{
  "$type": "site.standard.document",
  "canonicalUrl": "https://serpentsquiggles.neocities.org//posts/black-nerve/apocrypha/old-exclusions",
  "path": "/posts/black-nerve/apocrypha/old-exclusions",
  "publishedAt": "2020-05-07T00:00:00.000Z",
  "site": "at://did:plc:ivoe7cntxuy6at7uzmxzs2ft/site.standard.publication/3mfk6cpprzt2t",
  "textContent": "::: foreword\n\nThis is some of the oldest worldbuilding in Black Nerve, and as one\ncan imagine, substantial information established here has been revised\nand contradicted in other sources.  Consider this of principly\nhistorical interest.\n\n:::\n\n::: related\n\nMore polished and canonical articles covering similar subjects have\nbeen written:\n\n- Lardsuckers and (What Were) Grubsuckers\n- Gildenighter, Wormthew, Eelwoven\n\n:::\n\nDeclassifier's note: a distinction is to be drawn between\n[interdicts]{.underline} and [exclusions]{.underline}, as the two are\nfrequently conflated in popular imagining. 'Exclusion zone' is a\npolitical designation, whereas an 'interdiction zone' are a vespertine\nphenomena, caused by crepuscules, the vespertine\nsingularities which often result in unbreakable taboos.  But not every\nexclusion mandate concerns vespers, and not every crepuscule, nor even\nevery crepuscular interdict, is confined to a fixed area. But there is\nfrequent overlap between the two.\n\nThe Obliteration Fields \n\n> OFEZ: annihilation arts interdict, plains southern\n\nThe infamous antimatter exclusion zone, the Obliteration Fields, are\nwhat's known as a failed exclusion, a broken crepuscule.  They're also\nperhaps the oldest crepuscule --- and in fact misconceived to be the\nfirst; but this is impossible to know for sure, as crepuscules decay,\nand any that might have been contemporaneous with or older than the\nOFEZ would leave little trace of their existence.\n\nThe OFEZ formed at the end of the titanomachy, following the vanquishing\nof Dlann, the archtitan, heir of the ineffable mantle, and lord-king of\nall bats. He was one of the last royals to be excised from the\nheartlands, and till that day none had challenged his throne for\ncenturies.\n\nThe annihilation arts were the purview of vesperbats, because the\nenergy costs were too crippling to be paid by mantids. Dlann, the\narchtitan, had been the peerless master of anihiliation, and by the\ntime of his demise, actually the last such master. Some say he was the\nfirst, too, but this isn't true --- interrogated bats are on record\nsaying he was taught, but by whom or what, there is no conjecture and\nno candidates.\n\nThe annihilation arts allows one to summon antimatter. It is --- was ---\ntruly formidable, and in truth, had the vespers not saved us, diamantids\nwould have lost to Dlann, the archtitan, and fell back forever under\nchiropteran subjugation.\n\nBut there was a prophecy in the flesh, white dragon inspiration embodied\nin opposing vesperbane, and though the details of that spell are lost to\nhistory, it is known Dlann, the archtitan, attempted to defy it.\n\nDlann's defiance was punished with madness, and he may have died. But\nin the last moments anyone remembers, Dlann, the archtitan, fought with\na desperation he never would have dared otherwise.\n\nYou see, there's a quirk to the annihilation arts that few knew. Dlann\ndidn't know it, until the end. As said, it takes a lot of energy to\nsummon just a little antimatter. And it takes even more energy to summon\neven a little more antimatter. But the curve's not as tight as it\nshould be. By summoning enough antimatter, it's possible to regain more\nenergy from its annihilation than was expended to bring it forth, and\nthis is exactly what Dlann did in the Obliteration Fields.\n\nThe OFEZ is considered a failed crepuscule because we attribute certain\nprotectiveness to the crepuscular process --- it's believed that it's\na manifestation of the Dream itself. We believe interdictions act to\nshield us from the consequences of dangerous arts. Yet Dlann's Defiance\nfailed in this. Even with Annihilation Magic taboo'd outside of the\nfields, the gradual annihilation of the air still bathed the surrounding\ncountryside in radiation, and created a vacuum which sucked in more of\nthe atmosphere.\n\nHad Brismati Lakon, the copy-bane, the queen of a thousand tricks, not\nbeen among the fighting force, this would have lead to a VK-class end\nof the world scenario. But Lakon was infamous for being able to\nreproduce any technique she had seen, even in a single battle, and\nhere she became the first and last mantis to wield the annihilation\narts, utilizing the rampant ambient energy. With the help of magnetic\ntechniques she had copied previously, Lakon crafted vast dweomers to\ncontain the techniques and she willingly became a crepuscule so that\nher wards would outlast her.\n\nToday, everyone knows of the Obliteration Fields, and at night they can\nbe seen from tens of kilometers off, limned by bright flashes when tiny\nfluctuations in the dweomers leak miniscule puffs of swiftly-annihilated\nair. The land surrounding the zone is an inhospitable, irradiated waste.\nInside Lakon's wards, the land and air is gone, and the near-vacuum of\nthe zone is stalked by the hounds of Dlann, fell beasts adapted to the\nzone and hungry for matter as they float and watch us.