The Hushed Confluence
Ervenian Era, 1051 AB
The Hushed Confluence is a realm unlike most realms, coexisting both in the Astral Plane and in Thalasia.
Arriving here feels like exhaling a breath you didn’t know you were holding. The air moves in long, even pulses, and the world politely lowers its voice: oars barely splash, sandals don’t scuff, and even arguments thin to murmurs unless they’re worth saying. Time follows a gentler cadence, conversations find their natural ends, grief is given room to empty, and plans finish forming before feet set out.
The realm’s purpose is remedial rather than militant. It’s where rescue missions from kinder planes deliver the shaken, where fugitives from cruelty are stabilized, and where envoys bring impossible quarrels to cool. Soryna’s servants don’t recruit crusaders; they rehabilitate will, teach durable consent, and then send people on to places that need them, often with a map, a promise, and a held-bead of clean water that knows the way home.
Etiquette is simple and strict: pause before you speak, share what you can before you ask for more, and never hurry anyone through a wound. Small rituals, washing dust from hands, sipping springwater together, placing a palm to a rock, signal we’re safe to talk better than guards ever could. Visitors who keep the rhythm find doors opening that weren’t visible a moment before.
Conflict here resolves by redirection and placement. The realm prefers to separate predators from nurseries, turn ambush paths into longer, scenic routes, and make impatient feet heavier than patient ones. If you insist on pressing violence, the landscape answers with friction and fatigue; if you switch to witness and repair, distances shorten and guides appear.
There’s no commerce in coin. Debts are tracked as promises fulfilled: a rebuilt bank in exchange for shelter, a night’s watch for a lesson in swimming, a careful copy of a bird-list for a second chance. Tokens tend to be biodegradable, reed-knots, bead-strings, pressed leaves, so hoarding is impossible and remembering is the point.
For adventurers, the realm offers nonviolent stakes: escorting a persecuted family past watchful wetlands; mediating between foresters and spawning runs; recovering a relic from a quiet reliquary without waking old grief; mapping a safe “pause chain” for refugees between planes. The hardest challenges aren’t traps, but tempers, habits, and the urge to rush.
Geography
Notable Locations
Spring-Crown Archipelago
Low green isles ringed by pale beaches and reed-lantern weirs; freshwater eyes bubble up through white sand, lace into mirror-lagoons, and slip gently into Okyanus.Glassfall Amphitheater
A wide, tiered grotto curtained by sheet-water; mediations and treaty-songs are held where the fall’s hush makes every word deliberate.Reliquary Shoals
Sandbars and shallow caverns where sealed caskets hold fragments of forgotten divinities; wards are written in water-script and watched without judgment.Moonwell Paths
A string of circular pools that reflect starlight even at noon; step pool-to-pool with a whispered purpose and the last well opens near your goal.Reed Scriptoriums
Boardwalk cloisters where Sorynians copy bird lists, flow-maps, and bloom-timings onto vellum and living bark; records are lent freely and hoarded by none.Peace Cloisters
Springside cottages and open pavilions spread across the isles; no weapon is drawn here without shame, and quarrels begin with breath before speech.Travel and Access
Travel is purposeful rather than fast. Ferries glide when the boat’s reason is stated; moonlit pools string themselves into a route if you can say where you’re going and whom it helps; the Astral opens only with a vow to carry memory instead of power. Wander without intent and you’ll still be cared for, you’ll just circle a while until your need finds its words.Inhabitants
Petitioners of the Still
Pacifists, wardens, gardeners, spring-keepers, and swimmers reborn with steady lungs and soft steps; they replant burns, mend banks, and teach calm water to the fearful.Azatas and Agathions
Lillends keep song-law and witness oaths; avorals watch the skies and ferry messages; cervidals and ursinals tend rest-houses and waybread ovens.Good-hearted water Fey
Naiads, brume-dryads, and spray sprites guide without gouging, prize consent and clean departures, and will quietly mislead the cruel. The Custodians of Peace. Soryna’s order in gray-green; they adjudicate by pause and witness, escort refugees, and dismantle cruelty by patience and placement rather than force.Quiet Wardens of the Reliquaries
Neutral attendants seconded by Chronepsis, who mind the sealed remains of dead gods; they do not preach, only keep time and watch.Azaraks
There are few Azaraks who live here, who live as powerful entities on the same level as Idols.Localized Phenomena
Stillwater Peace
Open violence dulls as blades feel heavy, shouts go winded, and even anger tires early; those who choose parley find doors (and hearts) opening.Silt of Silence
Spiteful boasts and threats go breathless above certain beds; apologies and gratitude carry to the far bank.Truce-Drift
Paths gently slide to separate hunter and hunted near nurseries and birthing pools; cruel pursuits take “sensible” detours until the lesson lands.Briar of Oathbreaking
Willful vow-breakers find reeds and lily-stems snaring sleeves and straps until apology and amends are made.Reliquary Quiet
In the Shoals, time seems to breathe; haste stumbles and patience shortens the way.Water’s Favor
Create water, purify food and drink, water walk, control water, speak with animals (aquatic), commune with nature feel surer and carry farther along channels and wells.Mercy’s Preference
Calm emotions, sanctuary, remove disease/curse, restoration, atonement lean with the land; [evil], fear-dominations, coercive compulsions, and necromancy that harms life strain or quietly fail.Performative Casting
Working magic while singing soft, mapping a flow, tracing a ripple, or keeping a counting-breath steadies concentration; bystanders read benign spells as part of the rite.Appointment Travel
Way-walks and teleports keyed to a stated time and peaceful purpose arrive with uncommon precision; casual flits meander.Archivist’s Grace
Teaching from honest failure, especially about lands and waters, sharpens recall and steadies hands for those attempting the same craft.Trait Type |
Description |
|---|---|
| Gravity | Normal. |
| Time | Normal time with a Seasonal Cadence: tasks aligned to planting, tending, healing, or harvest flow a touch smoother; hoarding or needless haste meets small delays. |
| Shape & Size | A boundless scatter of isles and shoals perceived as a ringing chain of sanctuaries; the horizon “walks”, bringing a fitting spring, glade, or cove to those who seek peace and a slower, longer route to those who don’t. |
| Morphic Traits | Divinely Morphic; Thea and her named wardens can raise furrows, call rain or open granaries with a word. |
| Elemental Energy | Water is dominant. |
| Alignment | Neutral Good. |
| Magic | Healing/restoration, plant and water magic, weather (gentle rain, warding winds), divinations about seasons, terrain, and crop signs are enhanced. In addition, when vow-tied: sending, tongues, protection, heroism, and similar magics bound to a sworn work or guest-right. While, evil spells, necromancy that harms life, compulsion used for coercion or enslavement, fear-dominations, and destructive fire meant to waste fields are impeded. |
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