Ayekea
This article contains something which makes absolutely no logical sense, such as Nazi Zombie Mercenaries, Fucking Space Orangutans, anything written by a certain Irish leper or Robin Crud-ace, or Wizards of the Coast hiring the fucking Pinkertons over a children’s card game. If you proceed, consider yourself warned. |
AYEKEA is a plane of the multiverse devoted entirely to commerce. But counter to what one might expect of such a realm, it is structured in the most banally inconvenient way possible. The plane of AYEKEA is organized vertically and divided into layers as listed below. More layers are suspected to exist but no traveler to the plane has ever seen them.
The Maze: Residing at the top of the plane, the maze is a labyrinth of wonders. All the wares the plane has to offer are on display. But it is all illusion, nothing can be had here. Each item in the maze is marked with a address to where the desired item can be found in the layers below.
The Bazaar: Below the maze, the bazaar is another labyrinth. But where the maze is a neat and ordered place for presenting, the bazaar is a chaotic mess. It is piled with all manner of loose items of sufficiently small size and low value to not warrant being assigned an address in the crypt. Those who see an item of interest in the bazaar are advised to take it then, for finding it again is daunting.
The Crypt: Near the bottom of the plane, the crypt is a cavernous void stretching to infinity filled with towering rows of shelves. Nothing can be found in the crypt save by knowing where to search, for there is only row upon row of neatly stacked identical packages with confusing markings. Without an address, one could wander the crypt for decades and never find what they're looking for, but with an address the crypt becomes easily traversable and the sought object can be reached in minutes.
The Terminal: The terminal constitutes the entry and exit point of the plane, forming the lowest layer for the simple convenience that it is easier to lower something from the crypts than it is to raise it out of the crypts. Those arriving on the plane of AYEKEA are conveyed directly up to the maze.
In addition to the four layers there are two particular locations of note:
The Exchange: The exchange lies at the heart of the crypt. It is here that visitors of the plane come to conclude their business, before descending out of the crypts.
The Canteen: The canteen is found between the maze and the bazaar. It exists as a waystation for those who run low on provisions while wandering the twin labyrinths.
Denizens[edit]
The residents of the realm are the Ayekeans, a race of non-descript, blobby, paper-white, beady eyed humanoids with a cheery nature but an at-best iffy grasp on the common language. Indeed such is their cheerful nature that rather than make pretenses about their linguistic ability, they instead pantomime the instructions for their products and print them as picture books.
Technology[edit]
The Ayekeans have a preternatural, possibly instinctive ability at engineering, but it manifests in an unusual form. Once an object exceeds a certain size, the Ayekeans endeavor to make it flat. There is method to their madness, they do it as only flat or stackable things can be placed the crypt, which is much more efficient than the bazaar. Recognizing that people generally want their not-flat things to be not flat, the Ayekeans helpfully include a complimentary all-purpose deflattening tool where one would be needed.