What is at the Ends of the Earth?

[assault]

I'm thinking about creating a homebrew setting, and it's pretty much guaranteed that at some point somebody will catch a lift in the sun or the moon and travel to the end of the world and beyond.

 

The question is, then, what is at the end of the world?

 

I know this much: there is an ocean surrounding the land, which in turn surrounds the various seas. That defines the difference between "a sea" and "the ocean" in my world.

 

I think there might be land beyond the ocean as well, but I'm not sure, and I don't know what goes on where the earth meets the sky. And what's beyond the sky?

 

I do know there are gates that allow access to the underworld, because the sun and moon clearly need such access, and there has to be a way to keep the dead from returning. Presumably there are gate keepers as well.

 

I've got a vague notion of the geography of the underworld - it's an ancient Greek/Egyptian/Etruscan/Dantean mishmash, featuring a river which the sun and moon use to travel from the gates of dusk to the gates of dawn. But what's under the underworld?

 

Any ideas? Yes, I've read Terry Pratchett, and Googled "flat earth" and so on. I've also read The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, which comes fairly close to what I want, but I'm not quite sold on its description.

 

The edge of the world is definitely the kind of place PCs would go. It's like the underworld - you can't keep them away from it once they can visit it and come back again alive. And yes, hitching a lift in the sun is definitely something to do. If you do it right, you can catch the sun into the underworld, adventure in the underworld, and catch the moon to get back home.

 

I didn't say it was safe or easy, though, did I?

[Narf the Mouse]

Re: What is at the Ends of the Earth?

 

Just because the world is flat, doesn't mean the world has edges.

 

Minecraft. (ok, technically the world gets crazy if you go far enough to confuse the pRNG, but...)

[Captain Obvious]

Re: What is at the Ends of the Earth?

 

The world cuts off sharply, with primeval chaos swirling over the edge. The cliffside dropping off into eternity is populated by humongous spiders and other monsters heavy with symbolism, with unknowable, eldritch things lurking further down. Everyone knows that.

[Lucius]

Re: What is at the Ends of the Earth?

 

Endless Ocean.

 

To the West, an enormous whirlpool draws water down into the Underworld. This is the path taken by the Sun and the Moon and also the souls of mortals after death.

 

The water drawn through this vortex upwells into the Underworld, which is the other side of the world's disk, and flows across the Underworld as a great River. After that dizzying passage, it may not be obvious to the heroes that their orientation is now reversed; that the world they left behind is now under their feet, even though they stand under the feet of everyone they left behind in the Land of the Living.

 

There may be clues; perhaps the trees seem bare and barren until they realize they are seeing the roots, and if they dig they discover the leaves, flowers, and fruits.

 

There may be gatekeepers where the vortex spews them up, there to prevent intrusion by mortals still wearing their flesh or other invaders.

 

The River flows across the Underworld and eventually ends in another vortex that opens on the Eastern edge of the world. This vortex is the gate of Dawn, where the sun and moon return to the familiar world, and souls return to take up the mantle of flesh. Here again there may be gatekeepers who challenge all who come from below.

 

This is why women in childbirth are turned to face East, and why mourners at funerals face West to give their farewells.

 

 

If one sails beyond, Ocean grows gradually colder, until one comes to a fogbound place of packed ice; such surrounds Ocean in all directions. Intrepid voyagers who manage to pass this band of eternal ice find open Ocean again, and eventually, another island world with its own Sun and perhaps Moon, or even multiples of either or each, its own Vortex Gates, and creatures and peoples entirely new and strange. The Ocean is infinite, and contains worlds without number.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

Copyright Palindromedary Enterprises

[Manic Typist]

Re: What is at the Ends of the Earth?

 

Very nice. Only thing I'd suggest is monsters living in the ice bands...

[Christopher]

Re: What is at the Ends of the Earth?

 

If you want a truly unusual world-shape, take the game septerra core:

 

In short:

Seven layers or orbits of continents, with each continent more or less "floating" in it's orbit/shell.

[sinanju]

Re: What is at the Ends of the Earth?

 

If you truly travel to "the ends of the earth" you find...a wall. You can actually reach out and touch the sky. And if you dig through it? Assuming you're able, eventually you'd breach the barrier that separates the world as you know it from the primordial chaos from which all else was created. And it will pour in, instantly dissolving anything and anyone it touches until and unless The Powers That Be who created this sanctuary of permanence can fight a battle to push back the primal chaos and reestablish the boundary.

 

 

And you need to read Steven Brust's "To Reign In Hell." My all-time favorite fantasy novel, and (whether anyone else ever knows it or not) the fundamental cosmology of any fantasy world I'll ever run. In it, "the universe was without form, and void"...until Yahweh sprang into existence spontaneously (in an infinite sea of chaos, anything is possible eventually...) and managed to carve out a tiny sphere of stability instead of instantly being swamped in chaos again and vanishing. Eventually he was joined by others, and they worked together to create Heaven, i.e., a much larger realm where the threat of chaos was held at bay. Mostly. But even there, chaos occasionally burst through and battles were fought against; some died, others were permanently transformed, for good or ill.

 

Eventually they decided that a more permanent fix was needed, and decided to create the universe. But it would be a very risky, very dangerous undertaking, and many of the denizens of Heaven would undoubtedly die in the process. Not all of them liked that idea. Discussion, argument and politicking followed, as well as treachery, miscommunication and a tragic conflict that is the subject of the novel.

[dmjalund]

Re: What is at the Ends of the Earth?

 

I thought if you broached the sky (the proverbial firmament) you would access the large body of water let loose to create Noah's flood