• The Beginning
• Welcome
• Rules
• Quick Start
• Make Your Profile
• Lore
• Helovia's History
• History of the Rift
• Seasons
• Riftian Glossary
• Geography
• Map of the Rift
• Frozen North
• Southern Seas
• Western Mists
• Eastern Flats
• Landmarks
• Systems
• Rift Force
• Prowess
• Fighting
• Stealing
• Invasions
• Breeding
• Herds
• Extras
• Trials
• Mutations
• Magic
• Companions
• Items
• Character Titles
• Credits

The eastern regions of the Rift, though deceptively flat, are far from lifeless. What may, at first, seem to stretch as a lifeless and monotonous landscape quickly reveals itself as a minefield of dangers and delights. Starting at the eastern coast with its heart as the Halcyon Flats, this absorbed land stretches inland as a desert. Any life that succeeds here must learn to hide in plain sight. As one passes through the edges of each land, they are shrouded in dim shadows and distorted light.

Caevoc the Crocodile God was a giant and magnificently intimidating creature when stretched into the Rift on the Halycon Flats. The impressive god survived the Rift’s wicked abduction by his innately protective skin and habits. A thick hide of scales that camouflaged with his surroundings as well as his endless, motionless patience hid him from the worst of the Rift’s wild devastation. So Caevoc found comfort in the mirages and apparitions of his endlessly flat, eastern home. Life sprouted from beneath the slides of his belly scutes and crawled out from beneath the shade of his massive, thick tail. In his flatlands, he could conceal and protect the life he inspired.

But, eventually the illusions and concealment that were Caevoc’s boon began to derange the god, leaving him plated in lies and delusions as he sought more and more power. Scales that were once a rich and beautiful green grew pale, the vibrance blanched as the god hoarded too much magic. His illusions, once colorful and vibrant, grew to be pale echos laced with a sickly, yellow energy. Imbued with madness, Caevoc and his Eastern Flats fell to the Helovian gods.

• Halcyon Flats - This heart began as the eye-tricking, beautiful tidal and salt flats that were the Caevoc’s home. Hiding abundant life just beyond a mirage, this land was filled with illusions and delightful surprises to tickle your thoughts and provoke the senses. Now, however, these endless flats have morphed into bright and fluorescent mirages as far as the eye can see. Don’t trust your eyes! For whatever they reveal to you is merely a ploy to trap you in the endless expanse of quicksands that now stretches this region’s empty heart. Of course, this quicksand isn’t quite like any other; anyone who touches it experiences hallucinations of all kinds.
  Pulled into the Rift: Year 945


• Mangrove Tidepools - Other than Halcyon’s salt flats, the remainder of the eastern coast has been pulled from a rocky and flat land, creating the perfect conditions for tidepools. These briny pools range in size from mere puddles to small lakes— but all are filled with a vast array of vividly fluorescent life washed in daily by the ocean’s unpredictable tides. Clinging to what little sandy soil is scattered among these craggy shores are clumps of mangroves. These hardy trees provide sheltered and shadowed roots for all manner of creatures and traveller alike.
  Pulled into the Rift: Year 723


• Tar Pits - A striking pinpoint of dark indigo-black stands out amid the east’s vast desert, marking the edges of a large tar pit. This small patch of sticky, deadly tar was saved from a world of the same make that was doomed to consume itself. Deep indigo tar fluoresces and hisses whenever it comes in contact with life. However, it does have a pungent scent to warn of its dangers. However, a large pool of slightly sour-tasting water collects here—one of the few sources of liquid in the desert.
  Pulled into the Rift: Year 900


• The Pinnacle - Quite out of place in the desert, the Pinnacle was clearly pulled from a rocky realm (and, perhaps, would have been appropriate in the Northern regions of the Rift). However, this monolith rises from the desert’s great dunes all alone. The massive, rocky eminence is sharp and jagged; the shifting sands uselessly try to overtake its soaring crown. However there is a single split in the giant mount that no sand dares to block: a great crevasse that spans vertically along its eastern wall. A bright, fluorescent blue light glows white-hot from this fissure. None know where it leads, for no brave soul that enters it ever returns.
  Pulled into the Rift: Year 583


