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Survival Matrix

Marchosias and Xerith have promised that they will stick together, no matter what happens in Nimby, without limit. In their love and loyalty they have sworn to defend one another against any threat. If any effect, from any source, causes Xerith to lose Health, Marchosias is immediately aware of it and may use Aegis on Xerith in reaction. If any effect, from any source, causes Marchosias to lose Health, Xerith is immediately aware of it and may use Aegis on Marchosias in reaction. The two are aware of each other's Health and may use Healing on each other as though they were using it on themselves.

Proposed Shape of The World

Nimby - or at least, this planet - shall be a flat realm that extends infinitely under the twin suns, which nevertheless those two suns manage to rise and set alongside.

This infinite plane is not initially defined. Far enough from mortals, one finds a slowly roiling chaos, full of all the potential things that could exist in an area, but never settling on any of them for more than a few hours at a time. Closer to mortals, one finds slowly shifting landscapes. Next to mortals (within a few dozen miles), one finds reasonable and logical terrain.

As a mortal explores, they cause the landscape to fix. This doesn't happen instantly, though it relates to the size of the exploring group. A large exploring group will never find the chaos beyond the landscape, no matter how fast they travel, whereas an individual or a small fast-moving group could (after enough time and determination) potentially outrun their own landscape-fixing influence to get to see the spectacle of shifting seas of chaotic potential.

For those areas which are near civilization but far enough away from trafficked areas to be poorly defined, they gradually shift from one type to another. The process takes years (for changes between similar biomes) or decades (for changes between dissimilar/opposed biomes). An observer who is not themselves a mortal (such as a spirit, or a god, or a machine) can watch the landscape morph. Mortals do not see the chaos in the landscape (it fixes in the range of their sight, even for individuals) until they are extremely near the chaos-seas at the edges of it, in which case they can watch terrain precipitate out of chaos and go through its initial shifting.

The patterning of biomes in shifting-terrain areas is psuedological. Blatantly illogical terrain will not occur, such as baking deserts next to tundral plains or a jungle inside a mountain's rainshadow, unless they are somehow made reasonable due to other factors. Similarly, shifting-terrain will produce its own possibly odd animal life, but its ecology is bounded by the need of its creatures to do natural and normal things, like eating, sleeping, reproducing, and elimination of waste. However, terrain need not be fully reasonable when it first precipitates out of the chaos, and a sufficiently close examination of 'fresh' land, or land that has been uninhabitted for a long time, may reveal various bizarrities. In fact, it's almost certain to.

By contrast, settled or heavily trafficked areas gradually grow more reasonable. They will shift over time until all factors in the terrain are fully accounted for. Eventually, settled areas will grow perfectly logical, without any of the bizarities formed from chaos. To the greatest extent possible, this process will appear natural and reasonable to the inhabitants, being subtle and difficult to observe. Where a contradiction is too severe to resolve subtly, however, it may cause the land to 'break'. This will cause natural disasters of varying (and possibly strange) types, depending on what is needed to alter the landscape such as to resolve the particular contradictions which were too strong for subtle alteration.

This is not the only force which can cause natural disasters, nor even a very common one. Landbreaks would be unusual events, deeply unlikely to happen unless some group decided they wanted to move a city to the edge of the chaos-seas without giving the land time to naturalize. Slow expansion through uninhabited areas may never cause landbreaks. Nor will brief travels through them.

The terrain is undefined in a 'downwards' direction as well. This may well never be relevant, as it is difficult in most places for one to rapidly travel downwards, especially over the many-miles radius beyond civilization where landscape is nearly natural. Only a few races are likely capable of finding the chaotic-earths underneath Nimby. The Beliel, being natural and very good diggers, may meet the chaotic earths under their land if they ever have reason to plunge a deep shaft into the ground. The Pisceans may similarly find the ocean turning strange if they locate and explore deep sea vents. The rules for for precipitation out of chaos are much the same in the downwards direction as they are in the 'compass rose' directions, though with the added note that even if one is close enough to observe precipitation out of chaos, the chaos-earths in the downwards direction will never precipitate out a formation that 'entombs' a mortal explorer under a barrier of rock.

The second to last of the terrain patterns requires centuries of complete abandonment. The terrain will revert to a slowly shifting sea of potential - a chaos sea. Alternately, if deep underground, chaotic earths.

The last of the terrain patterns is eternal. The area presently inhabitted and for quite some distance around that (OOC: the grid as present) is permanent and will not significantly change even if uninhabitted for great lengths of time. Areas distant from inhabitation and far from trade paths may shift slightly, but they will never shift across biomes.

As a final note, the way that mortal artifacts (buildings, machines) interact with shifting landscapes is a little odd. They resist shifting. However, the gradually morphing ground and biomes can cause ruins and artifacts to be damaged or destroyed, even possibly buried. If an object suffers sufficient damage at the hands of the environment, it loses its resistance to shifting with the landscape. Once an object or structure is buried, it is generally safe against such ravages, though even that won't protect it if after centuries of abandonment, the landscape reverts to chaos.

This proposal does not alter any structure above the plane of the world. Other stars and planets may exist, and they might have different rules. It may even be possible to somehow go around Nimby, if one rises far enough above the basic plane of the world before attempting it. In accepting this proposal, we would be accepting the need to set the rules for the areas 'up' from the basic plane of existence, which may extend to 'around' if there is any way by which 'around' is possible. And the fact that the suns somehow rise at one horizon and set at the other implies that there is, indeed, an 'around' by some means. Certainly the tribes will someday suppose, based on the motion of the suns, that there is. It's up to us whether they will be right or wrong.