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The Breach; And Surrounding Environs
Topic Started: Jan 19 2013, 11:40 PM (329 Views)
Nightfury
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Index

Summary
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The Four Giants
- Evisica
- Erterra
- Edonna
- Elir
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Isle of Eden
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The Graveyard
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Denizens of The Breach
- Forgotten Caretakers
- Creatures of the Cold Dark
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Summary

Only through the efforts of generations of scholars and explorers do we know anything about the mysterious Breach. It zigzags across an area of approximately seven hundred miles of ocean, while the length of The Breach if measured properly is even greater due to multiple changes in direction. It appears to be a rent in the earth, at least ten miles wide, dropping into a black abyss even when the sun is directly overhead.
No water flows into the abyss itself – though the surrounding ocean flows towards the Breach constantly, causing treacherous currents that run deep into the ocean, making the surrounding water dangerous for exploration; scathing hot air and magical energy constantly pours from The Breach, turning the oceans to steam around its border, while pushing any remaining water down the edge of The Breach, creating a nasty current that destroys any ship to get close.


The Four Giants

Just as The Breach is unreachable and the waters treacherous, the airways are no better. The rising heat drastically affects weather patterns, and there are secondary obstacles: The four near-mythical floating islands: Evisica, Erterra, Edonna, and Elir, collectively known as the Four Giants. They float at varying heights above the ocean, dependant on the tides and the weather, with seemingly no pattern outside of a hundred year occurrence where they fall far enough to almost touch the ocean. While all four islands share a close proximity, their environments are greatly different.

Eden

Eden is a land at the origin of the breach, one that no mortal has ever managed to land upon. Sheer cliffs ring the border, with no apparent point of entry. It is guarded by an eternal storm birthed at the tip of The Breach, and on the far side of the storm a godly magical force exists, rising over a gargantuan whirlpool that travels miles deep and forcing any ship away with gusts of wind. Any ship that has attempted to cross the storm has been smashed to splinters by the guardian of the island – A being standing on the mountain at the heart of Eden, and only turns his gaze from the whirlpool when a ship breaches the ring of storms.

The Graveyard

This small grouping of islands was split in two by The Breach and appears resistant to the erosion that tore away the other islands that formerly existed in the area, making it a mystery to even the brightest geologists to examine it. Oddly, the islands themselves are of the same stone composition as the neighbouring land of Evisica, save for the catacombs that cover the surface of the broken islands in dozens upon dozens of unmarked gravestones.

The Cold Dark

While above the water things are treacherous, below they are truly unreal. Magic permeates the deep ocean of the Breach and twists the creatures there into unnatural and dangerous things that, while they remain below the water most of the time, have been disturbed on occasion by exploration above. Tales of ship-destroying horrors and emotion-draining sirens come around now and again from those who have neared The Breach, and when one of these monsters grows large enough, it strikes out across the ocean, terrorising the lands near to the Breach until they die of starvation due to their terrible scale.
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Evisica

“Dragons...by Celestia, dragons! They aren’t statues at all!” -Quote from the captain of the Airship Silver Starlight, one of the first craft ever to cross the oceans to the Four Giants. It reached Evisica and was damaged by stray winds, causing them to crash-land on the smaller island. Only journals were ever recovered.

The isle of Evisica is the largest of the Four Giants, and furthest from The Breach, however it is much better described as a territory, as the land consists of into three different islands at the same level. It is assumed to be a chunk of earth from pre-Celestial and, indeed, pre-pony days. It is an island of scorched grey stone, and the air around it is laden with ashes, tell-tale signs that Evisica is a land of dragons.
Little vegetation grows upon the surface of Evisica however just under the surface of the island lies a core of gemstones that constantly grows, feeding off the Breach’s magical energy. At such a distance, the magic from the breach is minimal, creating an odd balance between the rate new crystals are created, and the rate at which the dragons feed.

The crystal of Evisica is, unlike any gemstone of Equestrian origin. It is close to Onyx, being a pure black gemstone that reflects no light and seems to be able to draw in an unlimited amount of magical energy. The only problem that makes it unsuitable for storage is the fact that it uses this energy to create extra growths ‘branching’ from the main one, and it is very brittle, making it unsuitable for anti-magical armor. This crystal is often used by the dragons of Evisica for carving, as it becomes inert when blasted with a high enough temperature, as well as gaining a strong outer coating.

