Eyom is full of mysteries, not only to us, but also its own residents. This article is a collection of some of the most pressing and intriguing secrets of Eyom. Each of these are true mysteries, with cause, purpose, nature, or all of the above unknown.

These riddles have confounded scholars, adventurers, rulers, and citizens alike. Some are benign, some harmful, and a few are beneficial. Some are new, some are old, some are so ancient they are almost a matter of physics.

Anyone who can provide insight into one or more of these happenings, in whole or in part, may lay claim to the reward(s) listed alongside each of the following entries.

The Silver Judges

Reward: Land, Title, and Estate in a nation of your choosing.

Offered by: The Sovereigns of Sylvia, Norwik, Hellestria, Undermountain, Yasta, and the Shogunate.

The Silver Judges are either a group of entities, an entity with multiple bodies, or a singular bening with unfathomably elevated abilities. No matter what the Silver Judges are, they are more skilled with Illusion Magic than any known entities, and possess the capacity to alter reality at the most fundamental of levels to a far greater degree than even the Old Gods are reported to have been capable of. They use these powers in conjunction with one another to grant the wish of seemingly random individuals.

Every time anyone in Eyom sleeps, there is a small chance they will "awaken" within an impossibly large space consistently described as being an endless flat plane of finely polished cherry wood floor boards, with infinitely large stained glass windows placed an infinite distance away from them. There are 42 windows, each made from 137 glass shards, each of which is eternally shifting as if made from water, and constantly changing color as if drops of dye were being injected into them. The windows show moments in the dreamer's life, and beneath each window rests a judge's bench.

Behind each of these benches sits a faceless vaguely humanoid blob of mercury, or perhaps chrome. These are always wrapped in the robes of a judge appropriate to the dreamer's time and place, and each is emblazoned with a different rune in a language known to none. The runes are consistent, and presumed to be the names of the Silver Judges.

The Judges will review the dreamer's life in full up to that point, which all dreamers report feels as if it consumes several lifetimes. The dreamer will have access to a defendant, which always takes the form of a short, feminine, blond haired human-like individual who is so soft spoken and shy the dreamer cannot understand them.

The judges themselves serve as the prosecutors, bringing up every last misdeed committed by the dreamer, as well as to the dreamer. Most dreamers are judged "Unworthy", then awaken in their beds none the worse for wear. Occasionally, a dreamer is judged as "Worthy" by the Silver Judges, they are then granted one of their hearts desires, no matter how impossible or impossible it may be. When the dreamer awakens, the granted wish will have already manifested, and in many cases appears to overwrite the memories of everyone in the dreamer's life such that only the dreamer knows any change has occurred.

For the longest time, the Silver Judges were believed to simply review one's life, and grant them a wish if they met whatever criteria the Judges look for. However, in the last 200 years, several scholars studying the Judges determined their choices of Worthy Dreamers and what specific wishes they grant are not at all random. While the underlying mechanisms are yet unknown, there is a distinct pattern to what happens based on the wish granted.

Here is a chain of events covering 30 years of time within the city Damê-têgê Ye. 30 years ago, the Silver Judges granted the wish of one Lucthel ​Trëgfeshê, according to her, this transmuted her from an Iron Elf into a Kobold (According to historic record and arcane means, Lucthel ​Trëgfeshê has always been a Kobold, despite having existed for the lifespan of an elf of her age. This greatly exceeds the lifespan of a Kobold, a factor which matters here due to Lucthel ​having been provably born several Kobold lifetimes before the Kobolds obtained immortality.) Mere days after Lucthel's transformation, she was called upon to work on a new project by the Guildmaster herself. However, lacking her elven mental facilties, which were now that of a Kobold, Lucthel could not do as requested. No one could. The project fell through, and was abandoned.

The project would have created a teleport gate between the Iron Elven capital, and a small Jive Elf commune located deep in the heart of Lin Forest. The plan was to allow this remote group of Elves who happen to possess advanced mathematical knowledge to work with the Guild while not needing to leave their homes (A requirement due to mental disability creating a sharp phobia of the outdoors and travel within this particular elven family). With their help with advanced mathematics no longer on the table, the Guild was not able to continue development of a megaspell, and abandoned the project.

With the project abandoned, Wood Elven spies informed their masters the spell was no longer a threat as it was simply impossible to finish creating. This resulted in the Wood Elves dropping their own attempt to create a similar arcane weapon.

All of this seems quite coincidental, save that a year and a day after the Wood Elves abandoned their own attempts, another individual was judged by the Silver Judges, and wished to be a famous wizard. They proceed to wake up the following morning, and wrote out the exact spell, albeit compleated and castable, that the Guild had been attempting to create. The effective difference of Lucthel's wish on the world being the removal of a weapon of mass destruction from Elven hands, and its placement into the hands of Undermountain.

