The Fourth Fansus
The Fourth Fansus, sometimes called the Twin-Mansus, is the place where the majority of Hours reside. It was born out of two independent Mansi, and experienced heavy change within the latest years. It generally is a place of change, conquering, struggle, and destruction.
Contents
Appearance
The Fourth Fansus is a mass of destroyed dream-geometry and stone, filled with the legacies of the Collision. Underground, other structures, like the Silent Sepulcher or the Chamber of Chrismation may be found.
The Twin-Glory
The result of the Collision, specifically the collision of two separate Glories. The Twin-Glory lives in an eternal death-dance, and its light is broken, reflecting the hopes in the Wake.
The Leonine Gate
The Leonine Gate is the gate The Demiurge built. It is guarded by the Spokesman, and leads to the New Mansus. The Demiurge forged it from the Door to Nowhere that the Elderwyrm used to travel to Nowhere in search of Mother Songbird.
The Highest Pillar
On the Highest Pillar, The Jahwian resides, thought not always alone. The Pillar is also the source of the River of the Seas.
The Navigator's Ruins are the remains of the Navigator's residence, where he navigated the House of the King, one of the two Mansi, the other one being the House of the Wyrm. It lies precariously on the edge of the Mansus.
The Woods
In the Woods, some Hours reside, and, like walls, it surrounds the House. In its depths, secrets may be found, or told, though it has become a bit more dangerous since the Collision.
The River of the Seas
The River of the Seas flows upwards, downwards, sidewards, inwards, outwards, and in almost every direction imaginable. Near the Woods, it meets with the River of the Rocks to form the Lake.
The River of the Rocks
The River of the Rocks emerges from the Scarred Stone, and also flows in many, many directions. Additionally, it partially merges with the Sea of Regrets, and meets the River of the Seas in the Lake.
The Lake
In the Lake, the Wispy Tress awaits, and influences like no others may be perceived, at the place where the skin of the world is the thinest. Some other Hours, like the Fireside, take a look at it, gazing into the Wake. Other Hours know another secret to it.
The Sea of Regrets
The Sea of Regret was created by The Old Wyrm out of grief and dread. It is either black, or of subjective nature, or something else entirely. In its depths, the palace of the Old Wyrm may be found.
The Summer-Spring
A cross between a vinyard and a bath-house, the Lady was frequently found here before the Collision. Now, as she wanders in search of something that will delay her hunger, the vines overgrow and the water doesn't flow.
The Castle
The Castle was built by The Glorious Child, as close to the Glory as possible, and still in the debris of it, somehow (some suspect outside help).
Doors
This is the list of all the Doors in this Fansus:
The Wyrmswound, also known as the Sunspot-Scar, the Blackest Gate, or the Corona Door, was once the highest Door in the House of the Wyrm that adepts used to enter to become Long. It was created when the Elderwyrm descended from the Glory, as a scar left on its surface. The Wyrm plucked it from the Glory and placed it at the highest point of the Mansus, so that the descending Mother Songbird would not be burned by the Glory on her way out. Some now-dead Hour once built a beautiful obsidian doorframe for it, but it was destroyed in the Collision, and now they Blackest Door dances with the Twin Glories, ever fleeting as it jitters and twitches far above the surface of the Mansus. It is difficult to reach, and dangerous to be around, which is the reason why it's the less used of the two Doors to the Glory
The Beautiful Gate, also known as the Royal Door or the Holy Door, was the highest Door of the King's House that adepts used to enter in order to become Long. In an act that foreshadowed his future apathy, the Listless King left it slightly ajar when he passed through it when descending from the Glory. It is coated in brass and engraved with depictions of the King's greatest acts, but in recent times the Collision and the passing Wyrmswound have caused this brass coating to begin to flake, revealing an older surface with strange engravings carved into an unknown metal. Each of the double doors depicts a royal figure that is clearly not the Listless King, though its true identity is unknown. On one of the doors, it holds a lantern. On the other, it wields a knife. The Royal Door has became unreliable in recent times, as the Glories are not always close enough to facilitate the process of ascending to Long. Still, it remains more popular than the unstable Blackest Door
The Whispering Way, sometimes known as the Door of Harmonies or the Glass-Tongued Gate, is the highest point at which mortals could enter the Wyrm's House. It was sometimes played by Her Prescient Serenity, who could commune with its concentric rings of glass to awaken harmonies that could be hears throughout the entire Mansus, though Her Scarred Serenity lacks both the time and the energy to play it nowadays.
