Oblus, The Court of the Forgotten: (Alternate Plane) Touched in dreams, sought by scholars, and, very nearly by definition, fundamentally misunderstood- Oblus is the home of the forgotten and the lost.
The creatures and places described below are deeply intertwined with Oblus, and thus the description of the Oblus will naturally evolve as they themselves are described, but what follows below serves as a brief overview of the plane itself, its inhabitants, and how it is used and accessed. The Oblus defies complete description, and though scholars and even the masked enigmatists -the magicians who draw upon the plane's power- have tried to compile its secrets, such tomes are inevitably and irretrievably flawed. The only beings who likely understand the Oblus are its natives -the Ko'Va- and though they have tried, they have had as little success as a man describing color to the blind or sound to the deaf.
Oblus, in general terms: By generalization, I hope to avoid the issues encountered by my predecessors, who attempted to define the plane in exacting detail, including its exact topology and composition, and thus produced the flawed and nearly worthless works I described above. Oblus exists alongside the world we know, an ever-present place that most individuals are only peripherally aware of, and gratefully so. In its essence, of its grandest lines and most sweeping of curves, it is a copy of the world we know. Yet one does not have to travel far to see stark differences.
To many who sojourn briefly, it seems a blasted land, a horrifying tangle of flotsam and jetsam at sea, of sunken ruins and upheaved stone at the ocean floor, of shattered earth and broken homes upon the surface. Bodies and bones, wreckage and wrack, those are what greet many who touch upon the surface of Oblus. Even those fortunate enough to find themselves within a reflected city will find the place queer and strange, it's paths set in byzantine defiance of logic- the buildings around them seeming more ancient and abandoned than those of any district the traveler might recall.
Yet this impression, which has earned Oblus a reputation as a plane filled with eldritch horrors, is not fully accurate. There are living, teeming, cities within Oblus, and there are creatures both majestic and strange native to its peculiar world. In order to begin to grasp Oblus, remember three fundamental points:
- Oblus is neither malevolent, nor benevolent. Much like our world, it merely is.
- Oblus is influenced by the thought of sapient races. Due to a complete lack of understanding of how the Ko'Va think, their race may or may not be an exception.
- Oblus is the land of forgotten things. Most places, people, and things that have been forgotten were not forgotten at the height of their splendor.
Imagine for a moment that every memory you possess is a fisherman's line, connecting you to places, people, and things. Each thing you remember has a hook embedded in it, and each person that remembers you has a hook in you. These hooks are what prevents things and objects from slipping freely into the Oblus. Unless aided by filchers, Ko'Va or other denizens, even an object that is utterly forgotten slips slowly between realities. Hence the reason why most see scenes of apparent destruction or dead cities. Such places and things are either part of the distant past, or represent things were best left forgotten in the material plane.
Peculiarly, Oblus appears to gain a sort of energy from the objects that slip into its domain- enough that creatures typically feed off recent captures, and many species exist that specifically hunt recently forgotten items in order to steal them across the border between worlds and consume whatever power they carry with them. This energy bloom off of forgotten items also spawns the growth of weeds native to the plan, and forgotten cities, ancient beyond imagining, are typically torn apart by the immense roots of cyclopean trees or overrun by immense living demi-corals and dream devouring kelp-like Emnium.
If you travel within Oblus, much of what you see will be forgotten ruins and debris that predates all that you know, but that is merely a function of its existence, not a sign of evil.
The Inhabitants of Oblus: While certain inhabitants are expounded on below, they are mentioned in large part because they are the most common creatures to impinge upon the material world. There are many creatures, vast and strange, that live their entire lives within Oblus, swimming though forgotten waters and burrowing through nameless soils. A bestiary of Oblus, however, is the domain of another writer, and my intent is only to classify and elucidate the general nature of such creatures. To that end, we can typically classify the creatures withing Oblus into three categories: Oblus Natives, Oblus Captures, and Oblus Visitors.
The natives of Oblus are the most difficult to comprehend. They were born of the forgotten plane, and their physiology and psychology are as unfamiliar to us as we would be to some living cloud. There are superficial similarities- flesh, and a material that is somewhat akin to bone in many of their species, but their internal organs have defied mapping to any known system. They are fueled by the peculiar energy that suffuses their plane, the energy derived from the objects that slip (or are pulled) through from our world. In all likelihood, their organs are somehow designed to process that energy, but no man or woman I know is willing to expound on the secret of how- and I begin to doubt that even the Enigmatists know the process.
Regardless of how the energy is taken from our world, it is the basest level of their ecosystem. It is their island grass, their plankton and algae. Much of this energy simply slips through over time, as in the case of forgotten ruins, but there is a thriving class of creature, known collectively as filchers, that are described below and exist by actively pulling objects through the veil between planes. Ko'Va, while capable predators of Oblus, pull a higher order of energy through the veil by trading directly in thoughts and memories, a process described below. Alongside the 'plants' of Oblus, these are the first level consumers of Oblus, and they have the most definite shapes and forms. Many creatures within Oblus are highly morphic, capable of changing shape and nature depending on what they consume -further obfuscating a notion of "true" form-, but creatures that feed directly on objects still burning with the energy of the material plane are typically static as individuals, though still capable of immense variation (down to the number and placement of limbs) within a single species. Ko'Va, with their near perfect regularity between individuals, are the exception to this rule.
