Sheet of My-an

The Sheet of My-an—often called just "the Sheet" when the referent is clear from context—is a vast glacier on the central sphere of the godworld of Diddu. It is also sometimes known as Üurtegi (pronounced /ˌuː.ʊrˈtɛgi/), after the Igolan name for the location. The largest and coldest pageric region of the world, the Sheet covers an area of about 16.6 million square kilometers, roughly sixteen percent of Diddu's total surface area (not counting liths). On a typical map of Diddu centered on the Harvage Sea, the Sheet of My-an appears as two disjoint narrow fringes at the far east and west edges. This, of course, is merely a function of the choice of projection, and the fact that the center of the Sheet is antipodal to the Harvage; in reality the Sheet is continuous and vaguely fabiform.

The eponymus of the Sheet of My-an is an angel who has been designated—or who has chosen to designate herself—the patron of this algid expanse. Although My-an sometimes manifests to aid explorers of the Sheet, or to warn them away from dangerous locations, her full purposes are unclear, and she has a reputation as somewhat enigmatic and perhaps even sinister. Few among the glacier's implentiful human inhabitants pay her homage, but there are some nonhuman folks that honor her, and it is frequently bruited that she has many faithful among the undead of the Ghost Cities.

Geography

The Sheet covers most of the continent of Koreganda, except for an iceless margin on the west called the Ferge. It also impinges on two other continents: the southtern tip of Dondobal and the northern end of Canay. Where the former meets the Sheet is a wide region of tundra called the Rawlands. Canay's connection to the Sheet is the Isthmus of Boray, which is arguably somewhat misnamed, in that the land ends just under the glacier without connecting to any other land masses, and therefore if one doesn't count the ice it's not actually an isthmus but just a cape that happens to extend beneath the glacier. Dondobal, on the other hand, actually does have a land connection to Koreganda buried under the ice, the Honeycomb Bridge.

Between and outside the continents, the oceans extend beneath the Sheet, frigid but liquid. The subglacial waters comprise three separate but connected bodies. By far the largest, under the eastern part of the Sheet, is the Skyless Sea. Under the southern end of the glacier is the Bay of Stillness, and under part of the northwestern Sheet is the Crystal Cove. The Bay of Stillness is connected to the Skyless Sea by the Neverway, the strait between Canay and Koreganda, while the Crystal Cove connects to the Skyless Sea through numerous apertures of various sizes in the Honeycomb Bridge.

As with most ice sheets, the ice of the Sheet of My-An is not still, but very slowly flows from the center of the glacier to the edge, where it calves off icebergs into the surrounding oceans. The ice at the center is replenished by precipitation, ensuring that the cycle continues.

Features

The Sheet of My-An is not just an empty expanse of endless ice, though it's perhaps not far from that. There are scattered spots where stone juts above the ice, especially in Koreganda's two large mountain ranges—the Black Mountains that cross the continent from north to south, and the much shorter Qatanis that run west from the Black Mountains past the edge of the glacier and continue through the Ferge almost to the ocean. But even where the surface is nothing but ice—which is true of most of the glacier—it is not completely flat; due to a combination of weather patterns and the contours of the land beneath, the ice forms into uneven ridges and fells that remain more or less in the same place as the ice flows outward.

Many parts of the Sheet are riddled with ice caves, which seem to have two separate origins. Some of these ice caves are dug by quirceworms, but others lie along networks of warm edders that permeate the glacier. Not all of the ice caves connect to each other, but many do, forming mazes of tunnels that in a few places reach the bottom of the glacier and meet entrances to Diddu's underfold.

One of Diddu's liths rises from the southwest part of the glacier, its lower third covered with ice but the rest of it free and showing gray-red earth. Known as the Berlati, this lith is shaped like a long, narrow cylinder bent in two places, one just under halfway up and one near the far end from Diddu's main bulk. Unlike most of Diddu's liths, the Berlati is hollow and riddled with holes, which provide shelter for various animals. At times of strong wind, not uncommon in the lith's vicinity, the air blowing through the network of holes makes a keening "song" that can be heard from kilometers away.

Ghost Cities

One feature of the Sheet surprising to those who learn of it for the first time is the abundant apparently abandoned cities that dot the icy surface of the glacier. These "ghost cities" vary in their architecture and layout, with different styles and standards prevalent in various regions of the Sheet. What they all most obviously have in common is that they are seemingly deserted—at least through most of the year—, their streets and buildings generally well maintained but vacant. A more observant visitor might also note the lack of certain establishments and amenities otherwise common in settlements—there are no inns or eateries among its buildings, and within the homes are no beds or kitchens. In fact, the reason for the cities' emptiness is that its residents only exist during certain times—the ghost cities were built by and for some of the undead that teem on Diddu during the Mortal Mesters of Gurunda and Derean. While otherwhen untenanted, during these mesters the Ghost Cities are as bustling and full of life—or unlife—as any typical city.

