Broken Patterns Reflections of Tir-na Nog'th Thanoria: The City of the Dead This is a city bordering on ruins and shrouded in darkness. The only light to grace the city is from the moon that periodically rises and falls over the city. No sun dwells here. The primary residents here are dark and lifeless beings, perhaps even undead. The King of Thanoria is a powerful necromancer, and arguably undead. In this shadow, the Broken Pattern is typically known as the Dark Well, the Nightwalk, or the Path of Despair. Somnus: The City of Dreams This is a fairly normal city, if a little run down, but appears to be inhabited largely by madmen and the stuff of dreams. Visitors to the city are often confronted with their greatest fantasies and their worst nightmares. Those that live in the city are often those who have either mastered their dreams, or been mastered by them. For the most part, dreams only please or torment their dreamers, but sometimes dreams escape… The Broken Pattern in Somnus is controlled by the Dreamlords, a council of mages who have mastered their dreams, and have perfected the art of sculpting the stuff of dreams. In this shadow, the Broken Pattern is known as the Mindforge. Argentum: The Cloud City The shadow of Argentum is much like the Smoke Ring of Larry Niven's The Integral Trees. The city of Argentum exists in a torus of gases surrounding a neutron star. There little to no solid land, but there does exist abundant flora and fauna adapted to a zero-gravity environment. Unlike Niven's book, there is currently a technological society existing here, with a "station" here. This can either be an old-fashioned "wheel" station that uses centrifugal force to simulate gravity, or else an advanced space station with artificial gravity. A Dune-esque setting might be particularly neat. Magic tends to be labeled "psionics" but is essentially the same thing. The Broken Pattern in this shadow is on one of the few pieces of solid ground, a floating "asteroid" in the Smoke Ring. Despite attempts of the society, the Broken Pattern loses power in the presence of significant gravity, or when taken from the environment of the Smoke Ring. So, one must "walk" the Broken Pattern in zero gravity, typically using some form of gripping tools, or something to generate a downward force towards the Broken Pattern. The Broken Pattern is housed inside this station, and set loose to float when someone wants to walk the Broken Pattern. In this shadow, the Broken Pattern is known as the Source or the Weirding Way. Reflections of Amber Acerbus: The Dark City This is a "modern" city, very similar to the 1920s in the United States, with a heavy industrial influence. I suppose this would qualify as a "steampunk" setting. The city is vast, sprawling, and dark, the type of place from which urban legends are abundant, and sometimes not so "legendary". Acerbus is the capital of a small but potent country, and beneath the main government building (in one of the few open places in the city), is the Broken Pattern, hidden from the world through a maze of steam tunnels and sewers. The rulers of this city are said to be parasites which take over the bodies of corpses. Or they may just be politicians. It's sometimes hard to tell. This is the Broken Pattern that Egon originally walked. Prior to the Patternfall, Weirmonken existed quite close to Acerbus and trade went on between the two shadows. The Broken Pattern here is known as either the Dark Well or the Cypher. Nedra: The Sylvan City This sylvan shadow is much like Arden, and the "city" is a giant tree which houses in its branches the Eldar and numerous other fae creatures. Beneath the roots of the tree is their Broken Pattern. In this shadow, the Broken Pattern is known as the Trod. Sol-na Reg'th: The City of the Sun This is another city in decay, it's primary inhabitants being the priests of Pheobus, a local sun god. The only building in good repair still is the main temple, which is strongly protected by its followers. The Broken Pattern in this shadow only appears when the sun is in the eastern horizon and shines through the latticework window in the eastern half of the temple. The Broken Pattern is formed by the contrast of light and darkness made by the sun shining through the window. It is there for a span of three hours each day (when the sky is clear), and shifts position slightly over the course of the day. Reflections of Rebma Merab: The Island Kingdom This shadow consists of a vast archipelago of islands. The inhabitants, though lacking in technology, have a very sophisticated culture, much like the old Hawai'ian and other Pacific Islands. The Broken Pattern in this shadow is located inside of a vast cavern under one of the main islands, but the only way into the chamber is through an underwater tunnel. The Broken Pattern, rather than being on the ground, is on the surface of this underground "lake", and one must swim through the lines of energy. Beram: The City of Mirrors This shadow, rather than reflecting the aquatic nature of Rebma, embodies instead the mulitude of mirrors found in Rebma. Every surface of the city is reflective, and the rulers of the city are master illusionists (Shroudlings?). The chamber of the Broken Pattern's most notable feature is that there is no visible Broken Pattern in the room, but there is a giant mirror lining the ceiling. The Broken Pattern can only be seen in its reflection, and not by looking at the actual Broken Pattern. Embra: The Lost City This is simply a sunken city at the bottom of an ocean in an otherwise normal shadow. Due to aquatic predators, and high water pressure, this city is largely unoccupied except by a sentient, aquatic race. This is a noticeably vague description for the shadow. Weakest of my ideas. There is likely some way to bypass the protection, but I haven't come up with one.