Intentionally grand in scope, the purpose of this thread is to lay out the basis or root explanation for most if not all of the fantastical elements of the setting. The Veiled Age does not have a hard magic system with precise rules, but there can be a more general mythology that ties together most of classic fantasy elements like gods, magic, souls, planes of existence, the undead, and the like. Which is why I’d like to discuss it all in one ongoing thread for now, instead of prematurely splitting up concepts which are meant to be connected.
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I’ll start with a recently revised version of the creation myth. I’m not totally sure about the perspective of this prose, at times I felt I was writing objectively, at other times I liked the idea of this being an in-world text. For example, the Naga bit suggests a crashed alien ship, but the people in the setting wouldn’t have those concepts.
Seven Points of Creation
1. Chaos
In the Beginning was only the Abyss: an infinite writhing chaos, hostile to all life and order as we know it. Then, a being called Nox emerged within it. And Nox saw that she was distinct from the Abyss. This primordial goddess, though born of chaos, yet possessed a tranquil spirit, which gave her the desire to create permanent things.
2. Order
Her very presence created a stable realm: a void called called the Astral Sea. Within it, she created a cold, formless world. Seeing greater order was needed, Nox birthed a god of Law to dwell in the realm’s center. His name was Modus. His was a realm of heat and of heaviness. It drew the world together into a sphere, and warmed it from within. This world was named Edil.
3. Life
With the foundation in place, Nox planted the Worldroot - a great tree which would soon give rise to mortal life. Though the Worldroot is not thought to be conscious, mortal races would come to think of it as a mother. Some would call it Rhea. Rhea’s roots spread downward and across the planet, piping heat from Modus’ domain, and seeding life and providing warmth on the otherwise cold, lifeless surface of the planet. Edil’s natural flora and fauna emerged, followed by the elder mortal races, including Elves and Dwarves.
4. Naga
A great silver mountain fell from the sky. And from it came a pale, coldblooded race called the Naga. Using their wondrous tools, they dug into the ground built a civilization in vast networks of deep caverns, clustering around strands of the Worldroot for the heat. The Naga explored much of Edil. In their travels, they became wise, and saw that all places were connected. They built the Serpent Gates, which could connect distant points in a single step. The stone-age mortal races were largely unaware of the Naga, who were miles underground. Those that did see signs of them or their wondrous tools viewed them as deities.
5. Calamity
One day, a massive object from the Abyss pierced the Astral Sea, wounded Nox, tore off the worldroot at its stump, and dug into the heart of the Naga civilization, birthing a plague of madness and mutation, leading to the fall of the Naga civilization and possibly their extinction. This ripped fragments of Edil away, creating the many floating realms of the Astral Sea. Unison is one of them. The great rocky shell of Edil protected Modus from harm, however.
6. Godpact
Faced with the destruction of her creation, the wounded Nox sought Modus’ help. With his Lawful nature, he could aid in banishing the object. Seeing an opportunity, Modus remembered his ancient petition, and suggested he would only help if he obtained the power to create his own sentient beings, over which he could have direct rule. The two reached a compromise, and formed a pact: Modus would banish the object and vow to work against any Abyssal incursions in the future. While Modus would still have no powers of creation, he would have jurisdiction over a portion of future mortal souls — the “less valuable” ones tainted by evil. He would also have means to make a pact with any sentient being, which he uses to aid his ambitions to this day.
7. Daystar
For an age, Nox healed, and contemplated her creation. In the fullness of her time, Nox birthed an infant god, Genos, who she saw as a more trustworthy source of order than Modus. Genos, too, was a being of order, but he shared his mother’s compassion for the mortal races, unlike his devious and calculating elder brother.
Genos created the Golden Veil, which covered his mother’s wound and protected creation from the touch of The Abyss. Within this veil, he created Mirador, his own realm, a great mountain where mortal souls may go to seek enlightenment after death—unless his brother has claim to them. Finally, he created mankind, a short-lived but ambitious race that may one day surpass even the Naga.
