The Wandering Map

The Wandering Map is a book uncovered through use of Study-related Inquiries.

## History

Under the guise of acting under on the authority of the Exegete Vuruzum Zelnolar, the adventurer Rinn visited the city of Oxresh to scour the libraries for information pertaining to a number of topics, ranging from the Primordial Elemental Princes, to other planes of existence and its inhabitants - as well as arcane structures, namely that of orreries, constructions intended to map the planes of existence relative to the Material Plane.

## Reading

### Completed by Rinn Zelnolar

The Wayfinder compels the Principal Races to journey unfettered and unconstrained, encouraging his faithful to explore that which is wild and unknown, to learn of the secrets that a path rarely travelled may hide. Alongside that of the Secret Sister, Veth guides us to embrace our curiosity, to pursue that which which is out of reach or interest for others. For many, this may simply be looking to see what lingers around the next corner, but for travellers and explorers, traversing the wilds is more than just one step in front of another, it is their definitive purpose. There is something innate that wishes to record and chart what has been learned, making note of gulleys and ravines, mountains and hills, forests and plains. More challenging still is that of mapping the waters that surround Ahlus, for the currents and winds are ever-shifting with the seasons and the whims of the divine, and so it goes without saying that the further from the coast one strays, surely the more uncertain parchments and papers grow. Even dialogue with the people of the waves, merfolk, sea elves, does not asway all the challenges presented, matched in difficulties as one might find if they tried to plot every trail and path through the winding Ironfangs by nightfall.

Imagine then, by further extension, the impossible challenge posed by attempts to map the heavens, the hells, and all those that fall between. Mountains do not move, the Wandering Worlds do, rivers and lakes may flood and flow, but in the Elemental Sphere entire domains of primordial magic spill like water across the floor. In the Feywild forests might decide that they desire the view from another valley, and uproot and move themselves by their own volition, and throughout it all thousands, if not millions of demiplanes and pocket realms blink in and out of existence, like grains of sand held in suspension within a rolling wave. And what of the inhabitants? When the Principal Races war, their actions tear and rend the land, taking months and years for grasses to regrow, trees and vines to find root, in the Lower Planes a conflict of seemingly infinite scope has raged in perpetuum. There is no mundane way to map such a manner, and thus attempts to do so with mundane materials and skills invariably fails. That is not to say that one could not mark in a notebook their findings in that moment, but the likelihood it would remain in such a configuration remains decisively uncertain. And yet, the Wayfinder compels such a process nonetheless.

The first attempts to do so occurred in the fabled years of Aita's Second Gift, isolated from interference of the jostling borders of the fledgling Realms. Archmage Fortuna Shinegulley, first of the Guild of the Lilac Vine, built a masterful construction in the Guild chambers of her charge, the legends reporting she did so with direct aid from Divinus themselves. From there, she could view the Echoes, the Elemental Sphere and the Wandering Worlds from afar, like one might watch merchant wagons on a distant road through a telescope or spyglass. There is no doubt the marvel of this, but compared to the creation of the High College of the Claxinns, it was rudimentary, noteworthy as a stepping stone towards wonder. Fortuna had the Sovereign of the Nychthemeron, surely we have the Pathmaker's blessing with the gift found within the Spirit Caverns of Mol Boramm. With them, the High College has innovated further still, from which one may examine such places with exceptional detail, a sensor akin to that of an *Arcane Eye* cast out into the cosmos. Research is ongoing further still, and with the Weaver of the World's blessing will bring further innovation still, with focus set squarely on both methods to detect even the smallest of domains and demiplanes, and possibly interact with them from afar.