Realm of Tsu

This is a world/universe which was developed as the background
for a character, who is from a world consumed by a Universe
Eater. However, I thought that it might be of use as a
Spelljamming setting.


Realm of Tsu - 29/Jan/06

The crystal sphere which contains Tsu looks a little strange from
the outside, in the Flow. Though at first glance normal, you can
see faint clouds moving across the surface. These clouds
correspond to the various cloud islands of Tsu, and a means of
portal opening used within the outline of one of these clouds
will cause the ship to appear just within sight of that island.
There may be logs created which show which shape of cloud
corresponds to which cloud island. Without a means of opening
portals it is not possible to enter the Realm of Tsu, as there
are no natural portals.

Leaving Tsu is a matter of leaving an island and moving the ship
until it is just within sight of the island, and then using a
portal opening mechanism. The crystal sphere which contains Tsu
is not visible from within the realm.

Tsu is filled with grey mist, of the formless and distanceless
variety which is sometimes encountered in the unmade parts of a
universe. It is easy to get lost in this, forever, if a ship
makes the mistake of straying too far away from an island, or the
paths which lead between them. Once lost the ship is treated as
if it has fallen off an island, see below. The only way of
getting back to an island is to use some powerful magic, like
Find The Path.

The Realm of Tsu consists of a number of cloud islands, of which
there are about two dozen greater islands, and hundreds of lesser
ones. No island is directly below another, and 'below' is not
necessarily a meaningful concept when referring to the
relationship between islands. You cannot generally see other
islands, except maybe a nearby one very rarely as a very faint
shape briefly visible through the mists, at most as often as once
a year.

The are no seas in the realm, but the islands have lots of pools
and lakes, and streams run off edge of islands, while rain falls
from above. There is no visible sun, but each island has a
seasonally changing day/night cycle, and is lit by a brighter
area of sky, as of a sun behind thick cloud, and stars are
visible at night. No island has a moon.

There are pathways between islands, some fixed, some
variable/intermittent, some ascend, some descend, and most wind a
lot. All islands must have at least one path to them, and paths
are wider if more heavily used. These paths look as though they
are made of a grey dust which does not stick to footwear or
clothes, and which disappears if taken onto an island. Floating
in the mist, looking at them from the side, the paths seem to be
about six inches thick. There are no railings or walls preventing
falling from the paths.

The narrowest path is about three feet wide, the broadest
fifteen. Walking along the path from one island to the next
through the grey mist seems to be about five miles for the
closest islands, and about fifty miles for the longest path. In
general the closeness of islands is believed to come from the
order in which they were created; heavy use of a path between
islands does not make those two islands any closer.

The paths are continually lit by a faint grey light, like early
dawn or twilight, and have no other features. If two travelers or
groups of travelers met on a path going in opposite directions
they will find that there is a broader part of the path where
they meet, allowing them to pass each other without risk. Some
great wizards have created boats which can be rowed for example
within sight of a path and travel between islands quite quickly.

If someone or something falls off the edge of an island, or a
path, and falls out of sight of it (at most about five miles),
living things can fall forever, will not die of old age (or
disease), will not die of hunger or thirst, and are very
difficult to retrieve. Try a Wish. They can choose to die at any
point, allowing them to re-enter the cycle of incarnation.
Unaccompanied non-living things will dissolve into chaos,
starting after a few hours, and taking at most a few days,
depending on complexity, i.e. the most complex things last
longest. Spelljamming ships with an active Helm do not count as
non-living for this purpose.

The Realm of Tsu is considered to be surrounded by chaos, which
manifests as the grey mists, and is extended by dream. In
practice this means that someone who has a powerful enough dream
(while asleep), with a strong enough creative urge behind it,
will find there is a new path from their current island to one
which closely resembles the place they dreamed of.

This new island will be complete except it will not have any
independent intelligent creatures which are capable of leaving
the island, and most intelligent beings appearing with it are
likely to be minor spirits-of-place. If the dreamer moves to
their new island then there is a strong risk that they will
become the spirit-of-place for that island, if they spend more
than a day at a time there. Goods of great value which do not
exist elsewhere in the realm may not be removable from the
island.

This sort of powerful dreaming doesn't seem to happen more than
about once per year per million population, and islands which are
not inhabited fade back into chaos after a year or so (this
happens quite often). For someone from beyond the realm (for
example to have arrived by Spelljamming) to dream like this they
would have to have lived in the realm for several years, and
possibly to have met with the approval of the local gods.

All things are linked in the realm, by an invisible web of life,
which is stronger than in most other realms/universes. This is
most clearly visible as the 'ladder of incarnation', which
reaches from rocks to immortals. The inhabitants of the realm are
approximately 2 million people, most of which are human, but this
includes intelligent monsters, and talking beasts. The style of
the realm is pseudo-medieval China, though most of the islands
are peaceful places, and heroes and battles are only occasionally
seen on the larger islands. There is no emperor of the entire
realm, and only in a few cases is more than one island ruled by
one noble; the local gods and their religions seem to prefer
this.

There is one spirit-of-place per island, 'little gods' or
immortals, and these manifest quite often, can visit other
islands, but not permanently leave home. There are no gods of the
whole realm, and no god seems to have significant power beyond
their island. Larger islands have subservient lesser
spirits-of-place, and these may be responsible for things like
rivers (effectively nymphs) or woods (effectively dryads).

The stars visible over the islands are often supposed by
inhabitants of the realm to be spirits, and their flickering and
slow movement across the sky to be dancing. There is an art known
as Star Dancing, which attempts to interpret the dance of the
stars, and celebrate it.

Priests entering this realm will have problems with their more
powerful spells, beyond 2nd Level, as it is not possible for
their gods to manifest themselves in this realm, no matter how
many worshippers they may have. The spell Contact Home Power will
allow them to regain spells normally.  The local gods will note
priests use of spells of higher than the 2nd Level and may react
to this but quite possibly, not in a hostile way.  The local gods
will note any use of any priestly or wizardly spell, or magical
effect, of higher than 5th Level in any case.


(c) Dreamer Publications, 1980 - January 2006
    Permission granted to use for non-profit making purposes

-- 
Dreamer
dreamer@??????.?????.??.uk
http://www.romsys.demon.co.uk/