Joined: Jun 21, 2014 Posts: 8338 Location: Singapore
Erukai, Sekharis, Cletfard, and Terminus by the M:EM community Status: Open
These four planes were collectively designed in the Make-a-Plane Game. If it's all right with everyone, I'd like to have them officially voted into the archives.
Erukai is a world reminiscent of Japanese kabuki theater. It's a surreal world of puppet-like creatures, giant animals, and fireworks. Goblins are the most populous race on the plane, and they wage war constantly with the other races for territory.
The Dragon War, the Golems, and the Portal
Eons ago, mighty dragons fought in the aether-lands that would become Erukai. They created and destroyed planes with every breath. From this chaos, the golems were born. The golems saved the newborn plane of Erukai from destruction by sectioning it off from the Dragon War.
The Dragon King is the only remnant of Erukai's destructive creation. He found his way into the plane through an unstable planar portal, which now lies in the maw of a forgotten sea serpent. Now, as the only dragon on the plane, he is content demanding tribute and sacrifices from his subjects.
The Elvish Civilization
The elves were once a great civilization of artificers. They created many wondrous relics and monuments, including the husks that can be found scattered through the mountains of Erukai. It is said that they judged the World-soul of Erukai to be inadequate, and sought to cage the moon and transform it into a weapon. In the end, a plague destroyed the elves, and the ruins of their civilization now play host to the teeming masses of the other races.
Vedalken texts on the lost elvish civilization suggest that the elves were above the use of names when interacting with their own kind. Only in dealing with humans and goblins did they adopt monikers, usually indicative of their affinity for artifice.
Goblins
Goblins are not native to Erukai. They came through the sea-serpent portal long ago from the plane of Goblinaria, a world wholly infested with goblins. Since then, they have overrun much of Erukai and claimed the land for themselves. Goblins ride dinosaurs, wield scavenged elvish artifacts, and are a general expansionist nuisance to the rest of the plane.
The currency of the goblin civilization is artifact shards. It is said that the goblin who collects every elvish artifact will become the Emperor of Goblinkind.
The Guild of the Scavengers: The organization that salvaged the first elvish relics. They are seen as heroes, even if the founders were exiles and criminals. They still have a very lenient moral code. The Nomad Tribes: The -affiliated goblins are especially large, have the most animal traits (tusks, tail, claws, poisonous skin, and so on), and are also the best dinosaur herders. The Fire Clan: The -affiliated goblins are an industrious, militaristic army that uses fireworks and rockets. They have an uneasy truce with the ratfolk. The Mekgoblins: The -affiliated goblins have discovered a way to hijack vedalken golems and drive them around. Naturally, they then graft lots of artifact pieces onto the golems and use them to punch things. The Demon Cults: The -affiliated goblins live in the backwoods of the plane, and are infamous summoners of imps and devils. Their high priests believe that the demons were once tools forged in the dragon war. The Phoenix Squadron: A coalition of Mekgoblins and goblin shamans who are researching ways to siege the aven.
Angels and Aven
Legend says that the angels emerged when shards of moonlight rained to earth and pierced the hearts of beings of living clay. They may be the descendants of the golems, or they may have been spawned from the golems.
The aven are snobby isolationists who live in cloud palaces, drink tea, and practice origami. Many aven cities have taken to hosting angels. The angels offer their might in the internal conflicts of the aven, but refuse to attack other angels.
Angels pay only lip service to the war unfolding beneath them. Instead they bide their time until the return of their original creator, who is said to be a powerful mage that exiled themselves from existence itself.
Vedalken
Vedalken are distant relatives of the elves. They survived extinction by embracing artifice, and are torn between fighting to defend their homeland, or fleeing to the cold southern wildlife-rich archipelago. The vedalken are especially known for their golems, which are unstable, unfinished beings fashioned in the likeness of angels.
Vedalken are sometimes born with silver flesh and blood. These Silverhearts have long lifespans and are especially skilled artificers, but can't reproduce. Many of them eventually turn themselves into living quicksilver golems.
Humans
Humans occupy a low rung on the food chain; most of them are refugees from the goblins' firework incursions. They have settled in the fertile farmlands of Erukai, and are known for their pipeweed and skill at brewing. Within their quaint hill-hole dens, the humans plot the downfall of goblinkind.
A human legend claims that some powerful elvish druids, before their whole race faced extinction, were preparing a massive spell to disrupt the "mechanical frenzy that corrupted the elvish natural spirit," disenchanting all their artifacts and forcing the elvish race to return to an idyllic earlier state. Humans consider this legendary spell to be their chance to get rid of the goblin menace.