Oblus Captures can be pathetic or terrifying, alien or familiar. Essentially, they represent beings, concepts, and dreams that have slipped through the veil and can no longer return to their home plane. While there are stories of legions of hungry ghost children, trapped in the Oblus after becoming separated from their parents, no such legions exist. Without the aid of a Ko'Va, a powerful filcher, or specialized study and mental discipline, it is quite difficult for most people (children included) to cross the veil. It is possible for sentient beings to slip through accidentally, and such beings are typically referred to as Vagros. Vagros, as the name suggests, are most often vagrants. People without names, without families, and without a connection left in the world. Even for them, the process is slow, and gradual transition between worlds often fragments their perception of reality, tormenting them with a shattered vision of both worlds and further alienating from their own reality. As a consequence of this, when a Vagros slips through without assistance, they are often quite mad- and yet they have power within Oblus. Living beings from the material plane are constant sources of energy, and will often attract large groups of filchers who both feed off their energy and steal baubles from the material world to please their masters.
Immaterial captures, most often in the form of the beliefs of forgotten faiths or, more commonly, the dreams that seem to slip away from mortals- no matter how desperately they try to hold them. The former are more a rumor than a fact, and are said to manifest in a variety of forms. From godlike creatures iconic to the faith wandering through the rubble of their religion, to entire regions that have been transmuted to represent a hell, or a heaven, of that particular faith, these stories are common, but unsubstantiated. The more well known, and typically dangerous, immaterial captures are those that result from forgotten dreams. The Emnium kelp (which is not kelp, but bears a striking resemblance) subsists primarily upon such captures, and one can even gaze upon fragments of these captured dreams by looking into an engorged Emnium nodule. Such nodules, dried and transported back to the material plane, are a narcotic of the truly wealthy. Some dreams, however, are too vivid and powerful to be broken apart and capture by the Emnium. Instead, they wander Oblus as swirls of light and color, engulfing any they touch in their own private dream world. Pleasant dreams attract various creatures which feed on their energy and thus drain their potency until they dissipate. As an unfortunate contrast, powerful nightmares often leave bloody tracks through Oblus, being devoured only by specialized creatures or by teams of Ko'Va.
A final type of capture, between the material and the immaterial, deserves special mentioned. Forgotten ghosts, shades, and specters can come to reside in the Oblus. While such creatures are often maddened naturally by years beyond death, trying to accomplish whatever deed they could not reach in life, being condemned to the utter forgetting of the Oblus pushes nearly all beyond the edge of redemption. Mad spirits, they, like Vagros, produce energy and collect an entourage of filchers, but their energy is corrupting. They twist the Oblus with their mutilated existence, and are a danger to any who cross their path. If a healthy man dies in his sleep, his last expression one of terror, it is very likely he touched upon Oblus in his dreams, and had the great misfortune of running across an Oblian Wraith. Such creatures are hunted and destroyed by the Ko'Va, but, regrettably, there is a constant trickle of such beings from our world.
Oblus visitors are most often accidental and unknowing, typically crossing over only a partially in a dream state without knowledge of what they're doing or where their going. True visitors, beings capable of Metousiosis and fully crossing the veil are much rarer, and are typically powerful beings, great sages, or Enigmatist Magicians.
Accidentally entering Oblus is simply a matter of entering a deep state of sleep- not one of dreaming, but one where the mind forgets the body and leaves the world behind. Entering the Oblus in this form brings minimal energy into the realm, and attracts very little attention. For the most part, the visitor is simply an observer, manifesting as a faint ball of foxfire thoughts. Only certain, typically powerful, creatures such as Ko'Va and Oblian Wraiths, will attempt to interact with the visitor. Oblian wraiths will immediately attempt to devour the visitor, mind and soul, leaving only an empty corpse in the material world. Ko'Va, however, will happily trade riddles, answer questions, and make deals with even the most ephemeral of visitors. If an individual goes to sleep exhausted, unable to solve a particularly difficult problem, but then wakes with the solution fresh in his mind with no recollection of how the solution was achieved, it is quite likely that they visited Oblus and spoke with a Ko'Va.
While few individuals remember a trip into the Oblus, it frequently terrifies those that remember the things they've seen. There are many who believe it to be a place of vile, black magic, and persecute those who bear evidence of visitation to the plane. Of course, what they consider to be 'evidence' would laughable if their methods of punishment were not as horrific and cruel as they often are.
True visitors to Oblus are those who are capable of Metousiosis, that is, visiting the plane in the flesh and completely crossing over. Other than the Enigmatists and the Ko'Va, very few are capable of this feat. It requires the ability partition the mind and intentionally forget that the material world exists in order to transition to Oblus, but it also requires the ability to immediately recall the memory of the material world in order to return. Such mental discipline is uncommon to say the list, and can be disastrous of broken. From my sources within the Enigmatists, it would appear that as many as half of their initiates never return from their first sojourn, apparently never quite remembering the material world with enough clarity to cross back over.