• Halyven - To the north of the Eastern Flats rises a few, ivory spires. These remnants sit on a lone cluster of mountains that the Rift pulled along with the immaculately white city. Though, on closer inspection, these beautifully silver walls are crumbling and no life is found in this misplaced, stolen city. Only a single spire remains standing untouched by the destruction of time and greed. The remaining, ivory shadows are an eerie, strangely silent reminder of what great city the Rift pulled into its clutches.
  Pulled into the Rift: Year 1169


• Scint River - The lone, large, moving source of fresh water in the east is the Scint River. However, this is not a river from which one truly wishes to drink. In a mossy fold of land snakes the river of death, so pulled into the Rift later in the Rift’s existence as a source of power. The Scint River snakes from somewhere to the north of the Portal and to the Southern Seas. Warmth is frequently trapped between the gently rolling hills and thick vegetation, and with it, humidity, making it an at times unbearable place. A constant fog pervades this powerfully dangerous river. However, now only a thin scar of darkness marks where it ran, destroyed as it was by the foolhardy notions of Kisamoa trying to raise the dead.
  Pulled into the Rift: Year 503—Discared from the Rift: 1173

• Aster Scrub - A hardy and woody plant that may, under the right conditions, grow into a tree. It thrives in the harsh conditions of the east (dry, salty, hot, etc), and, with it’s thin dark leaves and peely bark, looks like rather sparse and inconspicuous ground cover. That is, until it blooms and reveals the source of its name: aster means ‘star’. Indeed, the blossoms of this shrub are bright white and shine with a metallic-silver light. Sharp petals flare out from the floret in the shape of a starburst. Though it rarely blooms, the aster scrub lights up in cold white starlight whenever it does.


• Bloodhart Flower - A morbid curiosity that blooms in the ruins of Halyven, the bloodhart flower is a vine which thrives in in unique conditions: shadowed roots and bright sun for its flowers. Thus, it can be seen sprouting from cracks in the ruined white walls while its bright green vine snakes towards bright sunlight. Blooming throughout the year, the bright red flowers are shaped as hearts and, at night, pulse with muted red light that it collects throughout the day. Though quite curious to look at, one wouldn’t be advised to consume the plant…


• Carycactus - The predominate cactus of the great desert, this tough plant grows quite large and tall in the desert (as if it were a cactus tree). Though it’s massive body and arms harbor sweet and watery flesh that call to any dessicated creature, beware its stickers! The carycactus’ spines are filled with a poison that, when injected in small doses merely cause a burning itch; but in large doses, cause a loss of consciousness. It is this that reveals how the carycactus grows so large: the tangled roots quickly emerge from the surface and leach all moisture from any living creature that spends too long in the shade of it’s thick, thorny branches.


• Darkberry Bush - The darkberry bush is aptly named: the entirety of the plant is pitch black. From roots to stem to leaves to berries, the shrub absorbs all light. Found only around the Tar Pits and their foul-smelling water, this plant is edible. However, due to its absorption of light, all parts grow quite hot and can easily cause blistering burns in the mouth.


• Flesh-Magnetic Red Algae - A curious algae, this reddish growth flows in and out of the tidepools all along the rocky eastern coast. Tending to bloom in late Scorch, this algae is inert as long as music flows through the air to ripple the water it lives in. However, beware being caught in a bloom without music, for in silence the Red Algae seeks out and infects any living, non-aquatic flesh. When infested in skin, it causes a grotesque red rash that itches terribly and lasts until the colder months. (Goatfairy)


• Knotty Mangroves - This singular species of mangrove dominates the swamps that surround the tidepools along the eastern coast. It appears like any normal red mangrove stand; however, the roots that poke above the surface of the water have the peculiar tendency to tie (and untie) themselves in knots. Although not truly dangerous unless a body part of a distracted traveller gets caught in a knot, it does make travelling in these swamps rather difficult and tedious.


