Mage Pockets

Mage Pockets are dimensional spaces that only powerful master level mages, and some outliers, learn to use as a capstone to their amazing potential and power, they are all linked to the soul of a mage and even if the soul is completely cleansed, the dimensional bubble still remains. Scholars disagree on if it remains outside the confines of the mortal plane, or somewhere within the vast unknown. Making one of these extra dimensional spaces is difficult and requires a lot of mana and practiced hands, so its remains elusive to those who haven't fully found mastery in at least one school of magic.

The use of a mage pocket is fairly crucial to a master mage's work, as it helps maintain some amount of order and organization whatever the need, the size of the pocket responds to the amount of mana used. The size can increase over time, so long lived mages can have just as big a pocket space as say mages with large wells of mana such as Divankul Dul-Sansiska. A mage pocket is theorized to be impossible to reach without access to the caster's soul it is linked to, thus making them super secure even in death, the only hypothesized way to get to one is to be the caster themselves. Mage pockets can be grafted to non-mages, such as Garin Dul-Sansiska, provided they have the kind of mana control needed to maintain it and help it grow. Garin had one grafted to him early in life by Xankresh Avani as his pirate career started, for unknown purposes. In this case both the crafting mage and the recipient have access to the pocket.

All mage pockets are different, and are not simply spaces of holding, but will begin to reflect and take new shapes, to better coincide with the soul of their creator/host. Most will never grow beyond a simple little pocket space that the caster holds items and secrets within, as only Grandmasters can achieve anything larger than a few dozen square feet of dimensional space in their lifetimes. The space formats itself in response to all that the caster is, and whatever they are, is reflected back onto them as all entities give off impressions into magic itself. In this way some have hypothesized that Terros is Aradia's mage pocket, and some who know the truth of reality, simply tell themselves that it's a lot more complicated than that.

## Known Mage Pockets

### Library of the All Knowing - Divankul Dul-Sansiska

*"What would you do for untold knowledge? Would you kill, lie, steal, and cheat your way to the truth? What happens when you arrive and you see its just as rotten as you became to get it?"- Divankul Dul-Sansiska, Circa 1016AE to The Monarch*

The Library of the All Knowing is not entirely Divankul's own space, but a mixture of all the assimilated spaces as well, and though it is vast, one is trapped inside the decaying and worn out library itself while a verdant world lurks just outside one's grasp, taunting them with the promise of amazing wonders and experiences if they could just let go of all this information. However, one remains trapped, in a great hall filled with every piece of knowledge one could wish for, and are suffocating in the immensity of. That is what Divankul's mage pocket was last seen as, as late as 1016AE, a massive great hall with a myriad of open and closed hallways leading to every piece of trivia and tidbit you could ask for, the hall itself being almost infinitely tall vertically. The only light that would shine in would be windows along every landing and floor of the hall, showing an amazing view of the outside world and its many rich wonders. There was a great and stoic looking mahogany staircase that spiraled ever upward, constantly becoming a new landing and floor that would yet have more hallways and windows and secrets to tell.

The Library of the All Knowing is not entirely Divankul's own space, but a mixture of all the assimilated spaces as well, and though it is vast, one is trapped inside the decaying and worn out library itself while a verdant world lurks just outside one's grasp, taunting them with the promise of amazing wonders and experiences if they could just let go of all this information. However, one remains trapped, in a great hall filled with every piece of knowledge one could wish for, and are suffocating in the immensity of. That is what Divankul's mage pocket was last seen as, as late as 1016AE, a massive great hall with a myriad of open and closed hallways leading to every piece of trivia and tidbit you could ask for, the hall itself being almost infinitely tall vertically. The only light that would shine in would be windows along every landing and floor of the hall, showing an amazing view of the outside world and its many rich wonders. There was a great and stoic looking mahogany staircase that spiraled ever upward, constantly becoming a new landing and floor that would yet have more hallways and windows and secrets to tell.

There are candles and lanterns throughout, constantly lighting every inch of the place and allowing one to read through whatever they could find and summon up to their eyes. At first the whole thing simply seems like a paradise for those seeking all knowledge and the truth about everything, but then all you have to do is breath in and you can feel it. Mold, mildew, rot, the stench of age, dust, its everywhere, you can see moths and the moss growing over patches of the library, you can decipher the holes and cracks as the hall rots from the inside out, but it will crush you before it ever lets you leave the confines of the library. Perhaps you believe that the many halls and rooms within those corridors will provide any stance of safety, but no, not really. Each time you'll find that they're breaking, caved in, covered in slime and decay, rooms of knowledge but the air is ash and poison. attempting to navigate only gets you lost, even if the hall seems perfectly safe and tidy, you get lost in a few hours and wind up waking back up int he central great hall, book in hand, trapped.

Divankul remarks that while he has many tools and possessions stored here, he can never quite remember where all of them are, nor can he ever recall knowledge for longer than he's actively thinking on it. Sure, some days are better than others, but in his condition, well, some days he's lost for centuries he likes to think, simply trying to find a book...

The whole thing stands in as a metaphor for his quest to godhood, as inconceivable as it was, and his want to save his family-that which he sold his soul to literal devils to accomplish, only to fall short once he got the truth. Now it all decays around him, around everyone who has ever dared to chase after the impossible dream, and suffocates a person despite how much optimism and hope they could still have if not being strangled by this dead font. The only upside is, Divankul truly is capable of knowing just about everything so long as he can collect the knowledge, the only issue is, does he want to? He once posed the question to The Monarch at the tail end of the Second Demon War, about what they would do if they fought all that way only to find the knowledge rotting and disgusting. Their answer was honestly kind of uplifting in an odd way, and it made him laugh and smile, before taking his leave from the grounds, a new outlook being planted in his mind.

