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The Worlds Tree

DM’s Note: The Worlds Tree acts much like the North Pole does in the northern hemisphere of our world. Walking towards The Tree (Treeward) is analogous to walking northbound, walking away from The Tree (Rootward) is analogous to walking southbound, Treeleft analogous to eastbound, and Treeright analogous to westbound. But, what is the shape of this world? Is it a spheroid? This has been left purposefully ambiguous. Perhaps that knowledge was lost with the fall of The Imperium of Man. Perhaps it hasn’t been discovered yet. Or perhaps there is no one answer as this fundamental aspect of reality itself is in flux. From the characters’ point of view the beliefs on this are in a pre-medieval state, as the Earth being round is something that had been known since antiquity.

The Worlds Tree

The Worlds Tree stands at the center of all worlds. A realm in itself, its truck soars past The Moons into the sea of night and its branches reach out over all the realms of The Known Worlds. Visible from anywhere in The Known Worlds, its roots anchor these realms to the cosmos and shelter them against the currents of The Shifts. The realms closest to The Tree, The Eleva Forest and The Rootlund, have skies that are dominated by its branches. Around those, The Floating Worlds are like leaves on a gentle breeze, spiraling around each other, moving in cycles. And furthest from The Worlds Tree, blow the fiercest of The Shifts, crashing realms against each other and then ripping them out into the unknown. No matter where one is in the maelstrom of the shifting worlds, as long as one can see The Tree in the distance, one has hope of finding one’s way. Most civilizations use The Tree as their reference for cardinal directions. Directions to and from the tree are given as Treeward and Rootward and directions of Treeleft and Treeright place The Tree on one’s right or left side.