Exclusion zone

An exclusion zone, abbreviated EZ, is a geographical region on Aerb to which a kind of magic (for a loose definition of the term) is restricted.

The Exclusionary Principle

When an exclusion occurs, some particular magic, magical effect, physical effect, or entad ceases to function in all but a relatively small geographical region. When an exclusion happens, there are typically two immediately visible effects. The first is that magic everywhere stops working, except within the exclusion zone. The second is that exclusion is often accompanied by some calamity within the exclusion zone.

Typologies

• Silent exclusion: A “silent” exclusion is one in which no one is affected by the loss of magic, usually because it wasn’t in use, and there is no accompanying catastrophe in the exclusion zone. These are typically discovered after the fact, with the “reason” for the exclusion being discovered at a later date, if at all.
• Dead exclusion: Enpersoned and entad exclusion zones are not necessarily permanent, especially because exclusion on its own does not provide immortality or indestructibility. Once the person dies or the entad is destroyed, the exclusion zone is “dead”, meaning that the excluded magic no longer exists in the world. Sometimes, the exclusion zone can be reclaimed.
• Full exclusion: Occasionally an exclusion will be detected by the loss of magic among its practitioners, but without the apparent creation of an accompanying exclusion zone. To all appearances, the magic is simply gone from the world. (Sometimes the exclusion zone is found at a later date. This was especially the case when telecommunications were not what they are today. Needless to say, if people find the exclusion, it’s no longer a full exclusion.)
• Partial exclusion: If the exclusion applies to a specific magical effect or to a school of magic, sometimes the exclusion will be partial, i.e. not affecting the entirety of the school or effect. Specific elements of soul magic have been excluded but the school as a whole is not afflicted. Specific applications of the bulk teleportation spell have been excluded, but the spell is not excluded. It is unclear what causes partial exclusions.
• Empersoned exclusion: Sometimes, in addition to the restriction of magical effects to a geographical area, it’s additionally restricted to a single person within that geographical area. As a rule, these people cannot leave the exclusion zone by any means. There are currently thirteen empersoned exclusions.
• Entad exclusion: Similar to empersoned exclusions, but an entad is confined to the exclusion zone instead of a person. There are currently six entad exclusions.
• Double exclusion: It’s occasionally the case that two exclusions form next to each other with overlapping area, or one forms within the borders of another. This holds no special significance, except insofar as it might complicate attempts at dealing with the exclusions.
• Free exclusion: An imperial term. An exclusion is considered ‘free’ if it has arable land and poses no direct threat to the mortal species. Thus far, only two exclusion zones have been deemed ‘free’, the Lalonei exclusion zone and the Parsmont exclusion zone.
• Minor exclusion: An imperial term. Minor exclusions are capable of maintaining a small population with little outside support in conditions not much more hostile than a hot desert or arctic expanse. People living in minor exclusions experience and expect hardships, and tend to have lower lifespans, but they are in no imminent danger.
• Major exclusion: An imperial term. Without significant magical support or extensive non-magical preparations and planning, lifespan in a major exclusion is measured in hours. Any person living within a major exclusion zone is doing so with either tacit permission of an enpersoned exclusion, or heavy wards and magical support.

Causes (and Questions)

It is unknown what causes an exclusion zone, but a shorthand for the cause, whatever it might be, is “the exclusionary principle”. There are, however, some common links between the exclusions, which provide a starting point for talking about what rules govern the exclusionary principle. First and foremost, exclusions coincide with zone-encompassing calamities so often that the simplest rule is “whenever something would destroy the world, an exclusion is created instead”. This is clear, intuitive, and wrong, given the number of counterexamples that are available.

A more complex version might be “whenever something would fundamentally change the world, an exclusion is created instead”. This accounts for both calamitous exclusions and more benign ones, but leads to the question of what ‘whenever’ might mean. Given the existence of silent and full exclusions, the answer can’t be a simple set time period before the change would occur. Without being able to answer that question, we’re left looking for a unifying exclusionary principle, if one exists.

It’s also unclear how exclusion zones themselves are created. Geographical footprints vary wildly, from less than twenty square miles in the case of the Nightsmoke exclusion zone, to eighty-two thousand square miles for the Fel Seed exclusion zone. Geographical boundaries sometimes follow natural features such as rivers and mountains, but sometimes present as regular polygons etched on the surface of Aerb. Further, the exclusion zone is rarely centered on the source of the calamity, instead seeming to select its center at random. There is little rhyme or reason to these differences.

