THE HOMELAND

According to legend, the Homeland was created by the Great Maker as a barrier between a dark and evil underworld and his native world above.  The legends tell vaguely of a long enduring war between the overworld and the under, the overworld populated by a whole civilization of ones such as the maker, and the underworld filled with nightmare creatures of the purest evil.  At first the Homeland was created solely as a barrier, but over time the darkness below grew more crafty, finding ways around and through the land, and so the Great Maker created a race of guardians, known today only as the Initial.  For the Initial, the Maker also created the sun and the moons, and set the moons moving to fully obscure and then reveal the sun for periods approximating night and day.  The Initial served their purpose as guardians of the realm, and for many eons kept the land and stood watch, that none should pass from below.  Eventually, however, the Initial grew weary of their life of subservience, and tried to overthrow the Great Maker, that they could attain his power.  He stopped them, and in his rage flung them into the darkness below.  According to legend, when the Initial and the dark ones below met in the infinite darkness, they set to fighting, and never ceased.  The Maker, content that the evil was forever occupied battling the fallen Initial, created a new race to inhabit the land, that they might alert him if ever the evil rose once more.  And thus came the Zo.

Unlike many other races, the Zo assumed from the start that their world was a sphere, and many expeditions set out to encircle it and claim the resulting glory.  None of these explorers ever returned.  Tewno Kopper attempted to explain this startling lack of success in 1107 BA with his controversial theory that the Homeland is actually an infinite plane, but he was quickly laughed out of most reputable scientific and magical establishments.  The theory was brought up once more in 938 BA by the mathematician Heol Nectris, who stumbled into the conclusion as a result of his theories of lunar motion.  In response, Phoggus of Kirllannel set out on an expedition to circumnavigate the world in an attempt to disprove the Kopperian model.  He returned just over a year later claiming to have circled the Homeland, but later scrutiny by B'ob of B'do proved that Phoggus had not succeeded in his quest, but instead had become extremely lost and walked in a large circle.  Growing weary of the argument, the Zoran Council settled the issue permanently by issuing the Edict of Planarity, stating authoritatively that the Homeland is a plane and that no Zo shall question this again.

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HOMELAND FAQ
Send Questions to skirwan@clanlords.com

Q. Why is it referred to as just 'The Homeland'?  Why isn't there a name?
A. The Zo, in general, are a lot more relaxed about naming things than some races.  For instance, the seven moons of Ghorak have no distinct names, nor does the sun.  Because for the majority of Zo history the Homeland was the only world known to exist, it never became more important to give it a name, and the habit has stuck.
 

Q. If the Homeland is an infinite plane, how is there a night and day?  Obviously the sun can't revolve around something infinite!
A. The answer to this question is a simple one, but rarely a satisfying one.  Simply, the moons (which are actually satellites of the sun, we now now) move in such a fashion that the sun is completely blocked out for a period roughly equal to ten hours every day.  One of the great unexplained mysteries of the Homeland is how exactly this came to pass; many take it as an affirmation of the myth of the Great Maker.

Q. So the sun just hangs there in the sky?! What about seasons?
A. Simply put, there aren't any.  The climate in any given place is the same throughout the year, though areas farther from the sun are typically cooler.  The sun does indeed stay in the exact same place in the sky, above an area of Sindal commonly referred to as the center of the Homeland, a location shared with the Tower of Light.