Stabs' Pit of Nightmares (and ideas)

A'ight, time for another go.

Apocalyptus
While usually present in the Green Hell, those tall trees sometimes are seen further south. Often measuring around 100 metres (330 feet) in height, their tea-colored smooth bark displays spiraled ridges of multiple colors. This tree bears a unique fruit, overall similar to a bright yellow coconut. The shell itself is very tough, an excellent thermal insulator, which hides within a mostly liquid fruit with ironically metallic pits, like those of a peach, floating freely within an oily, bitter liquid.

The toughness of the apocalyptus nuts usually renders them inedible to most herbivores, which makes the fruit juice likely to ferment. At first this isn't a problem, but the fermentation products formed are ever more volatile, and they generate gases that increase pressure within the shell. Past a certain point, the pressure inside the fruit builds to such a level that a hard strike can break it. Immediately, contact with oxygen causes the fruit to explode, sending bits of shell and iron pits flying in all directions. The seed pits usually survive to grow a new plant, but a human-sized target caught in the vicinity of the explosion might not be so lucky.

Some natives harvest green apocalyptus juice for fermenting, which can be employed in truly deadly weapons. Most of them prefer to make use of the whole fruit instead, though, by burying it and leaving it to explode if a predator steps on it, or by using magic to detonate a particularly overripe specimen.

======

We also ought to reword the thing about the tree not being axially symmetric, Karbo. I think I was not focused back then, that article is so confusing it may as well be breakdancing. Here's a redo.

The Tree

Since the stars can't be used for orientation in Felarya, locals have to use landmarks to find their way. The problem with landmarks is that the trees are too tall, and obscure most of them.

Some natives get around this by using the giant tree as a landmark. It's perfect: the branches themselves are bigger than many landmarks, visible from much farther, and barely seem to change over time. If one pays enough attention not to mix them up, it's easy to tell what way one is facing, simply by checking which branch of the tree one faces.

Of course, there are two major problems in using this system. First, one must climb all the way to the treetops to get a good look at the Giant Tree. For flying and climbing creatures such as harpies and nekos it's not difficult, but humans can rarely employ this system. Second, the tree is massive: most smaller creatures who employ this system stick to one view of the tree and never learn others, because going all the way around the tree would require hundreds of miles of hiking and countless climbs up unknown trees to take long looks at the tree. It's enough for most of them to know which direction the giant tree is, and assume that if the branches they can see have changed, they have wandered into a disturbance (or simply gotten lost).

I like the Apocalyptus XP
It's a simple but really efficient way to spread seeds around ( like some plants actually do but on a much much small scale of course )  and it fits well the general danger of the area ^^
I'm just not sure about the metallic pits though. You mean it has metal fragments in it ?

And ok for the Giant tree, I'm adding your precision about it

Xerines
Starts with an X. I thought I wouldn't mind having at least one species that starts with an X, though maybe we'd better leave the X, Y, W and Z's to more mysterious creatures, with more arms, eyes, dimensions, and sheer craziness. (Xerinae is the name of the subfamily according to Mammal Species of the World, which seems a little less official than I'd like, but eh. It's Cynomis otherwise)

Xerines, also known as tunnelers, are a hybrid species that resembles humans combined with ground squirrels (marmots and similar species). They stand about as tall and heavy as humans, marked as different by the presence of two round ears near the back of their temples and a wide tail full of short, stiff hair. Most of them, but not all, sport thick frontal teeth and thick, protruding bone claws.

This species thrives in remote lands, far from Negav, where they make their homes in hard, rocky, uneven grounds. They favor mountains, but will readily colonize hills or even ravines if the conditions work for them. Their colonies are easily recognizable by the grid of crops atop them, and the occassional plume of smoke coming from the trenches underneath.

Xerines live in small colonies of 60-90 adults, with maybe half again as many immature individuals. Unlike other species, xerines do not camouflage themselves or hide their burrows. They dig grids of trenches on the ground, deep enough that they require ladders in order to come out of them: the gridded area between the trenches is used to grow crops. They mostly spend their lives in caves they hide within the trench system, coming above ground only to farm or forage. Some of them even go as far as to build mines under their trenches, were they to chance upon an interesting mineral formation.

Only the mature individuals ever venture outside the colony, which they mostly do in order to forage for some small luxuries such as fruits, tender stalks, firewood, timber, and (rarely) wriggly treats or extra water. They often carry tools crafted with unearthed rocks (some of which may be magical), fibers from their crops, and rarely bone or wood. The immature individuals stay in the trench system for as long as possible, taking care of menial tasks, sunbathing only at noon, and perhaps crafting the magic mineral-studded implements their trailblazers so favor. Magicians amongst the xerines are rare, and tend to focus on magic that assists in their digging. They often employ said magic in the construction of new colonies, where working swiftly is of the essence. The remaining adults rotate between farming and lookout duty.

The lookouts alert farmers about approaching threats, often through whistling: all adults will scramble for the nearest tunnel if such an alarm is sounded. Xerines are surprisingly succint, and adapt their alarm quickly to the kind of predator, the distance, speed, size, number, even combined species give them little pause for thought. One or two sounds suffice for them to convey so much information to the aboveground members that even a swooping harpy would witness only the members in her exact flight retreating, while the rest of the colony will just watch her fumble. The trenches dug into hard rock are often too deep and sharp-edged for predators to poke into easily, granting marmots a few extra moments to reach their caves. They only fight if caught within their burrows; they employ crude spears and knives for that, rarely resorting to biting and clawing.

The amount of time they spend away from the sun, often being waited out by stubborn predators, has led the tunnelers to find plenty of ways to amuse themselves. They also practice competitive whistling, a common activity even unto late at night when a predator tries to wait them out: while the official explanation is that they are practicing their whistling alarms, most predators theorize that the aforementioned whistling is intended to keep them awake until they go away in annoyance. They appreciate arts and crafts as a way to keep their sanity, and the walls of their inhabited caves are often full of carvings depicting grisly scenes where the artist clearly couldn't stop thinking of something. Their meager possessions are also engraved top to bottom, though the xerines have enough practical sense not to use an object if they've scratched it too much. This is not to say they're nervous people: the tunnelers are outwardly easygoing, come to trust quickly, and are confident enough not to be afraid to show it. More than one explorer has come to realize that he gets one peck on each cheek every morning not three days after introducing themselves, just as if he was one of them.

Xerines are mostly safe from all but the most industrious predators, which may decide to spend a great amount of their time widening or blocking their trenches. Rock harpies, which they cohabit with, are another problem, as they can simply suck them out of their trenches or burrows; the diggers handle this by digging branching dead-ends and extra exits for tunnels, so the air sucked in from one end is drawn mainly from the other; by hiding in the dead ends and clutching heavy rocks, the marmots avoid most of the force of the air current.

They have a difficult time with fairies. The otherwise foolproof plan for xerines' colonies breaks down in case of fairies, as they cannot deny the size-shifters entrance to their burrows. Some of the colonies solve this by improvising doors, which keep out most fairies; failing this, they enact plan B- to continuously run around their mazelike burrows and wait for their chasers to give up. Both fairies and other giant predators (which may join in the fun) seem to appreciate this sport more than the tunnelers do.


Settlements In the Wild

While Negav, Nekomura, Safe Harbor, Chioita, the Rosic Village and the ports in the Shimmering Sea make for most of the significant settlements on the continent, there are a few more settlements that may merit mention.

Nan Muo

Somewhere between Deeper Felarya and the Green Hell lies a small village. Nan Muo has a combined population of around 150 people, between nekos and humans.

The village is hidden below low trees, criscrossed by bamboo-like growths and large bushes. The foliage and terrain keep the town from sight and out of the preferred way for most predators, including the giant nekos that enjoy using bamboo as chopsticks to catch humanoids anywhere else in the forest.

The village sorely lacks in technology: they use and abuse bamboo for construction and furniture, barely even using stone. The few metal implements they have, knives and bamboo splitters for instance, they keep a watch on like hawks. Earthernware, bone, hide and rarely wood, complete the full spectrum of construction materials in this primitive place. The people of Nan Muo are mainly hunter-gatherers living off the wild, craftsmanship being minimal with one glaring exception.

While they have little ability to fight and very little technology, this also works in their favor: they have little need of anything in order to relocate. At any given time, they have scouted the next location to which they can evacuate as soon as they are discovered, where erecting their houses out of the local bamboo should not take long. If discovered by predators, Nan Muo can scatter and see themselves out in basically no time at all, a process they repeat often.


Elyseum

Nestled in a green valley on the side of a mountain, the buffeting, freezing winds and thin air keep this isolated valley away from sight and mind for most predators. Beautiful windmills and a small fortress peek over the edge of the valley, which is itself dotted with the red roofs of a small town.

Elyseum, as its inhabitants dub it, is an elven settlement secluded both by its difficult geography and its isolationist mindset. As befits elves, their way of thinking is proud and a little arrogant, in this case falling for the trap of self-sufficiency. The valley grows its own crops and raises its own livestock, thus hosting only a small permanent population, which makes the most of their lore to handle a small industry.

They produce most of their metal locally through alchemical means that include the controlled electrolysis of various minerals, powered by several windmills. Their alchemy extends into other facets of their industry as well, but its limitations mean they must seek basics such as wood and stone outside their valley. This is an appropriate occassion for young Elyseum elves to see the outside world, which charms many of them into leaving the valley forever. Elyseum trades rarely and sporadically.

For all its lore, Elyseum depends on its remoteness to prevent predator attacks. While this works for most of them, harpies do not seem to mind thin air much. They are basically the only predator Elyseum needs to worry about, and are kept in check through several gimmicks such as reflective silver-plated spheres that reflect sunlight into any predator's eyes, large metal ballistas tipped with poison, and so on, and so on.


F.O.O.D. hideouts

In order to expand its reach, FOOD uses small bases where they can rest and resupply with little hurry. In a display of ambition, these bases are not only open to them, but to any human(oid) in distress.

The bunkers have entrances ten feet across, so their entrance room can be used to park vehicles. The other rooms are rather spartan and submarine-level cramped, but also serviceable enough. The half inch thick steel walls are strong, and often placed under roots or something that a predator would have trouble removing, but once found, it's only a matter of time before something gets in.