Lastly, the question must be raised: where are all the good exclusions? Why are exclusions so universally bad for the mortal species? In particular, the majority of the enpersoned exclusion zones wouldn’t have been calamitous if a different person had been subject to being enpersoned. The only reason that the Doris Finch exclusion zone is looked at with fear and suspicion is that the copies are of Doris Finch. Had it been anyone else, the exclusion zone would be a veritable paradise. At this point the evidence for some kind of selection effect is so overwhelming that there must be an answer. Does enpersoning drive people insane? Or are only the insane selected?

[Juniper’s Notes: From a worldbuilding perspective, the exclusionary principle exists to justify a whole bunch of zones of adventure. From a DM’s perspective, it exists as a diegetic way to stop OP things from destroying or changing the whole world. It’s also a way to ‘end the world’ without actually ending the world. I did always love ending the world...]

Why do exclusions happen? Sadly, there is no one specific answer to this question, but the best working understanding at present is that exclusions happen in order to prevent degeneracy.

As with our working definition of what an exclusion is , our definition of why an exclusion happens immediately runs into some difficulties. What does ‘degeneracy’ mean? What does ‘prevent’ mean? And does this apply to all exclusions?

The easiest and most central examples are those phenomena which would, if not checked through exclusion, spread throughout the entire world. Bowdler’s contagious redaction would have removed core ideas from the minds of most mortal species. The entire world might have fallen under the spell of Herront, loyal to the bitter end. Aerb might have been overrun with Doris Finches, or smothered in a layer of glass, or merged together into a solid piece of metal.

Yet there are other exclusions where the question of ‘degeneracy’ causes some scratching of heads.

The world would be different if Elisha Blue’s ‘zombies’ could be created by any necromancer with a bit of schooling and skill, but it wouldn’t mark the end of civilization as we know it. In fact, given the sanctions and restrictions that have been levied against Blue-in-the-Bottle, there’s a strong argument to be made that nothing much would change at all: imperial society as a whole has rejected that approach to labor, so exclusion does nothing in particular, the ‘degeneracy’ or even just ‘change’ having been stopped through terrestrial political means.

The people of Corflowers are compelled to protect an entad hat, but is this ‘degenerate’? It’s very difficult to say. Certainly the Hat of Brilliant Protection is powerful, and the Cult of Brilliance is strong, but it doesn’t appear that they would be all that much stronger if the hat weren’t excluded. When people invoke ‘degeneracy’ arguments, they might imagine that the hat would have spread its influence far and wide, infecting every head of state, turning all of mortal society towards the singular purpose of guarding a long hat. This seems far from an assured outcome though, and was even less likely at the time of its exclusion.

Demiplanes, a historical phenomena of created extradimensional spaces of immense size, do not seem degenerate at all . Why should it matter at all whether there are ten or a thousand of them? If demiplanes still existed, we might find them at the heart of major cities, expanding real estate and providing fertile farmlands, but in what sense is this degenerate? How does that exclusion fit within our working definition?

Contrarily, we can look at certain things which have not caused exclusion.

Radio is now an accepted and widespread technology, but at the time, there was significant concern that instant mass communication of voice would cause exclusion. Certainly radio is widely accepted as one of the most notable advancements in the last two hundred years, responsible for reshaping society and culture. Why was it not excluded?

Similar questions can be applied to a number of historical advancements which have served to reshape society in different ways. The extensive train networks that crisscross Aerb, the Bessemer process of steel production, the ubiquity of warding, the integration of teleportation keys as a mass transit solution, all of these things are examples of things which have demonstrably changed the world and society writ large in various substantial ways. Many of these might have caused exclusion, or were, at the time, thought to possibly call down exclusion.

One of the things we can see when looking at things which weren’t excluded are those which have had wide-ranging effects which didn’t apply to mortals. From this, we conclude that exclusion is mortal-centric , though this isn’t a firm rule. Through history, many events have killed entire species, sometimes in a single fell swoop, other times more sedately, as with the slow withering of the Calmandar. On occasion, this has even happened to one of the mortal species. Yet while rampant magic has wiped entire genres of creature from the biology books, this has not happened to the mortal species as a whole. Notably, certain exclusions cover effects whose rampancy would only affect the mortal species, such as those that impact consciousness, reading, or civilization.

