The Dark Domains

The Dark Domains, also called Novanoir, are a supernatural incursion into the realm of Magicians' End, which was the most obvious local effect of a much greater inter-dimensional disturbance called the Planar Conformation.   The continent appeared overnight as a walled hexagonal depression carved into an ocean which had hitherto been empty and it brought with it a host of strange and malign creatures. This was an event of such significance that the universal dating system on Magicians' End treats it as year zero, with other dates receiving the relative suffix BPC (years before the planar conformation) or APC (years after the planar conformation). Little is known about the inhabitants of the continent and their life style but it is understood that at the apex of a complex social order they are ruled by a sinister species called the Ancient and Glorious.   Obvious features of the Dark Domains are its unnaturally straight borders and the deep cliffs around the rim, known as Great Escarpments. These seem to be preserved against the forces of erosion and weathering by arcane means. Occasionally, at the time of a Super Conjunction, the Orothonian Ocean can briefly spill over False Land in the east. Somewhere in the centre, it is believed that a great interdimensional engine known as the Altar of the Law is guarded and utilised by the Ancient and Glorious but its exact location is unknown and cannot be marked on the relatively poor maps we have available.   For many thousands of years, since the end of the Breach Wars, the entire continent has been magically sealed by a ring of Hylacon Gates, a heroic defensive effort led by the prophet Hylacon which has allowed the people of Magicians' End to almost pretend that it doesn't exist, but Novanoir has not gone away and from time to time its denizens find ways to extend their malign influence onto the other continents.