Hence, most of their efforts go towards minimizing the likelihood of exposure. Besides the obvious camouflage involved, heat detectors in the vicinity transmit a frequency to any FOOD receptors should predators be nearby, warning them not to expose the entrance. Some of them go so far as to not only conceal the entrance, but even add tracked hovering platforms behind it so vehicles do not leave a track when they enter. It's only ironic, thus, that FOOD makes it a point of guiding people to them: there are even animatronic displays in some entrances meant to convince any onlooking predator that the human in question did not enter a bunker, but was eaten by a lurking member of the fauna.

Each bunker is surrounded at a decent radius by guide stones. Each stone uses a cryptographic display made of multiple illusions, which, in the presence of any humanoid not recognized as a predator, first call their attention, listen for speech patterns, and then display written directions to the safe place in the closest match for the target's assumed language. Working under the assumption that curious fairies are going to mess with the guide stones, the magic is first concealed from detection, and even assuming the cryptography was tampered with, the real reading is liberally sprinkled with grammar, spelling and calligraphy errors so as to make one wonder whether they are meant to be, while decoy readings make a point of being simple to find and be perfectly written. Fairies have not made it a sport of finding all the guide stones (yet), but the practice of raising the signs might eventually fall into disfavor.

So far, FOOD is known to have one outpost in the Great Rocky Fields, one near the border between Miragia and the Forest of Whispers, near Ur-Sagol, and another one near the Topazial Sea. According to their financial records, they may have built up to four more outposts, though the actual figure probably oscillates between one and zero.

Stabs wrote:

Their colonies are easily recognizable by the grid of crops atop them, and the occassional plume of smoke coming from the trenches underneath.

XD I can so see a adventurer getting the wrong idea about funny lines in the ground with smoke comming out of the holes. Probably would think it's a dark ritual of some kind or a portal to hell.

Stabs wrote:

Magicians amongst the xerines are rare, and tend to focus on magic that assists in their digging.

Heh. Clare used to use a spell for digging, but I doubt the Xerines do it quite like she did. Such as jumping at a wall of soild rock and then twist around like an auger cutting through the rock with enchanted hands. Still I imagine it's probably a site to see.

Stabs wrote:

most predators theorize that the aforementioned whistling is intended to keep them awake until they go away in annoyance

XD That's an amusing image. A frustrated predator sitting outside of the Xerine's holes glaring at them holding her ears and looking like she wants to murder the lot of them. "Grrrr will you just shut up and get in my belly!? Augggh!"

Stabs wrote:

More than one explorer has come to realize that he gets one peck on each cheek every morning not three days after introducing themselves, just as if he was one of them.

Even the males? XD I imagine it must be a pretty interesting experience to stay with a family of Xerinites for a extended period.

As for the settlements I think they're all pretty good. Especially the elven one and Nan Muo sounds particularly visually interesting.

jedi-explorer wrote:

Heh. Clare used to use a spell for digging, but I doubt the Xerines do it quite like she did. Such as jumping at a wall of soild rock and then twist around like an auger cutting through the rock with enchanted hands. Still I imagine it's probably a site to see.

I'm thinking of it more along the lines of Soften Earth and Stone. Replace a 1-foot layer of rock from a 10-foot square per level with clay, starting at cleric level 3, or adept at level 4 (though you'll need to research the spell).

jedi-explorer wrote:

XD That's an amusing image. A frustrated predator sitting outside of the Xerine's holes glaring at them holding her ears and looking like she wants to murder the lot of them. "Grrrr will you just shut up and get in my belly!? Augggh!"

Heh, thanks. Prairie dogs are also known as whistle pigs- or was it woodchucks? I figured it wasn't because their whistling was pleasant. And besides, prairie dogs send very complex signals through whistling. I figured maybe they'd get some practice while they had the noun in their whistling right atop them.

jedi-explorer wrote:

Even the males? XD I imagine it must be a pretty interesting experience to stay with a family of Xerinites for a extended period.

Italians do it too. I had to temper all that practicality with some cuteness, so I figured I'd go for pecks in the cheek. The picture of two prairie dogs kissing each other's cheek was sure inspiring.

jedi-explorer wrote:

As for the settlements I think they're all pretty good. Especially the elven one and Nan Muo sounds particularly visually interesting.

Oh, thanks. It was the visual component that made it worth making.

Guess what month it is? Dimensional March!



Oathbreaker
Size: 25 feet at the shoulder
Threat: High

These elementals bear a passing resemblance to giant dogs with red geometrical patterns on their white-furred bodies. Bred mostly by genies, Oathbreakers can be trained to recognize the scent of their master and follow them anywhere, even into other realms.

The master they follow is exempt, but oathbreakers are generally hostile towards magical beings, even more hostile towards nonmagical beings working magic, and extremely hostile towards anyone who seems to be agitating their master. This breed of elementals was indeed bred to take care of any presumptuous mortal that would bind their master, and the most likely outcome when they find one is that they eat it. They've been bred with great resistance to magic, and even kind of a sixth sense for it, pre-empting most mages before they can use anything, and displaying strange cunning where it comes to bypassing magical defenses: they easily circumvent magical traps, and somehow improvise workarounds for most wards and bindings.




Dimensional Excursions

It has been pointed out numerous times that Felarya's predators would need a LOT of area to stay fed. So I was wondering, where does the food come from? Thinking outside the box I had an idea- we always think about how people of other worlds end up in Felarya, but we rarely make the alternative experiment, dragging a predator outside. I was thinking, what would a predator do outside Felarya? So I cooked up a new phenomenon: dimensional excursions.

Assuming a predator had ways of leaving Felarya, it'd stuff itself silly the first chance it got, I assume, since that's always a high priority. If it had time left, it'd sate its curiosity or play around, but there'd be no telling if that's all it'd do. Alternatively, predators in an excursion could see themselves as outsiders, and act differently than they normally do (maybe even going as far as to not eat anyone during an excursion! :B I know, I'm speaking madness).

Note, however, that making this a normal occurrence means a whole 'nother can of worms. If we accept excursions, then we have to assume predators are a danger anywhere in the multiverse, because one of them could make an excursion to your city/town/hideout/walkabout and eat everyone out there. They are no longer a Felarya problem, but a multiverse problem, and that means the odds of them pissing off someone with the ability to glass Felarya increases to infinity. It also makes the guardians no longer just protect Felarya from invaders, but also from retaliation, and that's just fugly.

We'd also need to assume predators either have some ability to traverse dimensions on their own by virtue of their size alone (given predators do not all share a specific origin), or assume there to be stuff they can use in order to fuck up some unlucky schmuck's day.

Excursions

Felarya is responsible for many phenomenons, not all of which are felt within its confines. Some of its phenomenons affect other worlds- as is the case for dimensional excursions.

The phenomenon known as an "excursion" consists of an organism being displaced from Felarya temporarily, and spending some time in a different world, before being recalled by the same force that displaced it. If it is a world inhabited by a civilized race, the effects are either disastrous or imperceptible: either great destruction or nothing at all results. Given only disastrous excursions are ever remembered, it is not known how many lead to worlds that do not harbor a civilization, or how many happen to imperceptible creatures.

Giant predators and other carnivores often take the chance to devour anything they can. More rarely, they will instead avoid eating anything during an excursion, and put on bafflingly different attitudes than they usually carry themselves with, taking the opportunity to learn about a world different from their own. However, not all predators being sentient, excursions most often lead to tremendous destruction.

Excursions raise several questions. The prevalence of sentient predators and giant monsters in excursions suggests there may be a method to induce one, nonsentient giant monsters only going in one by accident, which is somehow easier for creatures of a certain size. The exact means have yet to be found out. All creatures under an excursion seem to carry some of the effects of Felarya with themselves, allowing them to pretty much act as if they were on their home ground: they have enhanced healing, stay unaging, and can understand any language, though these effects aren't as stable as they would usually be.

The possibility predators may pose a threat to creatures outside Felarya has made some question the wisdom of simply leaving Felarya be, instead of making an attempt to burn it down. However, most civilizations capable of traveling to Felarya are also capable of finding ways to prevent excursions into their territory from taking place, and they are most often happy to do that before (or instead of) invading.




Spiral vine

This bizarre vine forms brambled spiral patterns wherever it grows, the spirals studded along their lengths with fist-sized, hardened, transparent sacs full of glowing blood-red jelly. Animals capable of shattering the shell (or swallowing it whole) find it quite nutritious, but gone uneaten, their true purpose is to initiate the vine's next stage in its lifecycle.

Patches of spiral vine normally spread quite slowly and focus more energy in developing their hideous fruit than in growing, but in the vicinity of dimensional disturbances, the spiraling coils unwrap and extend towards the dimensional disturbance. The nutrients inside the gelatinous protuberances are then used to fuel rapid growth, allowing the plant to reach and spread over the dimensionally disturbed area that much faster. Once the spiral vine has reached the dimensional disturbance, it swiftly consumes its reserves in order to cover the entire nearby area. Height is not a factor: many people have reported a ground-level vine quickly crawling up a tree and anchoring itself to something in midair, then slowly exploding in growth until it generated an unnerving, irregular ring of hardened vines in midair that anchored themselves to all nearby trees.

Spiral vine has a strange relationship with dimensional disturbances. First, it pins and stabilizes them, often anchoring a vanishing land or generating a portal in the process. Then it spills over through them if possible, invading whatever's on the other end. It starts storing nutrients again when it has both locations and the disturbance pinned, generating red protuberances once more. However, in this new stage of its life cycle, the sacs' contents harden, growing duller, darker, and changing colors through the rainbow, going from red to violet, as they become more densely packed with energy.

When the sacs have grown black, the vine reaches the final, ominous stage of its life cycle. With little warning, it magnifies the dimensional disturbance and slowly forces it to collapse upon itself, rupturing the fabric of reality and tearing the plant itself to a fine mist that spreads through the multiverse, with some chunks of its dense fruit surviving, if they're lucky, carrying its seeds inside. The collapse is usually catastrophic, often compared to a planar mole's passage, leaving nothing of what was in the vicinity but a conspicuous crater and a spiral-shaped landslide.

Ironically, the vine dries up and dies if transported across dimensional boundaries through any other method but its own reality-bending implosion, making it rather difficult for it to spread from world to world. In fact, its root system's sensitivity to dimensional disturbances is such, that it cannot take root too close to one: it needs to be close enough to crawl in, but not too close, for it to initiate the rest of its lifecycle.

