A Newbie's Guide to Arashmaharr
Firmament:
The majority of the plane is made up of firmament, also known as the fabric of reality. Firmament is what you have in a universe before you have real time or space installed (or after you have it removed). Travel through firmament is a largely subjective experience, and depends on factors of intention and will far more than physics or even magic.
Travel through firmament is not good for humans, especially if unaccompanied; their subjective experience of time and space within it can be destructive to their sanity. Demons are better equipped to handle such matters.
Different areas in the firmament must be denoted by landmarks, found standing (not floating) in the infinite, arbitrary space. These landmarks are at consistent, subjectively reasonable distances from each other, but hold no absolute position or order--they are all roughly as close or as far from one as another of each other.
Firmament is divided into psuedorooms--each infinitely large, each discontinuous with each other. These (non)spaces must be left and entered through a specifically denoted exit, located by its position relative to a landmark--although this position is, again, subjective and not absolute. Sometimes these landmarks are actual doors, but others, such as the watercooler in the vengeance demon bullpen, define a 'center' near which an enormous number of entrances/exits can be located.
In most areas, it is more or less impossible to teleport into the plane and hit your target. (Teleporting out is okay.) Once lost in the darkness, almost impossible to find your way out or be found, although mental communication between demons can be used to beg for help. Areas not located in the firmament are strongly protected as well, except for locations specifically intended as entrances or exits.
Firmament is transparent and black. Landmarks are invisible in the darkness until they aren't. Firmament can be stood on, walked up or down, leaned against; things can be fastened to it or set on it in mid-air. There is no air or heat, but not, precisely, the absence of either, either. This can easily become fatal to humans as their minds begin to question the reality. Objects in firmament appear to be lit by a clear, strong white light with no source; objects cast no shadows, even on each other, without a seperate source of light.
Locations:
D'Hoffryn's office: Contains, at the minimum, a large triangular platform and crystal triangular screen used for scrying and teleporting in; it is keyed very protectively to D'Hoffryn himself and those he chooses to allow. There may be more to it. The exit is located at the narrow end of the triangle, away from the screen.
The bullpen: Demarked by a watercooler; all of the vengeance demon cubicles are located near this water cooler... all of them. (How many vengeance demons there are is hard to pin down--enough for the entire earth, but enough that it's still a small, friendly office. Again, demonic ideas of scale enter in.) There's also a bulletin board, and probably a copy room in the vicinity.
Vengeance demon cubicles are... cubicles. Despite attempts to the stamp their personalities on the space, it remains a cubicle.
The Well of Sorrows: This appears to be a natural cave with a rising, narrowing roof, lit as if by a shaft in the ceiling. Is it the last relic of Arashmaharr before it was remodeled?
Maybe. In the center of the room is a stone well--really a low wall around an apparently bottomless pit, from which the wails of the suffering and vengeful echo up. These cries cause physical and emotional pain in a listener--the more empathetic they are, the more pain. It is, however, harmless to vengeance demons; they have, essentially, calluses on their souls.
It has three doors--one into the firmament, one that adjoins to the file room, and one that adjoins to reception. There is a desk set-up here for those who monitor the well, and a phone.
Teleportation into the room will result in being sucked into the well. You do not want to be sucked into the well.
Reception: Technically part of the same caves as the well, Reception is the one general entrance and exit to Arashmaharr. A large archway into darkness provides entrance into the firmament; there is a smaller, hidden door into the Well, reserved for vengeance demons' use, and a third door that goes to a supply closet. There is a steel triangular plate to safe-guard incoming teleports and portals, similar to D'Hoffryn's but much larger, as well as a crack in the cave wall that leads out along a muddy path into shadows--they say it is theoretically possible to walk to Arashmaharr, if your desire for vengeance is strong enough.
The entrance is watched by Sssen, the guardian. Hundred-handed, reptilian and venomous, loves to talk about her broodchildren. She also answers the phones, although some overflow calls will go to the Well monitor's phone. There may be other guardians.