• Prismatic Apple - This tree is scattered throughout the east, apparently having no predilection for soil, water, or temperature. Relatively rare, its pale green bark bright white leaves are easily spotted and identified in any location. This average-sized tree earns it name from its fruit: apples with white, opalescent skin whose flesh is a bright color of any in the spectrum. Naturally, one would want to eat such a fruit; however, consuming its flesh is quite unique. It alters the eyesight of the devourer to see only in shades of the apple’s flesh-color. The effect varies in length, sometimes lasting minutes while other times causing a permanent change.


• Rift Grape - A plant the grows both as a bush and vine, the Rift grape grows throughout the eastern lands. It does, though, require much water (salty or fresh), so it can only be found near the Tar Pits or other oases in the desert. Broad, wide leaves grow in green shades that vary depending on soil and water available to the plant. Its’ fruiting body, the grape, also varies in color. Despite its abundance, the plant is rather useless. The leaves are bitter and lack any real nutrition the grapes are slightly poisonous (usually causing a rather vicious colic/stomach-ache).


• Sour Succulent - True to its name, this small shrub is impossibly sour to the palate (and has the unfortunate consequence of making most things taste sour in the mouth for days afterwards). However, it is a good source of moisture in the desert, where it happily grows in relative abundance. Pale green leaves are thick and waxy, while a dark green stem is hardy, slightly woody, and spreads along the moistureless sands.


• Stubborn Sagebrush - A rapidly growing shrub, the stubborn sagebrush thrives in sparse patches throughout the flatlands of the east and has earned its name by the tenacity with which it clings to life. Indeed, this plant not only lives in harsh conditions, but it also is nearly impossible to eradicate once rooted. Dark grey-brown-green leaves appear to be coating in a hoary fuzz, and when crushed release a lovely and calming scent. When boiled, these leaves release antiseptic and analgesic properties.


• Feather Float - This oddity of a flower feeds solely on solar energy that it absorbs through its outer, elongated petals (which resemble feathers, thus its name). Its central petals possess razor-sharp edges that protect it from all but the most determined and daring herbivore from devouring is succulent, sweet center. The Feather Float does just that: it floats on magical currents around the great desert. Occasionally a wayward bloom can be found outside the desert, but these plants require so much solar energy that they don’t long survive. It’s uncertain how they reproduce, for they’ve no roots or pollen.

• Cobravi - This frightening creature dwells in the sand dunes of the desert. The snake’s scales are camouflaged with the color of sand, and it moves as a sidewinder across the hot sands. However, it has another unique way of avoiding the sand’s searing heat: its cobra-like hood extends down the length of its body, allowing it to glide on thermals from the tops of dunes. They can grow rather large (up to 3m), but have hollow bones to facilitate this gliding flight. Cobravis are somewhat venomous; however their venom is rather weak as it usually depends on ambushing its prey.


• Desert Walkers - This eerie monster of the desert is cousin to the Forest Walker, and equally as rare and unknown. Though, due to the dry and sunny environment, their skin is leathery and bronze colored. Two long tentacles serve as a tail to act as a counterbalance to its powerful hind limbs which allow it to sprint across hot desert sands. Forelimbs are pincher-like and end in claws and are lined in teeth… though none have survived a close encounter to tell what other properties lie in its massive jaws.


• Drinkers - Drinkers are massive, slow moving creatures of the desert with four great limbs and strange, upturned jaws. A thick, leathery hide protects them from losing water in the dry, unending heat. However, water is scarce in the scorching eastern desert; even the great rains of Drench cannot overcome the dryness of the sands. Thus, the giant Drinkers survive the desert’s desiccation by standing still throughout all of Drench’s rains. The reason for their strange, huge, and upturned jaws are revealed then: they open wide to collect water and store it in the massive pouches in their gullets for years. They survive on the algae and other flora that grows in the warm moisture of their pouches. Having very few predators due to their size and not needing to look for forage, they have small eyes with very poor eyesight.


