The Uncreated Night

Surrounding all that is one will find all that is not. Fathomless, form- less, lightless in its deeps, the Uncreated Night is the primordial chaos out of which all things have come. Sages describe it as an endless stygian void, one where the very concepts of light and meaning have no power. To be cast into it is to drift forever, perhaps dead, perhaps something worse than dead. Yet despite this emptiness there are things that emerge from the darkness. These Uncreated are like living creatures, yet somehow wrong. They are twisted proto-things, living detritus vomited up by the Night. Scholars suggest that they are manifestations of “friction” between the created world and Uncreated Night, living tension-points that manifest from the interplay between existences. They are broken in both worlds, and their actions seem to be driven part by pain, part by hunger, and part by simple hate. The great majority are murder- ously dangerous even to heroes, while those that lack obvious hostility can still have a corrosive effect upon the sanity of those around them. The only way to cross the Uncreated Night is by means of the Night Roads. These narrow paths resemble titanic arches that span the darkness that surrounds them on all sides. Some look like bridges of stone, while others are ribbons of dull metal, or black rivers that flow without banks or bottom. There are many different seemings for these Night Roads, and sages argue over their creators. Some say it was angels who built them in the dawn of creation, while others credit the One, and some point to records of ancient theurges who built them to connect the realms after the Shattering. A few roads appear to condense out of Uncreated Night itself and are fabricated from a delirious distillation of the worlds they connect. The Night Roads are dangerous. Many are constructed with way- houses and citadels along the path, most empty, some still preserving life of a kind. These oases of safety in the endless darkness sometimes shelter the heirs of explorers or refugees trapped upon the road in ages long lost, and few of these enclaves welcome outsiders. In addition to this peril, the Uncreated often infest the way and make crossing the road a feat worthy of a hero’s valor. Yet once a road is cleared, it will usually remain that way so long as some power is capable of keeping out the inevitable incursions of the Uncreated. Entrances to these roads tend to “erupt” in isolated, remote locations of a realm. It’s almost as if the road was a needle, and only the desolate places of a world have a “skin” thin enough for it to pierce. Particularly fragile realms might have a road erupt in the middle of a teeming metropolis, however, or in some other awkward location. Most roads soon warp their immediate surroundings into some otherworldly or monstrous scene, and one of the telltale signs of a hidden road is the sudden presence of impossible environments or bizarre magical objects. Adventurers who delve deep in the ruins of the ancients know to be wary of structures that grow stranger the deeper they go. Once a road has broken through into a world, it usually remains connected unless blasted free by some tremendous theurgic power. Most roads connect only two points, though there are other dark highways that have multiple offshoots and branches to connect many worlds and locations. Entering a Night Road is sometimes as simple as walking through the right doorway and sometimes as difficult as performing a special magical rite at the correct time and in the proper place. Leaving one is simply a matter of stepping through the passage at the end of each road. Of course, the inhabitants of the spaces between are often disinclined to allow passage, sometimes charging strange tolls and sometimes opposing passages with main force. The worst effect of a Night Road is the inevitable disgorging of its Uncreated parasites on any realm it pierces. Monsters of sanity-melt- ing horror can suddenly burst from a dark corner of the world, raven- ing through the populace until some brave band of heroes can drive them back and seal the Night Road’s entrance with powerful magic. Completely destroying a Night Road is impossible for ordinary sorcery. Certain powerful theurgic incantations can damage or shat- ter a road, however, and the tremendous might of the Godbound might be able to do the same if the structure’s sensitive points can be found and smashed. Of course, to do so without some swift means of escape would condemn the wreckers to an endless, drifting exile in the darkness of Uncreated Night.