Tellus: On Geomancy And Planes

There have been many, many allusions so far in the writing for Tellus about 'elemental energies' and 'geomancy'. This may need some explaining, even if the idea is hardly original. The world of Tellus, this Planet (capital P) is a living and highly magical thing, as one would expect from a setting so steeped in drawing inspiration from the major JRPG franchises, especially Final Fantasy.

No True Outer Planes, But A Lot Of Odd Locales

Macalania Woods from FFX.

Tellus generally lacks Outer Planes of other settings. If there exist other realities, they are abstract. The Ethereal Plane, Plane of Shadow and Astral Plane exist because D&D spells are tied to their function but they aren't a distinct reality so much as another state of being/matter. The domain of deities and the eternal cycle of life and death are places no mortal can truly claim to have found. They are not places one can just teleport to.

Instead, since Tellus draws heavily upon JRPG it relies on specific locales where magical energies are (for whatever reason) naturally stronger and/or where they converge. There's a bit of a joke that JRPG have a bad habit (even today) of falling back on a very videogame-ey concept of 'the fire dungeon' and 'the ice dungeon'. This is mocked in the Grand List of Console RPG Clichés at number nine: "There's always a fire dungeon, an ice dungeon, a sewer maze, a misty forest, a derelict ghost ship, a mine, a glowing crystal maze, an ancient temple full of traps, a magic floating castle, and a technological dungeon." On Tellus, these areas are an expected part of the natural order. Some areas are naturally more attuned and imbued with raw elemental energies, creating some locales which would be wild and fantastical in other worlds. On Tellus they are relatively commonplace, even if their number is dwindling over time.

Harvesting Geomantic Locales

These Geomantic Locales are very similar in concept the Manifest Zones of Eberron: they are static locales which are known to be used by people to craft wonders of magic which are not found elsewhere. It is very common for settlements to have been built on weak Geomantic locales for the small benefit they bring and these are commonly integrated into the design of the town: giant trees are hollowed out and made into homes, a natural font of molten lava is turned into a great forge or the place where the energies of water and fire meet is used to harness steam-based technology.

There is a danger to the more potent locations: being a nexus of powerful energy makes them the natural home to creatures which, while not necessarily evil, are likely to be extremely hostile to anything that isn't native to the area. Many of these locales were once tamed and controlled by ancient civilizations but the march of history hasn't been kind to civilization and now many of these advanced magic acropolis have become nothing but twisted dungeons filled with monsters. How convenient.