The Known Universe
Ethnis is the name of The Wheel in the ancient Aeai language. In manners of exploration it means all that is known—a boundary limited only by the WayHall.
Ethnis is an ever-growing expanse of worlds linked together by the WayHall, a network of stable wormhole routes predating civilization.
It expands as quickly as each settlement discovers their system's Index—a process which can take generations.
Over the last several-hundred years, Ethnis has grown to encompass over 200 worlds.
While there are many ways to divide and categorize the universe's anatomy, the common conversation involves terms such as the Hub, lanes,
The WayHall
The WayHall is a web of hyperdimensional lanes connecting worlds; it is accessible only through WayPoints: kilometers-wide rings which each maintain a pair of stable dimensional portals. Some systems have discovered multiple WayHalls.
Each WayHall portal leads into a different system, and is inactive until activated with the matching Index. Indices appear on nearby planets but are difficult to track and will test you before you may claim them.
The Hub
The Hub is the Circuit Cluster of the wealthiest, most populous worlds within Ethnis. From here, the Banners rule, playing a game of politics and trade even as their back lines war.
Outer Worlds
The Outer Worlds are any worlds beyond The Hub. They are further subdivided into purpose and status—Quarantined, Luxury, Martial, Economic, Fringe—often with purposes overlapped as necessary.
Wherever the WayHall forms a complete circuit of lanes, the worlds it connect become known as a Circuit Cluster.
The WayHall
Dunno where they come from.
Dunno how they work.
Dunno what they're made of.Nothin' could exist without them.
The WayHall is the web of navigable Lines through The WaySpace — a dimension of stunning light and temporal distortion, void of all material except that which travellers have brought into it. It is accessible through WayPoint Rings and requires a WayShip to traverse.
The entire WayHall once closed, Indices reset, in an event called the Melancholic Lacuna. The Lacuna destroyed the universal supply chain, and plummeted Ethnis into dark times. Only recently — 300 years after the fact — have enough worlds been recovered for it to near its former glory.
The origin, purpose, and creators of the WayPoints are unknown.
Poets, scientists, and the faithful have devoted entire libraries to the topic of the WayHall. Thousands of years before the @adven The planetbound ancestors of the Verin revered then-inactive WayHall orbiting their planet as the physical manifestation of the Wheel, a symbol which remains to this day.
While there have been volumes of information filled about the WayHalls—some scientific, some liturgical, some artistic—the most important question about them remains unanswered: where did they come from? Nobody knows, same as nobody is certain of why the entire WayHall reset 300 years ago. Despite the dark age of the Lacuna, the entire sprawl of Ethnis rests tenuously on it remaining open.
The WayHall is a web of hyperdimensional lanes connecting worlds; it is accessible only through WayPoints: kilometers-wide rings which each maintain a pair of stable dimensional portals. Some systems have discovered multiple WayHalls.
Each WayHall portal leads into a different system, and is inactive until activated with the matching Index. Indices appear on nearby planets but are difficult to track and will test you before you may claim them.
Each side of a WayPoint is a gateway into the WayHall. Until activated via Index Key, a gateway is a flat, inky black pool from which there is no return.
Indices hide within the same system as their WayPoint, and may only be discovered by Monoliths who have transcended within that system. Those who have found Indices report feeling summoned by them.
Discovery is a once-in-a-lifetime event. Take Heed: worlds have been razed in the search.
Explore the Wayhall
The Hub
Explore the Hub Worlds
The Outer Worlds
Explore the Frontier
Making Ethnis Your Own
How to run a campaign in Ethnis and take advantage of the Map
Enigmas
You have questions. There are answers. Many of those answers aren't yet known to the people of Ethnis. These are the questions best tackled at a table, with friends, around a game of Ethnis, or from reading its narratives.
These yet-unanswered questions are the Enigmas of Ethnis.
Are we being led somewhere? Is this all a test? Are we rebuilding the road of an ancient civilization? If the latter, why have we not found any ruins of their civilization?
In hundreds of years of exploration and expansion, not a single terminus has been found. Where does it lead, and why?
Nothing sent through the inky black mirror of an unopened WayHall has ever returned. It must lead somewhere, but where?
Why must we earn the indices? Why do appear in difficult places rather than appearing in easy places or not at all? Why do they move if someone fails them?
Those who find them report being haunted by them by life. Why? What sway does it have over the mind? What are the lasting effects?
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