Even more sinister, once it has begun reacting to a dimensional disturbance, spiral vine will no longer respond to magic that controls plants. It does, however, respond to being pruned and harvested: some civilizations have been able to keep stable portals simply by carefully pruning a spiral vine's fruit so none of its fruits ever has the chance to turn black, initiating the final stage of its life cycle. In fact, killing the vine completely usually works.

Some predators have found a more perverse use to for the vine. Eating a spiral vine makes one sensitive to dimensional disturbances, and furthermore, it causes the consumer to be pulled back to the world where the vine was eaten once it finishes its passage through the digestive system. There is a critical mass of consumption before any effects take place, however, which limits the effect to giants like predators and kenshas. Some giant predators intentionally eat the spiral vine in order to initiate an excursion.


The Buoys

These large, ovoid monoliths made of blackened iron lie upright over the land. Their surface is inlaid with undulating designs reminiscent of tentacles, covered with a pattern of dots generating the optical illusion that the device's surface writhes from several angles. A large, red glass orb with a seed-shaped metal bar inside is suspended above each monolith, held in place by powerful, permanent magnets. From all angles, the glass device looks like an eye.

It's remarkable how other than the fact that they have endured for so long, those cast metal devices are outstandingly mundane, possessing simply no salient properties. They are noteworthy only because of their number (over 180 have been accounted for); they appear most often in Miragia, but have been spotted in other locations as well. It is suspected they are intended to warn outsiders to avoid the area: if one of them were to travel offworld, their unsettling appearance would encourage onlookers to steer clear. Instead, they seem to act as beacons for the local predators, who know staying close to the monolith, even after it travels, will allow them to return to Felarya as soon as the vanishing land returns.

Those are well thought out ideas here
I think having Felarya interacting this way with others worlds is a bit opening a new can of worms indeed but plants evolving to reach others worlds in order to spread seem something that could well happens in Felarya and there is just something about the idea of having Felaryan preds visiting others lands and creating myths there that is pretty fascinating XP
Good job on that

The Oathbreaker is a nice idea as well. I like the idea of magical pets of sort for genies and their name sound pretty cool ^^

Well, I made ya think, that's good enough for me. Time for April's batch.



Okay guys LET ME SHOW YOU MAH POKEYMANS

Red Crawler
Size: 3-9 feet long (1-3 feet tall)
Threat: Low alone, High in groups.

A staple animal in Felarya, the crawler is more common in the Chomikai commons, where the lack of predators allows these creatures to breed in ludicrous numbers. Ten-legged, long, with black beady eyes and a red carapace, the crawlers live in underground colonies of up to 150 specimens. Crawlers have a ravenous hunger, and seldom pass up a meal while hunting. If it isn't possible to distract them by dropping some food, crawlers have been known to attack humans: they aren't very fast, but they are persistent, and their jaws inject a slow-acting paralyzing agent.

Furthermore, they have a sort of natural armor: the top of their flat bodies secretes a thick layer of reinforced foam that forms both an insulant and a buffer to the outside, which sometimes they augment by sticking on it the toughest pieces of debris they can find. Its underbelly is relatively undefended, but its low stance prevents most creatures from exploiting that: they are notoriously hard to eliminate with a flamethrower or even low caliber gunfire. Hand-to-hand is more effective on small numbers, but large numbers are nearly uncontrollable, even by multiple fighters, as they tend to have prepared tunnels and pitfalls anywhere they are willing to show up en masse. It is recommended to stay off the ground by any means necessary wherever there are crawler alerts.

(Credits to CauldronBorn24 for explaining to me they needed more oomph)



Bunnicub
Size: 9 inches long
Threat: Minimal

Gathion is where the magiocrats come from, Karbo, according to Lord Telandros' wiki entry. I figured they would be adept at combating a threat coming from their own world.

A fixture from the realm of Gathion, the bunnicub is said to have been bred in ancient times by Bunndalf, a mythological figure which some consider an archmage and others a demigod. After clearing a forest of bunnicores, he used magic to turn the last few of them into this small and harmless creature as a congratulatory tribute to himself. Whatever the case, bunnicubs are clearly the result of tampering of some sort.

Bunnicubs are very cute animals, with swirling white designs on their brown bodies. Their short, padded legs get tired quickly, but they can hop far if they have to: most important of all, they have big blue eyes and round ears that move independently. Being stocky, fuzzy and attached to their owners, they are extremely cuddly, and find a place as pets in a few places around the multiverse. They eat pretty much anything, but prefer fresh fruit and vegetables, which they nibble at with their sharp teeth.

There is a problem with them: if allowed to eat a few pounds of meat, bunnicubs will fall into a coma and transform into bunnicores by the time they wake up. For this reason, one of the first actions of the Magiocrats when they came to power was to ban the breeding and import of bunnicubs in Negav: a wild population exists in Chomikai, where they have joined the base of the food chain. Hence, hunters in Chomikai are expected to take, bury, or hang, the carcasses of their kills.



Carrion Bunnicore
Size: Average of 5 feet at the shoulder
Threat: Moderate to Medium

Though the bunnicub has had size and aggression bred out of it with magic, eating its fill of carrion restores the creature's heritage. Aside from being much larger than the bunnicub, the bunnicore possesses massive claws and three rows of triangular, regrowing teeth on an elongated, wrinkled snout. Its hairless, orange body fails to conceal the bulging, rippling muscle cords underneath, and its back has several rows of dark, coriaceous protrusions that only add to the sinister appearance of its yellow eyes with small pupils.

Unlike bunnicubs, bunnicores are obligate carnivores and extremely aggressive. They will not hesitate to kill and eat any animal they find, even their beloved owners or bunnicubs. Bunnicores themselves are not considered edible: half a pound of the deeply bitter flesh they leave behind is toxic enough to make a man very sick, though some people will consume it in moderation just because they can.

Bounties on bunnicores are often offered around Negav, given their voracity and aggresiveness make them a serious threat. Wizards can also use an extract made of the livers of ripe bunnicores (freshly transformed bunnicores' bodies mostly melt upon death) in transformative magic: morphing bunnicubs into bunnicores was a popular industry during King Tohno's reign, and the ensuing accidents a staple of that impopular time. Efforts to use them as guardians have always been hampered by the fact they are so miserable in captivity that they die if they aren't drugged. It's said that the Negavian Underground boasts an arena where bunnicores are made to fight each other, their owners experimenting on ever more frightening strains of bunnicore...



Bold Glutton
Size: 8-12 feet tall when rearing up
Threat: Moderate

This brown creature looks like an oversized hybrid between a bandicoot and a hamster, except for four black, beady eyes, and a neckless body with a three-foot wide and deep mouth. Its neck is decorated with a long, red gall. The glutton spends most of its life on or near the water, regularly coming out to forage. It uses its oversized mouth to stuff a large gullet quickly, later regurgitating its meal and sending it down its true digestive tract.

The bold glutton has very well developed senses of smell and taste, and seems to have a weakness for large stockpiles of produce. Sometimes after catching wind of one, it spends some time planning on how to get to it. Its sense of smell is good enough to tell just how long any particular human has spent near any spot close to the stockpile, and its cunning is incredible: it's been known to figure out not only patrol schedules, but also some basic traps.

Some farmers have made it a point to cover their produce in wax or poison: this doesn't deter the creature, whose resilient and developed tract allows it to store poisonous food in its gullet harmlessly until it has a chance to clean it off or find an antidote. It's not known how the glutton can find antidotes: it's suspected its sense of taste is just good enough that it can taste the right antidote for a poison. The creature is so bold that if caught red-handed by a farmer in the act of stuffing its gullet, it'll consider stuffing itself with the farmer too. It stops paying attention to its nose while eating, so there is a chance to sneak off before it notices, but once it does, sudden movements are a very bad idea. An agitated glutton will resort to swallowing a threat if possible.

-Dungeons and Bagging

I'd been thinking about dungeons. Felarya has adventurers, and some of those are very much into looting ruins. So I had to ask myself where'd the ruins come from. Who'd have built those?

According to wiki, there's 4 major civilizations that have spread through large areas of Felarya. There's the Titans, who built Jadong Temple, there's the Elves, who had the longest empire, there's the Sagolians, of old Sagolian fame, and then there's the dridders. There may be some benefit to adding a little detail to every of those civilizations and their ruins at present day... so...

DUNGEONS IN FELARYA

The origin of the treasures in Felarya that adventurers often set out to unearth is a legitimate question. With rare exceptions (such as the Temple of Lataran), dungeons do not spring up to deliver treasure and monsters upon worthy challengers: they become that way through circumstance. Most of the dungeons in Felarya, and their treasures, are actually remnants from long-gone civilizations that just happened to contain valuable treasures. For instance:

The dridder empire, despite its short life as one of the dominant forces in Felarya, expanded and fortified rather aggressively its fortified lines under Sineria: dridder strongholds are frequent compared to other ruins. They are also the most recent, thus suffering the least wear and tear of all ruins. The great importance of giant dridders in their culture (their royal line was one of giants) means that most such strongholds sport chambers large enough for giant dridders to live comfortably on. Considering the girth of a dridder's abdomen, that means the structures are massive indeed.

Most work spaces for man-sized dridders were in plain view of the larger dridders, and floors were separated for the ease of access of the latter: given that man-sized dridders can climb both up and down easily, their structures eschew doors, favoring instead verticality and netting (now mostly gone) as a barrier for the unwelcome. Some of those strongholds were abandoned in haste, and a canny adventurer could locate extraordinary caches of weapons and currency within. Unfortunately, canny predators have made their home in those ruins, taking advantage of their thick stone walls for a reprieve whenever they need to rest, and of the giant amenities inside for creature comforts. Giant dridders in particular favor these structures for nesting.


Sagolian people used to expand rather aggressively. The empire's old capital isn't their only ruin, just the only that the jungle hasn't been able to properly swallow so far. Nonetheless, their building technique, favoring monoliths and large stone blocks is known to have been widespread during their time. Nonetheless, Sagolian structures were heavy in both magic and maintenance, and they have felt the disappearance of their masters harder than other ruins: all Sagolian buildings are now thoroughly dilapidated.

They are rich in whatever magic and lore hasn't disintegrated since those years. Sagolians claimed large plots of land, and occassionally it is possible to find a temple complex or a noble's villa lost north of the Jewel River: some of them have been cleaned out to the point that they have nothing to offer but respite from the rain, but there may still be great riches to be gleaned from the greenery-covered buildings.


