Places of Power - Scars

The meeting of magic is rarely gentle.

Scars are places between Shards, where different flows of magical energies clash. These jagged edges grind together, creating the friction between energies that give the Scars their name - most carve a visible path through the land. From howling, never-ending storms filled with lightning and shards of metal to boiling earth, Scars are seldom subtle. Even where weak Shards meet, there is a clear line that divides them, one that halts marching armies and rampaging monsters as surely as any mountain or fortress. They are the wounds of a world still wracked with pain, still writhing from injuries inflicted by the End of All Things.

Magic Friction

Where magic was once a subtle weave cast across existence, a quiet pulse of energy behind the veil, it is now a shattered mirror. A sea of jagged shards of glass, shifting and cutting as the world settles into its new shape. If every piece of glass is the Shards of Ithekshem's new world, the edges are the scars. At their weakest, Scars are charged and violent winds, constantly shifting landscapes or supernatural storms... At their strongest, the ground glows bright from the magical pollution taken physical shape within rends in the world. Geysers that spew molten energies into a screaming sky or rivers bright with contamination are other signs of a Scar.
Most Scars have two states that they cycle between: active and dormant. A dormant Scar bubble beneath the surface, the ebb of clashing magic temporarily calm. Any effects of the Scar is reduced, and in the most quiet days, one could almost mistake them for a normal match of land. When the tide turns, and energies surge to meet, the Scar becomes active - usually to the great woe of whoever is there.
Scars aren't entirely even. Along the border between two Shards, there are points of higher or lower intensity, pulsing as magic shifts and turns within them. Other Scars meet at points between several Shards, and the friction of energies is calamitous. A rare few have places of calm, dead zones where no magical energy flows. These are always desolate wastelands, scourged by the roiling energies around them.

The Nexus is a point where 8 Shards meet on a single stabbing point. Behind the storm, winds of screaming power are said to be a radiant pool of power unlike any other, but such rumors are usually thin on ways to survive it.

In the World

Scars divide Ithekshem, just as mountains or rivers carve nations and fiefdoms into sizable chunks. They can be a blessing or a curse - or both - but always avoided. The ebb and flow of Scars often dictate when wars are fought, when merchants set off, or monsters strike out from their lair. Though avoided for their dangers, they are part of every life of Ithekshem, and only the most powerful or most arrogant ignore them.
Despite the volatile nature of the Scar, they are not without life. Magic-eaters crowd around its edges to feast on the discharge of energy, while any sort of magic inevitably draws wizards or adventurers. Other creatures are children of the Scars, spawned from the friction of clashing energies.
The most well-known is the spell-eating Arcanoplasm, but any number of future horrors might be incubating within the radiant sparks of crashing energy or spell-shrouded storms.

by http://www.tribalartasia.com/

Shards

Shards are loosely defined as regions of magical influence. When the End came for Ithekshem, and the worlds of gods and demons were blasted part, all magic that ever was were condensed into a single plane of existence. It courses through the earth and oceans, creating distinct areas of climate, geography, and subtle, occult changes.

Magic Pollution

The energies of a Shard are universally harmful to living and undead. Nothing, save for creatures born from the fission of magical powers, withstand such forces without changing. Even being near or around a Scar often changes through generations, mutating and warping from the pollution of raw power.
Some think that creatures such as the Dracoracnids are probably children of Scars, which doesn't bode well for the future.

by Rock Cafe.info

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