Skein of Worlds:Cosmology and Setting

Skein of Worlds « Cosmology and Setting

The Material Plane

The material plane consists of an infinite number of spheres hanging in an infinite void. These spheres tend to group together in small clusters with large gaps (and little interaction) between clusters.

The Spheres

There are three different types of spheres: the elemental spheres or planets, the positive energy spheres or suns and the negative energy spheres or black holes.

Traveling Between Spheres

Traveling between spheres within a system is, naturally, easier than traveling within systems, but no means of travel is particularly easy on the whole.

The Void

The Void is all the space between spheres and makes up most of the material plane. Despite being called the Void, it's not entirely empty. Each element is present in minute amounts, but this medium is thin enough to rarely matter. As hostile as it may seem, the Void isn't lifeless either. Creatures capable of surviving and thriving in the Void tend to be very powerful. With so little to subsist on (besides each other), most of these creatures will travel to spheres from time to time to feed. Thankfully, such an event is rare as one would imagine the consequences of such a visit to be pretty terrible.

The Transitive Planes

The transitive planes are those planes that exist as fabric upon which the other planes rest, at least metaphorically speaking. The vocabulary of mortals is ill equipped to truly describe things that exist in more than three dimensions. What follows is an attempt to use this limited vocabulary to describe the various ways these various planes interconnect.

The Ethereal Planes

The simplest of the transitive planes is the Ethereal Plane. This plane exists as like a shadow behind the material plane, at least around the spheres. It seems that the Ethereal Plane doesn't extend very far into the Void. Only the closest of spheres are connected ethereally. Some planar travelers tell of the Deep Ethereal, where it extends farther and farther into the Void, at the same time getting farther and farther from the material plane. Such tales invariably involve frightening encounters with strange and dangerous creatures, although how much truth there is in these tales is unknown.

The Astral Plane

The Astral Plane is, more than any other plane, the fabric upon which everything else rests. All places connect to the Astral Plane in some way. Being the place between places, it's a fairly strange place. Few of the normal rules apply there. Distance is especially tricky.

The Shadow Plane

If, while on the Astral Plane, you attempt to move away from everything, if you move in the right direction, somewhat inward, you might notice the dull gray light of the plane beginning to fade. Eventually you'll enter an area dominated by shadows. This is the Shadow Plane. One way of describing it is the Astral Plane's Ethereal Plane. This description may not be entirely inaccurate. While it's possible, if not easy, to reach the Ethereal Planes from the Astral Plane, it seems to be much easier from the Shadow Plane. Unfortunately, distances between places on the Shadow Plane seem to be somewhat more related to the distances on the material plane.

The Deep Places

It has already been mentioned that you can travel deeper and deeper into the Ethereal Planes, but the same is also true of the other transitive planes. On the Astral Plane, if you attempt to travel towards the gray horizon in between the three great orbs, they will eventually fade into the distance and you will be surrounded by an endless gray nothingness. This is the beginning of the Deep Astral. It is possible to get farther and farther away from everything else in the cosmos, but little is known about what, if anything, is out there.

The Inner Planes

The three great orbs hanging in the gray of the Astral Plane are all portals to great planes of energy. The spheres of the material plane are all intricately linked to one of these three planes.

The Positive Energy Plane

The suns of the material plane are all giant vortices to this place, the source of all light and, for most creatures, life energy. While most people might guess that such a place would be a paradise, it can be dangerous. Following one of the vortices on a sun, you would first arrive on a surface much like the one you just left. The most immediate difference would be the change from standing on a blindingly bright surface under a pitch black sky, to a dull white surface under a blindingly bright sky.

The Negative Energy Plane

By traveling to the great black orb in the Astral Plane, you'll find yourself in the place where all black holes go. The Shadow Plane may be dark, but this place is different. The Positive Energy Plane is the source of all light and life; this place is the end of it. It's not that there's no light here. Light pours into this place from all of the black holes and from the Astral Plane, but light here fades very quickly. The result is that things in the distance fade from view quickly. In addition to that, the Negative Energy Plane leeches the life out of everything within it. This ebbing life energy causes living things to glow faintly, at least until their life energy runs out.

The Elemental Tempest

The third of the great orbs leads to the Elemental Tempest, the source of all four elements. This place exists as a foam, with each bubble containing a different mix of elements. These bubbles are larger the closer you are to the Astral Plane. Some are large enough to hold entire civilizations. The bubbles aren't entirely stable though. Fortunately, for those living there, the older and larger a bubble is, the less likely it is to change, at least nearer to the center.

The Divine Realms

There is still one major piece missing from this puzzle; the Divine Realms, the homes of the various deities that exist across the many planets. The Divine Realms are much too varied to describe what how they look, but there are still some commonalities.

The easiest to see is how these places look from the Astral Plane. In fact, the vortices leading into them look much like the vortices leading back to the material plane, at least until you get close enough. In fact, there are threads running to and from these vortices. These threads are not the silver threads that link two portals though. These threads exist in many colors, though they aren't random. The best theory for now is that the color of the thread is related to the portfolio of the deity of that realm. Most importantly though is where these threads connect. Any material sphere with worshipers of a deity has such a thread linked to that deity's realm.

Belief

Deities depend on belief for their power, and they return some of that power to a few, chosen believers. The big question is, why the deities exist in the first place.

Outside the Divine Realms

There is one fact of vital importance in explaining how the universe works on an everyday level. Deities that leave their divine realm leave their divine power behind. This explains why deities rarely interact with the material plane directly.

Souls and Outsiders

When a person dies, their souls travel along the thread their belief had previously traveled, arriving in their deities realm. Here they take on a form chosen by the deity. Believers in a nature deity may become animals in that deities forest realm, for example. These transformed souls are generically called outsiders, though there are many forms common enough to be known by more specific names. What happens to a person that claims no belief is a mystery. Few people really believe in nothing though, so it is likely that the most appropriate deity gets claim to their soul.

Apotheosis

There are three known ways to achieve apotheosis and become a new deity. (I say that, but few people even know it's possible, much less how to do it.) None of these options are simple or easy.

Other Places

Note: I'm not sure of which of these places I actually want to include yet. Most other places would simply be a divine realm. Until I decide which to include, I won't fill out these entries.

People

In an infinite universe, you'd expect life to appear on infinitely many planets, and you'd be right. What might be surprising is just how often life appears though. Very nearly every planet without a severe elemental imbalance is covered in living creatures. Even more surprising to some is that nearly all of these are also home to at least some form of intelligent life.

Origins of Life

Once you realize that most deities have had countless years to spread life, and belief, to other planets, it's not really so surprising. In fact, this is probably how most planets were first colonized. This isn't the whole story though.

Races

While, on average, any one race only exists on about one or two planets, there are a few races that exist on many hundreds or even thousands of planets. First among these are the humans. One of the great mysteries though is exactly why humans are so numerous.

Civilizations

Any intelligent race that stays in one place long enough becomes, almost by definition, a civilization. There are, in fact, many more civilizations than there are intelligent races. On any planet with multiple civilizations, conflict is inevitable, though the nature of this conflict varies greatly.

Organizations

Outside of the lines of race or civilization, there are a few groups of beings working towards their own goals. Such organizations must be vast and powerful merely to exist across the vast distances between different systems of spheres. Because of this, and because their goals are rarely compatible, few of these organizations are on good terms with any of the others. This is one, of many, reasons they tend to be secretive about their existence.