Rioden Mizarius

From the Dungeon Master:

CIRC OR “THE DISC”

Circ is a circular, slightly convex flat world. Its principal geographic feature, other than its flatness, are the Towers, great, miles-high spires of black-grey rock and stones, that lie at its exact centre and at the four points of Circ.

At the Rim (the perimeter of the world), there are two openings in Circ’s “crust” where there are great waterfalls which send the Disc’s oceans cascading into space.

There are five main continents on the Disc, along with a number of geographical and political regions and islands. The majority of Circ’s landmass is composed of a single supercontinent (The Last Tower and The Wolf’s Tower) and a smaller Eagle Tower’s Continent.

Directions within Circ are not given as North, South, East and West, but rather as directions relating to the Towers: Lastward (towards the centre), Nagaward (away from the centre and towards the Naga’s Tower), Snakeward (away from the centre and towards the Snake’s Tower), Eaglewards away from the centre and towards the Eagle’s Tower), Wolfwards (away from the centre and towards the Wolf’s Tower). And to a lesser extent since the Horllian astrologists and astronomers discovered that Circ was slowly spinning, the directions turnwise and contrarywise (relation to the direction of Circ’s spin) have come to use. (DM- but for the sake of simplicity I’ll use the traditional directions. heh.)

MAGIC ON CIRC

Magic is the principal force on the Circ, and operates in a similar vein to elemental forces such as gravity and electromagnetism. Circs “standing magical field” is the local breakdown of reality that allows a flat planet to even exist. The force called “magic” is really just a function of the relative absence of reality in the local area, much in the same way that we describe absence of heat as “coldness.” But excess Magic warps reality in much the same way as gravity warps space-time. Areas with larger than normal quantities of background magic tend to display unusual qualities. Very high concentration of magic can knock a hole in reality, leading to rifts which may allow other-planar beings to enter.

Circ’s magical field is centred on the Last Tower. Everyday natural forces, such as light and magnetism, are muffled by the power of Circ’s magical field; navigators on Circ use a needle of enchanted mithril, which will always point towards the Last Tower, in a compass.

It is the existing field of magic which allows the wondrous and impossible creatures of Circ to exist upon the world, as it warps and force of nature or reality that might dictate that such beings were unsound or impossible.

THE FIVE TOWERS OF CIRC

The five Great Towers on Circ are the locks or the nails which keep the imposed field of “un-magic” or reality pinned upon the disc and suppresses the natural amount of Circ’s potent magical standing field.

Pre-historic records claim that once the Great Towers, except the Last Tower, had a Guardian each protecting them, and are thus named after the Guardian Beasts which once protected them, although there is no evidence today of these Guardian Beasts ever existing. The Last Tower is named as such as it was supposedly the last tower to be struck unto the disc, to seal reality upon Circ.

Four lines of force could be traced in a straight line from the outer Great Towers to the Last Tower, and these forces are known as keylines. Elements of the disc are affected by these keylines, for example, the branches of the trees that grow along the keylines always bend in the same direction with the keyline towards the last tower, and clouds which cross the lines split along its force. It is believed that the keylines help to hold up the Last Tower and maintain the field of reality.

The scholars of the Universitas have studied these structures, and have substantiated that without the Great Towers there would be no reality at all upon the Disc, and the raw and potent magical released would warp and distort everything upon Circ to such an extent that would destroy all known life.

Many believe that if should one of the towers were to fall or the keylines broken, the Last Tower would fall as well and reality would fail, releasing the pent-up and surpressed magic in a great blast of unrealism; unraveling the very basic structures and principles upon which life exists; decimating all.

There are no existing records on Circ which indicate who, what, when, why or how these towers were ever constructed.