Or the Edge of the World and Other Interesting Things

I know I've discussed some of the concepts behind how the world of Haven works on a metaphysical level before in the monster thread, but I blieve I never expanded upon many of the lesser details as they came out a conversation with one of my players when I actually used it.

As you know, Haven is an island of stability in a vast sea of Chaos, formed by the Gods to protect them from the Chaos from which they were born, and born of their very flesh.  

In shape Haven could be said to be 'flat'. As with any flat object, however there are two sides.  When Haven was formed by the Gods (Sky is such a god, for example), the First Gods anyway, they only occupied one face of Haven, leaving the other side exposed to the raw stuff of Chaos (Amorphia).

After fighting the Demons (who are essentially beings much as the Gods, creations of Chaos with a sense of self, of personality, also seeking shelter from the Amorphia from which they came...), they ceded the other side of Haven to the Demons, and Sky and the demonic counterpart (that is, the Elder Demon who occupies/is the bowl of the sky, only on the other side) both giving up a measure of their power to reinforce the newly made barrier, also giving up responsibility for keeping Chaos at bay beyond them.

Thus we may view Haven as a ball floating within a terrible sea, the center plane of that ball being the land that is occupied.  

The Gods that came to be after the God War (against the Demons) for a time wandered the land, but eventually, as people died and their souls required homes the Gods were forced to take the souls of the Dead and form a new realm.  Metaphysically this 'God Realm', often called the underworld (where, ironically, Death has almost no power...) is sort of a blemish on the surface of the ball, a gall bladder or a blister on its skin.  It is, if you like, also the control room of 'The Great Engine' which maintains Haven, the Ball, in the Sea of Amorphia.  Now, as this is, essentially, a seperate plane of reality to the denizens of Haven, its metaphysical location within the barrier is actually unimportant geographically.   It might be possible to suggest that locations to enter the Underworld physically can be mapped in fourth or fifth dimensional space to locations within Haven, but frankly who would want to do that?  Not I, for one.

The Sea of Irem is nothing more than the residue of a massive rip in the Barrier allowing the Amorphia of the Sea of Chaos to pour into Haven, and had the Gods not acted swiftly, all of Haven would have slowly been dissolved. Actually, had they not acted, all the world would have been flooded, wiping away all of Haven, excepting the Demon Realms on the other side. The physical structure of Haven would have remained intact for some time, from a human scale, but in all likelihood the entire Barrier would have fallen appart wiping clean even the Demon Realms...  

Normally, any place the Barrier could be called weak would be an excellent place to enter the Underworld, however the Sea of Irem is not a weak point, in fact it is currently the most heavily reinforced part of the barrier, and death in the Wasteland can be unpleasant for the unfortunate soul, making it heavily populated by ghosts who can't get to the afterlife.


The Gods come in several different flavors.  The First Gods created Haven and are both physical things and abstract concepts. They are as inscrutable as a self concious being can get, which is pretty damnned inscrutable.  They can be utterly unaware, or even hostile to, the mortals crawling across their faces or under their gimlet gaze, and even the 'Gods of Men', the lesser gods created to intercede between the First Gods and the mortals and beasts of the world can barely interact with them meaningfully. The Elder Demons are essentially the same as the First Gods, but less tied to Haven itself, being interlopers.

The 'second tier' of Gods don't have a clever name but represent Gods native to Haven and yet above the mortals and their deties. The Barrier is, strangely enough, such a God, and the closest in temperment and behavior to the first Gods. These gods are often the half demonic. Death and War (specifically, the Warlord of Melitior) are further such Gods. Note that Death and War are not abstract conceptual Gods.  If reabsorbtion into Amorphia counts as death to the First, then the concept of Death predates the creation of a God embodying the concept.  If anything Death and War are only embodiments of ideas, not the origins of them, though they can be said to be strengthed by their concepts.  

The "Gods of Men", or alternatively 'The Gods of the World' are nearly universally mortals elevated to Godhood. This is little known or understood by mortal inhabitants, as the vast majority of such apotheosis occured long before any of the current species of beings lived on Haven, at the very dawn of time. Thus many of the Gods do not even look like existing species, or only look vaguely like those species whom they officially rule over.  These Gods are responsible for running the Great Engine, and keeping Chaos from eroding, however slowly, Haven.  Recall if you will that the Great Engine includes, or is made up of, all the mortal species and inhabitants of Haven, plus some.  Thus their role is also to act as a go between for Mortals and the First.   Humans, as the youngest Mortal race of note has the most recorded instances of apotheosis, simply because of the recent ness of such elevations.   The Daelyryeath should, but do not, have a God of their own, having slain and eaten him at during his Apotheosis, and his incomplete ghost wanders the Underworld as an insane beast, though this is perhaps for the best.

