City of Thornmouth

So you have a character concept! Not sure if they fit? Not sure where to start? Here is a brief rundown of what you can play and how to get involved. You can find the actual setting rules here.

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How did my character get here?

There are a number of ways your character could have arrived in Hy-Brazir:

1. They were already here – Hy-Brazir and Thornmouth have been inhabited for hundreds of years (and is very culturally diverse). Your character could have already been here. (See: 'Natives')
   
2. They entered through a ‘Gate of Aetheros’ – These gates are many and not always in hospitable places. Your character can enter through a safe gate, a gate in a dangerous area, or even end up trapped in a desert, on a mountain or washed up on shore after nearly drowning. They can even mysteriously fall from the sky! These gates connect Hy-Brazir to a great many worlds and dimensions. (See: 'Gates of Aetheros')
   
3. They traveled another way - Your character got assistance from someone or something already linked to Anexus, such as using a rare 'Key of Aetheros' or a portal made by a powerful mage. It is a plane rather open to visitation from dimensional travelers.

How can my character leave?

While some gates are quite stable both ways, it isn't always so easy to return home - in many cases such will prove to be a near impossibility. This is due to the nature of the gates, many of which are either far too dangerous to return through or multirealm and tending to fluctuate their exit points in spacetime (typically depending on the phases on the moons). There are even some that shift around their given locations on Anexus as if linked to more of a territory than a specific spot (although they always appear in telling crescent form and tend to have patterns). It often takes an expert such as a lunar augur to begin pinpointing the time and place a gate is likely to lead or appear, often making it more convenient to travel out by other methods: these include the 'Keys of Aetheros' created by the dragons and costly portals created by mages.

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Entering through a 'Gate of Aetheros' or 'moon gate' is the most typical way for someone to arrive in Anexus. These gates are created by fallen debris from the magical moon, Aetheros. When landing they 'root' with a force that sends out a shockwave through the multiverse, tearing open cracks in spacetime elsewhere. These gates have a varied appearance depending upon where they landed and the most common mineral and/or flora in that area; however, they always form a rough, often crooked crescent shape. While they can move, hide in plain sight, or even be of any size, they are always physical doorways of some kind on the Anexian side. However, on the other side they take the form of cracks in spacetime and have no appearance at all (to the naked eye). They can therefore be stumbled upon accidentally in all kinds of places, including underwater or even in outer space.

The main gate for entering Thornmouth is located in the forest just west of Oberon's Rest. It is accessed from many worlds if one knows where to find a 'crack' on the other side. There are many such gates scattered across Anexus and not all connect from similar environments: for example, there are gates from seas in other worlds that open out onto land. This is unfortunate, as many die in the accidental crossing into Anexus, creating ship graveyards in unlikely places.

➤ Intentional Arrivals Somehow your character heard about Hy-Brazir and found a gate (or other means of arrival) through a contact or through their own strenuous searching. Here are a few ideas of how this may happen: Was brought or sent by another, perhaps with portal magics or in rare possession of a world jumping artifact. Given the knowledge by fae, notorious for traveling worlds. Granted a wish and the wish was to find a secret land or a 'safer' land. Paid someone with the know how, a mysterious traveler perhaps? Tracked it down via hearsay, maybe used magic to seek it out when your character got close. Received a vision about the location of a spacetime crack.

➤ Unintentional Arrivals Your character stumbled upon a gateway by mistake. The gates are invisible (to most) anywhere but on Anexus unless marked by travelers. Here are a few ways in which this might happen: ...perhaps their ship sank at sea and they washed up on Hy-Brazir's shores (or worse, the ship crashed through a gate directly into land and your character managed to survive). ...perhaps they were exploring and found something far beyond what they were looking for. ...perhaps they fell through one in the sands of a desert, the bottom of a swamp, the depths of a cave, etc. Gates are often found by mistake by those dying in the wilderness or lost far from civilization, barely perceptible 'cracks' in spacetime as they tend to be. ...perhaps they were simply travelling on foot or by mount and came through a gate very unexpectedly. ...perhaps your character was fleeing something and ended up running through a gate somewhere, somehow.

Known Moon-Gates

The Bridge of Morel
(forest gate, west of Thornmouth)
A major moon gate just west of Oberon’s Rest on the other of the The Sundering, known for being an active portal that brings travelers to Anexus from all over the multiverse. While technically on the western side of the land bridge, agreements have been made with both seelie and unseelie guards that see newcomers guided in the right direction.

The Kasurian Gate
(sea arch gate, southeast of Thornmouth)
A large moon gate out at sea with a fixed point in timespace. It leads to a land known as Kasuria and is one of few known gates large enough to accommodate a ship (or a dragon). It closes during 'blink nights'.

The Mountain Peak Gates of Shipwreck Valley
(mountain gates, northeast of Thornmouth)
A pair of gates with fixed exit points found in the mountains of the northeastern valley. These gates ironically connect to bodies of water on the other side, one specifically to [an] Earth in the sea outside of Ireland. These gates are named after a pair of specific mountains in the range, respectively the The Crown of Argorum and The Crown of Maelenri. The names are a bit misleading however, as the gates appear all over the mountains themselves dependent on the phases of the moon. This can make finding either - never mind the right one - rather difficult for travelers.

The "Sky Gate"
(sky gate - mobile, nature unknown)
While a very rare and inexplicable occurrence, it is not unheard of for someone to simply drop out of the sky! There are many theories of how a gate could even be in the sky when all known take physical form, but the arrival of travelers in such an unceremonious manner confirms that somehow such a thing does exist. Unfortunately, survivors through this gate have never actually seen anything to report. There are many researchers on the hunt for whatever might explain this bizarre phenomena, with most seeking some kind of floating landmass (as such things are known to exist in the far western regions).

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Hy-Brazir is home to many people in many forms. While some cultures are more xenophobic than others and may put an emphasis on keeping to their own kind (see: dwarves), most cities are typically made up of mixed racial groupings. While for the most part 'mundane and 'magical' races keep to their own sides of the continent, there are some races that can be found on both sides, divided by cultural views rather than their species (such as humans). While few settlements are as dramatic an example as Thornmouth, it is difficult to find many cities or even towns that are entirely monoracial in nature. There are also very few races that are monolithic in behavior, those with notable numbers tending to have a variety of cultural expressions.

While many of these races may sound familiar in name, the local populations are likely to defy the conventions of other worlds - even that from which they originally came, for people that settle here see accelerated changes in form and function over the centuries. There are very few that can be considered truly native. The elves and dwarves in particular are known for showcasing draconic features, a rare mutation that has begun to appear in other races.