House of Arrivals

The Other Side

Welcome to the Umbral Realms, and the House of Arrivals. Do not give up hope, it will protect you. Do not surrender to despair, or it will end you.

— Inscription

Those who use arcane magic to travel to the Umbral Realms arrive in a simple wooden shelter, with very little furnishings to it. There are a few spare rooms with nothing in them save for straw mattresses and a table to serve as a flat space. Outside, a wall of stones pulled from nearby fields encircles the house and is etched with wards keeping natives of this realm from intruding. This place is named the "House of Arrivals", named via a simple wooden plaque engraved with a short greeting. There is no guarantee of anyone watching the gate itself, though there is supposed to be people here. The Umbral Realms rarely receive visitors, and the House of Arrivals was never intended to be a permanent fixture.

The initial attempts to enter the Umbral Realms had simply dropped arcane casters in random places, without a clue as to their whereabouts or what the nature of the realm was like. Many chose to return as soon as possible, utilizing similar magic to what allowed them to arrive. Very few who stayed lasted beyond the first night, and fewer still returned with any useful information. Most spoke of the dark nature of the realm, and the feeling of slowly losing energy just from being there. Imperial arcanists were instructed to cease attempts, as it was theorized entities from "the other side" could track those who arrived and left.

However, curiosity elsewhere drove exploration once a new frontier had become known. Myrisian Sages organized efforts to investigate this new realm, intending to place a permanent portal there. There had long been efforts to build on the art of warding circles to act as an anchor - a destination for travel magic. Travel into the Faeweald was known to be unstable, but it was hoped travel to this realm would prove stable once a destination had been set. Three attempts were made before a link had been made between a Sage's Tower and the destination in the Umbral Realms. Even then, the efforts had been hastily done and the returning squad was missing members who had fallen to creatures.

It took several more trips to create a warded area around the destination circle, and then a wooden building was built hastily to act as a temporary shelter. This had never been intended as anything other than a base of operations while a new settlement was constructed around it. However, discovering the problematic nature of shadow fugue put this plan on hold for the foreseeable future. Since then, the House of Arrivals remains as it was built and only routine maintenance and repairs are done to keep it intact.

In the decades since the creation of the destination link, there have been a couple settlements built in the Umbral Realms seeking ways to exploit resources unique to this realm. Not to mention experiments on how to treat or prevent shadow fugue from becoming a problem. However, none of them have had permanent destination circles created to allow easy transport direct from Erisdaire. Other teleportation magic has been placed inside the House of Arrivals to take people to those locations with a one-way trip, and this is restocked fairly regularly by the Myrisian arcanists who ensure the wards and circle remain intact.

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Alternative Names

The Umbral Gate

Type

Shelter

Parent Location

The Umbral Realms

Ruling/Owning Rank

Sage of Myrisia

Owning Organization

Myrisia