Reksha and the Nexuses

[Xhin]

In the seven planes of Reksha, somewhere in the Inner Nexus, there sits a timeless scroll that describes the Five Greats and their current location. Alas, this scroll is guarded by hundreds of minor enchantments and no one knows its location. Of course each city in the Inner Nexus claims it as their own, but all merely want the patronage of those seeking unlimited power.

Welcome to Reksha, a world divided, where magic is physical and rare. The people that travel between planes are known as "crazy fuckers" and the people that can wield magic are known as "rich bastards".

Once when the world was new, a cyan substance called Leisan could be found hewn in the rock, or drifting through the air. In those days, the plane gods had just awoken men from the rocks. Those men mined the Leisan, a godly substance which could grant wishes by taking on the power of that wish forever. They poured that Leisan into tools, books, artifacts, weapons.. Things which granted magic to their owners but could be easily stolen, sometimes by other Leisan artifacts.

A great war was fought between the seven planes. Those that had no Leisani had to fight to get them with blood and steel, those that had some Leisani fought to get more, and those with the most fought for survival. While some alliances were forged, the war was chaotic and more and more factions split off to fight the others. The endless death and destruction got so bad that the gods themselves intervened.

Seeking a more peaceful and prolonged war, the gods sealed their full powers into enormous Leisan stones.. each plane now had an artifact known as a Great whose power dwarfed all other Leisani of the plane. The wielder of this Great would not be able to rule all seven planes, but they could establish an Order and rule over a single plane and slowly conquer the others.

The modern post-war world

Thanks to this, five of the planes are now guided by a Kingdom where a God-King rules by one of the Greats. These planes are the greatest, the strictest, and wield a tremendous power in all of Reksha.

Tal -- plane of jungles, forest, and air. Giant columns known as Fern Trees hold the regions of this plane in place above tremendous gulfs where algae grows on the wind and spores and seeds fly miles. The Kingdom is carved from the largest of these Fern Trees, end to end, and its king is Tal'set, a dryad who has lived far too long, even though the people of Tal are the longest-lived. He stays out of the politics of Reksha, preferring instead to wait for the plants everyone is reliant on to spread to his liking. He is known to be jovial and welcoming of guests, but he has also burned entire forests to the ground.

Naj -- plane of volcanoes, fire, and crystals. Most of the plane is a vast region known as the Hell's Sea, a flaming lake inhospitable to all but the people of Naj. Where possible, the "crazy fuckers" of other planes row across the sea in boats made of strongest Eternium, drifting to scorching cities which at least don't burn on contact. On long beds of ash there are great crystal fields, where new Naj men continuously rise, their crystals fusing together, cracking, and slowly becoming vaguely humanoid. Unlike other planes, Naj has never had a single Kingdom, nor a single King. Naj is constantly at war with itself, and with other planes. Whoever wields the Naj Great doesn't live long, but he unites the factions when Naj itself is threatened. Naj is known for spectacular battles in crystal fields, where warriors smash each other into shards.

Yiol -- plane of ice, water, and steam. Much of this plane is covered in a persistent steam fog known as the Grip of Yiol. Oddly, Yiol actually has the most walkable land available of any plane -- the caveat is that much of it is coated in a shallow puddle of water that occasionally drops off into a lake or drops up into an Underfall. Water in Yiol has a mind of its own and twists into vertical rivers, flows in circular motion, or boils away. Much of the Water country of Yiol is terrifying and unexplored.. travelers tend to stay in the icier regions, where the Kingdom of Ice resides. Yiollan is a title given to the current king of Yiol, who passes the Yiol Great onto his second-born son when it is time for him to melt into the great river. The people are made of hard ice, but over time their bodies soften into snow and slush. In time they must pass on to the next phase of their life, where they melt and join with the chaos of the Water country. Their Ice-lives are short in Yiol, but the blue people of the nexus enjoy long life and good health.