The Waxway, also known as the Hive Gate or the Apiary Door, is the highest point at which mortals could enter the King's House. None remember where the bees first arrived from, but all remember the wondrous honey they produced, favored by the royal Hours of the House and their aristocratic children. It is located in the Sugared Swamp, where the Confectionist holds court
There is however one issue. The Door of Harmonies has a fourth title as well, one that it shares with the Hive Gate. Both doors are Vak, but they're not the same Vak. There are subtle differences in grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation that have led to a bitter strife between the twin Gates, even as the Hours who speak Vak could not care less about the other House's accent. The Glass Gate emits shattering melodies from the depths of its pipes to break the frames of the Apiary Door, and the bees of the Hive Gate swarm over the consoles of the Gate of Harmonies ever eager to descend into its innards and bite at the glass rings and pipes. Hours, Long, and mortals have all urged the Doors to stop their feud as the honey runs dry and the harmonies grow discordant, but the Doors show no signs of ceasing.
| The Fanged Door | |
| The Red Door | |
| The Sapphire Door | |
| The Alabaster Door | |
| The Ivory Door | |
| The Knotted Door | |
| The Leonine Gate | |
| The Graveyard of Ways | |
| The Mirrored Door | |
| The Lens-Gate | |
| The Weeping Door |
History
The Fourth Fansus used to be two different Mansi, independent of one another, each inhabited by a different group of Gods-from-Stone and each with their own Glory. These Gods-from-Stone warred among each other, in a war whose ending has been lost to time. The twin Mansi were desolate, war-torn wrecks when the first Hours of Humankind awoke, as were the Gods-from-Stone who inhabited them. The new Hours either killed them or in other ways usurped the Gods-from-Stone and sent most of them to Nowhere. Then, the times of halcyon dreams started, until something that most cannot even describe happened: an event, in which the two Mansi "crashed" into each other. No one knows who is responsible. Some say it's the Navigator, others say it's the Wispy Tress, or even the dead gods-from-stone who acted from Nowhere.
The Collision
Independently from who did it, the causalities of this event were fatal: multiple Hours were incredibly wounded, some Hours even died, and quite a lot rose in the next few years after. But first and foremost, the skin of the world was, if only temporarily, completely torn off, breaking down the barrier between realities, and melting the two Histories, one for each Mansus, together, in addition to power of the Hours bleeding into the Wake. The effects of the latter are recorded below, though no one really remembers what happened, probably for the better.
Effects on the Wake
Lantern
Areas flooded by Lantern-influence were subject to perhaps the most alien of devastations, though they generally have suffered little physical damage. Strange lights appeared in the sky, eerie writing appeared on the walls, surfaces were rendered transparent or reflective, and so forth. People witnessed unspeakable things, saw visions, went mad, and so forth. Lantern is an unmerciful principle, perhaps the one that does the most harm to the mind. It also provides great revelations, however, and many affected by it are now known as oracles or soothsayers. People touched by the unmerciful light have a tendency to hoard knowledge, and to obsessively study it, yearning for the same sort of revelations they saw during the apocalypse. When traveling through terrain touched by Lantern-light, it is important to remember not to look at the lights in the sky, not to read the writing on the walls, not to fall asleep. If one must sleep, one should not record their dreams, nor really think about them too clearly.
Forge
Forge is one of the aspects that caused the greatest physical devastation. Grand explosions, earthquakes, and wildfires, some of which burn unquenchable to this very day. All areas of such devastation are searingly hot. Forge changes the mind too, and those affected by such change were granted an obsessive need to disassemble and reassemble various things. Thus, areas afflicted by Forge Influence are full of strange and often dangerous creations: stories spread among settlements by travellers inevitably end up talking about self-perpetuating and eternal-motion machines.
