Post by Pip Mystral on Jun 24, 2015 1:06:14 GMT -5
Temra's history and its people have been shaped and molded by the existence of the strange, metaphysical phenomenon known only as The Gate.
The Gate first appeared on the continent of Temra at the end of the Age of Decadence, the end of the Before Times, and, with its outpouring of magic, begun the Three Days of Fire that marked the passage from the First Era into this one. Exactly what it is or how it came into existence, no one knows; many believe that it is simply an act of the Gods, while others think that there is some reason to its existence. Physically, the Gate does not exist - instead, it is in and of itself a tear in physicality, a lack of Existence. It is a hole into other existences, other worlds, and occasionally, it opens and lets something from those worlds into this one.
The Gate itself is supposedly closed. Mythologically, it was shut by the new Gods at the end of the Great War, and only a few small trickles of power are able to leak out. In practice, what is considered a 'small trickle of power' by the Gate's standards can seem huge by the standards of mortal creatures. It lets monsters, strange spells, near-undetectable energy, and, occasionally, even people from places and times unknown into this world. Many strange phenomena of magic or even beyond magic are attributed - often correctly - to the existence of the Gate.
While mythology puts the Gate's first emergence somewhere in Med Temra (specifically, the people of Sovereign contend that the Gate opened there, while others hold their own beliefs as to where it first appeared), the exact location of the Gate is hard to pin down, as its opening bounces around in a nearly random fashion between points on Temra and elsewhere in the rest of the world. Some scholars believe, for example, that in the fateful first opening of the Gate, that it somehow simultaneously opened in every part of Temra at once. Its very nature defies the descriptions of purely physical beings.
However, there are a few rules to its appearance. It never appears in the same place twice in a row, and it almost never opens on the same place or time twice. When it opens, and is able to be seen, the Gate looks exactly like what it is - a hole in the fabric of the universe. It is a long, dark tear, usually about the height of a tall man, though occasionally, on momentous, historic occasions (such as its first appearance, in the few documents that survived the War), as huge as several miles high, with ragged edges that glow with hellish light. Those who have seen it claim they will never be able to forget it.
Another constant is that the Gate appears to mostly be one-way. Very few tales are told of it swallowing people from Temra and taking them elsewhere - but there are many, many tales of strange beings or people who arrive on Temra from Elsewhere, with or without most of their memories intact, wearing strange garb and bearing strange items and arms. Few, if any, of these travelers have ever found their way home again.
Many of the strange monsters and wildlife of Temra are thought to have come through the Gate from whatever world or time magic first came from.
The Gate first appeared on the continent of Temra at the end of the Age of Decadence, the end of the Before Times, and, with its outpouring of magic, begun the Three Days of Fire that marked the passage from the First Era into this one. Exactly what it is or how it came into existence, no one knows; many believe that it is simply an act of the Gods, while others think that there is some reason to its existence. Physically, the Gate does not exist - instead, it is in and of itself a tear in physicality, a lack of Existence. It is a hole into other existences, other worlds, and occasionally, it opens and lets something from those worlds into this one.
The Gate itself is supposedly closed. Mythologically, it was shut by the new Gods at the end of the Great War, and only a few small trickles of power are able to leak out. In practice, what is considered a 'small trickle of power' by the Gate's standards can seem huge by the standards of mortal creatures. It lets monsters, strange spells, near-undetectable energy, and, occasionally, even people from places and times unknown into this world. Many strange phenomena of magic or even beyond magic are attributed - often correctly - to the existence of the Gate.
While mythology puts the Gate's first emergence somewhere in Med Temra (specifically, the people of Sovereign contend that the Gate opened there, while others hold their own beliefs as to where it first appeared), the exact location of the Gate is hard to pin down, as its opening bounces around in a nearly random fashion between points on Temra and elsewhere in the rest of the world. Some scholars believe, for example, that in the fateful first opening of the Gate, that it somehow simultaneously opened in every part of Temra at once. Its very nature defies the descriptions of purely physical beings.
However, there are a few rules to its appearance. It never appears in the same place twice in a row, and it almost never opens on the same place or time twice. When it opens, and is able to be seen, the Gate looks exactly like what it is - a hole in the fabric of the universe. It is a long, dark tear, usually about the height of a tall man, though occasionally, on momentous, historic occasions (such as its first appearance, in the few documents that survived the War), as huge as several miles high, with ragged edges that glow with hellish light. Those who have seen it claim they will never be able to forget it.
Another constant is that the Gate appears to mostly be one-way. Very few tales are told of it swallowing people from Temra and taking them elsewhere - but there are many, many tales of strange beings or people who arrive on Temra from Elsewhere, with or without most of their memories intact, wearing strange garb and bearing strange items and arms. Few, if any, of these travelers have ever found their way home again.
Many of the strange monsters and wildlife of Temra are thought to have come through the Gate from whatever world or time magic first came from.