Description

This Paradigm represents an extradimensional Realm combining aspects of Planescape, Spelljammer, and any other weirdness, with influences as far flung as Jules Verne’s early science fiction, the pulp romance of writers like H. Rider Haggard, space opera and historic works like those of Patrick O’Brian.

Themes include exploration, trade (sanctioned and otherwise), and conquest conducted with swashbuckling flair. Longswords are passé; flintlocks and duelling swords are the order of the day.

Example Source Material

Esoterica draws from a diverse range of source material:

Novels

Some examples include the exotic locations of H. Rider Haggard, Edgar Rice Burroughs’ sword and planet adventures, Patrick O’Brian’s Master and Commander series, the New Weird novels of China Miéville.

Games

Spelljammer, Space 1889, Everway, 7th Sea, Planescape

Locations of Interest

"I ever tell you about the time when old Saggy Blythe ties a rope around me ankles and chucked me over board? Thems were the days, for sure. I tell you what though, the Tween don’t look any better upside down - fifty years and the damn thing still gives me a headache every time, even in my cabin with my eye closed." - Jym Arkady, Legendary Captain of the Spinning Coin

'Tween Space

Esoterica is in many ways wrapped around the concept of the Between, the strange amorphous "place" between other places.

The Between is also sometimes called the Heliot, or the Etherium and other things besides, depending upon culture and timeframe. However in "modern" usage, natives of Esoterica almost uniformly refer to their environment as simply "the 'Tween".

The 'Tween is best described as a surreal "sea" of shifting multicolored and psychedelic emanations. The colors of the 'Tween are plentiful, but fall within the spectrum of a rainbow (red, yellow, orange, green, blue, indigo, and violet), and often also have a metallic or sparkly sheen.

The "stuff" of the 'Tween is most commonly referred to as "Vim", and less commonly "Etheria". Vim is the very building block of all other things in the multiverse and has many special properties that defy true understanding. It supports life and is "breathable" by all living things. It nourishes plants, though only those adapted to it. It has currents like wind or water, but they don't necessarily act on all things equally. It has "buoyancy" similar to water but not as much; things in freefall will continue to "fall" based on their inertia. There is no up or down, but objects of sufficient size exercise a gravity-like force in all directions around them but not inside of them (the larger they are the greater the force); thus a person can walk around the hull of a Ship as long as they are careful.

The light of the 'Tween has the properties of all light everywhere; thus Undead and other "lifeforms" with a sensitivity to sunlight must be careful; the yellow winds emanate light equivalent to strong sunlight, while the red and orange emanations are less strong and the darker hued winds seem to have no effect on things sensitive to sunlight.

For the most part the 'Tween is a medium of travel between conduits to more concrete dimensions. However, there are a solid structures and firmaments that have somehow been ejected into or created in the 'Tween. "Islands" of rock of various size free floating or anchored are generally called Shards and often support some kind of community; the very largest Shards are like small planets, while the smallest represent shipping hazards.

Small Shards are often called Shardlets, but Shardlets that are too small to support habitation and are also anchored in the 'Tween (i.e. don't move) are called "anchorites" and are sometimes used to anchor larger manufactured structures. The most common form of manufactured structure are known as 'Tween-barges; they often serve as way stations, saloons, smugglers dens, and so forth; some are merely large Ships, usually with flat platforms like a terrestrial barge, that are hitched or free floating while others are built around anchorites and thus cannot move and are more like traditional buildings.

Conduits freely exist throughout the 'Tween, and can also be hazards as some of them have a draw and it is possible to get sucked through a conduit to a dimension that was not an intended destination. Conduits are sparsely proliferated in general, but sometimes there are clusters of them very or at least relatively near one another. Such clusters are generally called a Nexus, and are often high traffic areas for 'Tweeners, piracy, and so forth.

• Traversing the 'Tween: Getting around in the vastness of the Between is an important element of Esoterica.

'Tween Places

The most frequented or interesting locations in Tween Space include:

• Sanctuary: an eclectically cosmopolitan bastion of commerce that styles itself as the centre of the known multiverse.

• Tears of Vrylakos: a baroque cluster of floating islands suspended in the 'Tween, home to high adventure and swashbuckling intrigue.