The Spheres
Before modern astronomy, people believed the sun, moon and stars all orbited the earth in concentric spheres. In the Veiled Age, a similar geocentric model appears to be correct. The planet Edil is the stationary center of the known universe. The moon is the nearest heavenly body. Beyond it, the stars float in the Astral Sea. Further still, the sun skims the outer boundary over Nox’s domain, and casts its Golden Veil over it. Beyond the protective veil lies the Abyss, an infinite nightmare realm which corrupts the living and the dead.
The Stars (Shard Worlds)
Each point of light in the night sky is an island world, floating in the empty space high above the planet. This region is known as the Astral Sea. Some of these islands are larger than others, but each is small compared to Edil. Shard Worlds, people call them, as they are shards of the planet torn off on the day the world was wounded.
Being separated from the planet and from the god of law within it, these realms can become somewhat disconnected from the logic of the mortal realm. Some, like the island on which The Stranger stands, are little more than rocks floating high in the sky. Others, especially those more distant from Edil, have become sprawling alien landscapes, governed more by the thoughts of their residents than by strict physical laws.
As a general rule, the higher one goes, the more strange and ethereal the environment becomes. Primal and Infernal magic become weaker, while Arcane magic becomes quite potent. Studying the movement of the stars is, after all, a primary concern of Arcane study.
The Moon (Eye of Nox)
What the denizens of Edil call the moon is also known as the Eye of Nox. It is a giant silver ring in the night sky, which appears to rotate in cycles of approximately 61 days. This is the basis of the Arvel calendar, which counts six moons, rather than twelve months or four seasons.
During the equivalent of a full moon, the Eye of Nox appears as a perfect circle, and seers who gaze into it at this time are granted greater insights and clearer visions. At the opposite time is the sleeping moon, where the Eye of Nox is turned away from the world – that is, perpendicular to the surface of Edil, appearing as a thin vertical sliver of light in the night sky.
While the moon is associated with Nox, the nature of this connection is unclear. Some say Nox literally watches her creation through this ring, and cannot see it when it is turned away. Most believe it is in some way a window into Nox’s nature and perhaps some inner divine realm where she alone resides.
What is agreed upon is the following:
- During a sleeping moon, the Abyss holds greater sway. Occult creatures, who are generally repulsed by both sunlight and moonlight, grow bolder and roam more freely.
- During the full moon, people tend to experience their greatest insights, including profound dreams, after which people often believe Nox has spoken to them. Wizards may have breakthroughs in their arcane research, and some people even report premonitions of the future.
- The height of the tides directly reflects the fullness of the moon. Near the sleeping moon, waters on the seas are also curiously still.
The Sun (Mirador)
The sun is the light of a Genos’ heavenly realm, which orbits Edil, providing daylight. Daylight, therefore, is synonymous in peoples’ minds with the glory and holiness of Genos.
When a mortal soul dies, there are several possible fates (more on this later). Those that are ready to seek further enlightenment will naturally drift up to Mirador, whether they are human or not. Mirador is said to be a great mountain or spire, encircled by a holy city at its base. Those who climb this spire can find further enlightenment, though what exactly is entailed on this journey is a secret to mortals. One certainty is that angels were once mortals who were chosen as worthy Holy emissaries after climbing at least part way up this spire.
As for the peak, some say the tip of the spire pierces the Abyss, and those who reach it will have attained such wisdom that they are able to traverse the Abyss without losing themselves.
I’ve done a lot of worldbuilding since these old posts, making some of the above outdated. But I don’t mind leaving the above there for posterity. This may become a years-long thread where we can see how the foundational mythos of the Veiled Age universe changes over time.
How the Universe Works
Reality has two layers: the material and the dream. As matter is the substance of the material, aether is the substance of the dream. Aether is raw consciousness, and it makes up all immaterial objects, including gods and spirits. Thus, matter and aether are the two fundamental substances of the universe.
The two layers can be conceptualized as overlapping planes with a shared geometry. What happens in dream-space can affect a corresponding area of physical space, and vice versa. For any living thing, its material body is connected to its soul, an aethereal object in the dream. The soul is the source of its consciousness.