In the end, exclusion leaves more questions than answers, each new one pinning the puzzle more firmly in place but not resolving it. We can but stand back, hoping that it will be revealed in time for us to do something about it before the last of the magic slips out of the world.

[DM’s Notes: An exclusion is whatever I want it to be!]

Deliberate Exclusions

There have been a small number of deliberate attempts at "invoking" Exclusion.

• Clay Magic was excluded when a disgruntled ex-member of the Clay Corps, a small cabal of Clay Mages licensed by the Second Empire, spent years working to design self-replicating golems and get Clay Magic excluded.
• Nuclear weapons were excluded after an international group of scientists built and tested them in isolated areas, successfully ensuring that they could be peacefully excluded without ever seeing military use.
• The Risen Lands are heavily implied to have been a deliberate attack on the Kingdom of Francorum, most likely by Anglecynn,their neighbours. Amaryllis privately verified that there was a secret NFE research facility of theirs in the region at that time (not the recent one shown in the story, this one was in the countryside where it wouldn't be noticed).

In addition, there are several exclusions which may have deliberately beed caused by Uther, including Ice Magic and Demiplanes.

True Cause

In reality, exclusions were enforced by the Warden, with heavy input from the DM based on what he thought would be interesting and fair. This made them in effect serve as a form of "DM fiat" to squash whatever he wanted removed, among other purposes.

The Warden was an in-universe entity with her own powers, mechanics and limits behind the scenes. It was therefore possible to "break" exclusions and free what was inside them by blinding the Warden (or in a sense blinding the universe) with sufficiently strong antimemetic effects, or otherwise interfering in the hidden machinery of the world. The DM himself also broke exclusions regarding Juniper by giving him a gestalted skill at the start of the game, and later giving him the ability to generate hot dogs ex nihilo.

Exclusions and the Empire of Common Cause

The Empire of Common Cause is the large, dominant umbrella government of Aerb, and has laid judicial claim to exclusions through consent of its member polities. While this claim is relatively uncontested, many exclusions were once a part of member nations, and certain other exclusions are themselves still member nations, or non-member nations which are a party to certain treaties. The muddled legal nature of exclusion jurisdiction aside, the EoCC has been largely successful in staking claim to the world’s exclusion zones, and a small portion of the imperial budget is set aside for administration, defense, and research of exclusion zones.

The Department of Special Threats

The EoCC’s sprawling Department of Special Threats is responsible for exclusion zones and exclusions, including exclusion response, diplomacy with enpersoned exclusions, exclusion monitoring, and exclusion research.

Most exclusions under the purview of Special Threats have little more than a field laboratory somewhere on the edge of the exclusion, manned by a handful of scientists, many of them on loan from an institution of learning rather than actual employees of the empire. These facilities are often run-down, some dating back to the Second Empire, in part because of a perception that there is little to be learned from many of the exclusions and no possibility of exploitation.

In cases where there exists some threat to those outside the exclusion, a utilitarian magestone watchtower is often constructed, offering a view of as much of the exclusion zone as possible. This is often accompanied by a magestone wall around the exclusion zone.

Minor exclusions, which often have people living within them, are often administered completely by Special Threats, which acts in the stead of any local government. This is only a rule of thumb, however, as certain exclusion zones are not conducive to anything resembling governance, and others have functional governments which have survived the exclusion.

A typical outpost on the edge of an exclusion zone contains at the very least an outpost commander, research director, warder, and arcane specialist, though these roles sometimes overlap, and the size of any given outpost depends on the specifics of funding, the involvement of other institutions, and the nature of the exclusion itself. Typical activities include reconnaissance, policing the border, and handling any potential breaches (‘spillover’ in the parlance of Special Threats, as distinct from an exclusion break).

Many major exclusions are survivable with the right equipment, and a Special Threats outpost is always equipped with the capability to safely enter the exclusion zone, where possible. Additionally, those at the outpost are subject matter experts at the phenomenon within the exclusion zone, usually with some built up institutional knowledge of the conditions and problems within.

Research Bans

The imperial bans on Research Deemed Likely to Lead to Exclusion (RDLLE, colloquially, “Riddle”) date back to the early days of the Second Empire, when a number of research bans were issued in the hopes of preventing exclusion zones from forming in populated areas and preventing useful magics from being removed from the world. Numerous provisions were made for when and where Exclusion Risk Activities could be conducted, with sites often selected on the basis of how it would impact the Second Empire’s dissident groups rather than potential loss of life, potential loss of economic activity, or other considerations.