Each and every wish the Judges have granted alters the balance of power in Eyom. The consequences are focused exclusively in weapons development, infrastructure, logistics, and economics. The side effects are never anything more simple and mundane, like a romantic partner never having married the dreamer due to a change in their appearance or even sex. The only consequences are sharply focused yet large in scale events. Including the Constructi's rediscovery of the process by which their creators built their giant construct machines.

Information Accepted: What are the Judges? What is their plan? How do their powers work?

The Thing

Reward: One wish, granted by Tol herself. No strings attached.

Offered by: The Goddess Tol, Guardian of Lin Forest

In the year 212, the Goddess Tol left her forest for what she claimed was the first time. Even if it was not, she has not left Lin Forest again in all of recorded history. Tol walked to the deathbed of Emperor Silva the First, and after politely poking her eye up to the window, spoke to non-Goblins for the only time in recorded history. Her words, and the last words of Emperor Sylva the Great the are quoted below verbatim:

The object in question has been the subject of study eversince, and remains on display in the Sylvin University. The Thing primarily consists of a excavated dodecahedron constructed from an unknown material. The unknown material's physical properties consist of a surface so black the object appears to be a silhouette despite being a 3d shape. Sometimes. Other times it is so pearly white yet not be right it appears to be the focal point of a beam of light. Still other times it appears to be a grayish material with the texture of glass, yet the strength and rigidity of steel or soft cheese (depending on happenstance).

This Unknown Matrix's twelve faces contain stuff. Unfortunately, a better description cannot be made as each of the "cubbies" contain a different object, substance, or energy, some entirely known to modern science, arcana, and occult scholars. Each cubby is covered with a hermetically sealed lid, actuated by a knob in the center, and comprised of a translucent material which is both metallic and magnetic. The cubbies contents are as follows:

1. A thick black tar-like substance that smells like the mother of any given individual able to smell it.
1. It burns with a pure white flame, but is not consumed.
2. It tastes like strawberries, and will kill you within seconds.
3. It's very fun to mold into different shapes, and does not dry out.
4. Compartment 1 refills with this substance every 3 minutes. All existing substance can be put back into the compartment, regardless of total mass, up to 3000 liters (larger volumes not tested).
2. A mixture of aliphatic hydrocarbons suspended in a petroleum oil base with trace amounts of carbon dioxide.
1. Protects metal from rust and corrosion.
2. Displaces water from small crevices.
3. Dissolves rust.
4. Moderately effective as a lubricating oil.
5. Compartment 2 refills with up to 2 liters of this substance every 8.9 minutes if not filled.
3. Small metallic packets containing peanuts, and metallic cans openable via a tab containing a mediocre pale ale.
1. Compartment 3 refills with its refreshments every time it is opened, and contains 6 of each item.
4. Small cat-sized shoggoth like creatures.
1. Harmless.
2. Seem to enjoy knocking household items off ledges. Unlike items pushed by housecats, items pushed by the mini-shoggoth do not break on impact with the ground.
3. Serve no practical purpose.
4. Can bake snacks, but only snacks you dislike.
5. Compartment 4 dispences up to 4 of these at a time.
5. Empty.
1. The empty space has a mass of 2.2×10⁻²⁷ kg/m³
6. A blue ooze with no oder, texture, taste, nor perceptible mass.
1. The ooze has mass, and obeys gravity as expected of a thick slimy substance. But appears to have no weight when held, or placed on a scale.
2. Appears to have infinite functions and uses, but only while being observed by a single individual. In which case, the ooze can do a single thing for that individual, with no apparent limits. However, the moment the ooze is no longer paid attention to, or a second individual looks at the ooze, the effect stops. Often with catastrophic consequences.
3. The compartment always contains 80 ml of the ooze, even if ooze is extracted. It is as if the ooze is duplicated as it is pulled out of the cubby, with the original ooze never moving, nor even being touched.
7. Infinite copies of a seemingly endless variety of books written in a mixture of languages such that each word comes from a unique language.
1. Languages are never re-used within a single volume, but do appear in multiple volumes.
2. The language used for a given word is different between different copies of the same book.
3. Books appear to cover all known genres of fiction and nonfiction given the covers of those with cover art.
4. Many books are existing Eyomic books, but are translated into the myriad languages.
5. Attempting to use known works to translate the unknown languages inevitably drives the individual to drink.
8. A small hand mirror like object when when placed against any broken object displays a visual recording of the same individual (species and identity unknown) repairing the current problem with a similar object, while speaking in an unknown language.
1. Has no effect if no one in Eyom knows how to fix the object in question.
2. Frequency analysis has determined the individual's name is "Xifs'irhc".
9. A seemingly bottomless pit.
10. A small number of cylindrical objects, decorated with painted on runes. Purpose unknown.
11. An endless number of ordinary cotton blankets.
1. Blankets all measure 4x8 meters in size.
2. Most blankets are several layers of plush knit cotton.
3. 1:137 blankets are quilts.
4. All blankets are decorated in styles that are horribly outdated and look "old persony" at the time they are removed.
5. A constant supply of blankets can be removed from the Thing.
12. A device, which appears to be a radio transceiver and base station, fashioned from bronze, wood, rubber, and other Eyomicly available materials.
1. Device's materials are able to be sourced in the modern era, but not at the time the Thing was found.
2. The device's inturnals may contain exotic materials, it has never been opened or activated.

