The Aether

The Aether. The Beyond. The Land of Nightmare or The Home of Dream. This is the place that lies on the unmarked path at the crossroads. Always just a missed turn or unwholesome deal from welcoming the weary traveler to its ever-changing landscapes. When beasts of legend ride out to haunt the countryside of man, they come from beyond. When travelers disappear to never be seen or conquering armies wander beneath twisting strands of forgotten oaks, they enter the nightmare realm. When angels or demons come speak to their lessers, they've walked the paths of dreaming's home.   All pass through this between-realm. Most make their homes therein. Unicorn. Satyr. Troll. A thousand other beasts and a hundred other sentients beside live within. Not a one would bend its knee or bow its head to the ambassadors of man.   Humanity finds a way, though.   Grand city-states have sprung up over millennia. Relying on the collective will of tens of thousands of souls, they hold the mercurial land in place and create islands of peace for a lost citizenry. Their armies scour their borders as much to guard against the red glow that lays always just on the horizon as to find yet another lost soul before the untamed lands.   Still, an all-too-real Hell lies always just off the map to the east. The rumored kingdom of the Reaper and his Death's Head Guard broods in the tentative south. And, the land itself flickers more frequently as patrols are lost and villages disappear with nary a trace.   There is reason the lost traveller stays lost, after all...