The absence of their inhabitants outside the Bunanj does not mean that the ghost cities can be explored with impunity, or plundered without pursuance. They are often filled with traps and inimic enchantments to impede and injure interlopers, and some of them are guarded by creatures either created or animated through magic or summoned from other planes and bound there—often the sole occupants of the otherwise desolate cities. Even should an intruder survive these hazards and make off with treasures looted from the Ghost Cities, they may not have long to enjoy them. Many of the undead inhabitants of the Ghost Cities have ways of identifying and tracking those who despoil or damage their homes in their remove, and will find the violators during the Bunanj while they're a helpless statue, which they will either destroy or bring back to the Ghost Cities for other punishment.

Life

While over much of its area seemingly nothing more than a barren expanse of ice, the Sheet does harbor life. Mosses and lichens and other hyperpsychrophilic organisms grow on the occasional rocky outcrops, and some particularly hardy varieties even grow on the ice itself. Feeding on these flora are creatures like the spiny starball, the transparent crystal rats, and darting hewfish, preyed on in turn by such as the ice anemone, the saw stork, and the gluder. Apex predators of the Sheet like the tumblebear and the glastom are rare and typically spend most of their time dormant, but can be voracious during their brief periods of activity.

The ice caves of the Sheet have life of their own not found above. Here where even the sunlight that shines on the surface of the Sheet is absent, the base of the food web is formed in large part by tanaphagic algae. A significant contribution is also made by quirceworms and other creatures that live in the ice caves but feed outside them, and thus bring in nutrients to the subglacial ecosystem that are passed on through fimiculous species that thrive on their droppings, and scavengers and saprotrophs that avail themselves of their remains. Other inhabitants of the ice caves include isselbugs, dorgots, and okorogs.

At least two human peoples live on the fringes the Sheet, though neither is numerous. The Igola live on the western part of the Sheet, adjoining the Ferge, while the Hokonie live on the north, apparently having arrived there through the Rawlands. Both peoples are by far most populous on the fringes of the Sheet but have penetrated a fair distance into the interior, especially in the vicinity of the mountains; their ranges overlap where the two major ranges meet, and there the Igola and the Hokonie coexist.

Humans are not, however, the only ellogous life here. Strange columnar tentacled folks called tehels dwell in the central areas of the Sheet, occasionally interacting with the Igola and the Hokonie but mostly pursuing their own ways. The Sheet is also home to a species of diminutive humanoid creatures called qaqar who claim to have once been human but given their current form by a log ago curse. At the other extreme of size, some of the mountains are home to reclusive horse-headed giants called Ekoni who are rumored to have great knowledge of magical mysteries but seem to want little to do with any other folk.

History

The Hokonie are believed to have settled on the Sheet at least five thousand years ago, arriving there from Dondobal; the Igola came perhaps a millennium later, descended from people who came to the Fringe by boat from Tekati. Neither, however, had much contact with the inhabitants of other lands, and the first verifiable record of anyone from the Harvage region visiting the region was not until 2420, by the Udanian adventurer Nesidi Ri Acadar. Even then, Ri Acadar's account was vague and apparently mistaken in many details, and was widely taken for at best an exaggeration before the Irhangian explorer Wen Her Yu in 1942 made a more prolonged and detailed foray onto the Sheet, making contact with the Igola and bringing back samples of a few of the exotic fauna she found there.

For some time the Sheet of My-An was regarded as little more than a curiosity by the people of other continents, a useless icy wilderness with no contents of value. There was one unfortunate exception—several early empires did try to abduct people of the Sheet as slaves, but both the Igola and the Hokonie found ways to fight back effectively enough that most would-be slavers decided they weren't worth the trouble. Not all foreign powers, however, were entirely deterred; in 1522, agents of the Zinthidian World Spice Company landed on the Ferge with the intention of establishing a colony there, reasoning that if the Igola managed to thrive there then there must be some resources there worth exploiting. The colony, New Ailia, lasted some fifty years of continual decline before being finally abandoned, its failure being at least as much due to the colonists' inability to support themselves on the inhospitable glacier as due to active opposition by the native inhabitants. In response to atrocities committed by the colonists, a Hokonie elder, Akoto Eyaha, made an eloquent speech in front of an international assembly calling for an end to any further attempts by outsiders to settle on the Sheet. Although the national leaders did not immediately agree to Akoto's request, it would finally lead two decades later to the Treaty of Puffin Rock, in which many (though not all) nations of the Harvage region agreed to treat the Sheet as the sovereign territory of the Igola and the Hokonie. This did not put an end to all attempts to establish footholds on the Sheet, but so far there has been nothing of the magnitude of New Ailis.

It's unclear how long the Ghost Cities have existed on the Sheet; neither Ri Acadar nor Wen made any mention of them, but it's entirely possible they did exist at the time and they just didn't encounter them. Both the Igola and the Hokonie are of course aware of the Ghost Cities, but while the former seem to regard them as a fixture of the Sheet that has always been present, the latter tell stories of a time before the Ghost Cities existed. This would seem to imply that the Ghost Cities were first formed between the arrival of the Hokonie and the Igola, so between four and five thousand years ago, but historians are not confident in this conclusion—it is unclear how factually reliable the early Hokonie oral traditions are, and even if they do accurately reflect the Hokonie's experiences there are other reasons why they may not have initially been aware of the Cities' presence.

