Ijian
Ijian (pronounced /ˈɪdʒiən/) is a world of Uren that was apparently artificially constructed (or at least coöpted) in order to imprison a horrible being called Oöth. It is positioned to block a neck that connects the part of the plane containing Oöth from the rest of Uren, isolating it in a sealed enclosure. While Oöth itself has not found a way to escape into the rest of the plane, it has sent its creations and servitors through hidden passages to the other side of the world, where they pose a mystery for the world's inhabitants. More subtly, it also somehow exerts a sort of psychic influence that penetrates the other side of the world, affecting the people's works and cultures to varying degrees.
The usual adjective to refer to things of the world of Ijian is Ijiane (/ɪdʒiˈɑni/).
Geography
Ijian has seven continents, the largest of which, Xurama, seems to be where human life first arose on the world. Four of the continents are connected together at isthmi, while Xurama is connected only to one other continent, and the smallest continent, Gemore, is a discrete island. The continents, however, cover the lesser part of the world's surface; most of the world is blanketed by its oceans, which in the spaces between the continents extend to unexplored depths.
There is another side to Ijian, literally—technically, the world of Ijian is a devare, a world with two surfaces facing out to different parts of the surrounding space—in this case, Uren. The other side of Ijian is called Sadabrang by those few who are aware of it, but it is by no means common knowledge. (The name of Ijian itself is in fact used somewhat inconsistently among scholars either to refer to the devare as a whole or to refer specifically to the side opposite Sadabrang and open to the broader expanse of Uren, though normally it is meant in the latter sense.) Unlike many devares, Ijian does not bear conasters that are numerous or obvious. There are at least two large conasters, but they are both in out-of-the-way locations, one in a vale concealed in the high Yotek Mountains of Xurama, and the other in the midst of the arctic continent of Candrich.
These two conasters are far from the only means of travel between Ijian and Sadabrang. The world of Ijian is unnaturally riddled with tunnels and caverns, some of them vast and of clearly cataphysical form. It's not even certain that all these tunnels really fit normally into the world's interior; there may be some multum in parvo in effect, at least in places. Most of these tunnels are connected, forming one vast and intricate complex sometimes known as Ororogoch. These tunnels penetrate the world from one side to the other, and while the distance from Ijian to Sadabrang is too long to make the journey an easy one, still they do provide a possible passage—and one that Oöth's servitors are not loath to use.
Life
In addition to some of the panyparic life forms common to many terrestrial worlds, Ijian also bears other life forms of its own. Serpentine kioros haunt the mountains; pleotic reks roam the forests; great ambulatory fungi called mananats wander the plains. Wormlike rongol teem in great diversity, and huge duts, while nowhere common, are found on every continent. While not unique to Ijian, colonial jelly spiders, hard-shelled otsubos, and colorful bonibas are particularly prevalent there.
A few more strange and dangerous life forms apparently owe their existence to Oöth's vile influence, though this fact is not common knowledge. Such beings can often be identified by their tentacles and unearthly form, though certainly there are tentacled organisms of natural origin as well. Among Oöth's spawn are the slithering maro, the gelatinous kuksara, and the many-eyed ebidod.
Ijian is home to a number of ellogous races. Humans are the most common, but in smaller numbers rabens and tehl can also be found there. So, too, can many varieties of hanji, including the tachin and the tanamare.
The deep seas of Ijian have life of their own life, but, perhaps due to their proximity to Sadabrang, there Oöth's influence is particularly strong. Not everything in the oceans bears Oöth's mark; there are marine organisms like the huge goren, the sea palm, the arech and its hanji counterpart the abarech, and Ijian's other common marine hanji the biddy, that are of completely natural origin. Others, however, such as the sluglike kendek and the malformed esenai, are clearly creatures of Oöth. There also dwells in Ijian's depths a race of accores, but to what extent they owe their existence to Oöth is in question... while certainly most of the race seems to serve the being's strange purposes, a significant minority fights against them, and it seems very possible that they were a natural race most of whom were corrupted by Oöth, rather than having been created by it.
Even more so than the oceans, Ororogoch is a site of much conflict between creatures of Oöth and beings of more terrestrial origin. Though even some of the untainted beings of the underground are strange enough that it is often difficult to tell which beings were created to serve Oöth and which beings arose through ordinary means, in any case there is more open strife between two sides than perhaps anywhere else on Ijian—most people on the surface may be incognizant of Oöth's very existence, let alone his sinister designs on the world, but delve far enough into the caverns and one will find most inhabitants there all too keenly aware of it.
Astronomy and time
Unlike many worlds of Uren, Ijian is more or less stationary in space, anchored perhaps by the neck that forms the doorway to Oöth's prison (in which doorway, to continue the analogy, Ijian itself stands as the locked door). Ijian orbits no sun; rather, two suns orbit it, called Bhar and Ghin, the latter slightly farther from Ijian than the former. While they occupy the same orbital plane, Bhar and Ghin have slightly different periods, leading the distance between them to vary; sometimes they are in conjunction, and sometimes in opposition, positioned on opposite sides of the world. In the latter case, since one sun will be always above the horizon, the entire world enjoys perpetual daylight—at least until their slightly varying speeds carry the suns back out of opposition. Such a circumstance is known as a high day.
