The Ten Paradises are the ordered heartlands of the aelves of the Realm of Light, ten great nations arranged like a mandala about the blazing perfection of Hysh. Here the very air is suffused with illumination, and mountains, lakes, and cities are shaped by aeons of patient discipline into landscapes of severe and radiant beauty, each a meditation made manifest in stone and light.
These are the homelands of the Lumineth Realm-lords, the reborn aelves who mastered the perils of pure enlightenment and pledged themselves to the sun-goddess Teclis. In the Paradises, wisdom is no idle virtue but a martial art, and the aelves temper their souls against arrogance through communion with the aetherquartz mountain-spirits and the elemental forces of light. To dwell here is to be forever refining oneself toward an unreachable ideal.
Yet even paradise is not spared the horrors of the age. In the Age of Chaos, the Realm of Light was very nearly consumed, and the memory of that near-annihilation haunts every serene facade. The Ten Paradises now stand as fortified sanctuaries, their beauty guarded by phalanxes of dawnbringing warriors who march to war in neighbouring realms lest darkness ever again reach the sun. Behind their luminous perfection lies a cold and unforgiving resolve, for the aelves of Hysh have learned that enlightenment unarmed is merely a prelude to slaughter.
The atlas continues
