Home of Blue Light
Ervenian Era, 1051 AB
A realm of warm springs, lantern-kites, and open doors, the Home of Blue Light is Mishdor’s sanctuary for healing, restoration, and family. By day, terraces of clinics and kitchens of mercy bustle with midwives, hospice keepers, and Blue Mantle wagons; by night, paper discs, inked with prayers, rise on soft winds or drift along bright canals. Here, oaths of care have weight, grief is held without hurry, and no one is turned away at the threshold. The Plane exist both in Mertion and Shurrock.
Customs and Rites
Admission and Guest-Right
All who enter pass beneath the Circle Arch and wash hands in a warm basin of herb-water; the basin is emptied into a garden bed, never to a drain. Saying Within this circle, fear shall not speak grants guest-right, no one may be turned away from food, water, or a bed.Daily Observances
At dawn the Consecration of Hands is renewed: four thumb-rings traced on each palm (Care, Patience, Truth, Mercy). At dusk, Houses ring a soft Triage Bell; anyone who hears it may step forward for aid without question. Kitchens keep The Circle Pot, a perpetual broth to which each shift adds something, that no bowl leaves empty.Milk-and-Honey Oath
Birth: Midwives anoint brow and palms, saying, Within this circle, fear shall not speak.The first cry is answered with a chorus of quiet humming.The Quiet Circle
Vigil: Caregivers sit in a ring around a single white disc until the patient’s pain eases; speech is by touch-signs.Mother’s Embrace
Gried: The blue mantle is wrapped about mourners; names of comfort, Home, Hearth, Hope, are sung thrice.Lantern and Disc Rites
Even here the Night of a Thousand Discs is kept: prayer-discs are set adrift on the Bluewater Rill and gathered at dawn to become pledges of a month’s free care. On midnights of crisis, lantern kites rise over the ward-gardens as a signal to nearby realms: we have beds, come without fear.Aftercare and Austerities
Discharged patients receive a Circle Cord (twelve tiny beads): one simple meal, one kindness, one hour of service marked daily. A full cord hung on the House door means I am well; give this mercy onward.Etiquette for Visitors
Weapons are peace-tied or cloaked. Loud boasts, bargaining over care, and false triage alarms are taboos. Leaving a clean pair of sandals by the door is a small blessing for the next pilgrim.Geography
The realm unfolds as an endless amphitheater of gentle hills and bath-vales, each centered on a bright pool fed by mineral rills. Low cloisters of pale stone ring these waters, hospices, stillrooms, nurseries, and reconciliation courts stitched together by arcades and leaf-shaded walks. Overhead, sky-bridges carry lanterns and wind-chimes; at street level, way-stations offer broth, clean water, linens, and a place to rest. Farther out, orchards of silver-leafed trees shelter grief circles where bead-charms (the Mother’s beads) are tied and untied as hearts mend.
Notable Locations
The Circle of Rings
A colonnaded forum paved in twin interlocking disc-mosaics where vows are witnessed, reconciliations made, and adoptions blessed.Lantern Piers
Willow-lined quays where new arrivals wade from holy, gentle water; paper-disc prayers are set afloat at dusk.Sky-Broth Hall
An open kitchen of mercy whose cauldrons never empty; travelers leave fed, bathed, and bandaged.The Mantle Cloister
A teaching house for midwives, surgeons, and peacemakers; vow-threads are woven into blue mantles on the Blessing Loom.The Quiet Court
A gardened tribunal for hard truths and soft landings; judgments restore, not ruin.The Hospice Bridge
A shining viaduct that periodically overlays Mertion’s Empyrea; patients and healers pass freely during the co-location bells.The Blue Orchard
Rows of silver-leaf fruit trees whose shade is reserved for the mourning; bead-charms are tied to branches and untied when the heart is lighter.Governance
The realm is stewarded by Mishdor’s Hands, Palm-Bearers, Blue Mantles, Lantern-Wardens, and Circle Mothers/Fathers—who keep three laws plain and posted at every gate: Guest-Right is sacred; within the blue ring no blood is drawn; and care bears no price. The Consecration of Hands is renewed at dawn, the Quiet Circle is kept once per season, and every first day of the month is Hands Day, when novices are received and the whole realm becomes a free clinic and kitchen of mercy.Travel and Access
Most gates open over water as Sea-Gates just offshore; the shallows lift non-swimmers gently and sting the cruel. Vow-Stiles accept a spoken promise of aid as a key, while Lantern-Kite Bridges appear when a healer answers a distant call. At dawn and dusk bells, the Hospice Bridge co-exists with Mertion’s hospitals, allowing ward transfers in either direction. Way-roads also link quietly to Deepkeep and to certain monasteries on Solania for long convalescences. There is also a grand monastery in Mertion.Inhabitants
Petitioners gather as nurses, midwives, scribes, cooks, and ward-keepers; Archons, Agathions and Angels serve as gentle sentries and messengers; lantern archons guide the lost. Mortal pilgrims, injured, expectant, grieving, or simply weary, are common guests. No Fiend may pass the ringed gate without first disarming and accepting guest-right; if they do, even they receive treatment without cruelty.Localized Phenomena
Mercywater
Springs that taste faintly of milk and mint; drinking grants calm and a steadier hand for care.Lampwind
A soft breeze that lifts paper discs skyward; prayers carried on it reach those named, even across planes.Quieting Ring
Blue dusted thresholds that dampen anger and make lying feel like swallowing sand.Mother’s Embrace
When a grief-rite is kept properly, the air itself holds a mourner as if by unseen arms.Auster’s Nudge
Those who keep little austerities (one simple meal, one kindness, one hour of service) find doors open and distances shorten.Trait Type |
Description |
|---|---|
| Gravity | Objective down (to nearest surface in bath-vales, falls are slowed as if into deep water. |
| Time | Time is 10 times slower than the Prime Material Plane; Celestial stars keep perfect hours; bells and beacons are synchronized across the coast. The First-Night Covenant (guest-right) is socially binding until dawn, hospitality first, judgment later. |
| Shape & Size | Infinite;Neighborhoods of care repeat like rings around springs; maps may grow as compassion requires. |
| Morphic Traits | Law-bound to vows of care; structures that shelter, cleanse, reconcile, or teach respond readily to will and ritual. |
| Elemental Energy | None Dominant |
| Alignment | Lawful Good. |
| Magic | Healing (cure/restore/resurrection), protection, community, water, and good-descriptor magic are enhanced. Disease, fear, evil spells and effects, necromancy, coercive compulsion, and magic that violates guest-right are impeded. Summoning Fiends is impossible within blue rings. Illusions used for comfort (lullaby, privacy) are steadied; deceits that harm the vulnerable fray. |
Comments