Speaker 1

Neither kings nor magicians, but we can tell you their stories. We are the Lorekeepers.

Speaker 2

And we welcome you... to Hâlume

Frank

Welcome. You are listening to Lorekeepers, a lorebuilding podcast where we talk about eons of history, heroes and villains and the forces that whirl about it all. I'm Frank and I'm Carter whether you're interested in stories, looking for inspiration in your own worldbuilding or perhaps you want to participate. We've got something for you. So this week and it's really last week. That's the second part. Second half of a two parter where we are talking about Illuvium and Orconis two sort of parallel planes, parallel realities in accordance with, uh, the realm of Hâlume. Um, but before we dive into that Carter, it's been like a good 10 minutes since I've talked to you. How have you been in the last 10 minutes or so?

Carter

Just been dreadful. It's so hot. You know, Florida is not a good place to be in the summer.

Frank

Yeah, seriously you are–You've got like a whole system of audio confusion going on of the piloting every week is like a new adventure.

Carter

Yeah, it's real interesting. Did I tell you about my trip, my, when I went camping a few weeks ago.

Frank

No, I didn't actually know that I. Are you a camper?

Carter

Um, not really, but I've always wanted to try it, so I gave it a go. My advice to our listeners never go camping in Florida in the summer.

Frank

Okay, okay. Because I live in Minnesota, so like the context difference here is like, I mean we get pretty bad mosquitoes, but at least it's not swelteringly.

Carter

So imagine you're mosquitoes. Imagine your mosquitoes, double them. That's Florida, right? Okay. And add in like horseflies and yellow flies and every insect imaginable. And do you know what happens when you have a bunch of insects?

Frank

What?

Carter

You have a bunch of things that eat insects like giant spiders.

Frank

Oh, see, that's. See, that's where it's different. Like the thing is, is honestly I, I would actually challenge your mosquito throne. I mean the difference is, dude, you might live in Florida. Well, okay. Florida is very boggy and swampy, that's actually a fair point. But we do have like, I'll just lakes, there's a lot of them, you know, there's like, you know, that's saying about Minnesota. We've gotten, yeah,

Carter

so many. Almost a thousand I heard.

Frank

Yeah. Almost. Yeah.

Carter

There. Here's something for you. There are more lakes in Canada than in the rest of the world.

Frank

Yeah. I believe it today. You like? Uh, yeah. And also Alaska's got like way more likes than anywhere else. I think it has more legs than the rest of us combined or something crazy. And it makes sense

Carter

back. No, my camping story. Yeah. I was right next to a river. So when went into the little insects to the river and stuff on this bluff, it was like Vietnam.

Frank

Okay. You Bet. Have you been to Vietnam?

Carter

I haven't, but I have seen movies set in Vietnam. Movies of Vietnam. Exactly. It was like a movie in Vietnam because it's because Florida is a subtropical zone so you get some tropical stuff and you get some like temperate stuff. So imagine being in like the temperate zone, right? Where it's nice and like a bunch of trees like birches and oaks and stuff. And then you go down to the tropical zone bayou when it's, where it's like there's giant snakes all around you. And then there's like mud everywhere and like giant fucking Palmettos and spikes and then like these trees there's always moss and it's just like, oh God.

Frank

Yeah. I gotta be honest with you. The idea of doing any sort of camping in Florida, I can't think of a place I'd like want to go camping less than Florida. Like I'm trying to think of one. And I was like desert not actually that be hot and dry and kind of easy. Uh, you wouldn't have to worry about rain really. Like, yeah, that's just like wear shorts all day and maybe you know, probably Sun Lotion. I mean, and deal with 120 degree heat, but.

Carter

Well just get a turban and put water on it. Boom. You're done. Yeah. I mean the mountains are pretty. I mean they're just pretty. I feel like. Yeah. Florida is the last place in the U. S that I want to go camping. I agree with you. It sounds like you do. So there you go. That's done enough. That's, that's how you found in the last 10 minutes. Yep. That's good to know. So Frank, how you been?

Frank

Well, I um, we're starting to get into the, uh, to the, to the halû-, the Lorekeepers after hours, you know, late night lord keepers. So a little, uh, did you hear any of that foli work there?

