A Preliminary Travel Guide to the Ring

The Ring is the place where everyone begins their quest into the Shadowlands. People wander through the Shadowlands in a haze before awakening and beginning their lucid dreaming endeavors into the Shadowlands. The Ring appears innocuous to most travelers, who remain ignorant of where they truly reside when they step into the ring. The Ring is the refuge of a dying universe in the Dark Era. It may be a shadowlands future for our universe. It may be the universe preceding our own, the universe from which the Man of Void and Lady of Fire sent their message, which guaranteed their rebirth in the new universe- through message, through story.

Characteristics

• Name: The Ring
• Location Type: Liminal Plane
• Attunement: The Grey

Denizens

The Ring is bereft of inhabitants of any magnitude less than elder. Nothing else survives in the Ring save by the mercy of the Elders already dwelling in the Ring. And among the residents only Man of Void and Lady of Fire are receptive to the needs of lesser beings.

Elders

The Ring is home to three (four) of the Elders (le ranmi): The Grey, The Hound, and The Man of Void/Lady of Fire. All three (four) of these beings are embodiments of fear. The Grey is fear of chaos, fear of losing control, fear of disorder. The Grey fears the feeling of powerlessness that manifests when one is out of one's depth. The Hound is fear for one's safety and life, fear causing panic and hesitation. The Man of Void/Lady of Fire embody fear of regret, fear of looking back and feeling shame.

Man of Void / Lady of Fire

Few beings are as powerful and as benevolent as the Man of Void and Lady of Fire. And few are as dangerous. The pair of linked Elders are rumored to be surviving sorcerers from the last universe, able to travel through time with the same ease that others travel through space. This impossible movement, limited only by the edges of spacetime itself, has warped the pair's ability to understand and relate to their beloved humans. Here they protect both Free Peoples and Locust Touched alike as they travel between Bonelands and Shadowlands. Man of Void and Lady of Fire will never be seen in person in the Ring, but may interact with beings who stop to meditate or lucid dream in the Ring.

The Grey

Like Man of Void and Lady of Fire, the Grey does not manifest physically in the Ring. The Grey makes its residence in Void House, where the intense cold of Man of Void keeps things near heat death as the Grey likes things. Any sorcerer of the Locust who enters into Void House may converse with the Grey by meditating in the Cheesboard Hall, at their own risk. A Sorcerer of the Free Peoples would have to find a way into Void House to risk communing with the Grey.

The Hound

Few creatures are a relentless as the Hound. Unlike other Elders, the Hound does manifest in the Ring. The Hound lives and rests in Stellar House, behaving like a big friendly monster puppy. The contrast between the Behavior of the Hound in the Shadowlands and the Ring can catch many Sorcerers off guard. But the Locust Touched Sorcerers would have to find a way into Stellar House to see this friendly and helpful side to the Hound and the kindness of its fear.

The Monsters

The Ring is home to a single Monster. A sole Giant (or Gregorim) guards the Gate Room, trapped within the Red Ring inscribed upon its floor. This ancient Giant is the last of its kind, no other Gregorim shares its characteristics. How it came to guard the Gate Room, what happened to other Giants like it (or even if there ever were others like it) are lost to Forgotten Wastes of the Outer Foglands, well beyond the memory of living stories.

Sentinel

The Sentinel is the Guardian of the Gate Room. The Sentinel is a unique Gregorim, unlike its brethren in the Foglands. Perhaps the Sentinel was a special creation made to guard the Gate Room. Perhaps the Sentinel is the last of a previously numerous type of Gregorim. Nobody who knows is talking and nobody who is talking seems to know. The two most obvious ways of dealing with the sentinel are stealth and guile. Avatars may succeed in sneaking or dodging past the Sentinel. More dramatically, avatars may damage the red trough which stops the Sentinel's charging attacks and prevents it from escaping the Gate Room. Damaging the red trough means that when the Sentinel begins a charge towards an area of the trough that has been removed the Sentinel will be unable to stop. The Sentinel will, if it passes through the damaged trough, smash through the wall and float harmlessly away in to the emptiness beyond. The Sentinel will always be found in a restored Gate Room upon return, no mater what its fate in a previous incursion.

Locations

The Ring is a crumbling pair of houses in a universe bereft of light and heat. Only the warmth provided by Lady of Fire makes the Ring habitable. Two 'Houses' sit inside the Ring: Void House- the house tended by Man of Void and the residence of the Grey's Spirit, and Stellar House- tended by Lady of Fire and the residence of the Hound. Between Void House and Stellar House lies the Lotus Garden- a shifting and twisting collection of stone rooms and hallways that lead to the two Houses and, in the back, to the Gate Room. The 'rooms' and corridors of the Lotus Garden sit in what appears to be deep space. And some corridors lead only one way, dilatin iris doors spiraling closed as avatars move through them. The Lotus Garden is a dangerous place and denizens not of the Ring can become lost and trapped there. The gate room is guarded by a Grigorim sentinel.

The Threshold

The Threshold is where one enters the Ring: an impossibly huge flat stone plinth floating in the quasi space-like void that is the Ring.

The Threshold is a windswept and barren area. Stray things are blown away, gone in an instant. Cloaks and jackets whip back and forth. Much of the Ring is well lit. Though lights are not visible, much of Ring is lit like a sitcom. The Threshold is dark and ill lit and foreboding. Sound seems to resonate well in the Threshold, the place seems to pick up the sounds of the rest of the Ring like a speaker. Eerie howls mingle with screams and the sound of sword strokes and gunshots.