• The Imperium of Irth: The Celestial Federated Sovereign Imperium of Irth, First Among Empires, Conquerors Of Borzog, Ubys, Oal, Tiry, Soralt, and Poris, Explorers Of The Great Beyond. Dangerously expansionary human empire.

• Crosswinds Tavern: this expansive, rambling structure has been built up over hundreds of years directly around the Iverson Nexus, a cluster of hundreds of small conduits to various places. The main attraction is a classic dark-wood and marble pub with high-booths and an attached restaurant that serves eclectic cuisine from a dozen dimensions. The remainder of the structure includes rooms to let, storage, and several shops offering both practical goods and curios. The Tavern is owned and operated by the descendants of Alosius Iverson, the 'Tween explorer who discovered the eponymous nexus the Tavern is built around hundreds of years ago. The Iverson clan is large and includes many dimensional explorers and adventurers; they are no-nonsense and not the sorts of people to mess about with. They also employ a small but effective force of bouncers to keep order. Most people arrive at and leave the Tavern via the conduits it encloses, but there is a dock for 'Tweeners to berth at (for a small fee) and its a popular waystation.

• The Golden Corridor: a nigh-legendary "artifact" of a forgotten civilization, this ephemeral construct somehow provides a literal path which can be walked that will take a person through the 'Tween to any place they can strongly visualize. For instance if a person thinks of their home plane, the Corridor will snake off through the 'Tween and deliver that person to a conduit that will allow the person to cross over near to the locality they concentrated upon. While in the Corridor and once a destination is chosen a person does not need to eat or sleep and does not tire so long as they continue to move towards their destination; further they are protected from all harm from things outside of the Corridor. However, it is impossible to go backwards or to change ones mind once the destination is set. Entry points to the Golden Corridor take many forms, though they are almost always subtle. To external observers, those walking the Corridor are somewhat intangible and have a golden glow; they also move very fast (the equivalent of hundreds of miles per hour) and thus are a fleeting image.

• Ganis: Named after its founder, Ganis is a spiritual and mythical utopia of spirit-powered automatons that have broken the shackles of their servitude. Legend tells that, having undone the magical bonds that entrapped them within a physical ‘body’, bending them to the will of their master-owners, the automatons of Ganis then chose to remain in this world for reasons of their own. Some folk tales revolve around the eternal struggle of the Ganians and their quest to free all enslaved spirits. Upon release, each spirit is given a choice: to choose to remain in its body or to ‘go home’. Those who choose to remain usually take the oath of Ganis, swearing to oppose slavery of all kinds. The exact location of Ganis is unknown although the Chamber Geographick has collated a number of eyewitness accounts that describe Ganis as a city of architecture that is at once alien and familiar. The city is said to completely encircle a barren rock and be inhospitable to most lifeforms. Unsurprisingly, beings who bargain, coerce, entrap or otherwise manipulate spirits should not expect a warm welcome from the Ganians.

Dimensions of Note

"Known Space" is an incomprehensibly large and diverse place owing to the unusual nature of the multiverse and the presence of gates. The Chamber Geographick measures "distance" between destinations in terms of journey time rather than a measurement of "physical" displacement.

• Yyddn: a tiny pocket dimension filled with lush vegetation and plentiful fruit and vegetables that have no harmful qualities to known sentient races, and containing conduits to a handful of other dimensions of some significance. This would be a popular waypoint if not for its odd temporal syncing; at any given point in objective time, Yyddn time might be moving faster or slower than baseline - and sometimes significantly so. This variability has lead to odd circumstances for those who have traveled through it, sometimes losing years of objective time from mere minutes of passage through Yyddn. A few people have even reported going backwards in time, emerging into another dimension and then traveling back to the 'Tween via some other mechanism to discover that they gained weeks or months of objective time; however such reports have not been substantiated as of yet. Yyddn does not appear to have any native inhabitants, but a small settlement of a few hundred called simply the Village has arisen over the years from dimensional expatriates and 'Tweeners on sabbatical or in retirement.