Carter

I did taunting me. I see

Frank

that is a sound of the Deschutes. Fresh squeezed IPA this week, sponsoring uh Lorekeepers. We're sponsored by Deschutes first squeeze, IPA, fam- family and employee owned bottled conditioned for quality, live yeast, added to the bottle, allows this beer to age gracefully and stay fresher, longer, keep bottles upright and away from light and heat kind of yeast in there. I mean there's yeast in every beer. Well yeah, but like straight up living east, like you don't, don't fucking skin it. Oh yeah, probably. I mean it says it allows it to age gracefully. So it's a very lithe the beer. Yes. I mean I believe you. Hey, if you want a chance to go get a beer, I mean I say we kick it today. I would love to, but I'm currently in my, at my parents' place because I am college has not started to back up yet. Oh. And they do not drink, so I have been dry for a few months. I can't imagine. Uh, I can imagine and it's a, I don't need to anymore. All right. Um, no, but okay. No, I'm doing all right. I'm, I'm mostly just drinking this beer honestly and trying to survive the, uh, sweltering humidity of a, a, a very small closet that has a hot light against the wall. I said incandescent, you don't have a fucking leds in there. Oh, you know what, actually I think. No, it is actually, it's a, it's, it's one of those. I'm one of the ones that is like circling like a coily one. Not, not like a typical light, like the kind that spins around. It looks. It makes the circular shape of a light bulb, but it's actually like a tube. Yes. I don't remember halogen? Are those halogen?. Yeah, whichever. Whatever it is. A fluorescent is a type of halogen, I'm not sure. Yeah. Um, well, whatever the case. Yeah, a Carter. We should, we should dive into it. Um, we should, we should talk about some dank nugs. Do we get any dank nugs from last week since our sensor previous episode? Um, I'm not, I, I looked at the email. We are, we got something from twitter I think. Oh, didn't know. It's a, it's a, it's nothing. No, it's. Is it a retweet or something as nothing.[inaudible] so. Well that is understandable. It's kind of hard for people to respond when we record these back to back and don't actually say anything in between it, but it's difficult. Yeah. Everybody, if you want us to talk about your ideas, go ahead and send a Dank nug our way in the form of a tweet at the Lorekeepers or something to Lorekekeeperspodcast@gmail.com. That's lorekeeperspodcast, not the Lorekeepers. Just Lorekeepers podcast. Lorekeepers podcast. As emailed that guy. Yes. link link in the podcast description. If you're curious, click the link. Send an email. Yeah, tell Frank how much you love him. Well, thank you. Or Tell Carter how much you love his brilliant mind and hair. I do have excellent hair. I'm, I imagine you do. All right. So Frank, what is your Dank Nug for this day? Okay, my Dank nug for this day is. Give me a second. Do you want me to do mine first? No, I had it just looking. Oh yes. Yeah. So in the world of D&D, there's a thing called spelljammer. It's when people fly around in space on literal wooden ships because magic and it got me thinking, um, I've been kind of playing with this recently. Have, I wonder what is out there because we never really talk about stuff in the Arcane Sea, I mean really the, you know, that's what they call sort of the interplanetary medium, um, you know, any, any more than just like the fact that there are planets out there or in the sky, there are things that, you know, circumnavigates Sudar. Uh, there's the three moon sisters, you know, there's her Hadariel, Gamaliel, and Maion. Um, but there's also, you know, like there's only a couple of myths that really have anything to do with things going out into the arcade scene returning. So for instance, like the Drakenfall, the dragons who came and basically like laid waste to the world, the chromatics because they were looking for life, uh, you know, those were said to have flown out into the Arcane Sea came back mad by like the silence and screaming in between the stars. But like, I don't know, I just be really curious to see, or perhaps that's an Aevum Senio or perhaps that's something that happened somewhere else in the world.

I think definitely in the far flung future, there must be such things that it might have just in the sci-fi version of this setting which may exist or not,

Frank

or maybe science fantasy. I think his is still magic. It's just, you know, it isn't warhammer warhammer 40,000. Although I realize that those aren't technically in the same universe.

Carter

I mean fan theories aside.

Frank

Yeah. But you know, here's the thing, like in even prime, uh, when everybody had access to absurdly powerful magic. I mean, I feel like there probably were people who were able to create their vehicles. Yeah. I mean, it's hard to satisfy your curiosity. Yeah.

Carter

Is Really, it's hard to say what great deeds happened in the clouded mists of the past.

Frank

Yeah. Well, and that's why we always take that approach when we are doing these sort of, you know, these histories and these backgrounds of, Halûme. We're not talking about, you know, this is not necessarily recorded history. This is roughly a profit apocryphal accounts that have some supporting evidence or reason to believe that they are the way that they are. But talk to somebody else or talk to somebody in a different continent which we will have to do one day. Um, and we'll see how the myths and stories, a retelling of events look completely different.

Carter

Yes. An interesting thing that the warhammer 40 k universe does is that they say everything is Canon, but not everything that is Canon is true.

Frank

Oh Wow. That's cool. I like that. I mean because they, even. This is actually something that, you know, I think one day might have to make its way into our, the way that we kind of explore stuff, but they actually have a rating based on the reliability of information. So like the world of warhammer 40 k, it's like galactic in size, right? It's like the whole Milky Way and so you have all these different sectors and travel between them is not easy for the average person. It means getting onto a generation ship and 10,000 years or you know, or maybe like 3,000 years later or at the very minimal, like 180 years later, your children's children's, children's dot, dot, dot will eventually get to a new planet. What are you talking about 40K or what? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And 40 K They got the warp man. Yeah. I mean there are ways to travel much, much faster, but that's not the like I, like I said, it's not. Most people don't have access to that. Most people can't get on generational ships. Most people just don't leave because of poor as hell. That's a, that's very true. But yeah, the long and the short of it is just that. What's interesting about we're. One of the things I find really engaging about that concept is that the Imperium, the people who, you know, kind of rule the humans, they created a system where information was rated based on its reliability. So like I think it's like a one is, you know, down to the minute when it happened or down to the second and a 10 is like there is no assigned time and I think like sevens or eights or like give or take a century or two because of time dilation via lightspeed travel faster than light speed travel. And so I don't know, it's just like, that's a really interesting concept. Um, and it's kind of, it's just this idea that like give information a reliability rating. Absolutely. It's actually, that actually kind of touches on. I think there's something in the Shadowrun universe that's kind of similar where something happens or some sort of data collapsed that happens in like the 2020s or 2030s, or 2040s or something like that. And basically some sort of virus or some ai become sentient or something like that and starts to replicate information at an out of control rate and creates iterations on all information. So like you might see news clippings of a news report where a, it's the same anchorman or anchorwoman, but like she's wearing a different blazer in each one or different color shirt or things that she say it says are slightly different. And so there's like all information has this reliability rating, reliability rating. Again, it's a really interesting idea and I just, I dunno, I, I love to draw on stuff like that and figure out where that would fit. So that was my dank nug and that was. We got. I got way off track on that one. I've got a quick one so we can snap this one. It's in the spirit of the Illuvium. Okay, you ready? Do Wizards bathe? What? Do wizards bathe?