Dragons

The dragons of The Breach are different from those of Equestria and its surroundings, both physically and behaviourally. Physically they are believed to be primal relatives of the ‘New World’ dragons, and possess two pairs of wings and no scales; their hide is thick, stony leather. The dragons of The Breach are blind, with vaguely canine limbs and a slight amount of fur down their back, while their underside is of softer leather much like many reptiles. They apparently ‘see’ via echolocation, in the form of a low hum barely on the scale of hearing that permeates every inch of Evisica.

Curiously, all Breach Dragons are born female. The females are smaller and thinner, and their wings are sleeker and longer from base to tip, while their hide is more smooth and even. When a Dragon reaches maturity, outlined by two factors – a single hatched egg and a two hundred and fifty years of age – it undergoes a physical change, becoming bulkier and rougher as it changes from female to male over the course of the next fifty to a hundred years. A male will be lucky to sire more than one child in his lifetime, and their population remains steadily around forty five living dragons at any one time.

Breach Dragons do not share the solitary nature of their more colourful equestrian cousins, instead sharing the space of Evisica freely. The only fights that do occur are those that occur in sport, or over potential mates, and it is rare that animosity or misunderstanding will colour a relationship to the point of violence. Breach Dragons, however, do share the ability to speak, and surprisingly they have an adept knowledge of many languages from the New World.

Since the first discoveries of Evisica, expeditions to the dragon-populated landmass are not uncommon. They welcome what they call the younger races to trade, and while they do not have much to trade, they are fond of storytelling. Apparently, many of the dragons are aged in the hundreds, if not thousands, of years, and have had great amounts of practice in crafts of their choices; charcoal drawings and carving from Evisica is highly sought after as they are made over the course of decades; with detail that a mortal cannot afford in their lifespan. They are rare due to the fact that, while Breach Dragons don’t have use for them, their price is usually in the form of a good tale, and Breach Dragons are not easy to impress.

Breach Dragons do not die in the traditional sense; however they eventually suffer from intense depression that consumes their entire being. When a Breach Dragon has lived long enough to be weary of his age, he proceeds from his chosen place on the island to the edge of the floating landmass, and will sit with wings curled around his body, drifting into an endless sleep. This process is sacred to the dragons, as they do not possess the means to end their own lives or the lives of another dragon – they sleep eternally, awaiting the end of the world.
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Erterra

”That island wasn’t there yesterday. Steer clear of it, anything that has been in the water is no safer than the water itself. Hey, what’s that shadow?” –Reported last words of Captain Salt Wind, who embarked to tame the wild Breach. He was reportedly snatched by the tongue of a winged beast that glided from the surface of Erterra.

Of all four islands Erterra is seen to be the most dangerous, due to the errant patterns of movement it has compared to the other four islands of the Breach. Long ago, it was home to a race of goat-like beings known as Satyrs, who lived off the fishing waters of Erterra, and cultivated vines for building and spider’s silk for clothing. They were followers of an ancient deity, and their civilisation boomed, until the events surrounding the opening of The Breach raised the islands out of the ocean and shattered the surface below, depriving the Satyrs of both their food and, soon after, their water, as magical taint made it inconsumable.

The Satyrs soon died out, or moved on to lands unknown, and their crops of vine grew unchecked on the storms and magic of The Breach. Soon, they overtook the cliff edges and began the descent to the ocean, only speeding up when the plants reached the water’s surface. They grew and thickened, until treelike pillars branched down into the water and anchored Erterra to the deep seabed.

Long before it was anchored, however, the island was populated by a new form of life.

Breach Beasts

The creatures of the cold dark are many and all loathe the deadly waters of the Breach, where there is always a larger being waiting to feed upon their flesh. This is often why the larger creatures leave in due time, out of wisdom that their presence would guide no other beast to challenge them and that they must seek their own fights. However, this does little to ease the primal fear of the world below the water, and Breach Beasts are often eager to make their way out of the water by whatever means possible.

For this reason, Erterra becomes quickly populated with various kinds of Breach Beasts after it rises from the ocean, eager to have a location of relative safety where the giants of the depths cannot reach them. As Breach Beasts evolve explosively, they quickly grow accustomed to aboveground life, sprouting winged appendages or powerful legs while losing the tails and senses that served them well underwater. Many of these additions they learned from the Breach Dragons, who fly to Erterra on occasion for sport with the new Breach Beasts. The majority of these modifications leave them them in one of two groups; either mimicking some grotesque perversion of a Breach Dragon, or, with varying degrees of both present in some Beasts, growing similar to the spiders that the Satyrs farmed.

The only problem with the evolution of these beasts is that they are no longer efficient in water. Every hundred years, when the ocean consumes Erterra, every Breach Beast is massacred, leaving nothing behind until the process begins when it rises from the ocean a few days later.