Because of the two suns, any given point on Ijian would experience more day than night, were it not for the influence of other celestial bodies, a broad band of dark spheres known as the Garungade that orbit in the same plane as the suns, but closer to Ijian. The Garungade are lightless and invisible except for the occlusion of other celestial bodies behind them—the suns included. Because of the time the Garungade block the light of the suns, Ijian does experience, in the long term, a roughly equal amount of day and night. Rather than the regular diurnal cycle on many other terrestrial worlds, however, Ijian's succession is much more irregular, though certainly not random or unpredictable. Another factor adding to the complexity of its schedule is the fact that Ijian itself also rotates, although around an axis nearly perpendicular to that of the suns and the Garungade.
Two of the bodies that orbit with the Garungade do not share the blackness of their fellows, one being pale blue and the other a more vivid red. These are Ijian's two moons, the blue called Rele and the red Dala. (Technically, all the Garungade could be considered moons of Ijian, but only Rele and Dala are generally considered such; likewise, despite their sharing their orbit, Rele and Dala are not usually considered to count among the Garungade.) Rele and Dala are almost directly opposite each other, and so are seldom in the sky at the same time—though they're not quite directly opposite, so sometimes they can both be simultaneously visible low on opposite horizons. Many cultures hold Rele to be bad luck, and are quick to blame it for any disasters on days when Rele is full.
Yet another set of bodies also has an orbit between Ijian and its the suns, a ring of relatively small planetoids collectively called the Teletade. The axis of the Teletade's orbit is roughly perpendicular both to that of the suns and the Garungade and to the axis of rotation of Ijian (which means that the Teletade is always close to directly overhead over Ijian's poles, but elsewhere in the world it seems to move across the sky as the world rotates). The bodies of the Teletade, however, are too small to totally obscure the suns, even jointly, and so when the Teletade passes between Ijian and one of the suns all that those on Ijian see is black specks dotting the sun's face, or at best a black band running down its center.
The most widespread calendars in use on Ijian measure the year by the conjunction and opposition of the two suns. Some calendars begin the year at the high day when the suns are opposed, but the most widely used calendar, the Geremech, marks the new year when Bhar and Ghin coincide.
Culture
Reasonably advanced in both magic and technology, the people of Ijian have several ways of combining the two into chamulcar devices. Weird spark engines power all kinds of machinery, and sky trains follow rails that trail through the sky at high altitudes. There are those who believe that the latter will soon be obsolete, given the recent rise of translocational platforms called leterketis, but for now leterketis are still rare and the province mostly of the wealthy and a few other rare early adopters. Ijiane architecture in many areas leans heavily on ziggurats and other stepped forms, though other cultures prefer curving arches and circular walls.
A common custom in many parts of Ijian is for individuals to choose some animal they regard as a personal emblem. In some areas, this emblem is chosen by the parent or by some other authority, but in most areas the choice belongs to the individual himself. A similar custom elsewhere in Ijian involves choosing a color, or "tincture", as one's personal representation instead of an animal. Indeed, it's increasingly common to choose both an emblem and a tincture, considering oneself to be, for instance, a red wolf, or a bronze casset. While some people ascribe mystical meaning to the emblem and tincture, in fact they are merely social constructs, and absent external enchantments have no greater significance.
Religion plays a large role in the lives of the Ijiane people, with most of them venerating one or a number of gods, and many nations and cities claiming patron gods of their own. Miracles and divine manifestations are attested, if not frequently, at least fairly regularly. In truth, however, Ijiane religion is, by and large, a tool of Oöth. Almost all the Ijiane gods are either direct manifestations of Oöth itself or pawns who, wittingly or otherwise, get their own power from the imprisoned entity. Two gods who are bitter rivals and constantly war could be—and in fact on Ijian almost certainly are—both doing Oöth's bidding and playing their roles in its plans. A few other powerful entites have set themselves up as gods on Ijian to fight Oöth (or just because they saw an opportunity to seize some power), but the Oöthian gods inevitably condemn these deities as false and demonic. Exactly what Oöth hopes to gain by its manipulation of the Ijiane people through religion and by the indirect receipt of their prayers and worship is unclear, but in some subtle and convoluted way it must serve to aid its eventual escape from its imprisonment.
Magic
Many of the other forms of magic common elsewhere in Nanben are also fairly common on Ijian. Low magic, warp magic, and luminous magic are employed there, and dark magic, while officially condemned and criminalized by most states, has its practitioners among the lawless and the obliquitous. Above all these forms of magic, however, there is another that is especially prevalent on Ijian, and surpasses all other forms. Called high magic, this is considered the purest and most powerful form of magic, and is officially endorsed by many religions. As one might guess from the latter fact, high magic is in fact a creation of Oöth, and functions by its power, and its use by mortals likely serves in some mysterious way to weaken Oöth's bondage.
Ijiane mages have developed a paracarminical system of their own as well, one relying on glyphs that hold magical power based on their design and construction. Glyvery, as the use of these glyphs is called, is an intricate pursuit requiring artistic skill as well as magical, but glyvers who master their art are capable of potent and versatile effects.