My intent with the Borderlands game is to largely develop the world as we play. The players are helping to name and develop stuff like major NPCs such as Harold at the Spider’s Bite Inn, the name of the Baroness (Fluvia), the name of the commander of The Keep (Lord Luca Blackwood), the name of the capital of the Kingdom of Darnesh (Fairchild). I also asked for input on the name of the world for the campaign. I got a few responses and one was Spyro. While the name didn’t really grab me, it did spark the thought of a world that was a spiral or a helix instead of a globe. Another suggestion was Panoply…which means a collection of things. While this campaign will be limited to the Borderlands, this name suggests a world with a LOT of cultures and peoples and kingdoms and so on…maybe even one that is nearly infinite in variety and breadth. Another was Norn and this sparked the thought of not simply fate or the shaping of destinies but the role of deities in the creation and life of the world. This soup of thoughts led to a relatively brief description of the World of Tahvel which is below (the break)..
The world of Tahvel is a massive rectangular slab significantly longer than it is wide or deep. It is, quite possibly, infinitely long and wide enough that multiple continents separated by might oceans exist across it. One side of the slab is called Panoply. The opposite side is called Maelstrom. The differences between the two are quite profound.
Floating above Panoply is a column known as Oro. It is not nearly as large as Tahvel but is just as long. One half of Oro is hot and fiery; the other glows with a cool, subdued light. Oro rotaes slowly in a counterclockwise direction in a very consistent and orderly manner. This provides day and night for Panoply. Both the sun and moon Panoply are bands that stretch across the sky from north to south (lengthwise) with each rising in the east or sunrise and setting in the west or sunfall.
Oro also varies in proximity to Panoply, getting closer or farther in a completely predictable pattern. This creates the seasons. The light of both the sun and moon growing weaker as Oro moves away from Panoply and brighter as it moves closer. The light from Oro also varies in intensity across its lengh creating different climate zones across Panoply. It is believed that these zones are generated by different Lords of Law calling those portions of Oro home. Oro is the home of the Lords of Law and their Saints. They send down the warmth and light which makes life and civilization possible on Panoply.
Floating below Maelstrom, opposite of Oro and Panoply, is another column, Urzu. This is the home of the Princes of Chaos. There is no consisntency to how Urzu affects Maelstrom. Seasons utterly change at random. Day becomes night without warning. The entropic energies bombarding Maalstrom from Urzu can fundamentally reshape the land completely. Mountain ranges rise in seconds. Seas flood the land in the blink of the eye. Living beings, at least as that term applies to the beings of Panoply, cannot survive long on Maelstrom.
The space between Panoply and Maelstrom is not simply solid rock. It is riddled with tunnels, passages, caverns, and entire civilizations both known and unknown to the peoples of Panoply. This is the Underworld. Closer to the surface of Panoply, the Underworld is relatively normal and natural (for a fantasy setting). The deeper one goes away from Panoply and the closer to Maelstrom, the more strange and unnatural the Underworld becomes. Then, as one draws closer and closer to the surface of Maelstrom, the Underworld becomes as ever-changing and inhospitable as the surface of Maelstrom.
The edges of Tahvel are barren, empty, and can support no life that exists on Panoply or Maelstrom or within the Underworld.
That’s it for now. It has helped to solidify some other elements of the world in my mind…including the involvement of the Shining Lords of Law and Princes of Chaos and something of the conflict between the two which may evolve in a bit of a Moorcock style thing…we’ll see.