The Lotus Garden

The Mazelike expanse of the Lotus Garden is disorienting. There is no horizon and few clean sight lines in the Lotus Garden. The paths slowly shift and one can never be certain the room is in the same place or that one has returned to the same room. The Lotus Garden is filled with archways and overlapping layers, split paths and sharp turns, all of this obscures line of sight and confuse the senses.

The Lotus Garden resonates with a low thrumming vibration that can be felt simply by paying attention. It appears to change in intensity as one moves through the Maze-like garden.

The Lotus Garden is a maze and a map at the heart of the Ring. The Lotus Garden is a replica of the lands of Arcadia in Miniature. But also a maze in three dimensions where paths climb and fall, with bridges and tunnels and arch ways to numerous to compile. The Regions of the Lotus Garden can become charged with mystic effects drawn from the code of the Tenfold Path, but these are only visible to and accessible by beings whose Inner Eye has been opened. The Lotus Garden has ten sections that make up the whole, seven of which form the central garden maze and three of which are bridges to the further sections of the Ring. The central section of Lotus Garden is called The Scavenging Room. This section of the Garden is constructed with colorful mosaics of village life. The art is friendly and Welcoming. Next to The Scavenging Room is The Ignoring Room. This Section looks like the inside of some sort of Catacombs or Mausoleum. The art is death focused and grim. Adjacent to both the Scavenging Room and the Ignoring Room is a larger section: The Gorging Room. This Section is damp, water seeping through the walls with White marble and blue slate stones. To the 'north' of these three earlier rooms is The Squeamishing Room with Red and Grey Stone work, Big and Monolithic and heavy. The Squeamishing Room is exceptionally hot and dry. To the 'west' of these rooms is the Betrayal Room. The Betrayal Room has Green stone work. This room is accented with dark Stones, and is built with lots of narrow pillars and archways. To the 'south' of all these previous rooms, opening to the Void House, is the Cursing Room. The Cursing Room is much larger, a collection of big open chambers, sandstone and white marble and compared to the previous rooms- very windy. The Deferring Room is to the 'east' of the other rooms of the Lotus Garden. It is as large as all the previous rooms combined, and holding the access points to the Threshold but also to the bridges to the Stellar House and the Gate Room. The Deferring Room appears seemingly ancient and worn down, covered in cracks and fissures, filled with dust and sand from worn down black stones. Through the innumerable cracks, water has seeped in until whole sections of the Room are filled to knee high depth with water.

Although the Threshold leads directly into the Lotus Garden, but bridges connect the Lotus Garden to the three other larger sections of the RIng: Void House, Stellar House, and the Gate Room. The Settler's Bridge connects the Deferring Room of the Lotus Garden to Stellar House. The Child's Bridge connects the Cursing Room to Void House. And the Slave's Bridge connects Deferring Room to the Gate Room.

Stellar House

Stellar House the Realm of Lady of Fire and is the burning hear of a star. Stellar House walls boil with stellar fusion, like observation windows in the heart of a volcano. Those with problems regarding enclosed spaces will find the suffocating heat and gravity of Stellar House to be an intense challenge. Despite the lethal appearance of their descriptions, since both Void House and Stellar House are conceptual locations, the danger is purely to the will and not the body.

Stellar House swelters with a dry arid heat. Denizens unaccustomed to such temperature will find themselves sweating profusely and easily exhausted. Stellar House is the location in the Shadowlands attuned to the Lady of Fire. Actions taken may draw her notice, especially if those actions are those of which she may approve or may disapprove. Space in Stellar House is distorted. Things may seem or actually be closer or further away than they appear to be at first glance.

Void House

Void House is the Realm of Man of Void and is absolute zero of the void for which he is named. Void House glitters with stars in the night. The walls appear hollow, literally the voids of deep interstellar space with impossible walls that threaten to break the mind. Despite the lethal appearance of their descriptions, since both Void House and Stellar House are conceptual locations, the danger is purely to the will and not the body.

The air in Void House is cold. Skin prickles and denizens not accustomed to the cold find themselves shivering and may even risk hypothermia or frost bite it still too long. Void House is the location in the Shadowlands attuned to the Man of Void. Actions taken may draw his notice, especially if those actions are those of which he may approve or may disapprove. Time is Distorted in VoidHouse. Denizens will sometimes experience events before the happen or after they happen. The past and future may be glimpsed in flashes.

The Gate Room

The Gate Room is a single room, divided in two by a great gate. The front half of the Gate Room is guarded by The Sentinel, a Gregorim- One of the Giants of the Foglands. The second half the Room contains the gates leading to the other realms. Each realm has a Key that can be found to enable direct travel to that realm from the Ring.

The Gate Room is crumbling, blocks have already drifted loose into the emptiness beyond and starlight twinkles through the gaps. Stones feel loose and shift beneath feet. Dust drifts in the air and streams of loose dust fall from the ceiling.

The six great pillars in the Gate Room are all wider than any normal human. And there is no position in the room where they do not restrict the sight lines somewhat. Carved upon the pillars are strange sigils and each pillar bears one of the following words: gluttony, submission, collaboration, intolerance, hubris, and iconoclasm.

A trough, roughly the width and depth of a fist runs in a rough rectangle around the room, inside the six pillars. The Trough has been painted a bright red. The Sentinel seems to refuse to step beyond the trough, but its enormous hammer can clearly reach well beyond the boundary of the trough.