The Thing has several properties unrelated to its contents. The Thing occasionally moves of its own volition. Its locomotion is not magical in nature, nor does it have any observable means of moving through the natural processes by which it nonetheless moves. When it chooses to move, it often simply rolls to put a new compartment on the top face. Occasionally, it may choose to roll into a different room than the one in which it is presently located. Should this occur there are no barriers which can prevent it from doing so. Doors will open, straps will un-clip, locks will open, ropes will untie.

If the Thing is placed in a natural environment, the plantlife will bend to point towards it as if pushed by a gale force wind. If the Thing is placed in the center of a room, the room's temperature self-regulates to a comfortable temperature for all inhabitants, even if such a temperature cannot exist (Fire elementals, ice elementals, and mortals can be comfortable in the same room if the Thing is present).

Sometimes, the thing beeps. Only one person located nearby will hear the beeping, and the beeping will occur intermittently for up to 6 years. 30 minutes is the mean of the beeping durations.

Constructi feel vaguely shy around the Thing, and cannot articulate why. Rattu are generally infuriated by the Thing, but this could be due to not knowing what it is rather than a genuine effect of the thing.

According to various High Elder Priestesses of Tol, Tol found The Thing laying in her garden one afternoon. Apparently, no more than half a step from the bird bath.

Information Accepted: The name, function, or origin of the Thing.

The Edge of Nowhere

Reward: 50 tons of 24 carat gold.

Offered by: Nowhere Exploitation Ind. (A Radium Mining Corporation)

Nowhere, also known as the Maz Zlu Brushlands (Translation: Withered Crone), is a remote location in Eyom best known as a major source of radium. Radium is a base element that takes the form of a dull gray-black alkaline earth metal. It is a dangerous substance, projecting either a mundane or magical yet undetectable aura which harms living tissues by means not yet fully understood. Despite the danger, it is of extreme value for many industrial applications, especially the creation of large amounts of power. Many of Eyom's Galvanic Grids are powered by radium.

While there are other sources of Radium in Eyom as well as Zo in general, Nowhere is the largest known collection of radium deposits in all of Zo.

Nowhere is a paradoxical land. It is ostensibly under the domain of the Church of Labdism, yet if one were to travel there, Labdist priests are only found in the region's fortified settlements. The majority of the open country is under the dominion of the god Irus, who appointed perhaps his most trusted and closest of angels Potentate Aeyar Lóegartheus Klotusand, to the position of Potentate of Nowhere. Unlike the vast majority of Irus's divine retenue, Potentate Aeyar appears to genuinely care about their mission, as does Irus. The mission is simple: Keep Nowhere dangerous. Keep Nowhere from being settled.

This mission is by and large successful, with Nowhere containing but four settlements, each a fortified city. There are many farmers who live in the badlands, as well as some settlements too small to be mapped, but by and large, Nowhere is uninhabited.

Many people believe Irus is simply doing what he does normally, make seemingly arbitrary decisions and stick to them no matter what occurs. These people do not live in Nowhere. The residents of Nowhere know something is deeply wrong with the area arround Sentinel Hill, which just so happens to be in the center of the densest and largest radium deposite in Nowhere. The Potentate's efforts are focused most highly around this area. The monsters are primarily Iruslife in origin, the Potentate itself can be occasionally observed manifesting and preforming rituals, and very rarely, a group of Wood Elves will arrive at Sentinel Hill and seemingly sacrifice one of their own on a stone alter atop the hill. Investigation of the magics being preformed reveal them to be Abjuration magics of the 8th and 9th circle. Such magics being rare (if even rediscovered) raise many questions, but not as many questions as the sacrifices being preformed by summoners, and typically the sacrifice itself being a druid.