Niethan Spiders

Breach Beasts aren’t the only inhabitant of Erterra. Far before they came along, another creature local to the island was affected by the magic of The Breach. Under the effect of the aura their population exploded, the rate of new hatchlings soon swarming the island as each new generation of spider outsized the last. Soon, they were of such scale that the magic no longer had the potency to affect them; varying from the size of a pony to that of a carriage.

Once the silk farms went untended, the production of webbing went out of control, and the single major settlement on Erterra was overwhelmed. From the tallest tower in the city, constructed of Erterran stone instead of the usual vines, webs slowly grew until a thick dome of spider’s silk consumed the entire town.
When the Breach Beasts came, they soon learned that the Niethan Spiders were more than a match. Evolution had granted them horrific venom and unusual intelligence, and the dome was a fortress of hidden egress points. If a Beast managed to get inside the dome, things only got worse, as they then had to contend with a facsimile of a city formed in webs, housing nesting grounds and trapped prey.

The new spiders bear the form of large tarantulas – a small abdomen, bristling with hairs, with eight thick legs. A red horseshoe adorns the abdomen as a warning on the otherwise black-and-grey bodies, while their legs are ringed with differing shades of grey in a random sequence. The fangs of the spiders are enlarged and razor sharp, bearing a metal coating created from absorbed minerals in their pray. The brighter the fangs of a Niethan Spider, the more dangerous and wily they are, and the longer they have survived against Breach Beasts and their fellows alike.

However, the spiders’ intelligence is undermined by hive-like instinct, and this has allowed them to fall prey to some of the smarter Breach Beasts, who have learned to damage the dome just enough to draw out a spider or two to repair the webbing without alerting the entire colony. This behaviour is often mimicked by the dimmer Beasts nearby, and the web dome itself is littered with the strung-up bones of those which didn’t manage the trick successfully. The spiders seem to have some knowledge of the events every hundred years, for in the days proceeding the fall of Erterra into the ocean the dome is sealed shut to be opened when it returns from below the sea.
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Edonna

“You are welcome on Edonna, mortal. But watch your step among the gardens. Every flower is a sacred thing.” –A Dryad welcomes Master Trade Winds to the island of Edonna, recorded in his exploration of the Old World searching for new trade routes.

Edonna is the Third Giant and the last of the four that is safe in terms of environment. Crowded vegetation covers its entire surface, which appears more varied and random than any natural forest or jungle. The underside of the island is a mass of roots that spring from the growth above, dominated by four thick roots, each several miles wide, that have the appearance of holding the floating island together.

Upon closer inspection, however, the lack of predictability fades; as signs of habitation appear. Paved paths cut the vegetation, radiating from the center like a spider web of stones. No leaf-litter lies upon the path and no hostile force attempts to stop anyone from landing upon the Giant – in fact, giant fungus growths form perfect docks for flying craft that happen upon Edonna.

Aside from the perfectly-maintained pathways, the vegetation is thicker than ever within. Several large trees are planted between each path, surrounded by smaller plants, while the ground of each bed is laden with flowers and other small vegetation. Each bed is different, and though some patterns are repeated, it would appear as if Edonna held every species of tree and plant in the known world, and some that do not exist anywhere else, as the plants become more unusual and foreign the closer one gets to the center.

For anyone who encounters Edonna during the night and leaves before sunrise, plenty of the mystery will remain unknown, but for those who stay it only becomes more curious. Anywhere that sunlight touches the giant, it reveals hidden beings that were not there by night, creatures with four hooves and equine bodies, but pale, hairless torsos and faces, with long hair. They treat visitors as welcome guests and guide them through the garden without suspicion or hatred. Odd lanterns decorate the garden, strung between trees, consisting of a glass sphere and a smooth wooden tube which pierces the canopy, bringing sunlight where the canopy would usually leave the pathways in total darkness.

Dryads

The semi-equine creatures that call themselves Dryads have been a topic of much discussion, a great part of which stems from whether or not they are in fact real. While each individual Dryad holds a unique appearance, aside from their general form and femininity, and a unique personality, the fact that they disappear entirely under the moon lends great credence to the theory that they are actually a creation of some greater being. Each of them speaks an ancient dialect similar to native Equestrian; however it appears either more extensive or simply mangled, as many of the words they use do not exist in any language of the New World.