• Fimalgo - The Fimalgo is an interesting bird of prey that lives in the Flats. Obtaining its alarming shade of pink by consuming mass amounts of Quarabs, the Fimalgo also has a taste for non-crustacean flesh. However, it is not an incredibly intelligent bird and so they may only truly hunt when in large flocks. Though, the Fimalgo does become a rather fearsome predator when in these large groups and they have been known to be able to fall even an equine with their combined sharp beaks and small talons. Alone, however, they pose little threat.


• Flauwka - Perhaps more plant than true creature, the Flawuka is a relatively stupid and common animal that lives in the salt flats. It survives on solar energy and the minerals dissolved in the briny water. Standing just slightly smaller than the average horse on tripod, slender legs with a metallic and nearly transparent solar sail that sprouts like a leaf from its back to harness meals from the sun’s limited light. Though it does have two relatively sharp, arm-like appendages, the Flauwka is sightless and thus can only wave them blindly towards any threats. The Flauwka is edible, though their meat is though and tastes as salty and metallic as the minerals it subsists on. .


• Flysh - Flashes of colorful iridescence both above and below the surface are the beloved Flysh, which are beta-like fish that live in both the tidepools and the mangroves, grow no larger than a hoof and come in a rainbow of colors. This curious (but often sassy) species never hesitates to investigate any creature that enters their territory; however, they are just as quick to land tickling nibbles to see if whatever (or whoever) enters may be apart of their opportunistic diets. Beware! Male Flysh grow increasingly territorial can land more painful bites with sharp teeth that grow in during mating season (early Drench)!


• Glimmer Birds - The gorgeous, gliding creatures obey the magical laws of the eastern lands in that they usually hover just within their own illusion. A small body, large head, and massive wings support this legless bird over the eastern flats, as well as a billowy third sail that extends from the crest of its head. Indeed, this creature is elusive to spot because its colorful skin morphs to match that of its surroundings. However, three bright spots along its wings are always reflective and occasionally glowing, which give Glimmer Birds away to any with a sharp eye. When not cloaked in their camouflage, the male birds’ leathery skin is a bright blue while the female’s are a deep and rich red. Like most creature in the east, they are opportunistic feeders; however, their size (roughly a massive eagle) makes them dangerous only to small foals.


• Musical Manatees - A species unique to the Rift, the manatees are trunked, limbed, and tusked. They will hum happily through the knotted roots of the mangrove swamps; however, as soon as their song stop, they will open their mouths to reveal their rows of sharp teeth and tusks. Very voracious carnivores, they will eat any living creature still found in the water. Despite having limbs, the cannot go on land as their sheer weight and mass would crush their lungs and heart. (Goatfairy).


• Nighura - A menace the east, this apex predator remains (thankfully) relatively small in population. However, what it lacks in numbers it makes up for in size. Standing at a massive 10m with the top of its crests’ horns, the Nighura is akin to a demonic and overgrown scorpion. A large head with glowing, orange, predatory eyes sits atop a long and recurved neck armored with spiked scutes. The males tend to be smaller than the females as they need to be nimble to to escape the cannibalistic post-mating rituals of the females. Additionally, the males have black points on their hellish pincers and scutes; while the females have pale grey points. Only the females’ bite is poisonous, though it is a weak poison; the males rely on the powerful crushing of their serrated pincers to obtain prey. They are opportunistic hunters, though have evolved to not need often meals due to the desert’s harsh climate.


