The World

Pages on the concepts and locations related to the setting of Heartfall.

Magic

• The Celestial Gods. The five Gods whose Hearts orbit the Earth like crystalline moons. Humans pray to them, and in exchange, they send friendly gifts of blood, which gives humanity access to their Domains of magic. All the Celestial Gods were human once, and like humans, they will all die eventually.
  • The Grand Maker. The eldest of the extant Celestial Gods, she was once a master metalworker and now reigns over creation, craft, and transformation; but also destruction, disassembly, and unmaking.
  • The Star-Seeker. A scholar in life, they are now the God of knowledge, light, and perception; but also of secrecy, darkness, and occlusion.
  • The Warden-at-the-Gate. Once a humble stonemason, he rose to become the God of protection, defense, and duty; but also of piercing, attacking, and breaking through.
  • The Flower-Queen. The First Queen of Floracio, and now its foremost Goddess, she oversees growth, healing, and renewal; but also decay, deterioration, and beautiful endings. Eighteen years ago, her Divine reign ended, and her Heart split and fell, the Halves landing in East and West Floracio.
  • The Traveler Returning. The youngest of the Celestial Gods, he was a seafarer in life (or a pirate, as others claim). He is the God of journeys, exploration, and connection; but also of isolation and loss of direction.
• The Old One. The dead (or undead?) God of the Earth, whose Domain is nebulous and poorly-understood. It is associated with time, inevitability, suppression, downfall, and gravity. Unlike the Celestial Gods, it has no Heart in the sky, nor is it known what form it took in life... If ever it was alive at all.
• Heartfall. This is the term used to describe the death of Celestial Gods, in which their Hearts fall back to the Earth, often causing a minor magical cataclysm wherever they land.

Locations

The story of Heartfall is set in Floracio, an archipelago nation of diverse cultures and languages recently united under one Crown by the First Queen of Floracio, Queen Floriana de Medinilla I. Foreigners sometimes refer the Floracian archipelago as "the Shattered Isles."

• East Floracio. A large island on the East side of Floracio, from which the First Queen herself hailed, and which bears the Capital City, the seat of the Crown. The Medinilla family held supremacy over the whole region for at least a hundred years before the founding of Floracio.
  • The Capital. The walled Capital City of Floracio, the seat of the Crown's Power. In the years before Heartfall, it was an active port city.
  • Celestial Lake. The landing site of the Flourishing Half of the First Queen's Heart. It is a walled forest whose flora and fauna are permeated by the Flourishing Half's magic. At the center of the forest is a pond, formed by the filling up of the Flourishing Half's impact crater. It bears a shrine to the First Queen, and is a popular pilgrimage destination.
• Central Floracio. The scattered islands between East and West Floracio, whose allegiances to East or West vary from island-to-island. They are united by a strong seafaring tradition.
  • The Estrella Mine. Also known as "Vespera's Folly." An abandoned mine in which a disgraced lady scholar sought things best left forgotten.
• West Floracio. The Western region of Floracio, made up mainly of the largest of the archipelago's islands. The Princes and Princesses of the Western islands clashed bitterly with the Eastern Queens and Kings, before the whole archipelago was united under the First Queen's rule.
  • The Blighted Hollow. The landing site of the Withering Half of the First Queen's Heart. It is a swath of ashy gray land where nothing lives or grows, permeated by the magic of the Withering Half. It is the source of the Withering Sickness, and grows larger year by year.