Synopsis
The Fae Realm, the Eastern Realm, which was nearly abandoned long ago when Tharenor tried to conquer it. It is the harmonic opposite of Liserna, which means that natives to that realm cannot exist in Oberun for very long without great discomfort. The beings who live here naturally have limited lifespans, but the limits are not quite as well defined as most outsiders would think. The most widely spoken languages in the established world are Elven, Dark-Elven, Fae, and Mind-speak, which is a kind of telepathy that all races inherently understand, but only native Oberunites know how to initiate.
Lands
Oberun is a water world, composed of mainly ocean with large island continents scattered over its surface, the largest of which is called Titania, and the others having various names in various languages. The islands, including Titania, are split up into Kind and Cruel lands, or Seelie and Unseelie in the language of the Fae, based on how much of it got corrupted by Tharenor’s demons. The sky here is a pale pink, which tends to give outsiders a feeling of eternal dusk, the plants are generally green, but come in a wide variety of colors, shapes, and sizes, and the insects are rather a bit larger than one would hope.
One of the most prominent species of plant on Oberun are the giant Dor trees, which tower over the rest of the forests’ canopies, and whose roots dig so far down into the earth that many wonder whether or not the world would come to an end if any of these trees should fall. The shade from this second layer of leaves shelters the smaller, more normal sized trees, and protects them from the weather, which is usually quite warm. Because of the vast scale of the Dor, many Fae societies have taken to carving homes into the deep bark, an artform that keeps the tree growing and yet allows them access to the highest branches.
The island-continent of Titania has a scar across its surface, a mark from where the great war against Tharenor’s demons finally came to a close. In the aftermath of a powerful sage banishing most of the demonic forces back to Senabyss, a crack opened in the ground, several hundred miles long, from north to south. This has come to be called the Great Titanian Rift, and marks the most obvious boundary in the world between the Seelie and Unseelie lands. Some believe that if the rift grows large enough — assuming it continues to grow, of course — it will split the realm in half, and connect the Coven Sea with the Heron Sea.
Countries
-
The West Court
The West Court includes the western halves of Titania and Nicneven, the entire isles of Puck and Mote, and several of the minor, outlying islands. From May Hall, the head of the West Court and God of Spring, Alromé Sun-on-Leaves, rules over this vast swath of Oberun. For the most part, the Court leaves the Karriban Ride, a stretch of plains and savannah to the Seelie side of the Great Titanian Rift, to the Centaurs that call it home, and the Centaurs in turn stay out of Court affairs. The West is the largest Court in all of Oberun, and has outposts on each of its controlled Isles.
-
The East Court
The smallest of the three Courts, the East Court contains part of eastern Titania and the Crescent Isle, on which the lesser goddess Dezna makes her home. From November Hall, the Goddes of Autumn and the Moon, Séåninn Wanderer-in-the-Sky, makes her home and presides over the Court. It is said that November Hall was the base of the strongest resistance in the history of the Five Realms, in which Zirquoya Wind-Caller pushed Tharenor’s forces back to almost the edge of the massive eastern forest, and earned his place among the ranks of the First Gods.
-
The Unseelie Lands
The Unseelie Lands don’t have a Court so much as they do a collection of leaders who sometimes gather to discuss what is going on. For all that the entire atmosphere of these lands seems cruel and somewhat unsavory, most of the individual inhabitants are at best quite friendly, and at worst rather shy. The Unseelie Lands contain a section of central and south Titania, most of the Nicneven Desert, all of the Isles Sidhe and Maeve, and a few outlying islands. The only real division between the peoples in the Seelie and Unseelie lands is language. In Mind-speak, past energetic traumas are clearly distinguishable. For a Seelie Fae, speaking to an Unseelie would be akin to playing a tuned violin next to an untuned cello, and the clash of sound would be as uncomfortable to both speakers as it would be to someone who is harmonically aware (rather than tone-deaf).
People
The native races of Oberun are collectively known as Fae, since all share the ability to Mind-speak in some way or another. This includes Trolls, Elves, Pixies, Djinni, and Centaurs, as well as their dark aspects in the Unseelie side of things(Orcs, Dark-elves, Pookas, and Efreeti), and Landwights. Unlike most other realms, the Fae all interbreed with each other, producing strange mixes of creatures that populate the realm, though most established settlements’ races keep to themselves, romantically speaking. The only exceptions to this are the Centaurs, who tend to be reclusive due to their unique anatomy, and were the only race strong enough to fight against Tharenor’s forces without being marked by the experience, thus they have no Unseelie equivalent.
