Overview
The Varnhallow temporal anomaly is the national-scale temporal bubble that seals part of old Varnhallow inside altered time. It surrounds the region as a blue, iridescent temporal wall, blocks entry, and moves travelers to points in time misaligned with the surrounding world. Eltaru-Ninsath rules through the divine patriarchs and maintains the spell with Sigvariel and Horol'Khai.
The anomaly holds cities, armies, civilians, skyships, constructs, and displaced outsiders inside altered time. Varnhallow remains a country. Eltaru-Ninsath uses it as a time-locked staging ground.
Inside the anomaly, Varnhallow is Skarnheim's predecessor and a temporal country on Skarnheim's border.
Properties
- The barrier can stretch across the horizon and upward past sight, with the enclosed world temporally misaligned.
- Failed entry attempts can return the traveler to the starting point or leave the person unable to touch the barrier at all.
- Powerful temporal mages can open narrow breaches. Crossing the barrier can split travelers across different points in time.
- As Varnhallow destabilizes, timerifts erupt across the land. Rifts tear open, ground warps, sky vanishes in patches, and sections of land collapse into broken reality.
- The bubble affects gate magic at its edge. In Arcanis Village, Alistair moves a buried gate to the edge of the bubble and produces void-like reactions by lacing temporal essence around it.
History
During the Malverand era, Varnhallow exists as Sigvariel's province or domain, with Astralynne as its capital. After Uriandel's forces devastate Astralynne and seize northern Varnhallow, Astralem becomes the province's new capital.
Michael creates the anomaly with Sigvariel as part of a plan to gather and preserve an army capable of eliminating the remaining guardians before they can damage the world further. Michael, Sigvariel, and their strongest followers withdraw into the anomaly, leaving the Varnhallow remnant and Astralem behind.
Inside the bubble, time becomes difficult to measure against surrounding chronology. Eira, Kaelion, Jin, Kazehiro, Thalion, Aelius, Thea, Svanhild, Kren, Vianna, Virel, Zayren, Dorian, Rowenna, Aurelia, Maia, Zhang, and Lysander pass through Varnhallow at different points in the chain of events. They rise through the divine-patriarch hierarchy, investigate Eltaru, search for missing allies, or try to leave the anomaly.
Michael's plan depends on secrecy. He can guide people once they enter Varnhallow. Timerift displacements send outsiders into Varnhallow on their own. Raphael and Eliona later study the anomaly from surrounding regions, and Raphael coordinates a strike when the anomaly collapses.
When Thalion's armada exits the bubble into the world of the Malverand era, Astralem is Varnhallow's new capital and the future Rimvold of Skarnheim. Thalion renames the city Rimvold, declares independence from Malverand, and establishes Skarnheim around Rimvold and the remaining Varnhallow lands.
Collapse
The anomaly fails during the final collapse in Astralynne. At the Grand Court, Eltaru releases the spell holding Varnhallow together. The break sends Thalion's fleet into the world of the Malverand era near Rimvold. Deylin, Isaac, Virel, Zhang, and Anshar return near Arcanis Village after the barrier has vanished. The spell drains essence from the city and from people caught in its reach. Varnhallow breaks apart around timerifts, collapsing terrain, and a vast outer wall of void.
Michael is forced to break the spell after he, Sigurd, and Horol'Khai maintain Varnhallow's stability together.
After the collapse, routes once blocked by Varnhallow reopen. Former Varnhallow lands can be crossed as snowy mountains, pine forests, rivers, and untouched wilderness, and travelers speak of Varnhallow as broken, vanished, or stripped of its old country-form. Escapees from the anomaly travel with Thalion's armada and become part of the early Skarnheim and Order network; Varnhallow stops functioning as a country.
Scale and Aftereffects
The anomaly operates at national scale and exceeds Valrindor's time bubbles and timerifts. It isolates Varnhallow, projects timerift displacements toward Skarnheim, lets Varnhallow residents from the Malverand era meet Thalion's armada and later Valrindor travelers inside the bubble, gives the Varnhallow branch of the Order of Thalion Zenith its base under Michael's plan, and sends Thalion's armada into the Malverand era.
Horol'Khai weakens while maintaining Varnhallow, Eira is displaced, Michael enacts the Varnhallow plan, and timerifts and temporal-bubble spells later diminish.
Secrets and Mysteries
The collapse leaves Horol'Khai near the end of her existence.