a request from the settings team

[Candy]

What's with Deelor's Russian accent? Is there somewhere in Yliakum with more people that talk like that?

[Capprion]

i get that we are inside of a big rock pretty much.but what about things like fire...im sure at one time or another a rampaging fire has had to happen. no way to avoid it. even if not  we all still carry torches around build campfires use magic that makes heat and flame. with all of this smoke and gas why are we not choking to death?

water usually flows down, how has nobody ever followed the water up ( or down )? if it comes from the surface world im sure a kran or a klyros would have been a bit nosey at least once and went up-stream..

dwarf people are very diggy things. im amazed they have not dug their way into a bottomless pit or at least to the tip of our little rock. 

how is it we are all still in the dark that we are actually living inside of a very small space

[Dreamcrafter]

dwarf people are very diggy things. im amazed they have not dug their way into a bottomless pit or at least to the tip of our little rock. 

how is it we are all still in the dark that we are actually living inside of a very small space

I'm fairly sure that not only is this known, but that digging of that sort is highly illegal as a result...

[Lanarel]

The stalactite is just a theory, but digging is not allowed, just in case the theory is true. Or so I read somewhere.

[Candy]

with all of this smoke and gas why are we not choking to death?

Until this is answered, I'm assuming there are probably many entrances to the Stone Labyrinths that have been left unguarded (or possibly are too small to merit guarding), and those provide some ventilation.

[Prolix]

It might be that Xiosia has her eye on the environment and one of her magics is responsible.

[Dreamcrafter]

It might be that Xiosia has her eye on the environment and one of her magics is responsible.

Quite so.  I think it's quite appropriate for nature to have a few mysteries, after all...

[Zan]

how is it we are all still in the dark that we are actually living inside of a very small space

The gas can be diffused through the soil or crystal or vented through the many caverns that eventually connect to the upper world. Ventilation through a network of cracks, caves and whatnot also arises. A portion of it is caught in the rain and brought back down to the surface of Yliakum to keep the soil fertile.

Some more intelligent and influential Yliakeans do know we're inside a stalagtite of sorts, the general population is just oblivious to this. Also keep in mind that the space isn't that small from our character's point of view. In the middle ages people's world was also small compared to current knowledge but they just didn't have any means to communicate or travel further away.

Digging below the first level is strictly regulated by the Octarchy and forbidden most of the time. The first level is above the cave-level, where the stalagtite is still connected to the rocks that make up the cave so digging there won't easily lead you to the cavern.

The surface world would be far, far away .. without doubt several times the distance of Yliakum's 8 levels. Nobody is swimming that far upstream without tiring. They'd get tired and be flushed down again if there is a lack of resting places out of the water. Underground rivers also tend to be ice cold causing undercooling and I wouldn't recommend swimming in them for anyone. Following the water down will result into a long joyride to your death.

Basically the proportions are huge enough for nobody to bother finding out, there are more worrisome things happening inside the stalagtite and those that do know may want to keep a lid on it to prevent mass hysteria?

[MustangMR]

Wait.  Only a few people in this world know we're in a stalactite?  That seems highly unlikely.  Travelers coming from the Bronze Doors would spread the word that they could see the walls spreading up and over them.  I'm sure there are other zones to be built yet that will also reveal the underground/stalactite nature of the world they're in once they're built, such as the lower levels that would gradually decrease in size, which supposedly are there, just not in game yet.  We've had discussions on if the texture of the ceiling looked more like a cave or sky, and the opinion was that it was indeed a cave observable from all over the realm.  There are the holes they throw stuff down into that they supposedly know drops down inside an even bigger cave than the one they're living in.  The harder thing to explain is that giant crystal floating in the sky. 

I can understand not everyone having a solid understanding of what a stalactite was, but there are stalactites and stalagmites observable in the world.  Someone would have had to have said at some point, "We live in something like that, only bigger." and that would have spread throughout fast.  Plus, if they're believers in Talad or Laanx, the whole story would have been there.  Why hide it?  This doesn't seem like something that the select few would hold to themselves.  There's no source of power in it, in fact, if they want to stop people from getting resources at will, something people in power like to do, it would only make sense to tell everyone they are in a stalactite and they risk causing the collapse of the entire world if they continue digging for ore outside of their own special interests.  They have the perfect means of control over the populace's quest for resources.  They're not going to ruin that.