Elven strongholds are even older than both dridder and Sagolian settlements. They harmonized quite well with their environment, some of them being even built into the surrounding greenery, which, thanks to special spells, would only grow around it. Due to this, these structures are even more concealed than normal, and unfortunately, every one of them has a layer of bark covering every surface that wasn't sealed against the intrusion of either light or plant stalks. Though jewelry is quite common in those ruins (it is said that the Jewel River now only holds what gems the imperial artisans turned up their noses at), the true prizes inside are mostly enchanted wood and ancient earthernware.

As both elves and Sagolians were aware of ley lines, there are very few elven constructions surviving on the west bank of the Jewel River: the empire had no compunction in razing major elven architecture to build anew atop it. Elves have not forgotten this, and some of them openly place the blame on contemporary humans for these acts of vandalism. Elven strongholds are more common on the east banks of the Jewel River, where some of them endure, inhabited, to this day.


Titans and their ruins were, unfortunately, scoured off the face of Felarya after their defeat, according to ancient elven texts. However, it's possible that some isolated structures have survived at great depths beneath the surface. If this is the case, even a single room from such a ruin would contain treasure of greath worth, both historical and monetary. The only structure currently known to have been created by Titans is the depths of the Jadong Temple. It's not known yet whether it is representative or not of the Titan architecture.

Titan dungeons have only been theorized about. Given their lack of bodily functions, it's very likely that the dungeons had only workrooms and corridors. Records on their behaviour suggest that Titans likely tended towards repetitive or iterative designs in the decoration of their mostly spartan, utilitarian facilities. It is possible titans may have employed other constructs in order to protect their holdings: even if titans are no longer functional, those other constructs may still be. Though currency is not likely to have been a staple of titan existence, their interaction with other races during their time means they may have been given to possess some, and no one has yet been able to replicate Alcazath crystal or Tedrek steel, thus they still have great potential for valuables. Finding the remains of a genuine Felaryan Titan is also a mouth-watering prospect to most adventurers.

It is theorized thus that both the Ascarlin Mines and the Great Tonorion Hive may be the remains of Titan sites.

Other forces have built and abandoned strongholds in Felarya on a smaller scale. Elemental Sovereigns may have built lavish palaces in remote reaches of the dimension (in King Trazix's fashion), genies have been known to make their dwellings as well, and many legends speak of Angels or Demons whose abodes are now abandoned. Finally, it's possible some buildings have been warped into the dimension, never to return to their original world.

Really nice ideas here

I agree that the chomikai commons indeed need some fauna of its own. i like the crawlers and the bold gluttons. They still look dangerous but a notch down to what you can find further in the jungle and that works well. Looking back at it the Bunnicores might be a tad too Zany though ? ^^; and I like the idea of a cute, harmless, creature metamorphosing itself into something much more dangerous but then the trigger may need to be more complex than just eating lot of meat ?

I really like your thoughts about the different dungeon types in relation to their origins. It makes sense and it really helps to distinguish them, their architecture and what you might find inside. They could almost be a sort of guideline in the adventurer guild or so ^^
Great job !

I'd like to use some of those, if you agree with the disclaimer

I gladly agree. Happy you found the dungeons to your taste.

As for the... bunnicores, well, that may be true. The idea behind bunnicores was that we could have another hazard brought forth by human intervention in Chomikai. Crawlers were made dangerous by repelling predators, the hamster-bandicoots were made dangerous by growing food, and the bunnicores were a hazard because people brought pets.

Besides, we could do with more metamorphic critters, animals whose schtick is being used in magic, and such. If bunnicubs/bunnicores are too zany, I suppose I can rework the concept into something more fitting. Perhaps drinking chemical/magical spill makes bunnicubs turn into bunnicores? You can probably make spill at home just fine lol.

I loved the dungeons descriptions! So detailed and really immersive!! =O It should be in the wiki somewhere I genuinely feel. There's only one thing I think you could have added to make it better: Traps and dangers listed for the earlier ones, Sagolian, Dridder and Elven. Speaking of thank you for stating there's some Elvish buildings and towns still standing! ^_^ Makes me glad I haven't writen the next Clare's Quest yet cause I want to revise Choya. <.<

That's a good point, Jedi. I didn't talk about traps or hazards...

I assume dridders, given their ability to move vertically, would put all sorts of obstacles on the ground so landbound suckers had a hard time. Some of those obstacles would be more hazardous than others (traps).

For Sagolians, megaliths and moving bits don't mix all that well. We'd be looking more at spell traps, if at that- those structures were supposed to be inhabited. Perhaps some long-enduring guardians, such as elementals or constructs.

Elven architecture is impressive, but I don't see them doing clockwork. I assumed they'd be more of the sort that uses guardians, most likely summoned, and magical traps.

Stabs wrote:

That's a good point, Jedi. I didn't talk about traps or hazards...

I assume dridders, given their ability to move vertically, would put all sorts of obstacles on the ground so landbound suckers had a hard time. Some of those obstacles would be more hazardous than others (traps).

Yeah but I think they'd also have anti-dridder traps if they were bright. Remember Dridder's had a queen but the selection process made it so there was at least one dridder queen waiting in the wings. Not to mention dridders are underated as tomb raiders and bandits. Hmm need to make a fic character like that when I get time to write actually, but back to my point: There should be traps on the ceiling and walls that only a dridder guard or somebody official could diffuse easily.

Stabs wrote:

For Sagolians, megaliths and moving bits don't mix all that well. We'd be looking more at spell traps, if at that- those structures were supposed to be inhabited. Perhaps some long-enduring guardians, such as elementals or constructs.

Oh yeah. Or perhaps dimensional anomalies like a miniture version of the fairy warpping spell? XD Oh you could literally have the stupid laybrinth puzzle from Zelda and games like that. Where it's only a number of sequences that will guide you to safety and every corner looks the same no mater which way you go. Add to that a Sagolian Golem or Summoned Beast roaming about? Yeah that'd be pretty fun. Also don't just think about it as damaging traps. Sagolians were massively smart I can see them leaving magical riddles that literally kill you if you get it wrong or do something worse.

Stabs wrote:

Elven architecture is impressive, but I don't see them doing clockwork. I assumed they'd be more of the sort that uses guardians, most likely summoned, and magical traps.

Or the very living structure itself? For example rooms that open then the portal suddenly grows vines over it or just swells shut like a chromataphore, I think that's the right word, and seals you in then the "building" just waits for you to rot away and become fertilizer after starving to death. Or have vines that can be spelled to descend and grab intruders or....oooh! The poison dart thing only with pretyt flowers like in Jumanji shooting them at you. Stealth and it fits the setting, no?

In the words of the Tenth Doctor: "Oooh my head, my head! I'm bursting with ideas!!" This is why this needs to be int he wiki look at how much stuff I got just from the themes provided!

With all the contact that Felarya enables between dimensions, one would wonder why haven't all civilizations pretty much progressed as one over time. Why do we have so many civilizations that aren't at similar levels of technological advancement? Even if it took millenia, Felarya has lots of those. Well, I thought up of a reason why we have some medieval stasis in spite of... you know, the possibility of interversal contact.

I wanted to suggest the possibility that the universal milieu is not the only one that has existed, and the Correctors don't just fight to keep the barrier of reality intact, but also do some damage control: the Outer Ones would, in this assumption, not only have destroyed many worlds, but destroyed what at the time was ALL the worlds. The Correctors, meanwhile, would actively prevent escaped Outer Ones from wandering into the Present Milieu.

WARNING: Large assumptions involved. Proceed at your own risk.

Side A: Offworld Travel

The Galfam-Abh MURCOWIH defines separate worlds as "Spatial systems, closed from each other's perspective, such that any element in one of them cannot have an univocal position vector expressed in a dimensional coordinate system whose reference frame is on the other", a definition that most travelers find both wordy and not very useful. For most travelers, the worlds are simply "separate realities such that the only way to travel between them is through interdimensional travel", a definition that the MURCOWIH considers both tautological and nothing short of precious.

Whatever their definition, worlds are worlds, and they are usually closed to each other. Ocassions for interdimensional travel aren't common in all of them, but it is considered obvious that the worlds are all connected on some level in the known milieu (It would be a purely metaphysical question if a world completely closed to the others could exist, after all!). Dimensional travel takes many forms: some creatures are capable of tracking and following dimensional disturbances, while some other individuals can jump dimensions entirely on their own. Civilizations may take it one step further: whether by learning the ebb and flow of these contacts, rearing those with the power to travel the worlds, or harnessing the dimensions through the sciences, many have over time achieved the ability to cross the worlds.

With all the benefits that trade between such civilizations can bring, one is left to wonder why are there no trade routes between all worlds, all the time. Why are there nodes in Felarya and Belerim, while Kumannis has only recently began to conquer Balfrezagg? Why do some worlds cling to technology that is considered backwards in others, when they are just as exposed to the near-infinite ambition and ruthlessness that the cosmos harbors? Why is any lore ever lost and worlds aren't all at the same level, if extradimensional trade can so surely preserve and cross-pollinate lore? Why is technology at this point and none other, when it's been over 12000 years since the war of the Correctors?

There are limitations, as it turns out. For starters, while the worlds may be infinite, the currently connected worlds aren't an infinite number, nor are they infinite in their extension. There are maybe ten thousand, and another twenty-five thousands are estimated, each with maybe sixty million people on average (some worlds have hundreds of times this number, many maybe a hundredth of it). Not all of them have the ability to develop interdimensional passage, either: a shortage of either ascarlin, dimensional disturbances, or native sojourners can keep a world from visiting others for a long, long time.

Second, many aberrant lifeforms are drawn to frequent passage between the worlds. The construction of gates always runs the risk of drawing the attention of extradimensional denizens, and sightings of anglers and moles, while rare, are assumed to be underreported. The worst aberrations attracted to dimensional travel, however, are invasive interdimensionals such as the Telks pirates, who have only recently been fought off Mebron thanks to Negavian aid.

Third, gateholders are competitive. Gates like the ones in Negav and Belerim, capable of continuous functioning without attracting dimensional aberrations, are extremely rare, and the advantage they give their holders is worth hoarding. Belerim, in spite of its minuscule size (barely a hundred thousand inhabitants), holds positively obscene wealth and the ultimate in just about every luxury within the milieu thanks to its special gates, a state which its privileged ruling class is determined to keep at all costs, even if it means at the expense of other worlds. Political maneuvering, misdirection and sabotage are but the tamest of their methods to keep anyone else from dilluting their advantage.