In the time of the Empire of Common Cause, the RDLLE Acts place blanket prohibitions on a number of fields of research, and these laws are backed up by the full might of the athenaeums (which naturally stand to lose enormous amounts of power should their disciplines be excluded). Specific acts of engineering are also covered under RDLLE, including a number of large-scale proposed projects whose end results are unknown (or insufficiently known) to those who have proposed them.

These research bans are not without detractors. The bans are often criticized as overly broad, politically motivated, and detrimental to progress. To the cynical, the research bans are another of the crude legal tools the athenaeums apply against potential competitors, as a non-excluded breakthrough might make an existing school of magic virtually obsolete. To the optimistic, the research bans represent a dimming of hopes for the future (though this language obviously harkens back to the zeitgeist of the Second Empire).

The Second Empire's equivalent of the RDLLE acts were the Exclusion Risk Mitigation Laws E(RMLs.) They were precipitated by the Contra-Ethereal exclusion - which had seemed relatively harmess and useful - followed by the similar exclusion of Fleshsmithing two decades later. Despite the number of exclusions caused by the Second Empire, these were somewhat effective; they helped stave off the exclusion of smoke magic by limiting research into the reality-warping aspects of the art, at least until the Empire collapsed.

Known Exclusion Zones

There are 53-63 known exclusion zones, maybe more, depending on how conservative you are with your definition.There are six entad and thirteen empersoned zones.. There were three silent exclusion zones known to Uther of which illusion magic was one. There are at least 218 excluded things, some of which might not be zone-associated. 83 of Juniper's skills are excluded.

Over 8 exclusions have been caused by abuse of the Infinite Library for research, by Uther and his allies and later by the Second Empire, including the exclusion of demiplanes. Juniper has caused two exclusions, which took out all of skin magic and soul magic; the Council of Arches also caused the exclusion of rune magic rescuing him from Fel Seed.

Amaryllis states that there are thirteen Exclusions that Juniper might be able to defeat; this gives Juniper the Slayer of Horrors quest (which has 13 subquests, but includes Fel Seed, which Amaryllis excludes). Amaryllis might have been counting Caldwell Gatesmith twice, as he has two exclusion zones.