The Dryads themselves claim that long ago a great being came to the empty world and grew the first seed from nothing, for she was one of the first to step upon the land and before her all was simply dust. She planted this seed at the center of the island of Edonna, and from it a mighty tree grew to the sky, a story some see as being corroborated by the gigantic roots underneath Edonna.
As the story goes, this tree released many seeds, and from these seeds grew every plant under the sun, for the tree was so large that its branches spanned the entire world. When the seeds were cast, however, the tree weakened and shrank, until it barely stood above the canopies of Edonna, and around the tree the being formed the Elysium, a dome of mighty oaks grown together to shield the tree from the violence of nature and to tend it, so that when the world ends it might be there to once more seed the earth.

The Dryads welcome any visitor to the garden with open arms, and they freely tour the gardens until sunset. There is however two breaches of conduct that they will not allow. During the sunlight hours, the Elysium is guarded by a wall of mist that fades as the Dryads do. They see this as sacred, and any attempt to pass is met with hostility and wariness. The only other grievance a visitor may commit is to cut one of the trees within the garden. The Dryads speak freely of this- each of them is linked to a tree, and the tree’s health is theirs. To harm a tree is to cause pain to a Dryad and the death of one of their own is treated with deep sorrow.
For either occasion they force the accused back to their means of transport, and off Edonna forever. They may never return, and the Dryads never forget a creature who has wronged them. The only exception is in the few days before death, in which the Dryads will treat them with great respect, assure them that their grievances have been settled, and guide them into the Elysium so they may become one with the first of nature.

The Elysium

The Elysium, while being a thing of legend, is very real. Mighty oaks outgrow the canopy and dominate the skyline, in a solid dome with a leafy canopy so thick that it resists entry as well as the trunks around it. The only entrance to the massive dome is a doorway, an arch thirty feet high guarded by an impenetrable mist during the sunlit hours. During the night, however, the mist disappears and access to the Elysium is allowed.
Within, the Elysium is guarded by only one thing. Large beetles, each the size of a pony, seek out intruders and will consume them, as they usually roam the gardens consuming leaf-litter from the day before. The dome is, surprisingly, lit from within, with no source of light to see. It simply exists, and there are no shadows in the Elysium, from intruders or anything else.

The dirt floor of the Elysium is covered with cropped, short grass, and in the highest points of the dome clouds circle, occasionally raining upon the ground below. Only one thing dominates the Elysium, a giant oak tree that the Dryads name the First Tree. It is tall enough that it breaks the cloud layer, with giant roots that lift out of the ground and span the width and height of the Elysium, forming a three-dimensional maze of paths and obstacles in order to reach the center of the dome.
At the base of the First Tree, however, there is a hollow supported by the roots that span outwards, and, if the legends are true, beneath sits the wooden throne of the mighty being that grew the tree. For the labours undertaken to arrive at the base of the throne, she will grant one boon of their choice, and, give her name...
Edited by Nightfury, Jan 15 2015, 08:12 AM.
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Elir

”And for a moment, I saw inside her mind, and shared her hopes and dreams for the future. One beautiful, wonderful moment, before that racing wave of fire turned everything to pain.” –Spoken by the Captain of the Sunlight Spear, by the name of Mainsail, in a rare moment of clarity. His crew witnessed him contact a walking shadow while examining a corpse, an event which cost him his sanity.

While Elir was once, by the tale of other residents of The Breach, a beautiful land populated by all races of the New World, this has long since passed. Elir is the closest of the Four Giants to Eden, and it is a volcanic wasteland and a cataclysmic reminder of the power of The Breach. The Dryads and Breach Dragons speak freely of what happened, so long ago – The islands were lifted, and The Breach opened, but it split the world little by little. Elir was too close and was caught by The Breach, while the other islands had already risen beyond the ocean when it passed beneath them, and the energy tore the island apart as raging forces scarred the surface.

Before The Breach, Elir was mostly underwater, a small cluster of islands with shallow fishing areas and marshlands in-between. Now the water is replaced by a basin of magma, coated in a crust of ash and stone more precarious than melting ice. Elir is cloaked in a cloud of ash that jets from the cracks in the crust, which blocks out the sun for most of the day, and the remaining mountains and solid land are scorched clean of life in any form. The sandy shores are now warped glass, and the mountainsides black stone, while the skeletal remains of cities and towns are the darkest reminder of the Breach’s energy.

When energy scoured the island like fire, not even the air could outrace the flames. Any living creature was not buffeted, nor burned, but their entire form was turned to black ash, leaving them forever locked in their last positions. Mothers cradled children, some ran for the beaches, and others simply gave in to despair. Gryphons, Dogs, Ponies and Zebras lived and died together to The Breach and their work and lifestyle was preserved in ash. The only thing that remains of them are the spirits of the dead, as the Breach scoured away their bodies so thoroughly that their souls were left intact.