The fourth (and maybe most alarming) issue is the sheer unpredictability of the vast interdimensional void. For every world that has some valuable secret or resource, there are many with lethal environments or hostile natives, some of which are itching to expand into somewhere: it is believed that Kumannis acquired its offworld invasion capabilities after repelling an attack from the Telks pirates, for instance, and the latter's actions have created a problem that the entire milieu will have to face. It is possible that exploring a new world may one day result in meeting a civilization whose technological level outclasses Belerim just like Belerim outclasses everyone else. And yet, that's not the most frightening scenario.

Rarely (but still far too often), when exploring a new world, planewalkers have stumble upon the vast, alien ruins of a specific civilization in an environment that is just too bizarre, even for a random dimension. Sometimes, they just grab what they can and come back quickly. Other times, access to the world they are visiting is invariably (and often irrevocably) lost soon, and so are the planewalkers in question. Examination of the relics brought back by those who didn't stay for long suggest barely a handful of different civilizations, yet an indeterminate number of separate worlds with basically the same series of civilizations, estimated in the low thousands for each of them.

It is assumed that these worlds were not cleared out one at a time, but rather that the wipeout was simultaneous- something slew everything within entire milieus, long after a single culture had assimilated the entire milieu and connected it sufficiently to generate the observed homogeneity. What could have done it is indeterminate so far, as is the reason why contact is always lost so quickly. However, some specialists theorize that whatever destroyed those worlds is still there, keeping everyone away from them. Another theory is that something destroyed those worlds... and (hopefully) something else wants to make sure whatever did it doesn't get out into the present milieu.

EDIT:

On a closer reading, I see the wiki doesn't support the Kingdom Hearts model.

Da Wiki wrote:

What is known as the Physical World is that part of the universe where only physical objects are tangible, and spirits and souls remain, for the most part, entirely intangible and immaterial. Most Physical worlds come mostly under the form of planets and other celestial objects floating in space.

This is also necessary for the Vishmitali to make sense- they were, before Felarya, STAR-farers, not universe-hoppers. And so are many of the humans in the fanon.

Therefore, I have a question- would a Barrier of Reality breach mean that the entire universe is lost, meaning, by necessity, that multiple universes must exist, or is the damage localized around one solar system/around one planet only? If the latter, are all worlds ('cept Felarya) assumed to be in the same set of physical coordinates? Does Felarya connect only to livable worlds, or does it often connect to planets with toxic atmospheres or nonatmospheres? I know it sometimes connects to the middle o' nowhere, and still manages to suck things in... so does it have some sort of predilection for inhabited planets?

As designed, this article is incompatible with the structure of the material plane- unless we further restrict the "35k worlds in the multiverse" in the article to "35k frequent planetside warp locations with the right conditions for life in them, plus infinite balls of rock/ice/farts."

The lost realms of Arshadas

Those who have arrived in the worlds of Arshadas describe upon their return a graying, ancient city enshrouded in thick fog, whose streets are flooded with ankle-deep, unnervingly warm water. Droplets of water continuously fall from the sky, disturbing the surface of the water. The buildings seem to be featureless and geometrical, but a thorough search reveals polyp-like growths that seamlessly swell out of their outer walls at some points, and square openings at the top of the buildings: the inside of the buildings is completely grayed out, and all the objects inside crumble to ash if handled carelessly. Those who explore the confines of Arshadas see that the city ends at some point, surrounded by ever more deep water in all directions. The air glows with its own luminosity, broken by stars that pierce the pale light with rays of inky darkness.

At first the air is still in Arshadas, but it slowly grows windier the longer one stays. While no living thing seems to dwell there, returning planewalkers all describe an unnerving sensation, like they were watched; some go as far as to claim that they saw a giant, gaping eye in the darkness of the sky. What is true and definite is that no planewalker who was willing to spend a day there has been able to return to tell the tale.

Using star maps drawn from within Arshadas it's been determined that they are actually several worlds! There are many cities with buildings broken by polyps, and all of them are covered in ankle-deep water. A few more features have been found in the multiple worlds of Arshadas, some differences to tell them apart, but they're often subtle, and include such things as the cities' layout, the specific hue of the stars, and the frequency of some objects inside the buildings.

These worlds have a strange relationship with Felarya. The Negavian gate has never connected to Arshadas, not even by mistake, while everyone who had ever learned of a gate inside the territories and tried to access it through the Sagolian gate has shared the same fate: not a single one of them ever returned. For some reason, the Sagolian gate cannot be returned from at all if used to access Arshadas.

======

The Telks

The Telks are an enigmatic human tribe of planewalking barbarians. Their society is composed of hundreds of clans, each led by a small elite, whose business is almost entirely raiding and pillaging. Though they know to avoid Felarya, they come and go as they please in the physical worlds, raiding and brutalizing small cities before vanishing in a flash. Their victims throughout the cosmos have learned to fear the bloodthirsty Telks and their powerful, ineffable artifacts.

Rather than a rigid hierarchy, the elites have simply a certain status, which they are deeply conscious of. They are always at least a bit crazy; some blame that on inbreeding, due to their paranoia about having kids lacking their birthright, but it's actually a combination of factors. Every leader must prove their ability to handle their birthright, and they must also be willing to use it: a cautious elite would be viewed as "too soft" and treated an object of ridicule. Taking risks is also the easiest way for a leader to gain the respect of his peers, intimidate ambitious underlings, and stand out to his crew. Given their way of life, this tends to breed clans led by bloodthirsty and reckless individuals. It also adds an unexpected weakness, as Telk elite are too status-conscious to simply let a taunt or challenge slide in front of their peers. Magic is rare amongst them, and it does not count towards status, but that also means "normal" Telks can have it.

Their technology is a contradiction. Telks are in possession of technology so advanced that no race can understand it- least of all themselves: they call it their birthright. All of it is an artifact, and if it weren't for its own resilience and auto repair systems, the Telks would have run out of it within one generation. Most of it has self-destruct measures included to prevent reverse-engineering, and due to age it's prone to blowing up. It's still tremendously versatile and effective, and they boast tractor beams, antigravity devices, nanotech manufacturing devices, handheld energy artillery, synthesizers for replacement limbs (not just for the elites), and a variety of droids, some of which perform what little maintenance can be done on the artifacts. While other races might view this tech with awe and curiosity, the Telks themselves regard it with a great deal of superstition. For instance, as their self-repair systems attempt to compensate for wear and tear, they make requests for precious materials such as silver, gold or diamonds, to take advantage of their salient properties. To the Telks, this speaks to the inherent greed of their artifacts, which makes it their sacred duty to raid and acquire these riches.

Genetic keys are required to operate their equipment. Elite Telks are born with them, and use its power to lead their clans. The fixed amount of technology limits their advantage, so they always look forward to a chance to kill another who's gotten "too soft", or "too crazy", all the more if they've got artifacts to spare. Telks are paranoid enough to pursue any of their own who decides to quit raiding, so their birthright won't spread to anyone else: even a commoner can beget an elite if they had an elite somewhere in their family tree. The limited amount (and general unreliability) of artifacts means that Telks still need other kinds of equipment to arm themselves: they're invariably equipped with a slapdash, disparate hodgepodge that would be comical to see if they weren't so malevolent. This combination of soft approach to technology, forcefully enforced thinking, ineffable equipment and the extended availability of older generations through cryostasis chambers, means that the Telks are a static (or close enough) society.

Telks generally stay on the offensive when dealing with other civilizations. They attack quickly, take what they want, and retreat quickly. They avoid fighting defensively, and for those who can follow them between the dimensions, Telk homes are often woefully underdefended. They understand lookouts, patrols, watch turns and cover, but their execution is usually lacking, and the pirates have often suffered decisive defeats, with embarassing retreats and bloody routs whenever they have failed to stay on the offensive. The hoards of loot recovered from their hideouts are epic: anyone who hasn't literally seen it all will find something novel in their interdimensional hoards.

It is a mystery why this technology is keyed to their genes, given they have no ties to any race that might've supplied any such tech. Speculations abound: some believe that the tech was given to them by another, more advanced race, and others believe they descend from another, earlier civilization. An examination of their culture fails to produce evidence of either, as beyond the agglutinate of myths it has borrowed from other cultures, it lacks references to progenitor races, any creators or even a mythical past, being almost completely centered in the exploits of their own heroes (and their grudges towards everyone else's).

Though Telk culture sounds like an oxymoron, they dabble in other pursuits too. They're quite well-versed in other cultures, often fluent in more than three languages. They also have a solid swashbuckling tradition, considering the discipline to be a sport and a mark of status regardless of whether it actually sees any action. The only mental pursuit which they seem to excel at is planewalking, which has allowed Telks to continue to exist even after pissing off pretty much all other planewalkers. Galfam's search for livable worlds is intended at least partly to flush out Telks by staking out every last place they could ever possibly run back to, but the Telks' knowledge still outstrips theirs by a fair margin.

Great ideas here ^^

In particular your take on Telk pirates is really intriguing I think. Some parts confuses me a bit though, like the genetic keys to operate the artifact. Are there only a handfull of telks who can operate the artifact, like manning a canon, opening doors ? And others are forced to live there without interactions with the artifact at large ?
And of course what is this artifact ?  I get the impression it's like a ship that allow them inter-dimensional travel ?
The base idea is really cool though ^^  Having them be in possession of that extremely advanced technology but them being unable to comprehend it other than thinking it's a sort of divine entity is very interesting. That's a very unusual relationship. They probably only use it at a low % of its capacity too.

As for your questions:

Quote :

Therefore, I have a question- would a Barrier of Reality breach mean that the entire universe is lost, meaning, by necessity, that multiple universes must exist, or is the damage localized around one solar system/around one planet only? If the latter, are all worlds ('cept Felarya) assumed to be in the same set of physical coordinates? Does Felarya connect only to livable worlds, or does it often connect to planets with toxic atmospheres or nonatmospheres? I know it sometimes connects to the middle o' nowhere, and still manages to suck things in... so does it have some sort of predilection for inhabited planets?

