Jandelay

Jandelay

(Plane)

Titles

The Apocalypse Archive

Sphere

Outer Sphere

Alignment

Lawful neutral

Denizens

Oliphaunt of Jandelay
Watchers
Collected shades

Description

Lawful demiplane in the chaos of the Maelstrom

Source: Planar Adventures, pg(s). 217 (1E)
War of Immortals, pg(s). 196–197 (2E)

Jandelay is an enigmatic demiplane of law lodged in the chaos of the Maelstrom; a museum that claims and preserves fragments of dead worlds.

Creation

Jandelay was formed from an echo of the first planet-destroying apocalypse that occurred in the Universe, which caused a fragment of the destroyed worlds to appear within. This echo resonated within a potentiality that formed into the Oliphaunt of Jandelay, who both guards and is contained by the demiplane.

Each planetary apocalypse since has deposited a fragment of the world into Jandelay to form a neatly organized patchwork archive in precise temporal order, separated by seemingly random structures delineating the borders of each fragment. These binding constructions are created by Jandelay's one-eyed insectile watchers.

Geography

Jandelay represents the antithesis of the Maelstrom, which inevitably restores reality to homogeneous chaos. Whenever a planet of the Universe comes to an end, a fragment of that world merges into Jandelay. Unless a major apocalypse claims several worlds at once, there is no relationship between adjacent fragments other than their time of destruction, and Jandelay might resemble an architectural chimaera.

Inhabitants

The creator, guardian, and prisoner of Jandelay is the Oliphaunt of Jandelay, a being of utter chaos and destruction standing in stark contrast to Jandelay's lawful alignment. The Oliphaunt is a physical embodiment of apocalypses, and it is compulsively drawn to these remnants of destruction from which Jandelay is made.

Jandelay is curated by the watchers, mysterious towering beings who stride its streets and tend to its needs. Jandelay's shades, called the collected, typically number one per world and are among the last casualties of the ends of each. They retain memories about their lost homes, and usually live solitary, monotonous lives in the fragments of their worlds, interrupted only by the Oliphaunt's rumbling presence which brings back a sense of panic and desperation.

Language

Jandelayan is the supposed language spoken by the inhabitants of Jandelay. The only creature known to have ever spoken it is the Oliphaunt of Jandelay.

Myths and purpose

Little is known by anyone—not even the deities, much less the scholars of Golarion—about Jandelay. Some think it is a mysterious person, a location, or a creature connected to the mythical Oliphaunt of Jandelay. It is thought by some that Jandelay may be the first person to record the Oliphaunt's existence, the Oliphaunt's progenitor, or the place from which it hails. However, there is an epic poem Jandelay, inscribed at the base of the Spindlehorn, that implies that Jandelay is place of green fields and spires somewhere within the chaos of the Maelstrom, and that the Oliphaunt is Jandelay's eternal guardian.

Lost writings of the philosopher Empedocles of Earth suggest Jandelay is an ark stewarded by the Oliphaunt, with the purpose of shaping the next incarnation of the Universe after the current one is destroyed. This idea is close to the truth; Jandelay serves as an archive of destroyed worlds from which the Universe could be restored should it be destroyed.

This fact is known by few other beings across the multiverse, among them the demonic shemhazian formed from the judged soul of Gimmel, former Runelord of Greed, who learned this knowledge from the teachings of Rovagug. Gimmel plans to use this knowledge to invade and destroy Jandelay.