• Protector - There is only one Protector. Very little is know about this great beast, other than what it looks like. A smooth and plated hide the color of pale sand with strong hind limbs and armored, two-toed forelimbs makes the beast that is nearly twice the size of the largest horse. Glowing tendrils of the same light that shines from the Pinnacle reveals this creature’s name and purpose: it guards the glowing entrance to the great mount.


• Quarab - A small, but prolific, crustaceans lives in the mangroves swamps, tide pools, and Flats. Those in the mangroves appear more drab in color; while those in the tide pools are tinged with brighter hues; and those of the Flats are a startling shade of pink. Great, large eyes aid in their nocturnal behavior; and, on full moons, these stout little crabs may harness the moon’s light between their antennae. Small, glowing tendrils of light glow to attract mates. Aside from their entertaining light show and amusing antics, these creatures are also a delicious delicacy.


• Rocotu - The Rocotu lives around the northern edges of the vast eastern desert. At first glance, this massive creature appears to be a mound of rounded boulders. However, on closer inspection (or movement by the Rocotu), it becomes apparent that these boulders are actually the thick, bony plates of the creatures’ skin. Strong, block jaws and flat teeth reveal that this great, hulking beasts subsists on dry, rough forages as well as some mineral-rich sands. The females live in bands, but during mating season the males round up harems. Also during mating season, the thick skin between the plates around the face flush to a deep red. Small eyes afford poor eyesight, so these creatures are easily startled; however, they are quicker to stand their ground rather than attack or flee.


• Sand Birds - Sand birds are named quite literally: they are elemental creatures that spend most of their lives dissolved into sand granules in the desert. However, they condenses from sand to ambush and eat unsuspecting insects and small reptiles, as well as to mate. They are medium sized falcons that generally avoid interacting with any other creature.


• Sand Leech - A plague and parasite of the east, the sand leech can occasionally be found in the southern sandy beaches as well. Sand colored skin and their small size (most merely a few centimeters in length) make them difficult to avoid in sandy environments; however, what they lack in size, they make up for in appetite. Less than then leeches can leave a large creature weak and anemic within hours. Though their round, toothy jaws are coated with an anesthetic saliva that prevents a victim from feeling their bite. However, once unlatched, their bites become painfully swollen and occasionally blister.


• Slime Dragons - A rarity of the tide pools, these small blue amphibian creature is (surprisingly) rather deadly. Firstly, its skin secretes a toxic slime that, in small doses, has psychedelic properties. Secondly, it harbors two sharp black spurs on its ventrum that inject a poison that is fatal even in minute doses. Luckily, this small creatures subsists on Quarabs and uses its poison for hunting them as well as for defense. So, though they are rare, take care where you step in the pools!


• Titans - Titans are massive and ancient beasts that surely arrived from Caevoc’s original world because they are camouflaged to the point of not being seen, unless fighting. Indeed, these great creatures are believed to live only in the mangrove swamps and salt flats, for that is when their earth shaking battles reveal them. Titans stand erect on two limbs, with great webbed claws at the end of both arms and legs. Towering over the tallest of trees, as their name implies, they attack each other with claws and jagged jaws that split their elongated, bony-browed skulls. It is assume they fight for mating, as males will fight other males to warn them out of their territory as well as fight females into submission in order to breed. Though, not much more is known about them as they remain unseen for the remainder of their lives. However, their battles - occurring once every few years - leave huge swaths of destroyed land in their wake.


• Touttle - A tortoise-like creature whose carapace has a remarkable affinity for attracting and holding onto things (particularly magical items). The Touttle is believed to be smaller cousins to the great turtle that supports the Floating Key. Though still slow, these creatures move rather fast for being in the turtle family. It is a herbivore and, as one would expect, is rather passive and aloof to others.


• Twogia - These tall, lanky creatures that prefer the northern reaches of the desert and the dry grasslands that stretch before the northern mountains. A leathery hide stretches over a sturdy, skeletal body. Copious grazers, they often leave barren wastelands in their wake. Luckily for the grasslands, they live only in small family groups that migrate over large areas.