Parabola

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"A hot, orange sun hovering low in a real sky. Tangles of green foliage and the sounds of nature; little tickings and chirpings. Here and there, though, are man-made shapes and shiny surfaces; straight lines and right angles - empty frames."

Parabola is the realm of dreams, located beyond mirrors.

Beyond the Mirrors

"Delicate, intricate friezes are still visible on some of the walls. There is a subtle mathematics in the abstract patterns, and a vivid energy in the figures. With one finger you trace the curve of a parabola."

A Silverer.

Parabola is most commonly accessed via prisoner's honey, the preferred drug of the Neath - though one may also enter by physically passing through a mirror that has been daubed with prisoner's honey, and there will be another known entry point in Irem that requires no honey at all. Outside of the Neath, Parabola can be accessed from the Surface through specific means. A young Leopold was transported to Parabola from the Surface after an encounter with an Exile's Rose, the flower from which Prisoner's Honey is produced; and the people of Karakorum were able to visit Parabola before the Fall of the Fourth City.

Parabola is not just a dreamscape, but also the wellspring of creativity, memory, and inspiration. Without it, there would no imagination, and subsequently no innovation or art. Those who enter Parabola using prisoner's honey disappear from the physical world during their stay, reappearing exactly where they left after a variable amount of time. It is possible for a honey-sipper's body to return before their mind does, leaving them in a honey-mazed state - a form of intoxication that superficially resembles drunkenness.

Those who enter Parabola are greeted by a vibrant forest under an orange false-sun, populated by strange and talkative wildlife. Of note are the cats, who take the form of predatory big cats in Parabola but have the voices of the smaller talking cats back in London. Parabola does have a day and night cycle, and the Parabolan moon contains the image of a cat. Objects and animals can be taken out of Parabola and into physical reality. Certain objects taken from dreams, like coins and jewels, have odd properties and are ephemeral, only existing for a limited amount of time before disappearing.

The common citizen is unlikely to venture far into Parabola before waking up, but certain professionals called Silverers have ventured far beyond the reaches of the Marches, and have dealings with the entities that lurk beyond the mirrors. Silverers wear a set of cosmogone spectacles, tinted an impossible color that is irresistible to the denizens of Parabola.

Landmarks

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• The Mirror-Marches, which serve as the borderlands of Parabola, often visited by those overcome by nightmares. The Marches are littered with empty mirror-frames, and travelers can observe visions of the other side.
• The Viric Jungle, another of the borders of dream, frequented by those in shallow sleep.
• The Misermere, a heavily disputed piece of land that has been claimed by almost every one of the Duchess's noble cats. The Rosers also have a stake in this place.
• The Smoking Shore, a great ocean of sulfurous smoke oft visited by devil pilgrims. They say cats fought off a band of Heart-Takers here. The Fingerkings also occasionally lay eggs here, and no one knows exactly what hatches from them.
• The Drowned Forest or Drowning Forests, a jungle under a lake that serves as the primary spawning grounds of the Fingerkings.
• The Hanging Mountains, violet-sloped mountains that hang upside down.
• The Waswood, where all things within are gone forever, and all things that are gone forever lie within. The heart of these woods was the birthplace of the Glory, an enormous zee-turtle that roamed the Unterzee before dying near the Gant Pole. Its shell was taken over by crazed monster-hunters, becoming the Chelonate.
• The Castle of Forests, a grand fortress of the Fingerkings, which also contains their prisoners.
• The Menagerie of Roses, where the dreamers never see the tops of the walls. Apparently, the roses have stopped growing, much to the dreamers' dismay.
• Arbor, the city half in dream.
• The Writhing River, a river of serpents that borders reality near Hunter's Keep.
• The Skin of the Sun, Parabola's false, cosmogone sun.
• The Dome of Scales, a dilapidated structure apparently constructed out of the scales of the first Fingerkings.
• The Burbling Spring-tide, a gorgeous garden-spa where couples can enjoy pillows of roses and visions of the night sky.
• The Garden Gleam, a garden of glass flowers where gravity is low. The petals ring in a perfect harmony when disturbed.
• The Moonlit Chessboard, where spies dream the moves and counter-moves of the Great Game.
• The Garden of Nightmares, the Merry Gentleman's beautiful but macabre sanctuary.
• The Coiling Spire, which connects the Parabolan Sun to the ground and serves as a sacred pilgrim's destination for the Fingerkings.
• The Wastes of Want, a desolate no-man's land that rejects anyone that tries to claim it.
• The Oncewood, a forest of golden needles and constant ash rain. Aureate Stags, one of Parabola's fastest land animals, can be found here.
• The Marsh of Regents, where the ruined reflections of old, unhappy queens scream across the wastes.
• The Tombwood, whose screaming, eye-blossomed trees weep as they are felled.
• The Sea of Spines, where Rubbery Men swim through the memories of their ancestors. (It is not clear whether this location lies in Parabola or elsewhere in the Is-Not.)
• The Whisker-Ways, a hidden place where Rattus Faber congregate close together for comfort and safety. It has tunnels leading to many other places in Parabola.