Mestral changes

Like everywhere else on the surface of Diddu, the Sheet undergoes drastic changes in the different mesters. The description above applies during the mester of Jiricin; in other mesters the area changes as follows, in addition to the usual changes that accompany the mester elsewhere:

Gandagabian

During the mester of Gadagabian, the glacier's ice itself is unchanged in both shape and color. Both the beneath the ice and the few rocky crags that rise above, however, undergo the same changes as elsewhere.

Canoan

The blades of Canoan are low enough to shave the ice itself, and during Canoan thin layers are continually sliced off the top layers of the glacier, making the glacier's top resemble loose-packed snow rather than the hard ice it is through most of the year.

Bajiber

In the cold of the Sheet, the mestral mist of Bajiber freezes, mixing with the grated ice remaining from Canoan to cover the glacier with intoxicating slush. Over the course of the mester, this gradually compresses back into ice, losing its inebriant qualities by the end of the mster.

Gurunda

As previously noted, during Gurunda and Derean the Ghost Cities are populated by the undead; the Sheet's mortal inhabitants, who give the Cities a wide berth at all times of the year, make sure to stay especially far from them as the Mortal Mesters begin.

Bukoan

On the sheet, the oozy substances associated with Bukoan form almost exclusively within the ice caves; the glacier's surface is almost unchanged. Where they do form, the mestral oozes are partly frozen and semisolid, often with icy "skins" on top that can support varying amounts of weight.

Fansinda

Unlike in Gandagabian, in Fansinda the ice is as subject to the mestral transformations as the lands beneath. While the ground within the ice also forms into layers and ledges—often blocking tunnels in the ice caves—the ice itself also rises into pillars and shees.

Lulean

For the purposes of the interchange of land and water during Lulean, the glacial ice of the Sheet apparently counts as water; during Lulean the ice dissolves into air, while the tunnels of the ice caves and the air for tens of meters above the glacier solidifies into ice. Living things caught in the ice are not harmed, but are effectively in suspended animation during their enclosure; the inhabitants of the glacier generally migrate into the newly airy areas to avoid this condition.

Calian

The ice of the Sheet blooms like the rest of the godworld during Calian, but in its own way; the mosses and lichens grow more abundant, but many plants grow there during Calian that are otherwise unknown, most notably the so-called ice cacti and frostcane that cover much of the glacier during this mester.

Hauau

Without trees or many rocks to break their path, the winds of Hauau are especially intense over the Sheet. The Berlati's "song" is particularly loud during Hauau, and can be heard from great distances away, and some of the ice caves resonate with the winds blowing through them and "sing" as well.

Worohue

The gel that covers the world during Worohue freezes in the Sheet, but not uniformly, forming a mélange of ice and ooze that are often visually indistinguishable and difficult to navigate.

Derean

As is the case elsewhere, Derean differs from Gurunda most notably in the precise complement of undead present; the general conditions in the two mesters are similar, especially to the living who are inanimate statues for their durations.

Nunean

Although fire appears on the Sheet during Nunean as they do elsewhere in the world, the glacial ice does not melt. ALthough the flames on the Sheet emit as much heat as those in other parts, apparently the same or a similar mestral rhegus that protects living things from being harmed by the flames prevents the ice from melting as well. The mestral flames of the Sheet are often of unusual colors—with frequent pastel blues and greens—but whether this is related to their lack of effect on the ice is unclear.

Farinda

During the mester of Farinda, the Sheet warms enough to melt a small part of the ice, not enough to significantly reduce the size of the glacier but enough to cause flooding and create great rushes of water that flow across the continent. Presumably the soil of the continents beneath the Sheet becomes more fertile, but as it's buried under kilometers of ice this is difficult to test and even more difficult to take advantage of.

Ienoan

While much of the rest of the world becomes closer during Ienoan to what the Sheet is normally like, the Sheet itself becomes even colder, reaching temperatures of -100 degrees Celsius. Oddly, the mestral transformations affecting life forms on the Sheet vary by individual even within a species, including humans—some adapt to survive in the frore conditions, while others are gelefied, becoming statues of ice in Ienoan just as they become statues of metal in the Bunanj—and returning to their normal fleshy state afterward as long as nothing befalls the statue in the meantime. Further complicating matters, during Ienoan portals appear all over the Sheet to the algid plane of Lora Pa, and extramundial creatures from this plane roam the Sheet during the mester.

Jijian

While most of the world is slightly colder during Jijian than during most of the year (excepting Ienoan), the Sheet is actually slightly warmer during this mester—though only slightly; it still has very much a pageric climate and remains inhospitable to those unaccustomed to it. Aside from that, on the surface of the glacier the changes during Jijian are the same as they are on the rest of Diddu. The largest changes, however, happen within the glacier; the ice caves of the Sheet rearrange themselves dramatically during this mester, and form in places grand halls and galleries full of strange structures and stiriae.