There are many anomalies that exist in the Dragonscape but I can’t realistically list all of them so instead, here are the broad categories. Voicelakes, Obelisks, Starir and Spirits, and the 3 Constructions
Spirits and Starir
The Dragonscape is awash in spirits, escapees from the Afterlife or those who cheated true death, spirits are the enigmas that wander the DragonScape, trying to find new purpose or rebirth within their undead situations.
How do Spirits Form in the Living Fold?
Almost all animals and many plants have their own spirit throughout their lives and reincarnations, an ethereal manifestation of will and the individual in the truest form. Though the presence of the spirit is impossible to discern while living, even for those who manipulate it as mages due to the spirit and body being one in the same amongst the living. The living body protects the spirit from dispelling into the 1st construction. However once a creature dies and the body fails, the spirit will normally be unable to resist the pull of the raddir into the afterlife of the 1st construction and upon death, most spirits will be pulled into the tidal chime.
However. when people die in areas with a large amount of mana, that mana will feed the strength of a spirit from a dying body and give it the power to resist the pull of the Tidal Chime. These rare spirits remain in the living fold, wandering and feeding upon mana to continue to maintain their strength through the consumption of more mana. This cycle of life can theoretically go on forever assuming the spirit is not harmed, nothing destroys the spirit, nor does it possess any egg or body. Over time in the DragonScape there indeed comes to exist spirits that are often thousands and thousands of years old. Ancient entities that are entirely unable to communicate with the living.
Unseen Spirits, Wanderers and Starir
Spirits can broadly be classified into three distinct stages of existence, however it is common for spirits to shift between these stages depending on the mana they can consume, going through periods of engorging and starving. As the heading says they can be grouped into Unseen Spirits, Wanderer Spirits, and Starir.
Unseen spirits make up the majority of spirits in the DragonScape, the spirits far too weak to maintain any degree of visual presence when away from mana, these spirits are on the brink and ravenous for mana. The only time they can be seen is when within mana or manafog, best visualized as squiring line shapes within the mana that blend into the iridescent changes of color. These spirits are broadly speaking unable to really affect the physical world in any way, lacking any degree of power.
Wanderers are uncommon spirits that have fed on enough mana to reliably maintain a visual presence and a limited effect on the physical world. They are similar in appearance to the unseen spirits, simply larger and more visible. They are capable of using a highly limited ability of pulse resonance to influence the physical world, rarely being able of doing anything more than slightly pushing objects, still being mostly ethereal.
Starir (sta singular) are the largest form in which a spirit might become, under heavy amounts of mana the spirit starts to swell and, in response, the spirit must form a protective and physical body to prevent its own size from ripping itself apart. This usually takes the form of rings and these rings are commonly made out of a manaslate that the spirit produces from it’s own mana and energy, using pulse resonance to form several rings. A makeshift “head” it also formed, though it only serves as a physical means of siphoning large amounts of mana from mana deposits in a way that allows them to consume mana far more quickly and effectively than any lesser spirit.
While not universal it is common for lesser wanderers and spirits to latch onto and feed off of the energy of a sta, in severe cases it might form a cloud of spirits buzzing around them, attempting to feed like parasites. Though it is typical for a sta to work with their parasitic spirits to protect themselves.
Starir are pretty rare in the DragonScape but not unheard of, particularly in areas that are either more mana intense or in mana pools and locations that have high mana concentrations. Starir are also strong, both in a physical sense and in a magical sense, with starir being particularly strong mages in both dragon magic and pulse resonance. They often use these to defend themselves from would be attacks, though starir are commonly passive and are more interested in feeding on mana than fighting, fighting is normally a matter of self defense. Starir are also too big to possess eggs with any degree of success though are known to eat spirits, including those in the bodies of the living in desperate situations. Starir, being the most visible and powerful of spirits tend to receive a lot of attention from drekir societies and often frequent themselves in various cosmologies and belief systems.
Spirit Possession.
Many spirits long for a reincarnation on their own terms and, while not every spirit can do a possession, many try. For any unseen spirit they are entirely unable to do a possession and, in trying, tend to be dispelled and subconsciously consumed by a living bodies spirit without the living individual even noticing consciously. Though with larger more powerful spirits possession can be a more threatening case. Spirit possession attacks amongst wanderers often come through the mouth in which they will invade the body and try to consume or destroy the spirit within (dispelling said spirit to the 1st construction). Generally this is an unpleasant but winnable battle for the victim of a possession, particularly with the help of others through the use of alchemicals or the aid of a dreamcaller.
If a possession is successful it often leads to the death of the body due to the intense physical trauma of the battle the spirits had over the body, usually leaving to a death.
The far more effective possession is of eggs, it is common for spirits to insert themselves into an egg before the hatching of the egg drags a spirit from the 1st construction. It is a risky situation as the spirit will be trapped in an egg once it enters, making it easy to starve if they jumped into an egg that was months out from hatching. But sometimes they are able to jump into an egg that hatches soon after and assumes the body and mind of that hatchling to start again and develop to live a new life. Often this will happen without the knowledge of the animals, or even Drekir and Ormer until the hatchling matures and is able to comprehend some of the memories that they had not entirely lost in the egg possession process. Other times eggs are given to spirits by cultures to specifically possess and some cultures (including the Sivilão) do their best to annihilate spirits trying to slip into their hatcheries.
