The Fulminant Spires
"Into this wild Abyss
The womb of Nature, and perhaps her grave
Of neither sea, nor shore, nor air, nor fire
But all these in their pregnant causes mixed
Confusedly, and which thus must ever fight"
John Milton, Paradise Lost Book II
Spanning a league or more, this towering forest of windswept crags and stony spires is home to a permanent storm.
Lashed by the everpresent winds, the hollow flutes sound with every nuanced pressure change like some leviathan pipe organ, while the metal content of the spires calls down fury from the heavens.
The cloudscape within the Spires is everchanging: Swirling plumes of mist rise on updrafts before being abruptly sucked downwards into the roiling depths by pressure differentials.
The region is home to peculiar species and an ecosystem found nowhere else on Cathexis: Sailing on the buffeting winds, currents of things resembling airborne jellyfish dwell within the stormy clouds, subsisting on the energies therein.
Inspiration: Ernst Haeckel's Radiolaria and similar; Cambrian ocean invertebrates. But all airborne.
The womb of Nature, and perhaps her grave
Of neither sea, nor shore, nor air, nor fire
But all these in their pregnant causes mixed
Confusedly, and which thus must ever fight"
John Milton, Paradise Lost Book II
Spanning a league or more, this towering forest of windswept crags and stony spires is home to a permanent storm.
Lashed by the everpresent winds, the hollow flutes sound with every nuanced pressure change like some leviathan pipe organ, while the metal content of the spires calls down fury from the heavens.
The cloudscape within the Spires is everchanging: Swirling plumes of mist rise on updrafts before being abruptly sucked downwards into the roiling depths by pressure differentials.
The region is home to peculiar species and an ecosystem found nowhere else on Cathexis: Sailing on the buffeting winds, currents of things resembling airborne jellyfish dwell within the stormy clouds, subsisting on the energies therein.
Inspiration: Ernst Haeckel's Radiolaria and similar; Cambrian ocean invertebrates. But all airborne.
Geography
Spanning a league or more, this tower forest of windswept crags and stony spires is home to a permanent storm.
Lashed by the everpresent winds, while the metal content of the spires calls down fury from the heavens. the hollow flutes sing with every nuance of pressure change like some leviathan pipe organ.
The cloudscape within the Spires is everchanging: Swirling plumes of mist rise on updrafts before being abruptly sucked downwards into the roiling depths by pressure differentials.
Lashed by the everpresent winds, while the metal content of the spires calls down fury from the heavens. the hollow flutes sing with every nuance of pressure change like some leviathan pipe organ.
The cloudscape within the Spires is everchanging: Swirling plumes of mist rise on updrafts before being abruptly sucked downwards into the roiling depths by pressure differentials.
Fauna & Flora
(Inspired by the prints of Ernst Haeckel, and by prehistoric marine ecosystems notably the Cambrian explosion).
The region is home to peculiar species and an ecosystem unique on Cathexis: Sailing on the buffeting wind currents, things resembling airborne jellyfish dwell within the stormy clouds, subsisting on the energies therein.
Every surface is encrusted in coral and seaweed buoyed up by float bladders containing gases lighter than air, their fronds and tendrils billowing on the mists. Such sessile species draw sustenance from a combination of mistbourne nutriments and the energies pervading the atmosphere.
A vast number of creatures surf the wind currents as though swimming, ranging from the microscropic to tens of metres in length. Like the surface-dwellers, the smaller creatures subsist upon the soup of nutrients in which they swim, while falling prey to many creatures larger in size.
Notable denizens include:
Fellswifts
The apex predator of the Fulminant Spires, Fellswifts grow to many metres in length. Their segmented carapace is flattened and curved to catch the wind currents, which they swim by undulating.
Trilobites
Marella splendens
Hallucigenia
Sponges
Crinoids
The region is home to peculiar species and an ecosystem unique on Cathexis: Sailing on the buffeting wind currents, things resembling airborne jellyfish dwell within the stormy clouds, subsisting on the energies therein.
Every surface is encrusted in coral and seaweed buoyed up by float bladders containing gases lighter than air, their fronds and tendrils billowing on the mists. Such sessile species draw sustenance from a combination of mistbourne nutriments and the energies pervading the atmosphere.
A vast number of creatures surf the wind currents as though swimming, ranging from the microscropic to tens of metres in length. Like the surface-dwellers, the smaller creatures subsist upon the soup of nutrients in which they swim, while falling prey to many creatures larger in size.
Notable denizens include:
Fellswifts
The apex predator of the Fulminant Spires, Fellswifts grow to many metres in length. Their segmented carapace is flattened and curved to catch the wind currents, which they swim by undulating.
Trilobites
Marella splendens
Hallucigenia
Sponges
Crinoids
Natural Resources
The preservation of the region by the Mageocracy means that no resources are accessible. That said, if they were, the metallic content of the Spires is metallurgically unique, as are the energy content of the constant storm, and the nutrient “soup” funnelled by the winds that pervade the mists.
In common with all other Refugia: As the mindlinked Mage stabilises the ecological dynamical system by aborting the timelines of some births before conception, the vast energies of this unrealised reality become available to fuel and expand the Interdicts and Liminalities. It is this power that makes the forcewalls impervious to all other energies, whether incendiary, nuclear or stellar. By this mechanism, the service of the Magisters to the diversity of all life, enables and preserves that service.
In common with all other Refugia: As the mindlinked Mage stabilises the ecological dynamical system by aborting the timelines of some births before conception, the vast energies of this unrealised reality become available to fuel and expand the Interdicts and Liminalities. It is this power that makes the forcewalls impervious to all other energies, whether incendiary, nuclear or stellar. By this mechanism, the service of the Magisters to the diversity of all life, enables and preserves that service.
History
The Fulminant Spires Refugium has been part of the Dominion for so long that only the Magisters known when the region was first embraced. Certainly the uniqueness of this biome epitomises the founding ideals of the Mageocracy.
Type
Mountain Range
Inhabiting Species
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