Jikitai -- plane of mountain, rock and metal. By far the darkest plane, as 90% of it is underground beneath hollowed-out rock. The people of Jikitai are metallic, if a bit robotic, but appear the most humanoid in their native plane. They cling to the walls magnetically, using their eight arms to climb and ceaselessly building and refining their plane. The Jikitai do not have cities, rather they carve elaborate patterns out of the rock, which they nest in for a time before moving to somewhere less carved. While their large number of arms is off-putting and persistent even in the Nexus, they look like normal gray humans even while in their native plane. There is a great mountain in the center of the plane known as Jikitai (okay I should probably mention that Jikitai is their word for almost everything). This mountain has been carved into a great statue of a Jikitai, with fractally increasing levels of detail.. murals of the history.. drawings of other planes.. incomprehensible science and art. The overseer of this great carving is known as Jikitai, a king who uses the Jikitai Great to guide his work in crafting ever finer details of the carving. Oh and also to occasionally carve up enemy cities. That too.

Woggiboggi -- plane of dreams... and nightmares. The most ethereal of the seven planes, its landscape is ever-changing, taking in the best and the worst of the rest of the world. Surprisingly given its nature, it is here that most of the metal technology of the world is crafted. Perhaps it's because hard metals can be forged by thought alone. While ephemeral, there are cities that float in and out of conscious awareness. The greatest of these cities is known as Boggihorn, and it overlaps all other Woggiboggi cities the same way that the planes overlap one another. Its king, Mad Bongalu is said to be someone from the Outer Nexus that got stuck in Woggiboggi rather than a native. In addition to the Woggiboggi Great, he openly wields the Quantum Staff, an artifact that allows him to peer into weak minds in other planes. Its hidden powers are also great, but the rest of Reksha doesn't know what they are.

The dead planes

The other two planes were destroyed in the Greats Battle, a single combat fight between the original wielders of all seven planes. Visiting them is possible, but they are wastelands, devoid of life (supposedly) and toxic to all who enter them (definitely).

L Plane -- Known only as L Plane (because its very name was erased from existance), this place is filled by a bright yellow light. There is neither land nor gravity, though occasionally there are drifting fragments of land steeped in that same bright yellow light. People who visit here enough times are known to have their eye irises turn yellow. Stay long enough and their hair does too.. although going too far past that point and they die.

D Plane -- This plane meanwhile is filled by a thick black fog. Despite this, it is well-illuminated and visitors can see about ten feet in front of them easily. Much like L plane, there is no gravity or land, but thin fragments of land that are invisible. People who visit here enough times are known to have their eye irises turn dead (okay more like their entire body).

Why would anyone visit such barren places? Oh, it's because they'll occasionally turn up artifacts that one of the Original Wielders used against the others. If you're magically broke and don't want to be a slave to your sage-masters, the wasteland planes are the way to go.

The Outer Nexus

Each plane has spots where there are gateways to other planes. These spots have the plane's power weakened, so not only do the normal plane rules cease to work well, but the denizens start to look more like normal humans (with characterstically color-tinged skin). These spots will blend into other planes with their own weak spots, and all of the spots will eventually be connected like this. This entire region of Reksha is known as the Outer Nexus, and its cities stand the test of time. Rather than destroy them, an ambitious plane might claim some of them politically and use them as leverage, so knowledge and people seeking safety from the endless war of the planes tend to congregate here.

Some people spend their entire lives in the Outer Nexus, never venturing outside of those protective bubbles into the wildness of the surrounding planes. They are known as "normal people that have jobs and stuff".

The Inner Nexus

Inside each city of the Outer Nexus is a district where magical power concentrates and opens another rift in the fabric of space-time. Through these rifts is a vast cityscape known as the Inner Nexus. The Inner Nexus connects all the cities of the Outer Nexus together, independent of the gateways that connect the planes together. Every Outer Nexus city worth its salt has accumulated enough magical artifacts to open a portal into the Inner Nexus, although there are of course outliers that envy that ability.

Past the point where buildings actually kind of look like the Outer Nexus city that is attached to the Inner Nexus is a vast region with smooth polished white buildings. These buildings are boxy, skyscraper-like, and gargantuan. They are created and sustained by the magic of the Outer Nexus, so that as the Outer Nexus cities gain power, so does the Inner Nexus grow.

The people here look 100% humanlike (although there might be a little hue here and there, and the Jikitai still have a bunch of extra arms for some reason). Since the buildings are so huge, they treat them more as terrain and build their own buildings inside them. Thus the Inner Nexus has its own cities, as well as large tracts of empty buildings and deserted highways.

[rotting bones]

Excellent as usual.