Evenacht: The Evening Lands (eh-ven-akt)

"Nothing rhymes in the Evenacht--except, perhaps, Imparik."

--Erse Parr, in reference to Finder Imparik

(for the interactive map, see here)

Research:

Evenacht
by our Industrious Finder hero,
Lorgan the Hardworking
In this Research Document:

all images by Shanda Nelson unless otherwise stated

The Evenacht

UPDATE: I write this series of brief articles for the newly minted Finder acolytes who would like a brief reminder of what they learned in their training sessions. (Happy now, Meracillis???)
As you have already guessed, the Evenacht houses the evening lands for the continent of Talis. It consists of three continents: Fading Light, Uka's Lament, and The Quiet. Each continent is divided into regions for administrative purposes, whose boundaries follow landscape features rather than ethnic divisions. Regions are further divided into domains, which can stack (for instance, an oceanside domain might have a port domain, a city domain, and several town and village domains within it). Each region and domain have spirit and living representatives (except for the Voidlands), though the spirit leaders have more political power than the living ones.
Debate over what the Evenacht is in relation to the planet of Sensour still rages on Talis and here. Much like other deathlands, it seems to inhabit the same space as the planet, but the make-up of the continents is different, the beings living here are different, and the place has cloud cover day and night, with only a peek of sun or moon rays at random intervals. Some scholars believe two dimensions interact in the same space, some think the Evenacht is a magical layer over Talis which is created and maintained by powerful deities, while yet others believe it's another planet accessed only through special magical doorways.
There is one being who probably knows; the greater syimlin Sun. He is, by far, the eldest among the syimlin. But when his acolytes ask, he just smiles at the questions and refuses to answer. So if your research interests look in that direction, I'd find something else to investigate.

Aside:
This does not mean living leaders aren't important. They are. Don't ignore them, because they can make your existence a tweensy bit Voidish.
This goes doubly-so for the Astri.

History

Time immemorial, the Astri, a native race of significant influence in the Evenacht, brokered a deal with Death to allow the Talis deceased to reside on the three continents until the Final Death claimed them. In return, Death gave the Gift of Life to all who share their blood.
Not all natives enjoyed the Astri selling their lands to a deity none of their populations worshipped. In the beginning, intense clashes ensued between the living and the dead seeking the Promise of the Evenacht. Both Death and the Astri interfered, and within three generations, the living populations, realizing they had little choice, accepted the interlopers. While disagreements and fighting still happen, they are smaller, local affairs. And if things progress past that, Death steps in--and no one wants Death to step in.
The dead divided the Evenacht into administrative regions and domains, based on landscape features rather than the ethnic boundaries the natives already used. Many names have changed over the years, but the ghostly borders remain basically the same.
Keep this in mind when you're searching through old documents. For instance, if you see Darkness refered to as Rezenarza, he was the Darkness before Veer Tul. These references can give you a general date to work from.

Fading Light

Fading Light, named for the act of dying, is considered the center of the Evenacht because the doorway that leads ghosts to the evening lands, the Evenagate, is found there.

Uka's Lament

Uka's Lament, named after the Keel syimlin of Protection, is a wilder land than Fading Light. It houses the Evenacht's largest desert, largest volcano, and largest rainforest.

The Quiet

The Quiet, named after the absense of senses after death, is associated with the Healer because most of the Evenacht's supply of healing plants is grown there. Why is it called the Quiet? I personally think it's because the oldest populations of spirits reside there, so it's considered a bit more 'settled'.

