Chent the Fool's Wall

Where is Chent?

West of Gruent and Jiasote, much needed by many who spend time here, is Chent, which is called The Fool's Wall as it forms a great and subtle barrier.

How is Chent classified?

There is some contention about whether Chent is a Hostile or a Negotiable theome, but most guidebooks list it as a Hostile Mystic theome. The local land god is too obviously sadistic. The theome is called "The Fool's Wall" because "foolish people" take many years to get from one side of it to the other.

What kind of population and economy does Chent have?

Chent has no economy. It is in its "true form" a barren wasteland of a wide-open tundra. The land god transports almost everyone who visits it away from that wide-open tundra into one of countless false paradises. There they are trapped by desirable illusions which tempt them to take treasures and talents "for free". Thus, everyone who visits Chent gets many hand-outs. The catch is that Chent's nameless unknown land god (often just referred to as Chent itself) is sadistically determined to give people stuff they won't want for very long, and so the illusory paradises fluctuate constantly to make the gifts it gives undesirable.

People who can put up a stoic mask sometimes rip off an illusion early and then continue on across the theome. People who ARE just very stoically determined can stay even safer by accepting no gifts in the theome. There is one rule across all of the fake paradises of Chent: they cannot TRULY trap people. Those who are determined to leave are capable of doing so, and for this reason there are merchants who even swear by the Chent crossing as a safe way to go. The one safe gift in Chent is safe passage, if that is all people wish to have from the theome.

Chent interacts oddly with the magic economy of Theoma. The phenomenon of people ripping off magic items from illusions by taking just one thing and refusing to play along with the fluctuations in the theome has given Chent itself a reputation as one of Theoma's better magic item crafters. The way that Chent hands out talents (and takes them away when they're undesirable) has given Chent itself a reputation as a teacher as well! It's said that a few years of living in Chent is as good as attending one of the lower-tier geomantic academies. It's a bit of a school of hard knocks, but one geomantic academy rates Chent as, "Easier than Jalustria for results that are about as good, but with a much greater risk of real suffering."

Despite the fact that Chent itself is a creator of torturous false paradises, few people ever die in this theome. Indeed, most people come away from Chent richer and more competent than they went in. They also come out very changed. If they gave in to the illusions and started playing along with a false paradise, they will have lost things they brought in, both literal objects and their prior talents. The particular gains they will have made are likely to be outside of what they would have thought before that they would value, unless they come in with a very pure will to gain in particular ways. Those who visit intentionally often find that they have overestimated the purity of their will!

Getting people into total uncertainty about what is valuable in life is one of the greatest pleasures of Chent itself. Most people eventually come away with the ability to cast wickedly customized spells and in possession of similarly customized treasures, all deeply resonant with their own deeper self-truth. These are the things they became totally unwilling to lose as Chent's paradises fluctuated around them. Despite these gains, most people elave Chent disgustedly certain that Chent itself is an evil sot who wanted to see them suffer under the weight of all the gifts and lessons that proved undesirable. Nevertheless, and quite similarly to how Chent itself is considered a teacher of geomancy, a few missionaries of the theome are born when people go through Chent's chaotically fluctuating false paradises and leave with the certainty that they did gain valuable lessons and great treasures from the theome. There is a shrine to Chent in Jiasote! As Gruent regards Chent as a source of bad workload from traumatized people filtering back into Jiasote from Chent, that shrine is occasionally destroyed by Gruent, but someone or other rebuilds it again every few years. Gruent doesn't seem inclined to punish rebuilding the shrine.