Nolar
It is perfect hereNolar is a place where the powers of The Void have run wild. Its natural powers fill every mountain and valley. It is a place untouched by humans and that harbors life unseen anywhere else in the cosmos
Lay of the Land
Nolar houses four distinct regions. Each one contains its own people, creatures, and ecosystems. The lakes to the East, three reflective pools of freezing water, are filled with a bounty of water snakes and cephalopods. The barren mountain range towards the center of the main island is home to a wide variety of birds and giant slugs. To the West, a volcanic plain inhabited by titanic tortoises and lichens. The two islands north of the main island are a verdant grassland rich in reptilian herbivores.
Yulana
When I first landed I thought the land was dead, but then I saw the lakes, and I knew my faith had not failed me.The land of lakes, rivers, and stone. Yulana is a lifeless plateau that covers the eastern third of the world, a perfectly flat expanse of grey stone. Breaking this plain are three perfectly circular lakes that are almost flush with the stone’s surface. These three anomalies are connected by straight, perfectly smooth, half-pipe rivers. The third river leads to the edge of the island where water spills off into The Void. These lakes are uncannily exact in every dimension, making them seem as if they were fabricated, but they are in fact completely natural.
Life
While the grey plateau offers no hope for life to take root, the cool water of Yulana’s Lakes is a ripe ecosystem for all manner of aquatic life. Swimming through the reflective depths are many multi-colored cuttlefish and shelled cephalopods. These creatures sustain themselves off of the salubrious nutrients that fill the water. It is said that a massive nautilus haunts the third lake, but the behemoth has not been spotted for decades.The Yulani
On the shores of these mysterious lakes live a quiet and peaceful people. They are large living cairns, made of smooth river rocks and animated by Shyla, or The Mother. This mysterious 14-foot-tall pillar of salt stands on the shore of the first lake and is the centerpiece of the Yulani’s largest city, Rytu. The Yulani revere the golden ratio as religiously significant, and most of their art involves it in some form.
Ranastra
At first I thought the sky had changed color, then I saw the peaks, so high it hurt my neck to look upon them, this was true creation.Beyond the Yulani plateau, the land is trusted upwards to dizzying heights. The lower third of these mountains are covered with storage trees the seem to grow right out of the lifeless rock, but the air soon becomes too thin to support these uncanny forests. After the tree line, Ranastra shows itself to be yet another wasteland. Like Yulana, Ranastra is filled with uncanny perfection. There are no curves to these mountains, only sharp angles. These edges can be dangerous, and make traveling the mountains on the ground almost impossible. Hundreds of tiny floating islands are mingled among the mountains’ peaks, offering safe landing to birds and Ranastrani alike.
Life
What Ranastra lacks on the surface it makes up for in its interior and skies. The air is populated with all manner of strange birds. Many of them possess multiple heads and are abnormally long in comparison to birds on others worlds. Below the skin of the mountains is a world of its own as well. Ranastra is honeycombed with perfectly hexagonal tunnels and caverns, these caves are home to a semi-sapient race of giant slug.Ranastrani
Distantly related to the Tengu of The Void, the Ranastrani are noble people. They have built an empire among Ranastra’s peaks. Hollowing out the interior of many strange floating rock formations and turning them into cities and barracks for their large (and useless) armies. Despite their pride and power, the Ranastrani know little of the surface world, some even worship the ground, preaching that it is some kind of utopia.
by Edu Suarez
Stykaro
Standing on the edge of the cliffs I saw the black plains span out before me, the red veins of magma clutching the land like narrow fingers, I could smell war.On the western end of the main island, the land drops off at a massive cliff. Below this drop is a volcanic wasteland. A network of twisting canyons and rifts spreads across the scorched earth, spilling new lava onto the surface. In places where eruptions are less common, boiling hot springs let off steam and thick red lichen covers the ground. These microbiomes only last for so long, as the ever-moving hotspots incinerate all in their path. Nevertheless, Stykaro is as rich in life as anywhere in Nolar.
