The Lightwell

Introduction

The Lightwell is the magical phenomena created by the gods of light, built to contain the forces of darkness within the Fractured Lands. Commonly represented on maps as a vertical divide splitting the Expanse from North to South, the Lightwell actually rings the entire planet.

Beings “of the light” can pass through the near-invisible Lightwell without issue. This fact is what allows the treasure hunters of the world to venture into the Fractured Lands and return safely. Beings “of darkness” are not so lucky, and are irrevocably destroyed if they attempt to cross the Lightwell.

If things were that simple, treasure hunters would not be so highly paid. Hunters could simply flee to the Lightwell in the event of true danger. Naturally, things can’t be that easy. Something exists in the Fractured Lands that corrupts those that spend too much time there. Most hunters simply call it The Malaise. Most scholars believe that the Malaise is what prevents the banished creatures of the Fractured Lands from ever crossing the Lightwell. An adventurer infected with the Malaise can usually pass through the Lightwell, cleansing themselves of its taint in an excruciating and prolonged process. However, at some point, the Malaise could be too prevalent within the adventurer’s system, causing the Lightwell to destroy that hunter as though it were one of the banished.

The Truth

The Lightwell was not built to contain the forces of darkness - it was a failsafe built to contain the most powerful destructive force in the multiverse. Here is what you know so far:

The lightwell is frozen in mid-eruption by the Wolf in Shadow, committing your world to a time loop in order to give the planet even a small chance at preventing an extinction event. The agents of Catastrophe are uniquely skilled at influencing events and want anyone and everyone to leave the fractured lands untouched so they can find the dominion pearls and free the lesser evils trapped inside. When they succeed, Catastrophe breaks his cage and resets the loop earlier. The lightwell doesn’t kill people – but Catastrophe can absorb the lifeforce of those passing through, from either direction. The dominion-bonded seem immune to his power. He kills those leaving the fractured lands in order to perpetuate the lie. In the iterations where you don’t find the dominion pearl, you are often destroyed crossing back over the lightwell.