Outlands

Overview

The Outlands are synonymous with the universe. Space, galaxies, the infinity of raw ether diffusing through time, eternally expanding into a black corridor of nothingness. The vastness of space makes the Outlands difficult to quantify, but it can be said that its boundaries are unfathomably wide, even by the Adac who once sought to explore them.

The Outlands are filled with Raw Ether, which is the make of the universe. Gevala often calls this Raw Ether 'atoms', and may describe aspects of it as 'matter'. The scientific, theological and magical branches of thought tend to have different approaches to how they describe the make of the Outlands, but what is known is that atoms or ether can be harnessed as energy, and are used to forge life. The thing that makes the Adac powerful is their ability to refine Raw Ether, turning its volatile form into a stable source of energy known as Divinity.

Simply put, the Outlands are composed entirely of raw, unrefined energy, aimlessly wandering about in the form of heat, or condensing into structures by means of the chemical properties of this energy. Through it all, structures and simple lifeforms are forged, though long ago an incursion into the Outlands has left the Plane largely barren.

Residents

While there are certainly residents of the Outlands, given the vastness of the universe, only two species are known to have ever lived there within mortal scholarship: the Adac, and the Krish. The accounts of these creatures have been, typically, dependent upon the Adac themselves, who historically did not speak much of their time in the Outlands.

Krish

Since migrating to the Outlands, the Krish have become the dominant race of one known planet called 'Tarkus', a source of the rich mineral known as kilesh, through which they build their Harbingers. Because of their time in the Outlands, and specifically on Tarkus, the Krish have been able to document and understand much of the complexities of the galaxy, which some call the Cosmic Plane. They have an advanced understanding of astrology, physics, cosmology such as with planets, stars, nebulas, gas giants, and so forth, and while their knowledge is not deeply in-depth this has allowed them considerable growth as a species. Compared to the people of Atharen, who reside in what is effectively an enclosed marble within a sea of energy and possibilities, the Krish often feel they have acquired true understanding, even better than the Adac who created them.

The planet that they reside on, Tarkus, appears largely barren. It is mostly grey in shade, with many of the mountains a charcoal color. Elements within the soil and rock formations, unique to the Outlands, have formed this desolate appearance. Despite this, the Krish have managed to domesticate many of the native animals on the planet, many of whom can eat the soil itself for nutrients. Most of their food therefore tends to come from livestock, allowing them to pasture and spread through Tarkus before butchering them for their own sustenance. Tarkus does have water, but a minimal amount in comparison to the lushness of Atharen, the surface of which is primarily composed of water. Interestingly, Tarkus also appears to be notably larger than Atharen, though overall the weather is not too severe to host life, tending to gravitate towards 110 F on the equator, and -110 F at the north pole.

As Krish tend to war with one another relentlessly, this has left Tarkus a fairly scattered planet, with large areas composed of cities and tribal centers, and vast wastelands in-between covered in corpses or their bones, with many Krish burning their dead so as to not attract the Outsider to their residual energy. The Krish have learned to both survive and thrive within the Outlands, even harnessing enough power and forging enough advanced technology that they have become able to invade Atharen, acting as cosmic raiders in the collision of two separate planar realities.

The Outsider

While the Outlands are truly vast, and therefore may possess every sort of planet and lifeform conceivably under the sun, a majority of once-inhabitable planets within the Outlands have become barren and empty. While the Outsider does not appear able to harness stars, black holes, nebulas or other cosmic forces or bodies for energy, it is regarded as a predator of life, capable of hunting and sapping the energy from all life. This means it will often seek out planets with advanced life and begin to cull them, draining their planets of vitality, often beginning with their oceans before sapping the ether from forests, fungi and other components of a living world, hunting the mortals that remain until many of them tend to go extinct. The advent of magic in a civilization is often the very beginning of their destruction, as mages are typically very noticeable to the Outsider, whose sole sense allows it to detect ether through extremely vast distances. It appears to not be constrained by distance, as if it is capable of perceiving all places within the universe at once, freely moving between them. It will materialize in an instant, culling and devouring, before disappearing into nothing but a black dust flickering through the air.

What little is known of the Outsider is often spoken by the Krish, though unreliably. It is a being they hold an intense, even existential fear of, despite what many would describe as their bravery. "The Outsider is not to be trifled with," a common line among the Krishkir. It is not to be neared, disturbed, or even seen by; it is a hunter, a predator of all life, a consumer of all energy. Its origins are unknown, save for that it appeared in the Outlands some time after the birth of the Adac, and immediately began to hunt all condensed forms of energy. Given that the Adac themselves were among the most grandiose clusters of refined energy, it sought them like a beacon, pursuing them to the edges of galaxies and forcing them to scatter like the wind until it hunted them to extinction.

The Outsider is a wretched anathema to the denizens of the surface of the plane, who pray and plead that it will not sight them as it passes by.

In terms of appearance, the Outsider is a massive, black-colored shade that dons a set of bizarre, alien heads around the shape of what appears to be its skull. Its limbs are variable and many; pincers, hands, wings, any number of things. The form of the Outsider is as large as it is malleable, its shadowy extent spreading outward from its center like a vortex, every inch of it able to be reshaped. The voice of the Outsider is said to be deadly, like a weapon, devastating entire towns, blowing out the townsfolks ear drums and compressing their skulls until they burst. Mostly it resides within its 'lair' to the far north, only roaming out to hunt, in which case it tends to prey on - unsurprisingly - the warring Krish, consuming thousands of their souls to sate its hungering need.

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