Mendercane, Fading Light Meadow
orig by Gianluca Grisenti, Pexels

Crescentshine Mountains, Fading Light
by Rasica, Adobe Stock

Landscape

The Evenacht contains lush forests, wide plains, tall mountains, deep seas, snowy expanses and everything between. The lack of intense sunlight does not inhibit plant or animal growth because both receive nutrition from the magic in mist, and millions of diverse species live here.
Fading Light is considered the center of the Evenacht, for the Evengates are there. Plains are found to the northwest and southeast, with thick forests and mountains in the interior. It houses Nymphmeer, the largest of the giant lakes, and the Crescentshine Mountains, the tallest of the mountain chains. It connects to the Voidlands, of which little is known.
Uka's Lament is the southernmost continent. The northern parts are dry, and the Snake's Den Peninsula is one of the driest regions in the Evenacht. Lush rainforests inhabit the lower middle, where the giant lake Dryanthium is located. The southwest is volcanic and continually growing.
The Quiet is east of Fading Light, and is the smallest continent. It is split nearly in half, with the west being drier plains and the east being lush, temperate rainforest.
There are three major island groups in the Evenacht; The Windtwist Islands, found between Fading Light and Uka's Lament, and the Ulven Islands and the Split, which are west of Uka's Lament. The Grace of Nem Hala is a Windtwist Island, and the temple to Weather there is one of the oldest in the Evenacht.
The two Fading Light expanses, the Sunderlands and the Voidlands, are the harshest environments in the Evenacht. The Sunderlands were once part of Fading Light, but the Beast disliked the rebellious nature of the scholar-leaders there, and destroyed the connecting landbridge before sending the landscape into a continuous-snow state. While beings still reside there, it's an environment of deep cold and fierce winds. Erse Parr looked into reversing the destruction, but realized that native plants and animals and beings had adapted to the severe weather, and changing it back would add another harm to them. So she reluctantly has left it be.
The Voidlands are a no-land. Even for natives, the environment is inhospitable; dry, no mist, continually windy so few plants grow there, over-hot in the day and freezing at night. Most beings assume it a place for ghosts to meet the Final Death, and only a handful of intrepid souls have attempted to traverse it. The religious claim the Voidlands are a barrier between the Evenacht and another evening land, explaining the harshness of the environment; death deities are not keen on much travel between deathlands.

Snake's Head Peninsula, Uka's Lament
Joshua Sortino from Unsplash
loud by Ming Sun from Pexels

The Sun Plains in golden season, Fading Light
Matthew Smith from Unsplash

Gapp's Reign volcano, Uka's Lament
Marc Szeglat from Unsplash

The Quiet seaside
by Quang Nguyen Vinh, Pexels

shallow branch of Dryanthium, Uka's Lament
orig by Tom Fisk, Pexels

Waterscape

The Evenacht is found in the Collection of Prayers Ocean. Natives refer to it as the Forevermeer, and believe it connects all Sensour evening lands. It has several seas, referred to as either seas or spanses.
The most prominent water feature of the Evenacht are the giant lakes. These are not natural, though they began as natural lake formations. In all cases, either nymphs, dryans or sprites dammed rivers and streams and used magic to take water from storms and store them in their artificial abodes. The past Death who allowed these to initially form was stupid had not thought things through, and it's not only because the dams deny down-stream plants and animals necessary sustenance.
I've read treatise on the troubles inherent in damming/undamming these lakes. The ghosts dammed ziptrails along with the water, impeding downstream plants and animals from obtaining the nutritional supplements they get from mists and magic-infused waters. This, of course, has caused much anger in the native inhabitants, and can lead to trouble during Redemptions.
And now a plethora of plants and animals rely on the extra boost they get living within a magic-laden area. Destroy the lakes, these plants and animals will wither away. And if the dams burst? Ha. Tales of the Beast undamming The Nectar and inundating Evening will pale in comparison to the destruction a giant lake will cause (and yes, we have eyewitness accounts of what happened when just one of Dryanthium's dams broke, though storytellers and musicians prefer the Nectar's retelling because of the moral weight they can place on the actors).
But I digress!
The Evenacht has many rivers and streams, the most famous being the Nectar, which brings the pleas of the Condemned to the Finders. Finders can travel by boat into interiors that might take far many more yilsemma to reach by other methods.

