The Platforms of Vala-Ely are a primordial cosmological infrastructure of the gem-world Vala Cristalis, where the gem-world and its inner plane meet and once exchanged with other planes. Once a passage between planes, they have fallen into a phase of stagnation; the crater-cities of Caldero and Star City stand on them.
| Type | Place (cosmological infrastructure) |
| World | Vala Cristalis |
| Also called | Vala-Ely; the Islaires; Elysian |
| Spanish entry | Las Plataformas de Vala-Ely |
Names
- Vala-Ely — the consolidated spelling in the Caldero compilation.
- Islaires — the name used by the first inhabitants of the gem-world. Its etymology is not fixed (possibly isla + aire, islands in the air; or “Ils + Aires”, the ancients, the Others). It survives in heterodox archives and among old chroniclers such as Mascor Blancarba, but ordinary citizens have forgotten it.
- Elysian — in the oldest myths, preserved by heterodox chroniclers.
The names are related genealogically, not as synonyms:
- Vala — the gem-world as a whole (echo of the greater crystalline veil).
- Ely — the primordial plane within it, from which the ancient Elysium was reached.
- Elysium / Elysian — the paradisiacal cosmological state reached through the Platforms; not a place but a mode of access.
- Platforms of Vala-Ely / Islaires — the infrastructure of access.
Original function
For centuries, according to the bard Mascor Blancarba, the Platforms served as a place of exchange between planes: those who could cross them reached other folds, realms and parallel geographies. While they worked fully, Elysium was accessible.
They were the zodiacal platforms of the gem-world within the greater infrastructure of the Game of Shadows. Each of the conceptual columns had a platform as its vehicle, and the extended cosmos rested on them together with the platforms of sibling worlds.
Stagnation
Mascor Blancarba records that the zone “has now fallen into a phase of stagnation, disconnected from other realms”. The Platforms are not destroyed but run at half capacity; exchange has closed or become opaque, and Elysium is inaccessible or nearly so. Proposed causes, not mutually exclusive:
- the closing or fragmentation of the neighboring folds they served;
- fatigue of the conceptual columns;
- covert action of the negative pole — earlier Borg Popes, or infernal entities that opened partial pacts in the gem-world — switching off nodes of the network;
- the will of the greater cosmological chronicler, who closed the function to protect the cosmos from outside invasions.
The cities on the Platforms
Caldero and Star City are built on the Platforms in a cosmological sense: an invisible underlying infrastructure that still feeds them residual mystical energy.
- Caldero lies in the crater of a dormant volcano, the local manifestation of a primordial Platform: the Phoenix’s Nest honored in Caldero’s myth.
- Star City is built on the Great Obsidian Plaza, a star-shaped stone square that manifests another Platform. Celestial energy flows there because the Platform beneath is not fully closed.
The Magical Industrial Revolution of Star City partly extracts this residual energy: enchanted foundries, mechanical-magical marvels, the Pristine and Goze brands, teleportation helmets.
Custodians and related features
- The Blue House of Vala is the custodial lineage of the infrastructure; its name ties it to the gem-world as a whole, not to Ely.
- The River Ucronos, the river of time, crosses the gem-world.
- The Arian Line operates across the Platforms.
Future
Whether the Platforms can be reactivated is unresolved. Three hypotheses are recorded:
- Natural: the completed cosmological cycle restores their function.
- Forced: triggered by a major operation — the marriage of the two crater-cities, the closing of the four poles of the Borg papacy, or the full ascent of the Arian Line’s avatars.
- Prevented: the stagnation is permanent in the present cycle, and the two cities run on energy that will eventually run out.
The current working hypothesis is the third.