Pandiamonium

Pandiamonium is a default-avatared sim hosted on CR-3X. The word is a portmanteau of 'Pandia' and 'pandemonium'.

It's introduced a set of pendants that allow their wearers to switch between default and offline avatars. They're not inherently part of the sim despite being woven into it, though, and will persist as long as the sims the travellers enter allow.

Description

Pandiamonium is a world wrapped in the perpetual darkness of night, with a series of moons hung in perfect sequential alignment in the sky at all time. These are no astrological phenomena - these moons govern the very world the travellers move through with their supernatural, phase-based tides, each governing one aspect of the world, with only one of nine moons responsible for the swell of the oceans.

Periodic moons

Water

Grass

Clear

Gale

Torch

→
←

Water moon

The Water Moon has a nine day period. Its power is the one most familiar to us, though far more dramatic in effect than on Earth: When this Moon is full, oceans, lakes and rivers brim with water, whereas when the Moon is new, each of these is at best a puddle and more commonly simply a crusted, dry river bed.

The Water Moon's abstract appearance in the night sky is that of a perpetually swirling whirlpool (seen from the top) trapped within a glass ball. Its phases come from a luminescence from the clear water itself, making it a 'clockwork phase' - one that looks more like a pie chart progression (albeit smeared at the edges).

The surface of the Water Moon is, as one might expect, the surface of a massive ocean. While there is no whirlpool nor encasing glass, the water maintains its luminescent qualities even to a visitor, and there is a complex set of spiral glass tubes charting paths toward the moon's interior.

→
←

Grass moon

The Grass Moon takes six days to complete a phase cycle. Its power is over vegetation, at high tide swallowing whole cities beneath a tangle of lush flora and at low tide leaving a spatter of plantlife behind enough to populate a generous savanna. In that, it is one of the moons whose low tide does not try to fully destroy an attribute of Pandiamonium.

Upon Pandiamonium's night sky, the surface of the Grass Moon seems to be lit up by an external source of light, and the rich textures of massive, super-sized plants makes the moon truly deserve its title, appearing like an abstract jungle thicket stencilled into the firmament. Its phases are marked by the blooming or wilting of the plants upon it, following the classic moon phase shapes.

The true surface of the Grass Moon is a jungle so thick with foliage it's impossible to see the earthen ground, if it even exists. Massive birds fly above the canopies, taking unwitting travellers for a ride at a whim, occasionally hostile. There is no means to find the moon's core, but presumably its equivalent lies hidden somewhere within the thick foliage. The Grass Tide does not affect the moon itself.

In case it isn't obvious: Never set foot on this moon during a Blood Tide. I'm not even going to try to save your character if you do that.

→
←

Clear moon

The Clear Moon has a five day period and controls haze and fog on Pandiamonium. The newer the moon, the clearer the atmosphere of the mystical world.

In the sky, the clear moon is a simple, unmarred sphere, the phases of which are most like our own moon's, though without a rich texture to fringe the edges.

The true surface of the Clear Moon is the outside of onion layers of thin featureless solids only rarely punctured to allow passage to deeper layers. The hazards here come in the form of ghost-like apparitions of mist that can trap and poison the unprepared, that come and go with the Clear Tide, but are never entirely banished.

→
←

Gale moon

The Gale Moon takes seven days to cycle through all phases once. Its power is over the wind and storms, so that during high Gale Tide, the storms on Pandiamonium are intense and force travellers to seek shelter, and during low Gale Tide, no breeze can be felt.

The Gale Moon appears like a knot of clouds in Pandiamonium's night sky, with the repeating crackling of lightning defining the phases in shapes reminiscent of traditional moon phases.

The surface of the Gale moon offers little shelter to a visitor, consisting of chasms aligned with the strongest winds and mostly flat (albeit not featureless) landscapes. The greatest blessing here is the occasional tree. It's almost impossible to get anywhere on the Gale moon during a high Gale Tide, though, and it's best visited while the winds have abated.

→
←

Torch moon

The Torch Moon goes through its phases in four day intervals. Its Tide is bioluminescence, lighting up caves and the underbrush with the glow from fungi during high tide and dimming their output to none on low tide.

In Pandiamonium's sky, the Torch Moon appears much like a clump of compact sand, in the parts lit to denote the phase riddled with tightly packed pinpricks of subtly pulsing lights, much as if soaked by invisible waves full of noctilucales. The phase transition is surprisingly subtle for a moon of such short a period, and it's almost impossible to notice any change even if you stare at the moon for hours, simply because of how smooth the phase travels along it.

The Torch Moon's true surface to a traveller is a night-bound world awash with caverns, canyons, rotting trees and sandy beaches, each spattered with so much light that it's reminiscent of a cityscape. The Torch Moon is usually safe to visit, though during a high Torch Tide some places may be hard breathing for the sheer density of firefly clouds...