Voicelakes, Obelisks and the 3 Constructions
Where The Cacophony rules
As the rush of the pulse destroyed reality there were many strange effects created. The strangest of those being the Voicelakes and the 3 constructions.
Voicelakes are probably the most fitting place to start. Voicelakes are holes in reality that have been completely destroyed by the rush and force of the pulse, leaking out the sounds of the spaces between the folds of reality, made by the raddir who’s Dragonsongs mix in the billions of calls and warp reality freely. Voicelakes are named as literally as they can, often taking on the appearance of a lake of flowing spirits, squirming and rising against the surface of the Voicelake as unrecognizable sounds push up from the depths of the spirit tide. These voicelakes are known to distort reality around them, Changing whatever environment previously existed into a strange, mutating wasteland sheathed in manafog that is lethally thick and dangerously volatile. Reality itself is known to collapse under the weight of mana and resonance that rises from the shores of the Voicelake, often distorting physics in close proximity to the “shores” of the void. Pragmatically speaking, Voicelakes are some of the most dangerous landscapes in the DragonScape, with an amount of manafog so thick that it can induce mana sickness and meltdowns within 5 minutes without proper protective equipment and, due to the volatile and elementally explosive mana storms that wreak havoc across the breadth of the voicelakes resonant sphere of influence. Voicelakes are also awash with spirits, desperate spirits of the 1st construction who are using the hole in reality as a path to escape back into the living fold and to feed upon the abundant mana that likewise flows from the voicelake.
These spirits are often large and powerful and capable of invading a body and devouring the spirit within it, possessing the body (though causing it to die over time due to the damage). The resonance that leaks out of the voicelake is also itself lethal, causing wild and often deadly mutations that can overwhelm most biological life, or mutate life in bizarre and debilitating ways. As a result it is very rare to see any degree of settlement or even complex life (more complex than plants) existing within or near a voicelake.Voicelakes are also technically gateways into the 3 constructions as all voicelakes open into the tidal chime of the 1st construction. Though making contact with the “Surface” of the voicelake will destroy the body (and anything it touches) and drag the spirit of the living who made contact with it into the 1st construction, effectively killing anyone who touches it. It is very rare to see any sort of draconic settlement in the area as, understandably, drekir sivilão, and often humans (barring dangerous research missions) avoid these blasted heaths.
The Pulse was an event that did strange things to reality, destroying one and leaving another in a chaotic rush of magic and energy from powers that be that skyrocket both amongst and above the Raddir.
The Pulse was an event that did strange things to reality, destroying one and leaving another in a chaotic rush of magic and energy from powers that be that skyrocket both amongst and above the Raddir.
Many of the obelisks create their own sort of strange landscapes and dangerous or lethal effects. From the Packstone that turns intelligent beings feral to the Starpass that is itself a void of space allowing those within it to view beyond all folds of reality. Or even more useful obelisks like El Jardin that creates a strange growing space that can be used to farm bountiful fruits and vegetables. Each obelisk is it’s own situation and warps reality in it’s own unique way.
The 3 Constructions
The constructions are a space between the folds of reality, where our fold (the living fold) exists and from where the sound of the raddir resonates through everything. These are not spaces that were made deliberately but rather spaces that were created by the force of the pulse, held open by the presence of the raddir.
Therefore, these spaces are not really managed by any entity, just a space where things go and are warped by the unfiltered sound of the Raddir. For all spirits of the living fold when they die, and/or are dispelled from the living fold due to a lack of mana consumption. There are 3 spaces of this realm that are known as the 3 constructions. These can be referred to as the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd construction, but also tend to be referred to as the Tidal Chime, The Chambered Chime, and The Expanse.
The 1st Construction: The Tidal Chimes
The 1st construction is where most all spirits pool when they die and/or are dispelled from the living fold due to a lack of mana and is where all things flow and is the primary afterlife of the dragonscape. As an ignored space that exists only due to the weight of spirits it is a place of little but the tides of souls flowing through the expanse like an oceanic, tidal cloud. Spirits in the 1st construction are effectively in a truly random reincarnation relative to whatever the normal spirit could be. They might wait in the spiritides for anywhere from less than a second to millions of years with no control nor way of knowing and when they do reincarnate they might reincarnate as nearly any creature that contains a spirit. The only exception are creatures built of greater spirits which is restricted solely to Mavõtur and Prejager. The reincarnation process is also known to screen the memories and experiences of the past life, creating a life fresh and free from ones prior ties and memories. But for many spirits the desperation to force their way free of the 1st construction leads to them trying to escape through voicelakes.
The 2nd Construction: The Spire
The 2nd Construction is where greater spirits retreat when they are killed in the living fold, being mavõtur and prejager, they are known to use this place to build power and eventually forcefully reincarnate, possessing a new mavõt egg or outright reforming in the living fold. This space itself is an ever rotating, shifting mass of solid material, forming a labyrinth that can never be solved purposefully and may only be solved accidentally by those spirits who are willing to get lost within it for thousands of years. Lesser spirits may come upon the 2nd construction but, once they enter, will be unable to reincarnate until they leave the 2nd construction.
The 3rd Construction: The Expanse
The last fold between the Raddir and the folds below, nothing passes through here in the afterlife.