First appearance: Coriander Society - Fate of the Faithful Part 2 (A Crossover) · watch it on YouTube
Yord is the home world of the adventurers Asena and John Carmichael, a place with a 1930s flavor where, in the words of the scholar Lawrence Booker Green, everything “runs on pulp logic.” It lies far beyond The Void, and it was dragged into the Void’s affairs when The Arbiter reached across dimensions and took Asena and John’s nemesis, Ralzamon, Master of the Unknown, for his own scheme. Getting Ralzamon dealt with and getting back home to Yord drove much of the heroes’ adventure in the Fate of the Faithful crossover.
Description
Yord is a world of jungle expeditions, ancient tombs and psychic masterminds, where things run on pulp logic. Its known landmarks include the Zolpian Jungle, the tomb of Santa Polka, and the Crystalline Cavern, where Ralzamon’s psyche was stored in the moments before his final defeat.
Pulp logic is not just a style in Yord. It seems to be how the place works. When Lawrence wanted something of Asena’s as a divination anchor and said blood was stronger, she cut her palm “like they do in the movies” because, as she put it, “The blood sounds way cooler.” Lawrence pointed out that she could have used the forearm, then let it go: “the world of Yord runs on pulp logic.”
History
Long before the Void came into it, Yord was where Asena’s story with Ralzamon began. Ralzamon was once simply Josiah Parsons, a man on an ill-fated expedition to the jungle that changed Asena’s life forever and took his. He became Ralzamon, Master of the Unknown, a psychic mastermind, and the nemesis of Asena and John. Asena also once took a crown from Santa Polka’s tomb, during what she described as “a little dreamscape thingy… it was like a dream, but we were also like really there.”
In Coriander Society — Fate of the Faithful Part 4 (A Crossover), the story of how Yord lost its villain came out. Ralzamon had been “plucked from the world of Yord right before his final defeat at the hands of Asena and John Carmichael” and made the newest recruit of the Children of the Void, who secretly plotted with the Arbiter against the Grandmaster. Lawrence pieced together what had happened. When Asena had fought in the Void, the Grandmaster had sent her home as a champion, so she left no echo behind. The Arbiter, however, had kept an echo of Ralzamon, and when he grabbed both versions at the moment of death, he fused them into one being. Lawrence reasoned that the part of that fusion that “still originally belongs in Yord” might be the thread that could carry the heroes home, though he admitted the idea was “completely unproven.” Asena’s blood became his divination anchor, so he would know if she got hurt. As for the crown, Lawrence set that question aside as “a mystery for another day… after we get back to Yord.”
In Coriander Society — Fate of the Faithful Part 5 (A Crossover), Asena, John and their ally Lyrus finally cornered Ralzamon, whose psychic powers the Arbiter meant to use to spy on his enemies. John’s battle speech invoked Yord:
John Carmichael: “You’ve become that which you hate, Parson, and I’m going to destroy you. So just lie back, think of Yord, and just know that your spirit will return there soon.”
As Asena raised her fist again, she no longer saw Ralzamon. She saw the man from the photograph, Josiah Parsons. He begged her to stop, warning that “the one who binds me” would come looking for her if she killed him. He told her that she and John were fighting to protect “my world, Yord,” and asked to “die alone and leave it out of his sight.” When Asena asked whether he still thought she was the downfall of Yord, his answer was grim: “Things I’ve seen are far worse than anything you might be.” Asena let him fall into a pit with a shadowy thing. She reported that they had “killed half of Ralzamon,” and John came to believe that the remaining half would act as a kind of double agent, fouling the Arbiter’s operations and keeping his gaze off Yord. Lyrus accepted it: “Well, the enemy of my enemy, I guess.”
Getting home took a feat Lawrence had never managed before, leaving the Void. He worked a spell matrix from the collar’s emotional link to Asena and Josiah Parsons, together with a tuning fork attuned to Yord. Before they left, John worried that things crossing from life to death might find their way into the Void. Lyrus only winked and promised to help with “your cleanup” once the Arbiter was dealt with. This time Asena was not “forcibly dragged along in the wake of the Arbiter’s terrible hand” but “pulled back by your own memories.” The heroes hurtled out of the Void and back to Yord, landing in the heart of the Crystalline Cavern, where Ralzamon’s psyche had been stored moments before they defeated him. Perhaps at long last, they would never have to fight Ralzamon again.
Notable Figures
- Asena: native adventurer and Ralzamon’s longtime foe, who once took a crown from Santa Polka’s tomb.
- John Carmichael: Asena’s partner in the fight against Ralzamon.
- Lawrence Booker Green: the scholar who worked out the spell that brought the heroes home.
- Ralzamon: Master of the Unknown, born Josiah Parsons, Yord’s psychic mastermind, taken by the Arbiter just before his final defeat.