Table

Name	Code	Details	Date	EZ doc
Æ	ÆEZ or AEEZ	Ash magic (ghosts conjured from ashes.) A lethally hot desert, filled with ancient ghosts of the hætan people.	221 FE	Ch. 54
Adamham (North Island, Zealand)	ADEZ	Creationism (magic which created new species, such as the Salin). A highly aggressive ecosystem, designed to survive any calamity but not spread beyond the island. Subject to poaching and regular pruning at the edges.	184 FE	Ch. 8
Barren Reef	BREZ	Lava magic. A large island generated from lava flowing out of a portal to the elemental plane of lava. Owned by Baron Reeve.	254 FE	Ch. 18
Blasphemy, Greater	BLEZ	Blasphemy (words of power, generally destructive). As a result of civil war in the primary city (Tapas), powerful radio transmitters transmit blasphemies to any conductive materials.	414 FE	Ch. 12
Blasphemy, Lesser	LBEZ	Partial exclusion of blasphemy (one blaspheme). An area in what is now the Kingdom of Pan. Defunct (dead) following the total exclusion of blasphemy to the Greater Blasphemy EZ.	58 FE	Ch. 12
Blue Fields	BFEZ	Nuclear weapons. Listed as an exclusion zone Juniper couldn't handle. Deliberately excluded during the Second Interimperium.	426 FE	Ch. 31
Bowdler	BEZ	Redaction magic. Contagious, erased memories and records of a target. Compared to the Outer Reaches, albeit weaker.	79 FE	Ch. 36
Caldwell Gatesmith		Portal magic, Caldwell Gatesmith only. Double exclusion. Could see and travel through portals, use their edges to cut, and use gravity to accelerate projectiles to be fired. Killed by Juniper, but the zone was still filled with sharp portals.
Boastre Vino, Athenaeum of Speculation and Scrutiny.		Illusion magic. A "silent" exclusion, location of the exclusion zone unknown to the world (but known to a select few.)
Cadian	CEZ	A "machine of vast intellect". One man only. None have yet passed his riddles. Known as Cad, he/it tests the morals of any who enter, executing those who fail (everyone, unless they teleport out before doing so); correct answers have been partially mapped out.	45 FE	Ch. 47
Celestar	CSEZ	Elvish perfection magic, wielded by 7 wizards, keeps the whole moon "perfect" and sterile. This was only revealed in the Exclusionary Principle timeline. Probably the "Finger of the Sun" mission from the Slayer of Horrors quest. Probably has something to do with Celestar "thrumming with renewed power" according to Speculator Masters and firing a massive superlaser at Aerb in the Cypress timeline.	121 BE	Ch. 55
Chthonic EZ	CTEZ	Abyss magic, which generated fully-stocked "dungeons". The Abbey, a small city, sits amid jungle at the head of the Styx River. Below is the last and greatest dungeon - 40 miles wide, 20 miles deep, and self-regenerating. Magic items generated are less varied than entads, and only function in the Zone. Used by Anglecynn for Trial By Adversity on at least one occasion.	27 FE	Ch. 46
City of Lasting Blood
Corflowers	CFEZ	The Hat of Brilliant Protection, which compels anyone who wears it to protect it.	357 FE	Ch. 45
Conta-ethereal EZ	CEEZ	Also known as the "astral plane", the "contra-ethereal plane" is the airless void between the planes. The astral plane itself has not been excluded, but travel to and from it is. The EZ has a permanent portal to the astral plane, with a crumbling dome to prevent depressurization and incursions from astral natives.	171 FE	Ch. 7
Datura Desert		Thaum-seekers, or the blight that kills plants and animals. Four hundred miles. Contains both Caer Laga and the Barren Jewel, which ward against the thaum-seekers. Listed as an exclusion zone Juniper couldn't handle. Used for Anglecynn's trials by adversity around the year 527 FE.[citation needed]
Degenerate Earth		Dibbling.	311 FE	Ch 68
Demiplanar	DPEZ	Demiplanes. EZ was not publicly known, but used to refer to demiplanes themselves (now reachable only by Star Magic.) The Empire had the actual EZ, which contains a demiplane larger than Aerb, classified. Exclusion was caused by Uther's attempts to exploit the Infinite Library.	26 FE	Ch. 29
Domestic	CHEZ	Ever-expanding house, generates random rooms.	~233 FE	Ch. 15
Do Not	DNEZ	Force magic	87 FE
Doris Finch Exclusion Zone, aka the Republic of Doris Finch	DFEZ	Duplication, Doris Finch only. One thousand square miles.	446 FE	Ch. 3
Fel Seed EZ	FSEZ	Fel Seed. City of a Thousand Brides & surrounding area.	34 FE
Feng		Feng Shui aka Shuism. Perfectly-arranged shist parlors which could revitalize a person in a few minutes were found on every corner during the Second Empire.	302 FE
Flintonstele, aka Old Yonder	OYEZ	Conjoinery. Fusion of two materials; everything in the EZ is a single piece of metal, although bones and a few species of plant remain immune.	83 FE	Ch. 49
Fool's Geldspiel		Mentalism. A reference to Wales' other web novel The Dark Wizard of Dunkirk.	31 FE
Funnelin	FNEZ	Speciekinesis, controlling & seeing through identical objects. Houses whoever or whatever claimed the First Empire's standardized paper size. Supersonic paper shreds anyone entering. AKA Funnel magic.	66 FE	Ch. 6
Gates of Leron aka Gessim Gall	GGEZ	Contains the only shortcut to the Other Side. Not actually an Exclusion Zone; it's a minefield set up by Uther full of radiation, dangerous animals and plants, and memetic effects.	~17 FE	Ch. 14
Glacial	GEZ	Ice Magic (#16). Considered a "lost art" after the Ice Wizards were crushed by Uther, and the location of the EZ is not known to the public, although it was discovered in at least one alternate future. The EZ is full of tiny self-replicating ice totems.	4 FE	Ch. 27
Glass Wall	GWEZ	Crystal magic (creating semi-sapient crystal constructs.) Much, but not all, of the EZ is taken up by the crystal Glass Wall and its creations. Crystals can leave the zone. Crystal magic is still practiced in the Crystal Pavilion, in the north.	311 FE	Ch. 42
Glassy Fields	GFEZ	Glass magic (#112). Located in Terrormoor. A hundred miles across. Contains vidrics, which are small fox-like creatures, with fur of glass, that can travel through reflections.	47 FE	Ch. 19
Herront		Some kind of loyalty or brainwashing effect, one specific goblin only.	331 FE
Iron Chane	IREZ	Jurisdiction (magically enforced laws.) Citywide. Notably, anti-vagrancy laws target anyone unconscious outside for any reason.	288 FE	Ch. 16
Knotted Noose	KNEZ	Chronmancy (postcognition). Anyone thinking too hard about the past dies. Speculated to be a future chronomancer reaching back into the present to kill people.	101 FE	Ch. 62
