Empyria

Tellus | Empyria

Empyrea

“The Spire of the Gods”

“A monument to creation, and all that was unmade.”

Overview

Empyrea is the heart of the world, a 500-mile-wide continent fixed at the very center of the disc of Tellus. It does not rotate with the rest of the world; instead, the disc spins clockwise around it, like a great wheel turning around an anchored hub.

This strange relationship with motion and gravity marks Empyrea as utterly otherworldly. It is a land of divine consequence, chaotic weather, impenetrable geography, and an impossibly vast tower at its center, known simply as the Spire.

Empyrea is not a place for mortals. There are no kingdoms here, no settlements, only the remnants of those who dared to try.

Geography & Physical Structure

The Maelstrom Ring

Encircling Empyrea’s shores is a ring of jagged black stone, a defensive shell formed during The Breaking.

• The inner ring is anchored to Empyrea’s coastline.
• The outer ring spins with the rest of Tellus, creating a grinding vortex of ocean and stone.
• This deadly moat churns ceaselessly, swallowing ships and shattering even magical vessels that misjudge their approach.
• Very few have ever made it through, those who do rarely return.

“Empyrea chews its visitors before allowing them to walk her bones.”

The Primordial Ring

From the base of the cliff-lined coast rises a dense, circular jungle, two hundred miles of untouched, ancient rainforest that completely encircles the Spire.

• This region is the hottest place on Tellus, locked in a state of perpetual summer.
• Rain is constant, and storm patterns are wildly unpredictable due to the turbulence of the disc’s rotation.
• The jungle is overrun with magic. Beasts, monsters, living spells, and forgotten titans roam beneath the canopy.
• Ruins from pre-Breaking civilizations can be found half-swallowed by vines or submerged in living swamp temples.

The Central Spire

At the center of the continent rises the Spire, a geological and divine impossibility.

• It is a 100-mile-wide stone column, not perfectly smooth, but sharply vertical.
• The lowest plateau rises about 50 miles above sea level.
• 
  Its flanks are cut with stairs, ledges, walkways, waterfalls, and monuments from a thousand eras.

The Celestial Terrace

The summit of the Spire is a multi-tiered divine metropolis, known collectively as Empyrea (or The High Seat).

It is the realm of gods, demi-gods, celestials, and spirits, a layered city built over twenty millennia.

Characteristics:

• The surface is not a single level, but a series of irregular terraces, each several miles wide.
• Architecture is incohesive and miraculous, divine palaces, floating citadels, hanging gardens, cities within statues, and gravity-defying monuments.
• Weather, time, and reality are partially controlled by the will of the divine beings who live there.

Origins:

• Originally created by the Five Original Gods: Axeos, Uris, Nalene, Ogmus, and Sylvarel.
• Each built a domain of their own, palaces, forges, moon pools, orchards of memory, and living towers of thought.
• After The Breaking, many of these were destroyed or left to decay, but newer gods and powerful celestials continued to build.

Notable Features:

• Council Rings – Sanctums where cosmic disputes are settled (or reignited).
• The Obsidian Menagerie – A zoo of extinct and unreal beasts.
• The Vault of the Fallen – A graveyard for gods who unraveled.
• The Chorus Bridge – A causeway where the wind itself sings prophecy.
• The Fountain of Thought – A pool where knowledge not yet written can be sipped, for a cost.
• The Infinite Steps – A staircase with no known end, which ascends into Aether itself.

Denizens of Empyrea

• The Greater Celestials – Demigods of vast power, many of whom claim territory on the terrace.
• The Lesser Divines – Spirits and powers formed in the aftermath of the Maelstroms. Some rule, others serve.
• The Fallen – Former gods or beings of immense power now imprisoned, unraveled, or exiled within Empyrea’s shadow.
• The Attendants – A host of celestial beings: seraphs, phoenix-spirits, architects of wind and fire, scribes of fate, and the like.
• Visitors – Rare mortals, demi-mortals, or planewalkers who manage to reach the terrace. Most are destroyed. Some are... changed.

Mysteries of the Spire

• Does the Spire touch the Aether?
• Who built the lowest levels, and what lies beneath?
• Is the center of the disc hollow, and does the Spire act as a conduit to the World Engine?
• Does Axeos still whisper from Karos, the red moon, and can he reach Empyrea again?