Again, don't go here during a Blood Moon unless you're suicidal.

Irregular moons

Rust

Crust

Cinder

Blood

The irregular moons usually have no effect on the world but when they are completely full, other than in potentially negligible amounts.

They are governed by the phases of the other moons and how they coincide.

(Note: These cannot be visited, hence they have no surface description.)

→
←

Rust moon

The Rust moon governs the tensile strength of materials. A high Rust Tide makes the strongest metals brittle, even damp wood snap as if rotted through, and sturdy rock run risk of crumbling.

The Rust moon works most like one of the periodic moons in that while its effects peak during high Rust Tide, the remaining days do have a bit of a gradient - things are sturdiest during a new Rust Moon, and slightly less so when the moon nears its full, then on the day of the full Rust Moon become unbearably brittle.

It looks like a highly textured, rusted spherical hunk of iron in Pandiamonium's sky. Its phase is as of our moon, simply from an outside source.

→
←

Crust moon

The Crust moon governs crystal and hard rock 'growth' over gashes in the landscape and areas visited or worked on by travellers, much like wounds healing. High Crust Tide does the healing, whereas days where the moon is not full permits whittling away at otherwise almost impossible and regenerating shells.

In Pandiamonium's sky, the Crust Moon bears semblance to a curled up armadillo or segmented insect. Like the Water Moon, it has a clockwork phase - in that the individual, radial segments light up depending on its phase.

→
←

Cinder moon

The Cinder moon is one of the catastrophe moons, governing fire and lava. Of the two disaster moons, the Cinder moon is more benign; while the earth does split open like a ripe fruit at various locations, sometimes without much warning, and forest fires are infinitely more easy to start and become a holocaust, the earth does not outright spew forth lava, making the hazard chiefly passive.

The fuller the moon, the more likely fires can get out of control, but much as with the Rust Moon, these effects are fairly subtle. It's the days of full Cinder Moons that are feared.

The Cinder Moon in Pandiamonium's sky looks like a dim star, flames licking outward like a corona occasionally, white with a hint of blue in its light. Its phase comes, unusually, not in the form of darkening, but in the form of a colour shift - flames will turn orange gradually as they are 'lit' by a phase, and a full Cinder Moon is a bright ball of orange-red fire.

→
←

Blood moon

The Blood moon is the second of the catastrophe moons, governing supernatural sentience. On full Blood moon, plantlife adopts the vibrancy and habits of an animal predator. While fauna similarly develops hyperactivity, most of it outright dies during a Blood Tide, either to floral activity or to exhaustion. Flexible materials like ropes may either simply begin to act as flora does, growing, branching out, spreading roots, or in some cases even as the Blood Tide flora, depending on context. Rocks also are imbued with the Blood Tide magic, though unless you lie down on one and fall asleep (in which case you'll wake up an hour later with your torso encased in it as if it was very slowly melting under you) they don't usually mark a hazard.

Immune to the Blood Tide are glass, plastic, steel, as well as sapient creatures, though latter are occasionally afflicted with madness if they are weak of will.

The blood moon has no effects unless it is full.

In Pandiamonium's sky, the Blood Moon looks akin to a ball made of a coiling serpent the head nor tail of which is ever visible, slow but perpetual in its motion. Its phase is a complex patchwork of scales on the serpent, like a dithered image. It is full when all scales are lit up and new when all are dim, with the stages between simply defined by area lit.

NPCs

Carapax

See also: Caparax's session history

Carapax is the Crust Moon guardian, quite fittingly rendered as an Ankylosaurus, though much as with the other Pandiamonium guardians comes with alterations. For one, his paws can extend fingers outward into a hand reminiscent of a human, the digits normally curled to a fist invisibly set into the fold of scales making his wrists when he walks, thus meaning he walks on the backs of his fingers. His extended fingers aren't very long, but they have an opposable thumb and let him handle things. Additionally, while it takes some effort, he can get up on his hindlegs and maintain the posture. Finally, he has sharper teeth than his extinct brethen and has no hard beak, but instead a far more expressive face that otherwise doesn't obviously deviate from the Ankylosaur template. His colour scheme is monochrome, with black armour plating and pure-hued eyes.

Dageraadar

See also: Dageraadar's session history

Dageraadar is the Torch Moon guardian and a jackal-headed and -tailed humanoid of spidery build, with long silver-lined claws and a thick mane of silver hair reaching down to below his shoulder-blades. His skin and the short, soft fur that covers it is a deep, dark blue that will adopt lightly glowing patterns during intense moods, matching the colour of his pupil-less eyes.

Kananmuna

See also: Kananmuna's session history

Kananmuna is the Clear Moon guardian and appears as a friendly human female of average height and build, with light brown hair, freckles and grey eyes, though she has an entirely inhuman ability to move swiftly and to climb, coupled with occasionally outright blinking out of visibility like a wisp of smoke.