The Shadows

Elir has always felt reportedly otherworldly, at least for those who were calm enough to remember, and is saturated with an aura of bad emotion. At first, this may seem to be simple fear at the horrific environment (A sound judgement, in any case) but it is also a by-product of the lost souls trapped on Elir.

The sun only pierces the veil of ash an hour before sunset, illuminating the otherwise endless gloom that pervades Elir. It is then that the true absurdity of Elir comes to light, as the ash statues of the dead residents cast no shadows. Instead, in the sunlight, the former lanterns and torches of the island all begin to glow, whether they still remain or not, and cast the island in a patchwork of phantom lights with no discernible source.
In the lights the shadows of the dead are finally revealed. For the hour before the sun disappears again, they walk the path of their last hour of life. The shadows are physical, in a sense- If one looks through it the phantom light sources will be blocked, but otherwise they are invisible. It is simply as if the body is casting a shadow, with no body there to cast it.

These shadows are mobile but they cannot perceive the world around them. They will walk through blockages and up staircases that no longer exist, following the path they last did when they were alive regardless of solid mass. They are the souls of the dead, and carry their memories leading up to The Breach’s eruption. When the memory reaches its conclusion the shadow will have reached its previous body, and will be lit only by the sun. Just as magic burned the island and turned each lantern to ash, so do the phantom lights go out, consumed by a wave of darkness that extinguishes all but the sun.

If one touches a shadow, they are drawn into the memory of the deceased. The memory is completely real, down to tastes and sounds, pleasure and pain. The affected will continue to experience it until the shadow passes or until sundown. In instances where the shadow is not moving, the affected can be immobilised for up to the whole hour, forcing them to experience the Breach erasing them from existence before they return to their own body. For some this can be traumatic, discouraging them from returning, but others remain for longer, intent on finding out more about the life that was extinguished. It is not prudent, however, to remain among the corpses after sunset.

The Ash King

Only one living entity is rumoured to take residence on the island permanently, and that is the Ash King. A beast of embers and ash, its form is similar to that of a windigo, the spirits seen to occupy the frozen north, save for the fact that it is not made up of ice and snow, and it roams on its own across the island of Elir. During the day and night it takes shelter in the ash above, and in fact may be responsible for the unusual solidity of the cloud. When the sun sets and the souls experience their death by Breach Energy, the Ash King descends to the cities and the towns, feeding off the tremendous psychic cry generated by the spirits.

It has come to learn, in its age, to feed on the emotion of the whole island instead of picking from individuals. This makes it especially dangerous to travellers caught after sunset as the Ash King can easily drain the weak minded of all emotion, leaving them as zombielike husks, if they even survive the process. There is always a high chance of recovery, with bed rest and care, but there are many wrecks on Elir of airships that never had their crews come back to them. However, It is said in legend that if the Ash King encounters a creature with no fear in its heart, which is not at the same time mindless, he will halt and appear in a different form.

The following description is the only known reference to the Ash King’s secondary appearance:

”Standing tall and made entirely of packed grey ash, with burning red eyes, it stood before me. It was unlike any creature I’d seen before, indeed, closer to a Minotaur than anything else. There it stood on what must have been two legs, but they faded before the feet, and it floated across the ground without moving. Its chest looked like etched armor plate, and in the center it was torn away to reveal a pulsing ball of orange fluid, which dripped liquid fire with each beat. Its arms were long, reaching down to his knees, and thin, barely the width of my wrist, tipped in wiry claws vaguely similar to my own.

Its face, if he had one, I did not see, as its head was topped by a strange circular helmet that merged seamlessly with his chest plate, a helmet that had no gaps save for a T-shaped gap in the front from which those fiery eyes stared out at me. Behind it, two massive wings spread out, shredded to pieces, more akin to the four wings of an insect than that of a gryphon or Pegasus pony.

I stood before it, and I was petrified with awe. And then it...spoke. Its voice sounded as if it didn’t come from him, but instead from all directions at once, as if whispered by the falling ash itself. It asked me three questions.
“What is your name?” it asked. “Stormheart,” I replied truthfully.
“What is your purpose here?” it asked. After a moment, “To understand what happened here,” I replied truthfully. For a minute, it went silent, staring at me, before It finally asked a third question.
“Are you afraid?” It asked, and I replied without hesitation. “No, I am not.” I replied truthfully.