Ratfolk
Ratfolk have the most success fighting back against the goblins, thanks to the maddening maze-like organization of their tunnels. Unfortunately, they are divided into seven mutually distrustful factions, which is why they haven't been able to wage open war against the goblins. Unbeknownst to other mortal races and even many of their own number, the rats have something that even the Dragon King fears imprisoned in the labyrinth of their deepest caverns.
The Short Fang Sodality is one of the more notable ratfolk factions. Located on the ratfolk-goblin border, the Shortfangs often provide goblins with guides to the tunnels to encourage raiding on their rivals.
Ratfolk are sometimes born with white fur, which is seen as an omen of good fortune. While the exact title and powers of the leaders of the seven ratfolk factions differ, all but one of them is a white-furred ratfolk. The only one who isn't is King Blackfang of the Vandeus Faction.
The Unseen Masters
At important moments throughout the plane's history, important figures have claimed to have been merely observing the actions they had carried out, like they had become the puppets of an unseen force. This force is believed to originate from the Unseen Masters. A vedalken cult has sprung up around worship of the Unseen Masters, and some believe that the rumored sea serpent is connected to them in some way. Nevertheless, the Masters have never shown themselves in the landscape of the plane as a whole.
The plane's true masters have no room in their plan for the goblins. It would be regrettable if overt action had to be taken, but perhaps the goblins must share the fate of the elves.
Miscellaneous
There is an event which has been redacted from all history books. All we know is that there is a three-year gap in the records of all the races.
The plane's squirrels (which are significantly larger than most squirrels in the multiverse) are fully sapient, but are keeping their society hidden from the other races.
While the crabs of the south-western archipelago have nearly impenetrable shells, some devils have found that riding collapsing cliff faces down onto the crabs exposes the meat within quite effectively.
It is said that the moon of Erukai reflects the ages of history. It was green when the elvish civilization was at its height of power, and it was golden when the angels entered the world. At present, the moon is blue. What significance this holds, only time will tell.
Sekharis is an Egyptian-themed plane in which the catfolk and the houndfolk have been at war since the beginning of time. These races are actually the long-distant offspring of ancient gods of the underworld, and their war mirrors the war taking place in the Realms of Judgment. Additionally, the 'war' takes place in the form of ritual one-on-one combat.
The Ancient Catastrophe
Many millennia ago, a catastrophe reshaped the world and drove many species to extinction. It is the topic of many didactic myths. Some believe it was the coming of the gods that erased such species as baloths, viashino, and elves, and turned much of the landscape to desert.
The staple crop of Sekharis is now the humble potato. Each major race has a breed of animal they feed potatoes to that are used for meat, work, pets, and war.
Catfolk
The catfolk are presently the dominant race on Sekharis. They are aligned primarily with black mana and have a penchant for 'witchcraft', most of them being at least minor wizards. Their society uses zombies for labor.
Catfolk abide by the philosophy that defeatingsome one proves you their equal, and believe the food chain is a representation of this. For a catfolk to eat anything but meat is shameful, as they believe themselves the ultimate lifeforms on the plane. Catfolk nobility eat only the flesh of sapients.
Houndfolk and Aven
The houndfolk are white-aligned fascists that believe all other sapient species must be eradicated for the world to be pure. The red-aligned, warlike aven are allied with them, thanks to an ancient debt that the Sun-bird owes the Jackal Emperor. However, the debt will one day run out, and the aven could well turn on the houndfolk on that day.
There exists an artifact of great power known as the Fork of Power, which is said to allow the user to eat the sun. At present, it is jealously guarded by the aven, for fear that the agents of the Dark Serpent might lay hands upon it.
Kithkin
The kithkin live in small communities spread among the oases of the desert. Their hardy insect mounts and intimate knowledge of the land allow them thrive beyond the reach of more powerful empires. They are associated with green mana, at their best being vibrant and communal and at their worst barbaric and gluttonous.
It is said that every god put one drop of blood into a vase and the contents were poured into moulds to create the first kithkin. In this way, all gods were given a stake in the world and would not seek to destroy it. Kaliya, the goddess of wisdom, backed out of the deal, so the process had to be repeated with the (now full-sized) humans.
Humans and Kaliya
Kaliya, the goddess of wisdom and deceit, is depicted as a winged woman with a bronze mask for a face. She is said to have invented the sitar, drum and flute, and to have given them to all the races so that they would forever be reminded of her genius. According to legend, she appeared suddenly in the world, only to vanish soon after without a trace -- the ultimate trick she played on the gods.