Carter

Ah, what I'm think about it. Why wouldn't they? Because they just Prestidigitation themselves. They can. They have a magic spell. They can cast every six seconds to clean a foot squared. Carter.

Frank

Oh my God. I'm

Carter

Do wizards bathe? Do wizards bathe.

Frank

I don't know. Is it fun? It's like probably not. It depends on how busy they are I guess.

Carter

I feel like wizards are really busy.

Frank

I feel like any wizard worth their salt is probably really busy. Any magi- Any magician, like who's trying to accomplish anything.

Carter

They cleaned themselves Prestidigitation throw on some robes, maybe apply some maybe scented oil and boom.

Frank

Ah, I can't, I can't actually imagine a. I feel like there's something missing from that. Like it'd be like going through one of those sterilizer showers you sometimes see like in nuclear shelters or whatever. It'd be like more akin to that than it would be to like a natural shower. Like if you feel like you're missing out on huge like plus points of the experience.

Carter

But if you're busy lizards like. Yeah, I mean do they, they miss a shower. Do you think they want to get into copper bath and hang out for a bit?

Frank

It reminds me of people who are like friends of mine, like I have this friend who's an engineer and he's a, he's just a very practically minded person and so he just like, whenever his hair gets longer than an inch, he just buzzes it short because he never wants to have to think about haircuts. That sounds like the same kind of like mentality that a wizard, how it was just like, I'll just Prestidigitate it, I don't have to worry, but I'll just make like, you know, it's like the druid who's lazy and creates a good berries, which you just fill your stomach on that because they're too preoccupied with other stuff.

Carter

So you think that there are some wizard to enjoy aspects of bathing and so probably still do it or maybe do it, uh, you know, a rare treat

Frank

Carter are we seriously talking about the fanciful whims of wizards who decide whether that, you know what?

Carter

Welcome to the Illuvium Frank!

Frank

Yeah. I was going to say this is pretty much Lorekeepers right here. It like captured in essence, we have earnest conversations about whether wizards bathe

Carter

specifically in Halûme. Who knows what wizards do.

Frank

Alright, well I mean, you know, that's a great, great question. Maybe I'll see an article. You know, I'd actually like to see Carter. Yes. I challenge you to write a, a do wizards bathe by somebody. Somebody, somebody as though it was an article showing up in like a newspaper in a big city in Halûme and like recent investigation shows and interviews and. Yes, exactly. The Maronwatch gazette of like talking to some. Like we went to the Venenatus and a and asked some of the students who are currently occupied. There are currently taking classes. They're only a shocking 16% actually stated that they bathe. The difference between these numbers and the public is that while the publics are even lower than that, the wizard smelled considerably better. There you go. I think this is, this is one of those things really quick side now as far as uh, you know, one day we might have, who knows when we tell you what, when we get to episode 120 of Halûme, maybe we'll talk about like sewage and uh, and, and, and like sewage systems in the world of Halûme treatment plants and whatnot. But I've always pictured this as being more like quote unquote clean fantasy where it's like a, you have the technology, you have enchantments, you have magic, you have ways of getting clean on a regular basis and plus I think it's kind of a fallacy to look at history and say people didn't wash themselves. I feel like that was an era that we look at and obviously cities were smelly, but that's why, you know.

Carter

Yeah. But I mean some people didn't, didn't have the, you know, if you're in the city and you're poor probably didn't have a lot of money to go to the bathhouse.

Frank

Yeah. Yeah. No, I agree with that

Carter

agree with that. But of course you have like Rome and Greece where you have places of public, right? Public bath houses. I don't know if they cost anything. I'm not a, I'm not a classics scholar.

Frank

Yeah. I mean you might've had to be a citizen, which means like, you know, a landowning man. But I think they actually had ours for women as well. So they had to have. I mean, yeah. Come on. Anyways, dude, it's, we're 20 minutes in. What are we talking about this week?

Carter

Yeah, we're talking about the Illuvium and I'm pretty sure and uh, you know, smattering of Orconis in there.

Frank

Yeah. I may have mentioned that. Yeah. So this is the partner episode to our last one, just like Illuvium and the Orconis or our partners to each other sort of planarly early or you know, sort of siblings. Gosh, where do we start? What is the Illuvium? Golly, Gee, Frank.