Gods are the native beings of the dream: purely conscious, immaterial beings made of aether. Within the dream, gods slowly absorb aether over time. Gods can expend aether to alter the material according to their own thoughts. Such an act is called a miracle.
This ability is not limitless, however. The greater the alteration, and the greater the size, scope, and conceptual deviation from the original state of affairs, the more aether is expended. This is why the gods tend to intervene infrequently and in small ways, and why they seek mortal devotees to help accomplish their ends.
On a smaller scale, material creatures can also use aether to alter the material, either by channeling the power of a god, or by channeling the raw aether directly from the dream. This is called magic. Magic is categorized by its source, which gives it certain tendencies and characteristics.
A growing region of space called the Abyss threatens the universe. It expands into and consumes both the material and dream layers of space at once, mixing and digesting them into more of itself. What remains is neither aether nor matter, living nor dead. It is only a hideous, writhing chaos beyond understanding. Is it a natural phenomena? A primordial deity? Or is it simply another layer of reality – a deeper, darker dream? The latter theory has caused scholars and whispering peasants alike to revive one of its oldest names: the Nightmare.
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The World and Its Fate
The rogue planet Edil was frozen and dead until it was favored by an elder goddess called Nox, the mother of gods. Her five children used miracles to terraform it and seed it with life.
Long ago, the Abyss threatened to consume Edil, causing death, undeath, mutation, and madness. People today call it the Age of Death. At the time, the Naga were the oldest and most advanced of the mortal races, and they fled the planet, leaving their ruins behind.
Genos, Nox’s youngest child and the father of humanity, created the Golden Veil around the planet to shield it from the Abyss. Thus began the Veiled Age. The mortal races are still rebuilding, and the world is sparsely populated outside of major settlements. They are currently at a stage analogous to 1000 AD, advancing steadily with the help of magic from the gods and wondrous tools salvaged from Naga ruins.
But there are signs that the Golden Veil is weakening, and strands of the Abyss are creeping through. But Nox, who has been silent since the Age of Death, has now sent a herald: a lowly mortal who will save Edil by doing what even the gods cannot: by travelling to the depths of the Abyss.
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Is the player character meant to be the Abyss-traveller?
I like the aether-centric magic system. Is there any priority relation between the two layers? Like is the dream more fundamental or somehow the proximate source of the material? Or are they both their own thing, with only causal relations between them?
You guessed it. Our very own chosen one.
I’ve thought about this, and I’m not sure it’s even necessary to answer from a story point of view, but it’s fun to discuss as we are fellow metaphysics enjoyers.
If it were to go one direction or the other, I would say the Dream is more fundamental, a foundational layer of physical reality. This probably stems from my real-life tendencies toward idealism (because the laws of physics seem to have thought-like properties, and the forms of physical things seem like a consequence of those rules). And it would make sense that gods, who created mortals on the planet, belong to a more foundational layer of reality. This also coincides nicely with the frightening prospect that the Nightmare / Abyss is a layer of reality even deeper than the Dream.
Alternatively, it could just be that they both have existed from the beginning. One advantage to this approach is that it makes any limitations within the Dream realm seem more expected. For example, I was thinking even a god can’t instantly blink to the other side of the universe (if they could, why would the Nightmare be such a problem for them?). If both realms are subject to the geometry of the universe and the arrow of time, there’s a nice symmetry there, and it helps explain why the gods would make plans involving mortals.
I’m not positive what the best approach is there. One of my bigger inspirations here is simply taking the philosophical idea of substance dualism super literally – consciousness or thought as an invisible substance which can help explain everything from gods to ghosts to wizards.
(As an aside, in the Forgotten Realms cosmology, gods are stuck in their worlds, so if you’re a cleric of one god and travel to another world, you may have a hard time interacting with your god anymore. You only encounter this in out-there campaign settings like Spelljammer and Planescape. But it seems like it opens up potential to have a galactic space opera sci-fi plot while still having gods. Otherwise zillions of planets with their separate gods all interacting everywhere might be kind of weird and downplay technology too much? IDK)