Lalonei	LLEZ	One of only two "free" exclusions considered entirely safe and livable. Everything slowly transforms into typical examples of it's type. All mortal species are considered one "type"; minds are unaffected. Used for healing and duplicating industrial goods.	281 FE	Ch. 26
Lankwon, the City Made Manifest		Manifest only. Unknown form of crude, long-range mind control.	324 FE
Li'o	LIEZ	Skin magic. Triggered by Juniper abusing a combo of magics that included magical tattoos. One hundred mile radius.	527 FE
Lunar EZ	LEZ	Lunar magic - month-long time loops. One created, ongoing. Young boy only (Mikhail Zaman., 16, now a powerful multimage)	357 FE	Ch. 17
Manifold	MAEZ	Clay magic (golems). Self-replicating golems down to the bedrock.	399 FE	Ch. 24
Mendel	MFEZ	Mendelian breeding magic. Isolationist society of ur-tyr, genetically enhanced tywood. Creatures can leave the EZ; this would have caused several catastrophes, if not for the Infinite Library.	231 FE	Ch. 13
Million Nations	MNEZ	Bureaucratic magic, aka nation magic. A vast number of tiny "nations" with magically-enforced borders, laws, and taxes. "Divination" on Juniper's skill list.	229 FE	Ch. 21
Moljer EZ	MEZ	Cleaning magic (bloodline for gelnid). The half-orc Moljer gained the ability to cleanse or order anything conceptually "unclean", including flesh. Closed 259 FE on the death of Moljer.	255 FE	Ch. 20
Necrolaborem	NLEZ	A form of necromancy, Elisha Blue (Captain Blue-in-the-Bottle) only. Could turn people into zombies under his complete control, but conscious as their bodies slowly decayed. One hundred miles around the Blue family estate. Killed by Juniper, leaving behind a huge mess.	276 FE	Ch 61
Nightsmoke, aka the Skulldark City of Evernight	NSEZ	A city wrapped in darkness by a thickening of the projection layer. Dominated by an ever-shifting criminal oligarchy of warring gangs, known as the Towers. One of Juniper's darkest creations, which followed Arthur's death.	32 FE	Ch. 50
Old Gromsh		Psionics (although this wasn't immediately clear to Juniper.)	200 FE
Oster	OSEZ	Clock magic (once studied at Claw & Clocks). Massive clockworks altered physical laws; Oster is disconnected from p-space, and everything within is abstracted.	195 FE
Pai Shep, formerly Verdant Fields	VFEZ	Farming pseudomagic, Pai Shep (a broshe) only. He is an incredible warrior while on his farm, which has by now covers the entire EZ.	~136 FE
Papillion (Widder Island & surroundings)	PPEZ	Butterfly magic. Once studied at Claw & Clocks. Following a battle against Butterfly Mages, anyone violating a list of rules is recognized as an enemy combatant and subject to lethal bad luck.	100 FE	Ch. 11
Parsmont	PEZ	People can "vote" for champions, granting them gravity control as long as they're within the EZ. One of only two EZs deemed "free" by the Third Empire.	~29 FE	Ch. 58
Pendleham, the City of Flesh	PHEZ	Fleshsmithing. Once studied at Claw & Clocks and Bone & Flesh. Technically empersoned, but that person's flesh is shared by numerous fleshsmiths. The zone contained a dystopia of fleshsmiths, resistance fighters, and enhanced Pustule Mages. Killed by Juniper.	194 FE	Ch. 22
Publican EZ	PUEZ	Trampled Plains & surrounding areas. Holds a species of animated walking taverns & inns, which will violently pursue potential customers.	254 FE	Ch. 2
Quixotic	QEZ	Smoke magic. Used rare smokable herbs to alter perceptions, or reality at high levels. Not to be confused with the specic smoke magic of the He'lesh. Initially a small smokestack in Fricase, the initial site lead to exclusion.	356 FE	Ch. 28
Ravenous	RVEZ	Groove casting (#217).	296 FE
[REDACTED]	XEZ	Gets more powerful the more you know about him. Information brokerage pseudomagic, allowing for alteration of gathered info and acquiring info if anyone gathers info on you at high levels. Bastian Tolivar only.	410 FE	Ch. 56
Risen Lands	RLEZ	Necrotic field effect: created by death and channeled into crystals for power, now it causes the dead rise as shambling corpses. Large territory in the Kingdom of Francorum. EZ centered around Silmar City, in a weaponized formation of a exclusion zone.	519 FE	Ch. 25
Rove EZ		Like Katamari Damacy (accumulation of items rolled over), Rove only. Killed by Juniper.	475 FE
Semblance	SMEZ	Gray magic.	9 FE
Spect	SEZ	The Niveau system, which funneled power up through the ranks of its mages, allowing them to conjure magical tokens. Any of the mortal species entering is rapidly drained of life "purchasing" minor trinkets.	91 FE	Ch. 23
Sunspots EZ	SSEZ	Lenticular magic (alters the projection layer.) Exclusion is to a patch of sky, but the area within hundreds of miles is considered part of the EZ due to erratic focused sunlight.	266 FE	Ch. 10
Theraba Island	THEZ	Ex Nihilo (#216). Practiced by the sculptrices of Theraba Island, allowed creating materials, tools and creatures from nothing. Destroyed in a violent explosion in 39 FE. Attempts to recreate the magic are tracked by the Infinite Library, and almost always lead to the death of the practitioner by accident (for example, by accidentally creating too dense a meterial which acts as a bomb).	39 FE	Ch. 30
Unity aka New Unity	UNEZ	Uniqulomancy. Each spell could only be cast once. For a long time, notable because Uniqulomancers could attack many miles outside the EZ using slightly-different spells. Now notable because any fire in the EZ is massively accelerated, it is inhabited only by flame-resistant plants.	24 FE	Ch. 52
Valley of Cards	VCEZ	Tarot magic (craft cards & then draw randomly from your deck to cast.) Contains the "Deck of Many Things", a powerful combo which continues to cast itself indefinitely.	58 FE	Ch. 9
Wettring	FEEZ	Entad exclusion. Fountain of Everblood. A sphrerical area surrounding the former town of Wettring is completely submerged in blood from the Plane of Blood. The blood is highly pressurized.	311 FE	Ch. 4
Whiffle	WHEZ	Used for Anglecynn's trials by adversity around the year 450 FE, leaving Onion "windseared and injured".	119 FE
William's Net	WNEZ	"Chains" of demon possession, demons binding deeper demons to channel physical might and possess mortals more easily. EZ is mostly underwater. Possibly Constriction Magic (#18).	5 FE	Ch. 60
Zentria	ZEEZ	A circular space-warping effect which has vastly expanded the interior into vast featureless plains, and makes moving towards the edge of the EZ harder than moving towards the center. Possibly an entad with a powerful but limited area-of-effect magic rather than a true exclusion.	91 FE	Ch. 5
Zestsez		Mirror dimension	378 FE