One thing is certain: Forge-influenced areas are often reliable sources of advanced, complex technology, whether it's made by the tinkerers who dwell there or from ancient relics that predate the Collision. In case of the later, their original function is probably twisted by constant exposure to Forge energies.
Edge
The areas affected by Edge went through great physical devastation, being cut, torn, or flung apart by supernatural means. People in these areas were stricken by jelousy and ambition, and many murdered those close to them in cold blood. After the influence faded, many came to regret or forget these acts. Edge is one of the fastest-fading influences, and most of those affected by it mentally can now live mostly stable, normal lives (Besides the trauma of remembering what they may have done) though its effects may run deep, and the inhabitants of these zones could be more aggresive and prone to react with violence to tense situations: mercenary groups and bandits tend to come from areas influenced by this aspect. Wildlife is not exempt from these effects, either; what elsewhere may be a docile animal will be considerably more dangerous and aggresive within these regions. Creatures influenced by Edge also tend to develop incredibly sharp claws, spines or fangs, that can be crafted into charms with a high Edge aspect.
Despite all this, Edge-affected areas are also one of the safer areas to travel, as few of the cutting-forces that once ravaged them remain, and most of those that do are noticeable. One does need to watch out for objects which appear blunt or flat but which are in truth unexpectedly sharp, as well as for zones where everything entering them is cut apart or in other ways destroyed.
Winter
Winter-affected areas are some of the more dangerous areas, as they can appear perfectly normal to the untrained eye. They can however be identified by a persistent cold that chills you all the way to the bone. The true danger of these areas, however, is not the bitter cold but the areas where time itself has slowed down or stopped. These areas do not move as frequently as similar things in other areas, but are very big and very hard to notice. How long it takes for someone to escape from one of these areas varies greatly, but the fact that they have a tendency to slowly grow, the fact that they are hard to identify from within and the bitter cold means that many careless explorers have been abandoned inside them. To make things worse, Winter-influenced areas tend to be absolutely crawling with various kinds of Dead. Those with more sanity remaining tend to commemorate the power known as the Legion Lamentful, and therefore can in some cases be bargained with or deceived. Those with less sanity remaining tend to be purely animalistic and hostile, hungering for the warmth of the living. The Dead in these areas can usually bypass the temporal anomalies, but cannot bring people out of them. Those mentally affected by the Winter-influence released during the apocalypse tend to be depressive, apathetic and mournful. These effects last long, very long.
Communities established within Winter-influenced areas either learn to coexist with the Dead(usually by establishing some kind of bargain or covenant) or disappear, so people who hail from these areas may have a reputation(deserved or not) of being mediums and mystics, experienced in the different ways of communing and warding off the Dead.
Another peculiarity is that cities or settlements affected by potent Winter influences may be mistaken by those of Heart in the eyes of inexperienced areas, due to the quiet and stillness that seeps into every nook of the place. However, several visits through a long period of time will reveal the slow, creeping decay that blights these places.
Heart
The areas affected by Heart influence tend to be the best-preserved of the areas, as rampant Heart influence caused grand storms, earthquakes, floods, and other such weather phenomena that many areas were already at least partially prepared for. These same intense Heart influences gave tremendous vitality to the life to be found on these areas, and eventually led to a riotous growth and abundance of wildlife, specially when compared to the relative scarcity found on other areas; all this life hows uncanny resilience, something that has hampered attempts to settle these areas. The high Heart influences that imbue these places mean what Pre-Colission buildings are found there are unusually well-preserved, but treasure hunters beware: that means the wards and defensive mechanism that protect the old sacred sites of the faithful also survived the Colission in good conditions.
Those affected by Heart influence tend to be restless and optimistic, with endless determination. These are useful traits to have in the post-apocalyptic wasteland, but can also lead one into danger.
Grail
Areas afflicted by Grail are perhaps the ones where the most influence still remains, and also some of the more populous. During the apocalypse much of them were flooded, not just with water, but with blood or honey or stranger fluids still. These areas are ones where strange vines grow and strange fruit grows, of the kind that cannot be eaten only once. The people affected by Grail influence tend to be reckless and hedonistic, and the influence released during the apocalypse caused many of them to use it as an opportunity to commit acts that they usually did not do, or indulge in desires they had repressed, leading to a societal collapse in the places so affected.
