Adumbra, Realm of the Dead
The Adumbra, in simplest terms, is the realm of the dead. The common belief in Riiga is that all living beings have souls that do not die. As a consequence, a soul becomes lost once the body perishes. Adumbra is guarded and controlled by an unknown race, and this race has a duty of guiding all worthy souls into it.The world of Adumbra
Adumbra is physically much like the normal world. In fact, the guardians of it can jump back and forth between the realms, as entering Adumbra is much like turning on a switch that enables one to view everything under a different light – in this case, dark blues and purples. The elite guardians can move between realms without any disturbance to either realm. Such a device of ‘invisible manoeuvring' becomes unbelievably lethal in combat. An elite guardian can vanish from the eyes of beings, move through the Adumbra undetected, and then emerge in a tactical position.In Adumbra, only solid objects and souls are visible. The sky is pure black, sight is very limited, sound is distorted, movement is unnerving, and the light is dim. A thick fog swirls around the ground and people look like disfigured ghosts. This makes the afterlife – for want of a better word – scary.
Adumbra's Guardians
The guardians of Adumbra have been moving in and out of it since their beginnings, as they are among the first races to be born and are the first race to be exposed to this realm. Nikina, however, did not initially create this race for the sole purpose of guarding Adumbra. The people were born to be master craftsmen – to design and create artefacts of unimaginable potential and to become knowledgeable on both natural and divine minerals and their properties. And, at first, that is what these people did. They crafted and forged a large manner of items for their leader, his family, the race as a whole, and for Nikina himself.History
Of course, Forganad had created Adumbra at the same time Riiga was created, as this realm is also the divine realm many deities decided to hide in, away from the prying eyes of mortals. Forganad planned for Adumbra to be used only by souls who had been parted by their deceased bodies, either by force or by nature. When some of the deities spent far too long in Adumbra and exploited the link between the realms, it was mutually decided between Nikina and Forganad to create a guardian race for Adumbra. This new race, though not strong enough as individuals to hold off the dangerous deities, laid down order within Adumbra, and the realm was suddenly guarded to a heavy degree. Any deity caught abusing the link would be reported to either Nikina or Forganad, and inconceivable wrath would surely ensue. No deity was reported to have abused the link since the creation of this guardian race.As time went by, the race itself began to spend less time in Riiga and more time in Adumbra. This in itself was seen as exploitation, and it was ordered by the gods that only select members of this race could move back and forth along this link. These few became the dedicated guardians, and the rest of the previous guardians could only move around freely through Riiga, yet they could still do the same job of observing and reporting. To this day, there are less than a dozen beings that can use Adumbra. Adumbra magic, as it is called, has become a gift, obtainable only by being a descendant of the head guardian.
