The World
| |
| Distance from sun: | 4,759,406 miles (Poseidon) |
| Length of Year: | 365 1/4 days |
| Length of Day: | 24 hours |
| Circumference: | 34,851 mi |
| Diameter: | 11,093 mi |
| Surface area: | 386,622,432 sq mi |
| Axial tilt: | understood but unmeasured |
| Number of moons: | 2 |
The Universe -- The universe, as a place, is often confused by the inhabitants of the World with the planet Earth itself. Most philosophers agree that the universe is heliocentric, that is, the Sun resides at the center of the universe and presides over a court of various small orbiting bodies: the planets, the comets and the fixed stars. This of course is not the case, as the World exists within a fairly mundane universe of galaxies, black holes, quasars, star systems, gas clouds, dark matter and other exciting astronomical bits and pieces. The main difference between *that* universe and ours is the existence of magic as a natural force.
The World -- Some philosophers aver that the world is a roundish disc rotating upon the backs of four oliphants that in turn stand upon the back of a gargantuan tortoise which swims through the vastness of space. In this cosmology, the Sun, planets and moons are reduced to very small orbiting rocks.
Most aver that the Earth is a round planet that orbits the Sun along with a number of other planets and moons. The circumference of the Earth has been measured as have the distance between Earth and Sun and Earth and its moons (none of the measurements are precise, but the scales are proportionate). Surrounding the planet, and presumably including the Sun and other planets, is the realm known as Overheaven. It is not always clear whether this realm is truly the mundane regions of space or is the spiritual realms that surround and imbue the universe.
The surface of the Earth, the Middle World is where most of the known inhabitants of the World live and where they go about their daily lives (except for miners and adventurers). But the surface world is but a part of the whole picture.
There are realms known collectively as the Underworld, and by this we mean not just the sewers and underdelvings of the old city of Hoopelle. Many are the ancient dungeons and delvings of various dark powers, but there are also natural realms under the surface of the Earth inhabited mostly by beasts, but sometimes by peoples unknown to those on the surface except in folklore (particularly Gnomes and Dwarves). There are also tales of vast underworld chasms where whole communities of peoples live; some are said to be like the Daine, others like Men. No Middle World organisation has undertaken the daunting task of fully exploring and mapping the Underworld. It is certainly too large, too diverse and too inaccessible.
There is a philosophic speculation that the center of the Earth is hollow and that the core is a small body that generates heat and light for the hollow Underworld and also drives the thaumic field of the planet. While at present this is only to be taken as speculation, it would not be inconsistent with the structure of a magical world.
The Reshaping of the World was one of the most spectacular geological events in the planet's history, probably since the Creation. The Reshaping of the World was a catastrophic event that happened some hundreds of thousands of years ago when the Dark Power was defeated. Upon his demise, the beings that inhabit the very foundations of the world were agitated and their movements caused upheavals of seismic and volcanic natures in the regions of the world particularly inhabited by the Dark Power. At that time, the Dark Power inhabited the bitter East, having raised up in the eastern Ocean a great land for his minions and servants. As a result of the upheavals, those lands sunk under the waves, causing massive tsunammis, and the whole globe of the Earth turned about 67 degress to one side so that, from the perspective of those living nearest the Dark Power's domains, the lands that once were in the eastward were ever after in the northward. Those lands, however, remained quite bitter.
The Teor record in their histories that the world turns in this way about once in every two star ages. So, it might be a coincidence that the planet turned at this time. Of course, it is also possible that the motions of the subterranean beings upset some delicate balance that simply initiated an event that was immanent anyway.
Deepest of all the Underworld's realms are the very Foundations of the World itself. No dweller of the Upper World has ever gone so far into the belly of the Earth, for the heats of the Ankanic Fires burn all flesh, and it is said that the airs of the depths of Underworld are crushing and deadly. There, it is said, dwell -- beings -- of immense size and ponderous motion that uphold the basments of the upper earth. It is said their slow motions cause the lands themselves to change place, as if playing out some great and mysterious ballet. Their agitations, it is said, are the cause of volcanic eruptions (the Ankanic fire) and earth tremors of all magnitudes. These beings dwarf even the mightiest of the World's ancient mountains, Amath, Gahalt and Zahair.
Inside the Multiverse -- The Multiverse is the place where everything happens. It all comes down to having enough dimensions for it all to happen in. It contains Existence and allows Being and Reality to have their day in the sun. The portion of the Multiverse where the World has its day in the sun is a not-so-tidy corner of some half-wild universe where lots of odd things happen that don't normally happen in the more orderly universes. Here, then, is a good place for fantastic stories and mythical peoples to live and breathe and share in the experience of Being. Thus the reason for the World itself.
Outside the Multiverse -- Outside the confines of reality lies what is thought to be the great void of Potentiality. It is from this potential -- not matter (chaotic or organised), not energy, in fact it is nothing we have experience of -- that the earliest universes sprang, and from that raw material that further universes were created. If the Creator were a small child in a nursery, this Potential would be her box of building blocks. The how and by whom those first universes came to Be is unknown, and probably unknowable, as their first beginnings and ultimate ends are now lost in the mists of unhistory.
Though it is uncertain how universes come into being within the Potential, some posit a sort of fountain from which they emanate, accreting Potential as they evolve and progress along their journey towards the eschaton. Others posit that Creators cause universes to come into existence through a process known to the denizens of those universes only as the Creation.
The most orderly universes are safely walled off from the Void, and thus from their ultimate source of Potential. Their outer limits are protected by layers of vacuophobic fascias which act as a sort of protective layer of barnacles around a universe -- the Things that desire to consume realities can never come close. It might be possible to travel between universes, but not outside them (unless you possess a diacosmic vehicle, in which case Gog's your paternal relative of choice).
Other universes, particularly those where magic operates, have difficulty being completely sealed. Magic tends to bend, distort and at times shred the fabric of Reality. Thus, rays and bands of Reality and Being may escape from these universes into the Void, coalescing into small hot protocosms. There are said to be Things out there, known to the Wise as acosmic entities for they are not beings in any known sense of he word and can not exist within a proper cosmos. It would seem that the energy of existence and the protocosms are irritating to them, for most of them desire nothing more than to consume and utterly destroy the small drops of Being that float in their sea of potentiality. Others like to crack open universes and suck out their vitality and then lay their eggs inside.
How, then, is a universe to defend itself? Those that are properly sealed are scarcely detectable.
Otherwise, the Watchers, or Guardians that inhabit the outer limits of reality and existence battle such Things as dare to come too close, reducing them from predators of unfathomable quality to insignificance. The natures of these Watchers is unknown, though it is possible that they are Angels or gods of some sort.
Two fairly well described langauges of the World are Talarian and Yllurian
Many races are known in the world, including Men, but of them all, the Daine are the most comprehensively described.