The Little Gods are spirit beings that occupy Haven itself, must as the First do.  Their origins are little understood even by the Gods, they are thought by some to be a byproduct of the Great Engine, by others to be infant offspring of the First, creations of their dreaming minds... Their power is limited, they are much as mortals are, but yet still Gods.  Their limits are of time and space more than anything else, they exist as men do in the here and now, unlike all the other Gods whose perception of time is beyond that of ordinary mortals.  Still, it was the Little Gods who created Paravail's Oath of Citizenship, and enforce it, and it is the Little Gods who receive the bulk of Tenebrian worship.

Magic in Haven:

With almost no exception, all Magic in Haven is a direct drawing upon Chaos itself to alter reality.  The differences lie primarily in technique. This is fully supported and approved by the Gods because each time Chaos is brought into Haven and given a permanent form, that is converted from Amorphia directly into 'something specific', Haven itself grows and is strengthened, and in theory the Chaos around it grows weaker... though we are speaking of such a vast quantity (infinite) that its a mere notion.  

The methods of magic have been altered by the Gods several times in Haven's history. The techniques used by the Titans gave that race enough temporal power to threaten the Great Engine itself, and ironically provided very little permanent growth to Haven itself, as most of their creations dissolved into nothing (aether) when their spells broke.  The inheritors of the Titan's magic managed to recreate similar spells, though weaker and more difficult to cast, and when the Gods shut down all magic to seal the rip over Irem, the same thing happend, thus magic was changed once more to encourage more permanent alterations to reality, making magic harder yet again.  

Yet the same underpinnings to Magic exist, and even the Gods can't really change what went before.  The spells of the Titans, if they could be found, could be cast just as they were originally... though at a far more terrible cast to the would be conjurer, and so to the spells of Mythic Age.  The true secret to casting such potent magics lies in overcoming the limits the Gods imposed upon mortal minds in channeling such power, followed quickly by overcoming the fragility of our flesh.  

Thus Elder Sorcery is the most powerful, and most dangerous form of Magic to be found, and even the Gods fear it. Elder Sorcery is what destroyed Irem.  It is all but unheard of, even the greatest archmagisters may only know bits of whispered rumor of its existance.  When one finds strange purple stones and arranges them in certain patterns and 'stuff happens' you have performed Elder Sorcery.  The key is that the mind and body of the sorcerer are not invovled in the casting, Chaos is summoned directly into haven, controlled and contained by the physical elements of the spell and altered into the required form after the fact.  As destructive magics go it is all but unparalleled, one must only ensure the required quantity of Amorphia arrives where the destruction is needed, nothing else... the nature of Chaos will do the rest.

Elder Sorcery predates Irem, predates the Titans, who avoided it, none recall the first practicioners, though some claim the Warlord introduced it to Mortals long ago.  Certainly the Gods dabble in it, they have a natural ability to shape and control Amorphia and it is the simplest way to work the stuff compared to exiting the Barrier and working directly on the Fountainhead itself.  

Most 'experts' in Haven consider Amorphia to be 'concentrated magic', rather than the raw substance of reality itself.  Certainly there are ground to believe that, a tiny thimblefull of the stuff, fresh mind you, could be infused into a rod of wood or bone and used to power dozens, if not hundreds of... say... fireballs.. if wanted to cast such a spell.  It could also be used to create a handful of elemental beings, or with the right incantations be turned into just about anything, including a purse of gold. Just a thimbleful, a tiny amount, really.

What they remain unaware of is that when the cast such spells themselves, they are channeling the same stuff directly from the Sea of Chaos through their minds, or whatever focusing devices they use, to create the same effects.  Even the minute amounts that even the most powerful wizards can draw upon are corrosive, which is why there are so many tales of mad wizards, and why so many wizards use staves and amulets and various other arcane tools... and why so many of those same staves and the like are often twisted and strange looking.

