There are gates to the world known as Oubliette across the Plurality, which has brought many visitors here throughout the ages; the problem is that those gates are one-way. Stepping through, travellers find just an empty stone archway behind them, and no means to escape the planet.

Most believe that the species dubbed the Trappists built the gates, although they may simply have discovered Oubliette and settled there. Whatever the truth, they raised impressive stone structures (many of which have weathered the aeons well), and were capable mages, leaving behind enchanted relics (as well as cursed ones). They created museums of artefacts from other realities and seem to have interred the remains of travellers with dignity, although it is not clear if those travellers were treated as guests or prisoners (or killed and dissected upon arrival).

The Trappists appear to have vanished suddenly, and the next notable civilisation was the Machinists, a technological species who attempted to unravel the secrets of magic and the operation of the gates through scientific exploration. At some point their focus changed from research to defence, as they built ever larger and more powerful Wardens; robots whose remains are found across Oubliette, some still active and pursuing millennia-old programming. The largest Wardens are found on the great plains, where monumental and grotesque skeletons have been found, unlike anything existing on Oubliette today. A few of the massive robots are still operational, sitting idle in low-power mode, as though waiting for such monsters to return.

It is unclear if the Machinists were organic beings, or machines themselves, but their reign also ended abruptly. Beings have continued stumbling upon Oubliette throughout the centuries, and the current civilisation (if it can be called that) is a melting pot of myriad races. Some species are represented more frequently, such as humans (due to them being endemic to so many realities) and orcs (descendants of a tribe led through a gate by religious visions). There are also familiars and robots used by other cultures to test the gates, and thus abandoned on Oubliette; an entire race seems to have arisen when a rat-like familiar arrived and bred with the various rodents already on the planet, creating a new sentient species (something like a cross between a large rat and small monkey, with a nose for magic).

Not everything that comes through the gates can be reasoned with, and there are many dangerous critters and horrific entities that have become part of Oubliette’s smorgasbord of an ecosystem, as well as hostile factions that don’t play well with others. Another hazard of the planet are the void storms; lurid clouds in which occur flashes of utter darkness. Sometimes this darkness takes the form of cracks in the sky, appearing with an awful high-pitched sound, as though reality itself was screaming. Normally these cracks fade rapidly, but occasionally they persist, and grow large enough for something awful to squeeze through from the void beyond.

There is growing agreement that the void storms are becoming more frequent, and more likely to deposit nightmarish terrors from that dark place. Some wonder if these rents in reality will eventually unleash gargantuan beasts, like the vast remains on the great plains; if this is a cycle that has played out again and again in previous epochs. Some whisper that this is the true purpose of the gates, to provide a harvest for the things from beyond, to sate their hunger so that they will slink back to the emptiness in which they dwell, at least for a while longer…

Outside of the influence of the major powers of the galaxy, Zentrum is an arid world with significant mineral deposits, although its major trade is information. In the distant past, a listening post was established; a massive tachyon antenna array, which now forms the heart of Whisper Town. Bitsifters harvest stray broadcasts, and bandwidth brokers arrange for transmission and processing of information across known space, all under the direction of House Delphyn. The settlement is full of whisper dens and datasmith’s lairs where knowledge can be bought and sold, and this network hub makes Whisper Town an ideal place to trade physical wares too, at the Matter Market. There are numerous dealers and collectors in Whisper Town, the most notable being Mugler, said to have amassed a horde of rare and valuable artefacts from a thousand worlds.

As well as smugglers and criminal cartels, and the mining clans who control industrial settlements across Zentrum, several nefarious alliances also make the planet their home. The group known as Volatile Memory are machine supremacists, who run weapons and ammunition through the Matter Market, and use the whisper dens to plot terrorist attacks against organic life throughout the galaxy. Stranger still is the militant cult of the Mordax who operate from the massive, yet half-finished tower known as the Starspike, jutting from the ruins of Solum. Some say it is the radiation that keeps scavengers away from that city, others say it is something unnatural summoned by the Mordax…

Colonies were already well established across the solar system when VRN Industries discovered the Cenote. It was in a temple carved into the rock beneath the dark side of the Moon, built by unknown hands aeons ago. When the massive capstone was lifted, below was a pool of liquid water; though cold, much warmer than the frigid, airless surroundings. Drone submarines were lost while descending, a mystery solved by the first brave or foolhardy divers; somewhere in the depths of that huge, endless well, gravity shrinks and then reverses. What was down is now up, and continuing in that direction, the diver emerges from another Cenote in a much stranger place.

The Construct consists of three hollow worlds nested inside each other; although each is spinning on a different axis at a different rate, this is not enough to account for the Earth-like gravity experienced on the inner surfaces of the three spheres.

The innermost sphere surrounds something like a tiny star and is constantly bathed in sunlight. This is a hot and dusty land, barely habitable beyond the river valleys and oases. The structure of this sphere is incomplete, with vast, irregular holes in its surface that look down upon the middle sphere and let the sunlight through.