Carter

Um, the Illuvium is a strange super saturate, super saturated like crazy Fey world where trees talk to you with their hoary branches and Fey tricksters tie your shoe laces together and turn your um, gold into flowers

Frank

or poop depending on the fey, depending on the fey. Like that's the thing. They're not just a, they're not just mischief makers that are all lighthearted and stuff. They can do some pretty sinister stuff that or, or maybe not sinister, but just things. It's like these are people who make it, who take pranks way too far. It's like, you know, the first person is like, let's, uh, let's, let's put, let's put, you know, do something funny. Let's put cups of water or crackers all over somebody's desk or something so that they go in, they just see it. It's just silly. Right? And then the other person's like, let's kill a chicken and spread its blood all over their rug. That'd be hilarious. It's sort of like a comeback prank, you know, they're the Illuvium in the denizens of the Illuvium or more on the other end of like, let's just go way off

Carter

slightly less macabre. But but still extreme,

Frank

not necessarily in killing a creature but more just like let's like take, like do like really do some damage with our prank.

Carter

Shall we start with the kind of the different. Shall we start with another adventure that pissed off a wizard or should we start with kind of the basic landscape or what?

Frank

Yeah, you know what Carter, I'm an adventurer. I've got a+1 magic bow and I've got some nice studded leather armor and maybe I've got a pet but not like a, not like a bear or something. Not something that can actually fight like just as like a cat. I've got, I've got a cat that comes with me.

Carter

Okay. So unfortunately I'm really pissed off a fey, like a, like a, like a centaur or something like that. So you find yourself on said centaur's back not knowing how you got there tied up hogtied your cat riding, not writing is my cat also hogtied because it'd be adorable here. Your cat is also hogtied and also impressive like a centaur that can hogtie a cat. It's a very centaur is known. The of the episode right there, there you go. And you see strange sights, you know, huge, massive trees casting, no shadow, but everything is twilight and vague and everything is bright. Yet it seems slightly darker than Sudar, what you're used to. The colors pop and there's strange smells in the air. It's like you've never smelled before.

Frank

So wait. So, so you mentioned, so you mentioned light in the sky, so, uh, or, or you mentioned light. Where's it coming from? Is it coming from the sky or is it coming from like the, just the world around me?

Carter

Uh, well, suffice to say that you cannot see the sky yet. It is, seems to be like coming from the world around you. Is it because the trees are in the way? Yes, the trees, the giant trees are in the way. Of course. How tall are these?

Frank

These giant trees. Are we talking like redwoods? Are we talking like a big oak in the front yard?

Carter

We're talking a little bit. A little bit of both. We see the redwoods, right? And we see them and they're big and they're a bit farther off, but you can still see them from, you know, the clearing slight clearings, you see this thick massive trunks. But you also see the big oaks, but there's nothing really small besides the slight undergrowth. Okay. And aside, undergrowth is a bit gnarly. We see crazy flowers, we see thorns, you know, but the thorns aren't, you know, brown and withering. They're like bright green and dripping with and like a little bit of a ooze

Frank

some sort of like poison or something or glistening with dew.

Carter

Uh, the pro, it's probably some type of a, what do they call that? A psychoactive agent.

Frank

Yes. Yeah, I was gonna say. Yeah. You know what? In the Illuvium it wouldn't be just pouring poison. It'd be like a drug that makes you like want to dance for several hours.

Carter

It's like super magic mushrooms.

Frank

Wow. It seems like a pretty crazy place to live. So where are we going? Are we on a trail right now? We just in the middle of the woods.

Carter

You are well traveled seemingly. And suddenly it opens up before you. And you see bright banners and a large tent. Okay. And all around you are more knowing doors, humans, even some elves and they're dressed up in strange costumes.

Frank

Wait, what? What? Okay. Wait, what am I so

Carter

taken? You are being taken seemingly to the great pet show.

Frank

Okay. So what is, what is that?

Carter

So in the Illuvium the, fey like to have some fun and one of their favorite activities is the semi biannual tri annual

Frank

tri annual festival of the great pes king Hespimorus' great pet show, King King, King Hespimorus great pet show. Okay. I like that. It's like, okay. First of all, who's Hespimorus and second of all we live in the world of fancy stuff and he's like the great pet show. That's like what he could come up with, which sounds about right, honestly, for whoever this guy is,

Carter

he is a strange fey king not belonging to either of the lodges. A lodge of twilight or the twilit lodge. And the lodge of the Dawn. The uh, do you mean the Dawn Palace? I do, yes.

Frank

Okay. Wait, now, now hold on for a second here. You're telling me that there's a king. So wait. Okay. So we've got the king. We've got this king Hespimorus, but we also have this, which is what you said, the lodging of twilight and the dawn palace. So why don't you break those down for this for a second, for the listener. So we've got this king Hespimorus first of all, where is, what is he king of

Carter

we're, no one's really sure what he's king of. Uh, the treants seem to listen to him as did the centaurs is and some of the other interesting Fey brownies and he calls himself king of the verdant court, but no one's entirely sure what that is.