Location unknown

• Dimensions: three parallel dimensions, excluded in Uther's time. The disjoint planes may also be excluded.
  • Dream-walking into the dream dimension is believed to have been excluded to an unknown location; although certain entads and the like can still access it, and people are still capable of dreaming. In reality, the Lord of Dreams simply cut Aerbian dream-walkers off from it. The presumed, hypothetical Dream-Walking Exclusion Zone is designated DWEZ-P.
• Carrollism.
• Skill construction: Gestalting (#4), Custom skills (#17).
• Essentialism
• Rune Magic

History

Before Uther

Cidium, the city which appears to predate Aerb, has been suggested as a possible exclusion zone. However, the magic it's inhabiotants claim ensures it has always and will always exist has never been formally verified. Similarly, the Boundless Pit has been suggested as a possible exclusion zone; whatever magic created it does seem to be limited to the Pit.

The ancient empire of the Gomerons were killed when their magical mental augmentations suddenly failed, killing them instantly. This is sometimes classified as a "proto-exclusion". The artefacts they created remained functional but are impossible to repair.

The Parsmont exclusion may have occurred as early as 1000 BE. The final doom of Celestar occurred in 121 BE, although it wasn't confirmed as a genuine pre-Utherian exclusion except in the alternate future of The Exclusionary Principle, 9th Edition.

