The Rift
While no one knows exactly what the Rift is or how it was formed, it binds all the interdimensional worlds of Ylécium together. Somehow, it spans dimensions and potentially time to unite different realms.
The landscape of the Rift seems to vary slightly depending on which entrance is used to access it. In all cases, the Rift is dangerous, often causing a feeling of being unnerved or watched. Often screams are heard as if the landscape itself is wailing in torment or terror. Time may not exist within the Rift or if it does, it is warped—sometimes running too fast and other times excruitatingly long.
While it may be possible to use the Rift to access the other worlds of Ylécium, such a feat would be difficult—if not impossible. The twists of time, a landscape that seems to mimic the worlds near the gates but may be unstable and maleable, especially the further from an entrance gate one travels, and the constant threats of dark entities makes this interdimensional realm highly dangerous.
It is believed, however, that at the heart of the Rift where the dimensions cross is a safe haven of stability and safety. If this truly exists is impossible to verify because no one who has entered the Rift and ventured that far has ever returned.
The Rift and Alpha Magenta
While nobody truly understands the Rift, the mages of Vaerinor have devoted all possible resources to its research, and discovered how it serves as a portal to other realms. Yet, its actual size and shape remain unknown. Those who have studied the anomaly the longest swear it to be relatively small.
The soil has hardened around the entrance located in Atheneum to the Rift, while the wind blows from it with the fury of a storm. The opening itself is nothing but a vertical line of black emptiness, which seems to ebb in and out of reality every few seconds. Looking through the two hundred foot tall crack from a safe distance reveals nothing of the other side. Though by using the arts of magic, specifically the Dream Walker spell, the mages have peeked into this mystical domain.
Casting the Dream Walker spell comes with certain dangers. Since the source is the caster’s emotions, magic is already unstable. Using it to enter a dream-like state, the unstability is even worse. For this reason, only the Arch Mages ever attempt to Dream Walk into the great unknown of the Rift. From the Council of Mages, some scattered legends have escaped of what has been discovered.
Such tales often depict the Rift as a living hell where the air itself is ripped with emotions. At first, the landscape inside the Rift appears to be the same as on the outside, but soon a constant roar of death-cries and screams emerges. Where these sounds of torment originate from remains unconfirmed, but in the embrace of a contorted, nightmarish scenery, time and distance become meaningless. So determining an origin has long felt to be impossible.
The mages who enter the Rift report how a drowsiness captivates their minds, while their body is more than willing to wander off on its own. One Arch Mage has already been lost this way. He woke, after a Dream Walk, muttering how he couldn’t find his body, only to die a few seconds later.
It’s doubtful that the Council of Mages will approve an actual expedition into the Rift, and for now, their chief concern is to understand why the Rift expands and contracts like the heart of a dark beast, feeding on emotions. Despite having declared books and stories forbidden—relegating the common people of Alpha Magenta into oblivion about the annals of the world—in the hopes that fantasies and imagination won’t produce energies for the Rift to consume, it still seems to be growing.
If true, the Rift could eventually swallow all of Vaerinor, if not all of Alpha Magenta. Regardless of the wide extent of knowledge, the mages remain unaware of how the Ember Dwarves also live in the shadow of a Rift; a second one.
In fact, in the dwarves’ corner of the world, the Rift is revered rather than feared. In size, this second Rift measures only half of the one situated on the island of Atheneum. However, it has existed for as long as the dwarves can remember. In their view, the Rift acts as a dark reflection of the hopes and dreams of the people of Ylècium.
When enough emotions build up and unite inside the Rift, it takes form and develops into a sentient entity. These dark Gods are the sole focus of worship for the dwarves. There are many such beings, but since they all pull from the same well of emotions, only the strongest few are capable of sustaining themselves.
The fact that the dark gods need a constant influx of emotions to hold themselves together also means that they desire followers, who will believe in them above all else. With darkness growing stronger from bloodshed and conflict, these corrupt divine spirits value their mortal minions, especially the dwarves who are more devoted than any. Though, these gods are fully capable of harvesting energies from positive emotions when the need calls for it.
In exchange for blind faith and to ensure that no one can write their eternal existence off as superstition, the dark gods offer their most devoted champions dark blessings in form of supernatural strength and mutations that turns limbs into weapons.
The ultimate reward is immortality.