Cube

There are countless worlds within the Retroverse, but at the center of most stories lies the planet Cube. It is a planet of strange proportions and density.

The moons and suns revolve around the planet, despite their difference in size. This is because Cube serves a dual purpose as a planet and as a prison; and what it holds inside has a strange mass that defies definition.

Deep inside the square-shaped planet, a powerful force of corruption called Seed, is held. Despite the planet’s presence, the deep corruption sometimes seeps to the surface and beyond.

## CORE Overview

The center of every face is its CORE, the elemental force that (aeons ago) the entire Face shared the traits of. On this Face, that center is Sanctum.  Sanctum is a GOOD aligned place, dominated by Code and Scire energies.  Along the edges of the panel the technology level is a recaptured medieval level of technology, with lost  relics and ancient ruins of technology being sites whispered about for their technogremlins and cyber ghosts.  The center of Sanctum is a massive megastructure known as Megatropolis, a supercity roughly the size of Germany created for the purpose of making sure the Seed remains secure.

## Top Middle

The "12 o'clock" position is known as Deepwaters.  Deepwaters is a panel of pure uninhibited Water elemental energy, resistant to any elemental forces of its neighbors. While small island and archipelagoes dot the surface of Deepwaters,  its oceans run hundreds of miles deep, with species in the depths who have never seen the surface. Humans, Sea Elves, and Sea Rai, and aquatic Trogs are the principle surface-dwelling races.

## Upper Right

The upper right corner of the Face is a land of Water and Primordial Evil.  Known as Blackmoor, the land is a place of foul stenched bogs, evil swamps, marshlands, and seas of unfathomable depths inhabited by Ancient horrors.  The energies of Beat and Blood run through these lands, making the panel a place of beautiful-yet-terrifying potential.  Swamp Elves, Spiny Trogs, Rhythm and Toxic Rai, and pirate clans of humans fight each other for dominance, all the while trying to ignore the humming of the depths which proves their struggles are for naught...

## Middle Right

When a Shift caused the Eastern Panels to change aeons ago, the powers of Good did their best to resist the evils of the Shift.  That struggle continues today.  Clash, as it is called by its denizens, has been a place of epic Dazzling struggles between Good and Evil for hundreds of Elven generations. Small feudal kingdoms, often monoracial or close to it, wage an eternal conflict with diametrically opposed neighbors.  All manner of beings can be found here, in various numbers, although the nature of the conflict means more savage races- orcs, Dragonborn, and humans- seem most prevalent.

## Bottom Right

A panel of Earth and Evil elemental forces, the entire land is the domain of the necromantic Empire of Z'Hod. In all honestly, the Z'Hod Empire spills out over the edges of the panel into its neighbors, but it has (so far) been unable to expand its powerbase much beyond those points.   Even with the great distances between Sanctum and the Immortal Emperor Z'Hod's seat of power, Mount Hellbahn, he (it?) has launched several wars against Sanctum, in the hopes of learning the secrets of the Seed for himself (itself?).  Entire divisions of Restless, Razor or Stone Rai, twisted clans of Dragonborn, and things best left unmentioned live in this hellish landscape.  Energies of Blood and Code flow through this dark land.

## Bottom Middle

Only an impossible volcanic landscape of molten lava and clouds of sulfuric ash could manage to hold back the tides of the Empire of Z'Hod. Fortunately for The Cube, that's exactly what awaits the Empire to its west.  An impossibly harsh land most would consider uninhabitable, full of flaming seas and volcanic peaks, the land known as Crucible is still inhabited- but only be the harshest of races. Tieflings, Ember Rai, Dragonborn, and the EmberBeard dwarven clans maintain holdfasts against the Empire.  Even the energies of Flair find little purchase here, often burned away before they can gain footholds.

## Bottom Left

The arid steppelands and scenic peaks of Highmark are an equal mix of Air and Earth elemental forces.   protected from most of the more dangerous elements of The Face, the denizens of Highmark mostly keep to themselves. While there are known treasures and commodities that originate from there, little more is known about those that live here outside of the clans of airships and Windjammers plying the currents of the skies.

## Left Middle

Left Middle:  Goodwinds is a land of strange Cosmic energies, Air elements, and Good forces.  Incredible floating cities only reachable by airships and Windjammers dot the skies, and if there is a "surface" to the plane, none have ever set foot on it.  The Rainbow Warriors take their name from the colorful clouds that streak the skies of Goodwinds, and even mention of then in foreign lands is enough to make Blackwater pirates run for home.

## Upper Left

While a Shift might have brought an entire row of planes to Sanctum's Face aeons ago, that does not mean that Good was complete incapable of infiltrating those planes.  Purifia is a land of powerful mystics and healers, sprawling paradise islands set in temperate waters, and city-state sized sailing vessels with populations who have never once set foot on dry land.  It is not uncommon for the more daring of Purifina to set sail for Deepwaters to sign up as merchant marines or sailors on warships bound for Blackmoor.