The Land That Is-Not

"Parabola is the enemy-kingdom. The Judgements determine what is. Parabola's citizens are Is-Not. Sunlight destroys them, starlight corrodes them. Dreams come at night. Dreams thrive in the Neath. The Judgements cannot see—"

What horrors lurk beyond the mirrors?

Parabola is the realm of what Is-Not, far beyond the reach of the Judgements' domain. This dream-realm apparently hatched from an egg and the connection to mirrors was established by Mt Nomad. Since Parabola lies outside the regulation of the Judgements, time and space can be quite mutable. This can lead to paradoxes like Huntsmen being promoted to Huntsmen on Wednesdays, despite always being Huntsmen. Parabola works on symbolic resonance; an imitation can draw a bit of power from what it is imitating, i.e. if a dreamer dresses and acts like the Red-Handed Queen, they become her avatar in a sense.

Natives of Parabola are considered foreign, even illegal, by the Judgements, making them unable to leave for the real world. There have been cases of Parabolan entities contacting and parlaying with the Judgements, but such cases are the exception rather than the rule. The rulers of Parabola are the Fingerkings, which are snakes that lack a physical form outside of Parabola. They only wish to leave the mirrors, and, well, exist; to do this, they steal the skins of humans. Unfortunately for them, many of these skin-thieves in flesh-suits have been captured and imprisoned in the third coil of the Labyrinth of Tigers.

The devils of Hell once served the Judgements directly as servants. Following their failed rebellion, they fled to Parabola via Caduceus. They are immune to Fingerking possession, and the two species have consequently become rivals.

The Red-Handed Queen and the Beleaguered King are powerful Parabolan powers who are locked in conflict with each other.

Another faction currently residing in Parabola are the Rosers of the Fourth City. These individuals expedited the fall of the Fourth City, and sought refuge in Arbor, which historically accepted refugees from many of the Fallen Cities.

The Attendants

"This is Parabola. We found it in dreams and brought light to it. The ushabti were built to construct a new home for the Second City, where we could live forever beneath the skin of the sun. The night was the bringer of dreams and thus sacred to us. But this Palace was never completed."

The Obstinate Adoratrice

During the era of the Second City, the sisters of the Duchess decided to flee to Parabola to evade the whims of the Bazaar. There, they created a false sun made of cosmogone called the Skin of the Sun, as they knew they could not abide the true Sun any longer. Using constructs called ushabtiu, the sisters attempted to create a new home for the citizens of the Second City, called the Palace of the Rising. Things did not go as planned, however, so the Palace was left unfinished and ruined. The Obstinate Adoratrice still remains in the Palace of the Rising, though she lacks the knowledge to complete it.

Before the sisters built their sun, Parabola was apparently quite dark. Given the failure of the project, it seems likely that the Skin of the Sun will eventually flicker out.

References

Special thanks to waltzingOphidian for assistance with research and citations