First Empire

The exclusionary principle is sometimes said to have begun around the time of Uther's appearance. Among the exclusions known to have occurred during his reign were the Glacial, William's Net, Semblance, Unity, Gessim Gall, Chthonic, and Demiplanar exclusions.

Dream-walking is believed to have been excluded during Uther's time (10 FE) to an unknown location, for unknown reasons, but in reality the Lord of Dreams blocked it off due to one of Uther's adventures. At some point during Uther's adventures, Aerb was cut off from the disjoint planes (an effect known as Uther's Interdiction), which he proclaimed he had accomplished for the safety of Aerb. Juniper speculated that this may have simply been an exclusion Uther took credit for.

Uther was one of the few people to be aware of the location of the Illusion Magic EZ, and arranged for the Athenaeum of Speculation and Scrutiny to be relocated inside the zone in 12 FE, with the asylum dedicated to the dream-skewered headed by Speculator Masters (secretly a master Illusion Mage.)

First Interimperium

Fel Seed appeared, and was immediately excluded, four years after Uther's disappearance. Some rumours circulated that he was in fact Uther, although the theory was ultimately discarded.

Other exclusions during this period included the City of Lasting Blood, Theraba, Moot, Cadian, Glassy Fields, Bowdler, Flintonstele, Do Not, Spect, Knotted Noose, Flaguhan, Torn Tapestry, Whiffle, Pai Shep, Contra-ethereal, Papillion, Valley of Cards, Funnelin, and Zentria exclusions.

Second Empire

The Second Empire was founded in 176 FE. Exclusions which occurred under their reign included Necrolaborem, Pendleham, Adamham, Publican, Wettring, Sunspots, Mendel, Domestic, Iron Chane, Oster, Old Gromsh, Æ, Million Nations, Barren Reef, Moljer, Lalonei, Ravenous, Feng, Glass Wall, and Degenerate Earth. Some exclusions, such as the Adamham, Publican, and Iron Chane exclusions, were a direct result of their aggressive research tactics.

The Second Empire had a policy of attempted exploitation of exclusion zones, including the Fountain of Everblood and Adamham.

In 311 FE, at the height of the Second Empire, there were shuist parlors on every corner, smoke magic bars, and forms of long-distance magical communication available (although not as ubiquitous as the later radio and telephone), all of which eventually be excluded.

The Manifest exclusion in 324 FE, which destroyed/subsumed the Imperial capital, marked the end of the Second Empire.

Second Interimperium & Third Empire

Exclusions since the Second Empire include Doris Finch, the Risen Lands, Lunar, Greater Blasphemy, Herront, Datura Desert, Quixotic, Corflowers, Zestsez, Manifold, [Redacted], Blue Fields, Gatesmith, and Rove.

The Empire of Common Cause had made attempts to prepare for the exclusion of a major magic, but they were (in Amaryllis' opinion) woefully inadequate.

Juniper's Adventures

Juniper has caused two exclusions, which took out all of skin magic and soul magic.

Timeskip

The Council of Arches caused the exclusion of rune magic rescuing Juniper from Fel Seed.

Alternate Futures

Exclusions never occur in the futures seen by the Infinite Library, even in situations where they obviously would in reality; the magic of the library seems to be unable to account for or predict the exclusionary principle being invoked.

Conversely, one of the common ways the Library forsees the world ending is if an exclusion manages to break free. The Warden is not completely omnipotent. They are only capable of containing one of the World Lords at a time, and could be potentially affected by Mome Rath's antimemetic powers (allowing for partial or entire exclusion breaks), which is why it was prophecied that three World Lords existing on Aerb at a time would result in the end of the world.

11 seperate apocalypses have occurred (in alternate Library futures, then averted before they happened) as a result of the ur-tyr government breeding various horrors in their EZ and accidentally letting them escape.

In the future that The Exclusionary Principle, 9th Edition was pulled from, [REDACTED] died of old age in 531 FE, allowing the info on his EZ to safely become public knowledge. The location of the Ice Magic EZ was discovered in 541 FE, although it wasn't even publicly known to have been excluded in Juniper's time (it was simply considered a lost art after the Ice Wizards were wiped out by Uther.) At some point, the L'io EZ was declared a Free Exclusion, although considerable confusion remained over what exactly had happened there, and expeditions to Celestar revealed the truth behind that Exclusion. Necrolaborum and the Republic of Doris Finch, on the other hand, remained intact and had not been liberated.