Heartwood
heartwood.png
  • The centermost realm, the chalice cusp, the world axis: designed such that concentric realms and branching spaces may revolve and blossom. Somewhere between Heaven, Earth, and Hell — Nâçâh1 is the system's center which remains constant. Whereas surrounding spaces have gone missing to time, Nâçâh is the unmoving eternity that unifies every distant branch.

~ HEARTWOOD ~


> Overview

The Heartwood is an ossified corpse, a wooden cave system turned to stone. It is the unwavering core of the Arborescent System, and a mess of branching tunnels, chasms, and countless dead ends. Shrouded in darkness, one must carry a light for any hope of finding their way. The cave walls are rough and splintered, with an unpleasant, fibrous texture. The grounds are uneven and warped, discouraging travel. Most tunnels are suffocatingly narrow, always winding in space, with formidable climbs, drops and loops of every conceivable kind.

bark.png

Walls of the Heartwood closely resemble ossified tree bark, with a composition similar to compact bone.

Toward the dense center of the Heartwood, the air becomes thin and barely breathable. Fresh air only blows in from the rare egresses into surrounding limspaces. As one travels toward such an exit, they will first catch faint wafts of vitality, the unmistakable odors of a neighboring limspace's ecosystem: the lush, humid incense of verdant gardens; the rotting wastes of fungal hellscapes; the salty gusts of archipelago islands; the red flavor of flesh and bone peeling from rock. Upon closer approach, organic peculiarities such as moss and insects are telltale marks of local ecosystems seeping into the cave. The presence of wildlife might signify imminent passage out of the Heartwood.

The Heartwood’s connections to these spaces has led to invasive biodiversity within its own caverns. Distinct biomes have formed around some openings, well-adapted organisms encroaching substantially into the cave systems. Some creatures, for instance, find the quiet cave passages quite suitable for hibernation. Cave walls may be riddled with tiny holes, bored by termite-like arthropods with razor-sharp teeth capable of grinding through stone. From the time of the earliest records of the Heartwood, the prevalence of such colonial fauna has only grown, as more and more species continue to adapt and thrive within the barren infinitude of the caves.

Some such creatures have diverged in form to the point that they bear almost no resemblance to their terrestrial counterparts. Other species’ ancestors are long extinct in their original habitats, outlasted by their troglodyte forms in the Heartwood. Furthermore, there is shaky evidence suggesting the existence of creatures that have moved into the Heartwood and have evolved to prey on human travelers. Due to the rarity that humans do travel within the Heartwood, such creatures would have to have developed supernaturally slowed metabolisms, allowing them to survive for exceptionally long periods of time without sustenance.

Bioluminescent moss, scattered sparsely about the passages, provides the dark caves with the slightest visibility. Its blue-green glow is comforting to wanderers, but also alluring to lost creatures who may stumble upon you. Sound is amplified by the cave's acoustics, so it is easy to attract the attention of a fellow traveler. Additionally, the deepest depths of the Heartwood hold a great pool, into which the waters of a neighboring realm are believed to have drained, long before our arrival. The water tastes of chalk, and is unfit for drinking without treatment.


> Exploration

cabins.png

Thin sheets of wall can be broken off and carved into stone boards for construction.2

Derelict structures are littered throughout the Heartwood, often abandoned and rarely occupied. Those who choose to live in the Heartwood, far from the more habitable ecosystems, live humble lives, subsisting on a diet of cave moss. These bryophytes, when dried, can also be set aflame with sparks from flint shards, useful for boiling drinking water. None thrive on this way of life, as the moss is devoid of nutrition and the sterilized water, though safe to drink, retains an acrid, bitter taste. Those who do not move on to greener pastures will eventually perish, their remains absorbed to become part of the rigid walls.

In the days of old, untold scores of great explorers gave their lives to map the Arborescent worlds. Navigation has somewhat improved since those times. Some mapmakers have marked the walls with ocher or charcoal along routes that bypass the most perilous and difficult passages. For countless explorers, these routes have secured their safe passage through the Heartwood. Yet no journey is without peril — many routes are simply defunct, either leading to dead-end cave-ins, or ending prematurely where an unfortunate route-maker met their demise.

Caving equipment, such as lights, gloves, and ropes is essential for expeditions deep into the Heartwood. One should stock such supplies and ample food and water for trips through the caves, which tend to lengthen unexpectedly in duration.


> The Arborescence

Out in the flourishing expanses there remain stretches of space closely resembling the Heartwood. Perhaps, eons ago, before it turned to stone, the Heartwood encompassed all of the Arborescence. Perhaps, as it died, it was consumed and subsumed by the worlds that now exist. The Heartwood is the locus of exploration, and it is our shared beginning. No matter our stature, from religious zealots to famed adventurers to the lowest of common folk, many of us who settle in distant worlds beyond will eventually make our way back to these caves, seeking to sate an irrepressible longing.


> Access

Entrances:

People are drawn here by curiosity. No two people arrive through the same entrance, but all arrive through uninformed choice. It is this constant which gives us strength to endure this harsh reality.

Exits:

It seems there is no escaping the Arborescence. Perhaps there is no passage home. Perhaps all those who found it refused to return and share with us its location. In any case, it's likely in your best interest to escape into the worlds surrounding the Heartwood, which are far more hospitable. Travel far enough and you may one day reach the canopy, the outermost branches of the Arborescence, where the wind can be felt blowing on its leaves. Perhaps the leaf on which you stand will be carried by the wind to new lands.


Brave Venturers,

The telluric world we have abandoned is long behind us. Our fateful departure, fueled by foolish curiosity, has trapped us in this queer and contemptuous realm, our new passage through the valley of tears. And being uprooted, painfully torn from all we once took for granted, we’ve found a new spirit unearthed instead, flowering all around us and grafted inside of us: nostalgic, sentimental, a longing for preservation amidst an uncertain and transient world. In accordance with this saccharine ache, new instincts — instincts for story and song, history and legend — blossom in our souls, reaching ever forth for the elusive light of permanence, that distant sun of eternity.

Here in the Arborescence, the fate of every wanderer is inextricably intertwined. For though our stories diverge, they all share the same beginning: the Heartwood, its ancient and shadowed mystique both frightening and alluring, our unwilled and undesired introduction into the system. As the Arbor’s entryway for all earthborn wanderers, each traveler has their own account of their entrance into the Heartwood. Although we endure the same cruel initiation, its massive size permits many unique and surprising tales.

This baptismal hell we hold in common is not without its charms. Being the system's nucleus, it is essential to its soul, a past we must never forget to look back upon. This document is thus intended as a revisitation — to aggregate those details which were once unwritten, and to immortalize them in the Archives, copied and transmitted in perpetuity. It is our hope that these records will rouse the men of distant worlds from their reclusive fear and languid stupor — to sow again the seeds of adventure, that they may again spread their branches, discovering the lands which lie beyond.

Devi, Vinciguerra, Cantera et al. Cheers to Venturers everywhere.



rating: +10

10 votes (+10, -0) 5★

rating: +10+x
Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license