#loft lore

The Loft is a “pocket” dimension roughly 10km in radius, located somewhere in between the countless realities of the multiverse. While large for a pocket dimension, it technically constitutes as its own plane of existence, and in that respect it’s very much on the smaller side. The Loft’s boundaries aren’t defined by walls, but rather distance from the distinct mountain that marks the center of the realm. Past the 10km point, distance starts to compress rapidly in one direction, meaning you could walk for hours off into the distance and then make the journey back in less than a minute. The boundaries of the loft are occupied by a sky, sun, and stars, and the celestial bodies do “orbit” in a way, slipping out of view underneath the loft’s landmass far past the distance boundary. The weather is unpredictable and often extreme, with frequent storms, changes in lighting, and odd celestial events.

As for how Lavender’s connected to the loft, it’s more accurate to say that Lavender *is* the Loft, the dragon existing as both a person and a place. While their physical body anchors the loft to somewhere in the multiverse, they have a constant background awareness of being the rocks that make up the mountain, the wood that makes up the trees, the clouds that make up the sky, etc. This also means they have a very high degree of control over how the landscape and space within the loft operates, with the Loft’s current look and function being a reflection of Lavender’s tastes and preferences. Within the Loft, Lavender can bend space, conjure matter out of nothing, and rearrange the landscape with fairly little effort. This dual person-place nature also means sometimes Lavender has a slightly odd perception of places, “talking” to them in a way that doesn’t always make sense to onlookers.

The Loft is anchored to somewhere in the multiverse by Lavender, and as such they can’t use it to jaunt through different dimensions. In addition, the Loft’s influence can only manifest in a very short range around Lavender, roughly 1 meter in radius. Mostly, this just means Lavender can make portals into the loft for others to hop inside. Notably though, this distance limitation applies to everything about the loft, meaning if Lavender creates an item from matter conjured in the loft, it will literally fade from existence if moved more than a few feet outside one of the portals. Lavender also has authority over “what” can enter the Loft, meaning the can effectively use their portals as forcefields as well, creating a portal but denying entry. All this considered, Lavender’s physical body is very closely connected to the Loft, and you can often see through the membranes of their wings into the Loft itself. Finally, a major restriction of the Loft is that Lavender can only exit the loft within 3 meters of where they entered, meaning they can’t use it to teleport or jump through different dimensions.

The geography inside the Loft is chaotic compared to most landscapes, with nearly a dozen biomes crammed together into the 10km radius (not unlike those elementary school diagrams that show what different landscape features are called). Still, while the geography tends to shift around, I’ll list a few important/consistent locations because I want to :3

-The Mountain- The center of the Loft, and the “anchor” to which distance is measured from. It’s a very jagged, vertical peak, stretching high up into the sky and visible from practically anywhere inside the Loft. Also has a few floating crags around the peak, held in place by gravitational anomalies.

-The Cabin- Lavender’s house, a structure resembling a log cabin that’s spread out across the entirety of the Loft, at least from the outside. Inside, the rooms are connected as you’d expect, with the kitchen just through the doorway from the lounge, the bedrooms upstairs, and so on. Despite this, the cabin is distinctly non-euclidian, as entering the lounge through the front door halfway up the mountain and then walking over to the kitchen will let you look out the window into the boreal forest. A convenient way to get around for guests, as it beats walking several kilometres and it connects all of the notable locations and biomes of the Loft.

-The Great Tree/Lavender’s Loft Cafe/Dragon’s Hoard- Lavender’s main form of income, a small cafe located in the loft and connected through a tiny hole-in-the-wall property in the real world. The Cafe is located in the branches of one of the biggest trees in the Loft, stretching up above the canopy of the southern forest. Lavender’s the only employee and they’re open 3 days a week, with the cafe known for having incredible ambience and views of the loft, as well as an owner who will kick out rude customers without a second thought. Also, Lavender’s draconic hoard sits on the second floor of the cafe, a collection of trinkets, collectibles, mtg cards, gems, and various knick-knacks they’ve collected over the years. It’s technically open for business and you can buy things from the hoard, but you’ll have to offer up something that Lavender wants for their hoard in return.

-Notable Biomes-

while the above 3 locations are most noteworthy, I also wanna do a quick overview of the rest of the places that the Loft encompasses :3

-Southern forest: A wide, sprawling tropical forest, with the massive Lilac River winding through it. The rainiest location in the loft, tied with the coast and the wetlands.

-Coast: The biggest body of water in the loft, stretching out into the southeast distance barrier. Fed by the Lilac river, and subject to occasional flash storms and tidal waves.wetlands.

-Wetlands: A large, mangrove-populated swamp on the east side of the loft. Winding and mazelike, hard to navigate, but strikingly beautiful. Has a series of docks and walkways to make boat travel feasible.

-Terraces: A set of terraced, stepped hills on the northeast side of the mountain. Lavender’s imported quite a lot of dirt from the real world here, in order to grow plants that won’t disappear when taken outside the Loft.

-Plains: The flat grasslands at the bottom of the Terraces. Great place for picnics or watching the sky. Also gently sloped for most of its length, with a few paved paths starting at the terrace making for great downhill races on skateboards or bikes.

-Boreal Forest: A much more temperate forest to the north, populated by pines and with a few lakes dotted about. The smaller Indigo River runs through here, before flowing into the Molten Straight and then the Craglands. Also home to another massive tree similar to the Southern Forest, this one houses Lavender’s library in the Cabin.

-Boreal Reaches: The coldest area in the Loft by far, the northern section of the boreal forest that sees trees grow more sparsely and give way to fields of deep snow. Lit eerily at night by the stars and aurora, and home to a hot spring on its east side. Lavender can often be seen with the reaches in their wings on hot days, keeping themself cool with the arctic air from the loft.

-Molten Straight: A barren straight of molten rock and volcanic activity, broken up by large crystal formations. Located northwest of the mountain. The Indigo River runs through, snaking around any volcanic formations and flowing in an unpredictable path to the Craglands. Tied with the desert for the hottest location in the Loft.

-Craglands: A massive vertical chasm that cuts into the western landscape, stretching a little over a kilometre deep, and stretching straight to the distance barrier. The Indigo river pours in through the Molten Straight, creating a massive waterfall in the center of the chasm. There are a few Cabin rooms built into the walls of the ravine here, each offering a spectacular view. The small, pooling creek at the bottom is frigid cold.

-Desert: An expanse of dunes and sand in the western-south area of the loft, not quite as empty as you’d think. The dunes shift rapidly, sometimes uncovering old stone formations, and an oasis sits on the far western side. The sand here seems oddly attracted back to its home, any sand tracked into the cabin or another biome will slowly crawl back towards the dunes.