\n\nThe Bogs of Eden\n\n> BEEZ: unknown interdict, land of swamps\n\nBy all rights, the Frozen Swamp stronghold should be a bit player, if\nnot completely subsumed by its neighbors. It's a tiny, unwanted\naddendum to the Pantheca, just north of all the fertile farmland lake\ncountry controls.  It's so far east that it's practically the\noutlands, with all the danger and destruction that entails. All of its\nrivers either go southeast into the vast land of lakes and rivers (a\nnation hungry for expansion, embargoing swamp when annexation fell\nthrough), or run directly south into the territory of the Bleedweb\nStronghold (a partner in vicious civil war). And to the north, the\nland of quiet frost.\n\nBut Frosthold's saving grace is what's come to be called the bogs of\neden. It's providence is sketchy; some say it was once the den of a\ncabal of drugdealers, or the secret base of the pirates who dogged the\nlakes and rivers south, or home to a tribe of cannibals. Other sources\nclaim all pairs of the above. It's not even known if frozen swamp's\nvesperbanes ever did anything about them, or if it was the merely the\ncrepuscule which did them in. Swamp is dreadfully, if understandably,\nsecretive about the bogs.\n\nWhat is known is what's implied. First, suffice it to say that\ninducting and maintaining vesperbanes requires certain votives.\nFrosthold's proximity to the outlands gives them enviable access to one\nhalf of the necessary votives. The other half can be created --- is\ncreated --- by the nations at a certain cost. But the mathematics of its\nproduction are harsh. Trying to tighten the numbers, push it further,\nleads to ruin (as Vilehold can attest), and trying to circumvent it with\nvesperbane arts has always, without exception, eventually lead to\ncrepuscules.\n\nAnd that's almost certainly just what happened in the Bogs of Eden. But\nperhaps it's another broken crepuscule, except broken in a way we could\nexploit. Regardless, the fact of the matter is the Bogs must produce\nthose coveted votives, as Frosthold shoulders a fraction of the costs\nthe other nations must pay, yet has a disproporationely large vesperbane\npresence for its size --- rivaling its larger neighbor, Bleedhold ---\nand is, furthermore, one of the chief exporters of those votives.\n\n(Haruspices have been consulted to get the opinion of the vespers, in\nhope that it reveals anything. A few neotic gynes are said to be aware\nof it, said to decry it as a bastion of ugliness; some haruspices demand\nthe stewartry destroy it, and more moderate at least ask for a embargo.)\n\nBlack Pudding\n\n> BPEZ: research moratorium, enervated wastes\n\nFailed myxogoth\nbreeding experiment.\n\nThe Endless Perpendicular\n\n> EPEZ: total banishment interdict, land of mountains\n\nBanishment was an advanced art known to a few arch-fiends\nbefore its exclusion. The theory of it was simple, using the\nmatter-repulsing properties of upsilon-nrv to rip apart matter with\nextradimensional forces, often resulting in an implosive or explosive\neffect. The ideal was total banishment, which had no destructive\nconsequences on inert matter. In combat, this is largely useless,\nequivalent to exposing a foe to vacuum for a few seconds or minutes. But\nit was pursued as a promising avenue of \"teleportation\"-like effects,\nbefore it went crepuscular.\n\nDrugs are suspected to be involved. Alcohol, or perhaps some\nhallucinogen. Regardless of why it happened, someone tried to banish a\nriver.\n\nIt was perhaps the most perfect banishment that had ever been attempted.\nPerformed near what used to be a waterfall, the huge quantity of\nupsilon-nrv forced the waters to flow extradimensionally fourthward,\nperpendicular to the material hyperplane.\n\nIt should have been a stupid stunt that quickly burnt itself out. But as\nthe water and the enervate inducing it ascended further and further\nfourthward, something reached down. The flow of water was stoked, the\nenervate renewed from sources indecipherable, and the now-unidentifiable\nvesperbane arch-fiend was engulfed in the most violent crepuscule on\nrecord. Their body instantly transmutated into stone, the surrounding\narea was explosively suffused with enervate reinforcing the exclusion.\nYet the river still empties into the abyss even now.\n\nAn attempt was made to dam the river upstream to arrest the flow, and at\nfirst it seemed to work. Then waters started flowing back down, and they\nwere different. The dam was destroyed.\n\nIf your vessel is warded against enervation (something like a\nsubmersible works), it is possible to sail the Endless Perpendicular.\nThe farthest anyone has gone is less than half a kilometer in. Those who\ndared more did not return.\n\nIn modern times the region around Endless Perpendicular is victim to\nconstant fog and rain as a fraction of the water falters on its journey\ninto the extradimensional abyss and whatever awaits up there.\n\n(Some describe the Endless Perpendicular as some manner of boundless\npit, but this is ridiculous. Banishment acts against extradimensional\ngravity. The direction it goes could only be up.)\n\nVrilsekh, The City Wrought Whole\n\n> CWEZ: ███████ encryption, land of lakes)\n\n[DATA",
  "title": "A Few Exclusion Zones"
}