Winds

Winds are odd in the Evenacht. The History of the Wind by Verick Manset says they are so odd because Nem Hala guides them, rather than letting nature pick up and dump rain where it will. That may be, because they don't seem very logical.
There is a heavy wind filled with moisture that starts in the Shuddering Spanse. Evenacht natives call this wind the Shuddering, after its place of inception, but Weather's acolytes name it Abundance. It dumps a lot of rain on the Nymphmeer region of Fading Light then smacks into the Crescentshine, providing some rain to Death's Hands while curling into the Cadense Spanse. It grabs water from the sea before heading to the eastern side of The Quiet, the place where all the healing plants thrive. It is lush beyond lush from those daily rains.
The Sweet begins in the Ulf Spance, west of the Ulven Islands, and meets the Lense Sae Spanse wind, called Paraele, in the interior of Uka's Lament. They form the Water Wind, which feeds the rainforests there, before somewhat petering out as it crosses the Windtwist Islands and heads to the southern Crescentshine. It filters into the Cadense Spanse as no more than breezes (depending on the time of year; during late year seasons, harsh winds from the north can dissipate the Water Wind and blow cold weather clear to the Sunderlands. Manset believes this reflects Nem Hala's rage).
Manset claims the Water Wind used to continue into the interior of the Sunderlands, bringing with it water to fuel its temperate rainforests, but after the Beast turned it into a snowfield, it stopped blowing that far. Instead, a colder wind rises from the Sundered Spanse and drops snow year-round onto the Sunderlands. That this snow curse is still a thing, despite Erse Parr defeating the Beast six-thousand one-hundred years ago, attests to the strength of syimlin.

Windtwist Islands beach
orig by drew, Adobe Stock

Sunderlands yu
by Daniel M, Adobe Stock

There are apocryphal tales of ancient Weathers using the winds as a deterent for entry into the Windtwists. Why they would do that is never explained, but there may be some truth to it, since the Sea of Winds had a reputation for abrupt, ship-sinking gales.

Aside:
Funny, how the Beast tried to destroy the Sunderlands with cold, but it adapted rather than died. You wouldn't think it would have any life, but it does.

Misty Walkway near Evening, Fading Light
by Sebin Thomas, Unsplash

Grasslands, Cacophony, The Quiet
orig by schame87, Adobe Stock

Mist

All landmasses have mist. Mist is a magical substance that provides sustenance for ghosts and nutritional benefits for living beings. The makeup of mist does not change based on location, but its density/scarcity does. Places like deserts do not have much mist, while lakes and rainforests have an overabundance.
In places of excess, magic falls from mist like rain, and is absorbed into the soil. When the soil becomes saturated, magic enters ziptrails, and flows away from the area. These lines behave as rivers and streams, and flow into larger lakes that house lots of magic. This collection of magic in a single place is a resource that both the living and dead covet, and continuous battles are fought over who controls them.
As I mentioned before, this magic can be dammed, denying the lands downstream an important nutritional source. Bereft lands can wilt away, causing a catastrophe like the one that formed the Snake's Den desert.

The Evenacht

On a final note: the Evenacht is a place of clouds. It's a defining feature; constant cloud cover. Strong light from the sky isn't a thing. On particularly clear nights, one might see a sprinkling of stars through the cover, or a few beams of sunlight breaking through a small opening, which is referred to as a Sun's Blessing or a Moon's Blessing, but otherwise, it's like living in a perpetual state of 'it's about to rain/snow'.
The days are brighter than the nights, and mists produce a soft glow. Sunrises and sunsets tinge the grey clouds pastel pink and red and purple and orange, a small bit of nice color. I've read that, even before the ghosts arrived in the Evenacht, the atmosphere was this way, which, I suppose, makes it a fitting place for the deceased. Misty, dim, and kind of spooky.
Storms are identified by the darkening of clouds, and if you're good at Physical Touch, moisture in the air and an increase in the wind will tip you off. This is relevant because rain, and to a lesser extent, snow, interferes with Ether forms. Too much, and you can get washed away into the Final Death.