The File Room: Curiously non-Euclidean. The File Room is a sort of ever changing labyrinth, which is inevitable when you file things under mystical runes. The File Room is technically built on firmament and should operate by the same rules, but in practice, the presence of an arbitrarily-large number of identical filing cabinets makes it all too easy to lose your way.
Unlike most pseudo-rooms, the file room has a floor of black and white tiles, and a ceiling of white and black tiles.
Unseen, but real areas: Legal; Inhuman Resources; a Mailroom and mail-delivery beings of some kind. Others probably exist.
Unseen and possibly legendary areas, known to gossip: Some say there is a seashore, and assumably a sea, lost somewhere deep in the firmament. Other words sometimes muttered or overheard include the Scales and the Seals.
Notable NPCs:
All or nearly all vengeance demons are female. Personalities vary, but while D'Hoffryn likes violent and chaotic, he is not fond of cackling evil for its own sake. He tries to foster a culture focused on vengeance for its own sake, whatever the consequences.
He is also more fond of subtlety than brute force--always go for the pain, his recurring maxim. Again, to what extent this takes hold in an individual demon varies, but those who stray too far from the fold will be corrected. Nobody wants to wind up like Halfrek.
Sssen. A dragon with a hundred hands. Very, very dangerous. Likes to knit. A lot.
Setiolonce. Patron of the sexually-harassed. Red-headed, short, curvy and coolly superior. Tends towards the subtle; good with automata. Est 1964.
Loxtevyine. Patron of victims of genocide and war crimes. Black, angular, cheerful and homicidal. Very direct, very brutal, very new. Speaks a lot of languages and favors a machete. Wears glasses and a lot of rings. Sometimes called Tavi, her human name, or 'Tevyine. Est. 2004.
Eithsrani. Patron of customer service workers. Very busy around the holidays. Sometimes called Srani.
Lloyd. A vengeance demon who admired Willow Rosenberg's work. Very probably a human name. Possibly male? Maybe not.
As yet unnamed patron of those who hate themselves. Melancholy; grants a lot of 'I wish I was never born's. Chose this life to punish herself eternally for a failed suicide. Officiously professional, with a black joy in her work. Kind of creepy, even for a vengeance demon.
The majority of the plane is made up of firmament, also known as the fabric of reality. Firmament is what you have in a universe before you have real time or space installed (or after you have it removed). Travel through firmament is a largely subjective experience, and depends on factors of intention and will far more than physics or even magic.
Travel through firmament is not good for humans, especially if unaccompanied; their subjective experience of time and space within it can be destructive to their sanity. Demons are better equipped to handle such matters.
Different areas in the firmament must be denoted by landmarks, found standing (not floating) in the infinite, arbitrary space. These landmarks are at consistent, subjectively reasonable distances from each other, but hold no absolute position or order--they are all roughly as close or as far from one as another of each other.
Firmament is divided into psuedorooms--each infinitely large, each discontinuous with each other. These (non)spaces must be left and entered through a specifically denoted exit, located by its position relative to a landmark--although this position is, again, subjective and not absolute. Sometimes these landmarks are actual doors, but others, such as the watercooler in the vengeance demon bullpen, define a 'center' near which an enormous number of entrances/exits can be located.
In most areas, it is more or less impossible to teleport into the plane and hit your target. (Teleporting out is okay.) Once lost in the darkness, almost impossible to find your way out or be found, although mental communication between demons can be used to beg for help. Areas not located in the firmament are strongly protected as well, except for locations specifically intended as entrances or exits.
Firmament is transparent and black. Landmarks are invisible in the darkness until they aren't. Firmament can be stood on, walked up or down, leaned against; things can be fastened to it or set on it in mid-air. There is no air or heat, but not, precisely, the absence of either, either. This can easily become fatal to humans as their minds begin to question the reality. Objects in firmament appear to be lit by a clear, strong white light with no source; objects cast no shadows, even on each other, without a seperate source of light.
Locations:
D'Hoffryn's office: Contains, at the minimum, a large triangular platform and crystal triangular screen used for scrying and teleporting in; it is keyed very protectively to D'Hoffryn himself and those he chooses to allow. There may be more to it. The exit is located at the narrow end of the triangle, away from the screen.