As soon as I answered, the Ash King let out a low chuckle, before raising one arm to the glowing heart – For I was sure it was a heart by this point – In its chest. And it plucked a single shard of orange crystal, pressing it into my claw and closing my fingers around it. It did not speak again, simply returning to ash and disappearing into the clouds above.
I returned to my ship, dazed but alive, and I have yet to find out what the Ash King’s gift does, but one question still lies at the back of my mind. What would have happened if I had lied?” – From the journal of the deceased Stormheart, a famed gryphon explorer. His crystal is now on display in the royal museum in Gryphus. It has not dulled from its original state, and despite being cold, it slowly melts or burns through any stand it is displayed upon.


After roughly a half hour, the Ash King finishes its feeding across the island, and returns to its den. From then on into the night and following morning, it does not return, repeating the cycle only during the next day, content to simply feed and exist upon the island of Elir.
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Eden

"There it is...so beautiful. Nobody has touched it, and I daresay we won't be the first. Adjust the rudders, let's go home." -The unnamed cervine captain of one of the few airships ever to reach the end of The Breach. The captain called off his journey before they reached the endpoint, deciding in the end not to assault the shores of Eden.

At either the origin or the endpoint of the Breach lays the isle of Eden, the furthest landmass to the northwest of the known world. The island itself is a natural fortress, with sheer stone cliffs a mile tall to guard its borders and weather more vicious than anywhere in The Breach. The surface of the island is a mess of cracks and pitfalls into the ocean, and the entire island forms a basin towards the center, save for a thin mountain range that increases in altitude, pointed west-northwest.

The mountain breaks off midway, floating above the maelstrom that is held in place by an unknown magical force. It ends above the center of the whirlpool and should not be able to stay together that far from solid land, theorised to be preserved by some kind of magic. This is known as the Spire by most cultures and the Spear by a few of the more warlike ones. However, one of the main reasons that anyone might brave the danger of the Breach is not the odd physicality of the island or the Spire, but the Ley Storm that swirls through the air above it, as the being atop the island either creates – or absorbs – energy from the Ley Lines, forming a swirling aurora of bright and beautiful colors.

Ley magic has a deep effect on the physical state of Eden. Above the Breach, where it penetrates the core of the island, the surface of the island is mostly intact, shifting plates of earth forming a miles-deep trench of floating stones. The island itself, though barren as most of The Breach, it draws Breach Beasts from all around that make the eternal storm all the more treacherous. The island’s surface is a giant shifting maze, Ley Energy firing off at random in primal magical spells such as pure bolts of energy or unguided teleportation constantly changing the surface in some way or another – The few attempts to map the storm patterns and the island’s surface from the air were all called off once they found that the landscape had entirely changed by the next day.

Leyforms

Where Ley energy is used up there is always some form of excess. Not all energy can be applied to all magic, and the Ley is a purified compound of all magical energy. Whoever the master of Eden is, he is wasteful; for he doesn’t attempt to compensate for the excess, simply casting it off across the island. This results in misfiring magic, random spells, and interestingly of all, the Leyforms.

Creatures of a magical nature, the Leyforms have an innate resistance to the furious energy of Eden. They consist of a light blue body that holds three darker blue orbs, their body supported by a half dozen ten-foot-long spindly legs. This allows them to stride across the landscape with impunity, easily avoiding the holes and cracks in the pockmarked wasteland.

The Leyforms appear to be unintelligent, possessing only a basic awareness of anything around them, and are nonviolent, though they are still dangerous- a Leyform that gains enough magic is prone to spontaneous releases, destroying them and returning the absorbed magic to the general field, now in a less volatile arcane form.

Interestingly, these creatures don’t seem to be born at all. They are a creation of discarded magic themselves, Ley Energy combining with the loose dirt and earth to create a simple life form. It is unknown how long they last, but they do seem restricted to the island, as the cases where they have been observed scaling the cliffs of Eden resulted in stray bolts from the eternal storm destroying them, without exception.

The Spire

A protruding spike of stone that erupts from the center of Eden, the Spire forms a long mountain range that continues over the maelstrom to hover directly above the eye without any form of support. It is defended by the same magic that surrounds the whirlpool, on all sides- even a direct dive straight down is turned away by magical walls and vicious winds. Below it the sea swirls miles deep, and above, the Leylines are drawn from the northwest to a white creature upon the very tip of the Spire.

Nobody truly knows what this creature is, mired as it is in a miles-wide mystical shield. There is only tales and rumors of its existence, and not even other denizens care to theorise who he is. No story has been judged worthy enough by Breach Dragons for their thoughts, and the Dryads cast their gaze northwest when the question is asked. Only the spirit seated beneath the Elysium has given hints to her knowledge, but for once, she is sparse with what she tells. Only once has she been addressed regarding the mysterious being- with a question of ‘Do you know who stands upon the Spire?’ Her answer was a simple yes, offering no elaboration.

