Pairi Daēza, the Walled Garden

Pairi Daēza is, rather than the name of the planet itself, the name of the demarcated zone belonging to a subset of deiform entities known locally as Yazata. "Pairi Daēza" is rarely used, as, for most of the inhabitants, it is too wide of a frame of reference. Instead, the more local classification "zam" was more common, though the concept was not a proper noun for the planet. Indeed, when referring to any similar classification of world, "zam" is the correct term. Lacking as they are a concept of a world-soul-class deiform entity or similar concepts in their religion, they have not had reason to specify. In modern "common" (a pidgin language that evolved due to increasingly widespread trade routes), "earth" in its representation of the element can be used similarly, though it too is not used as a proper noun. "Pairi Daēza" is a term, then, used more by outside entities and those few who have the frame of reference, though it still persists in modern parlance as a wildly expansive (and inaccurate) proper noun for the concept of "all of creation"   Pairi Daēza was created as an experiment; a place for the local deiform entities to establish themselves as creators, and for them to manage their creations with as little outside interference as possible. The local ecosystem is not made to support higher-order entities or the extreme levels of power they represent, and the barrier around it typically keeps it separated from these influences. The local deiform entities themselves prefer not to directly interfere in their creation, as even their direct attention causes widespread issues. When they enter Pairi Daēza, then, they do so with an avatar.   "Zam", then, is a planet that shows many signs of direct creational meddling, as many of its original geographic features would not have formed naturally. Rather than more typical transitional landscapes, many biomes end abruptly, with very different climate zones often incongruously sharing a border. Initially, this was supported by the direct touch of the divine in its shaping, but the continued presence of creational powers proved problematic. As such, the gap was bridged with the establishment of lesser creational spirits responsible for maintaining the boundaries, with a much lighter touch than that of their gods'. Over time, this made the borders of each climate less stark, lowering the total amount of strain on nature globally. This, however, came with a profound and unexpected increase of the severity of weather, and extremely harsh seasons became far more common. To alleviate this, the excess power of nature was pushed off into a separate but overlaying plane, which gave rise to its own seasonal courts of fae creatures.   With this, the climate of Zam stabilized, and the borders between regions thinned. As such, the races developed seperately by their gods began to interact with eachother far more often as their individual little 'worlds' became more connected. The conflicts that happened as a result of this were extensive, but the two significant on a planetary scale were the war between humanity and the spirits, and, later, the arrival of dragons.   As a result of the war between humanity and spirits, an ancient spirit, one of the oldest and most powerful, unleashed a cataclysm when she drew all of the power of the boundaries in to create a new demiplane, sealed within the boundaries, saving her people from the humans, and sacrificing herself, channeling the excess disturbance to Zam's energies into her mountain home. It exploded violently, erupting into the first of many volcanoes.   Since this point, as the boundaries fell, all of the individual 'worlds' of each race quickly came into direct contact, sharing some rather uncomfortable borders. During this tumultuous time, the world's environments have blended, some, into a slightly more natural setup.   The issues, of course, is that the creational power that had previously been powering the boundaries now all flowed to an active volcano, upending the natural state of the world, cracking the crust, and forming new mountain ranges (and volcanoes). Worse still, the creational power soon brought the area to saturation, and developed into a presence strong enough to be felt even outside of Pairi Daēza.   This drew forth the dragons, who broke through the barrier and descended upon Zam, drawn in by, and empowered by, the magic coalescing under the mountain. The dragons fought over this magic, took over kingdoms, founded civilizations, bred with mortal races, and, for a time, ruled. Through their power, the flow of magic was restructured, each stream individually peeled off of the main flow and funneled into new nexus points, and magic flourished, now readily accessible across the planet, and the mortal races began, quickly, to grow powerful.   For an age, things developed naturally from there - the mortal races steadily gained in power, thier civilizations centralizing, many reaching new heights of magic. Even the dragons were finalyl overthrown, but now, beings were rising from within Pairi Daēza who were too powerful for it, and, as the level of magic continued to rise, the barrier became more and more unstable. To resolve this, the gods descended and collected their new peers, inviting them to rise as the new pantheon of gods, accepting many of the same limits as their predecessors.   This helped, but there was still the matter of the magic that was left behind, too wildly powerful and unpredictable. Left to the new gods to resolve, they reached out to the dragons, those most tied to the magics of Zam, seeking one among them with the strongest connection to magic. They succeeded, tore the magic from her, leaving behind a bottomless hunger, a void which only magic could fill. Driven mad and ravenous, she destroyed most of the world, performing wildly beyond their expectations, devouring every scrap of magic she could find until there was very little left. Still hungry, but now no longer able to sustain herself, she entered a state of hibernation, waiting for the magic of Zam to once again return in amounts capable of slaking her thirst.   So began the cycle of destruction, which has kept the world from advancing beyond its capability of supporting its population, and so began the reign of the new gods.   (Pairi Daēza and its concepts owe a lot to Zoroastrianism myth. It does not represent them - this is a subsection of a setting in which powerful individuals created their own subsetting, with an array of inspirational sources. Some things I am working into this setting are ideas for villain backstories from Tyrants & Hellions by 2CGaming, in order to try them out in a game, inserted into an established setting of my own)