Frank

It depends on who you ask. I think I feel like Aramander a well traveled cosmologists a, a, an adventurer of sorts. I seem to recall in one of his writings Aramander talking about, uh, the verdant court is being sort of, um, the domain of all trees and all flora of, of, of the, of, of Illuvium at treants and a dryads and satyrs and other things that have to do with that, that realm

Carter

that is according to Aramander, what this place is, but it's really kind of hard to pin down exactly where that is or if it does exist. The Illuvium is not a place where it can be like, oh, I know exactly where I am. Look at this map.

Frank

How do you mean? Like, why can't I just kind of like look down at a map and be like, oh, this inky blotch is where I am. And then this other one sketched out by a cartographer, you know, 10 years ago or whatever it like where I'm going.

Carter

Well it seems every map made is somehow incorrect. So either maps are unreliable or the Illuvium itself kind of moves.

Frank

I see. So you're saying like the landscape itself shifts over time.

Carter

It. That's it. That's it for the podcast.

Frank

Thanks for watching. Thanks everybody for listening. We're done. Um, that's, uh, that's it for ever. We're never doing this podcast again anymore.

Carter

welcome everybody to the ASMR podcast with Frank and everybody welcome to the Lorekeepers, this is a podcast please stop about world building or building. And we're talking this week about Illuvium. Amanda, currently Carter is a cringing inside as I bring it back to him so, Carter. Well, you have talked a little bit about the verdant court, but a what is the Dawn Palace and the lodging of twilight. And so the dawn palace is an interesting foil to the, the twilight lodge, or the lodging of twilight. There are many names for it. The Fey love making up names.

Frank

Yes. They are naming convention monsters.

Carter

Yes. So we have of have a strange picture. If you were to look at the Illuvium as like, um, uh, almost a spectrum. You see in the middle you have this verdant court and to the left you have the toilet lodge or twilight into the right, you have

Frank

the dawn palace of palace of dawn. It's the dawn palace right? And so

Carter

it generally follows that kind of rule that where if you're near the verdant court, you're not really near either the others

Frank

but it doesn't always. So, so why are you, they call these names, like what, like what's going on in the dawn palace versus the lodging of twilight that, you know, like why are these the important ones

Carter

you see, this is where the, the kind of Greater Fey hold their courts and hang out and they are kind of against each other in some way. They are the teams in which they prank against each other with Hespimorus is a kind of middle bit who just gets pranked by everybody.

Frank

Yeah. It sounds like Hespimorus like I, I'll, I think I'm just going to drop. The act Hespimorus, some levels like plays the, uh, the, the youngest sibling who is constantly caught in the crossfire of like, people just like messing around with them. They get picked or not picked on. But like, you know, monkey in the middle where I'm pranks are played on him because he's also very serious he's a very serious king. And uh, and like when, you know, the goofiness that, the insanity, like it's, it's not just that, that it's not just that the Illuvium is silly, it's more like, it's like almost mad, you know, in the same way that the mad hatter or like alice in wonderland is mad. It's sort of starts to call question into like, what is your idea of time or rhythm in life, you know, what, like, you know, things that you expect should be a certain way. Totally defy it. You know, a horse may, you know, that you see in, in Illuvium May, all of a sudden sudden start like walking up into the sky or you know, try. Yeah, try trotting up into the sky or it may talk to you or it's, you may turn around and it, you know, half of it's may have turned blue with weird little white dots on it or something like. And it's hard to say whether that's, you know, the coat of this animal or if it's just you freaking out, right? Yeah. For all you know, you can just be envisioning this. So anyways, like, alright, so we've got these three different forces and you were talking about the shifting of the landscape, what is okay. So like what is it like to travel from one to the other? Oh my, it's very, very dependent on

Carter

it is entirely a different experience every single time. However, one thing is typically the same and that's towards the dawn. It gets slightly brighter as terms of ambiance

Frank

on the ambient light. And as you go to the twilight, a lounge, the twilight lounge, the twilight lounge, which is coming, coming to a city near you, it gets slightly darker, is the only real way to discern which way you're going in any extent at all. Yeah. And so in, in the previous episode, which we were focusing more on a or Orconis, which is sort of the dark mirror to the uh, Illuvium, um, we mentioned that the gods created Illuvium and that or Orconis actually comes as the shadow of Illuvium. So there are no shadows for creatures or things that are in Illuvium because they were cut away and separated into their own world in or Orconis during the ashcurse. But, uh, but one of the things that's worth pointing out is that when the gods created Illuvium as sort of this enchanted mirror for Sudar to look at upon itself and, you know, regard itself the way that the gods see it as something beautiful and beloved, the, uh, one of the things worth noting is the fact that the, uh, the, the, the condition of the sky never changes, so like, or it's actually static and the sun seems to be perpetually in this location where there is no sun in the sky like, or Orconis. But the difference is there is light everywhere. It has all of the light that our Orconis doesn't and none of the shadows. Um, when you step into a, you know, when you step into, you know, one side of the realm, you know, you see the Dawn Palace, you see area around there. You know, the sun seems to be as though it was just over the edge of the world. You know, and if you keep on traveling east towards it, you know as though you're going towards the Dawn, you would see eventually the dawn palace, sort of like the quote unquote end of Illuvium and if you travel in the opposite direction and you keep going and going and going, you transitioned from dawn to dusk without ever really experiencing true daylight. There's sort of a, a strangeness in the air where it's like the air itself carries light, but even if you were to try and to be able to tech that, you do go through sort of a bioluminescent wonderland in the process and it's not like this is something that could be done over the course of, you know, days or something. This is like a month's long journey from one end to the other. A smart magicians are just going to figure out a way to portal from one side to the other. But the reason why you don't see this light in the sky is because of the fact that you have to travel through the deepwood of the Verdant court, which a Carter. You want to kind of break down what exactly is going on there with the transition? The deepwood is kind of where I'm going towards. We haven't really talked about that at all. It's just one of the many regions that you might find yourself in. And the Illuvium that is kind of considered a. is this the one that's kind of Hespimorus' domain? It is. I think thing that I was pointing out was sort of like the whole sea level change. You know what I'm talking about? No, sea level change. Oh, okay. So the whole like the Illuvium is a reflection of what I'm talking about now. Yeah. Yes, yes. This is one of the things that makes the feywild. So this is one of the things that makes Illuvium so bizarre. Sure.

