Integral Origin

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Overview

The Integrum is the central aspect of the setting. It is where most games are played and where most characters are from. It is the closest to the "natural world", in that The Integrum is where natural laws are intuitive and predictable.

The Integrum was created by the Creators using The Apparatus during The First Age. As a cosmological force, The Integrum is opposed to Fury, Strange, and Void. Fury was conquered by the Creators and is used as fuel for The Apparatus. Strange is only possible when The Apparatus malfunctions. Void is opposed to all of forces in the setting.

Physically, The Integrum is composed of a planetary sphere contained within a hollow outer sphere. The surface of interior sphere is where the continents that are the mortal realms are located. The inner surface of the outer sphere is where the divine realms are located. Between the mortal realms and divine realms is the Astral Sky.

Laws of Nature

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.

Telari

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.

Death and Souls

To understand the true boundary between life and death, however, we must examine when the magics of life and death are effective. When a vessel first dies, if its spirit does not reside within a mortal soul, it is immediately and irreversibly moved to its next stage in the life-death cycle of transformation. Life and death magic cannot affect something that is already dead unless its spirit resides within a mortal soul.

If a vessel has a spirit inside of a mortal soul, then when it first dies, the soul is considered to be in a "resting dead" state. Note that these processes only affected Integral mortal souls. Strange and Fury creatures follow other laws when they are destroyed. In this resting dead state, the Integral soul is still present, within or invisible near the vessel. The soul can no longer animate the vessel, but the attachment delays the the decay of the vessel into its death transformation.

Souls remain in a resting dead state for an amount of time dependent on the nature of the soul. Most souls remain resting dead for a day, but this can be longer if the soul was very powerful or has some compelling will to live (like unfinished business). When the resting dead soul leaves its resting dead state, it usually enters the fully dead state. This is when the vessel begins to decay, and the soul is no longer in the vicinity of the vessel (it is either in The Conduit or The Crucible).

While in the resting dead state, many other outcomes are possible through magic. Life magic can keep the spirit tethered to the vessel, delaying the progression of the resting dead spirit to the fully dead or the restless dead states. Sufficiently powerful life heraldry can even reconnect the resting dead soul to the vessel, returning it to life. Death heraldry can force the soul into The Conduit, forcing it to become fully dead.

While the soul is fully dead, only incredibly powerful life magics can bring it back. The longer it is fully dead, the more powerful life magic is required. Eventually the fully dead soul is simply lost to the reincarnation cycle, and no life magic can restore it.

Undeath

Sometimes when a soul leaves the resting dead state, it does not go to a fully dead state as normal. The longer a soul remains in a resting dead state, the more likely it will enter a restless dead state instead, also called undeath. More powerful souls or souls with a strong will to persist (such as unfinished business) are more likely to become undead, since they stay in the resting dead state longer. 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 is able to animate the vessel once again. However the binding properties of life and death are reversed with an undead soul. Death actually binds the undead soul to the vessel and life pulls the soul away from the vessel. This means that for the undead, death magic will heal their wounds and ailments while life magic will cause wounds and ailments.

Usually the vessel begins to decay when the soul becomes undead, though this decay can be delayed or reversed if the undead soul feeds on the life energy of other creatures with souls. If the vessel decays sufficiently, the undead soul becomes detached from it, but still remains an insubstantial entity, like a ghost or phantom. Some such creatures are able to affect the world even while insubstantial, while others are able to possess other dead vessels to interact with the world.

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.

Language

In the real world, languages are learned by way of exposure, both during critical development stages (when language are learned most easily) as well as throughout life (when languages are harder to learn). In The Integrum, however, language is inherent known through the Grand Design of the Codex and the mental aspects of spirit.

The result of this is that all creatures of The Integrum are born with a basic understanding of a lingua franca, called tradespeak. Animals and babies are not fluent in the language not because they do not understand it, but because they are not intelligent enough to use it well. There are still individual languages among mortals of The Integrum. These develop culturally among populations of mortals, sometimes diverging from tradespeak and other times created entirely new by its speakers.

History

The history of The Integrum begins in the First Age, when the world was chaotic, controlled by will and whim of the Fury titans. That is when the Creators appeared, protected in their impenetrable fortress that would become known as Bastion.

The Creators wished to tame the wild chaos of the titans, and much of the First Age involved the Creators waging the War of Dominion against the forces of Fury. The Creators had an army of their own, as well as allies. Their armies were the earliest Servitors, powerful creatures of truemetal. Their allies included the dragons, which were enemies to the titans even though they were also creatures of Fury, as well as some lesser titans that were victims of the tyranny of their more powerful masters.

At the end of the war, the Creators were victorious. The rest of the First Age was spent creating The Integrum. All of the unallied Fury titans were imprisoned in crystals which would become the stars of the Integrum. The

Interactions

Incursions

Much of what concerns inhabitants of The Integrum are incursions by power from other origins. Much of what Gods, Servitors, and Heralds concern themselves with are the remediation of these incursions.

Strange Incursions

Strange incursions come in four varieties.

Incursions from The Horizon: When Obyrith or their Far Lords touch The Integrum, reality is bent by their mere presence. Madness and nightmares are the fate of any who linger too long in a region corrupted by The Horizon. The only remedy for these incursions is the magical banishment or physical destruction of the invader.

Incursions from Arcadia: When the Bright or Bleak Courts touch The Integrum, they often bend reality in their search for meaning. Mortals are often swept up into dramatic scenes or poetic epics orchestrated by the Arcadians. These incursions are often remedied by solving a riddle or making a bargain.

Incursions from Naraka: When The Lost touch The Integrum, they often bend reality to satisfy some purpose. Mortals are often compelled by visions and dreams to enact strange quests. These incursions are often remedied by fulfilling a quest for the invader.

Incursions from the Strange Sea: Sometimes dreams themselves can leak into The Integrum. The line between dream and reality blur for mortals affected by these incursions. These incursions are usually remedied by magic with the authority of The Codex.

Fury Incursions

Void Incursions

Realms

Creatures

  • Mortals
    • Azj: Natives of Kasyat
    • Fey: Natives of Pelithos
    • Nor: Natives of Acrolon
    • Ruk: Natives of Tonwei Unchained
  • Telar: Plants and animals of The Integrum

More at Creatures

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