Dothion
Ervenian Era, 1051 AB
Dothion is the workbench of Bytopia: orchard towns and waterwheels, guild greens and bell towers, terrace fields and long porches where elders teach crafts by lamplight. In Theras’s cosmology it is the face of Reciprocity turned toward making, deeds done for others return in kind, and good work done well finds the world quietly helping back. Mend a plow and rains arrive on time; build an honest bridge and travelers come bearing favors you did not ask for. Where Shurrock tests, Dothion prepares; where Shurrock is weather, Dothion is weathered wisdom.
On Dothion, work is worship and community is the craft. Journeymen teach as they build; children learn letters by copying inventory and fair weights; stewards keep books not for profit alone but to remember who helped whom in bad winters. Oaths are made in daylight, marked on ledgers and, often, on living bark; promises are kept publicly and failure is repaired publicly as well, not with shame but with labor. Guilds serve neighborhoods first and kings or councils second. Wealth is common in the old sense: made to be shared.
Customs and Law
Trade is performed on public benches under sun or lamplight; scales and measures are stamped with a maker’s mark and are community property. Breaking a measure is a civic offense akin to breaking a bridge. Promises are sung, carved, or sewn. Many are cut into the bark of the Ledgergreen’s pearl-knot trees; when the vow is met, a pale bud flowers that may be worn as a charm until the next harvest. Communal stores open only when three unrelated households turn their keys together; charity is structured so pride is not bruised and hoarding is made difficult. Anyone may ask to watch, anyone who watches must help clean. Journeys begin with sweeping the floor you learned on.Geography
The land rolls in quilted folds of grain and orchard, stitched by hedgerows and watered by bright canals. Mills hum rather than groan. Kilns keep true heat. Roads choose honest grades, signed by small way-shrines to house-spirits and patron craft-saints. At dusk a warm, smokeless glow clings to windowpanes and lintels, the lamplight of Aether, and ovens bake even, ink dries clean, and metal tempers true. Look up and the other world hangs above the sky: Shurrock’s ridges and stormpaths inverted across the Midrun’s golden air.
Notable Locations
Brasswork Bazaar
A migratory market strung along sky-rails in the Midrun; stalls glide to meet caravans from both worlds. Coin counts, favors count more, and a promise kept opens more doors than any purse.The Ledgergreen
Terraced commons planted in oath-trees. Pearl-knots bud when vows are fulfilled; breaking them grants a one-deed blessing, often just enough to finish the next good thing.The Grange of the Hundred Keys
A communal granary whose doors will not open unless three households of no kin turn their keys together. It is impossible to buy the third key, neighbors must be won.The Skywrights’ Walk
Balloon docks and crane towers at the Midrun’s lip, where apprentices earn their first rope-burns and vows are tied with literal knots.Travel and Access
Dothion’s roads are trustworthy, with milestone shrines every league. Portals stitched into cool caverns carry pilgrims to Elysium and Arcadia; craft-lines and balloon ferries climb to the Midrun, where migrating markets and sky-cranes meet loads from Shurrock. A tended gate in the Golden Hills trades apprenticeships with the Outlands’ Wonderhome, and quiet doors open for caravans who arrive with balanced books and clean hands. There is also a gate from Dwarfhome.Inhabitants
Petitioners arrive in the vigor of their prime, sun-creased smiles, ink-stained fingers, calluses earned honestly. Hound archons keep the roads and weigh quarrels with patient ears; trumpet archons mediate guild disputes with a calm that cools hot iron; cervidal and leonal guardinals visit with counsel on husbandry and warding. Gnomes feel particularly at home; Dwarves winter to teach stonecraft; Halflings run storied teamster lines and bake bread whose recipes are oaths in flour and water. Even the animals know a little: oxen that nod at fair bargains, owls that blink once for true and twice for trickery.Localized Phenomena
Worksong Winds
Humming breezes drift down lanes and scaffolds; those who labor together find hands steadier and loads lighter, while solitary selfishness leaves the air still and tools stubborn.Kindly Audits
Tiny ledger-wisps tally deeds without malice. A day of honest work for others draws courage against despair; a day of cunning exploitation brings little misfortunes, warped boards, a snapped thread, a meeting missed by minutes, until restitution is made.Unkept-Oath Squalls
When a public promise tied to the commons is broken, a small, personal storm dogs the oath-breaker, slick cobbles, stubborn shutters, rain through keyholes—ending only when amends are offered and accepted.Midrun Vertigo
The first step into the weightless band can unnerve the proud; the surest cure is a hand taken freely.Lamplight of Aether
Magics that mend, measure, enrich, bless, or reveal flaws feel cleaner by a margin; glamers that cheat weight or coerce service tend to fray.Guild-Bond
Oaths sworn over a shared task make small protections linger, and status between comrades runs along ropes, rails, and ledger-lines.Honest Measure
Spells that sanctify bargains, hallow workshops, or safeguard stores carry a little farther when the result benefits the settlement, not the single hand.Leap of Trust
When crossing the Midrun to aid someone else, the air itself seems to catch the faithful; if you fall, you fall gently toward the nearest helping voice.Trait Type |
Description |
|---|---|
| Gravity | Normal on Dothion’s ground. Opposed gravity across the Midrun: cross the belt and “down” flips to the other layer. The Midrun itself is a zero-G band (roughly 200–600 ft thick), where cranes, rope-trams, and balloons work best. |
| Time | Normal; Dothion rewards patience (“seasonal return”) and exposes shortcuts; this is felt in luck and outcomes more than clocks. |
| Shape & Size | Infinite; Vast, horizon-gentle continent of farms, mills, and orchard towns. Above it, ten miles or so up, the “other world” hangs across a shared sky. Between them lies the Midrun, a golden belt of calm air. |
| Morphic Traits | Harmonious / settlement-aiding. Works that build or sustain community (bridges, barns, clinics, granaries) seem to go up straighter and quicker; schemes that exploit or defraud meet stubborn materials, balky tools, and fussy ledgers. |
| Elemental Energy | None Dominant |
| Alignment | Strongly Good, mildly Lawful. |
| Magic | Magic that mends, nourishes, sanctifies, reveals flaws, or protects the commons (e.g., create food and water, make whole, bless/consecrate/hallow, daylight, heroes’ feast, fabricate, move earth, plant growth such as enrichment, stone/wood shape, regenerate, sanctuary) are enhanced. While magic that coerces service, fouls the commons, or profits by harm (e.g., dominate, coercive geas/quest, unhallow/unholy aura, non-consensual planar binding) are impeded; creating undead simply fails unless a resident power explicitly permits it (vanishingly rare). |
Type
Dimensional plane
Location under
Included Locations
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