• Garza: A small dimension consisting of a single but nigh-infinite flat-world composed of pure semi-transparent energy planes that is primarily flat or slightly hilly. Garza is warmed and lit by thousands of glowing magical orbs that are seemingly anchored but float half a mile above the surface. Each orb emanates light constantly and the color of each orb varies widely, and thus there is effectively no "night" which can have profound psychological impact on some. The emanations of the orbs of Garza seem to boost magic in various ways which seem to be related to the color of the emanations of a given globe. The emanations also seem to have some mild psychological and physiological effects, which is also linked to color. There are no true native inhabitants of Garza, but its magic-rich ambiance has drawn all manner of creatures, beings, and people to it, and there is a riotous mix of monsters, magickers, and marauders of various dimensions. Its a dangerous place, but also one of great artifacts and riches. Natural resources are non-existent and thus staples such as water are in short supply and mostly imported from elsewhere. In particular, the energies of the various orbs have been found to be advantageous in the construction of magic items and thus artificers of various sorts sometimes venture here to aid in their craft.

• Garden: An isolated and fertile world of lush vegetation that, rather unusually, does not appear to have any native intelligent species. Unlike many planes, the Tweenspace around the world is better mapped than the actual world itself and civilisation on the world is clustered around the gate that connects the world to Sanctuary. The Plane is of extreme strategic importance to Sanctuary as it is the main source of food for the city. Aside from the agricultural community, Garden boasts impressive naval and military facilities.

• Nos: Nos is a dimension containing nothing but a vast and ruined city. The City extends in all directions, including underground chamber complexes and soaring towers connected by vine-wrapped bridges. The city architects are unknown and much of the collapsing city is in the process of being reclaimed by nature: vast oases of nature exist within the city, surrounded on all sides by crumbling buildings. Some parts of the city remain fairly intact, whilst other areas look like they were caught in the middle of a prolonged - and violent - conflict. Magic is unreliable in Nos but visitors report that other abilities seem to function properly.

The Nos Effect

Magic Systems that Require a Roll suffer a 1d6-2 penalty (floor of 0) on each casting.

Winders roll 1d2 fewer dice on each casting.

Magic Systems that do not Require a Skill roll, the player must roll a d6 for each casting; on the roll of a 1 the casting fails.

"Gifts" and other special abilities defined as "Magic" that normally always work have a Activation 15- effect applied to them (the player rolls 3d6 each time the abilities effect needs to be resolved; on a roll of 15 or less it works, on a roll of 16 to 18 the effect does not work for that one resolution). Such abilities raise the Activation roll by 1 for each level of Difficult to Dispel they might have; an ability with three or more levels of Difficult to Dispel is unaffected by the Nos Effect.

Abilities with the Inherent Advantage are unaffected by this effect.

Locations Best Avoided

There are a large number of locations that are currently classified as risky, dangerous or outright hostile to life (based on the Chamber Geographick’s own assessment using its System of Hazard Classification), including:

• The Perpendicular: The Perpendicular is best described as a wall - or cliff - of shimmering anti-magic surrounded by the drifting hulks of Ships that got too close. With the exception of the Fickle Bishop (which possesses an experimental mind-helm), no ship has ever sailed through or over the Perpendicular and captains are advised to steer well clear of this region for, if a ship gets too close, its helm will fail, leaving the crew with no means of escape. Despite the warnings, the vast amount of salvage and plunder that’s floating about, ready for the taking, still lures a few foolish souls to their doom. Levante refuses to reveal what she discovered on the other side of the Perpendicular but, seeing as she returned from her first and last visit with a fraction of her crew and hasn’t ever ventured back, one can only assume it was extremely unpleasant.
• Folly: Named so because the realm seems to serve no purpose other than being an anarchic testament to madness and non-conformism, it’s near impossible to enter this dimension by choice as the ‘entrance’ rarely remains in one place for long. Folly is believed to be the plaything of a powerful but maniacal and nameless entity and is best avoided: absolutely nothing in this dimension is consistent with elsewhere and even the ‘rules’ (for want of a better term, since no such things seem to exist in Folly) within the dimension change constantly, both temporally and geographically. Travellers have been warned. The Chamber Geographick has advised that it is best not even to think about this dimension because the Entity behind it has an uncanny knack of noticing even unspoken interest.

N.B. Travellers should be aware that Chamber Geographick’s interpretation of risky and dangerous can be significantly different to that of the average citizen.

