as the source of the Hud, the magical energy that flows through all of Alvez.

Mag Mor

See also: Mag Mor The White Plain of the Dead, a seemingly endless world of whites and greys. The souls of the deceased cross its vast expanses by foot, cart and ship, all heading towards their ultimate destination, far beyond the horizon. Despite its void-like reputation, is is dotted by structures and landmarks, flares of colour in the monochrome world. It is the home of the Ankou, the psychopomp henchmen of Death and the Sluagh, the unquiet dead. The Hud that flows from Old Elfriche through Bedouar ends up here, like a river reaching the sea,

The World Below

The subterranean world from which the Korrigan hail. There is great debate is the World Below is another realm, like Old Elfriche, or has always been part of Bedouar. Great cities, underground oceans and monumental caverns criss-cross this realm, far deeper than those of the surface realize.

Other Worlds

Other worlds have had brief, fleeting collisions with the core of Alvez, depositing landscapes, people and things from somewhere else. Notable examples include the Sea of Wine and the Ramaal Mutaharika - The Shifting Sands, the ever-changing desert around Mount Qaf, the floating mountain home of the Djinn. Lasting connection between these realms themselves is fleeting beyond those things left behind.

Notable Locations

Ariosto - The phantom moon, once belonging to Old Elfriche, connected to the worlds below by cosmic spiderwebs. Lost and forgotten things are said to end up here. The Phantom Moon, as its nickname implies, vanishes and appears in the sky, rather than being consistently present. Levania - The primary moon of Alvez. It moves across the night sky in a regular and consistent orbit. The Arch of Stars - A ring of cosmic debris orbiting Alvez, the origins of which are hotly debated by both scholars, storytellers and religious figures. Its shade cools the planet during Winterrule. Meteorides, containing the deadly metal starfall iron, sometimes crash down from the archway.

Rupes Nigra

See also: Rupes Nigra A mysterious black mountain, floating above a maelstrom. In every reality, it can be found at the "top" of the world, usually its Northernmost point.

Localized Phenomena

The Veil

See The Veil At one point, the Veil was a barrier between the worlds, through which the worlds beyond could be glimpsed, but not interacted with. After the Tear, the Veil has become more like a semi-permeable membrane, through which creatures and things can cross between. The Hud flows freely through these tears in reality, infusing Bedouar with the potent magic of Old Elfriche.

Thinness

Much of the Veil still remains, keeping the worlds somewhat separated, but it is no longer uniform, and numerous points exist where creatures, energy and objects can cross over between one or more realities. These points of “thinness” typically manifest in liminal spaces between larger conceptual regions. This applies to geographic features, for example, islands exist between land and sea, while mountains exist between land and sky, but also for other concepts as well. Tumulus and necropolises exist between the worlds of the living and the dead. Even smaller “between” spaces, such as alleyways between buildings, doorways, and crawlspaces all may serve as potential doorways between the worlds. The Veil is a shifting and ever changing thing, becoming thicker and thinner at transitional points. Dawn and twilight, between night and day, are such points, as is the tolling of the Hours. The Fire Holidays, marking the transitions between seasons, are similarly times of thinness.

Bleed

See also: Bleed If the flow of the Hud is strong enough, these liminal places may become Bleed, regions where the existing reality is overwritten by magical space. 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. Pockets of Bleed are often home to magical creatures sustained by the Hud. 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

Time

See Time (Chronos vs. Kairos)

The Hud

See: Huderezh, the Magic of Kroashent

Fauna & Flora

The Tuath

The Alfr

See also: Alfr Closely related to the Sidhe, the mysterious creatures of the Erlking's Forest have little interaction with the outside world, secluding themselves to their underground fortresses, icy mountains and dark forests of the East and North.

The Bediz

The Milliget + Time Madness

The Djinn

The Sidhe

See also: Sidhe The native inhabitants of Old Elfriche, the Sidhe fled through Rupes Nigra to the mist-covered waters of the Mor Ailhenn and the Fortunate Isles. They are divided into two equal groups, the Seelie - The Court of Summer and the Unseelie - The Court of Winter.

The Fomorii

The Korrigan

Croquemitaines

The Sluagh

See also: 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.

History

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.

Type

Multiverse

Included Locations

Included Organizations

Wild Hunt

Inhabiting Species