Order and Madness are constantly gnawing away at one another. Indeed, it is this interplay of opposing energies that causes the World to spin and the cycle of life to occur. Both forces draw strength from their size and concentration in an area; the more each affects a place or a person, the stronger the influence they exert on the area around the thing affected. These snowballing effects are known as "blooms". Blooms are pockets where either of the World's opposing energies are at their most noticeable, and spreading.
The most specific example of an Order Bloom is a City State. The laws, regulations and basic social contracts that multitudes of people enter into, create strongly ordered energies that feed on themselves. In Order Blooms, things tend to behave predictably; laws of physics and nature are strongly present, unrest is uncommon as are birth defects, madness and disease. For this reason, the vast majority of Indraig's population live within city walls and those that do not live within short distance of a city or monastery.
No one knows what causes Madness Blooms, which is what makes them particularly frightening. More, they can even open up within Order Blooms on rare occasions, swallowing them whole, as was the notorious case with the City State of Shannath. Within a Madness Bloom, natural laws do not always apply, the senses are unreliable, madness and deformity are common and probability ceases to function as it should.
As Order and Madness are opposing forces, propagating one in an area affected by the other lessens the influence of the affecting force. It is for this reason that the Church established its monastic orders. Monasteries are built near Madness Blooms to, at the very least, contain them or, in a best-case scenario, destroy them completely through the rigorous implementation of Order.
For a listing of known Madness Blooms, please see the Geography page of the wiki.
