Elysium

### The Illusion

… with the world that surrounds us. In an incomprehensibly vast universe, massive clouds of gas collapse and form stars. The stars accrete matter to shape balls of gas and rock which we know as planets. Around the G-type main sequence star called the Sun, eight planets and countless icy rocks orbit in an ancient and ongoing cycle. Earth, a pale blue dot circling the Sun, is the only home that humanity has ever known. Microscopic remains of Precambrian worms await discovery on distant cliffsides, and fossil fuel deposits lay as reminders of long gone forests and extinct beasts. Tens of thousands of years of history teach us from whence we came, colorful hands on cave walls and careful clay depictions of beautiful mothers and animals in flight which make way for ancient inscriptions and indecipherable quipus. Hundreds of nations, thousands of cultures and subcultures, towns and cities which swarm the surface and shape the environments and even the skies to its needs. Walled borders, violent suppression of rights, exploitation of the lesser, horrific acts of terror, ever-clashing strict demands and selfish desires. It makes for a confusing and frightening existence, but again: it is the only home we have ever known.

So we are told. The Illusion of it all is that this entire world, this cosmos and history and the way we treat each other, is all a construction. A prison of the senses and the mind. It is a reality conjured by a distant godlike figure we name the Demiurge. The prison is all-encompassing, representing everything from our physical reality of Earth and the Universe to the ways society develops and shapes us and even the very thoughts we have. The Illusion, or Elysium as it is also known, exists to trap and control human souls, as they are divine and the Demiurge could not allow them their divinity. The world beyond the Illusion is a foreign land to humanity, for in our prison we have learned to only know that which the Demiurge has allowed us to know. His Archons and their Principles shape how we act and think, the monstrous lictors control what we see and hear, and the false nature of reality resists our attempts to undo it and reach our true, original home.

The Illusion can break, however, and when it does humanity is allowed glimpses into the realms beyond. They may see the vast apparatuses which control their lives and attempt to make sense of them, could catch a whiff of their divine past, walk through dreams, see monsters in plain daylight, or even stumble through time. Demonic horrors wait in the beyond to carry off human sacrifices, the furious dead claw their way back to life, and hallucinations become real. All these horrific, magical, or inexplicable events reveal the Illusion’s existence, with mysteries which can only be answered by going beyond it.

## Districts

### The Borderlands

> *"The Borderland is a passage to other worlds – primarily to Metropolis, whose Underworld is interconnected with the subterranean realms of all other cities. There are also pathways into the blood-drenched chambers of Inferno and places beneath even this." - Sam*
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A massive chamber filled with massive rusting cogwheels, chains, and metal gangways that branch and intersect.

**The Gate of Ktonor**

The passage is caves with natural steps formed in the black rock. There are gigantic ledges and stone spurs jutting over bottomless pits. It is a confusing detours and low caves, where stalagmites and stalactites grow thick. In hollowed out rock shelters, one can find corpses from earlier explorers, some mummified and untouched after thousands of years. Other times, one must squeeze through narrow crevices where the rock dust lies thick, or have to wander across endless, smooth plateaus. In some passages, still waters reach chest high, or deeper still through underground rivers and thundering waterfalls. In many caverns, the roof is so high even the brightest light cannot reach it.

Further down still, wide stone steps lead downwards through a petrified sea bed. Amid forests of blackened coral, salt deposits, polished stone plateaus, and strange fossils. At the bottom of the steps stands the Coral Portal: a simultaneously beautiful and grotesque creation.

### The Labyrinth

> *"There are watchers between The Labyrinth and the Borderlands.  Mostly, they will not effect beings like us but they can command others of a more physical nature.  I will try to avoid them but sometimes there are issues." - Sam*
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**Geography**:

The Labyrinth is filled caves with natural steps formed in the black rock, gigantic ledges and stone spurs jutting over bottomless pits. It is a place of confusing detours and low caves, where stalagmites and stalactites grow thick. In hollowed out rock shelters, one can find corpses from earlier explorers, some looking as if they were mummified and untouched after thousands of years. Other times, one must squeeze through narrow crevices where the rock dust lies thick, or have to wander across endless, smooth plateaus. The voyage takes one through passages where still waters reach chest high, and across underground rivers and thundering waterfalls. In many caverns, the roof is so high even the brightest light cannot reach it.

### Ktonor

> *"Ktonor is the name of the city. The inhabitants are the refugees and survivors of innumerable civilizations annihilated or enslaved by humanity when we were still gods. The city is a last fortress of matter before the great well of nothingness which lies in the depths. Ancient and arcane machines keep the city safely anchored in existence, but if you went further down beyond their influence reality itself disintegrates." - Sam*
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Ktonor is carved into the walls of an enormous pit, sprawling onto protruding cliffs, ledges, and terraces. It meanders downwards like a spiral, ever deeper.  Waterfalls plunge down into the darkness from some unseen source above; a pale, phosphorus sheen reflects in their mist. Slim bridges of black obsidian span across the abyss. The city’s architecture is alien and chaotic, created by thousands of different beings from various bygone eras, alien races, and vanquished worlds. The vaults, chambers, and buildings lie in darkness, but in a few places the city is lit up by amber lanterns.

## Keystones

The AwokenThreads**Elysium**The PrinciplesOriginsMetropolisThe OthersRealmsInferno