The Hell Keys

There are numerous minor realms in the Shadowlands. None of them are so well established as the Realms of Fair Folk. Their realms connect to all the major realms and the liminal realms. And the doors to the various demenses in this realm are the Hell keys.

The Recurrence of the Tower

Whether its the Tower of Retribution in Berserk or Kami's Watch Tower in Dragon Ball, The Tower of Babel in Ancient myth or the New Tower of Babel in the film Metropolis, The Dark Tower quoted in King Lear or the Dark Tower in the works of Stephen King; no matter the form of the story, epic tales grow towers like damp houses grow mold.

 

A brief Snapshot of the Foglands

The Foglands is an eerie place for new arrivals to experience. The concrete hard sand dunes and broken rocky ground have been desaturated by some earlier tragedy and most of the landscape is the weird monochrome of a 1950s television broadcast. The sky, by contrast is a toxic looking bloody orange by day, and a deeper near opaque orange black at night- marked by a hallowe'en orange moon. The brackish lakes and inland seas are nearly all a rusty orange from the oxidizing metal and salt content of the water. Grey and Orange. Monochrome and and garish contrast. The visuals along are enough to make some new arrivals lose what lunch they brought with them for the incursion.

A very very Short and Thoroughly Incomplete List of Locations in Arcadia

• The Village
• The Cematary
• The Lake
• The Mountain
• The Forest
• The Plains
• The Coastline

An Abridged list of Locations in the Mirrored City

The City

• The Ward of Gildguld
• The Ward of Mitchuas
• The Ward of Gaibrus
• The Ward of Zeudin Vashas
• The Ward of Lamris
• The Ward of Friedites
• The Ward of Valstaris
• The Ward of Xerfer

The Lef River

• The Northern Waters of Gongin
• The Southern Waters of Lamlex
  

The Frontier Lands

• The Mountain Stronghold
• The Frozen Plains
• The Windswept Plains
• Strongiron Village
• The Living Forest
• The Second Forest

A Brief and Incomplete list of Locations in the Ring

The Threshold

The Lotus Garden

• Village Region
• Graveyard Region
• Lake Shrine Region
• Dark Mountain Region
• Bone Forest Region
• Great Plains Region
• Coastal Seas Region
• Bridge to Stellar House
• Bridge to Void House
• Bridge to Gate Room
• Bridge to the Threshold

Void House

Stellar House

The Gate Room

• The Front Room
• The Back Room

Brief Overiew of Location in Hidden Heart

The Dual Core Chambers

• The Chamber of the Survivors
• The Chamber of the Scavengers

The Three Wings

• The Glass Wing
• The Emerald Wing
• The Dust Wing

The Four Corners

• The Table Corner
• The Dark Corner
• The Scorched Corner
• The Salt Corner

The Five Terminals

• The Serpent Terminal
• The Mystery Terminal
• The Bridge Terminal
• The Ancient Terminal
• The Alliance Terminal

Brief List of Location in the Painted Labyrinth

The Shrines of the Three

• The Firebird Temple
• Weaver Cave
• The Spiral Tower

The Meeting Places

• The Amphitheatre
• The Globe Sepulchre
• The Bazaar
• The Council Stronghold
• The Alliance Gate
• The Witch House

Precursor Ruins

• The Beetle
• The Twin Collosi
• Dikinesh Canyon
• The Altar of the Elder Brothers
• The Grave of the Corn Lady

The Pillars

• The Great Western Pillar
• The Great Eastern Pillar

The Bridges

• The Hummingbird Bridge
• The Butterfly Bridge

Campaign Grounds

• Barren Island
• Hunting Grounds
• Tenfold Manor
• Damacles Graveyard Throne
• Daemon Temple
• The Short Tower
• The Keystone Cave
• The Solar Moon Henge
• The Place of Slaughter
• The Fern Forest
• Cavern Lake of Discord

A More Thorough List of Ribcage Locations

• The Ribcage Castle
• The Ribcage Castle
• The Keep
• The West Wall
• The Western Tower
• The East Wall
• The Eastern Tower
• Babylon City
• Babylon Square
• The Crimson Monument
• The Crimson Wall
• The Ivory Wall
• The Empty Quarter
• The Empty Fountain
• The Hollow Shrine
• The Silver Wall
• The Gilded Wall
• The Dead Forest
• The Broken Gates
• The Iron Gallows
• The Empty Archway
• The Gates of Sorrow
• The Hanging Archway

Expanded Location list for The Drowned City

• The Grave of Brine
• The Drowned City
• The Crimson Tower
• The Ivory Tower
• The Silver Tower
• The Bridge to Heaven
• The Bridge to Hell
• The Gilded House West
• The Gilded House East
• The Circle of Rust
• The Neon Oracle
• The Asylum
• The Reception House
•   The House of Eights
• The Salt Market
• The Burning Lands
• Reactor Number One
• Reactor Number Two
• Reactor Number Four
• The Last Daytower
• Jawbone Ridge
•  Incisor Earthwork
• The Canine Cairn
• Molar Runestone

The Mirrors in the Sky

The Glass City is the land of the Locust King, his false utopia that hovers- a castle city in the sky.

The Wards of The City of Mirrors

The City of Mirrors is modelled after the city of old London and Prague and Paris. The place has a glamour of shining crystal towers and skycastles. Beneath the Glamour is smog filled, ash stained, dirty old Londontown from the tales of Charles Dickens. A Grimdark Gaslamp Fantasy world. The City of Mirrors is composed of Wards built from the corpses and sacrifice of the Dead Gods after whom they are named.

• The Ward of Gildguld (God of Tax Collectors- The Merchant District)
• The Ward of Mitchuas (The Son of Ash- The Church District)
• The Ward of Gaibrus (The Birdgod of the Dawn- The Palace District)
• The Ward of Zeudin Vashas (The Six Faced Lord of Thunder- The Court District
• The Ward of Lamris (The God of Obedience and the Underworld- Graveyard District)
• The Ward of Friedites (The Goddess of Sin and Purity- The Red light District)
• The Ward of Valstaris (The Goddess of Love and war- The Barracks District)
• The Ward of Xerfer  (The Goddess of Jealousy and Greed- The Guild District)

What is the Shadowlands?

We don't live in the real world. We live in a fantasy world constructed by our mind.

How can this be?

Because we can't access the real world. Our senses are ridiculously limited in their perceptions. Sight is limited to the so call visible spectrum, unable to see infrared or ultraviolet, radio waves or x-rays. We see thirty  frames per second, making the very fast and the very slow virtually invisible to our senses. Our hearing is likewise limited, and our sense of smell fails to notice all kinds of deadly vapors. We can't perceive radiation, except when it sickens or kills us.

In addition, the idea that our sense will function properly is something frequently disproven, near-sightedness, far-sightedness, blindness, deafness, colorblindness, hallucinations and much more reduce our already limited knowledge of the real world.

And what of our assumptions? Humans don't come hardwired with the knowledge that an adult possesses, and no two adults accumulate the same body of knowledge, the same cultural baggage, the same heuristics and contexts, stories and biases and on and on.

Introduction 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.