Skein of Worlds:The Material Plane

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.

The Elemental Spheres

The elemental spheres, or planets, (usually) exist as a balance of the four elements. Each planet has an overall balance, but few planets are uniform. Different areas of a planet can have slightly different balances of the elements. This can be more obvious in some places than others. One of the clearest examples is a hot, dry desert where there is too much fire and not enough water. In places of especially high concentrations of one element vortices into the Elemental Tempest can form. A planet that is heavily unbalanced towards one element might gain a minor elemental trait. Rarely a planet may be lacking all four elements. Such a place would be a lifeless ball of cold, grey dust with a thin, unbreathable atmosphere.

Earth

Earth provides the solid ground. It is the most stable element, and rarely fluctuates much. Areas with too little earth are dusty or flowing. Quick sand or tar pits would be a localized example of this. Areas with too much earth would be very rocky and mountainous. Earth vortices tend to form in deep caves.

Air

Air provides, well... air. Air fluctuates a good deal as the winds come and go. Areas with too little air tend to make breathing difficult. This might manifest in any number of ways, from a simple lack of air, to stagnant air, to a lot of dust or water vapor suspended in what air there is. Areas with too much air tend to be very windy. Air vortices tend to form in large, high clouds.

Air exists even underground and underwater. Areas underwater with too little air can't support sea life very well. Areas underwater with too much air tend to manifest as underwater fountains of bubbles and the like.

Water

Water provides the oceans, lakes, rain and all other forms of moisture. Water doesn't fluctuate very rapidly, but its changes are sometimes pronounced, bringing dry days and rain, or drought and floods. Areas with too little water are simply dry. Areas with too much water tend to have a lot of lakes and heavy rains. Even areas underwater can lack water, even if that's hard to put into words. Such areas would be similar to areas that lack air aboveground, but are overall pretty rare. Water vortices tend to form in the deep ocean rifts.

Fire

Fire provides warmth. Areas with too little are cold, and areas with too much are hot, but fire is the most unstable element. It can fluctuate wildly even within a single day. Fire vortices mainly form in volcanoes.

The Positive Energy Spheres

The positive energy spheres, or suns, are the source of most light on the material plane. They're about the same size as a planet, but don't have much in the way of a surface or native life. Suns are mainly giant vortices into the positive energy plane.

If a planet was close enough to a sun, it might gain the minor positive-dominant trait. The sun would be very large in the sky, and even at night it wouldn't be as dark as in other places. Such a place wouldn't necessarily be any hotter though. Worlds with the positive-dominant trait would be hard places for normal civilizations to flourish since the forces of nature would be so much stronger.

The Negative Energy Spheres

The negative energy spheres, or black holes, are very similar to suns. They're about the same size, and don't have much of a surface or native life. The biggest difference is that a black hole is a vortex to the negative energy plane. Since it neither emits nor reflects light, it's very difficult to see, unless it's close enough to block the light from something else, such as a number of stars or a sun or planet.

A planet too close to a black hole would be a very dark place. Even during the day, it wouldn't be as bright, and at night the black hole could be seen as a great black disk in the sky. Any native life on such a planet would tend to grow and reproduce fairly slowly.

Planetary Systems

As previously mentioned, spheres tend to clump together into small systems. There's almost always at least one of each type of sphere in a system, and usually several more. (Planets tend to be about 3 times as numerous as either suns or black holes.)

Suns are easily visible from anywhere within a system, and even from other systems (as stars). Planets are usually visible from within the same system, although the further planets may require a telescope to see as more than a bright star. Black holes are rarely visible unless they eclipse something else.

Note: I have no idea how spheres move within systems. Simply rotating in place isn't enough, but they have no particular reason to orbit each other in any simple way.

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.

Portals

The simplest way to get between two spheres is through an open portal. You can clearly see what's on the other side and simply step (or ride, or sail) through. Finding and opening a portal though is no simple task.

Portals are ancient artifacts of unknown origin. (Actually, they have many origins, but few people know much, if anything, about them.) A portal links two places somewhat like a gate spell. There are many portals in existence, but most are hidden, locked or both. The key to a locked portal can be any number of things from a specific item to a time of day or year to a particular bloodline. Unlocking a newly discovered portal can be very difficult since there is often little to no information as to the portal even existing, much less when it was made or what it was used for.

Not all portals are locked though. Even though they may always be open, they still might be very hard to find. There is no distinct boundary between one side and the other. Light, sound, objects and even magic pass through unhindered. If there is no way to look around both sides of the portal (where one might see two different views), there's really no physical way to tell where one side begins and the other ends. Even magical means rarely work. Normally, detect magic would cause a portal to glow brightly (even blindingly so); however, most portals were built with enchantments to prevent such simple spells from working on them. (This could have been done for any number of reasons, and likely varies from portal to portal.)

Though rare, there are some large, always open portals out in the open. These tend to become important centers of trade between the two planets they connect. Assuming the portal is built on suitable terrain (and sometimes not-so-suitable terrain), the area around it is likely to grow into a fairly large city spanning both sides of the portal. (Portals on suns and black holes exist, but are even rarer than portals on planets. Large, always open portals on a sun or black hole are basically non-existent for a number of reasons.)

Finding and unlocking a new portal and charting what's on the other side can be a great adventure, or an even greater business opportunity. This is another reason why many portals remain unknown. Their finders may not want to share the secret, eventually taking it to their grave. On the other hand, many such secrets are passed down from father to son, or master to apprentice, so some portals that may seem undiscovered might just be well kept secrets.

Portals are always built into either a natural or artificial structure. All known portals are immobile and it is theorized that moving one would be a bad idea.

Magic

The range of Teleport is nowhere near big enough to move between even the closest planets (which would be about 200000 miles). Greater teleportation and teleportation circle are powerful enough to move between spheres. (Even spheres in distant systems are part of the same plane.) This isn't without problems though. Getting an accurate description of a distant sphere generally means having to go there, which defeats the whole purpose. It does allow someone to revisit a sphere they've been to before though, or to allow others to visit a sphere they've been to.

Gate, plane shift and similar spells are useless for direct travel between two spheres, but since the Astral Plane coexists with all spheres, it can be used to visit even unknown spheres. The Astral Plane isn't without its own hazards though.

There exist some spells designed specifically for moving between spheres. Note: insert such spells here.

Other Means of Travel

Some creatures are capable of traveling though the Void. By observing these, some wizards have built craft capable of traveling between spheres. Merely surviving in the Void requires a great deal of magic, but moving over the great distances between spheres requires even more. Any such craft is a great feat of construction, engineering and magecraft, but few if any can move fast enough to travel between systems.

There may be other methods of moving between spheres, but anyone who knows of such a method is keeping it secret.

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.