Broken But Beautiful

Oshanal survived the monstrous gods, and they are now imprisoned. It's been left much stranger in the wake of the final summoning of Marimneros, as you may expect from the world that shattered firmament of eternity itself. It's been a few thousand years since the end of the last age, or at least that's the popular consensus: it's difficult to know for sure.

Even had the apocalypse somehow come and gone without destroying most of Oshanal's written historic record, time would be hard to quantify simply because time isn't what it once was anymore. When the monstrous gods awoke, they brought with them new truths, and those new truths were pervasive and foundational – not only did they suddenly become true, they suddenly had always been true. And so, things which were once easy to take for granted as elemental truths are no longer always true on the twilight world.

For example, if you were to look at Oshanal from obit, it would seem spherical. However, at many parts on its surface, specifically those parts where the monstrous gods hold the most influence, the horizon contorts and stretches in unpredictable directions. The most striking of this is the ocean of Oshanal: in many places, due to the presence of the monstrous goddess of the sea, Ereshkanoi, there is no end to the oceanic depths. And if you were to sail into the oceanic distance, you would never see the end. Ereshkanoi is known as the Endless, and so is her aquatic periphery.

To add to this, ignoring the considerable warping influence of the monstrous gods, the eternity they're now confined in has been permanently scarred by their summoning itself. There were once many radiant realms neighboring the physical plane: fairy realms, elemental realms, entire planes of thought and light and shadow, evil and benevolent. No more. When the monstrous gods were first summoned, the membranes around these realms popped like a bubble, and today they have all integrated into a single melange of all realms.

This blending of realms means that for a long time, spirit and flesh have tangibly coexisted. Angels and demons stride the surface, fairy courts hold session neighboring island settlements of seafaring folk, and the restless dead are a very real every day threat in places of great loss and tragedy. This means that, to some extent, the spirit worlds and the mortal worlds have had to learn to coexist, and this has produced interesting and cosmpolite results.

In truth, though, since the imprisonment of the monstrous gods, Oshanal has mostly stabilized into a remarkable, incredible place. Dangerous, yes, extremely dangerous, but gorgeous as well. A curtain of splendid stars glisten in the twilight sky, spirits tangibly surf the waves of an endless lavender ocean, cloud cities congregate around splendid glittering, ancient Tower States, magical ecosystems proliferate and evolve new kinds of life, and the very idea of life itself has become something stranger, more complex and wonderful, spiritual and rich.

It has been an incredible, awful, terrifying journey, but the people and spirits of the monstrous world have risen to the occasion. They've made a new, wonderful home for themselves and it is truly breathtaking to behold.