Pelion
| Arborean Layer | |
|---|---|
| Order: | Third |
| Realms: | Amun-thys |
The third layer of Arborea is Pelion, a dusty place of blowing white sand. Not surprisingly, the elves call it Mithardir, "white dust." Pelion is temperate in most of its domains, but dust covers everything. Both Greek and elven pantheons have their own legends concerning other powers that once dwelt in these regions. On Mount Olympus, the legends tell that Pelion was once the realm of Ptah and all the Egyptian powers, but as their followers faded away and the number of petitioners dwindled, the realm suffered and finally withered away. The stories of the Seldarine say that it was the powers of the animals, lords of the beast cults, that once ruled over Pelion, but as the animal lords slowly lost the most vital parts of their realm to the Beastlands, they shifted their domain across borders until nothing but the badlands remained. Whichever tale holds the truth, the powers are now gone. Their realms and the treasures remain buried beneath the dust.
Few animals roam the dusty barrens; large predators stir up the dust and warn their pray, so they haunt the necropoli where stealth is easier. Vultures and buzzards are common, as are adders and scorpions, but the most common creatures of Pelion are small lizards, snakes, and desert rats.
The few plants of the layer are as white as the dust itself - white lotus, dust reed, and the tumbling lily. The are often spiny, woody, and brittle, as if they were decaying into dust themselves. These plants are usually found only within the realm of Amun-thys, generally near mud pools or where water lies close to the surface. A traveler sometimes finds a dried husk of one outside the realm, buried under the sands of Pelion.
Only one power is known to make her home here: Nephythys, the Egyptian goddess of wealth and the dead. Her interests in wealth and death (in this case, dead powers) combine perfectly with the plane, and her realm covers a wide and ever-changing area that her petitioners search for tombs, lost wealth, and lost spirits. Wise souls say that all the Egyptian gods once lived in this layer, but most of them have long since abandoned it. What creatures still live within this disintegrating land is unknown, even to the most adventurous.
| Arborean Layers |