Katabatia

Katabatia, the Gale Moon guardian, is a strange hybrid creature, chiefly a man-sized rendition of a wasp - but rather than the clear, flat wings of an insect, she has feathered wings, and rather than the usual facetted eyes of the insect that inspired her form, hers are expressive, with cat-like slitted pupils.

Despite the bright yellow warning colour of her 'furred' carapace, Katabatia tends to be a friendly creature unless provoked, at most with a mischievous streak, but usually presenting herself with a warm and welcoming exterior.

Natternholz

See also: Natternholz' session history

Natternholz is the Blood Moon guardian. Her appearance resembles a ferret that is silver-scaled instead of furred, size accordingly, though with a ridiculously long tail that she uses as a multi-purpose weapon - but not her only. For example, the scratch of her claws can bring with it a paralysing poison, and in speed she outpaces Kananmuna. In personality, though, she's quite forthcoming, friendly and playful, rather than aggressive, though this can easily change if you slight her.

Tagar

Tagar is the Rust Moon guardian and comes in the form of a large silver and rust-coloured western dragon with a solid skull and powerful jaws. He's one of the most straight-forward guardian avatars along with his 'brother' Yanardagar.

Despite being built for strength and accordingly more compact than graceful, he does have wings to fly with and does it quite well if prompted, though rarely exercises his ability to move much of anything.

Taskura

Taskura is the Water Moon guardian, coming in the form of a scorpion with a longer, more serpentine body than would be natural and with more legs, suggesting her design was partly influenced by a centipede. Her carapace is a glistening black, the multiple eyes set into it a clear and friendly blue.

Veranar

Veranar is the Grass Moon guardian and another humanoid. His legs remind of tree trunks in texture, though they bend just as well as normal human legs - if not better - and he can spawn roots abruptly to brace himself by anchoring himself into place. His build is thin and his skin smooth and slightly moist, almost as if he were an amphibian. The most jarring part of his appearance, however, is his hands, which don't so much end in fingers as in tentacles or vines so long that they drag along the floor.

Yanardagar

See also: Yanardagar's session history

Yanardagar is the Cinder Moon guardian and self-proclaimed brother of Tagar. He, too, comes in the form of a large dragon as Tagar does, built for strength instead of grace. His primary colour is black, spattered dark, deep orange in patterns similar to Tagar's. Like Tagar, he doesn't seem all to inclined to move much unless severely prompted. Despite his Moon, he has no fire breath, but hardly needs it - he has plenty physical strength and a thick hide that makes battle with him nearly impossible.

Yyasprakis

See also: Yyasprakis' session history

Yyasprakis (pronounced 'Ee-Yas-Prah-Kiss' with a short first syllable) is a spider-like golem with neither speech nor developed volition. It will listen to the commands of the Citizens unless such obedience would cause:

one of the Citizens to die
one of the guardians to be attacked
its own inevitable destruction in a situation where it isn't warranted

It can defend the Citizens from the guardians should a fight ensue, though, but mostly exists to help the less able-bodied across the wild landscape of Pandiamonium and protect from the worst of the catastrophe moons in as much as possible.

Yyasprakis' is about the height of an average ceiling at normal posture, while each outstretched limb is approximately three metres long and thick as a human torso near each joint, with the outermost segment tapering to a sharp, formiddable tip. Its motions are chiefly mechanical, giving it more of an impression of a machine. Conversely, it seems to have strong maternal instincts toward those its protects, and when idle will do whatever it deems suitable to fill that parental role.

It's quite possibly Yyasprakis may develop opinions over the course of the Citizens' visit to Pandiamonium.

People

James Deros // Kerras entered the network via Pandiamonium by dropping into the sim near Kananmuna's lair 2055-03-01.
Dread was trapped here on 2055-03-10, bringing with him the bitter reveal that everyone on the network is already a Puppet (something he realised on being digitalised, himself).
Lyra and Bob, the Ursa-twins, were trapped here on 2055-03-18.
Jeremy Mathieu // FlemTamer44, Echo Holbrook // The Sleeper and Apolline, the West Africa group, entered on 2055-03-30.

Name knowledge

Israel keeps trying to speak this world's name (and failing various degrees of horribly). Presumably, some people have noticed.

Node

Chimera links into this sim. Completing it dumps the participants into Camp Tumbling Milestone.

Activity

Newsletters and recaps

Interludes

Sessions

main group's first visit category: #412, #413, #415, #416, #417, #418, #419, #420, #421, #422, #423, #424, #425, #426, #427, #428, #430, #432, #433, #434, #435, #436, #437, #438, #439, #440, #443, #444, #445, #446, #447, #448, #449, #450, #451, #452, #453, #454, #455, #456, #457, #458, #459, #460, #461, #462, #463, #464, #467, #468, #469, #470, #471, #472, #474 and #491

Personal tools

Navigation

Search

Tools