The Shining City

What is the Shining City? It has many names - Oz, Paradise, Shambala, Camelot, and a hundred others. Many believe it is only a myth. But many more are convinced that somewhere, in some Realm, there is a city that can answer all their questions and solve all their problems. Some Worldwalkers spend their entire lives searching for it - we call them Pilgrims. They follow myths and legends, chasing fragments of truth through the hundred names the City has worn. And if any of them have ever found it, none have returned to show the way.

But then again… why would they?

An Impossible Place

The stories about the Shining City beggar the imagination. Some say that God sits in a tower at the heart of the City, watching and ruling over all the Realms. Others claim that only those who have shed all ties to other Realms can find the right path. Some believe it is the only true place in the multiverse, and that everything else is a shadow, an echo, or a distorted reflection of some facet of the Shining City.

Regardless - no one agrees on what they will find there. Ask a hundred Pilgrims why they seek the Shining City, and you will get a hundred answers. They tend to be loners, or travel in pairs or trios - rarely more. And their one unifying trait is that they need something - something greater, or purer, or more true and noble than can be found anywhere else but in utopia.

Skeptics point out that there's no evidence for the City - or for any great god. They call it Oz, and often remind others that it's just a story: a fantasy that sounds beautiful, even comforting, but simply isn't real.

They haven’t convinced many Pilgrims.