Gods of the Fall - Rock You Like a Hurricane

Here I am ... with another look at the setting of the Afterworld. Or more accurately, one part of it; one feature really, and the secret I think it may contain: The Eye of Elanehtar.

The Eye is a complicated feature. One part everlasting storm, one part magical fallout, one part howling gang of ravers. Oh and the great granddaddy of ravers, the Delirium. The book dedicates only a small bit of space to the Eye, and with reasonable cause given that the majority of the Eye is centered over the sea-filled crater of what was once Cavazel.

As you can see there's a lot going on there. An everlasting storm by itself would be an interesting feature for a fantasy setting, but we get to add a bunch of other goodness to that. It's almost too much. But not really. I've discussed my thoughts on ravers before. The Delirium is basically a raver on steroids, inflicting madness on anybody nearby and spawning curses and chaos. It very likely represents the nearly complete soul of one of the dead gods, one whose death agony was so extreme that it lost all sanity. The Delirium may even be the "queen" raver, spawning and controlling its lesser brethren. Heck I could probably write this whole post just riffing on the Delirium.

But I won't.

The magical calamity that occurred when Elanehtar "smote" (Bruce's word not mine) Cavazel is very probably fueled by a great deal of released divine energy. The chaotic and sudden release can help explain the massive storm, and the curses that it flings about like almost living creatures. As does the presence of the Delirium.

Entering the storm is likely incredibly dangerous for gods and is surely lethal to mortals, though one can assume that such a death would be of the most unpleasant kind. Some may even posit that the danger is sufficient to make any entry entirely pointless. After all, Cavazel is gone there's nothing left but a watery grave presided over by a deadly storm. Who would ever find reason to enter and why?

For the first part: gods on the rise. For the second: Elanehtar's ruins.

Gods of the Fall is a Cypher System game and so it needed a reason for Cyphers. Bits of crystalized divine energy precipitated (literally) by the fall of Elanehtar provided more than enough reason and context for Cyphers in the game setting. There's even talk that people of the Afterworld believe that maybe, just maybe, Elanehtar could be restored if enough of its energy could be freed from Cyphers. But what if Elanehtar isn't utterly destroyed or cast asunder as Cyphers? What if the remains of Elanehtar are intact and whole and shrouded from the prying eyes of mortal ken by the everlasting storm known as the Eye of Elanehtar? What better place to hide the remains of a one-time heaven than in the calm center of a storm? In its eye?

Then again maybe a storm is just a storm. I dunno...