Carter

So where there are oceans, sadar is just endless copse of trees in this forest. Really seemingly endless. Am I right in this reckoning? Yes you are. So it's easy, very, very easy to get lost in the Illuvium. But what's the strangest part is, is that you're never with. You're never far away from an interesting spectacle or one of the big major places because mortals tend to be drawn in by the Illuvium and taken to where the fey can play with them.

Frank

Yeah. This is one of the things that is actually kind of interesting about the environment is the fact that I'm even a well known travelers, like Aramander would explore areas like that and they even. They weren't sure whether it was the environment bending itself to them to sort of almost draw them towards interesting locations or because they didn't necessarily detect any of that effect on themselves. You know, they weren't feeling, oh, I should go this way. They just were going in a path and then ended up somewhere. But to elaborate on what I'm Carter was talking about with the deepwood. The thing that I find super interesting about it, and this is kind of something that you know, I, I really liked this idea was. I remember it was a long time ago, but I remember seeing a post on Reddit of somebody saying like, what if you replaced all the oceans with forests? But instead of simply just doing that, um, the sea level or like looking at what is sea level, zero feet was the top of every tree. And so as you walk further and imagine yourself walking down into the Atlantic and as you step away from the shore, the trees get taller and taller and taller. When you're on the shore, all you see is the tips of green trees. You know, off into this, often to the horizon there invariable, they're exactly the same height. But as you stepped down into it, they get deeper and deeper and taller until eventually you are looking at trees that are upwards of miles, miles, high, multiple miles high. Especially like when you are getting close to a place like the Marianas trench. And this idea was so potent to me, I was like, wait, we've got to capture this somewhere in the world of Halûme. And so in the Illuvium, um, this is the way it is. The love of the adoration of trees and of, of, of flora that beings like Hespimorus have makes it so that they created this entire environment or probably was given control over, like given, um, providence over a region where, you know, these trees reach massive heights. And I think one of the things that's most engaging about it is that this is where it is said the wild Gods reside is in the deepest parts of the wood. And don't forget, they're not just really tall. These things are girthy man. You and your words for describing trees, man, that you dropped the word hoary earlier. Like I know you're spelling it h o a r y, but excellent word. It is, and it's a great word. It's very evocative of like mystical oaks in England, countryside, you know, these hoary oaks and but you know, also super girthy, like really tall trees that are just like, they're not just a little thin trees. These trees are massive. These trees are the trees that you could. And many of the Illuvium have made homes and cities out of. Yeah. I was going to say some of these are probably big enough that you could create an entire, like city, like a neighborhood in the trunk of it. Oh my gosh. How have we never talked about that before? Like hollowing them out? These, some of these massive trees are shaping them, singing into them, you know, to kind of shape them around and make these rooms and things. Because I don't think most Fey would actually hurt a tree. I think even some of the ones with the lodging of twilight wouldn't do that if they don't want to piss off the treatments as well. Actually. Yeah, that's a good point. It's a purely pr, like on some level it's purely pragmatic. It's not even like a sense of beauty or whatever. It's just they're fucking trees and they're massive, but they're also awake. And if I was to cut into them they probably wouldn't like it. So they probably get permission, Hey, can we, uh, can we turn you into a city? Cool. But yeah, I mean like turning into like a vertical city of, of hundreds of you could have hundreds of stories in one tree. Uh, and each one is like a neighborhood and it's in its diameter. Wow. Like an arcology. Yes, exactly. Um, I'm so proud of you that you just used that word. Well, you know how I am with arcologies. I'm all about the, I guess I wasn't aware of your fascination with arcologies. Oh, we'll have that conversation some other time. Oh my gosh. But yeah. Uh, see now you got me all out of sorts. I'm thinking about arcologies. Yeah. I'm all revved, all revved and hard. No. Okay. I think what I was gonna say though is what, like a. Oh, just, just kind of finish this thought on the deepwood. It's not a, it's not necessarily dark though. Once again, there are no shadows so there is no darkness in, in, in the Illuvium, um, you do get a sense of the depth and the like, there is a deepness to, uh, to like when you're, when you're on the quote unquote ocean floor of the forest. But I think what I'd say is there's a ton of bioluminescence that makes up for it, you know, pretty much everything. Like everything from fungi to maybe even the trees themselves, just a little just motes of light, you know, sort of the presence of Illuvium itself seems to lend light wherever it is. You still look up and you can't see the edges of the trees, you know, but I don't think it's like a phase into darkness. I think it feys into sort of a strangeness.