Humans on Sekharis are aligned primarily with blue mana, surviving by their wits and penchant for artifice. They believe that the blessing of Kaliya makes them superior to the Kithkin. Meanwhile, the Kithkin believe that they were blessed to be able to live without the burden of artifice.
Ratfolk
Long ago, the white-aligned ratfolk had a civilization that used catoblepas as beasts of burden. Their civilization was ground into submission by the catfolk -- literally. The remaining ratfolk on the plane were subjugated by the catfolk and eventually went extinct.
The ratfolk had no connection to any of the gods, which raised much concern and hatred about what the existence of a race unrelated to the gods meant. Some speculate that the ratfolk existed before the catastrophe. The Dark Serpent had schemed to bring the ratfolk under his control before the catfolk exterminated them.
The Dark Serpent
The God of Darkness is depicted as a great serpent, was not permitted to join in forging the humans and kithkin, and is despised by the main-line culture and theology of all mortal races as the enemy of the true Gods. Cults of the Dark Serpent exist in secret among kithkin (as the "Great Devourer"), Humans (as the "Keeper of Secrets"), and Cats (as the "Ultimate Predator" or "Father of Night"), but naturally being a member of such a cult is a death sentence in any society if discovered.
At night, it is said that the Dark Serpent constricts the world. The stars are the shining of his scales, and the moon is his watchful eye. Legends say that the Dark Serpent eats anything he sees - and the only thing keeping him from devouring the world is that his mouth is too small. Most people do not go out when the moon can be seen.
When a traveller dies of exhaustion in the desert, their soul leaves their bones and becomes a black snake -- an emissary of the Dark Serpent. He is patiently building its forces, awaiting the day his plague of vipers will be unleashed to conquer the world.
Miscellaneous
Old as the plane itself, the treefolk are silent sentinels that have been preparing to bring justice by animating the land.
Both the kithkin and the humans have a wide variety of potato dishes, but they tend to disagree on which of them is tastiest. The Kithkin like to take the potatoes and boil 'em, mash 'em, stick 'em in a stew. The sophisticated humans, on the other hand, prefer to slice potatoes into thin strips, and then fry them in breaded batter until they become crispy.
The bitter blood herb, though only mildly toxic, can be eaten to turn one's flesh dangerously toxic. It is often eaten by people's on the catfolk's borders and by lower-class catfolk. The areas where it grows used to be breeding and raising grounds for the Ratfolk's catoblepas; the catfolk have forced most of the catoblepas away, but their toxic corpses and bones can still be found among the bitter blood herbs.
Once a year, it rains blood. It is said that this blood comes from a yearly combat between the Dark Serpent and the other gods. Most claim it is the blood of the Dark Serpent as he is bested by the others, while his supporters claim it is blood he draws from the other gods.
Every hundredth year since the First Dawn marks a major shift in the Realms of Judgment. Less than a year remains until the expected shift, and theories abound on how it will affect the world of mortals.
Cletfard is a world of darkness and ice. The civilizations of the plane are confined to a narrow equatorial band surrounded by water on two sides and icy wastes on the others. During the Long Night, when the civilized lands are plunged into darkness, the undead rise in what is known as the Blight to reduce the world to ruin.
Lithomancy
As there is no metal in Cletfard, molding rock is the most common form of artifice. Lithomancers are rare and highly prized for their skill.
There is a dwarven rockmolder that believes there was once metal on the plane - and that the dwarven god has tasked him with wandering Cletfard eternally, serving up the souls of those that depleted the plane's nonexistent supply of metal.
Green-aligned naturalists rail against the unnatural reshaping of mother earth, and fight over whether or not tree-shaping is acceptable. Some see it as just as vile as "earth-warping," while others see it as a gift given by the forests. Still others see it as a heresy, but a necessary one if they wish to stay relevant in a world of "earth-warpers."
Civilization
Humans and dwarves are known to exist on Cletfard, as well as a vedalken civilization called Relasha. Dwarven coastal villages have their houses carved into the cliffed coasts that are common on the plane.
Warfare consists mostly of trained animal combat, with armored "knights" riding beasts like mammoths and lizards and bears into battle. Sharp edges are made from teeth and claws or the sharp but fragile "hellstone" (obsidian). Weaponsmiths are more often carpenters than smiths -- earth-shapers capable of the precision needed to make weapons are too valuable to waste creating arms for the common soldier.
The Blight
The Blight consists of Shades, Zombies, and sometimes Vampires. Legend says that you can tell a vampire by its reflection, which it will never cast in water or ice. Mirrors on Cletfard are made from highly polished obsidian or black marble, and vampires do show up in these mirrors.
