The Galleria of Passing Things is Homeward’s primary market district, though many who visit hesitate to call it a market at all.
It is not a place of shouting vendors, fixed stalls, or rigid currency exchange. Instead, it is a living crossroads where value is defined by relevance, and where goods appear, linger, and vanish as stories move on.
All paths from the Threshold of Return eventually curve toward the Galleria.
The Galleria exists to facilitate motion without urgency.
Where the Threshold of Return receives stories, the Galleria allows them to redistribute what remains—objects, tools, knowledge, fragments of memory, and stabilized Continuance. Nothing here feels hoarded. Nothing feels permanent.
Shops and stalls shift positions subtly over time. A vendor encountered one day may be gone the next, replaced by someone new—or by nothing at all. This is not instability. It is turnover by design.
Homeward does not permit stagnation, even in trade.
The Galleria deals in many forms of value:
Mundane goods carried from Story Realms
Artifacts that have outlived their original stories
Storyforged components no longer aligned to their former wielders
Maps of paths that no longer exist
Services tied to guidance, repair, translation, or remembrance
Continuance is the most common medium of exchange, but not the only one. Some transactions require context, intent, or closure rather than payment alone.
A seller may ask why you want something before agreeing to part with it.
The Galleria manifests as a wide, open district of layered plazas and walkways, arranged in gentle curves rather than strict grids.
Common features include:
Open-air arcades and canopies
Broad steps and bridges connecting different levels
Soft, ambient lighting with no visible source
Architecture that blends countless styles without clashing
There is no central marketplace. Instead, value disperses naturally, encouraging wandering and discovery. Crowds are present, but never overwhelming. Conversations carry easily. No one rushes.
The Galleria feels alive—but never loud.
Those who operate within the Galleria are as transient as the goods they trade.
Some are Anchors resting between journeys.
Some are residents of Homeward who have chosen exchange as their role.
Others are echoes—stories that ended cleanly, now lingering in quieter forms.
No one here pressures a sale.
A transaction that should not happen simply… doesn’t.
For players, the Galleria serves as:
Primary equipment and upgrade hub
Continuance exchange point
Information crossroads
Soft reintroduction to stakes after rest
Unlike markets in other realms, the Galleria rarely punishes lack of resources. Instead, it responds to relevance. A character who carries unresolved purpose may find unexpected opportunities here.
The Galleria is firmly aligned with Light—not because it is pure, but because it keeps things moving.
Items that linger too long without use fade from availability. Objects tied to denial or obsession become difficult to trade. Goods from Unwritten realms are accepted cautiously, if at all.
The market remembers what should pass on.
POI Name: The Galleria of Passing Things
Location: Inner Homeward, reachable from the Threshold
Function: Market, exchange, narrative redistribution
Theme: Motion, relevance, impermanence
Nothing here is meant to be kept forever.
And that is why it has value.