It is Choas, it is Law. It is Life, It is Death. It is the first and the last. It is the ultimate peace and the final hell. It is all things, yet nothing. To gaze upon it is to gaze into the very mind and thoughts of the gods themselves — Canticle of the Great Barrier, Introduction

 The Great Barrier, aka The God Barrier, the Realm of Chaos, Creations End.. It goes by many names. All who live in Easthalen know of it, many have seen it and few have attempted to cross it… It is the last line of defence – created to stop the Sleeping One should they awaken and try to break out into the universe. In short, it takes your own power and redirectes it towards you. The stronger you are, the more powerful this effect becomes. Mortals, assuming the make their way safely through The Bleed  , can, as the rumors go pass through unharmed…for a large margin of “unharmed.” 

Formation

At the end of the so-called “Mage War”, Halen was put to sleep by the combined will of the other major gods. It is not known who amongst them proposed the Great Barrier concept, or if it was just a side effect of the process of keeping Heln in a slumber. No-matter what, the Great Barrier creation permantly changed the world and those who lived, or more acuratly, where trapped alongside them. 

Details

The Great Barrier (GB) was from all account made to be as small an area as possible – but what is small to a deity is not to a mortal. It covers an area roughly 4 million square miles, allthough some would argue it is also infinite (see effects below). Despite as it being probably the most studied location/effect in the world, very little is actualy known about it. This is partialy due to the origins and its features but getting close to the barrier means traveling through an area known as The Bleed, a very dangerous area where magic and the rules reality become twisted and bent, the effect getting stronger the close to the barrier one gets.   

Effects

The Barrier itself is, as the quote listed above mentions, raw chaos intruding into this reality. It reacts to those who try to cross it in different ways, but the more powerful someone, or something, is the worse this effect becomes – it is deigned to hold a deity after all. The barrier itself cannot be seen until you are approximately 10 miles from it, which is where typicaly also where the Bleed starts. For the majority of people they have never seen it, but everyone is affected by it. When you view view it, it looks different to each person (or group). Some see it as a wall of flame, others see it as crackling blue energy, one person has been on record as it being walls of pulsing screaming flesh. Simply viewing the GB is unnerving for most people and most leave the viewable area as soon as possible. Something else that was unexecpted was the build up of magic, which lead to some other effects both benefitial and terrible (note from Chris : The nature of magic article will cover this) Some known effects of trying to traverse the barrier have bene both observed and rumoured:

• Being torn apart at the atomic level
• Sent to another location on the Great Barriers edge
• Sent to a random point in time (no further back than the creation of the GB)
• Horribly mutated as their body is remade
• Becomes fused with any gear they are carrying
• Rapidly aged
• Sent to a paralel world that is very similiar to this one – this location has been dubbed “Westhalen” and is one of the more common recorded effects of those who survive the travel and somehow return

Leaving and traveling beyond

To begin with, travel beyond the barrier by any means, spatial, planear or even temporal was impossible even for mortals. As time went on it seemed this effect lessened and mortal beings could, at least for a short while travel to the realms beyond. Those who were born here can visit other realms and realitys but MUST return here. Resisting what planear travelers call “the pull” is dangerous, and as mentioned before, the stronger the traveler, the more potent this effect becomes.