Vael'therin, the Drift of Echoes
Suspended beyond the reach of planar alignment, Vael'therin floats amid roiling aether. It’s a place where time echoes instead of flows, where forgotten thoughts take shape and lost futures fester. The island shifts location between long-forgotten realms, appearing only when memory and fate intersect. The Island is something of a myth as it moves in and out of time. The island seems a tropical paradise — until your feet touch its sand, where time stands still and is silent. Creatures do dwell. Strange things, that seem to be in and out of time, birds, small critters, and the flora all seem to be thriving.
The Echoing Ruins
There are remnants of the people who once lived here as well. There are places like The Echoing Ruins, where time in the village seemed to have collapsed on it. Buildings in some areas are still recovering from the impact of something. In other parts of the ruins, the time loops like a child dropping a toy and picking it up every eight seconds, the sound of the toy hitting the ground an eerie lullaby. Their words were scattered about on ruined monuments of the Forgotten King. These ruins hide secrets and sadness about what truly happened. These echoing ruins sit in an eerie silence that creeps in as everything has stopped, lingering in a perpetual stasis. You can see a pie on the windowsill, while it looks tempting and delicious, it sits untouched by time, perfectly preserved with no smell or taste, as if there were only an echo of the before.
The Chapel of the Unhappened
A ruin untouched by time yet never truly finished, the Chapel of the Unhappened rests in a misted glade on the time-shattered island. It is not a temple of faith, but of regret — a monument to promises broken before they were made, roads never walked, and lives that never bloomed. This sacred space preserves what the world forgot or never allowed to come into being. Inside, time does not flow — it hesitates.The Glass Hollow
Deep within the jungle lies The Glass Hollow — a vast, unnatural crater where the land seems to bend under the weight of unraveling time. This place hums with silence, as though sound itself is hesitant to remain. At its center, the ground shimmers with fused, crystalline sand — not melted by heat, but by the collapse of a thousand unrealized moments. Here, the Chronogleam Serpent is said to coil in restless slumber, its massive body wrapped in an endless spiral of broken potential. The serpent does not shed skin — it sheds timelines. Each scale that falls becomes a possibility: a future that might be, a history that never was, or a life that could never come to pass. It is infinite, unknowable — a being that exists across time rather than within it. The serpent bears two heads, each locked in motion. One gazes ever forward, reflecting the future’s light; the other drips backward, seeping into forgotten yesterdays. Both heads hiss with Time Venom — a terrible toxin that leeches years from flesh, collapsing memory and lifespan alike. Though it can be slain, the Chronogleam Serpent is one of the island’s guardians, and its death is never permanent. It will return, as it always has, and always will. Time itself coils in its scales — and where it stirs, the timeline shudders.
I feel like your players ought to be very careful in such a place. Sounds beautiful but definitely in an untouchable way.
Explore Etrea | Summer Camp 2025