Night Goat wrote:Speaking of the Mirror World: how about a writeup on Nerras? The Fiend Folio says they kidnap people and may be planning an invasion, but doesn't give us any ideas as to why they would do these things.
Sure.
Nerra
The Mirror Realm is a transitive world which connects to all reflective surfaces. Its hallways and expanses are littered with windows into every realm where a reflection is cast, and with the correct knowledge, these windows can be made into doors. The density of such screens is approximately invariant throughout, and so it is theorized that there simply
is more Mirror Realm when there are more reflective surfaces and less of it when there are less. When a pond stills enough to cast a reflection, the Mirror Realm grows, and when a wind disrupts it, the Mirror Realm shrinks again.
The creation of painted glass mirrors has created unprecedented growth and stability of the Mirror Realm. Not only are the Gnomes creating mirrors by the hundred lots, but these mirrors largely remain reflective and stable for years at a time. The Mirror Realm itself has had portions stabilize from being a constantly shifting maze to being simple black and white spaces. And the life of that world has begun to change from transient, formless spheres of quicksilver to stable forms. Some of these creatures are humanoid in shape and thought, and they are called the Nerra.
Nerra are usually approximately the size of a Human, and have smooth, mirrored skin. Some are very large, like an Ogre and are called “Karaleem.” Most Nerra do not wear clothing, but the highest ranked Nerra (called “Sillit”) generally affect the clothes of wizards, priests, or lords from the material world. Newly formed Nerra are called “Varoot” until they establish themselves. Like the reflections that give rise to them, Nerra come into being whole with knowledge but not memories. The Mirror Realm is a source of power for the magic of illusion, and all Nerra can wrap themselves in glamers to appear to be different than they are.
The Nerra are aware that their world and personal existence is dependent upon and can be sculpted by the creation and placement of reflective surfaces in other worlds. Nerra frequently jump through the reflecting pools and hanging glasses of their world to enter others in order to affect redecoration in other worlds. Sometimes it is as simple as moving a looking glass or draining a pond, and other times it is far more elaborate, such as commissioning the cutting and setting of precious stones or the acquisition of cartloads of hand mirrors. The Sillit have a grand plan to create a connection within the Mirror Realm to a source of great power that they know exists, that they knew of before they opened their eyes for the first time.
Many people from other worlds are kidnapped and interrogated by the Nerra. Since they can see nothing that is not in sight of a mirror, their information is impressive but patchy. The great undertaking needs more, and the Nerra will stop at nothing to find out what.
-481 words