The middle sphere is of a temperate climate, with fields and forests, mountains and oceans; day occurs when one of the massive holes in the inner sphere moves overhead, but day and night cycles are variable due to the different speeds and rotations of the two spheres. The night sky is the outer surface of the inner sphere, smooth but carved with vast, softly-glowing runes. The middle sphere is also riddled with enormous holes, which look down upon the outer sphere.

The outer sphere is a cold land of perpetual winter and long nights; day only occurs when the holes in the first two spheres align, otherwise this sphere exists in a gloomy twilight, lit by the runes of the night ‘sky’. The outer sphere also has holes in its surface, but these look only onto a black void.

The outer surface of the construct resembles that of the inner spheres, but is a bleak, airless place. Each sphere is tens of kilometres thick, riddled with caverns and dungeons and mines; for not only is there breathable air and vegetation in the Construct, but sentient beings. Alongside the apparently human inhabitants there are races and creatures seemingly inspired by the mythologies of Earth, many of which possess powers that can only be described as magical. It is evident that many civilisations have risen and fallen, leaving numerous dilapidated temples and ruins; there are numerous kingdoms, some of which clash with each other, while others dwell in isolation.

VRN Industries are intent on exploring and exploiting this impossible construction, trying to understand who built it and how, and attempting to harness the power of its magic. The Cenote is large enough that, appropriately packaged, military vehicles and equipment can be shipped through. VRN have established forward operating bases and are continuing to map the Construct and spread their influence.

There are many stories to be told beyond the Cenote…

Invaders: VRN operatives are strangers in a strange land; they may be tasked with exploring regions of the Construct and investigating ancient ruins, they might be employed to negotiate with native inhabitants or influence their behaviour, or they might be sent on military missions to destroy hostile forces and retrieve magical artefacts. What if there is more than one way into the Construct, and another corporation unlocks it?

Inhabitants: The natives of the Construct have always had to contend with brutal warlords, diabolical sorcerers, orcs and goblins, the undead, and mighty dragons, but now a technological force is thrown into the mix. What happens when the king becomes a puppet ruler for VRN? When a despot receives their backing to quell a region, or they arm orc tribes in the mountains? What happens when VRN seizes a mine from the dwarves or bulldozes an elven forest?

Insurrection: What if forces from within the Construct seize control of the Cenote, or find other exits? What happens when an era of space colonisation is invaded by necromancers and gargoyles and wraiths?

The planet was scarred by the wars of the creators, then by the wars of the machines that replaced them. Continually evolving minds, the Exponentials jostled with each other for dominance, before abandoning their home and taking to the stars. Their lesser mechanical brethren were left to inherit a barren world, machine people picking through the ruins of a more advanced time, looking for parts with which to repair and augment themselves. They have formed tribes and factions, alliances to defend themselves against raiders, cannibalistic scavengers, and insane robots still running war protocols.

Another consequence of those wars is the Corrosion, a nanotech plague that can infest susceptible machines, reconfiguring them into strange new forms running incomprehensible algorithms. Explorers and adventurers brave such dangers in their hunt for the Exuvia; relics of esoteric science left behind by the Exponentials. The Exuvia can be powerful weapons and artefacts, though some are sentient, and it is unwise to disturb them.

The world is literally alive; an endless expanse of skin, shaped into plains and hills and valleys. There are forests of hairs the size of redwood trees, dry and desiccated scablands, the oily depths of the sebaceous caverns. Somehow humans came to live here, amidst an ecosystem teeming with stranger creatures, all in some way parasitising their immeasurably vast host.

In a distant age, that host was bombarded with meteorites, vast lumps of rock and metal embedded in its flesh, some as large as mountains. Combined with an abundant fuel source in the form of combustible sebum, the inhabitants had everything they needed for an industrial revolution; now train tracks cross the wilderness between settlements, which are sprouting factories and other urban developments.

But this is a dangerous time of rival states, outlaw gangs and hostile species. Added to which is the phenomena of curious fireballs seen falling in the scablands, and rumours of metal things with tentacles that are snatching folks away…

It was an age of science and discovery; humanity had ventured into the void aboard gleaming rocket ships and discovered the worlds of the solar system to be as richly inhabited as Earth. Though some contacts led to conflict, humankind was victorious again and again, eventually securing a peace with their celestial neighbours. That peace would be undone when a new enemy arose, one which could not be so easily overcome; eldritch forerunners who had been slumbering beneath rock and ice and oceans.

The immediate threat to Earth was apparent when the surface of the Moon cracked open, disgorging hordes of batrachian beings, which clung like ticks to serpentine abominations; hideous wyrms that could swim impossibly through the void. These beings wielded organic weapons, and left disease and hideous parasites in their wake, mutating the survivors of their brutal attacks.

Thus, a golden age sank into a desperate war for survival against the spreading contagion, a war that would be fought with rayguns and jetpacks, with science and forbidden knowledge, a war in which the lunar horrors may be just the opening salvo…

This project is here to encourage me to write and draw something every day. The posts will mostly be ideas for RPG settings, locations and scenarios, with accompanying doodles. Enjoy!