Hello, Critical Hit fans. here we present part four of a dossier from the mysterious organization known as OVERSIGHT.
11 – The Knot
Geography
The Knot’s prime material world is one massive continent surrounded by unscalable mountains and criss-crossed by great rivers. Its climate is highly arid except for the areas adjacent to the rivers.
Astro-Mystical Features
The Knot has a large, raging, golden sun and a small blue moon; each are tied to a mirrored demiplane.
Demiplanes
- The Golden City is the realm of the Alfar, who are beautiful, powerful, hungry and selfish fey beings. They are mystically puissant and extremely volatile. It is believed that the constant, hot, dry climate in The Knot is caused by The Golden City’s influence over the sun.
- The Silver Fortress is the realm of the Ulfar, who are mysterious and largely unknown. They almost never venture into the prime material plane for fear that their cousins will find a way into their world. The Silver Fortress is tied to The Knot’s moon, but no one knows exactly how.
Unlike other vertices the Knot’s physical and mystical features, as well as the various cultures of its inhabitants are hugely influenced by their relationship with their demiplanes. Specifically with the Alfar, the creatures from The Golden City. Once The Golden City and The Silver Fortress were one plane, but the Ulfar separated their small section of it and warped it to “the other side” of the prime material plane, thus “knotting” it off and away from their cruel brethren, the Alfar.
Planar History and Anthropology
The sectioning off of the Silver Fortress from the Golden City is the single most important moment in the history of this plane. All major conflicts have been caused by the Alfar’s influence and all with the ultimate goal of somehow piercing through the prime material world to reach The Silver Fortress. Aside from this, the Alfar regularly appear on the prime material world to kidnap, harass or kill the mortal population.
Although the world of The Knot is vast and there are many cultures and races inhabiting it, the constant threat of the Alfar has created a lot of commonalities, it has also fostered trade and sharing of information. International conflicts are rare in The Knot, no one wants to be low on resources when the Alfar attack.
Railing Relevance: Low
The constant threat of the Alfar means the inhabitants are too busy fighting and hiding to develop inter-dimensional magical capabilities.
Case Worker: The Fourth-Oldest Inspector
10 – The Corpse
Geography
The corpse is composed of a single, barren continent surrounded by a cold fog.
Astro-Mystical Features
After [REDACTEDREDACTED] The Corpse was not completely destroyed, instead all life and natural processes were wiped out. The Corpse used to contain three demiplanes, but they no longer exist, some speculate that they have “drifted away” from the plane, but no evidence has been found to support this.
Demiplanes
None
Planar History and Anthropology
The Corpse is the only plane to have had a [REDACTEDREDACTEDREDACTED] and not disintegrate completely. Once it boasted many civilizations and a wealth of natural and magical resources, but today the plane is a lifeless desert.
Rail Relevance: None
There are no sentient creatures on The Corpse, so there is no risk of inter-vertex excursions.
Case Worker: None assigned. Every 100 years or so agents are sent to assess the plane.
4 Comments
Perhaps I’ve read too much of the SCP foundation wiki, but the use of REDACTED in the Corpse’s dossier has me equal parts terrified and excited to see what might be happening over there.
I am seriously scared what would have happened to the group, and Orem specifically if they’d accidentally gone to The Corpse. Would it be like one of those choose your own adventure books? “Orem and the party wake up in a dark cold desert and wander there for all eternity. THE END”
Reading these makes me come up with all kinds of theories for what Oversight is. Frankly, I think The Queen’s Rebellious Daughter was being extra dodgy with a certain question about if there had been any large-scale incursions from one vertex to another.
Generally speaking, organizations dedicated to prevention like this are created as a reactionary measure to something happening or almost happening (though this being a fantasy world, who knows).
Oversight is full of apparently immortal beings that constantly monitor the vertices. Each vertex has a dedicated case worker. Also, there are probably several free can and will kill people keep the various vertices separate.
I don’t think you’d put the amount of resources, manpower, and time into an organization like Oversight because you think something *might* happen. You make vertex separation a priority because something happened before and you want to prevent it from happening again.
Sorry, my post didn’t fill in completely. It should be “several free *workers that* can and will kill people…”