Life
Lumbering across the wastes, large enough to hold a city on their back, feeding off of the fire lichen, Stykaro's most iconic creature, the jiyo, magma turtles. These giants are extensions of the land, their shells are great chunks of earth, their blood is the lava beneath Stykaro’s plains. They often travel with the volcanic hotspots, but a few live in the calmer areas of the plains. In the lava lakes and rivers that cover Stykaro many strange fish dwell. These heat-immune creatures are covered in antenna and feelers that help them navigate the opaque magma. Most of these fish are small, but a few legendary specimens are known to have grown over 20 feet long.Stykaronana
From their villages atop the backs of the jiyo, the people of Stykaro wage eternal war against each other. Like their primordial masters, the Stykaronana possess large black shells, however, their body resembles that of a rodent. Large ears dominate their features, each one almost as large as the head that sits atop their short fat bodies. They worship the jiyo live atop but despise all other jiyo with white-hot anger.
by Ering Draws
Jayo
As I pushed through the grass I was met with a clearing. In it was the skull large enough to fit a house in its jaws, this was surely the boneyard of gods.Joyo consists of the two islands to the north of the main island. It is a vast grassland filled with storage animal life and the remains of massive creatures. The plains are littered with gargantuan bones. These organic relics have remained in good condition for untold centuries and offer shelter and raw materials for the inheritance of Jayo. The bones are not however the most notable feature of the plains. Dotted across Jayo are giant spikes of earth and bone that rise hundreds of feet into the air.
Life
The fields of Jayo are filled with majestic mega-fauna. Lumbering through the grasses are creatures such as the Yulka, a flabby orange beast covered in protective plates, or the grantu, massive snakes that move in herds. Preditors are rare on the plains, but two species clearly make their presence at the top of the food chain. The Kulnti, bipedal reptilian beasts with four skinny arms and uncannily long claws. These creatures haunt the night in hopes of catching the taste of their favorite prey, the Juntar. Juntar and ape-like creatures with giant feet they are semi-sapient and live in and around the plain's giant skeletons.Jayoani
Living in their pill-shaped hives high above the Jayo, the formless Jayoani place themselves as the most mysterious of Nolar's five ruling species. Their bodies are made of translucent blue goo, and the only coherent part of their body is the teardrop-shaped stone mask. Every Jayoani's mask is different, each one has a unique geometric pattern that glows and bright teal when they invoke their innate magics.Untouchable
Nolar is surrounded by gravitational currents unlike any found elsewhere in The Void. Areas of gravity can get so localized that one can have half of their being pulled one way, while another section is being yanked in the opposite direction. Although Nolar is the closest world to one of The Void’s most advanced civilizations it remains untouched by humans. Those that have maned the QWF’s various missions to Nolar have all met terrible fates, but where the efforts of hundreds of scientists and engineers fall short, random twists of fate offer accommodation. The young pilot Aria Kalmin was ejected from her fighter during a formation drill near Nolar due to a glitch in her AI autopilot. She was swept up by the winds and drawn towards the world. Then, by some miracle, she passed through Nolar's gravitational walls with minimal injury. Once on the other side she unfurled her parachute and drifted down onto the flats of Yulana. Her hand radio not strong enough to reach anyone on the outside, she went out in search of life. She found the Yulani in good time. Since then she has traveled Nolar in search of adventure and clues to the world's past.
The Fifth People
Of the land, for the land, with the landIn the legends of the four peoples, there is a mention of a fifth race, called the Qiy (pronounced: kie). It is said that they will come in Nolar’s darkest hour and take those worthy of redemption into the light of a new golden age. They are described as hovering pillars of green and blue light that are capable of harnessing the very fabric of reality and bending it to their will. The fifth race isn’t worshiped, so much as it is incorporated into the religions of the other four peoples. The Yulani claim Shyla is a conduit for Qiys’ power. The Ranastra claim that the Qiy live within the earth and those who venture deep enough can join them. The Stykaronana believe that the jiyos’ moments are dictated by the Qiy. In the end, the fifth race is a concept from ancient myth, and they have little bearing on everyday life.
So here I stay
