Paradwys

Songs of the Sidhe by David Ross

The Lifeline  of the Tree of Life, the core of the cycle of souls, the Primal Nexus ‘Paradwys is an unmatched paragon of natural power and majesty. In this place, all the breadth of natural landscapes converge on the primal sea called Cwm Glas and the very core of the cycle of souls. At the center is Morsídhe, an island emerging from the sea very near a coastal marsh. The water of Cwm Glas is mildly and variously salty, capable of supporting every sort of natural marine life imaginable. Surrounding Cwm Glas, in turn, is a variety of terrain types: marshes, forests, hills, mountains riddled with vast cave systems, deserts, and plains. The plains are divided from the marsh by a broad river called Afon Bhlu, fed by Cwm Glas.

Paradwys can be thought of as the arbitrary center of Ladinion, and is simultaneously near most parts of the layer thanks to a deep wrinkle in time and space around the region. Anyone can take advantage of this strange proximity, if he knows the way and heads in the appropriate direction. For instance, to reach a mountainous region of Ladinion one must depart from the mountainous part of Paradwys. From far beyond, Paradwys appears like a towering natural force; from the desert it appears as a stationary mushroom-shaped sandstorm, from the forest it seems to be an impossibly high arch in the canopy, and from a mountain range it appears to be a distant but absurdly massive peak.

In places of the most concentrated primal nature, even parts of Terra touch Paradwys. Many of the stars in Paradwys’s night sky are actually mortal worlds, which one can reach by flying toward the right star at the proper angle. Traveling straight from Ladinion to Terra is dangerous, however, and almost always includes a powerful time distortion.

Paradwys is inhabited by the most magnifacent and rare of natural life, including mu spores, elder treants, and other epic magical beasts, dire animals, nesting populations of devastation vermin, and many others. Only primeval races of fey dwell here outside of the few settled areas, and they tend to be solitary. Fenghuangs appear in unusually large numbers. The homes of both soul shepherd orders (the Sowers and the Harvesters) can be found here; the Sowers reside on the plain at the head of Afon Bhlu and the Harvesters at the edge between forest and hills.

Morsídhe: The heart of Paradwys, Morsídhe is a massive faerie mound rising from the edge of Cwm Glas. Much of the hill is covered in a magical hedge maze. At the center, concentric helices of dead and unborn souls spiral in and out of the earth. The unborn souls are collected by the Sowers for distribution; the dead are guided in by the Harvesters. The sídhe is guarded and tended by a secretive Faerie Queen, Fathaghn, who interacts with other fey only rarely. Many speculate about what secrets may lie concealed under Fathaghn’s maze.

The Celestial Sphere: High overhead in Paradwys, the sun remains stationary above Morsídhe. At night, it turns into the moon without setting; in fact, half of the sphere is solar and the other half lunar. Unlike a typical celestial body, this sphere is only a few hundred miles above the ground and a few miles in diameter. It has its own objective directional gravity extending from the surface, has solid ground, and is not conventionally dangerous to approach. If the cycle of souls below shifts strongly in one direction (such as if a world is destroyed and there is a sudden influx of dead souls), the diurnal cycle of the celestial sphere may become temporarily imbalanced.

The Lifeline of the Tree of Life: Among the greatest manifestations of nature’s magic, Paradwys is the most powerful ley node in the Mortal Coil. The consequences of this immense energy include time wrinkles and storms of fertility and decay that whirl across the region.