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Shards (Enchiridian) are the name of the mortal realms which were broken apart from during The Shattering. Shards pervade each other, permeate the Strange Sea, and are adjoin to the Astral Sky. They are connected to each other by the Strange Sea, the Astral Sky, and Shard Gates.

Natural Laws

Gravity

Gravity in the real world is the attraction of massive bodies in an inverse square relationship. However, in The Integrum, massive bodies are not attracted to other massive bodies. Instead, there is a gravitational plane of attraction that all massive bodies are drawn toward. Bodies are only attracted to the single, nearest gravitational plane. The strength of the attraction is still governed by something akin to the mass of the substance, such that heavy objects (like stones) are more strongly attracted than light objects (like clouds). Magic can alter these properties, to make a stone lighter than a cloud, for example.

Luminescence

Unlike the real world, where darkness is experienced as the absence of radiated or reflected light, in The Integrum both darkness and light are radiated and reflected. This means that in The Integrum, if there is no darkness and no light, the natural state of luminescence is experienced as a dim twilight where things appear muted, monochrome, and indistinct, but are still visible.

Temperature

Unlike the real world, where cold is experienced as the absence of kinetically excited particles (heat), in The Integrum both cold and heat are radiated energies. This means that in The Integrum, if there is no cold or heat, the natural state of temperature is experienced as something akin to "room temperature", which is a temperature that is not noticeable to most creatures.

Life and Death

In the real world, life and death have a somewhat blurry boundary involving the function of the living cells of an organism, and how reversible non-functioning of those cells is. In The Integrum, however, there are no living cells. Instead, there is a force, called life, which binds a spirit to a vessel.

Spirits and Vessels

Spirit is a combination of mind and energy, which combine to create the animating agency in all living things. A vessel in this context is a combination of physical substances that is able to be motivated by a spirit. When vessels are animated by a spirit, they are considered a living thing. In The Integrum, this applies to everything in the natural world, including humans, animals, plants, and even rocks.

Telar

There are two categories of living things in The Integrum, those with souls and those without souls. Living things without souls are called telari. These comprise almost everything in an Integral environment, such as plants, animals, rocks, rivers, and clouds. Like all living things, telari are composed of spirits and substances. However, telari do not live or die in the conventional sense. Instead, telari are part of an elaborate, interconnected ecosystem of natural laws.

• Life pushes telari toward organization, growth, and thriving. Seeds sprout, mountains rise, and animals are born.
• Death pushes telari toward disorganization and withering. Plants wilt, land erodes, and animals decay.

But none of these states are permanent for telari. Rather, life and death for telari is a continuum. Telari constantly move along the spectrum of life and death in a cycle, disorganizing and reorganizing, growing and withering. Life and death magic, such as that of heralds, can influence this to-and-fro. Life magic can heal telari of wounds and diseases, cause plants to bloom, mend cracks in stone, and remove rust from metal. Death magic can cause wounds, inflict disease, wither wood, rust metal, and erode stone.

Souls

Creatures with souls still have spirits and vessels, like all telari. For this reason, death energy damages the spirit and vessel of a souled creature and life energy heals the spirit and vessel of a souled creature. However, souls experience a different cycle of life and death from unsouled telari.

When a creature with an Integral soul dies, they enter a state called "resting death". The natural course of a soul in resting death is to migrate through the spiritual underworld while the telari body remains preserved. Eventually the soul crosses beyond the underworld, into The Crucible, where it will be reincarnated. Once a soul has travelled beyond the underworld, it is in a state of "true death", and outside the reach of life and death magic and its telari body will return to the local ecosystem and begin to decay.

Undeath

While still in resting death, the natural course can be subverted, whether by design or mishap, becoming "restless dead". Restless dead are a wide variety of undeath, the specifics of which depend on the nature of the subversion. More powerful souls or souls with a strong will to persist (such as unfinished business) are more likely to become undead. Sufficiently powerful death magic can also force a soul into an undead state, though this is generally considered a violation of the grand design by servitors and gods of death.

While undead, the soul can animate a telari body once again. However, the binding to the body is reversed with an undead soul. Death tethers the undead soul to the telari body and life pulls the undead soul away. This means that for the undead, death magic will heal their wounds and ailments while life magic will cause wounds and ailments.

Undead vessels can be destroyed in the usual ways, with trauma or with life magic, but the undead soul lives on. Only sufficiently powerful life or death magic is able to permanently send an undead soul to a fully dead state. The more powerful the undead soul, the more powerful the magic is required to send it permanently into death.