The Otherwhere

Once inextricably tied to the land of mortals, the High King and Queens of the tuatha lifted the veil of the balla anamacha around the realm of men at the onset of the Cogadh Dé Dannan, dividing creation into the mortal World and the rest of creation - the Otherwhere.

## **The Great Bridges**

Forging great bridges of moonlight and shadow, the High Queens of Faerie bound their lands to the mortal world and placed their most trusted courtiers at each end to guard these lands from the incursions of both the mortals and each other.

### Gwynfed

*[Celtic: gwin-fehd]*

The bridge of starlight that connected the Summerlands of the Seelie to the World, Titania placed the Túr Gréine (ruled by King Ailill) on one side while Mab built Caisleán Oighir (held by Queen Nuada) on the other. Together, Ailill and Nuada held the Gwynfed against the onslaught of mortal wizards and their armies until Titania's surrender and the end of the Cogadh Dé Dannan.

### Anynn

*[Celtic: ah-noon]*

Forged of shadows, the bridge of Anynn joined the Unseelie Hinterlands to the World. Unlike their cousins who held demesne over the Gwynfed, Queen Áine of Túr Loinnir and King Fachtna of Caisleán Dorcha were never able to set aside their eternal conflict. In the year 93CE, Queen Áine dispatched the swanmay Dame Alannah to lead the knights of Túr Loinnir in collapsing the Anynn in order to focus her efforts on holding back the mortal threat.

When Alannah and her knights returned to Túr Loinnir, they found Áine dead, her daughter Aoibheall missing, and a mortal king seated in her throne with the wizard Morrigan at his side. Had Queen Áine not destroyed the Anynn, Morrigan and her armies would have had open access to the Baile Dé Dannan for the first time since the war began.

As tragic as the fall of Túr Loinnir was for the Seelie Court, their sacrifice forced the Tzadikim Nistarim to expend incalculable resources constructing their own bridge to the Otherwhere, postponing the downfall of Faerie for centuries.

### Abred

*[Celtic: ah-bred]*

With the Anynn destroyed and the combined might of the tuatha courts defending the Gwynfed, the Tzadikim Nistarim were forced to drive a new bridge through the balla anamacha, directly into the heart of the Otherwhere. Almost immediately, the wizards were assailed from all sides and the Abred was nearly lost before the Daughters of Ernmas - Badb, Morrigan, and Macha - could anchor it to the Otherwhere.

## **Evaron**

Originally built as a fortress to protect the Otherwhere-side anchor of the Bridge Abred, Evaron served first as a staging ground for the siege of the Baile Dé Dannan. It was from this unrivaled arcane fortification that Morrigan launched her attack on Falias in the North, eventually driving High Queen Mab to her end in Murias. It was Evaron that held the line against the combined retaliation of both courts of the tuatha, where Badb and Macha met Oberon himself in combat until the eldest sister and the High King vanished. It was in these walls that Titania surrendered to Macha, and was bound.

In the aftermath of the Cogadh Dé Dannan, Evaron served as a final port of the supernatural world - a gigantic sorting yard through which every creature deemed "unnatural" was forced to pass. Sorcerors were driven across the Abred and released into the World under the Covenant while all others were cast out into the Otherwhere to live as they may.

When the Covenant began mimicking the upheavals of the mortals in the late eighteenth century, a large portion of Evaron's wizardly defenders were called away to bring the sorcerers back into check. The swanmay Alannah took advantage of their absence, rallying her forces and using the spell provided her by Queen Áine to destroy the Abred exactly as she had the Anynn nearly two millennia before.

Almost immediately, the Fíann fae that Alannah had led in the siege of Evaron named her the city's queen - crowning the swanmay and binding her to the land as its regent even as she begged them not to place the coronet upon her head. Thusly stripped of her freedom, Queen Alannah has ruled the great, sprawling metropolis of Evaron for generations, determined to preserve the freedom of her people at any expense and, in its own, curious way, the city has prospered under her hand.

In the two centuries since the collapse of the Abred, the Otherwhere has reclaimed Evaron. What was once a symbol of mortal dominion over the supernatural world has become their defacto capital, a sprawling cityscape reminiscent in many ways to 1980s New York.

Riddled with crime, crippled by poverty, and perpetually on the edge of collapse at the hands of warring factions, Evaron is the star around which all the Otherwhere revolves - a city of refuge in an endless realm of refugees.

## **Baile Dé Dannan**

### **The Summerlands**

*[Celtic: gwin-fehd]*

The land of eternal youth.

#### Finnias in the South

Throne to the House of the Moon and carved from alabaster and birch, eternal twilight bathed the towers of Finnias in the South with starlight and silver. Ruled by Queen Maeve, the city met its eventual fate at the combined might of Solomon and the mortal world. After The End, it is little more than ash and still smoldering ruin, awash in the pale red glow of a moon yet in mourning.

#### Gorias in the East

The home of the House of the Sun, Resplendent Gorias in the East was ever awash in the light of a cool spring morning.  Alabaster towers and marble palaces dotted the lush forests and hills wherein lay the Spear of Lugh - until the bombs fell.  After The End, clouds of radioactive filth still roil in the sky, and none know the fate of the golden spear.

### **Anynn - The Hinterlands**

*[Celtic: ah-noon]*

The underworld.

#### Falias in the North

Once called the Stone of Fal, the Unseelie House of Blood claimed dominion over Falias in the North until the Daughters of Ernmas brought iron, magic, and fire to their gates. When the siege finally ended, only ghosts wandered the gore-drenched streets as Badb carried Macha back to Evaron to mend her wounds and Morrigan harried the last of Mab's armies westward, to Murias.

#### Sunken Murias in the West

The Cauldron of Plenty, Murias in the West was once the cathedral of the House of Sin and it was here that High Queen Mab and her Unseelie armies made their final stand against the wizard Morrigan. The battle ended with the creation of a new Shamble for the mortals, Morrigan and Mab bound eternally together, and the once great city a tattered ruin at the bottom of a crater.

### **Talamh Lonrach - The Lonely Lands**

*[Irish: tal-ah lawn-rughh]*

The wild lands outside of Evaron and unclaimed by any of the great supernatural powers, hundred of tiny hamlets dot the forests and fens of Talamh Lonrach. It is among these that the Fiáin Houses make their courts, small communities of rejects and rebels uniting to defend themselves from the Sa-starved monsters that lurk, hungry, in the night.