Brontide Gyre
Ervenian Era, 1051 AB
The Brontide Gyre, is where thoughts learns a beat in the sea of unmade thought that is Limbo.
The realm spins as a colossal storm-vortex hung in a sky with no horizon, its heart a world-drum of cloud-iron and thunderstone. Each roll of Strebetris’s drum tightens the squalls into shape; each crack of his chain sends lightning stitching paths across the gale. Wind, rain, and raw chaos answer rhythm first and reason second, and the air hums with the rising thrill before a storm breaks.
Customs
There is law here, but it marches to a drum. Guest-Right under the Drum is the first and fiercest: step within the Tympanum’s circle, lay your weapon’s point upon the stone, and speak your errand; while the drum still remembers your touch, you are warded from harm and obliged to do no harm in turn. Disputes submit to the Ten-Beat Parley, argued at ten paces in ten counts, Order, Cause, Proportion, Mercy, Necessity, Temperance, Discipline, Proof, Witness, Verdict, each count marked by a drum-strike. Win six, and the storm itself nods, easing the victor’s path with a following wind. Oaths are signed by Chain-Touch: a link warmed to a dull glow, grasped barehanded by both parties. Honest purpose leaves no mark; false intent stings and prints a lattice of pale burns that fade only when amends begin.Geography
Travelers see the Gyre long before they enter it: an anvil-crowned thunderhead that turns like a slow wheel, shedding curtains of rain that never quite fall, only arc outward and climb again. Gravity is whimsical here until a cadence catches it; clap a steady pulse or strike a marching rhythm on a shield and “down” agrees to the nearest cloud-shelf or floating basalt bar. Stand in silence, and the ground thinks better of you and drifts away.
Notable Locations
Tympanum
Ringed, vibrating stone plateau; treaties struck here echo as living thunder.Chainways
Braided corridors of lightning that harden underfoot for walkers who keep time.Rainstep Plains
Miles of hovering downpour you can stride across if your pace is even.Whisper Vales
Blue-calmed bowls where voices carry clean and the wind Listens. Ringed vibrating stone plateau; treaties struck here echo as living thunder.Chainways
Braided corridors of lightning that harden underfoot for walkers who keep time.Rainstep Plains
Miles of hovering downpour you can stride across if your pace is even.Whisper Vales
Blue-calmed bowls where voices carry clean and the wind listens.Travel
Drum-Gates
Forge a steady cadence to open storm hollows toward named elemental destinations.Chainways steer by song
Fire (forge-name), Water (river-modes), Earth (mountain thirds), Air (long open vowels).Thunder-Tunnels
Ride pressure-waves that carry feet and shouts for leagues.Gust Harbors
Braided, steady wind “docks” for sky-ships.Rain Ladders
Slats of hardened downpour that dissolve if you lose the beat.Travel
The Gyre rewards rhythm. Beat a forge-true cadence on any sounding surface and a Drum-Gate opens as a hollow in the storm, leading toward the Elemental Planes named by your song. Call a forge’s name and the Chainways tilt you toward fire; sing river-modes and they slope toward water; whistle mountain thirds and they stiffen toward stone; breathe long, open vowels and they feather toward open air. Couriers ride Thunder-Tunnels, pressure-waves that lift the feet and carry a shout for leagues, while sky-ships anchor in Gust Harbors, dimples of steady wind braided from a dozen obedient breezes. Those who must descend do so by Rain Ladders, slats of hardened downpour that dissolve if you lose the beat.Inhabitants
Petitioners called storm-runners find their second life here: drummers, couriers, sailors, and musicians who chose speed and message over safety. They wear braided chain as sashes, speak in hand-claps at a distance, and carry news between elements and worlds. Thunder mephits and trilling zephyrs serve as heralds, while larger hosts, Proteans also wander in and out as thunder’s uninvited cousins, tolerated so long as mischief stays playful. When the storm giants come, they come without crowns, for Strebetris brooks no king within his squall; they wrestle the wind for sport and leave gifts of bronze harps that sing in lightning.Localized Phenomena
Weather and wind answer quickly; lightning is eager, thunder generous. Spells of air, sound, travel, message, and speed carry farther and hold steadier than they should, especially when cast to aid or warn. Silence balks and breaks in the inner rings, binding compulsions that are not freely accepted slip like wet rope, and leaden magics that arrest motion lose a step. Oaths sworn to carry, to deliver, or to relieve the endangered take on a storm-boon: the bearer moves as if a tailwind pressed their back, and exhaustion finds them late. Musicians who keep an hour’s unbroken rhythm earn the Skywrath’s Favor, for a day their chain, rope, or whip strikes like a thunderclap once, bright as a beacon and harmless to the undeserving.
Climate
Because Strebetris bears messages between Akadi, Grumbar,Istishia, and Kossuth, the Brontide Gyre keeps a fragile etiquette. Within the Parley Shelf, flame may warm but not scorch, wave may wet but not drown, stone may brace but not bury, wind may buffet but not break. Envoys who forget find the drum’s next roll strangely off-time and their returns slow, for the Gyre remembers slights until a gift and an apology reset its beat.
Trait Type |
Description |
|---|---|
| Gravity | Cadential objective directional. Gravity locks to the nearest surface for creatures keeping a steady beat (drum, clap, march). Break cadence and footing drifts as if subjective; on Chainways it aligns along the lightning path, and across Rainstep Plains it runs parallel to the falling sheet of rain. |
| Time | Normal within the storm’s pulse. Brief “syncopations” can make the start of a round feel early or late when the world-drum accents, but clocks keep true over longer spans. |
| Shape & Size | Finite, self-bounded vortex. A colossal thunderhead and its anvil-isles turning on a storm-eye; rims blur into Limbo’s raw chaos. The diameter swells during revels and great parleys, then contracts to a steady gyre. |
| Morphic Traits | Highly musico-morphic. Rhythm, voice, and purposeful motion shape terrain: chorus calms squalls, steady march firms rain into steps, and oath-beats open passages. Silence and indecision loosen forms; a kept cadence stabilizes them. |
| Elemental Energy | Air and Electricity dominant. |
| Alignment | Strongly Chaotic Neutral. |
| Magic | Air, lightning, sound/sonic, weather, travel/communication (message, sending, wind-borne paths), speed and freedom effects, and divinations that follow vibrations (echo, drum, or thunder). Spells with verbal components cast in clear cadence tend to carry farther and hold steadier are enhanced. While silence and muting effects, magics that arrest motion (paralysis, binding, overbearing slows) unless freely accepted, and rigid lawful compulsions. Illusions that falsify identity or oath “crackle” in Whisper Vales and are easier to see through by sound are impeded. |
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