Skein of Worlds:Old Main Page

This is an attempt to better organize and expand on the setting I started on the D&D message boards a long time ago. (Yes, I'm ArchmageOmega on that board.) I also have an old website for this, but I intend this page to be more up-to-date and complete. BTW, if you have a better name for this than Skein of Worlds, let me know. This is a work in progress, so if you have something to contribute, please say something. Now that I've got most of the information down, I need to go back and seperate it into multiple pages, and seperate the fluff from the crunch. --MagiMaster

Overview

This setting is designed for Dungeons and Dragons 3.5, but could easily be adapted to other systems since it doesn't specify too much in the way of rules. I will use terminology from D&D and The Manual of the Planes to describe things though, since that's what was originally used to design this. (It's also no coincidence that it's organized similarly to The Manual of the Planes.)

This is based on the standard cosmology, the Great Wheel. In the Great Wheel cosmology, it is assumed that the material plane is an infinite plane, full of spheres of material; however, only one or two of these spheres are ever used. The most immediate difference in the Skein of Worlds is that most of these spheres are inhabited and there are ways of travelling between them. Most of the other differences stem from trying to restrict methods of travel and from extrapolating the consequences of that.

Finally, the Skein of Worlds setting is designed to accommodate any level of play from level 1 to epic to deific.

The Material Plane

The material plane consists of an infinte 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.

Travelling Between Spheres

Travelling between spheres within a system is, naturally, easier than travelling 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

Note: some of the important details about deities and the divine realms remain undecided.

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 worshippers of a deity has such a thread linked to that deity's realm.

Belief

Note: this section is the least designed and fully thought-out

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.

Insert table relating # of believers to divine rank here

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.

Belief is channeled through the Astral Plane, along the colored threads, to the divine realms, not directly to the diety, so outside this realm the diety has no access to that belief. That's not to say that a diety has no power without this belief. No person or creature becomes a deity without first being powerful enough to warrant that level of belief.

Still, there are some benefits to divinity that few dieties are willing to do without for long. The first among these is the simple fact that a deity cannot be killed. Their body can be reduced to ash and they will simply reform within a short while. Outside their realm they will be as vulnerable as they were before becoming a deity. While it may seem that few things could kill a deity, even without their divine power, those things exist. Note: Killing a deity outside of their divine realm may not actually kill them. Instead, they may be forced back to their realm minus one divine rank.

Souls and Outsiders

When a person dies, their souls travel along the thread their belief had previously travelled, 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.

The opposite is true as well. When a baby is born, a soul is sent back. How exactly this soul is chosen remains unknown, though it likely came from the deity of one of the parents. Some people think that the soul is not sent until the baby is dedicated to a some deity. There seems to be no evidence that this is true though. Note: This shouldn't be left this vague.

Outsiders rarely remember the fine details of the life they previously led. Likewise, few people remember anything about their time as an outsider. Certain magics can dredge these memories up though. Another important point related to magic is the question of how resurrection magic works. Some spells take advantage of the fact that it takes a few minutes for the soul to depart a dead body. These spells simply revive the body and reattach the soul. Some spells take advantage of the fact that the transit from the material plane to the divine realms isn't instantaneous. In fact, it can take up to several days sometimes. During this time, the soul can be called back to the body. Finally, some spells attempt to call a soul back from the divine realms. At this point, the chances of success drop dramatically since it is the deities choice whether to release the soul or not. It is possible for the caster to gain permission from the deity before attempting to resurrect someone. Also, if the deity believes that the person will do more for them on the material plane, or if the deity decides to grant the caster a favor, they may simply release the soul. If they chose not to, no normal spell will be able to resurrect that person.

Note: I'm not sure exactly how leaving the material plane would affect outsiders. They should be very rare for some reason or another though.

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.

The first is to gain believers. This may sound simple enough, but getting someone to believe you are actually a deity when you aren't is anything but simple, let alone convincing the number of people required to achieve apotheosis. They may say they believe in you out of fear or respect instead of out of truth. Note: Does worshipping an idea create a deity or find someone appropriate and make them the deity?

The second possibility is to steal part of another deity's divinity. This can be accomplished any number of ways from winning it in combat or in a game of chance to actually stealing something representative of that deity. In some ways this is the same as gaining worshippers, since the tales of this event will often convert at least a few people, and somehow, no matter what the circumstances of the original event, the tales will get out. Exactly how this happens varies for each such event, so no real conclusions can be drawn about how this works in general, at least for the moment.

Finally, there are ancient secrets that theoretically can allow anyone to become a deity. In practice, only very powerful individuals can actually benefit from these. Such secrets are always very well hidden, and each time someone finds them, they invariably hide them elsewhere to prevent others from finding them. Additionally, the paths laid out in this ancient knowledge are arduous, requiring a large investment in time and energy that only an already powerful individual can manage. A being that becomes a deity in this manner is often fairly weak for lack of worshippers, but since they are actually a deity, gaining the first few worshippers becomes much simpler.

No matter how it is achieved, apotheosis always results in the creation of a new divine realm linked by a thread of belief to the sphere where the deity's worshippers are. The new deity instinctively knows that this realm exists and how to get there from anywhere on the Astral Plane. What sphere of influence a new deity will have is primarily determined by how they achieved their apotheosis. If it was by gathering worshippers, then what they worship the deity for will determine that deity's sphere is. If they stole their divinity, how they did so will determine their spheres. The ancient secrets demonstrate different paths for different spheres of influence. (The path required to become a deity of war or a deity of knowledge are very different.) Rarely will a particular finding tell of more than one such path. If someone should find some of this ancient knowledge and be unsatisfied with the possibilities it offers, they must continue their search for more such secrets.

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.