Carter

Yeah. It's not necessarily the darkness, it's just like a, it's like a greyness less than a blackness, right?

Frank

Yeah. Yes.

Carter

And it's not that being, you know, in this deep forest is bright, right. There is, there is a light for sure and you can see, but it's, it's a strangeness and the Bright Colors all around you. And there are these plants that are giving off light.

Frank

Yeah. I think it's just hard to parse all the information like you're seeing so much. But like, I mean you look at any forest and you know, it's hard to spot a squirrel that's an a tree because it's brown and it like, it just blends in. Camouflage was everywhere. Even in a, in a world of bioluminescence

Carter

yeah. And not our tree is necessarily green, you know? Right. I'm sure there's the great-.

Frank

Oh yeah, it's got to be okay. But we kind of. So we said something earlier and we never really got back to it because I took us off track. You had been talking about the great pet pageant of Hespimorus. What the hell is that?

Carter

Well, it's simply that among the fey they enjoy things that are goofy, funny, and generally just kind of a little bit crazy. So someone thought up a good way to have some fun is to go kidnapping mortals, dressing them up and ridiculous things and parading them around for the fey to watch.

Frank

Well I think this was you who came up with this idea. It's so fucking good. Like it's so funny. So okay. So you just have like these heroes of time who I. I can totally picture like a centaur being like I have a quest, we have greater need of you. And the, the adventure of being like, of course I will do what is necessary for I will vanquish evil. And they're like, yes. There was a great concern that we must address and uh, I will show you exactly. Yeah. Follow me just over this way into this forest green. And then they go in there and they disappear and they arrive in Illuvium, which. Oh Dude, we gotta talk about the deepwoods, uh, implications with that because there's a whole thing there. Uh, but yeah, they pop up and like the next thing they know the staff of the centaur is being slammed against the back of their head and then they wake up and they're a tide hog-tied or their cat is hog tied and they're currently being ushered into essentially a euro vision.

Carter

It's your vision if you're using was even crazier.

Frank

Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Because I think honestly, I think more than anything else, I think that fey just bored or like they see life as something to make to, to like immolate Boredom is like to like for a benevolent person to kill evil, you know, it's like they see it as this like life passion of like we must never be bored and that is almost like a virtue. Yep.

Carter

He who he creates the best joke is truly the hero.

Frank

Right. So I get paraded around what happens to me after this whole pageant thing is done. It depends on how well you did a middling. Okay. I've always gotten B minuses in school.

Carter

Uh, if they don't think they can make you do better for the next pageant, they'll probably just let you go.

Frank

Okay.

Carter

But they might train you up for the next go around so you can really spin all those dinner plates. Oh really? It entirely depends on how they feel. If they think you're really funny looking and really if they just get your talent a little bit more, they can make it work.

Frank

Gosh. Gosh, what? Okay. We've got about potentially to like, I don't know. We're, we're, we're closing out here. What else do you want to talk about? Like I feel like there's a few things that was probably totally glazed over, so

Carter

we didn't talk about where king Hespimorus' crown is.

Frank

Well that's impossible. Carter,

Carter

why is that Frank? Because nobody knows. Surely it's on top of his head, right?

Frank

No, no. Unfortunately it is not. Carter, so

Carter

who took it, why did they take it? Frank?

