1: What is the Hearth?

In its simplest definition, the Hearth is an infinite dimension consisting primarily of varying forests on a flat terrain plane, with a pitch-black & featureless sky.

It is an external dimension to any existing universe, and is capable of pulling in matter & energy from other planes via unknown methods.


The Hearth's biomes tend to primarily be forests- tropical, temperate, boreal, even some containing more extreme conditions than the Earthen biomes it seems to base itself off of.

Other biomes have been recorded, such as deserts, mountain chains, and even oceans, though these tend to be quite sparsely occurring.



2: About the Hearth

Though the Hearth is a mysterious and hostile place, it is not completely unpredictable. Thanks to the effort of many, things like weather patterns, seasonal changes, and even wildlife, have slowly been catalogued.

Some common sights are as follows:

Hearthkeepers: 20 foot tall, spindly, bony creatures. Pitch-black skin strung tight around their bony frames, large lanterns for heads. Able to be killed somewhat easily by shattering their lights. Dead Hearthkeeper matter attracts other Hearthkeepers, regardless of distance.

“Wildlife”: Generally-applicable term for the various creatures found within the Hearth- often mutated, fused, chimeric, or anomalous forms of pre-existing wildlife from other worlds. Somehow, the vast majority are safe to eat, but some are dangerous predators, or flat-out inedible. The Hearth’s ecosystem is unstable.

Creakers: Inexplicable creaking, snapping, and similar sounds, always seeming to be right behind you. It has been determined that nothing physically dangerous is causing these sounds, though the potential of an extradimensional or invisible creature has not yet been ruled out. The leading hypothesis is that the sounds are meant as a deterrent, and that the creaking is likely caused by some manner of prey animal.

One of the most well-known features of the Hearth is the Scintillation, which is the term for pockets of corrupting material that occasionally appear and disappear throughout the Hearth, appearing as a black-and-gold shimmering mass, spreading across physical matter as a thin film. It is one of the few things in the Hearth that can kill you.

The Scintillation is capable of infecting living beings, causing excruciating pain, material degradation, and death within 32 hours if the Scintillation continues to spread across the body. It can only be treated by amputation, on flesh-and-blood/carbon-based creatures.



3: What are the "Rules of the Hearth"?

The Rules of the Hearth, as roughly determined by the first few Iterations to wind up here, are as follows:

  • Don’t let a Hearthkeeper catch you alone. Though their bodies are fragile, you, as an individual, cannot escape one’s clutches.
  • Don’t go near small patches of glowing light. Chances are, it’s either a Scintillation flare-up, or a bioluminescent predator.
  • Don’t trust people you don’t know. If you’re welcoming someone new to your camp, keep a constant eye on them. Sometimes, they might not even be real.
  • Be careful with your fires. If your campfire grows too large and spreads to nearby trees, flee immediately, before the landscape forces a rollback.
  • Keep a schedule. Despite the lack of a day/night cycle, you still need to rest- try digging around for any sort of timekeeping devices buried in the dirt.
  • Don’t eat or drink too much, if you don’t have to. Hunger and thirst are immensely slowed in the Hearth, your body produces no waste, and every bit of supplies is crucial.
  • Pack lightly, and hike together, if you have to go somewhere. The worst thing to be, in this place, is alone.


    • 4: Weather & Seasons of the Hearth

    Partially due to the sheer oddity of the dimension, but also due to the fact that it’s an infinitely-extending nearly-flat plane, the Hearth’s weather is unpredictable, and often violent.

    Piper Ataraxia developed a scale for Hearthian weather, and has spent lots of time studying these patterns, even managing to figure out a rough seasonal cycle.

    Seasons of the Hearth

    Each season is outlined with the following format: # - Name, Length in Hours, Temperature Average (F), Precipitation Type, Precipitation Intensity, Most Common Wildlife, and Special Notes.


    1 - "Warm"

  • Seasonal Length: ~1,250 hours
  • Temperature: 50-100 F
  • Precipitation Type: Rain, Rare Scintillating Weather Variants
  • Precipitation Intensity: Minimal
  • Common Wildlife: Aquatic
  • Special Notes: Wildfires may occur, and should be immediately extinguished if close to Basecamp.

