Post by Kaez on Sept 28, 2016 1:44:02 GMT -5
And considering they're guarded, I assume the White Tunnels still work? So the Dwarves can move freely between their world and the Tor?
The Tor is but one of many 'Realms of Mind' as they are called by the Voyagers. Travel between these realms is mysterious and poorly-understood, and the various known methods for doing so are obscure and even contradictory. The realms seem to exist 'externally', that is to say, 'out in space', visible in the sky above the Tor, and yet also exist 'internally', accessible through acts of supreme intention or mental focus. Methods for reaching other realms may be outward or inward, and the precise explanation for this apparent paradox can only be riddled out through the metaphysical texts of highly-learned scholars, mystics, or, most notably, the Voyagers (who are, not coincidentally, discussed below). Though there have been a wide variety of claims for interplanar travel over the centuries, here we will discuss only the five most reasonably verifiable claims.
1. The White Tunnels
The White Tunnels are huge, labyrinthine tunnels at the furthest depths of Yhok Qarzeth. Nearly two millennia ago, a sect of Dwarves entered the Tor from their homeworld, a mysterious realm referred to as the Source. The the Dwarves are not inclined to share with outsiders many details about the Source, we know that there are far more Dwarves to be found at the Source and on other realms - those in Yhok Qarzeth make up but a tiny fraction of the total Dwarven population. The White Tunnels found on the Tor are but one 'branch' on a great web of tunnels, all of which are intricately connected across the cosmos in the deep and secretive darkness. Why did the Dwarves who entered Yhok Qarzeth choose to do so? Was it a choice at all? Why have no others followed since? These questions remain unanswered (though rumors are abound among Dwarven children of the spooky creatures that lurk the tunnels) What is definitively known is that the White Tunnels are fiercely guarded to this day, and only Geophyst monastics are allowed to enter.
2. Voyaging
Voyagers are difficult to define. They have been variously called, "those beings who have attained immediate, unwavering awareness," "complete and total wakefulness", and "escape from all distortion, illusion, and absorption." Mysterious figures who have walked the Tor since time immemorial, the Voyagers were often regarded as prophets, esoteric wizards, devils, or kings, but the commonality of their attainment did not occur until the Raze, when a secret gathering of Voyagers stood up against the Shadrasi invasion during the Wave-Break Event. Since then, through the likes of the Thrice-Prophet Kythos, Myrad the Frog, Pelyon Gaethwile, and the Knight of Stars, the Voyagers have become increasingly known to the general public. They are beings for whom seemingly no conventional limits apply. Though their specific capabilities vary between Voyagers, they are generally capable of taking a wide variety of physical forms, teleporting rapidly, performing incredibly magical feats, and notably for the purposes of this discussion, traveling between realms. Voyagers are the source of nearly all of our thorough reports of other realms, particularly the Knight of Stars' famous Travelogues and Meditations.
3. The Aerei
The Aerei are the only non-terrestrial race, besides the Dwarves, to have any presence in Amostine. They are natives of a realm known as the Warmth (sometimes called the Golden Warmth), a disperse and far-reaching realm which exists "in all corners of the universe wheresoever life can be found." The Aerei of the Tor reached it through its Sun, and the Aerei elsewhere throughout the cosmos reach the supposedly-countless realms which they inhabit through other Suns throughout Qarzeth. Celestial beings, they have traits of both physical, biological creatures and other traits which are much more vaporous and otherworldly. They originally appeared on the Tor in communion with the Fae, though they are best known for their close friendship with the Rezdayites and have aided them in remaining autonomous despite the official claim made on their valley by the Fen. The Aerei's intangible nature means they do not move through physical space with the limitations of conventional beings, and materialize and evaporate from the Tor freely as they are said to do on many other realms as well.
4. Astral trances
Though a great deal of historical complexity must be factored into the equation, it is hard not to believe that one of the primary reasons that the Orthodoxy gained such prominence in Amostine, in spite of the several competing religions in the earliest centuries, is because Orthodox rituals provoke an unparalleled level of faith out of their followers. Orthodox shamans are devotees have been performing astral trance rituals for as long as the religion has existed. These rituals allow devotees of the Orthodox deities to "attend the realms of the Gods", their physical bodies going hollow and limp, their breathing and heartrates slowing to otherwise-impossible levels. Astral trances are performed differently in different cultures and for different deities, and unlike other means of planar travel, the physical body does not fully 'attend'. Nevertheless, the prevalence and efficacy of the practice and its close similarities with the other practices are sufficient to qualify astral trances as a form of realm travel.
5. Aetherships
Aether is a substance still new to the Tor and its properties are still being studied and scrutinized. Described as "arcana incarnate", it is a malleable, semi-gaseous fluid which radiates a pale blue light. It was first discovered by the Knight of Stars in a distant realm known as Symmora and the practice for producing it and refining it was taught to the Magistrate of Ravens and has since been implemented at all three of the Grand Academies. Aether has allowed for several tremendous technomagical innovations, ranging from increasingly bountiful crop yields to the likes of the Aethertrains and Aetherships. The latter invention is the newest and in its earliest stages of development, and the specific details of the practice are a closely-guarded secret. Nevertheless, all eyes in Dimasq turned skyward on a warm summer evening when a rotating, opaque sphere of Aether ascended over the Grand Academy and into the heavens above, descending at dawn over a fortnight later -- supposedly having ventured to the nearest realm to the Tor, the Moon.