From a pure gaming perspective, the "living in a giant stalactite" was a main feature that has drawn me here to see how different PS could be, instead of the standard "live on a globe" environment.

It seems to me the cat is out of the bag.  The players make up most of the general populace, and they know and talk about it in game.  The NPC's should certainly have picked it up by now.

[Under the moon]

Everyone nowadays knows the story that Yliakum is in a stalactite. None alive have actually seen this with their own eyes. It is much like when the 'new world' was discovered in the exploring period of Earth. Everyone heard the tales, but most of the populations either thought they were stretched or did not care.

[Zan]

People laughed at the one that said the world is a round globe, people will laugh equally hard at the yliakean that says the world is a huge hollow stalagtite inside a much bigger world ... until eventually it may be accepted after more and more insights.

That we're living inside a cave is no secret though, that one is obvious but what it looks like outside that cave-world of ours .. now that's the unknown part. You can't tell from the inside perspective of a cave world that this cave world is located in a stalagtite hanging at the roof of a much bigger cave.

[MustangMR]

Okay, I see the diff between living in a cave and knowing it's a giant stalactite.  Didn't quite get that right in my first post.

I am intrigued by the idea that maybe the world isn't a stalactite, though maybe a little disappointed too.  PS was building from Daunte's Inferno, the x levels of the world, be it heaven, hell, or something in between.  There was something magical and different about that.  Don't know if any of you ever played Planescape:Torment (though I always kind of thought Planshift was partially inspired by Planescape), but that was a great game that took this different kind of approach.  When I first read the the lore of PS, it seemed pretty written in stone what had happened between Talad and Laanx and how they discovered and built the world of Yliakum.  It seems like there has been a backing off on this whole story by the settings team.  There seems to be a lot more question about what is going on, and if the whole thing is true or not, and that puts all the religions of PS as nothing more than myth.  If it's not a given that the world is in stalactite, then it's not a given that Talad or Laanx even exist.  If they don't, what other implications does that lead to?

I really wish someone would rewrite all the history sections of the website given what has developed.  There's just so much conflicting information there with what the settings teams seems to have moved the story too.  I know, time time time.  Maybe someday. 

Would it be possible to create a forum thread that links all the various threads and discussions that contain settings information?  That would make finding some of the information a little easier.  Lock the forum if you're worried about spoilers and only let the settings team post to it.  Just something that collects and stores it in one place. 

[Under the moon]

MustangMR, it is absolutely true that Yliakum is inside a giant stalactite. It is just that a lot of the residents of Yliakum might not completely believe it. It is an outrageous story/fact, and the shear scale makes it hard for the 'common man' to grasp. The Talad and Laanx story is also completely 'true'. So, your may lay your concerns in that area to rest.


For the rest, the mainsite has always been in conflict with itself. Changes are in the works, so do not despair. Someday may be sooner than you think.

[Gohra]

I think, the "history" with his creation of Yliakum should be more the mythologic genesis and will be only half-true. Because i found ingame books wich tells different stories. for example, the word "yliakum" was found on an old stone from the first settlements between unknown ruins, but who owned these ruins? Kran, Lemurs? Why there are ruins on Bronze Door Road, in nearly 800 years, ther should be some people who still remember what there was, espacially the Kran, who have a lifeperiod of up to 150 years, so thats only a few generations. I think it would be more intersting, if there is still the possibility of unknown old cultures, who knew the stonelabyrinths and Yliakum before. That must not be a break with the current story, because the Talad/Laanx text can be a story, in which most people believes and its told for centuries, but its like in the bible: Noone can tell, how the world was create and when.

So it would be funny, to create different theories or believings (atheism still exist) without a clear and only true is given Taht would make the society of Yliakum much more complex

[Crj]

Do the schools of Argan, Esteria and Lah’ar have connections to any religion in particular?  Where are they practiced? How do they get taught? Are there any important figures?
How dose this relate to the Ahrijani? What exactly is practiced/taught in the monastery of Ahrija Agat(what school?) What is the history of these schools and the monastery?

Haven't been ingame for some time(and now i cant get in), but last time i checked there was no information on these subjects.