The Eternal Storm

Bordering Eden’s cliffs is a low-flying storm, pitch black clouds that crackle with lightning. The storm is untamed – it resists the touch of pegasi, shocking anyone in range. It is theorised to be a result of atmospheric energies, cast off from the Ley storm. It sits at an altitude just shy of doubling the cliffs, and covers the entire island, rising in a tall cumulus structure that makes Eden a generally miserable place to exist.

The cloud, however dangerous, is not devoid of life. Rocs roam the cloud, with a wingspan of a hundred feet and a deadly attitude. A Roc possesses pure white plumage, with yellow eyes and an eagle-esque body. They nest in deep cracks in Eden’s cliffs, and possess power over lightning, able to command it as easily as a Pegasus though from a much longer distance. Highly territorial, they consider any other object in the sky to be a threat and any in the water prey, which has led to their reputation as guardians of Eden’s center.
While they do roam the clouds, and nest in the cliffs, they do not intrude upon the island or the maelstrom. They cannot pass the barrier any more than anyone else can, and it suggests some form of intelligence that they know of Eden’s danger.

Their intelligence is not in question, however their priorities are strange. Rocs have a deep interest in magical artefacts and crystalline objects that borders on obsessive in other races. On the few, freak occasions they have been among chunks of the Eternal Storm that break away and travel far from Eden, they attack merchant caravans with single-minded intensity, stealing anything and everything with a gleam and building nests with them. It has been documented, only once, that they were able to be bargained with – In the case of a Diamond Dog colony near Ti that was able to convince a Roc to leave with a carriage-sized gemstone (though, given, not of a very valuable kind.)
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The Graveyard

The Graveyard may have been a single island a long time ago, but not during the past century. The surface of the rocky collection of small islands is completely covered with identical tombstones, each six inches wide and sixteen tall. Each one is of identical construction, though with varying degrees of damage. The largest of the islands is dominated by a tall church-like building shaped from the stone that is partially covered with a fig tree that grows to envelop the belltower of the church itself. This tree grows with no nutrients, roots piercing the stone that is otherwise resilient to even the strongest tools.

Around the church and on some of the smaller islands there are great signs of habitation. The storms have damaged and destroyed some, but there are dozens of houses each with furnishings and signs of life within. No corpses exist, though- as if all the dead were buried and the living left them behind.

But it is what lies belowground that makes the Graveyard an interesting enigma. In each row of graves there is a single monument with a deep staircase that forms a part of the networked caves below. They are stories deep and astonishingly well crafted with simple ventilation to the surface, and lighting based on a series of well-preserved glass spheres. The walls are lined with coffins, inscribed in odd glyphs that are believed to be some kind of name- each one is entirely unique. They’re carved of stone and etched in flowers and vines, sealed tightly shut.

The Shades

When the sun sets, the moonlight reflects through the glass the same as sunlight does. However it awakens something within the tomb. As moonlight touches every coffin, a black shade spawns from it, a cloudlike shape which returns to the surface to continue what it left off. They are odd, blurred shapes, and they act with autonomy, responding to the presence of living creatures and being well capable of interacting with physical objects. They don’t seem dangerous, but there is no way to be sure of a sentient creature; while they’ve yet to lash out at any visitor there has not been enough contact to truly determine whether or not they can become hostile.
Only one exception has been made- they seem to consider the Graveyard to be some form of sacred ground. When one trespasses upon it, usually in the form of a crashlanding or shipwreck, their craft are found but no bodies are ever discovered.
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The Cold Dark

While not clearly defined, the Cold Dark is regarded as the general area of ocean surrounding the Breach and its landmasses. The ocean in this area is incredibly saturated with magical energy, which pours from the Breach and alters the ocean around it. The seabed below constantly changes, even enough to break the surface at some locations, creating spontaneous landmasses that can form and disappear within the course of a day.

However the shifting seabed is not the only issue that rises with the latent energy. The sea life of the Breach is a constantly changing and growing mass of horrific carnivores. These beasts evolved rapidly from the ordinary life and now they form several size and form categories as they fight for survival. Evolution in the Breach is not a process of natural selection, instead forming part of an odd competition for predatory dominance.

Beasts

They’re small but fast. I’ve seen Beasts evolve before my eyes to adapt to new conditions.

The smallest category of sea life, Beasts vary from the size of a hoof to the size of a medium watercraft. Varying in both shape and ferocity, Beasts are usually non-sentient and unintelligent, focusing mostly on their own feeding processes. Beasts are the only category to be seen working in groups, using strategy in place of brute force. While they are constantly mutable there are several traits that form Beasts into groups.