There are rumors that this is not the first world the Blight -- or the Dark Tide -- has plunged into an age of darkness. If the Blight is truly extraplanar in origin, it might have something to do with the dearth of metal.
Polar Bears
The polar bears of Cletfard are intelligent and live forever. They forge armors and utilize them as their souls. Some say the bears used to be human, but traded their mortal forms for power and immortality -- nevertheless, they seldom seem to enjoy it.
The Moon
The full moon shines brightly enough to kill vampires. Tales recount times when even a crescent moon held such power. It has been observed that as the world below grows more lifeless, the moon is becoming increasingly vibrant.
In Relasha, plans are being put in motion to relocate to the moon. According to legend, the moon is the habitation of strange, long-eared moonfolk who have acted as teachers and guides for special vedalken, but most respected, non-vedalken scholarship rejects this idea.
This world has no name to its residents; it is known to planeswalkers as the the plane of Terminus. It is a single gigantic building, and is being consumed by an eldritch abomination that lurks in the deepest levels (which are known as the Crumbling Nether). The entire population of the plane is constantly climbing to higher levels of the building to escape annihilation.
The Building
The building was clearly not designed for human habitation. By all appearances it was constructed almost at random. Water flows upwards in some parts of the building; vast areas are sealed off by walls; sometimes you'll find thirty identical rooms stacked on top of one another. Strangest of all, travel far enough north, south, east, or west and you'll find yourself right back where you started. Most rooms and hallways have sunstones embedded in the walls or ceilings to provide light; some areas are lit only by the torches of lampads.
Floors are gigantic in scale, with the bulk of all civilization, a massive number of sapient beings, existing at any one time on a mere five floors. Thankfully, multi-story atria can be found on most floors, usually with a few trees, some grass, and soil fertile enough to grow vegetables for a year or two. Other than plants, the only living things found on unexplored floors are mangled and badly-regenerated trolls (for this reason, trolls are typically hesitant to venture far off the beaten path).
The tower's civilization tends to congregate around part of the structure that allow them to traverse vertically, because vertical movement is difficult and the rare structures that enable it are natural congregation points. The tower climbers divide history into eras based on the predominant material of the tower around them. When they reach a level overwhelmingly composed of a single material, it is declared a new age, the [material] age. Mixed material ages are given individualized names based on other criteria.
Some believe that ceilings and obstructions should be blasted away to facilitate faster climbing. Others oppose their actions, fearing for the structural integrity of the building.
Civilization
The civilization of Terminus is a mixed bag, known to include kor, humans, duergar, goblins, ratfolk, and trolls. Kor comprise the bulk of society. Ratfolk are second-class citizens, but know all the secret passages and stairs. Humans are the ruling elite. Because society is constantly on the move, people have few possessions; instead, status is based on deeds performed and debts owed.
The most respected secular institution is the Order of Explorers, acting as both historians and cartographers. Among them is an old cartographer who has made it his mission to record all the floors, so that they may be remembered even after they are lost.
One of the main belief systems in society is the Path of Ascension that holds that the journey upwards is spiritual as well as physical, and the soul shall, if not consumed and kept from the cycle of reincarnation, someday reach the mythical "topmost floor" and Paradise. Explorers who venture long distances are careful to carry some means of suicide to ensure their reincarnation. On the flip side, a small, secretive cult believes feeding people to the Crumbling Nether is the only way to stop it; to this end, as the Crumbling Nether climbs, victims are left behind, bound, gagged, and alone.
The current age of decadence is drawing to a close. For 22 years the Grand Ramp formed the backbone of civilization. THe wide, gently-sloped ramp allowed easy access between 99 consecutive floors, alleviating trade and communication. But now the Ramp's foundations are within reach of the crumbling nether. The collapse of the foundations is projected to trigger a chain reaction that will render every floor touching the Ramp unstable. What will happen to civilization at that point, no one knows.
Creatures
Civilization separates entities into three categories. Civilized beings are the races that form civilization, their pets, and their livestock. Independent beings are those that seem to belong to the Structure as a whole, such as mimics and lampad nymphs. Servitors are beings civilized scholars believe are somehow in league with or spawned from the Crumbling Nether, such as demons, devils, and nightstalkers.
There is a strange metallic golem who has apparently been around since the beginning of recorded history, known only as The Jester. It finds the impending doom hilarious.
The Abomination and the Crumbling Nether
The Nether-light is an eerie blue light to which all nonliving matter is translucent (thus resulting in it shining through the entirety of many floors) and which can cause living things to become sick based on the intensity and duration of exposure. It pervades the Crumbling Nether, and is what powers the sunstones; thus, the dark areas on upper floors are shadows of the life lower down.
