The Asymptote

**The Asymptote** is a realm of dreams, partaking in the nature of both the Dreamlands and the Corridors Beyond Mirrors. The rulers of the Asymptote are the coiling fingersnakes, which are snakes that lack a physical form outside of the Asymptote. They only wish to leave the mirrors, and, well, exist; to do this, they steal the skins of mortals. Unfortunately for them, many of these skin-thieves in flesh-suits have been captured and imprisoned in the third coil of the Labyrinth of Tigers.

The devils once served the stars directly as servants. Following their failed rebellion, they exiled themselves to the Asymptote via Caduceus.

Another faction currently residing in the Asymptote are the Rosers of the Fourth City. These individuals expedited the fall of the Fourth City, and sought refuge in Arbor, which historically accepted refugees from many of the Fallen Cities.

## Beyond the Mirrors

The Asymptote is most commonly accessed via prisoner's honey, the preferred drug of the Great Below. It can also be accessed via Rhiwaq's **House of the Amber Sky**, a warm, roofless space packed with Rhiwaq-roses. The Asymptote can sometimes be entered by *physically* passing through mirrors as well, though this process can be painful for obvious reasons.

The Asymptote is more than a dream, however, as those who enter it disappear from the physical world for the duration of their stay and can reappear in other locations. It is possible for one’s body to return before one's mind does, making one seemingly drunk. This is called being **honeymazed**.

Those who enter the Asymptote are greeted by a vibrant forest under an orange sun, populated by strange and talkative wildlife. Of note are the cats, who take the form of predatory big cats in Asymptote but have the voices of the smaller talking cats back in Bomenya. Asymptote does have a day and night cycle; we mention this because the Asymptotic moon contains the image of a cat.

The common citizen is unlikely to venture far into the Asymptote before waking up, but certain professionals called **Silverers** have ventured far beyond the reaches of the Marches and have dealings with the entities that lurk beyond the mirrors. Silverers wear a set of spectacles enchanted to be irresistible to the denizens of the Asymptote.

## Landmarks

* **The Mirror-Marches**, which serve as the borderlands of the Asymptote, often visited by those overcome by nightmares. The Marches are littered with empty mirrors-frames, and travelers can observe visions of the other side. A hot, orange sun hovers low in a real sky. Tangles of green foliage and the sounds of nature; little tickings and chirpings. Here and there, though, are man-made shapes and shiny surfaces; straight lines and right angles ~ empty frames.
* **The Viric Jungle**, another of the borders of dream, frequented by those in shallow sleep.
* **The Miserly Mere**, a heavily disputed piece of land that has been claimed by almost every one of the Duchess's noble cats. The Rosers also have a stake in this place.
* **The Smoking Shore**, a great ocean of sulfurous smoke and a haunt of dreaming devils. They say cats fought off a band of Heart-Takers here. Coiling fingersnakes also occasionally lay eggs here, and no one knows exactly what hatches from them.
* **The Drowned Forest**, a jungle under a lake and the spawning grounds of coiling fingersnakes.
* **The Hanging Mountains**, violet-sloped mountains that hang upside down.
* **The Once-Was Wood**, a forest of golden needles and constant ash rain where all things within are gone forever and all things that are gone forever lie within. Aureate stags, one of the Asymptote's fastest land animals can also be found there, and the heart of these woods was the birthplace of the Glory, an enormous dragon turtle that roamed the Unblemished Sea before dying near the Gaunt Pole. Its shell was taken over by crazed monster-hunters, becoming the Maturinate.
* **The Castle of Forests**, filled with briar-cages that coiling fingersnakes made to contain their prisoners.
* **The Menagerie of Roses**, where the dreamers never see the tops of the walls. Apparently, the Roses stopped growing, much to the dreamers' dismay.
* **Arbor**, the city half in dream.
* **The Writhing River**, where asymptotic flax grows and nightmares spawn. It is full of serpents, and it runs near Hunter's Keep. At the head of the River lie silver-barked trees which excrete shining, useful sap.
* **The Skinned Sun**, the Asymptote's false sun. It was built by the sisters of the Duchess for the refugees of the Second City to live under as part of a scheme to outwit the Agora.
* **The Beached Fingernail Galleon**, which was apparently constructed out of the scales of the first coiling fingersnakes. It's in pieces, now.
* **The Burbling Spring-tide**, a gorgeous garden-spa where couples can enjoy pillows of roses and visions of the night sky.
* **The Garden Gleam**, a garden of glass flowers where gravity is low. The petals ring in a perfect harmony when disturbed.
* **The Moonlit Chessboard**, where spies dream the moves and counter-moves of the Great Game.
* **The Garden Where Nightmares Grow**, the Merry Gentleman's beautiful but macabre sanctuary.
* **The Spiny Sea**, where the aspic-fleshed folk swim through the memories of their ancestors.
* **The Braided Spire**, which connects the Asymptotic Sun to the ground and serves as a sacred pilgrim's destination for coiling fingersnakes.
* **The Wastes of Want**, a desolate no-man's land that rejects anyone that tries to claim it.
* **The Regal Marsh**, where the ruined reflections of old, unhappy queens scream across the wastes.
* **The Tombwood**, where screaming trees filled with weeping, unblinking eyes grow from graves.

## The Land That Is-Not

In the religion called the Liberation of Night, the Asymptote is referred to as the realm of what **Is-Not**, far beyond the reach of the Judgments' domain, the enemy-kingdom. Liberationist scriptures explain that the Judgments determine what is, while the Asymptote's citizens are Is-Not; sunlight destroys them, starlight corrodes them, so dreams come at night and thrive in the Great Below where the Judgments cannot see. These scriptures also say that the dream-realm was hatched from a different egg than the world itself. Since the Asymptote lies outside the regulation of the Judgements, time and space can be quite mutable. This can lead to paradoxes like Huntsmen being promoted to Huntsmen on the mid-week day, despite always being Huntsmen.

Natives of the Asymptote are said to be considered foreign, even illegal, by the Judgements, making them unable to leave for the real world. There are scriptures describing Asymptotic entities contacting and parlaying with the Judgements, but such cases are the exception rather than the rule.

## The Attendants

The sisters of the Duchess decided to flee to the Asymptote to evade the whims of the Agora. There, they created a false sun called the Skinned Sun, as they knew they could not abide the true Sun any longer. Using constructs called **üüshaptyi**, the sisters attempted to create a new home for the citizens of the Second City, called **the Palace of the Rising**. Things did not go as planned, however, so the Palace was left unfinished and ruined. **The Obstinate Adoratrix** still remains in the Palace of the Rising, though she lacks the knowledge to complete it.

Before the sisters built their sun, the Asymptote was apparently quite dark. Given the failure of the project, it seems likely that the Skinned Sun will eventually flicker out.