The Whimsey
The Whimsey is a land of shifting shadow, constantly in flux and moving, a stretching and constricting warped mirror of the Mortal Phase. It always exists exclusively in the size and shape of the shadows in the Mortal Phase. Thus, only at night is The Whimsey recognizable as the counterpoint to the material plane.
Current Political Structure
When Sterntin vanished, the routes he used to the material plane crumbled, as did seemingly all the old portals that had long been abandoned when the genie elected to wash their hands of Feodris. Most residents of The Whimsey were unfamiliar with who or what Sterntin was, or what his plots and schemes had been. The name of Sterntin could be heard in the courts, and movements of genies and a sense of power moving in new ways were undeniable at the time of his campaign. But reports of war on Feodris did not register, and the connection that one had something to do with the other was murky at best. Thus, with his disappearance and the collapse of the portals to the material plane, almost all assumed a cataclysm on Feodris, rather than a separation between the two realms. The genies, many of whom had secretly or even overtly sided with Sterntin, faded further from power in The Whimsey, for reasons that are not generally known. Perhaps they feared reprisal should the goal of evicting or eliminating their evolved pets come to light, perhaps they have other motives. Already powerful, the evolved fey creatures rose to power over nearly all The Whimsey. They established two rival kingdoms, which came to be known as the Sun and the Moon Courts. The Sun Court seemingly valued free expression and the arts. But in reality was dominated by a pair of twin eladrin sisters named Amryth and Nizela Rizha. They used their elite status to demand the impossible from their patrons and those who petitioned the court. The possibility of rising through the ranks and gaining favor was perpetually dangled before the people, on the premise that one’s art, skill, or service was superlative, but in reality the elite were determined to maintain their power over the sun court. The Moon Court was fractured into three distinct dynasties, the Azorna Dynasty, the Crinezha Dynasty, and the Vourdan Dynasty. They cast themselves as the antithesis to the sun court, rejecting art and profound skill as elitism. Essentially, the moon court proclaimed that all who aligned themselves with it should pull others down to a common level. In reality, the leaders of both courts dined, cavorted, and had relations with each other. But both felt that the constant struggle between their followers secured their positions of power, and they weren’t wrong. The genies spent the last centuries licking their wounds after the severance from the material plane. Rumors have begun to spread that the material plane was not in fact destroyed. There have been a few strays from Feodris appearing in The Whimsey. They are rare, but undeniably there. Few have seen them, and their presence is typically more rumor than fact. Given the flexible nature of time, some have assumed that they took centuries to come from the material plane, and are pitied as those whose home was apparently obliterated. It is not usually thought that they are proof that Feodris still exists, though there are some thinkers that believe this is the case. Some powerful genie, who have removed themselves from the squabbles of the sun and moon courts, are following in Sterntin’s wake and pondering ways to infiltrate and assume power of both.Interactions With Other Planes & Phases
The Mortal Phase
How Mortals View the Fey
Mortals tend to view The Fey with a huge amount of fear and distrust. Some older folks who survived The Collapse tell stories of their dealings with or cavortings with the occasional fey visitor, but since they've been absent for so long, those who can't disguise themselves or couldn't pass for an Unaf of some kind, are generally treated as if they were one of The Profane.Access to/from The Whimsey
Unchors
See UnchorsWhims
See WhimsRo
See RoGenie Vessels
Prior to The Collapse, genies of a particular power and savvy were able to create access points within their homes into The Mortal Phase. Doing so required them to bind their portal to a physical object in the material plane with an enclosed, hollow space inside. This mortal object became their vessel and they could move relatively freely between realms. Some time ago, all the access points were abruptly severed from their object vessels and the Mortal Phase became cut off. A notable number of genies were left stranded on the other side when this happened and for those who weren't the fate of the mortals is a mystery that has plagued them ever since. The prevailing theory among the fey and geniekind is that a catastrophe struck the Mortal Phase and annihilated it and everyone there.Geography
The Whimsey is like a mirror of the material Feodris though it stretches and contracts with the shadows and every element feels like an acid-trip version of its counterpart. Oceans may be purple and fizzy, trees in a forest might grow upside-down or a tall mountain could be made of a slick, semisolid material like butter instead of solid rock. Distances are very difficult for newcomers to judge, as the malleable sense of proportion relative to the mortal shadows can make very distant objects seem to creep toward the viewer or seem to recede no matter how fast one travels toward it.
Notably, only the natural parts of Feodris are mimicked in any way in The Whimsey. Mortal structures and settlements do not have a Whimsey corollary necessarily, although several population centers have a certain amount of overlap, (Keep: Freywich for example, and Tower: Farandorei.)
Localized Phenomena
Time and space are not linear, though they are progressive. Both dilate and contract, as if with an elliptical orbit around a sun. As shadows expand space stretches, and as shadows contract, space shrinks. Borders and ownership of land are extremely fluid, and understood by all to vary. In fact, the concept of rules are likewise flexible in The Whimsey. It is assumed that all things will change with time, that before noon things will benefit one party, and after noon, the other. As such, the most extreme vow in The Whimsey is to swear to something from midnight to midnight. Also in light of the constantly changing nature of The Whimsey, vows made without regard to time, or oaths made on something that doesn’t change with time, are rare and binding. Therefore, vowing on your name is terrifyingly powerful, as names don’t change. Ages change, shadows cycle, but in The Whimsey, names never do.
History
The Whimsey was the domain of the genie for untold centuries. They had their home in what the material plane would dub The Whimsey, though amongst its native residents, it was known as Tabheed. Although cautious of the Material Plane, over time the genie explored further into it, requiring vessels from the Tabheed to allow them to explore the material plane. Over the centuries they brought others back to their home plane. Some species were brought back as curiosities, others as willing, sentient travelers. Through such invitations/captures, Tabheed was changed. Some of these new additions flourished, almost as invasive species. At the time of the Collapse, The Whimsey (now essentially more dominated by the newly evolved fae than it was by genie, and thus no longer clearly Tabheed) there was fair communication between the material plane and The Whimsey. The genie made up roughly half of the top power in the realm, with various fey making up the other most dominant power.
Centuries, or possibly millennia prior to the Collapse, the genie had ceased bringing specimens back to Tabheed, as they could see the changes wrought in just a few generations by the magic of the realm. It is no longer clear what the Sprites, Dryads, Eladrin, or Darklings originally were. Possibly elves, dwarves or humans changed by Tabheed. As these fey creatures arose, the genie retreated further from the fey’s grabbing at power, and mostly ceded control of the dominant courts to other fey. Most involvement was in advising the leadership of the court, or for lesser genies, as muscle for the courts. Those genies with the most opposition to the (now several centuries long) invasive newcomers retreated furthest from their courts.
Prior to the Collapse, one particular genie named Sterntin saw the warring peoples of Feodris, as well as all the descendants from that material plane in his home of Tabheed, and, feeling frustrated by these invaders, thought he could expel them, bend them to his will, and eventually control both his home plane and possibly theirs. He utilized the old portals to travel to the material plane, and had many genies convinced of the rightness of his cause. Soon after departing The Whimsey, he disappeared from both planes.
Alternative Name(s)
Tabheed
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Plane of Existence
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