A Few Exclusion Zones

::: foreword This is some of the oldest worldbuilding in Black Nerve, and as one can imagine, substantial information established here has been revised and contradicted in other sources. Consider this of principly historical interest. ::: ::: related More polished and canonical articles covering similar subjects have been written: - Lardsuckers and (What Were) Grubsuckers - Gildenighter, Wormthew, Eelwoven ::: Declassifier's note: a distinction is to be drawn between [interdicts]{.underline} and [exclusions]{.underline}, as the two are frequently conflated in popular imagining. 'Exclusion zone' is a political designation, whereas an 'interdiction zone' are a vespertine phenomena, caused by crepuscules, the vespertine singularities which often result in unbreakable taboos. But not every exclusion mandate concerns vespers, and not every crepuscule, nor even every crepuscular interdict, is confined to a fixed area. But there is frequent overlap between the two. The Obliteration Fields > OFEZ: annihilation arts interdict, plains southern The infamous antimatter exclusion zone, the Obliteration Fields, are what's known as a failed exclusion, a broken crepuscule. They're also perhaps the oldest crepuscule --- and in fact misconceived to be the first; but this is impossible to know for sure, as crepuscules decay, and any that might have been contemporaneous with or older than the OFEZ would leave little trace of their existence. The OFEZ formed at the end of the titanomachy, following the vanquishing of Dlann, the archtitan, heir of the ineffable mantle, and lord-king of all bats. He was one of the last royals to be excised from the heartlands, and till that day none had challenged his throne for centuries. The annihilation arts were the purview of vesperbats, because the energy costs were too crippling to be paid by mantids. Dlann, the archtitan, had been the peerless master of anihiliation, and by the time of his demise, actually the last such master. Some say he was the first, too, but this isn't true --- interrogated bats are on record saying he was taught, but by whom or what, there is no conjecture and no candidates. The annihilation arts allows one to summon antimatter. It is --- was --- truly formidable, and in truth, had the vespers not saved us, diamantids would have lost to Dlann, the archtitan, and fell back forever under chiropteran subjugation. But there was a prophecy in the flesh, white dragon inspiration embodied in opposing vesperbane, and though the details of that spell are lost to history, it is known Dlann, the archtitan, attempted to defy it. Dlann's defiance was punished with madness, and he may have died. But in the last moments anyone remembers, Dlann, the archtitan, fought with a desperation he never would have dared otherwise. You see, there's a quirk to the annihilation arts that few knew. Dlann didn't know it, until the end. As said, it takes a lot of energy to summon just a little antimatter. And it takes even more energy to summon even a little more antimatter. But the curve's not as tight as it should be. By summoning enough antimatter, it's possible to regain more energy from its annihilation than was expended to bring it forth, and this is exactly what Dlann did in the Obliteration Fields. The OFEZ is considered a failed crepuscule because we attribute certain protectiveness to the crepuscular process --- it's believed that it's a manifestation of the Dream itself. We believe interdictions act to shield us from the consequences of dangerous arts. Yet Dlann's Defiance failed in this. Even with Annihilation Magic taboo'd outside of the fields, the gradual annihilation of the air still bathed the surrounding countryside in radiation, and created a vacuum which sucked in more of the atmosphere. Had Brismati Lakon, the copy-bane, the queen of a thousand tricks, not been among the fighting force, this would have lead to a VK-class end of the world scenario. But Lakon was infamous for being able to reproduce any technique she had seen, even in a single battle, and here she became the first and last mantis to wield the annihilation arts, utilizing the rampant ambient energy. With the help of magnetic techniques she had copied previously, Lakon crafted vast dweomers to contain the techniques and she willingly became a crepuscule so that her wards would outlast her. Today, everyone knows of the Obliteration Fields, and at night they can be seen from tens of kilometers off, limned by bright flashes when tiny fluctuations in the dweomers leak miniscule puffs of swiftly-annihilated air. The land surrounding the zone is an inhospitable, irradiated waste. Inside Lakon's wards, the land and air is gone, and the near-vacuum of the zone is stalked by the hounds of Dlann, fell beasts adapted to the zone and hungry for matter as they float and watch us. The Bogs of Eden > BEEZ: unknown interdict, land of swamps By all rights, the Frozen Swamp stronghold should be