The barrier of reality is a separation between what we could call the multiverse, encompassing countless worlds and the place where are the outer ones. A breach of that barrier is a peril for literally everybody. There is no notion of distance in Lydus. Also let's keep in mind that space travel is really different than navigating in Lydus. When you are in "space" you are in a physical space, in a given place, between some planets and other astral bodies. When you are in Lydus, it's.. different you are in anywhere and everywhere as far as the physical world is concerned. Things you can see in Lydus are completely invisible in the physical world. Or not even invisible but also impossible to express. For example this barrier of reality under the Lydusean sea...  how do you even represent it physically ?
However if it was breached, the consequences would be very "real" and "physical", with gigantic abominations pouring from it and rampaging what they find on their path.
As for Felarya, yes it connects itself only to livable worlds, where the environment itself wouldn't be directly a threat for itself.

I hope it answers  your question, it's a pretty abstract and complicated subject XD

Karbo wrote:

Great ideas here ^^

In particular your take on Telk pirates is really intriguing I think. Some parts confuses me a bit though, like the genetic keys to operate the artifact. Are there only a handfull of telks who can operate the artifact, like manning a canon, opening doors ? And others are forced to live there without interactions with the artifact at large ?
And of course what is this artifact ?  I get the impression it's like a ship that allow them inter-dimensional travel ?
The base idea is really cool though ^^  Having them be in possession of that extremely advanced technology but them being unable to comprehend it other than thinking it's a sort of divine entity is very interesting. That's a very unusual relationship. They probably only use it at a low % of its capacity too.

Their tech is not an artifact in the sense of a single object. If we go by that definition, the Telks are up to their necks in artifacts (well, not literally) and had at one point more artifacts than they could use. They have molecular replicators, autodocs, etcetera, all of which works only for their captains: to regular telks, Telk artifacts are just paperweights. Self-destructing, temperamental paperweights.

Karbo wrote:

The barrier of reality is a separation between what we could call the multiverse, encompassing countless worlds and the place where are the outer ones. A breach of that barrier is a peril for literally everybody. There is no notion of distance in Lydus. Also let's keep in mind that space travel is really different than navigating in Lydus. When you are in "space" you are in a physical space, in a given place, between some planets and other astral bodies. When you are in Lydus, it's.. different you are in anywhere and everywhere as far as the physical world is concerned. Things you can see in Lydus are completely invisible in the physical world. Or not even invisible but also impossible to express. For example this barrier of reality under the Lydusean sea...  how do you even represent it physically ?
However if it was breached, the consequences would be very "real" and "physical", with gigantic abominations pouring from it and rampaging what they find on their path.
As for Felarya, yes it connects itself only to livable worlds, where the environment itself wouldn't be directly a threat for itself.

I hope it answers  your question, it's a pretty abstract and complicated subject XD

So, when the OOs come out, is everywear on the univarse dangerous, or just some places?

Quote :

So, when the OOs come out, is everywear on the univarse dangerous, or just some places?

Oh yes it's the whole universe. Once the OO have breached the barrier of reality, they start to roam Lydus which means they could go virtually anywhere in the physical universe.

Here's Telks, Take II, as well as some easily reflavored magitech for a change.

======

Telks, Take II

An enigmatic human tribe of planewalking barbarians, the Telks pirates are feared and hated throughout the most remote reaches of the multiverse for their savagery and technology. Though they know to avoid Felarya, they come and go at will across the physical worlds in their unique ships, brutally raiding isolated civilizations before vanishing in a flash.

Their society is composed of hundreds of clans, each led by a small elite of captains. The captains are set apart by whether they manifest their birthright, the inborn ability to handle Telk artifacts. Small groups of captains recklessly lead their raiding parties, using intimidation and boldness to inspire the other Telks, both with their example and the power they wield through their devices.

These artifacts are what sets them apart from most other planewalkers: while the Telks use wooden ships most of the time, they are in possession of myriad powerful devices, some of which enable them to use any vehicle to travel across Lydus. Close examination has revealed those artifacts to be both technological and extremely advanced, to the point that no one understands them- least of all the pirates. They lack any scientific inclination and have no idea where their equipment came from or how it works, just that it does. Even basic notions of maintenance elude them: their machinery resists, sometimes explosively, any kind of tampering, whether it's for reverse engineering or repairs. Telk artifacts are round, blue metal affairs, with numerous glowing lines and irregular geometries. They also appear to be based off some sort of modular nanotechnology, such that they are extremely resistant to damage and capable of some autonomous maintenance. Most iconic are the devices they install on their ships to allow travel across Lydus, but Telks themselves have access to, amongst other things, cyberlimbs, autodocs, targetting computers, energy-firing siege engines, and even giant battle robots sometimes.

Most normal pirates depend on some level on their captains and their power of birthright, which makes their rule extremely difficult to question: the rank-and-file has to make do with a disparate, slapdash hodgepodge of tools and weapons they've looted while raiding, rather than with artifacts which function only at the whim of their elite. Lacking a rigid hierarchy, the only things telling which of two captains is higher are the loyalty of their crew and the artifacts they hold. In practice, however, the ability to hold on to both is even more important, as captains within a raiding party continuously court and bedazzle the crew, upstaging or backstabbing each other as much as they allow (They have a limit too!). But captains are generally sportive enough not to kill each other, and some crews have gone so far as to rotate captains dozens of times in a particularly long day!

Telks are mostly raiders. They raid for food, slaves, supplies and mates, but also to keep their repair stations fed with necessary materials. These demand mainly metals, which requires them to attack or extort other settlements: they have come to believe these devices are vicious and greedy, and due to their connection, that it is a good thing for a Telk to be that way too. Their own camps are hidden in far removed dimensions, relying more on concealment than on proper defense techniques to preserve their safety. They understand lookouts, patrols, defensible positions and even sensor arrays, but their execution tends to be sorely lacking. They keep hoards of loot, both as a reminder of the captain's success and to feed their repair stations. The pirate booties have been described as mind-bending by those who have claimed them: anyone who hasn't seen it all will no doubt find something new in one.

As has been said before, the pirates try not to kill each other, with one exception: Telks who try to leave. Telks guard their birthright quite jealously: any pirate's child could in theory turn out to be a captain, so no Telk is allowed to escape their way of life, on pain of death, lest their birthright happen to pass to someone else. Delivering that death is one of the greatest honors a pirate can know, and many more Telk than normal are mobilized at even a rumour that one of them may have escaped the others, or traded an artifact to save their lives. Change is also made more difficult because Telks coexist with earlier generations of captains, who through the use of stasis chambers and cloned organs, have managed to last for centuries beyond their time. Interestingly, it has been gleaned that every generation of Telks gets less likely to produce captains the more removed they are from their original forebearers: this grants these much older pirates disproportionate importance. Galfam-Abh, Belerim, and several other planewalking factions all find it an uphill battle to root out these elusive raiders, whose ability to move across the worlds seems to possess no check: it is a small comfort to know that eventually, the Telks should no longer be able to begat any more captains.

Not all is blood and doom and gloom for the Telks, however. While they are forced by necessity to remain on the fringes of the inhabited universe, they have been known to occassionally keep relatively good relationships with the dwellers on the most remote reaches, in exchange for liquor and a place to drink the liquor. Their hosts claim that when they aren't killing, raping, looting and pillaging, they're actually quite gregarious. The pirates themselves keep their minds occupied with the sights of the remote locations, the occassional card game, fencing, drinking games, song and dance, and watching the captains intrigue and plot against each other.

======

Example Telk artifacts

Dimensional sailwell: The basis of most Telk technology, sailwells operate during trips through Lydus, gathering energies during every trip through Lydus. The energy gathered is used to power the next jump, as well as numerous other Telk devices: though some convert it to electricity first, not all do. The sailwell itself is generally a large, solid, orblike brass net, affixed in the ships it's mounted on, responsible for enabling their planewalking antics.

Amongst even stranger properties, sailwells' functioning is completely opaque: far as it's been studied, the device either lacks any kind of mechanisms or functioning principles, or if it has them, they have never been actually detected. Only a complete non-responsiveness to magical probing disproves that they are magic. The absolute lack of any observable mechanisms suggests that the sailwells are only a part of the machine, and most of it exists elsewhere, performing the actual functions. The means of interfacing with one seem to be instinctive for captains.


Captain's gun: These gun-shaped affairs seem to be made of angled, rounded metal plates, with several spikes around the muzzle. A pull of the trigger releases an energy pulse from the gun. These guns fire pulses of varying force, which can be either explosive enough to turn a well-armored man into confetti along with the wall he's hiding behind, or discreet enough to barely even wound. There seems to be no real rhyme or reason to how much force is involved, except that shooting many times in quick succession will generate weaker pulses for sure. Furthermore, the pulses have been reported to veer by up to 10 degrees to hit their intended target, which they identify in a manner as of yet unknown. They recharge on their own, drawing energy from extradimensional passage somehow: every time the Telks jump dimensions, the captains' guns are fully charged.

Their name comes from the fact that they only respond to a captain squeezing the trigger: if anyone else does, either nothing happens, or (once per gun) it explodes. For most people, it's likely to do nothing, but when a non-captain Telk pulls the trigger, it's guaranteed to explode.


Pirate Caulk: This substance comes in small, beadlike orbs. When cracked, these orbs spill their semi-transparent, liquid contents, which solidify in contact with other Telk artifacts, quickly repairing an amount of damage proportional to the quantity used. Each orb can only be spent once, and then the substance becomes part of the artifact: any excess is immediately lost. Telks value this artifact over all others, and they even function as a form of currency: even normal pirates tend to hoard some of those.


Meat marker: This special ink is used by Telks to make tattoos. The ink itself tends towards darker colors, and it has several strange properties. First, it affects wounded flesh, quickly sealing wounds where it is applied. Second, it interfaces with the nerves: some Telks have been able to generate rather intrincate designs that allow for installing of hardware directly on the body. This is not restricted to captains: meat marker is one of the most sought-after artifacts by the common Telks. It also looks pretty cool.

Adding caulk to used meat marker has an interesting result. The caulk can generate a new limb if the ink layer is cut alongside the rest of the limb; adding more caulk allows for the limb to continue developing. Some telks have regained entire limbs in this manner, which turn into massive, slightly misshapen blue affairs studded with the shells from the caulk. Adding substance to a fully developed limb tends to have random effects on the shape, which are never pretty. Inventive Telks have used a combination of marker, caulk, and tools to customize their new limbs, subsuming new tools for interesting new functionalities. Considering pure caulk is quite expensive, it's not the worst they could have done.