Regardless of what the Convent of Irus is doing on the hill, their actions are known, documented, accounted for, and explain none of the following:

• Corruption Surges: A phenomenon occurring in a 1.618 kilometer radius around Sentinel Hill (measured from the base of the hill at ground level), occuring every 187 minutes and 30 seconds. Each Surge begins, waxes to its full strength in 2 minutes and 42.5 seconds, maintains full strength for 4 minutes 59.4 seconds, then waxes over 3 minutes and 8.4 seconds.
1. As a Corruption Surge approaches, Constructs (including Z̚omani, Z̄amaqilu, and Sutosians) and Grey Elves become confused, loosing their short term memory. They will wander, confused, attempting to continue their general operations, but unable to process any new actions they have preformed, while maintaining prefect aware ness of all actions others have preformed. When he Surge reaches its peek, the Constructs will enter a state of unbridled madness with effects including:
1. Speaking in tongues (often Binaric, Hexic, or ASCII-9), all phrases are nonsense.
2. "Bleeding" oil from joints and orifices.
3. Random acts of dispassionate violence.
4. Temporary awakening of non-sapient constructs.
5. Radical perspective shifts.
6. Uncontrollable laughter.
2. Constructs are not guaranteed to return to normal after a surge. Many experienced permanent datacorruption of their core programming, and cannot be restored or repaired. These effects have manifested in organic people with construct replacement limbs or organs.
3. Magic items can experience malfunctions during a Surge, specific malfunctions are impossible to ascertain in advance, but autoactivations, matrix disruptions, and spontaneous energy releases are common. Occasionally the base enchantments can be corrupted, and fail to activate post surge. Some accounts report magic items having their enchantments swapped for other similar or even radically different events.
4. Mages experience a lighter form of the madness inflicted upon constructs, with sorcerers being the worst effected.
5. Kami caught in a Corruption Surge are vaporized, and do not respawn.
6. The Goddess Thekel once attempted to reach the hill. She was struck by a wave of terror and fled, and continues to believe that entering the general vicinity of the hill would annihilate her. She cannot be convinced otherwise.
7. The Goddess Illia attempted to explore and document the phenomenon. Once. She was able to reach the hill, reporting extreme pain and the feeling of being "discorporated" at an excruciatingly slow rate. She was caught in a Corruption Surge and spent several decades speaking in tongues, crying, and being largely unresponsive.
8. Other Divine beings have similar effects, with Potentate Aeyar stating he remains outside the "zone" for his work, and cannot go into detail as Irus has forbidden any to speak of "it".
9. The God Khristos is a lone exception, as he was able to enter the zone, endure a Surge, and reported a cavern in the hillside. He attempted to enter the cavern, only to burst into primordial flame. He was saved from destruction via an emergency teleportation to Divhime followed by a quintessence transfusion for Thekel.
• The Star Bleed: The area around Sentinel Hill appears to attract meteorites. A meteor roughly the size of a softball can be expected to strike the area roughly every 38 days. While these events are referred to as "starfalls" by locals. While perhaps related, the Star Bleed refers to the 8th of Longsun. Every year on this date at the peek of the Corruption Surge closest to noon, the sky dims as if there were an eclipse. The stars become visible, more so than any other time of the year, turn red, and begin to bleed. The bleeding takes the form of a red-brown rain which showers over the inner basin of Nowhere, while centered on Sentinel Hill the basin covers an area approximately 6 km in radius. The basic fills with a thick, oily, blood-like substance over the course of several hours. Once full, the basin begins to boil. The foam from the boiling bursts and dissolves into ozze-like replicants of monstrous creatures which will attack anything they encounter. The monsters last for nearly 3 hours, at which point the sky returns to normal, and the blood-lake and monsters vanish.
1. No trace of the blood or monsters remains once the sky brightens.
2. Magic cannot detect the phenomenon, and indicates all is well. However, anyone killed by the monsters, and any property damaged by them is truly harmed. Magic indicates the object or person was harmed by mundane means.
3. Meteor impacts covered by the blood lake have been known to transform into crystals, typically black, white, or green in color. The crystal has no apparent useful properties, nor any arcane signature.
• The Graveline: An invisible boundary which extends roughly 2km from the base of Sentinel Hill. Any undead crossing the line is immediately killed and cannot be resurrected, nor reanimated.
• Dopple Ooze: A monster known as Dopple Ooze can be found year round in rare circumstances around Sentinel Hill. It matches the red hue of the Star Bleed, and if observed, appears to be an ordinary ooze of red coloration. The ooze is able to take the appearnce, mannerisms, and seemingly core memories of anything it touches on contact. Originally believed to be intelligent, locals merely cast dispelling charms on game they killed to make sure it was not an ooze pretending to be a game animal. However, the ooze demonstrate a preference for not only replicating intelligent life, but replacing it, with several individuals (typically remote dwelling farmers) being proven to have been Dopple Oozes for several years. All of whom were working together on an exploration project for the Hill itself before being replaced, seemingly one by one.

Information Accepted: Concrete explanations of the goings on in the relevant location, or a means of defending against them, or a means of detecting a Dopple Ooze once shapeshifted without first killing it.