a bit player, if not completely subsumed by its neighbors. It's a tiny, unwanted addendum to the Pantheca, just north of all the fertile farmland lake country controls. It's so far east that it's practically the outlands, with all the danger and destruction that entails. All of its rivers either go southeast into the vast land of lakes and rivers (a nation hungry for expansion, embargoing swamp when annexation fell through), or run directly south into the territory of the Bleedweb Stronghold (a partner in vicious civil war). And to the north, the land of quiet frost. But Frosthold's saving grace is what's come to be called the bogs of eden. It's providence is sketchy; some say it was once the den of a cabal of drugdealers, or the secret base of the pirates who dogged the lakes and rivers south, or home to a tribe of cannibals. Other sources claim all pairs of the above. It's not even known if frozen swamp's vesperbanes ever did anything about them, or if it was the merely the crepuscule which did them in. Swamp is dreadfully, if understandably, secretive about the bogs. What is known is what's implied. First, suffice it to say that inducting and maintaining vesperbanes requires certain votives. Frosthold's proximity to the outlands gives them enviable access to one half of the necessary votives. The other half can be created --- is created --- by the nations at a certain cost. But the mathematics of its production are harsh. Trying to tighten the numbers, push it further, leads to ruin (as Vilehold can attest), and trying to circumvent it with vesperbane arts has always, without exception, eventually lead to crepuscules. And that's almost certainly just what happened in the Bogs of Eden. But perhaps it's another broken crepuscule, except broken in a way we could exploit. Regardless, the fact of the matter is the Bogs must produce those coveted votives, as Frosthold shoulders a fraction of the costs the other nations must pay, yet has a disproporationely large vesperbane presence for its size --- rivaling its larger neighbor, Bleedhold --- and is, furthermore, one of the chief exporters of those votives. (Haruspices have been consulted to get the opinion of the vespers, in hope that it reveals anything. A few neotic gynes are said to be aware of it, said to decry it as a bastion of ugliness; some haruspices demand the stewartry destroy it, and more moderate at least ask for a embargo.) Black Pudding > BPEZ: research moratorium, enervated wastes Failed myxogoth breeding experiment. The Endless Perpendicular > EPEZ: total banishment interdict, land of mountains Banishment was an advanced art known to a few arch-fiends before its exclusion. The theory of it was simple, using the matter-repulsing properties of upsilon-nrv to rip apart matter with extradimensional forces, often resulting in an implosive or explosive effect. The ideal was total banishment, which had no destructive consequences on inert matter. In combat, this is largely useless, equivalent to exposing a foe to vacuum for a few seconds or minutes. But it was pursued as a promising avenue of "teleportation"-like effects, before it went crepuscular. Drugs are suspected to be involved. Alcohol, or perhaps some hallucinogen. Regardless of why it happened, someone tried to banish a river. It was perhaps the most perfect banishment that had ever been attempted. Performed near what used to be a waterfall, the huge quantity of upsilon-nrv forced the waters to flow extradimensionally fourthward, perpendicular to the material hyperplane. It should have been a stupid stunt that quickly burnt itself out. But as the water and the enervate inducing it ascended further and further fourthward, something reached down. The flow of water was stoked, the enervate renewed from sources indecipherable, and the now-unidentifiable vesperbane arch-fiend was engulfed in the most violent crepuscule on record. Their body instantly transmutated into stone, the surrounding area was explosively suffused with enervate reinforcing the exclusion. Yet the river still empties into the abyss even now. An attempt was made to dam the river upstream to arrest the flow, and at first it seemed to work. Then waters started flowing back down, and they were different. The dam was destroyed. If your vessel is warded against enervation (something like a submersible works), it is possible to sail the Endless Perpendicular. The farthest anyone has gone is less than half a kilometer in. Those who dared more did not return. In modern times the region around Endless Perpendicular is victim to constant fog and rain as a fraction of the water falters on its journey into the extradimensional abyss and whatever awaits up there. (Some describe the Endless Perpendicular as some manner of boundless pit, but this is ridiculous. Banishment acts against extradimensional gravity. The direction it goes could only be up.) Vrilsekh, The City Wrought Whole > CWEZ: ███████ encryption, land of lakes) [DATA