Some raiders go quite far with the meat marker, drawing designs all over their bodies. This is usually considered a sign that the pirate is willing to lose any part of their body in a fight.


Telk Medusa: The Telks have robots as well. Their nanobot-based brains are solid, but ancient; most robots are already failing in spite of the generous redundances, and thus lack the otherwise perfect performance one would expect of them. The number of ways in which they can fail are many; Telk robots are known to freeze, trip, forget orders, twitch and make sounds, go into loop behaviour, reboot randomly (which usually is the only check for their loop behaviour) or even fall over, unable to get up.

Most Telk robots seem to be of a jellyfish-like configuration, with a small, floating central body and numerous tentacles. Some of those limbs are tipped with tools (often in dire need of maintenance). The robots themselves respond only to the orders of a captain, or those who the captain has designed as a master. Rarely, those robots are capable of speech: talking medusas are extremely loyal, and volunteer any advice they can dispense, as well as giving out complete and convoluted reports without hesitation. Captains have tried, quite insistently, to instruct these medusas to shut up; it never takes for long.


Wavering Stash: This strange, gnarled pillar of Telk technology holds a bubble of warped time on top. When it is operative, the flow of time is altered dramatically, by nearly ten orders of magnitude. These don't last for very long, barely a few years at a time, but for the Telks, it is more than enough. Telk captains only use the stashes to live for centuries, going into on-and-off hibernation to stave off age.

Activated Telk stashes are in high demand in the multiverse, for science experimentation on high-speed phenomenae. Unfortunately, they have to be used where they are found: if they are moved across Lydus, they automatically shut off, and only another Telk captain can turn them back on. Experimentation is dangerous, as the stashes themselves are even more volatile than any other Telk tech; this makes working with an activated stash even more dangerous than with other technology, as it must be kept in a place that the pirates already know of. They take offense to someone using their stashes: even a normal Telk will immediately spit the grog if they know that to happen.


Grog yeast: What looks like a small, caulk-lined barrel of warm goo is actually... a small caulk-lined barrel of warm goo. The goo is an alcoholic suspension of nanobots, bent on disassembling anything available in order to make more nanobots. Other than their ability to disassemble most metallic objects and eventually kill live ones, they also generate the small beadlike structures, pirate caulk, that can be harvested for use by other artifacts. They have to be harvested quickly, however, before faulty nanobots reabsorb them.

Numerous generations over the millenia have favored virulent over productive configurations for the nanobots in spite of failsafes; grog barrels decay (or, depending on perspective, evolve). Some barrels have gotten to the point their nanobots can no longer generate caulk, and additional material only increases the risk of overflow. It is impossible for Telks to tell which is which- all they can do is keep giving the grog stuff to drink and cross their fingers.

While overflows are usually bad, they're nowhere near as bad as one would think, so long as the goo isn't exposed to electricity, sunlight, combustibles, pure metals... an overflowing grog barrel is a serious matter. The destruction from a barrel that's been tipped over can be best compared to a runaway fire, except it can use electricity, metals, or even sunlight as a fuel. While outside the barrel they eventually corrode faster than they replicate, Telks assure that some particularly unfortunate cases have had aftermaths visible from well beyond the sky. Strangely, sometimes a barrel spills and nothing happens. Go figure.

In a pinch, it can be drunk. Tastes like crap though.

======

Technology in Belerim

The Belerim elite puts great emphasis in self-sufficiency. This rarely translates to the use of good technology; they employ rugged designs, which involve as little complexity as possible, augmented with magic. Belerimi devices tend to use axes that float in their sockets with no friction, for instance. They make no attempt to hide the soft glows that project from some points in their structure, which is usually made of massive pieces of concrete, hardwood, pottery or cast iron: this allows them to be made with intrincate detail, but not much tenacity.

Their magic use is not very particular either. The position in Belerim allows them to use one particular kind of force magic, which is strongest in its native void. To prevent other void mages from using this kind of power to the same extent, Belerim mages employ small ascarlin shards in every official fixture: the use of the shard to enhance the magic makes it difficult even for advanced mages to compete with the performance of a beginner's piece. In order to deter looting, the shards themselves are enchanted with a spell that recalls them if anyone tries to remove them from the chamber, itself enchanted to self-destruct. Their technology rarely progresses past smaller (yet disproportionately large) circuits, often made of vacuum tubes, which take care of quick calculations whenever necessary.

That way, the most important fixtures of the city in the void, such as its voidships, its lights, and such, do not depend on advanced technology or magic that could become scarce nor deniable, but rather on its location and the obscene wealth available to those in power. Belerimi do not think too highly of technology nor magic, though they slightly lean towards the latter; they see technology as brittle and complicated, while magic itself is fickle and too widely available. One ought not consider they are not prepared for a complete breakdown of either, though, as each of the noble families has very well-equipped private armies to call upon.

There are mages in Belerim, of course, and technology is available, in spite of the elite's intervention. However, they are both less effective in general: the place is rather empty of things for upcoming mages to experiment with, and people whose technology requires power sources find them to be scarce and expensive. Most mages that learn in Belerim are devoted to either the void, or the mind, of which there is no shortage to pervert.


Flying Ship: Similar to the flying ships available in some parts of Negav, the ones in Belerim employ a specific kind of magic to power their flight, which is weakest elsewhere, but strongest in its native void. Those ships can only fly in Belerim, but they are capable of handling ludicrous weight. Unlike Felaryan flying ships, Belerim ships are made of thick stone or concrete, allowing for extremely strong, if not too tough, ships. Destroying one with anything other than a crash is extremely difficult.

Wizards from Belerim aren't usually the most adept. They employ shards of ascarlin, facilitated by the nobles, to improve the flying ship's power. Several enchantments are used to protect the shard from theft or tampering.


Mind Charm: Given the volume of trade in Belerim, the ability to twist the mind is rightfully quite feared. Interestingly enough, these necklaces do not protect against mind magic: they generate a loud, shrill alarm if the wearer is the subject of a charm spell. The alarm is usually enough to make sure nothing can actually go down, as it will attract guards in most situations and loud enough noises are sufficient to end some of the weaker spells.

This doesn't mean charm spells have no use. In fact, some clever criminals use these charm spells to divert attention away from themselves instead, by casting them on someone they know to be defended. Nonetheless, even if detected, the guards in Belerim don't always know how to stop magical coercion. Long-lasting spells may still retain their usefulness if the recipient is too poor for any other kind of protection.


Tower Armor: Soldiers in Belerim are often protected with those. Tower Armors are one-to-one-and-half ton juggernauts of cast iron on the outside and several inches of reinforced concrete on the inside. The armor is huge and noisy, but nowhere near as slow as one would think, thanks to void magic. Nothing  short of explosives or a siege engine can truly penetrate this protection; the soldier inside is usually safe against bullets, lasers, or even most spells, unless an absolutely excessive amount is brought to bear.

Elite tower armor employs much stronger and lighter materials, some magic, and includes both cushioning and suspensions to keep the man on the inside perfectly safe. The armor is invariably rigid, however, which means that there are places it simply cannot fit into. Numerous chases in Belerim have ended with embarassing escapes, where guards have found themselves caught in narrowing passages or pit traps. Another negative aspect is that these armors only work in Belerim.


Voidmill: These devices are a game-changer to the inhabitants of Belerim. While most void mages do not have access to the ascarlin shards that the elite uses, they still have access to the void that permeates the city as a whole, and its power is not beyond their ability to tap into. Most generators can turn motion into useful energy, and most mages do not find it too difficult to turn magic into motion. Voidmills are crude devices, basically generators with an enchanted flywheel that draws energy from the void to accellerate itself.

Through the use of voidmills, Belerimi non-elite have suddenly gained new use for all sorts of electric machines. Unfortunately the crudeness of those devices is known to slightly disrupt void magic around them, which has led the Belerimi elite to put heavy sanctions on their use. Whether they'll be able to stem the tide, or the non-elite will stand their ground, still remains to be seen.

======

Vishmital Materiel


Direct Fusor: These devices draw energy directly from nuclear fusion. Rather than draw heat, they employ an unknown process to extract power directly by decelerating the high-energy ions generated during fusion. In a pinch they can fuse deuterium with itself, but most devices carry a provision of lithium or boron to fuse instead, for greater ease of management.

They remain rather brittle, however. Once off, they can never be turned back on. Whether this is a physical limitation or a design feature remains to be determined, as the means for power extraction remain unknown to anyone else. Vishmitals are, of course, quite stingy regarding information about them.


Electrovorous substrate: One of the most bewildering relics from the empire, electrovorous subtrates are a hybrid form of biotechnology. A modified, orange swirly lichen, when fed waste material, it generates oxygen and tiny seeds that are capable of providing for all of a human's dietary needs. Due to radical genetic tampering, this substrate can subsist on electricity even when no light is present, which can be more efficient, both room and energy-wise, than hydroponics. Its ability to grow is explosive to the point of bafflement, and every kilogram of substrate can easily process its weight in food within a day. Its flavor, however, is a different matter entirely: they are not generally considered edible on their own, but for some it's become an acquired taste.

Unfortunately, its hardiness can also prove a disadvantage. Several worlds have found themselves under electrovore plagues: the lichen can grow like a weed on power lines of all kinds, and limited only by its ability to absorb material, it spreads like a kudzu. Substantial efforts are required in those worlds to keep power transmission free of the plague. (Or if we give this to pirates, the substrate can mutate into man-eating slimes that actually taste pretty ok)


Gravitational engines: These rods are part of some special Vishmitali devices. While not cheap by any stretch of the imagination, they are extremely useful: they alter gravity in their vicinity when powered, allowing a reorientation or even a full reversal of the otherwise unstoppable force. Smaller vishmital craft can be made to fly in almost perfect silence using those, and even larger craft use them to assist in their steering and propulsion.

The Felaryan vishmitals found, however, that they have not been the only ones to create such devices. Several worlds and cultures through the Gates have such engines, and while not all of them are as efficient or as elegant, the Vishmital versions are not without their disadvantages either. So far the Vishmitals have failed to reproduce all the advantages of other versions.


Divine Device: According to rumor, Vishmitals have been able to harness exotic forms of matter to do things that would baffle and puzzle the scientists of any other civilization. The magnum opus of Vishmitali technology is, according to those rumors, a device that is actually capable of scanning the future, and thus help shape it.

