Vyra
Rise higher, step away from the comfort you know. For it is a chain, a tether to a place that no longer exists. A memory of a place will never compare, for that memory to the mind is perfect. The Id to the Ego, like burning phosphorus it will light the darkness that surround the mind, but in artificial machinations. Rise higher, for your limit is unknown. Rise higher, for the potential is limitless. Look now, brethren, sistren, for these stars are not the ones we know. Yet, undaunted by this challenge we are, everything under her light we have made to soothe that grief stricken heart. ~ Passage from the Faith of the Fae.
Geography
Vyra is predominantly one massive Oak Savanah, nearly Ninety Percent of the content is made up of this biome. Though, as with all things inside the Elsewhere, this is a construct. The Savanah is made up entirely of oil baring seeds, and ancient variants of grains like maize and flax. While the Oaks and their groves are allowed to grow here by the Children for the purposes of allowing the vast flocks of song birds to survive here. One of the few luxuries the Children afford themselves, to hear the songs of worlds long since destroyed. Species unknown to those of The Great Tree, species that would never survive outside this artificial environment.
The Acorn
Though the eastern half of the continent is home to a large oak and beech forest, it gives way quickly to the savannah and its great plains. The forest, mostly secluded in this section of the continent, is home to the majority of the wildlife that calls this place home. Though large herbivores regularly escape containment, more out of sympathy for the beasts. The Children are well aware that their home is a prison of sorts, for everything that lives here, they allow the beasts to roam for a time before they are either culled or captured.Remembrance
The western "Coast" of the continent is the only other outlier on this homogenous landmass. Vyra was the original name for the continent of the Isle of Mhuzelt, the former now an unrecognizable place to the Children. When Taneth The Navigator had been charting The Cradle, the First Brownie Home world, he had taken a special interest in Vyra for its oddity. A warm continental climate across the entire Isle, while surrounded by cold arctic currents, he found the place especially welcoming. He had raised a clan on that ground, a clan that would later become the Dwarves and Gnomes. Taneth had built mighty cities on the western coast of Mhuzelt when they were forced to abandon their homes during the height of The War of the Shadows, the Brownies refused to surrender their home to the Shadows, and fought on. His cities were destroyed, yet their ruins were remade in Vyra.Ecosystem
The Savannah is a farm for all intents and purposes. Where the Children harvest these grains for their oil, that oil is then refined to create the lubrication for their machines and other technologies. Without any form of fossil fuel products, the Children had to become creative. A regular continent-wide thunderstorm is brought about several times a year to keep the grassland healthy. Not quite a typhoon, as the magic regarding the storm is regulated by various Operations Facilities, the Children are not interested in destroying their own production for the sake of a natural cycle. Heavy winds are not tolerated; an odd spectacle can be observed as the clouds swirl above, yet the rain falls in straight lines. Wind whipping up after the storms have lapsed. More due to the uncontrolled evaporation of the planes, the air moving on its own accord.
Though the environment is strictly regulated, prescribed wildfires are issued. Where swaths of the grassland are culled after the harvest, and allowed to grow on its own once more for a season, while the soil regenerates. The fires are always accompanied by eddied air currents, forcing the smoke to remain overland, as another storm forces the haze back into the soil. This yearly cycle has dominated how the fauna have decided to live. Yes, most of the wildlife is contained inside the forest; the few herds that have been allowed to roam follow the new growth after each fire. Their activity only brings more regrowth to the areas.
History
During the construction of the other continents, a shortage of grains and oils to run machinery was on the horizon. The Fae, being what they are, planned for a large production of everything they could have needed, while the Faeries and Giants regulated other processes. The Fae completed the project and seeded the continent within a few years, a minor project in comparison to the Operations that were still underway. History is sparce for Vyra other than two main events that had taken place.
Remembrance was built by Taneth and a team of his Engineers, a perfect recreation of the cities, as well as refining the shape and topography to match the maps The Navigator had charted so many eons ago. A perfect match for the Ancestral Mhuzelt, the Gnomes and Dwarves speak about in modern times. Though the Fae never expected to have any of the Shadow Touched Children to ever find The Elsewhere to witness what once was. This was done as an act of closure for Taneth, for he loved his home on the Great Mother's chosen world. The western coasts of the continent were thus treated as a museum of sorts.
The second event that happened on Vyra was the appearance of Gjorn Fourth king of Dwarves. When the Bluejay had Branch Walked into the Elsewhere, many of the observation sensors didn't pick up the foreign entity. While he was shadow touched, he still bore much of the genetic similarity to the Fae where his ancestry hailed from. He first appeared in the Forest, picking up a royal tracker with him, A horned Bluejay that was one of the personal observations of Alnya. He spent days traveling across the savannah, speaking with the tracker, distracting him from the many other sensors now picking up that there was a threat on Vyra.
When he had reached Remembrance, he had happened to find the Shrine to Syn, one that he called "The Black Fortress". The same place he had been taken from in his world. When he neared the circle that had been used to teleport to The Elsewhere, an all too important sensory rune triggered. One meant to detect any amount of Miasma. That instance triggered a response from the Legion of Syn, spearheaded by Anlyth, First Son of Syn, himself. It was here that Anlyth and Gjorn fought briefly, before the Tracker Alnya had been following him with, alerted her to the situation. She saved Gjorn's life there, stopping Anlyth from executing him. It was also here that the Queen and the Bard started their relationship with one another.
Tourism
Not tolerated outside of Remembrance, any who wish to explore the ruins may do so. Yet be wary of venturing outside the confines of the Museum. The farm land is tightly controlled from outside contamination.
Alternative Name(s)
Formerly The Savanah now The Gateway
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Continent
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Related Tradition (Primary)
The setting feels old, intentional, and lived in, with clear respect for history, loss, and continuity rather than novelty for its own sake. The way Vyra functions as both a working landscape and a memorial gives it real weight, and the controlled ecosystem reads as believable rather than hand waved. It feels like a place shaped by hard choices and long memory, not convenience, which is rare and well done.
I'm glad you like it! The Elsewhere and all its floating continents are a labor of love as much as they are a raft of survival. Every choice made here has weight, and nothing is wasted in that potential. I'm so happy it actually comes across that way, I was really hoping it would!