The Unknown Universe — Uaellaen's Chronicles

The universe Uaellaen and his companions were banished to. Unnamed. Undocumented. The setting of the current story — and the thing Uaellaen is writing this wiki to understand.

The New World

The Unknown Universe is the universe Uaellaen and his companions were banished to. It has no name yet. It has no history that Uaellaen knows. It is the setting of the current story — and the reason this wiki exists. It is a world with its own physics, its own races, its own creatures, and its own long silence where the gods should be answering. It does not know Uaellaen is here. Yet. The first thing the world said to the six, in the way a world says things — in ground and weather and the look of the light — was that it was not the old world, and the not-saying was the whole of the welcome.

Overview

Status: Unnamed. Undocumented. Actively being studied.
What is known: It has its own physics — magic works, but the rules are different, and the difference is the camp's oldest argument. It has its own races and creatures, from the Vantari on the cliffs to the things the sea has not finished with. Its ground has been walked and mapped in patches: the frozen first ground of The Nameless Tundra, white where the wind has kept it; the broken line of The Shattered Coast, black rock and black sand under kept air; the still lake of Hollowmere, flat silver light and no wind; and the settlements and warrens the mappers of The Forgotten have not finished drawing.
Its gods: The gods of this world are the old pantheon — the same twelve, the sanctums still standing where the sanctums should be — and they are still there, but distant, sleeping, not answering. The hall of seals holds its seals. The orchard keeps its dead. The maw keeps its green. And none of them answers, and the not-answering is the world's own face: the gods did not come with the story. They were already here, asleep in their own houses, and the world has been running on its own since.
What is unknown: What the old world's absence means for this one. Whether the Threshold can be reopened — and whether Uaellaen wants it to be. Where the stragglers are: most of the six arrived together, one or two elsewhere, and the not-knowing where is the first question of the current story. And who the demi-god was that did the Drop — the identity is a deliberate open mystery, and the mystery stays open for later episodes, because the not-naming is the longest silence the story has.
The camp's position: The Forgotten keep their ground in the tundra and their distance from the coast, and the keeping is the camp's whole of the year, because the camp has learned that a world that is not answered is a world that is not owed.

Gazetteer

The unknown universe has been walked and mapped in patches — the mappers of The Forgotten are not finished drawing, and what is drawn below is what the camp has stood in, argued over, and survived. It is grouped the way the camp thinks in regions, not the way a cartographer would. A place not listed here is not yet a place: it is ground the camp has not yet put its weight on.

The Shattered Coast and the Deep

The Shattered Coast — the broken black-rock line under kept air; the first real place in the current world.
Hollowmere — a drowned place under a dark, still lake; something sleeps beneath it; the second real place.
Selkie Shore — a cold coast of black rock and grey water; the skin and the loch.
The Shatter Sounds — a shore of black rock and kept air where the sirens keep their voice.
The Drowned Warrens — a submerged cave network in a drowned bay, its arches rising to the waterline.
Coral Throne — a living reef city of coral architecture; its trade is measured in pearls.
Sharkbone Warrens — a cannibal bone city built from the rib-cages of the deep.
Black Tide Vaults — deep-sea pressure vaults of black stone, their silence a constant drip.
The Abyssal Coil — a trench of the deep; the coil and the spawn.

The Frozen Ground

Frostfang Crevasse — a mile-long glacier fissure lit by hot vents that break through the ice like cracks of light.
The Bone Fields — a field of white bone and cold air, where the skeletons keep their strength and their very long, very quiet patience.
The Brook Holds — a hold of black stone and cold water, where the trolls keep their strength.
Tuskridge Barrens — a ridge of bare stone and red dust, scored by tusk-marks.

The Woods and the Green

Glimmerwood — a forest of shifting paths and pale light that does not stay in one place.
Ironwood Grove — a deep forest of iron-wood trees, their trunks hollowed into bear-halls.
Howling Fen — a vast conifer forest of standing water and hollow oaks, carved into dens.
Whispering Hollow — an amber autumn forest of whispering branches, its clearings wide enough to hold a trade.

The Marshes, Fens, and Mires

Bittermire Warrens — a rust-colored poison marsh, its ground a soft dark that gives underfoot.
Mirehollow — a swamp thicket of standing water and web-laced branches; the web and the kill.
The Bog Hollows — a hollow of black bog and warm water, where the frogloks keep their leaps.
The Coil Marshes — a swamp of coiled towers built of woven reeds and bone, its water black and still.
The Fen Mirror — a mirror-still grey bog, its surface a constant shimmer.
The Gullet Pits — a blood pit of the marsh.
The Melt Pool — a collective of gelatinous colony-pools in a shallow basin.
The Scale Pool — a pool of black scale and warm water in the deep marsh, where the lizard-men keep their scales.
The Mire Barracks — a barracks of black mud and broken stone in the deep marsh, where the ogres keep their strength.
The Moaning Moor — a moor of pale shade; the moan and the soul.

