Uthwain, The Realm That Light Forgot

Overview

Once, long ago, Uthwain was a normal Mortal Realm; now, it has drifted to the fringes of existence, becoming one of the peculiar Outer Realms as the Realm lost the elemental Light which had driven the sun’s warming glow. Life has since adapted to perpetual night, and with the transformation to an Outer Realm when the rules of the world changed, nothing is quite like one might expect. The world is populated by strange doubles, in that no one is born with their spirit within them anymore, and the living body and spirit can grow up quite differently from each other. Similarly, although no population explosion has occurred, no one ever seems to actually die; the eldest people just seem to keep getting older, anymore, now that those who were born before the transformation are all dead.

History

Before the transformation, Uthwain was a rather nondescript Mortal Realm; locked in a long-running feudal age, it might have eventually gone on to experience a Renaissance era, or fallen back into a metaphoric Dark Age, had it not been for a chance battle between two powerful elementals; one born of the deepest night, and enamored of the soft silver hues of starlight and the eldritch glows of foxfire, while the other was an elemental of the sun’s vivid light and warmth. Once friends, the two gradually became opponents due to their polarized natures, and in the end, when both had grown to be among the most powerful elementals in the world, they agreed to have a ritual battle to decide which of them was right.

The battle was long-fought, and evenly matched, the two combatants of equal might, and it had begun to seem as if a draw might be forced when a mage who served the cause of Light worked a ritual to banish the night from his hometown. This rite crucially weakened the night elemental at the last moment, and the sun elemental accidentally slew his opponent, rather than merely subduing him as they had agreed. It was with great shame that the elemental turned to his brethren, and learned of the mage’s act; together, unwilling to accept the outcome in the spirit of fairness, the elementals of Light withdrew from the world, moving on to some other Realm, and snuffing the Light utterly.

Locations

-The Citadel of Shadows:

-The Umbral Sands:

-Mordenheim, the Ancient City:

-Split, the City Divided:

Fauna and Flora

-Corporeals:

-Spectrals:

-Umbral Stalkers:

-Night Howlers:

-Starwings:

-Duskwood:

-Penumbral Blooms:

-Starweed:

Properties

-Night Everlasting: As a world which no longer knows the sun’s light, Uthwain is a world of perpetual, chill night. While it doesn’t freeze - the rules of existence changed when it lost the Light and became an Outer Realm - it is forever wrapped in frigid fogs and eldritch glows of foxfire. Visitors who bring light sources beyond this rapidly become the center of attention for anything that notices them.
-Outer Realm: The place the Realm has on the fringes of the vast array of Realms means that the rules don’t always work the way that mortals are used to; with Uthwain, magic that draws upon or produces sources of light simply fail to function. There is no equal increase in umbral magic; it is merely that elemental Light no longer exists here. Likewise, natives of this realm are divided into the corporeal and the spiritual, each a distinct individual, but neither qualifies as an undead despite their appearances.