The Spindle

**The Spindle** is a busy, cosmopolitan artificial plane constructed to support/power a time machine, the Horizon Gate. It is the primary location of the set Temporal Magic (from 4364 to 4368 AR), and will be the primary location of As The Spindle Turns. It existed from 4313 AR until 4500 AR, and was also accessible via the Horizon Gate from 4543 AR until 4700 AR.

## The Anchor Planes

The Spindle was constructed by an enigmatic pre-Mending planeswalker known only as The Architect at a point where four planes nearly touched: Zimask, Menteumenil, Tocaiba, and a nameless Wasteland. Notably, the boundaries between those planes and the Spindle are sufficiently permeable that even non-planeswalkers can cross them with enough effort and some luck. The Zimask and Menteumenil overlays are both closely watched by the local authorities; on the other hand, the Tocaiba and Wasteland overlays are both located in untamed wilderness.

Zimask is an icy but extremely technologically-advanced plane, where daring mech pilots and cunning engineers desperately battle to save their civilization from the giant monsters that besiege it.

Menteumenil is a vaguely late medieval/early renaissance plane under the dominion of the divine beings known as the Six and their angelic enforcers. It's filled with intrigue, swashbuckling, and espionage; the secret-trade on the Spindle was largely founded by Menteumenil expatriates there.

Tocaiba is primarily a vast jungle, but the landscape shifts radically at a moment's notice as the plane seems to be in pain, or perhaps mourning its vanished gods. Home to all sorts of wild creatures, ancient martial arts traditions, and reckless explorers.

The Wasteland had another name, once, before it was ruined by a magical/ecological apocalypse of unclear nature. Remnants of ancient and powerful magics are scattered throughout the plane, dug up and repurposed by scavengers. In a few places, life is returning to the wasteland, but most of the plane is still blasted desert, and survival is a constant struggle.

## The Horizon Gate

The Horizon Gate is a portal between the pre-Mending and post-Mending versions of the Spindle; it always transports the traveler exactly 200 years forward or back in time. A pre-Mending planeswalker retains their unMended spark while visiting the future this way, allowing them to remain immortal and near-invulnerable; however, the rest of their godlike magical powers are inaccessible, as the Mended multiverse simply lacks the magical energy to support them. Conversely, a Mended or post-Mending planeswalker visiting the past remains entirely mortal, but gains partial access to the other enhanced magical abilities available to pre-Mending planeswalkers.

Only planeswalkers can cross the Horizon Gate, as the post-Mending end of it opens directly into the Blind Eternities.

## History

### Construction (4313–4343 AR)

The magical and technological elite of the anchor planes flock to the Spindle, called by The Architect to aid in their construction of the magitech engines that will one day power the Horizon Gate. The Architect also brought a handful of experts from other planes further afield, and they and in some cases their descendants joined those of the anchor planes to form the initial population of the Spindle.

### Pre-Mending Inhabitation (4343–4500 AR)

In 4343 AR, the Horizon Gate opens, creating a two-way link to the post-Mending future. The Architect looks through, dislikes the future they see, and waits for inhabitants of that future to visit their time, for unknown reasons. Soon enough, post-Mending planeswalkers do. Trade in secrets and other information quickly becomes the Spindle's main industry.

In the late 4300s AR, the Architect enters near-total seclusion, only occasionally re-appearing on the Spindle before vanishing again.

### The Shattered Gate (4500–4543 AR)

At the moment of the Mending, the Spindle's magitech engines explode, destroying the plane entirely. The inhabitants of the Spindle—likely including The Architect—are presumed dead. Only shattered ruins, drifting in the Blind Eternities between the four anchor planes, remain.

### Post-Mending Reopening (4543–4700 AR)

In the space in the Blind Eternities where the Spindle used to be, the Horizon Gate opens once more, linking back from 4543 AR to 4343 AR. Many planeswalkers come to visit, or to stay.

### Silence (After 4700 AR)

In 4700 AR precisely, the Horizon Gate closes, never to re-open; the Spindle is largely forgotten, except by the planeswalkers who once traversed it.

## Notable Inhabitants and Visitors

### Pre-Mending Non-Planeswalkers

* Fulbert (spymaster and information broker)
* Amalero Bianchi (information broker)
* The Red Queen (crimelord)

### Pre-Mending Planeswalkers

* The Architect
* Lady Mari
* Several Xirix
* Jay Volkan
* Kel
* Saia Evigal
* Hieronymus Scratch
* Nadejda Soldatova
* Miria and Kiyo

### Post-Mending Planeswalkers

* Anne Sullivan
* Speaker
* Meredith
* Havon Bol
* Jacinthe
* Vikalden
* Manira