    • 2 - "Foggy"

  • Seasonal Length: ~1,000 hours
  • Temperature: 40-80 F
  • Precipitation Type: Rain, Hail, Sleet, Rare Scintillating Weather Variants
  • Precipitation Intensity: Moderate
  • Common Wildlife: Predatory
  • Special Notes: High humidity, and lots of dew formation. Visibility is poor through most of the season- beware of predators.

    • 3 - "Anomalous"

  • Seasonal Length: ~500 hours
  • Temperature: Erratic / -10-140 F
  • Precipitation Type: Erratic / Rain, Scalding Rain, Freezing Rain, Hail, Sleet, Snow, Common Scintillating Weather Variants
  • Precipitation Intensity: Erratic / Varies heavily
  • Common Wildlife: Anomalous
  • Special Notes: Exercise extreme caution- conditions may change in seconds during the Anomalous season.

    • 4 - "Scintillating"

  • Seasonal Length: ~500 hours
  • Temperature: Erratic / -10-140 F
  • Precipitation Type: Scintillating Weather Variants
  • Precipitation Intensity: Moderate
  • Common Wildlife: Infected
  • Special Notes: Exercise extreme caution- patches of Scintillation are almost constantly forming and disappearing, all season long. Get off of it immediately, if you find yourself standing in it.

    • 5 - "Cold"

  • Seasonal Length: ~1,250 hours
  • Temperature: -20-40 F
  • Precipitation Type: Snow, Sleet, Hail, Freezing Rain, Rain, Rare Scintillating Weather Variants
  • Precipitation Intensity: Heavy
  • Common Wildlife: Aerial
  • Special Notes: High risk of windstorms & blizzards- this season has the highest average wind speed.

    • 6 - "Stormy"

  • Seasonal Length: ~1,000 hours
  • Temperature: 10-60 F
  • Precipitation Type: Rain, Snow, Sleet, Hail, Freezing Rain, Rare Scintillating Weather Variants
  • Precipitation Intensity: Very Heavy
  • Common Wildlife: Ground
  • Special Notes: Lightning strikes can occur- make sure your lightning rods are up, and your electronics are surge-protected.

    • Weather of the Hearth

    Some examples of weather in the Hearth, categorized by hazard level.


    HAZ-0

  • Calm Weather (Little wind, no risk)
  • Mild Temperatures (No health risk)
  • Clear Skies (No extreme weather risk)

    • HAZ-I

  • Windstorm (Potentially dangerous windspeeds may down tree limbs or blow out fires and spread embers)
  • Thick Fog (Dangerously low visibility)
  • Uncomfortable Temperatures (A little too hot, or too cold.)

    • HAZ-II

  • Thunderstorm (Risk of fires, extreme rainfall or snowfall)
  • Gravitational Fluctuations (From 0.4-1.2g at random, occasionally with small jolts upwards into the air.)
  • Snowstorm (Structural strain from heavy snow, frostbite and visibility risk)

    • HAZ-III

  • Scintillation (Rapidly-expanding patches of Scintillation spontaneously forming and disappearing.)
  • Anomalous Weather (Boiling rain, flash-freezing rain, etc.)
  • Anomalous Light Pillars (“Flash-Scintillation” anything inside them, thankfully only appearing in dark areas.)

    • HAZ-IV

  • Scintillating Rain (Any biological entities caught unprotected outside will rapidly suffer from the effects of the Scintillation.)
  • Meteor Shower (Impact craters likely, rollbacks possible.)
  • Extreme Wind (Structural damage possible, significant injury likely outside of structures)

    • HAZ-V

    HAZ-V is reserved for one event, and one event only- rollbacks. A rollback is the term for an event that occurs when the landscape experiences significant alteration to its surface, and undergoes a violent 'reset' due to these changes. Activities like digging and mining are completely safe, but logging must occur a significant distance from any inhabited areas, in case of rollbacks. Rollbacks themselves look like the entire landscape is upending and inverting itself, bursting violently into the sky, before rearranging and resettling into a completely new shape, sometimes even a whole new biome. There is no chance of survival if you’re caught off-guard by one.