Cloister

For another meaning of "Cloister", please see Magrim's Cloister.

The Cloister is a strange anomaly of stability in the chaotic depths of the Maelstrom that has lingered, unchanging for millennia. One of the innumerable imperfections that dot the Maelstrom, the Cloister resembles an iridescent, shimmering soap bubble of vast size. It is believed to be the divine realm of some sort of deity, but no souls have entered it and no divine servitors have left it for over three thousand years. Some think that the deity within must be dead, dying, or utterly catatonic but many scholars believe that something far stranger is going on. The Cloister continues to exist in a stable form, and to do so against the entropic energies of the Maelstrom requires the active presence of a deity to maintain. Also the proteans, creatures of elemental chaos who fundamentally abhor stability, make no effort to damage the Cloister. In fact, two choruses of proteans, the Chorus of the Dying Light and the Chorus of the Twice-Fallen periodically visit the Cloister, although never at the same time. When these choruses attend the Cloister, they are able to access it, the keketar leaders enact ritualistic gestures of reverential deference before entering. This is curious in and of itself, as proteans generally show utter disdain for the gods.