It also explains why the more powerful magics tend to come from the Gods, via cults and miracles. The Gods do not channel raw amorphia to their followers but rather transformed energies designed to accomplish... whatever.  In metaphysical terms, the more powerful cult leaders and clerics actually absorb a tiny measure of diefic nature with each such channeling, and if one could live long enough, and be holy enough, one might ascend to a sort of minor God-hood via osmosis, though even the elves would find it challenging to live long enough to accomplish that feat (though the Dragons on the other hand...). Even the Little Gods can filter Amorphia for their followers, though on a more limited scale, and they lack the ability of other Gods to work the Amorphia directly.

If one could see Haven as the First Gods do, one might see a vast web of mystic lines, structure and stability trapping the essenence of Chaos, holding it into shape.  Where those lines meet one might find what we will call Runes (since I ran this as a Runequest game first...), though you might call them anything.  This is a poor description for what Runes are, and vastly overstates their commonality.  Runes are, in a way, flaws in Chaos, flaws in the True reality of the Fountainhead, the source of all. Haven is an anolomy, the inevitable result of the constant churn of being. When Amorphia is held in a state for a long enough period of time (eons...) it forms what might be called 'Anti-Chaos', Runes which embody elements of stability.  Runes automatically convert amorphia into form, more stable and powerful than conventional spells, and when exposed to raw amorphia automatically convert it (or at least a portion of it) into whatever reality the Rune represents.  A mortal being, though strangly not a God, can absorb a rune into himself, making it a part of his being until his death, and even several runes. This empowers the mortal in ways that are unclear, though codifiable, and allows access to powerful, if limited, spells innately.   It is said that were one to absorb enough Runes, one would become a new type of God, of Haven itself.  This is debateable. Certainly the Gods, as living aspects of Reality, can produce (or find anyway) runes of their nature, and seem to create them spontaniously when they walk the face of Haven, and rumors of Dark, Demonic Runes exist, alien counterpoints to the Reality of Haven.

Body and Soul:

The First Gods are beyond bodies or souls. They are best described as presences, though Haven is said to be made of their flesh.

The lesser Gods (all of them) can be called Souls and can create bodies to house those souls.

Mortals have bodies and souls, when the body dies the soul continues.

Demons are soul bodies, their flesh and soul are the same thing, excepting the most abstract Elder Demons, of course.  This is one strong delineator of difference between gods and demons, more than any other factor.  A soul can be killed, regardless if its mortal, divine or profane, though Death must usually preside over the death of a soul. Being dissolved into Amorphia is a not-death that precludes the intervention of Death, and does tend to remove one from the afterlife.  Funeral rites are designed to ferry the souls of the dead to the Underworld, literally.  Souls that are not guided to there can still work their way in, but it is much harder.  Once in the Underworld, the soul must progress past a variety of tests, many determined by the Gods that are responsible for that soul (cultural gods and specifically worshipped deities, with 'atheists' having a rough time of it, seeing as no god cares about them) determining the nature and grading of the tests.  The Underworld is not really a place for rest, the Gods generally put the dead to some use, though reincarnation is a common eventual destination (preventing a buildup of souls until there is room for them all). Some important souls can be sent back to life directly, forming a odd sort of undeath, approved and caused by the Gods (where traditional undeath is blasphemous, though not really 'evil'... evil in Haven, from a deific point of view, is working to destroy Haven and allow Chaos to absorb it. Obviously individual Gods will have their own definition of lesser evils. Death (the God) is rather fond of things staying dead, naturally enough, and takes a particularly dim view of most necromancy. Then again, Death is one of the few Gods who spends no time in the Underworld).

Souls without bodies are of limited use to the Gods in expanding and stabilizing Haven as they are more vulnerable to dissolution to Chaos. That they are used for this directly speaks more to the accident of their existance than to their utility in this regard.


Sailing off the edge of the world:
 90% of the edge of Haven is sea, only the northernmost edge of hte northern continent directly reaches the edge of the world by land (and is slowly growing thanks to the efforts of the Queen of the North).   The Barrier is actually some dozens of meters distant from the physical edge of the oceans, allowing for a great permanent waterfall (without the usual powerful current taking ships over the edge, which is quite shallow here) excepting a few scattered islands who end abruptly. If one were to fall or jump over, one would land in the Underworld, probably dead from the great distance.  Climbing down would be safer, but you'd still be in the underworld... and the Gods have rules about that sort of thing.  The northern land edge however leads directly to the Sea of Chaos, which looks much like a much bigger version of the Sea of Irem.  Due to the barrier, no monsters crawl out of the sea, though they do swim in it, and it laps at the rocky shore as normal water might.   Statues of men and women, usually heroic looking line that shore, these are the calcified remains of those who have, by force of will, pushed back the sea of Chaos, expanding Haven. That the land they've created is barren and raw, even alien at times, is unimportant.  The most distant statues from the tower of the Queen at times do not even look to be of any known race. If the Queen is truly Dealyryeath, then perhaps she merely inherited the position from an older, more ancient watcher of the North.