When it is very quiet, the abomination can sometimes be heard murmuring from the depths. It casts a shadow in the Blind Eternities that prevents planeswalkers from planeswalking into it. They might, however, reach a floor years before the normal population reaches it, leaving puzzling trinkets for the population to find.
Miscellaneous
Many believe the constant cycle of destruction and resettlement is meant to impart a lesson. Some say it is a lesson in strength, others a lesson in transience. Some say it is a test to break free of the cycle. Whether these beliefs are true or false, only one thing is certain: the cycle of Terminus shall continue.
*"To YMTC it up" means to design cards that have value mostly from a design perspective. i.e. you would put them in a case under glass in your living room and visitors could remark upon the wonderful design principles, with nobody ever worring if the cards are annoying/pointless/confusing in actual play
Joined: Sep 22, 2013 Posts: 5700 Location: Inside my own head
Identity: Human
While there are small nuggets of information that could make these interesting worlds, all of them feel like some prepubescent teen's first attempt at worldbuilding. Especially the first two which are said to have an aesthetic inspiration, then almost nothing in the text supports that aesthetic. The various random bits cobbled together, and not just the miscellania, feel like random "wouldn't this be cool" additions from a young mind.
I want to vote for Cletfard and Terminus. At least, I'd love those two to be the subjects of more detailed community worldbuilding and run for real. But I can't accept them as they are now and Erukai and Sekharis feel like the sort of throwaway plane you might visit on an "adventure" story but that isn't worthy of its own Planeswalker's Guide (A lot like some of the M:EM's very first additions like Valjan classic, Zent, and Keter).
I'm voting NAI but it's basically a Nay vote, I just want to say that I'd like to see at least half of these move forward and be worked into real, usable things.
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"Enjoy your screams, Sarpadia - they will soon be muffled beneath snow and ice."
I'm a (self) published author now! You can find my books on Amazon in Paperback or ebook! The Accursed, a standalone young adult fantasy adventure. Witch Hunters, book one of a young adult Scifi-fantasy trilogy.
The various random bits cobbled together, and not just the miscellania, feel like random "wouldn't this be cool" additions
I mean, that basically is what happened.
That doesn't mean they're complete enough to warrant being voted on.
I know I didn't voice it well, but like Tevish there are elements of several of these worlds I'm interested in if they were more fully developed. Hell, if there was a story or two that took place on one of these planes to actually build it up as something beyond these index-card-sized guides, then I might say Yea on the notion of yet further expansion, but none of these wholes as they are right now are nearly engaging enough for me to consider their inclusion. These all have good ideas in them, but none of them have any execution right now, and personally I feel the days to let things in without a good execution are over.
I need to evoke my inner four-armed Vedalken here.
On one hand, my first instinct with these is that I would rather they be more fully developed before voted into the Archive.
On the other hand, we have planes in the Archive that are equally, or even less, developed than these, so maybe that doesn't really matter.
On the other other hand, if these are not all that developed, and not being used as a story, do they really need to officially be in the Archive anyway? If someone wanted to write something set on one or more of these planes, there is nothing in the rules to say they can't, and if they story were voted it, the plane or planes would come along with it.
On the still other hand, I have no complaints about write-ups here. Their quality, I think, is perfectly fine for the source material, and I don't think there's a problem with any of the information.
I think for me, ultimately, it comes down to that fact that these really don't need to be voted in yet. I would love to see stories based on these planes, particularly Terminus (regardless of how much it reminds me of Persona 3) and once that happens, I like the idea of having a dossier for the plane, but for right now, I'll have to say Not As Is, pending either further development or stories attached to them.
Also, when and if these do get voted in, I'd rather see them voted in separately, despite coming from the same thread.
I'm pretty much on board with the NAI vote. When it comes down to it, there just needs to be a bit more of a motivating factor in forming an attachment to these. Whether that's more time in development or just a feature in a story, it doesn't really matter.
But that really isn't to say I don't want to see more of them. As someone who habitually (damn near compulsively) makes worlds, there just has to be more of a hook on them. That's just speaking out of my experience.
...all my poor poor neglected worlds.
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At twilight's end, the shadow's crossed / a new world birthed, the elder lost. Yet on the morn we wake to find / that mem'ry left so far behind. To deafened ears we ask, unseen / "Which is life and which the dream?"
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-affiliated goblins are especially large, have the most animal traits (tusks, tail, claws, poisonous skin, and so on), and are also the best dinosaur herders.
-affiliated goblins are an industrious, militaristic army that uses fireworks and rockets. They have an uneasy truce with the ratfolk.