The High Stone

Eaglepeak — a single sheer peak of bare stone; the oath and the wolf.
Emberhollow Caldera — a collapsed caldera ringed by dead lava shelves, centered on a slow lake of magma that never cools.
Mosaic Crags — a crag of three-parted beasts: lion, goat, and serpent.
Skyspire Footholds — a ring of sheer cliffs studded with lashed platforms and woven wind-sacks.
Stormglass Spires — tuned crystal spires on a wind-scoured ridge that drink the storm and glow pale blue.
The Fanghold — a hold of black stone and iron in the high fangs, where the orcs keep their war.
The Fangsteppe — a bone-totem savanna, its ground scored with fang-marks.
The Grassy Steppe — a wide, open plain of tall grass and running water, where the centaurs ride the wind.
The Scale Pits — a pit of black scale and broken wing, where the drakes keep their small, sharp quarrels.
The Scream Spire — a sheer tower of bare stone, its air a constant shriek.
The Silent Spires — a city of pale stone; the record and the witness.
The Sting Crags — a crag of bare stone scored by the marks of the claw.
The Vigil Gate — a gate of pale stone; the oath and the vigil.

The Delves and the Under

Anvil Caves — gem-mining tunnels and forges under a dead mountain, lit by furnace-heat.
Drip Caverns — a dripping cavern of acid wanderers, its floor dissolving and re-forming.
Karn Dun, the Deep Delve — a vast city-hall carved into the roots of the mountain, lit by the forge and the oath.
Nocturne Caverns — a vast cavern city lit only by pale lichens, its roosts in layers.
The Deepdelve — a vast tunnel network under the river plain; its map is kept in memory.
The Gaze Caverns — a cavern of turned stone, its walls carved with the shapes of those who looked.
The Underbrow — a mountain range hollowed into a lattice of clean, singing tunnels, centered on a geode hall the size of a cathedral.
The Underwarrens — a warren of narrow, dark tunnels beneath the old cities.
The Labyrinth — a maze of black stone and kept air, where the minotaurs keep their strength.
Umbral Hollow — a deep sunless sinkhole lit by pale fungus growing in slow rings.

The Warrens and the Burrow

Goblin Warrens — a range of ruined hills honeycombed with burrow-warrens, its pits deep and honest.
Rootcellar Hills — a range of green hills honeycombed with root-cellars, their silence broken only by the ale.
The Whisker Warrens — a warren of narrow, warm tunnels beneath the old cities.
The Hissing Roost — a nest of a hundred eggs in a bare cliff-face; the hiss and the clutch.

The Cities and the Holds

Aelfarion, the Silver City — a city of silver spires and old, careful magic, carved into the white cliffs of the coast.
Vulkanis, the Volcanic City — a city carved into the heart of a dead volcano, its deep tunnels lit by magical fires.
Ironstock Bastion — a military iron-forged fortress on a bare ridge, its drill-yards wide enough to hold a line.
The Ashen Reach — a wide, open country of old fields and new towns, where the humans keep their many oaths.
The Two Shore — a quiet settlement on the border of elf-wood and human town, where the half-elves keep their two oaths.
The Tinker Hollows — a hollow of small, clever workshops and odd little gardens, where the gnomes tinker and scheme.
Vinehollow — a vine-tangled hill of wine and pan-pipes, its hollows wide enough to hold a party.

The Dragon Country

The Drakemoor — a moor of black scale-stone and ash, where the dragon-kin keep their kinship and their long, slow grudges.
The Elemental Roost — a roost of bare stone at the edge of the planes, where the dragons keep their hoards and their long, cold patience.

The Roosts and the Sky

Roostspire — a single colossal tree, its canopy a city of bone-and-feather art.
Windcliff Roost — a sheer cliff face studded with roost-platforms, its wind a constant howl.

The High Planes and the Divine

The Aetheric Throne — a city of cold light and ringing silence in the highest plane, where the angels keep their vigil.
The Throne of Names — a throne of cold light and ringing silence in the highest plane, where the gods keep their power.
The Sanctum — a floating sanctum above the clouds, where the demi-gods keep their power and their distance.
The Infernal Pits — a pit of black fire and broken stone at the bottom of the world, where the demons keep their bargains and their hunger.
The Scriptorium — a silent tower of paper and ink on the edge of the old world, where the erudites keep their knowledge.

The Dead and the Made

The Bone Ossuary — an ossuary of pale bone, its chambers lit by the phosphorescence of the soul.
The Sanguine Crypts — a crypt of pale stone, lit by the phosphorescence of the blood; the ledger.
The Forge Halls — a hall of black stone and cold fire, where the golems keep their strength.
Serpent Spire — a temple of venom and court, its spires grown from the bone of the court.

The map is not finished. The camp keeps its ground in the tundra and its distance from the coast, and the keeping is the camp's whole year — because a world that is not answered is a world that is not owed, and a place not yet walked is not yet a place.

In the Story

The Unknown Universe is the current setting. Everything in this wiki that is not tagged "backstory" or "old-world" takes place here. It is the world Uaellaen is learning, surviving in, and slowly — grudgingly — deciding whether to fight for. The six came through The Threshold and most of them struck the broken shore together, and the shore was the first page, and the page is this world.

"I have been in this universe for a while now. I still do not know its name. I do not think that is an accident. I think this universe is waiting for me to ask the right question. I have not found it yet. I am patient. I have had practice." — Uaellaen