Special Land Types

Overview of Special Land Types and Special Arrangements

Fey and Fell Lands
Undead and Demonic/Feindish Lands
Enchanted Lands

There are many strange, unearth-like lands on Drav and other worlds in the Dragon Galaxy. These lands are especially common on Drav. Some are this way because of the high levels of magical, elemental, spritual or other energy types that permeate these areas. Others are created by overlap between land on worlds like Drav and other dimensions and planes of existence.

Within prime material space, inside prime material planes, there are differing ways that reality is arranged. The most common arrangement is called "normal", "mundane" or "real". For example, regular space is called "Real Space". Normal, average land on a terra world like earth is called "mundane land" or "normal land". In addition to these common arrangements of reality, there are special arrangements that are more rare. They are often called "abnormal lands" by the sages. Some of the more well known abnormal land types that are found on Drav are described below.

Fey and Fell Lands
Fey and fell lands are similar to the seelie and unseelie lands/realms, but they are part of the prime material plane. Unlike the seelie and unseelie lands, fey and fell lands are not seperated physically from the planes they are on. They are merely regions within a prime material plane where there are higher than normal concentrations of the energies that create seelie and unseelie lands. But though there are higher concentrations of this energy, they are not high enough to completely seperate these lands from the prime material plane they are part of.

The difference between mundane lands and fey lands, and between fey lands and the seelie lands, is a matter of degree and not a solid, clear boundary. Some normal lands have much fey quality to them, and some fey lands are almost full enough of their energy type to border on being seelie land but not quite make it. This matter of degree is what allows physical travel between these lands without the aid of magic or special rituals. However, there is still a point along the scale where a land clearly ceases to be one type and clearly becomes another. The point where the change can no longer be denied is usually accepted as the border between land types. As one goes deeper into one of these lands, a feeling and appearance of chaos grows and grows, and strange, magical things become more and more common. Fey lands have high levels of positive life energy, good spiritual energy and chaos, like the seelie lands do, and fell lands have high levels of positive life energy, evil spiritual energy and chaos, like the unseelie lands do.

The chaotic natures of fey and fell lands makes it hard for races who are not connected to these places to find their way around in them. The lands seem to shift and change in chaotic ways. If one travels in a straight line for ten minutes, things do not seem to change, but if the traveler turns and looks behind them they will see that everything has changed. Where they came from is gone. The sentients that live in these lands are creatures connected to the same energy patterns. They can find their way around, and the way the land shifts does not seem strange to them. Other creatures become hopelessly lost in these lands. Non-natives tend to fear fey and fell lands, and avoid them zealously. The creatures that are at home in fey lands are called fey, and the ones who are at home in the fell lands are called fell.

It is possible for fey and fell land to physically seperate from the prime material plane it is part of and join with the Seelie/Unseelie Realms. This happens when the unique energies of these lands reach a certain strength. When this happens, all the land where this energy is present seperates and becomes a new seelie or unseelie realm, part of the same demiplane all the other unseelie and seelie realms are within. Often, smaller patches of fey and fell land are left behind in the prime material plane where the seperated lands once were. Many of these patches will continue to connect the seperated lands to the prime material plane, as well.

For more detailed descriptions, see Fey Lands and Fell Lands

Undead and Demonic/Feindish Lands
Undead, demonic and feindish lands are all evil, cursed regions in the prime material plane. Most are barren and lifeless, but all are dark and gloomy, with an everpresent feeling of evil. Unlike fell lands, outsiders can find their way around in these lands like they would in any other part of the prime material plane. The strange way fey and fell lands shift and change is not present in these lands. Evil energy is the main force in these areas, not chaos (though it is a secondary force in demonic lands).

A cursed, life-draining force is present in undead lands. Many lands have undead, who often create new undead. However, in undead lands the land itself creates undead. Undead lands slowly drain the life from those who enter them, making them go catatonic as their minds decay or turning them into undead as their life forces are drained away. The better the constitition of an outsider, the longer they last, but even the most hardy outsider will eventually become a catatonic zombie with no mind, even if their body remains alive. Anyone who dies while in an undead land will always raise as undead, whatever the reason for their death. As this implies, undead dominate these lands.

Demonic and feindish lands are similar, only demons and devils dominate these lands instead of undead. Where the undead lands drain outsiders, demonic and feindish lands twist and warp outsiders, making the weak-willed turn insane and evil. The land itself attacks on a spiritual level. Undead lands drain the minds and souls of outsiders, and the other two lands warp them. Demonic lands will whisper to the minds of those who enter, preying on their desires, weaknesses and fears, attacking them and turning them into evil, raging maniacs. Feindish lands whisper and attack in the same way, but they turn their victims into cold, calculating madmen. Many an outsider has left a demonic or feindish land changed and evil, bringing the evil will of the land that preyed on their minds outside of the land with them. The weaker the will of the outsider, the more rapidly they change. The longer an outsider has been changed, the more likely the change will become permanent, even if they leave the land.

Sages often point out that fey and fell lands warp time and space, but undead, demonic and feindish lands warp spirits and souls. In the same way that there are frequent connections between fey and seelie lands, and between fell and unseelie lands, there are also connections to other worlds in undead, demonic and feindish lands. The connections are not to partial prime planes, however, they are directly to outer or inner planes of existence. Undead lands often contain vortices to the negative energy plane or portals to the neutral evil outer planes, excpecially Hades. Feindish lands contain portals to lawful evil outer planes, especially Hell, and demonic lands connect to chaotic evil outer planes, especially the Abyss.

Enchanted Lands
There are many kinds of enchanted lands that do not exist because of special connections to other planes of existence. These are lands where the high level of magical energy present has altered the land in dramatic ways. The ways these lands are altered is varied and rarely the same, creating an infinite range of possibilities. One example of an echanted land is the Sky Realms of Drav. Here, high levels of wild magic have combined with the enchantments cast by the many wizards who call this area home, creating a realm of permanent clouds that can be lived on.