In recent years, certain chemicals that influence the mind have been manufactured that some claim allow easier crossings and returns by dampening the mind chemically. While I admit that I have enjoyed many a dream sojourn to Oblus, I do not believe that I have the mental fortitude needed to risk all that I am for the chance to visit in the flesh.
How the Plane is Used: Of course, no discussion of the Oblus could be complete without at least touching upon the remarkable things that can be gained from its use. Impossible materials, raw dreamsilver, and, naturally, Oblian magic all hold their origins within Oblus- and all are available to those who can speak along the right channels.
The impossible materials of Oblus are both a highly valued and, like, the plane itself, highly misunderstood commodity. It is important to differentiate between native exports, such as the Emnium bulbs that contain fragments of dreams, and crafted exports such as Oblian steel.
The native exports represent a typically black market of magical objects that have been extracted from Oblus and brought into the material world. The properties of such things are as varied as Oblus itself, but it is widely believed that their continued use inevitably degrades the mind of the user. Personally, I find that statement a bit dramatic. Artifacts from Oblus should be treated carefully and used sparingly, they are relics from another plane of existence, but there is no reason for them to be feared irrationally. Yes, used irresponsibly, many items can result in madness, but that is to be expected from objects that obey basic laws so alien to our own. However, when used correctly, and with adequate time to recover mentally between uses, there is nothing to fear from them.
Manufactured objects from Oblia are of Ko'Va make, and they can be both beautiful and terrifying. Oblian steel, the most common object trafficked between planes, is capable of severing the ties that connect people and things without risking an object being transported directly to the Oblus. The contents of a box bound in Oblian steel will be forgotten within a day, except by those who possess a special token made from the same ingot that the box bands were forged from. Blades of Oblian steel are frequently employed by surgeons, and a great deal of alchemical experimentation has been done to determine its exact properties. Yet Oblian steel is but the most common exports, memory prisms, mind thread, Chanthus Ichor, infinite tomes, and a thousand other little known items are trafficked between planes. More mundane objects, such as sculpture, are a surprisingly lively export, and the glass and gem cutting done by the Ko'Va is some of the finest in any world.
Dreamsilver, while it can technically be considered a native production of Oblus, is important enough to describe briefly on its own here, and again below. Oblus takes in lost things, it feeds off of their residual energy, the meaning they once had, and the will and intent that went into them. This energy is processed, harvested, and harnessed to fuel all Oblian life. This process, as processes are wont to do, generates a byproduct that is useless and unrelated to the end goal. The byproduct is dreamsilver, and it is what preserves the energy balance between worlds.
Those who fear Oblus claim that it drains power from the material world, and they are quite right, but what they do not realize is that all of this is part of a cycle. Everything Oblus takes is returned to us, and in a far more useful state than it left us. Dreamsilver is the raw material of inspiration, of passion, of fundamental creativity. It is the force that, combined with a mind and a living will, can create events, objects, and places worth remembering. By itself, without the pairing of memory, it is inert within Oblus, and serves no purpose. If not contained in their realm, it will gradually seep through into our own, suffusing places and people with drive and inspiration. The Ko'Va, however, are well known to bottle dreamsilver and trade its rarefied form for powerful secrets and the valuable memories that provide them far more nourishment than the dreamsilver itself ever could. The properties of dreamsilver are described in greater detail below, but it is likely the most valuable commodity traded out of Oblus.
Finally, we must describe the magic native to Oblus, and those who tap into its power. While such fanciful stories such as the Well of Ascension are likely just that, fanciful stories, there is very real power in Oblus, particularly for those strange individuals who call themselves Enigmatists. From what I have gathered, to use the power of Oblus one must be able to convince their own mind to believe several conflicting things simultaneously and then revert back to a typical mindset without any discontinuity. I have had the process explained to me on several occasions, and I make less sense of it each time. From what I've seen, the Enigmatist exploits the differing rules of the dimensions, as well as the ability to create objects within Oblus by conceptualizing them and forgetting them. The entry below on the subject of Enigmatist magic was not penned by my hand, but rather by one of their number. I wish I could say the individual was a friend of mine, but no one actually 'knows' and Enigmatist, unless they themselves are another Enigmatist.
Because of the nature of what they do, and the fact that Metousiosis requires an individual to have no hooks into them from the material plane, they guard their identity zealously. They wear masks to prevent their faces from being recognized, and take great steps to hide any distinctive features. They have no friends except among other Enigmatists, and even those are few and seldom made. An Enigmatist who becomes known is one who can no longer switch between planes in the flesh, and this loses most of his or her powers. A lonely life perhaps, but though they establish no permanent connections, and you'll never learn one's name, they're often happy to talk about the things they seen, and more than happy to demonstrate their abilities and foster lost and forgotten individuals in the process of becoming vagros.
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Topic: Fallacy's Titans of Creation 1 (5/5): Age Two(yes, all of it) (Read 2900 times)