Astral Highlands

You arrive in a golden twilight that never turns to night. Wide plateaus of highland grass step down towards the island edges, broken by crystal clusters, Avelite outcrops and the odd pale-stone tor. Thin streams run across the terraces and spill over the edges as waterfalls into the open sky, and here and there a natural stone arch joins one island to the next. Amberleaf trees hang their orange tassels over the grass, with the pale Palespire and, rarely, the golden Gilded Palespire between them.

It is the gentlest biome in the dimension. Bison herds wander from plateau to plateau with Amber Pips at their heels, deer watch from a safe distance and Sunbacks curl up if you come too fast. Look up and you may see Starwhales and Skygliders crossing the sky; stand under a whale and you fall slowly. Not every boulder is a boulder, though: the rare Avelite Crawler sleeps among them.

Ruins tell of earlier visitors: abandoned cottages, graveyards, campsites and spirit shrines, and oases where golden fish swim through the air. Somewhere beneath it all lies the Hollow Sanctum.

Related entries

CreatureAmber PipA tiny, flightless ground bird that pecks its way across the Highland grass in small, chattering flocks.CreatureAstral BisonThe great grazers of the Highlands: shaggy, heavy-shouldered and crowned with horns that glow when they are angry.BossAstral ColossusThe ancient red-black stone guardian at the heart of the Hollow Sanctum, assembled from floating segments around a glowing core.CreatureAstral DeerA slender deer with glowing antlers. Wherever it lies down to rest, the plants around it begin to bloom.