The world of blbr
The heart of BLBR is the Court and the strange things they interact with on a fairly regular basis.
The Court Lands
The Court lands themselves are a strange place thrumming with a quiet but powerful energy. Though the average cat may be none the wiser, to those sensitive to it, the home of the Court cats reeks of raw magic. This is not common, particularly in the modern era where magic has been slowly leaving the world.
The source of this is unknown, but it's possible that power is related to perhaps the Gateway to the Bright Realms not far from the Green Cave. It could be a result of the many strange cats and creatures who call this place home. It's hard to say.
Strange things happen on this stretch of green earth... odd structures, ghosts and spirits, strange noises, unreal and often horrific happenings.
It's likely a cat not belonging to the Court has never seen anything supernatural up to this point or felt anything off-- unless their mind was playing tricks on them or they tangled with a ghost or two. The common belief for those who have heard of the place is that it is terribly haunted or somehow cursed. Naturally, for some cats, that's a feature and not a bug.
The BRight Realms
The Bright Realms is a world that lives nestled beside our own-- accessed through rifts in the world that appear in the form of beautiful pools of water. At one point, there were many of these pools across the world... but the final one remains here in Austin, just behind the Green Cave.
The Court cats are learning about this gorgeous, deadly place-- but it holds many mysteries and even more dangers. Until recently, most of the Court has yet to venture within it, and that's for the best. Unless you have a specific location in mind that you've been before, the portal spits you out somewhere random in the Bright Realms. Finding your way back is almost impossible without help. They do intend to explore further though, looking for a fated library with a wealth of knowledge within it.
The world was named for its oil slick rainbow appearance, every inch of it has a strange unreal sheen to it. The sky is a stretch of color and light. Time is impossible to keep track of here, cats have entered and exited without a day having passed them by physically... only to return to our world having advanced thousands of years in their absence. The land moves and flexes, making it impossible to chart.
It has been said that the Bright Realms is alive, breathing, and seeks challengers. Those who can fight it, prove themselves, and carve their own place on its back. The gods and creatures who live there, such as Spades, have done just that. This leaves them with their bubbles of space that allow them to customize and build what they like unbothered.
Some creatures of the Bright Realms are there by nature, some have fallen in and made it their home, and some creatures... are the Bright Realms. These rainbow-eyed things, called Vessels, are the most dangerous creatures of all.
magic and changing
The Court cats have currently no access to magic nor a way to alter themselves physically in any sort of magical way. The knowledge on it is spotty at best, as most creatures they interact with have magic accessed by way of being... a magical or spiritual creature like a god.
It has been said that magic is hard-fought. All mortals have an inherent spark of it inside them, the same spark that animates their flesh and blesses them with thought. Apparently, this can only be accessed and shaped at your lowest point. When you have hit the bottom, feel your worst, or are at the brink of death-- you may try to reach out with a desperate hope or wish... and with luck, something reaches back.
To change your physical body can come in a number of forms in BLBR, most of them unknown to Court Cats. The most common way it seems is corruption to become a wrong-thing, a brutally painful process of unknown roots or motivation. It is said to be done by Cenzo alone, and permanently changes your physical form... or kills you in the efforts of doing so. Corruption is a one way process, as far as it is known, and can happen to locations such as the aforementioned library, to cats, and to nature itself.
Some Court Cats have begun to suffer corruption, being unmade and reshaped into something... far from resembling their previous selves. These cats reject their past names, as if the sound of them is painful, and often no longer have need of eating or drinking.
There's tell that entering the Bright Realms may change you, but it is not the Bright Realms itself that alters you with time... leaving that a mysterious avenue to explore for the time being.