AoS: Just What Is The Deal With Hysh Anyway
As the new Lumineth Battletome makes ready for launch, we get a look at what exactly is going on down in the Realm of Light.
The Mortal Realms are planes of wonder and mystery. Each one has its own overarching principle that shapes all the local sites–you have your realm of fire, water, woods, metal, heart, and so on… but within these realms are all the same features you’d find in a whole world. The realm of fire has oceans and glaciers, and the realm of metal has its forests–all are just shaped by the core energy of the realm. And for Hysh, it’s light. And what does that mean? We’re all about to find out.
via Warhammer Community
Hysh, like all the Mortal Realms, formed from a vast aggregation of magic – in this case, the magic of light. Hysh has formed a kind of sun for the Mortal Realms, its parallel orbit with the Realm of Shadow in the aetheric void creating the cycle of night and day.
As with all Mortal Realms, Hysh and those who live there are associated with certain qualities. Where a citizen from Aqshy might be hot-headed and passionate, or a fellow hailing from Shyish sombre and morose, individuals from Hysh are sharp thinkers – and often exceptionally arrogant.
So basically everyone that lives there is a high aelf, got it. But there’s more to it than that. Hysh might be all about knowledge, but you have to remember, this is a world where knowledge is power, sure, but it’s also Chaos. Unprepared minds might be driven “insane” by the knowledge that Hysh has to offer.
There are ten main portions of Hysh, called the Ten Paradises, all perfect places of mathematical precision and symmetry, which of course made them prime targets for Chaos in past Ages.
The centre of the Hysh is an island known as Xintil. It was here that Teclis awoke during the Age of Myth, and where the majority of the Sigmar-worshipping mortals to inhabit the realm dwell. Xintil is ringed by 8 vast islands, each making up a part of the ancient Lumineth Empire. Four of these – Syar, Iliatha, Ymetrica and Zaitrec are known as the Teclian nations, and primarily base their culture on the teachings of Teclis, while Oultrai, Aurathrai, Helon and Alumnia are heavily militarised states who primarily seek to emulate Tyrion.
Whether Teclian or Tyrionic, each of the Ten Paradises has its own culture and practices. Iliatha, for instance, is a matriarchal society and by far the most populous of the Lumineth Realm-lords’ nations thanks to their mysterious practices of magical cloning, now carefully regulated following calamitous mistakes made in the Age of Myth.
One of my favorite new bits of lore though, involves what lies at the edge of Hysh. Out towards the edge of the Realm, things get weird and chaotic—and Hysh is ringed by a continent called Haixiah, which lies “beyond a sea of liquid light.” It’s a place where Lumineth, realm for math nerds, gets really nerdy–fractal shapes and “freakishly perfect” mathematical patterns emerge in the landscape. And further out everything appears like a pencil sketch, so if you want to recreate Take On Me, that’s the place to go.
All that’s just a glimpse of Hysh. The rest will surely come later when the Lumineth Realm-lords Army is released.
