Moravia isn't simply a region of Central Europe; it's a locus. A point where the fabric of time itself seems to fray. Locals whisper of "Unravelings," moments where the past bleeds into the present, and the future flickers like a dying ember. These aren't grand, dramatic shifts, but subtle distortions – a blacksmith suddenly recalling a technique from a civilization that never existed, a child finding a perfectly preserved flower from a year that hasn't yet happened, the scent of rain falling on a field that will never be plowed.
The core of this phenomenon is theorized to reside within the "Heartstone," a colossal quartz crystal discovered deep beneath the ancient Black Forest. It’s said to resonate with the echoes of countless timelines, amplifying the natural instability. Attempts to study it directly result in disorientation, fragmented memories, and a disconcerting feeling of being simultaneously everywhere and nowhere.
For centuries, Moravia was ruled by the Svatopluk Dynasty, a lineage shrouded in myth and melancholic grace. They weren't warriors, nor were they particularly shrewd politicians. Instead, they were collectors – collectors of stories, of emotions, of lost moments. Their palaces, now crumbling ruins in the town of Zlatá Koruna, were filled with "Memory Chambers," rooms meticulously designed to evoke specific feelings and recollections. It is believed these chambers were constructed using a technique called “Chronal Weaving,” manipulating temporal energy to solidify and amplify the targeted memories.
Moravia is riddled with paths – not just roads, but pathways into other temporal realities. These aren't easily found; they appear and disappear with the shifting of the Unravelings. Some are fleeting glimpses, experienced only by those particularly sensitive to the temporal distortions. Others, it is whispered, lead to entirely different versions of Moravia – a Moravia dominated by a technologically advanced civilization, a Moravia perpetually trapped in the Middle Ages, or even a Moravia entirely submerged beneath the Black Sea.
The most significant of these pathways is the "Stone Serpent's Trail," a series of spiraling stone steps that leads, it is said, to the "Threshold of Reflections." Legend states that those who reach the end of the trail will confront their deepest regrets and unfulfilled potential, offering a chance to reshape their own timeline – a dangerous and unpredictable prospect.
For generations, a secretive order known as the "Lorekeepers" guarded the secrets of Moravia. They were not scholars in the traditional sense; they were interpreters of the Unravelings, skilled in identifying and mitigating their effects. They wielded obsidian shards – fragments of the Heartstone – which they used to stabilize temporal distortions and, more controversially, to deliberately induce them. The Lorekeepers believed that true knowledge lay not in understanding the present, but in navigating the currents of time itself. Their existence is now largely a myth, but rumors persist of a hidden enclave deep within the Black Forest, continuing their work in the shadows.
It has been suggested that the disappearance of the Lorekeepers was directly linked to an attempt to harness the full potential of the Heartstone, an event that triggered a catastrophic Unraveling, shattering the crystal and scattering its essence across Moravia. The fragments of this essence are said to manifest as shimmering anomalies, objects that momentarily shift in time, and echoes of forgotten voices.