Great Funnel
Ervenian Era, 1051 AB
The Great Funnel is a world-spanning cyclone braided from song and storm, essentially, a spiral realm whose wall-clouds climb without end. At its heart lies a shifting, lucid Eye where prayers gather like dew; around it, stacked isobar terraces of cloud and sky-stone host courts, markets, rookeries, and raceways. The air itself feels quick with intent, as if every breeze were a thought Akadi has not yet spoken.
Customs
Dawn-Breath
Clergy and sky-pilgrims take spells and intentions at first light—or first clear in the Eye—exhaling a single word to the wind.Rite of Six Winds
A consecration by six directional gusts; initiates circle the Eye while elders ring mithral chimes.Oath of the Open Hand
Share water and a story at first meeting; it buys a day’s truce and lane guidance.Chime-Casting
Offerings of perfumed smoke and chime-strings hung in the wall-cloud; the more the chime sings, the fairer the wind that follows.Tourneys of the Eight Winds
Formal, nonlethal sky-duels, banner-catch, ring-run, and pennant relays judged by timing and style.Feather-Oath
A promise is braided into a feather streamer; cutting it before vow’s end invites contrary winds.Geography
The Funnel rises as a helical megastorm, its wall a living rampart of cloud, rain-silver, and blue lightning. Isobar shelves, broad, wind-combed platforms of compacted cloud, mist-reef, and occasional sky-basalt, spiral inward and upward, each with its own microclimate and prevailing drift. Laminar lanes thread between shelves like glassy rivers of air; shear veils hang as translucent curtains that hum when disturbed. Hundreds of aerie-isles, feather-light skybergs, thistledown archipelagos, and ringed cloud-atolls, ride captured in the gyre, docking for a season before slipping free. The innermost Eye is a calm, lucid column from groundless floor to starless roof, a place of still breath and perfect hearing where whispers cross miles like footsteps.
Travel and Access
Entry is safest through natural cyclone eyes on the Prime Material Plane, through blue Ethereal curtains, or by catching the Jet Roads, fast, steady streams marked by wind-bells and pennants that read the flow. There is a rumor about a portal in Faenya-Dail. Waterspouts on outer shelves connect (intermittently) to the Plane of Water; high, dry anvils near the crown thin toward Vacuum; smoke-scented shear near the anvil fringe hints at Smoke. Pilots use pressure ladders (stacked isobars you can step like stairs) and song beacons (chime-buoys tuned to a lane) to cross shelves. Newcomers often accept a Scarf-Visa, a braided streamer that anchors a personal gravity vector for one watch. There is also a confirmed portal from Aerie to here.Notable Locations
The Eye of Names:
Akadi’s audience-calm; vows spoken here are carried intact across the Funnel and remembered by the wind.Whisper Court
High, thin terraces where the Whisper cliques parley in hand-sign and bell-code.Roar Court
Thunderhead bastions that host proclamations, sky-mustering, and the Trial of Gale.Gyre Market
A drifting bazaar lashed to three tether-isles; bottled winds, feathersteel spars, cloud-glass lenses, and flight runes change hands.Bannerfall
The dueling ring for the Tourneys of the Eight Winds, victory by banner-catch or ring-out, never by blood.Aeolian Archives
Vault-stacks of blue-glass tubes that store spoken memory as standing waves; librarians “play” recollections by breath and reed.Feather Forges
Cold-spark workshops where azer guests and air-smiths temper struts with pressure and song instead of flame.Waterspout Gate
A tethered column that, when sung to proper pitch, descends as a silver rope into the Plane of Water.The Blue Stair
A continuous pressure ladder from outer shelf to inner Eye—pilgrims climb by breath discipline and balance alone.Thistledown Rookeries
Communes of raptorfolk and sky-monks who weave living kites and teach still-wing meditation.Inhabitants
Air elementals and animentals; djinn households and jann caravans; sylphs and raptorfolk; invisible stalkers as wardens; cloud giants on embassy isles; mephits (air, dust, ice) as porters and pranksters. Pilgrims of Akadi (Whispers and Roars), sky-sailors, and spelljamming corsairs visit by season. Guest-quarters exist for azer smiths (under truce) and marid envoys (at the spout).Localized Phenomena
Pressure Ladders
Stacked isobars you can stride like steps; a misstep dumps you into cross-shear.Laminar Lanes
Silent, crystal-smooth highways—triple movement, but silence spells flicker; sound carries as pure tone.Shear Veils
Humming curtains that shave speed (and sometimes gear) from the unwary; properly “bowed” they open like drapes.Ring Maelstroms
Toroidal cyclones that trap travelers in endless circuits unless a lane-song is known.Singing Aurora
Charged light that records messages as harmonics; a skilled listener can “read” yesterday’s weather reports.St. Elmo Stairs
Bead-chains of static glow that climb from shelf to shelf, safe to grasp if you ground your other hand.Hush Pockets
Bubbles where all wind dies; flyers stall unless they still-wing or kick a gust cantrip.Trait Type |
Description |
|---|---|
| Gravity | Directional by default; within the wall and on isobar shelves, a soft vector tends to pull “down-and-in” along the spiral (easy to treat the shelf as “ground”). |
| Time | Normal. |
| Shape & Size | Infinite Sky. |
| Morphic Traits | Air-dominant; mildly morphic to wind-shapers and djinn; divinely morphic to Akadi—gusts become edicts, silence becomes a held breath.Air-dominant; mildly morphic to wind-shapers and djinn; divinely morphic to Akadi, gusts become edicts, silence becomes a held breath. |
| Elemental Energy | Air Dominant. |
| Alignment | Neutral. |
| Magic | Air, weather, flight, sonic, divination-by-sound, and movement magic are enhanced. Fire and earth-shaping are impeded (steam and dust effects tend to disperse), and silence is unstable within laminar lanes. |
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