Frank

Well, let me introduce you to Trisgolga Golga Golga the serious. She is one of the eminent pranksters of, uh, of, of the Illuvium now the Illuvium doesn't have God's not really, there are the wild gods, but they're more kind of like the avatars of the abstracts. And so there are associations more with like, um, the Etherium as a whole than it is necessarily being a, being to be patriot, although there you find the occasional warlock who seeks them out or the druids. But so, so the biggest players. Yes. The druids to the biggest players in the stage of Illuvium are the archfey and the elder Fey. So there are fey all sorts. Now fey is kind of a catch all term that I can't believe we haven't really talked about from here. Like I guess we kind of touched on it, but like centaur are considered fey. Fairies are fey satyrs are fey, dreads are fey, pretty much any creature you think of sort of like dreamlike or magical or something that seems to be in that same vein of the, of the mystical forest, you know, you could imagine there, you know, a hag living in sort of a, a tiny hut or something like that off in the woods or I'm a little sprite that constantly wants to fight everything or a will of the wisp or you know, things like that. Those are considered fey creatures. Trisgolga Golga Golga is an archfey and she is one of the well known renowned pranksters. Um, she since sort of time in memorial since her initiation, she has been playing pranks on both the Dawn Palace and the, uh, Lodging of Twilight alike and pretty much anybody else that she does so desires. And so of course when she saw Hespimorus and all of his, uh, stern seriousness taking everything so sternly serious, seriously stern. She of course had to fuck with the guy basically the long and the short of it is nobody can really pin it on her, but everybody knows who did it and Hespimorus has been trying to get that crown back since forever though. He'll never admit it. It's gone and he never admits it's gone. He just constantly comes up with like, like a excuses of, oh, it's currently on a pillow in my room, or I'm a, I'm not feeling to where the crown today. I'm wearing something else instead or it's getting cleaned, it's getting cleaned or I'm having a jeweler look at it even though it's made out of like thorns and stuff. Actually no, that's a little Messianic uh, probably not thorns, more like, like leaves, you know, ivy. Yeah, like golden leaves, copper ivs and things like that. That's more his style. Um, but yeah, no, it like disappeared and he woke up one day and he's like, wait, where's my crown? My, maybe it was that he was walking around and after several hours realized his crown was gone. Didn't know where it came from or like. When it ever left is that depends on when, when you ask an archfey and which archfey is the story, the, the important point is that this happened like some time ago and story is, uh, especially in the world of the Illuvium, like bounce around all the time when people come up with their own iterations, truth is seen as something more. I'm going to just preface this by saying that this is not a commentary on a alternative facts or fake news because I can't handle that bullshit. I'm just like, so over the presidency and whatnot and I'm just gonna say that honestly, but whatever. I'm welcome to Lorekeepers. Seriously. Lorekeepers after hours. So let's get this. Get down to the real shit now that I've had a beer. Got Really like, you know, really low tolerance for alcohol. Okay. Oh, um, no, I mean the, the, the long and the short of it is basically just that like for them in their world, truth kind of is subjective because things just shift and change before their eyes, like not even the landscape which we consider to be something so static. You know that even though technically it is roiling beneath our feet, it occurs over millions of years in our, you know, in the real world, but like for them not even that static, so the idea of something, anything being concrete or set in stone is absurd to them. So the fey, you know, just kind of trade stories. The story is more important than the truth for them. It's more of a, it's sort of like the light that shines through the truth, the thing, the reason why the truth exists in the first place. And so they're seeing that and they catch the story and then tell the story instead. And so for them anyways, all of that to say nobody really knows where his crown is though he is seeking it and sends many, many a warlock to find the crown. Oh yes. There are plenty of people who have gotten into a, gotten into bed with Hespimorus on what seemed to be a rather reasonable packed, but realize that was completely unfillable because he just demands for that. They find his crown and then when they don't he well, the it makes it so that they are no longer a part of the pact. Yup. So Gosh, I mean, I feel like there's probably other things we could touch on this dream madness. I mean seriously, like that itself could be a whole episode. What is dream madness? What does that mean? What does that imply? Um, I think it will suffice it just by saying that magic in Illuvium is different. It's almost more vibrant, more reactive, more alive than-little unpredictable. Seems to have its own will seems to have its own intent. I try and avoid using the word will because it's one of the abstracts, but yeah, it seems to have its own plan trigger[inaudible]. Um, is there anything else you want to talk about before we start closing out?

Carter

Um, I really like. I would like to explore the idea of, well, besides dream madness, because dream madness, this is cool, but magic in the Illuvium as something that is right is alive and something that, unlike Sudar, you can't really push it into your little spells and make it clean and expect it right. You should a fireball, you're like, oh, I know exactly how they've had fires and fire power. If you're not be. I know where it's gonna go. It's right there. And then. And the Illuvium and it's going to be twice as big. It's not gonna work at all. It might be purple and shootout. ICICLES.

Frank

Yeah. There is a tendency for wild magic to surge through you as you try and cast a spell in the Illuvium. The just crazy happen. Um, gosh, I think if there's anything that I would have to pick out of the last hour or so and kind of like pulled up is something interesting we're talking about. Um, I would say like, I, I kinda want to know more about the shifting landscape, you know, like explore that more. See what that, what it's actually like to, you know, on what scale is it shifting and does that mean that the city that I'm in just one day is in a different location or is that like my environment shifts around me? Is it literally like Earth elementals moving through the ground? Like what is that and what does it mean? What is it like for landscape to just change? Well, um, I think we'll just have to leave those for now. Uh, if you have any thoughts on those things. So go ahead and add us, you know, have@theLorekeepers on twitter. Um, otherwise I think that pretty much does it for tonight.

Carter

Okay. Yeah, so thanks for listening. We hope you've enjoyed this exploration to the lands of Sudar in the realms beyond and perhaps spend some good material to add to your own stories. You can reach us@theLorekeepers on twitter. Email us at the Lorekeeperspodcast@gmail.com

Frank

with both of those great places to drop your dank nugs to, uh, to tell us what you think of the episode or any questions you might have or anything you want to, uh, want us to talk about the next week. You can also follow us on itunes, stitcher, Google play, or almost wherever you listen to podcasts, including spotify. Unfortunately it looks like is really just given us a lot of trouble. Um, they have some, some high, they just, there's just reasons why we are not going to be able to upload to spot a soundcloud anymore unless. We hear, you know, people really like that, but if you do like us, don't only just tell us you want to listen to us on soundcloud. Also give us a five star rating, um, which, uh, helps, uh, a good amount to be seen in the, um, the massive web that is itunes podcast library. But even better than that, tell other people about us. Um, spread the word. Let your friends know about our little endeavor here.

Carter

Additional thanks to Josh Silker for his composition of land of heroes, the Lorekeepers theme. And thanks to you for listening to this. mad rambling.

Frank

Yes, and until next time, don't forget there are always more tales to tell. Thanks everybody. Bye. Bam. That was rough ending.