Serpents

Serpents are basically large sea snakes. Usually isolated, they vary in size from a few feet long to a few yards. However, they are drawn in large numbers to feeding zones often causing the false belief that they are a pack beast. During combat they work in numbers to bring down foes – using muscular strength to launch themselves at prey from the water, until they have enough wounds to bring them down.

Serpents are almost always without limbs. The mutations of the Breach are centred on the head, which varies greatly. Serpents can bear great fangs such as many natural snakes, or shift into shapes such as tentacle growths with suckers to hold themselves on a target, or circular mouths for draining blood. It is rare that two serpents will have an identical form. Their bodies are equally altered. While they don’t bear limbs they can grow fins or wings, leading up to the possibility of flight appendages allowing for better attack methods.

Hounds

The second group, nicknamed Hounds, are called such for pack behaviour very familiar to wolves and wild dogs. Hounds are usually identical throughout a pack though packs vary wildly. Hounds work together through varying combat methods, though without exception, they always fight in numbers.
Hounds are a broad grouping with no defined shape. However, they always have limbs of some sort – unlike the serpents they bear tails, legs and sometimes arms or claws. These traits are differing and as such Hounds can become increasingly different from one another.

Swarms

Swarms are a generic name used for those beasts that did not increase in size to find their power. Instead, they increased in population, numbering from dozens to hundreds. Like Hounds, Swarms are rarely ever close, varying from either their original form or predatory growth.

Giants

”We don’t want to be in the water. It doesn’t matter how much armor you have, not when it can swallow you without having to bite down.”

The second class of the sea beasts is the Giant, and it is the most cited when trying to avoid a trip to the Breach. Giants vary from house-sized to village-sized and are never seen in groups. The most Giants ever seen working together is two- identical creatures and theorised to be mates that travel together for their entire lifespan. Giants are slower to evolve and slower to grow than their smaller counterparts and as such, they are usually more defined in their species, though there are some traits which are usually mutable.

Squid

Not to be confused with the giant squid that lives in deep oceans outside of the Breach, giant squids within the Breach are huge, carnivorous versions of their smaller counterparts. Their tentacles are often tipped in spikes or hooks and they have large, crushing beaks, better used to carve through metal and wood than other sea life. They seem to be highly territorial towards ships, and possibly other beasts, though it is not confirmed. Giant Squid are the most common to leave Breach waters, giving credence to the mythical Kraken lurking into the Antlertic Ocean.

Drudge

Drudge is a general term for the bottom-feeding giants that rarely come to the surface in search of food, when they have picked all the bones along the seabed clean. In these cases they usually have large, sucking mouths, and streamlined yet bulky bodies to deal with the high pressure. Drudges vary but most have a seal-esque form, with a separated head and neck, and four flippers instead of arms or legs. However, drudges can often alter their bodies, growing feet or legs and transferring themselves to land in search of food.

Whales

Not all Giants are entirely hostile. At the top of their size range, Whales are exactly what it says on the tin: Whales. Their docile nature is preserved after alteration yet their size is increased, making them veritable floating islands, in some cases never diving below the surface and gaining a mass of fauna and flora upon their backs. Whales are too large for most predators, being able to power through the water too fast for anything large enough to injure them.

Leviathan

"What do we do now? Well, we wait, and then, we die. Nothing can stop the creature."

The largest and rarest of the races, only two Leviathans have ever been confirmed to exist. They are gargantuan, up to hundreds of miles in scale, feasting on vast spaces of ocean and often defining where fish will reside for months to come. One of the leviathans is immobile, resting in The Breach, while the other roams entire oceans in search of enough food to sustain it.

The Kraken

Resting on the seabed near The Breach, the Kraken is isolated to its space beneath Erterra. It is unknown how large the gargantuan beast is, as it’s rarely sighted. However, it is definitely there. The Kraken is the beast that drags Erterra into the water by use of the massive vines, and scours its surface of the creatures that have come to exist there.

The Kraken is some form of squid or octopus, assumedly anchored to the seabed as it never moves. The only sight of it is in the form of gargantuan tentacles that rarely breach the surface in order to pull at the vines of Erterra for a surprise attack upon its residents.

The Eel

While not clearly defined, the Eel appears to be a serpent that has grown to massive size. It is rarely seen up close – however it seems to be close in size to a Pisces Major, violently breaching the water and whipping up currents that often wreck nearby ships. There is assumed to be only a single Eel, however it travels spontaneously, at incredible speed for its size. Compared to the Kraken, the Eel consumes huge amounts of fish while it travels, enough to seriously affect the catch of sea fishers from various races.
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