What happened in Irem?  Recall that the Sorcerer-Kings had learned the truth of the Gods and the Great Engine and resolved to elevate themselves to the power of the First, if not their actual natures.  Had it not been the interference of the Danu at their walls, and then too the arrival of several gods to bolster the war effort, they might have taken smaller, more cautious steps in their experiment.  Instead of summoning Amorphia and shaping it, they attempted to summon it directly within the souls of their greatest Sorcerer Kings, a drastic measure.  These men and women became living tears in reality, pouring forth raw Amorphia, destroying everything around them except the creations they had made resistant to Chaos (on a mortal scale, immune... in the long run its barely more stable than the physical structure of Haven itself, which is still pretty damn stable, but  not exactly permanent).  The Gods merely contained the spillage as best they could until the living rips finally were absorbed back into the amorphia... though one or two may still exist the great flooding has at least stopped.  In theory one of those damned souls deep in the Sea may have enough personality left, enough willpower to claim success, making such a being, if they can ever control their spillage, into a sort of Demon.

The Gods could clean up the Sea of Irem, now that its not in danger of growing beyond their ability to contain, and possibly quite quickly. It would, however, distract them from their regular (and neglected) duties, and would be quite unpleasant, while the sea itself is something of an object lesson, and a way of keeping the secrets of Iremi Elder Sorcery out of the wrong hands.  

Those purple stones of Elder Sorcery? They are essentially miniature universes of Chaos contained in their own Barriers. No one living knows how they are formed, or where they originally came from. If runes are 'anti-chaos' then the stones of Elder Sorcery are 'anti-runes', odd as that is to say. A truly esoteric mystery is that such a stone could be absorbed by a mortal soul, just as Runes are (well, body... recall that death ejects the runes from one's flesh.  In theory, full integration with the soul IS possible, however), though the results of such an unholy act are unknown. It is possible it would allow one to channel greater sorceries than mortal flesh could abide, its also possible that it would destroy the one who attempted it, possibly creating a new, demonic, being in its place. Wether such a new creature would amenable to living in Haven, or 'aligned' with Chaos (such as one could be aligned with such... essentially opposed to the idea of a stable reality rather than truly aligned) is unguessable.

Having read a bit of the recent Exalted threads in the main forum I am reminded that in some regards the metaphysical origins of Haven resembled Exalted.

I suspect there is simply a matter of drawing on similar inspirations in those particular regards. None the less, I feel compelled to point out both origins and key points of difference.

The idea of a world floating in formless chaos, particulary the entire northern border of Haven comes to me directly (stolen liberally) from Elric, I believe a short shorty buried in the actual Elric Saga, though its been years since I read it. The actual idea of the formation of the world is sensible to me, and I suspect draws upon ancient creation myths (Apu, the sea, formless darkness, whatever...the Gods came from that and made the world, neh?)

My Gods and the Amorphia are inspired by, but as far as I can tell not identical to Brust's gods from the Draegearea setting.  Rather than attempting to tie everything in creation to deliberate works, things like the Runes (as in RUNEquest... you know, what I ran it with...) struck me as byproducts.

There are no fairies living in the sea of chaos attempting to get in and unmake reality.  While I have plenty of room for Fae in my setting, that assuredly isn't it. There are no elemental poles, and in fact the classic elements are more or less absent from the setting as written.  There is no basis for them in the mythology I've concocted, though as 'elements' they do exist in the alchemical term... its just that there are far more than four or five.  I may steal liberally from Final Fantasy and other JRPGs in that regard and have a dozen or so 'elements'.

I have been toying with the idea that the elder ages (The Time of the Titans, the Golden age, teh Mythic age, etc...) are not objectively any better than where civilization is, or is going now, only that they did things differently. Certainly one could look upon the Drakes/Draggies/Dragoons and flying ships of Renbluve and realize that these are feats very similar, if not identical to what the Titan's accomplished by breeding real dragons and their various slave races.