The Ashfall didn’t always exist.

When the world was young, there was almost no barrier between realms. Magic and myth were as much a part of day to day life as breathing.

As time passed, and people began to believe less and less in magic, and the world became more and more industrialized, the barrier between our world and the others nearest to it began to thicken, creating a membrane that became harder and harder for those from other worlds to pierce.

This barrier became the Ashfall.

It resembles a dead reflection of our own world, though doesn’t strictly match the current time period. Instead, areas appear to be caught in a snapshot of a time in which something particularly powerfully emotional happened. This means that areas both natural and constructed may be represented in different time periods — a church that burned down after the bell tower was struck by lightning in the 1830s that was the sight of many weddings and funerals might stand in the Ashfall next to the current-day high school, where a high concentration of people pass through every day filled with the intense emotional energy of youth.

Everything there has a strange sort of greying or sepia tone to it, as though all of the color had been leeched out of everything. Outside, a steady fog is filled with slowly falling ash that covers the ground like a grey snow. Almost nothing organic exists there. The ground is barren and there are only the husks of dead trees and bushes. There are no animals and no insects.

Inside the buildings, any books or written materials seem to be almost entirely blank, whatever little writing is in them turns to gibberish and then fades almost immediately beyond the first few pages. Everything is covered in a thick layer of dust.

Good question. Some would argue that the Ashfall is best left well enough alone. It serves as a barrier between the world we know and others. Some might argue that there is knowledge to be gained from studying some of the places that are reflected in the Ashfall.