Mertion
Ervenian Era, 1051 AB
The mustering plain of the righteous, Mertion is where resolve is tempered without losing its warmth. Its horizons are wide, its air brisk and clean; the layer rings with marching hymns, clinic bells, and the steady discourse of philosophers who test ideas like armor at the anvil. Here, mercy walks beside discipline, and every road leads either to a ward, a wardroom, or a wardrum.
Customs and Rites
The Vigil of Blades
Every warrior lays their weapon upon a white cloth at dusk before battle. The blade is polished with oil and ash while prayers are whispered. The act symbolizes both readiness for combat and the humility to be healed afterward.The Silver Salute
Visitors are welcomed not by bowing but by striking gauntlet to breastplate, then lifting the hand skyward. This salute honors both the Platinum Steppe and the Light Above, acknowledging unity in law and goodness.Hospice Oath
Healers and paladins take a vow never to refuse aid within Mertion’s hospitals. The oath is ritually renewed each new moon when the mirror-lakes are blessed and water drawn for anointing patients.Drill at Dawn
Each morning, mustering fields resound with coordinated drills. Even visiting souls or mortal petitioners are invited to march or spar, for practice here is considered an act of worship.The Rite of Cleansing Flame
Before entering the Citadel Domes, soldiers and supplicants pass through halls lined with silver braziers. Incense-smoke and flame are wafted across them to purify body and spirit of malice.The White Vigil
On nights of sorrow, mourners keep vigil beside a mirror-lake. Lanterns are set adrift upon the water, each carrying a name of the fallen. At dawn, the reflections are believed to carry the names into Jovar.The Trial of Resolve
Young paladins, angels, and mortal champions prove themselves by walking the Processional Roads in silence, pausing at each mile-stone to meditate upon the maxim inscribed there. The journey ends in prayer at a sanctuary court.The Ascendant Blessing
When one is deemed ready to ascend higher, into Jovar or even Chronias, a procession of healers, knights, and petitioners walks with them to the Ascendant Rims, chanting maxims of service, duty, and compassion until the escarpments part.Geography
The Platinum Steppe stretches wide with wind-swept grasslands, broken here and there by still mirror-lakes and rows of white poplars that sway like silent sentinels. From these plains rise the Citadel Domes, immense black-glass hemispheres and pale bastions that serve as armories, hospitals, and courts where debate and judgment are carried out. Across the land run the Processional Roads, star-inlaid causeways that draw together at drill fields and sanctuaries, their mile-stones etched with maxims and the times of musters. At the farthest horizons, the Ascendant Rims lift into pale escarpments, their highest terraces forming the paths that lead onward toward Jovar.
Notable Locations
White colonnades around a cold mirror-lake; clinics, convalescent cloisters, and the Fountain of Second Watch (shortens recovery, clears clouded judgment). Raziel is often found here among the wards.Arvenna, the Chanting Grounds
Dusty hymn-plains where legions practice formation and compassion in equal measure. Choir-trench lines carry cadence on the wind; oaths spoken here take deeply.Rempha, City of the Sands of Time
A terrace-town threaded with measured hour-rills. Time feels fair, grace for study, discipline for delay. Appeals for retrial or redemption are argued before the Clock of Mercy.Soqed Hezi, the City of Swords
Terraced arsenals and salle-gardens where the sword is taught as a promise, not a threat. Each graduate forges a Vow-Edge bearing one engraved mercy they swear never to forget.Governance
Raziel, the Firestar, rules Mertion as Captain of Compassionate War. The Empyreal Wardens (planetars, archons, and mortal marshals) administer districts called Legions, not armies, but service jurisdictions pairing a mustering field with a care-city. Every Legion keeps three ledgers with equal weight: Aid Rendered, Wrongs Righted, Battles Avoided.Travel and Access
Astral & Road Gates: Processional arches embedded in mile-stones; most open to those traveling under a named banner (order, temple, relief). Star-Domes: Climb the internal ramps of a major dome to find the Jovar Bridge at its crown; prayer of readiness shortens the way. Layer Links: Bahamut’s Platinum Palace sometimes alights here as a mobile bastion; its wind-gates offer rapid redeployment across the lower layers when the Platinum One wills.Inhabitants
Archons and Angels
Trumpet and hound archons serve as heralds and quartermasters; planetars oversee hospitals and tribunals.Petitioners of Service
Fallen medics, philosophers, magistrates, standard-bearers, reborn as lanterns and stewards until they earn higher charge.Orders of Mortals
Paladins, knight-hospitalers, jurists, and envoy-companies train or recover here before returning to the mortal wars.Localized Phenomena
Banner Winds
Standards that truly represent a company’s purpose always catch a favorable breeze; false flags hang lifeless.Mercy’s Margin
In declared rescue or evacuation, distances foreshorten, roads arrive two checks sooner; cruelty lengthens them.Witness Light
Duels of honor and tribunals gain a calm, even illumination; hidden malice casts a faint, telling shadow against the floor.The Second Watch
During night drills or bedside vigils, a restorative clarity settles, exhaustion counts as one step lighter until duty ends.Parable Echo
Wise maxims spoken on processional stones carry farther and linger, granting advantage to rally or reform a faltering line.Trait Type |
Description |
|---|---|
| Gravity | Normal gravity. “Up” is toward the cliff roads and citadels. The Silver Sea is unusually buoyant and gentle with first-time arrivals, keeping most afloat long enough for rescue. |
| Time | Time is 30 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; Open savannas, steppe plateaus, and domed mustering citadels extend as far as purpose carries you. |
| Morphic Traits | Law-bound, service-favored. Terrain subtly eases logistics (clear roads, firm ground) for declared relief, defense, or pilgrimage; idle wandering tends to circle back to wayposts. Raziel and the Hebdomad’s ministers can subtly reshape. |
| Elemental Energy | None Dominant |
| Alignment | Lawful Good. |
| Magic | Healing, restoration, status/coordination, travel by banner or vow, and protections that shield allies are enhanced. Coercive fear, deceitful glamers that spoof allegiance, and necromancy that denies judgment are impeded. |
Type
Dimensional plane
Location under
Included Locations
Owner/Ruler
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