Many are now addicted to a variety of substances or pleasures, both mundane and unique to Grail-tarnished land. A vast majority of the Long who were in these areas during the apocalypse are now Alukites, as the urge to commit the Crime of the Sky became irresistible during the hours when the border between the real and the surreal were blurred. Most of these Long tend to avoid contact with others out of shame, feigned or real.
Moth
The areas affected by Moth are the ones of which is known the least, and most of them differ significantly from each other. Common themes include the breakdown of perception and knowledge, and the forgetting of things and words, rampant growth of plants, spatial anomalies of various kinds, distances being much shorter or longer than they appear or objects being much closer or farther away than they appear, and aggressiveness on the part of animals. Humans remaining in these areas gradually lose their senses and return to their base animal state, filthy and unclothed.
Knock
Areas affected by Knock influence experienced grand turmoil during the apocalypse, and are today the ones from which the fewest return. During the apocalypse structures leveled themselves, old wounds opened and people bled to death, and portals and spatial anomalies appeared everywhere. Space is inconsistent, and doors and windows do not open into where they should, and frequently moving fissures in reality take people from one place to another, often unexpectedly. Knock did not affect the minds of people much, though it remains inadvisable to sleep in a Knock-influenced area.
Secret Histories
Secret Histories anomalies are the rarest and usually smallest kind, and tend to appear around sites where the scar of history is apparent. Things can become hard to remember properly as contradictory memories appear, origins of things can become paradoxical as people find themselves wearing rings indicating that they were married to one person and tattoos contradicting them while themselves becoming confused over which one is true. Most of these anomalies are much more minor and harmless than those influenced by other aspects. Secret Histories does not mentally influence people much aside from the false memories.
One must remember that it is very rare to find an area where only one aspect deluged during the apocalypse, and that these effects can often be found alongside other, weaker ones of different aspects. One must also remember that the above are merely general themes and not hard rules, and that areas influenced by one aspect tend to differ significantly from one another.
There are also some anomalies that are common to all areas, and can even be found in areas not hit as much by the apocalypse. These include: Places where pure Mansus-energy has flowed through, causing reality to feel more dreamlike, most common in Knock, Lantern, and Moth areas. Strange and dangerous dreams, most common in Knock and Lantern areas, though sleep in Winter areas can be dangerous for different reasons. People who appear to be asleep but nonetheless remain in perfect physical health, merely catatonic, but who release grand and dangerous influences if killed, most common in Lantern or Winter areas. They are suspected to be connected to the Hour known as the Legion Lamentful. Stray Mansus-beings are also common in all areas, and usually yearn to return to the Mansus and the Hours who created them. They are in most cases very dangerous, and should not be approached alone.
Life After The Collision
Oneironauts
When the Collision came, and the veil between the Mansus and the Histories was torn asunder, the people who dwelled there couldn’t afford themselves to continue pretending the laws and forces of the waking world were the only ones that existed, if they wanted to survive. Mystics, scholars, occultists, and anyone who could provide a resemblance of understanding about the otherwordly forces that now rampaged through the world rose to a prominent place in the societies that remained, and those who were founded anew.
Among these adepts, one who would eventually rise to a position of great renown were the so-called “oneironauts”, researchers who laboured to understand not the nature of any single Hour or arcane principle, but that of the Mansus itself and its relationship with the Histories. To that end, they sought to navigate through the House’s paths and Doors, and discover why some acts there seemed to resonate within the Histories.
This arcane knowledge, accumulated since the early days of the Shattered Histories, has made the oneironauts valued community fixtures in many settlements, serving as guides, advisors and public servants in many settlements: instructing people about what Mansus paths are safer to walk upon, and undergoing expeditions to the more dangerous parts on their behalf.
There are, however, many profit-minded oneironauts who prefer not to be tied by bonds of duty and responsability, and travel the Histories offering their services to the highest bidder.
(Any groups that are composed by, or count oneironauts among their numbers can be referenced here.)