The specifics of the interface or mechanics are undisclosed, and Vishmitals have repeatedly denied that any of their equipment has ever been identified as a "Divine Device". Nonetheless, leaked and stolen documents hint to a particular piece of hardware that was installed only in their flagships, the loss of which has been sadly felt every time it came to making important decisions.

Oh great job on those !  
I really like much more this take on the Telks to be honest You described them a lot more here as well as their artefacts and it makes them clearly easier to visualize, for me at least. . And I really this idea of having that rather rough lot having that extraordinarily advanced technology they somehow linked themselves with at their disposal, that they don't understand at all and just take for granted, using it or mis-using it in ways that could be quite far from the primary intended function of the device. There is a lot of things to do with that. Good job also on coming up with some of those devices. i especially like the caulks as a currency idea ^^
A really solid idea overall ! I am curious if there is a reference you based yourself on for how you think they look like ?

Nice job also on Belerim and Vishmital technology although I'm a bit more confused by the Belerim's stance on technology and magic, as you hint they are not really convinced by either ^^; You mention a lot this void magic for them too, how do you see it works ?

Thank you for your kind words.

Karbo wrote:

i especially like the caulks as a currency idea ^^

Yeah, that... I think I read that in some MMORPGs that money sinks are necessary for the currency to keep some value. Since caulk upgrades or fixes their machines and requires them to find stuff to "sell" the grog, I figured it'd work as a currency.

Karbo wrote:

A really solid idea overall ! I am curious if there is a reference you based yourself on for how you think they look like ?

Not really. Part of it was Neverland and Peter Pan, part of it was Treasure Planet, but mostly, I was just going for ugly cute pirates who combine the worst cultural traits of orcs, drow elves, jail inmates, otakus, and gossipy schoolgirls.

Karbo wrote:

Nice job also on Belerim and Vishmital technology although I'm a bit more confused by the Belerim's stance on technology and magic, as you hint they are not really convinced by either ^^;

Belerim is supposed to use a blend of soft tech, made cheaper by their chokehold on most worlds' supply lines, and soft magic, made more accessible by their homeground advantange.

I was just not sure how to make it blend well... I wanted to make it look like they do not lean too heavily on either, but in the devices I described, there's... still some effect missing. I wouldn't know how exactly to describe it.

Best I can put it is, I'd like to make a combination of active and passive roles for both their muted magic and their muted technology, together with roles in series or in parallel.

The armor and ships use technology for their material: concrete and cast iron, which does no other thing than stay where it is, a passive role. The magic instead does everything.

The charm could be seen as one where the magic and technology are both active, and as soon as the magic does its thing (detect a charm), and sends a signal so the technology does its thing too (sound the alarm). The mill, too, uses both actively: the magic does its thing (spin a wheel), while the technology also does a thing (run a generator).

Those are working in series: the output of one is the input of the other. I'd like to do something with both magic and tech being passive, or both being active but running in parallel, doing the same thing so that if one were rendered useless the other would take over, or technology being the input for magic somehow (which is hard for me. A spell that converts one thing into another is not quite what I'm used to imagining; technology is easier to envision harnessing things that exist, while magic is easier to envision as completing tasks). Can't envision such a thing for the life of me though, not without making huuuge assumptions.

Karbo wrote:

You mention a lot this void magic for them too, how do you see it works ?

Basically, in the void, they have the power to manipulate gravity and get things moving. There's probably other powers too, considering Belerim uses a lot of portals (and Thas is supposed to be a void mage), but that's about it. This void magic would be all about force, and portals, and also not quite so effective in Felarya, as it is running off something that only exists at a completely different place, thus explaining why Belerim has limited interest in Felarya.

Special thanks to david-dent-jedai for help regarding their relationship with Negav, and the mutation idea.

Telks, Take 3

An enigmatic human tribe of planewalking barbarians, the Telks pirates are feared and hated throughout the most remote reaches of the multiverse for their savagery and strange technology. Although they know to avoid Felarya, the Telks come and go at will across many physical worlds in their unique ships, brutally raiding isolated civilizations before vanishing in a flash.

Their society is composed of hundreds of clans, each led by a small elite of captains. The captains are set apart by whether they manifest their birthright, the inborn ability to handle Telk artifacts. Small groups of captains recklessly lead their raiding parties, using intimidation and boldness to inspire the other Telks, both with their example and the power they wield through their devices. Telk physiology isn't that different from humans otherwise, but due to their exposure to extradimensional energies sometimes they can develop a special organ where their appendix would be that vibrates when dimensional storms ravage Lydus or when a hidden portal may be nearby.

These artifacts are what sets them apart from most other planewalkers: while the Telks use wooden ships most of the time, they are in possession of a myriad of powerful devices, some of which enable them to use any vehicle to travel across Lydus. Close examination has revealed those artifacts to be both technological and extremely advanced, to the point that no one understands them- least of all the pirates themselves. Telks sorely lack any scientific inclination and have no idea where their equipment came from or how it works, just that it does. Even basic notions of maintenance elude them: their machinery resists, sometimes explosively, any kind of tampering, whether it's for reverse engineering or repairs. Most Telk artifacts are round, blue metal affairs, with numerous glowing lines and irregular geometries. They also appear to be based off some sort of modular nanotechnology, such that they are extremely resistant to damage and capable of some autonomous maintenance.

The most famous ones are the devices the pirates install on their ships to allow them to travel across Lydus, even if the ships themselves are rather rudimentary. Telks themselves have access to, amongst other things, cyberlimbs, autodocs, targetting computers, energy-firing siege engines, and even giant battle robots sometimes.

Most normal pirates depend on some level on their captains and their power of birthright, which makes their rule almost impossible to question. While the basic Telk grunt has to use a disparate, slapdash hodgepodge of tools and weapons they've looted while raiding, their elite have incredibly powerful artifacts at their disposal, which function only at their whim. Lacking any hierarchy, the only things telling which of two captains is higher are the loyalty of their crew and the artifacts they hold. In practice, however, the ability to hold on to both is even more important, as Telk captains don’t hesitate to backstab each other. A vainquished captain is rarely killed but will lose most of their crew to the winner, as well as some artefacts. It is said some crews have gone so far as to rotate captains dozens of times in a particularly long day!

Telks are mostly raiders. They raid for food, slaves, supplies and mates, but also to keep their repair stations fed with necessary materials. These demand mainly metals, which requires them to attack or extort other settlements: they have come to believe these devices are vicious and greedy, and due to their connection, that it is a good thing for a Telk to be that way too. Their own camps are hidden in far removed dimensions, relying more on concealment than on proper defense techniques to preserve their safety. They understand lookouts, patrols, defensible positions and even sensor arrays, but their execution tends to be sorely lacking. They keep hoards of loot, both as a reminder of the captain's success and to feed their repair stations.

*This is where I'd add this paragraph.
After Negav placed a sentry in Mebron, and it began successfully repelling the pirates, the latter have sworn a blood-oath against Negav as a whole. This isn't the first time this happens, and in fact, the situation is so common that it's faster for them to count the planefaring groups they have not sworn a blood-oath against than the groups they have. Those captured by Telks can safely assume that telling them where they come from will by default lead to them being tortured for "revenge". Pretending to be from a culture that currently hosts them as friends is risky, as they are likely to spot the ruse and take exception: it is best to lie to them just poorly enough that they can tell. Telks often humor amusing deceptions, but they still take offense at people getting the best of them. Those trying to should be warned it takes a lot of intelligence to navigate the Astral Sea.

*This needs a separate paragraph, as it deals with a different subject.
As has been said before, the pirates try not to kill each other, with one exception: Telks who try to leave. Telks guard their birthright jealously: any pirate's child could in theory turn out to be a captain, so no Telk is allowed to escape their way of life, on pain of death, lest their birthright happen to pass to someone else. Delivering that death is seen as one of the greatest honors a Telk can know, and many more Telk than normal are mobilized at even a rumour that one of them is trying to escape.

*As this paragraph speaks to the relationship of Telks with their devices, it may be better placed here.
Superstitious as they are, it is no surprise that Telks turn on their own for other reasons as well. Injuries they do not know how to treat are sometimes left to automatic surgery and healing devices, which can forget what a human body is supposed to look like: a Telk that leaves a cranky autodoc with "only" a third arm is considered to have gotten off easy. Some pirates make do with these incurred mutations, but some others are warped so much that their comrades don't hesitate to drop them off in the wild, seeing them as punished by the devices in question. Given that the risk increases when the devices do not have the resources to repair themselves, this only reinforces their view of the artifacts as being fickle and vindictive. Interestingly, post-mortem authopsies have found that all Telk mutants had developed extra-dimensional sensing organs near their appendixes.

Telks live in an extremely rigid and unchanging society, as they are forced to coexist with earlier generations of captains who, through the use of stasis chambers and cloned organs, have managed to last for centuries beyond their time. Interestingly, it has been gleaned that every generation of Telks gets less likely to produce captains the more removed they are from their original forebearers: this grants these much older pirates disproportionate importance. Galfam-Abh, Belerim, and several other planewalking factions all find it an uphill battle to root out these elusive raiders, whose ability to move across the worlds seems to possess no check: it is a small comfort to know that eventually, the Telks should no longer be able to begat any more captains.

Not all is blood and doom and gloom for the Telks, however. While they are forced by necessity to remain on the fringes of the inhabited universe, they have been known to occassionally keep relatively good relationships with the dwellers on the most remote reaches, in exchange for liquor and a place to drink the liquor. Their hosts claim that when they aren't killing, raping, looting and pillaging, they're actually quite gregarious. The pirates themselves keep their minds occupied with the sights of the remote locations, the occassional card game, fencing, drinking games, song and dance, and watching the captains intrigue and plot against each other.

I think it's pretty much ready to go now. both fo you did a really great job

There is just this part about lying that puzzle me a bit when you say it takes a lot of intelligence to navigate the Astral sea. Do you mean to say they are smart here ? no problem with that but in this case maybe we should put one more line in their description telling that under their rough appearance they can be cunning ?

Karbo wrote:

I think it's pretty much ready to go now. both fo you did a really great job

Thank you.

Karbo wrote:

There is just this part about lying that puzzle me a bit when you say it takes a lot of intelligence to navigate the Astral sea. Do you mean to say they are smart here ? no problem with that but in this case maybe we should put one more line in their description telling that under their rough appearance they can be cunning ?

I meant to say that they're smart enough to do that, so they should not be underestimated by those trying to pull a fast one on them.