Navigational Maps of Known Space

The following Languages are native or common to Esoterica:

• 'Tweenish: the primary language of Sanctuary and many travelers of the Between; it is originally derived from Vrylakian as the settlers of Sanctuary were escaped Xauphinellean slaves from the Tears, but has diverged far from it.
• Vrylakian: the primary language of the Tears of Vrylakos. There are minor differences, slang, and accents in the various cities and communities of the Tears but speakers can communicate across these differences nonetheless.
  • Fiorean: a hard-edged dialect of Vrylakian spoken in Fiore, Klommesh, and a few other minor communities low in the Tears.
• Ælva: the language of Xauphinelle, Velsephay, and Ælves with connections to them.
• Luuzian: the predominant language of Luuzians although several dialects exist. Luuzian has also been adopted as the language of choice amongst the upper echelons of Sanctuarian Society.
• Irthianic: the language of Imperium of Irth. The language sounds clipped, imperative, and somewhat hostile to many speakers of 'Tweenish. Many have called it an "ugly language" due to its harsh and forceful nature.
• Garese: the language of the Na'Garo. Very few non-Na'Garo know it. It is a fluting, fast, and melodious tongue. It's written form is a distinctive sigil-based alphabet that favors a lot of curved arcs arranged together in various ways to form specific letters.

As one might expect, there are a vast and varied number of religions in Esoterica.

Esotericans do not share a consensus on what a god or goddess actually is and the nature of the divine, like that of magic and the multiverse, is also unclear. Some people see the gods merely as higher - or more evolved - life forms whilst others continue to worship such entities as true Gods, despite the number of alternatives on offer.

Religious Philosophies

The Chamber Ascendant has been tasked with understanding the nature of soul and transcendence in the multiverse; a subject that they tackle with what can only be described as fanatical glee. The Chamber Ascendant tends to classify the many religions of Esoterica as follows:

• Traditionalists
• Sphericists
• Pragmatists
• Unificationists
• Beyonders

Traditionalists

'Traditionalists' are those beings who follow what the Chamber Ascendant considers to be the ‘primitive’ religions of the Planes. An example of a Traditionalist would be someone who chose to worship the Ithus Pantheon of Barbarica. Traditionalists may be those who worship such deities simply because they are unaware of alternatives or those that continue to worship the higher entities that reside rimward because they still consider them to be divine in nature.

Prominent Traditionalists: tbc

Sphericists

“Tell me, why would I worship that which, one day, I will become?” – Nickolas Medies, notable scholar.

Sphericists are those beings who believe that the gods are not really gods at all, just more powerful beings, who having become more closely aligned with certain ideals, have ascended to reside on higher Planes. They believe this is a natural principle of the multiverse, rather than a supernatural one, and that all life forms are capable of ascending. Sphericists tends to believe in cycles of life, death and rebirth, with the worthy soul moving ever more rimward with each cycle. As a result they are usually strongly opposed to things (such as undeath) that breach this spiritual cycle.

Prominent Spericists: tbc

Pragmatists

“Look you cackle-bellied grain weevil, I’m fully aware that Tabeta is a higher entity and not a god-damned goddess, but I’m telling ya this: you got to go out in ta the Tween, you damn well want the mistress of the fickle currents on your side!” Jym Arkady, Legendary Captain of the Spinning Coin.

Pragmatists are essentially Sphericists who continue to revere, or honour, higher entities despite considering them as nothing more than higher entities.

Unificationists

The most notable Unificationist organisation is the Church of the Holy Trinity

Beyonders

"Never ask a Beyonder the time." - colloquial saying, origin unknown

Notable Religions

A number of notable religions exisit in Esoterica, including:

• Gods of the Tears: A religion common in the Tears of Vrylakos but also practiced in Sanctuary.
• Gods of the Xau: A religion specific to the Aelves of Xauphinelle and expatriates thereof.
• The Cult of Luuz: Luuz is the prophet-saviour of the Luuzians who have named themselves and their home in it's honour. Unlike other Gods, Luuz has many incarnations, the dominance of which are tied to the number, and piety, of followers.
• Church of the God-Imperator: the official state religion of Irth, all Irthian citizens at least pretend to be devoutly fanatic worshipers of the God-Imperator. Some really are, and typify the worst traits of extreme zealots. A number of religious and semi-religious Orders have prominent roles in Irthian culture.