-
Seelie:
- Elves stand about 6 to 7 feet tall, with generally fair to dark brown hair and skin, sometimes with touches of other colors intermixed. They are built lithe and graceful, with ears that can grow to be the same length as a hand. Average life expectancy for an Elf in good health is about 450 years, some living to be as old as 6 or 7 hundred, when signs of aging finally start to set in. An old looking Elf is a rare sight indeed. They are actually the least populous race in the entirety of Oberun, as most of them actually migrated to Omnia when the corruption happened. Some did come back, however, and they are what are called Pure or True Elves.
- Trolls are built rounded but muscular, with thick limbs and tufted tails. They stand anywhere from 8-12 feet tall, with each individual’s height being roughly reflective of the size of the island they live on. Trolls are crepuscular, and tend to make their homes in large earthen structures like caves, tangles of Dor roots, and sometimes their own crude architecture. They greatly enjoy art, and frequently draw on themselves and their surroundings with hand-mixed pigments. Trolls live to be about 300 years old, and as they age they look more and more like they’re made of stone. When they die, they crumble into dust.
- Pixies are the smallest humanoid race in the Five Realms, at a diminutive 1 ½ to 3 feet tall. They possess insect-like wings that often indicate the genealogy of the individual, and they are capable of flight. Pixies band together in hives, which are cities generally made up of an extended family group, and as a right of passage young pixies are required to leave the hive in order to find their own ways in life. Some even travel to other Realms in search of wisdom, gold, glory, or something else. Pixies live to be about 40 years old, with the oldest being around 80.
- Djinni stand at 7-8 ½ feet tall, with generally flame-colored hair and blue to violet skin that shimmers and reflects the colors of the environment. They have a complex system of birth conditions that determine a Djinn child’s magical element when they are born, and they basically embody that element (or elements in the case of a cusp) as they grow older. Their eyes have a tendency to glow, which makes for rather spooky encounters in the middle of the night. Djinn live to be about 600 years old on average, though some take much longer or much shorter to become one with the element of their birth, thus no longer inhabiting their individual body.
- Centaurs are a magical mix of Fae and horse, often with long ears and manes that carry down their entire backs. They stand about 9 feet tall on average, and actually have soft hair that covers their entire bodies, resulting in various coloration and marking patterns. Nobody is really sure where this strange race came from, other than perhaps being one of Nylien’s experiments, or maybe a prank from Zirqoya that stuck around. Either way, Centaurs are often touted as creatures of legend, though the demons of Senabyss remember their resistance well. The average age for a Centaur isn’t known.
-
Unseelie:
- Dark-Elves are physically and energetically distinct from Elves, as they were the most greatly affected by their resistance. They are the result of Tharenor’s attempted corruption of Oberun, and so generally have very light hair, and dark skin that edges more toward gray and blue than brown. They stand about the same height as Humans, with roughly similar build. Their ears are slightly thicker than an Elf, as well as slightly shorter, and the average life expectancy for a Dark-Elf is about the same as an Elf.
- Orcs, due to energetic and environmental corruption, have lost the slightly portly figure of the Trolls to become more muscular, and generally mean looking. They have a slightly shorter stature, but in return have gained a pair of tusks in place of Trolls’ large lower canines. Their skin has become darker, with pronounced black, green, and brownish undertones. They live slightly shorter lives than Trolls, only because their culture has become one that values fighting for sport.
- Pookas are ghostly creatures, with long limbs and large eyes. Many a traveler in the Unseelie lands have been frightened by their pale visages, or by the pranks that these tiny things sometimes pull. They quite enjoy pinching sleeping victims black and blue, as a kind of, “welcome to our place,” initiation ritual. They have their own strange culture, and do tend to get along alright with other Unseelie Fae. They actually live slightly longer than their Pixie relatives.
- Efreeti have become nocturnal, relying on their dark skin as camouflage against Unseelie predators. Their eyes and hair still glow with a fiery light, however, and the Elves have stories of travelers lured to their deaths following those ethereal lights in the darkness. Despite this, Efreeti are actually the most friendly of the Unseelie Fae, often traveling far and wide to enjoy good food, better drink, and still better company in those who see them as individuals, and not the stories that precede them.
-
Landwights
Landwights straddle the line between Fae, creature, and earth. They are the spirits of the land, sea, and sky, and have many names, like Sprites, Dryads, Naiads, and Sylphs. They take many forms and have many different personalities, so it’s nearly impossible to give them all their own categories. It is rumored that there are Landwights on the other Realms as well, but Oberun is the only one on which they regularly take physical form.
Thanks for sticking through this rather long-winded explanation and exploration of the Realm of Oberun. It’s a mysterious realm, but by far not the least explored. In then next “About the Realms” post, we’ll be looking into the floating cities of Arcturus, but before that I’ll explain a little about the many different styles of magic in the Five Realms. Hope to see you then!
-E.J.
