A World Claimed by Strange Behemoths

While it's definitely true to say that the people and spirits of Oshanal have risen to the occasion of their strange, broken world, it is still a very dangerous place, swathed in vivid radiance, teeming with monsters. Whether or not the monstrous divine is imprisoned, their strange influence brings a sense of constant apprehension, so pervasive and low-grade that most have long internalized and become familiar with it. Life goes on, as they say.

Imagine for yourself beings so vast that they must contain universes far beyond your own, and then imagine that some part of those beings protrudes into what you know of as your universe. The distorting effect alone of this impact was nothing less than enough to shatter the laws of life and death in your world, and yes, now those beings may be held at bay and slumbering – but the strange warping of their mere presence has caused mountains to awaken and roam, the oceans to grow infinite and proliferate with aquatic titans, and your dreams themselves to become second realities, from which some never return.

The world has stabilized and become a surreal, new kind of thing, yes. People have re-established bulwarks of civilization and largely endured and even thrived, yes. But they have done so in the company of monsters, many of which are so massive as to not even realize the Hanging Towers are there at all.

And so it is that the life of an Oshanalian is very far from what we would think of as peaceful, largely. There is, on some level, continual struggle, enough that the people of the twilight world take it as given. There are titans, and it is true that many must be fought from time to time, and it is best to be ready to at least take a stand. For the most part, the people are capable of meeting the challenge: whether it be through the significant artifice of the sky people, or the more harmonious and naturalistic approach of the surface folk.

The titans which emanate from the monstrous gods are often indifferent to the small creatures of the city, generally preying upon one another or vying for some kind of behemothian dominance of a strange radiant ecosystem. That, in and of itself, can be a life-threatening struggle, but it can be that such indifference is the best you could hope for. It's certainly better than gaining the wrathful attention of a waking mountain.

It helps that the actual size of Oshanal is vast, far eclipsing the size of other worlds, and there is plenty of room for the great monsters to roam. Even as thick and fortified as most of the bulwarks are, the simple matter of it is that there's a considerable amount of distance between the known pathways of the worst titans, and the most important established steadfasts of civilization. This is absolutely by design, whenever possible: some may adore the monsters of the twilight world, sure, but most are a little more honest with themselves about their chances for survival where the behemoths tread.