Geography Lessons

An unstable land

Though the land has calmed since the time of the First Eruption, Seln remains far more geologically active than earth. Suffused with the primordial, elemental energy of birth, Seln constantly evolves.

Small crystal eruptions might wipe away roads or reroute a river. Greater crystal eruptions create geological features from whole cloth! A powerful eruption can raise a mountain from a swamp or blast an island into a crater. Land can be inserted between two points like an unrolling carpet, or it can vanish entirely!

Elemental storms and the ley lines dominate the land, determining local climate and weather. For example, ley lines dominated by Fire may generate hot, arid climates; those dominated by Water may be humid and verdant. These rivers of energy shift due to eruptions and storms, potentially forcing dramatic and sudden changes in climate!

The Kingdom has devised wards that mitigate the worst of these events. These wards deflect the worst elemental storms and stabilize crystals against eruption. Within these wards, the land behaves (more or less) like our own. Beyond the wards, however, cartography is a temporary endeavor at best.

As a result, maps of Seln are closer to a guess than a chart. The Kingdom has not been able to survey much beyond the wards in many years, and Seln beyond the Kingdom’s sight is a mystery.

In short, Seln is a land that defies its bounds. Walk with care.

Strange Realms

To further complicate matter, Seln is home to a host of pocket dimensions! These Realms are created by the august Spirits, the mournful Shades, or the whispering Fae. Each Realm exists beside the normal world, but the Realms are obey the whims and nature of their Rulers.

Access to these Realms depends on hidden gateways, luck, and even celestial events. Once inside, a traveler is at the mercy of the Realm, and many have vanished never to be seen again.

Underground

The first few hundred feet of soil host bands of ancient ruin and crushed rock. As one digs further, the island opens into massive, dark caverns and cave systems that burrow through the entire land. Like time capsules, these caverns host many creatures driven underground by cataclysms of age past.

The ecosystem of those caverns is hungry. It is no place for folk.

Should a fool delve even deeper, the rock begins to resemble ancient bone…

Sun, Moon, and Stars

Like our world, Seln hosts one sun and one moon.

The sun is familiar, operating like our own.

The moon hovers in the sky, about three times the size of our own; this is large enough to showcase the truly catastrophic set of scar chasms and impact blasts that pepper its surface. The moon never sets, though it does wax and wane every twenty-nine days.

Astute observers will notice that the lunar scars appear to have been carved from a handful of central points…more like scars of ancient war than stray comets.

Seln’s stars bear no relation to our own. Not only are the constellations completely unfamiliar, but the sky also hosts the wandering stars. The wandering stars blink in, blink out, and cross the sky according to their own mysterious rhythms. A few crackpot astrologers claim that the wandering stars signal the movement of other worlds in relation to Seln, but who would believe that?!

Seln itself is not, as far as anyone can tell, a planet. No one has ever delved deep enough beneath the isle to find its bottom, and the Akashic Sea swirls in all directions to the horizon and beyond. The sun rises from the sea in the east and sets into the sea into the west.

The Elemental Poles

Each of the elemental Poles are remnants of the First Eruption where the pure energy of the dominant element reaches such concentrations that they form a singularity. Direct exposure to the Poles would be fatal, the element so strong that it would overcome the body’s natural balance.

Each Pole acts as an anchor for the ley lines, creating a natural gravity of each element in a specific direction. Together, the interplay of the Poles create the underlying pattern of climate beneath the chaos of elemental storms and local phenomenon.

The Poles fluctuate, much like the sun cycle of our own world. When they crest, they generate elemental hurricanes that ravage the land. If two crest at the same time, and their storms collide, anyone and anything underneath is going to have a very bad day.

Air

The Pole of Air is a tremendous tornado of ice and mist that spins eternal above a small island to the north of the Kingdom. This vortex consumes the heat of everything it touches and spits out bitter, blinding snows. As a result, the island below is locked into eternal winter and is not habitable by normal folk.

Nevertheless, there are always sailor rumors of strange lights seen on the coast, beckoning the foolhardy to take shelter from the brutal waves…

Water

There is no known Pole of Water. Scholars believe this is because the Akashic Sea itself is the source of elemental Water.

Earth

The Pole of Earth is the highest mountain in the Roof of the World. Already a towering mountain range, the Roof of the World grows higher and sharper in the approach to the Pole. The mountains reach above the clouds where the air thins and folk suffocate, and the Pole of Earth itself stretches higher still.

Folk legend states that one could scale the Pole of Earth to reach the moon itself, but the Pole’s influence petrifies living flesh. When the Pole flares, the entirety of Seln rattles under earthquakes, and new mountains break ground and rise to join the Roof of the World.

Fire

Not surprisingly, the Pole of Fire is an angry volcano, jutting from the Akashic Sea to spew endless rivers of lava. It belches burning rocks like comets that soar for hundreds of miles, and its burning fumes can set clothes and equipment on fire. Of all the Poles, this is the least known.

A few hardy travelers have managed to reach the volcanic isle that grows up around the Fire. They described lands of massive gemstones and gleaming chunks of metal strewn across the ground! They christened the isle itself Obsidia, and all but one perished on that journey. When this Pole flares, Seln grapples with brutal heat and flash fires.

Light and Dark

There are no known elemental poles of Light and Dark. One must wonder what strange form such ephemeral Poles would take…