Regardless, like all other well developed pocket spaces, this houses untold amounts of power and weaponry in a seemingly limitless armory, with spell tomes, grimoires, and wands all throughout and everything one could want on how t defeat an enemy. The only cost is that one's sanity is eaten away by the space, and whoever gains access to it next will be struck with the same affliction, just like all the others. As once more this is not *just* Divankul's space, but the space that all of those who fell into Malak's clutches ultimately were burdened with.

### The Patient Squall - Garin Dul-Sansiska

*"Best to state there's nothing wrong while you're stashing away the dagger"-Garin Dul-Sansiska teaching Cynthia Silvers and Zara Moon circa 1048AE.*
Originally a pet project by Xankresh Avani, the Patient Squall was forcibly passed to Garin as an experiment, and thus the young man of the time was made to shoulder the burden of this specialized little pocket of existence. The Patient Squall is an ever creaking, ever groaning ship in the middle of a portion of the sea. The boat is some kind of a sloop, seeing as it has no weaponry or people aboard it to speak of, and there's the constant smell of freeze salty air coming along as squalls come at regular intervals to batter the sails. Within the ship there's a stash of survival food, some back up weapons like a few cutlasses and the like, and a lot of stored alcohol and tobacco that dominates the space so Garin isn't to be left wanting on long campaigns.

The space is limited by the means of this being an experimental pocket grafted onto a non-mage, it's far lesser than anything true masters can make but it works as a quiet little tool for Garin to grab hold of in a pinch.

### The Dark Nest - Nakura

Nakura is a neat and tidy type, doesn't want her prey to get away from her and doesn't like it when the threads are plucked errantly, thus her realm reflects this, and it very much is a realm. Nakura is smart, and understood that by manipulating her pocketspace, she could travel anywhere in Terros in but an instant for her by manipulating linear spaces. In other words, Nakura's web stretches far and wide, and can entrap her victims as she pleases. Thankfully, she's on the side of the, well, 'good' guys in that she respected her mother's wishes and allied herself to the Drow, but she's fairly independent as a spider priestess, the only one of her kind. She keeps the source of her dark powers locked up in her nest, and ensures its guarded by several layers of security, lest her wondrous gifts from the Queens perish.

The Dark Nest is a series of foggy jungles and dense webbings everywhere, if one manages to get all the way through this labyrinth they will come across a legitimate moat of bubbling venom and constructed spiderlings, ever pressed forward one gets to the ruined keep that Nakura calls her home and domain, and deep in the heart of this keep, under the defensive spells she has in place, is a glass orb of acidic venom that is what binds Nakura's magic to her. The old fortress is falling apart, but isn't rotting in the way the Library does, where the stones crumble, new plant life and spiders make it their home, nature taking over anything if left alone long enough. This place is Nakura's sanctuary, and only Reynis has ever been allowed inside unimpeded.

That being said, the Dark Nest can also forcibly entrap victims and see them mercilessly held as prisoners until their bodies give out form the intense magical pressures. Usually via steel threads that bind them hard and crush them, the entire realm is an extension of Nakura's desire to cleanse what she finds disgusting, and unlike many other pockets, thsi one is designed for offensive measures as one of Nakura's best tools. That it can also open up wed portals anywhere she is aware of on Terros is very threatening, so long as she can visualize a location, she can transfer herself instantaneously through her pocket into the area and begin wreaking havoc. This space falls short of amenities and Nakura doesn't use it for much more than transportation, maybe security, and trapping victims. she prefers the natural world to this area, but she's proud she is capable of grandmaster level achievements in her lifetime.

### Metheryl Arcaena

Although Metheryl was able to create her own mage pocket as early as 265 AE, she didn't dedicate much time or mana to maintaining it. Due to her entanglement with Kraai in 325 AE, and the bizarre manipulations of the Void on their souls and her memory, Metheryl lost her initial mage pocket. She would not create another until the 500s AE. During her time as High Enchantress, Metheryl rarely used this for anything other than a wardrobe. Even more rarely did she enter it, preferring to only treat it as a space of holding she could push and pull from.

It was only after 1016 AE when Metheryl joined the Monarch's court that she chose to dedicate more attention to the mage pocket. What used to be nothing more than the size of a hallway storage closet eventually grew to the size of the Monarch's throne room to accommodate her work and hide necessary secrets and knowledge.

Despite her arcane skill and ease of access to mana, Metheryl did little to mold this mage pocket to a particular aesthetic. Instead her memories imprinted on her soul would slowly transform this place.

Interior: In 1085 AE, upon entering this pocket, the mage passes through a rock tunnel, the dark walls cracked and emanating a dull purple glow from beneath the surface.

* Dressing Room - There is one side tunnel which leads to a small dressing room carved from the rock and edged by reflective obsidian which act as mirrors around this small room. Clothing is folded neatly on a single stone table in the center of the room or hangs from a railing carved out of the rock ceiling. From this room, there is another tiny tunnel - this is the original storage closet that used to be the staple of Metheryl's Mage Pocket for many centuries: in here, a few random weapons and useful adventuring gear is kept.
* The Study - Exiting the cave via the main tunnel, the mage finds themselves in a forest of slender birch trees - a grey fog hangs low in the air, and the edges of this forest are unseen - however, walking as far as one can, they will always remain in view of the cave and the great rock wall it comes from. Dull sunlight illuminates the fog, and motes of dust drift lazily through the air. Some of the birches are choked by strange purple vines, pulsating with a dark arcane energy. Just outside the cave entrance, there is a small clearing; here are several wooden tables with miscellaneous potions, books, and other odd items. A small bench is tucked under each table to be pulled out for seating, but a more comfortable wicker reading chair covered in furs, moss and lichens is positioned beside a table with an everlit candle.