The bullpen: Demarked by a watercooler; all of the vengeance demon cubicles are located near this water cooler... all of them. (How many vengeance demons there are is hard to pin down--enough for the entire earth, but enough that it's still a small, friendly office. Again, demonic ideas of scale enter in.) There's also a bulletin board, and probably a copy room in the vicinity.
Vengeance demon cubicles are... cubicles. Despite attempts to the stamp their personalities on the space, it remains a cubicle.
The Well of Sorrows: This appears to be a natural cave with a rising, narrowing roof, lit as if by a shaft in the ceiling. Is it the last relic of Arashmaharr before it was remodeled?
Maybe. In the center of the room is a stone well--really a low wall around an apparently bottomless pit, from which the wails of the suffering and vengeful echo up. These cries cause physical and emotional pain in a listener--the more empathetic they are, the more pain. It is, however, harmless to vengeance demons; they have, essentially, calluses on their souls.
It has three doors--one into the firmament, one that adjoins to the file room, and one that adjoins to reception. There is a desk set-up here for those who monitor the well, and a phone.
Teleportation into the room will result in being sucked into the well. You do not want to be sucked into the well.
Reception: Technically part of the same caves as the well, Reception is the one general entrance and exit to Arashmaharr. A large archway into darkness provides entrance into the firmament; there is a smaller, hidden door into the Well, reserved for vengeance demons' use, and a third door that goes to a supply closet. There is a steel triangular plate to safe-guard incoming teleports and portals, similar to D'Hoffryn's but much larger, as well as a crack in the cave wall that leads out along a muddy path into shadows--they say it is theoretically possible to walk to Arashmaharr, if your desire for vengeance is strong enough.
The entrance is watched by Sssen, the guardian. Hundred-handed, reptilian and venomous, loves to talk about her broodchildren. She also answers the phones, although some overflow calls will go to the Well monitor's phone. There may be other guardians.
The File Room: Curiously non-Euclidean. The File Room is a sort of ever changing labyrinth, which is inevitable when you file things under mystical runes. The File Room is technically built on firmament and should operate by the same rules, but in practice, the presence of an arbitrarily-large number of identical filing cabinets makes it all too easy to lose your way.
Unlike most pseudo-rooms, the file room has a floor of black and white tiles, and a ceiling of white and black tiles.
Unseen, but real areas: Legal; Inhuman Resources; a Mailroom and mail-delivery beings of some kind. Others probably exist.
Unseen and possibly legendary areas, known to gossip: Some say there is a seashore, and assumably a sea, lost somewhere deep in the firmament. Other words sometimes muttered or overheard include the Scales and the Seals.
Notable NPCs:
All or nearly all vengeance demons are female. Personalities vary, but while D'Hoffryn likes violent and chaotic, he is not fond of cackling evil for its own sake. He tries to foster a culture focused on vengeance for its own sake, whatever the consequences.
He is also more fond of subtlety than brute force--always go for the pain, his recurring maxim. Again, to what extent this takes hold in an individual demon varies, but those who stray too far from the fold will be corrected. Nobody wants to wind up like Halfrek.
Sssen. A dragon with a hundred hands. Very, very dangerous. Likes to knit. A lot.
Setiolonce. Patron of the sexually-harassed. Red-headed, short, curvy and coolly superior. Tends towards the subtle; good with automata. Est 1964.
Loxtevyine. Patron of victims of genocide and war crimes. Black, angular, cheerful and homicidal. Very direct, very brutal, very new. Speaks a lot of languages and favors a machete. Wears glasses and a lot of rings. Sometimes called Tavi, her human name, or 'Tevyine. Est. 2004.
Eithsrani. Patron of customer service workers. Very busy around the holidays. Sometimes called Srani.
Lloyd. A vengeance demon who admired Willow Rosenberg's work. Very probably a human name. Possibly male? Maybe not.
As yet unnamed patron of those who hate themselves. Melancholy; grants a lot of 'I wish I was never born's. Chose this life to punish herself eternally for a failed suicide. Officiously professional, with a black joy in her work. Kind of creepy, even for a vengeance demon.