Birth of Order
Dandoleon, the land of Summer and Winter, was once an evergreen plane free from the gods' dominion; searching even further back, however, one can discover its origin as a lifeless plane drifting aimlessly through the cosmos. During a bombastic eon of creation and destruction, Dandoleon was collected by immutable architects spinning their web of interplanar order. Just as continents collide across vast oceans, the planes were born into a "supercontinent" of realms, suspended in the Waters of Taev.
Waters of Taev
The Waters of Taev are an ever-present force in the universe, serving as an endless and turbulent ocean surrounding the planes. Home to all manner of eldritch entities, its denizens are of incomprehensible intent and proportions; their mere existence brings destruction and breakdown across the universe. These creatures are called "uthuquate," and chief among them is Taev.
Little is known of Taev or its uthuquati kin beyond their nature of moral ambivalence and proclivity for chaos. The Waters are no less dangerous, eternally antagonizing the interplanar web and the defined order within. Some devils or their mortal pawns can exploit these Waters to invoke dark magic.
Ohkinate Web
The Ohkinate web, named after its architects, stands in direct contrast to the Waters of Taev. Representing ongoing order, the web is considered the only hospitable refuge for life but doesn't serve as its direct source.
These Ohkinate maintain and refine the web over time which comes with a litany of benefits: direct traversal between planes, a source of protection against the Waters, and access to particular magic of universal order are the most substantial.
The only known Ohkinate is the abnormally sentimental "Ornjack," often depicted as a spider and guardian of the universe's centermost plane, Laminarum.
Dandoleon
Dandoleon, as a plane within the Ohkinate Web, was intended as a transitional space between the Sixteen outer planes and the central plane of Laminarum. That is, should outer planes wish to enter Laminarum, they must travel through Dandoleon. Its service as an intermediate plane was eventually surmounted as creatures of dubious desire learned to exploit the extradimensional properties of the Waters, leading to multiple invasion events over eons. Although Dandoleon failed at its intended purpose, it is far from extraneous; its particular position between the planes makes it unequivocally unique, providing a home to otherwise unreplicated natural and magical phenomena.
While the origin of existence long predates the creation of the Ohkinate Web (invoking myths such as
Saaurithale's creation of the universe through its own destruction or
Melifi's subsequent corruption of all creation), Dandoleon itself doesn't appear until the architects merged the planes as we know them. Originally untouched by the corporeal gods of other planes, Dandoleon eventually bloomed life as interplanar chaos settled. Undetectable at inception, this life slowly developed into robust and diverse organisms with diversity only enhancing as extraplanar entities began traversing the web.
After a cold eternity of lifeless drifting, Dandoleon had been reborn as a green macrocosm of life. Thanks to the plane's ring-like structure around Laminarum, a lack of rotation and revolutions, and persistent warm conditions, most of its space was covered in rainforests. The ecosystems born of such conditions were highly competitive, inspiring continuous evolution for any hope of survival for both plants and animals. Through near-miraculous events, complex organisms with sapience developed and spread across the land. Many were of insectoid persuasion and limited independence, often holding just enough intelligence to organize and create. Through a disastrous extinction event, known as the
Breaking of Dandoleon, full independence and intelligence emerged.
Breaking of Dandoleon
Of all the gods, the lineage of Chaimut is counted among the cruelest, and it is Dandoleon that suffers for the justice against them. The god of time has but two daughters, each born to punish the other: Fei Invaru and Huereina, each a tangent of their father with domains of Summer and Winter; Vitality and dormancy; life and death. In their repeated disappointment in the eyes of Chaimut, they were banished to Dandoleon, damned to wage war eternally for their survival. Foreigners as they were, the daughters held no compassion for the lands they stole.
Half of the plane basked in the warmth enjoyed by their ancestors, but the others were forced into eternal winter. Those who could not escape succumbed to the cold or forever changed to endure it. As adventurous pioneers spurred interplanar travel into commonality, foreigners even spat upon the ancient name "Dandoleon" ordained by our ancestors; instead, they named our home for its unnatural seasons: Summer and Winter.
I wish that were the end of cataclysms for Dandoleon, but the gods view our plane as a barren waste of beasts and plants, rife with opportunity for punishment. We are but roaches in a prison for gods— Epiphany, scribe of Dandoleon
The Breaking of Dandoleon refers to the plane's shift from an unchanging land to one of rotating seasons, which caused a mass extinction as life had evolved for eons to survive in a tropical climate. The Breaking is represented in two phases: the
Banishment of Gods and the
Indictment of Chaimut.
Banishment of Gods
The split of Dandoleon between "Summer" and "Winter" occurred when Chaimut, the god of time, had grown frustrated with his daughters. The oldest daughter, Fei Invaru, held the domain of fertility and bloom. Fei Invaru had been the source of a series of disappointments in Chaimut's eyes. Chief among these disappointments was the release of her son,
Rel Eteisus, from captivity. Rel Eteisus had been born with the domain of fate and Chaimut wished to domineer his grandson to gain authority over his own brothers. A domain so broad was also a threat to the domain of time, potentially even nullifying it. Rel's escape and subsequent death led Chaimut to immaculately conceive a new daughter, Huereina. Huereina's domain of winter was intended to punish Fei directly, and Chaimut used his authority to banish them to Dandoleon. In a scramble for survival, they each fled to alternate sides of the plane, causing a separation of domains on each side. While those under Fei Invaru were relatively unscathed by Fei's infection of the land, competition from those fleeing Huereina caused famine and death. The arrival of Huereina, however, caused a new ice age that resulted in the rapid death of most life under her purview. The one cause for relief for the denizens of Dandoleon was that the seasons never shifted, ensuring a degree of stability but this wouldn't last forever.
Indictment of Chaimut
Chaimut's previous cruelty wouldn't go unnoticed by his two brothers, who viewed the banishment and creation of Huereina as a perversion of power.
Bailum, god of justice, held a vote between a litany of gods and Ornjack, in which Chaimut was indicted. The nature of his punishment was debated for millennia but the ultimate decision was to send him to Dandoleon so he could eternally look upon the suffering he had caused. As part of this punishment, wings would be flayed from his skin and a chain attached to his neck. Upon being sent to Dandoleon, he was to drag the plane, rotating it about its axis. This process pulled the lands of winter into Fei's dominion and the lands of Summer into Huereina's dominion. This process is never ending, forcing all species of Dandoleon to either migrate or hibernate as their home is eventually overtaken by summer or winter. Fundamentally, this process is similar to the standard seasons of Laminarum, only achieved through different means.
This introduction of shifting seasons caused another extinction event and represents the modern status of Dandoleon. The new conditions have been present for tens of thousands of years and most species are sufficiently adapted to survive, though the extreme conditions over time have led to bizarre and unique adaptations among its residents, even among sapient species. There are entire civilizations that hibernate when winter arrives, leaving them nearly frozen for years at a time before they reemerge.
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