The Nether

Near Planes

The near planes form the Nether's outermost layers, functioning as twisted, exaggerated mirrors of the mortal world where familiar geography warps into surreal parody through bleed from human perception and urban sprawl. Neo-Boston might reflect as a rain-slick megacity of endless neon alleys haunted by ghost-trams and vending machines dispensing souls, while rural heartlands twist into infinite corn mazes patrolled by scarecrow yokai or derelict highways looping through chrome-plated ghost towns. Boundaries shift with cultural memory; a subway tunnel phases into a Victorian sewer echoing with phantom trains, and skyscrapers pierce clouds that rain data code instead of water. Navigation relies on emotional resonance or recent mortal events, with thin places acting as porous doorways where reality's logic frays into noir exaggeration, hazards manifesting as recurring nightmares or corporate dystopias amplified to mythic scale.

Deep Planes

Deeper into the Nether lie the abstract and mythic planes, vast domains unbound by mirrors of reality where pure archetype reigns in non-Euclidean splendor or stark conceptual voids. Crystalline Asgardian halls float in starless expanse beside formless dream-oceans of liquid emotion, fae wildwoods entwine with digital code-forests of living algorithms, and eldritch abysses pulse as anti-narrative black holes devouring stories whole. Some planes crystallize specific myths into eternal tableaus, like Olympus thrones orbiting a sun of heroic deeds or Yomi underworlds layered in bureaucratic afterlife servers, while others remain amorphous fluxes of color, sound, and intent where geometry inverts and time fractures into branching comics panels. Travel demands pacts, riddles, or raw willpower, with layers stacking infinitely as contradictions spawn new realms from clashing legends.

Denizens of the Nether span every planar creature imaginable, from archetypal heroes and monsters to hybrid abominations born of cultural crossover and unchecked evolution. Valiant knights quest through orbital dojos alongside ronin samurai fused with AI daemons, trickster anansi spiders weave webs of viral memes in limbo markets bartering with loa hackers, and dragon sovereigns hoard artifacts in habitats blending ancient lairs with server farms. Vampiric syndicates run blood-code trades in astral nightclubs, Wendigo spirits possess executive avatars during ritual boardrooms, Celtic banshees wail prophecies through subway PA systems, and rogue eldritch entities slither between planes as living plot twists. All sustain on belief or narrative fuel, forming alliances, rivalries, or devouring fusions in perpetual flux, where a Norse frost giant might mentor a cyber-yokai or a fae court exile plot with Cthulhu cultists against common mythic foes.

Long before its emergence, the Otherscape lurked as a latent undercurrent in global networks, fed by billions of neural implants that linked human thoughts to vast data oceans. By the mid-2040s, hyper-connected societies worldwide relied on these implants for daily life, from augmented commerce in bustling urban hubs to virtual governance in international metropolises like Neo-Boston.

The cataclysm known as the Eclipse Event shattered this veil on May 20, 2050, during a total solar eclipse visible across much of the world. As the moon fully obscured the sun, casting an unnatural darkness over continents, a cosmic surge amplified electromagnetic anomalies, triggering mass neural failures. Implants overloaded, unleashing vivid hallucinations and corporeal manifestations. Skyscrapers flickered into impossible shapes, transit systems plunged into abyssal rifts, and digital phantoms, Echoes, materialized as folklore-inspired horrors on a planetary scale.

In the ensuing chaos (2050-2051), the world descended into anarchy. Riots erupted as corporations collapsed under the weight of failed tech empires. Survivors witnessed the birth of factions: warlords claiming digital territories, hackers forging alliances with emergent spirits, and mystics interpreting the breach as a prophetic awakening.

By 2051, emergency measures like neural firewalls stemmed the worst incursions, but the Otherscape's influence persisted. The Reclamation Acts fortified regions against Echo bleed, yet low-level glitches continued, dropping global populations by significant margins through vanishings and madness.

From 2052 onward, Echo Incursions became routine, digital entities crossing over, altering reality in bursts. Faction conflicts raged over access points, turning the world into a battleground of tech and legend. By the late 2050s, a fragile equilibrium emerged: daily life blended with the ethereal, where street vendors peddle wards against data demons, and night markets trade in captured Echo essences. In the present era of 2075, this blended existence defines survival in places like Neo-Boston.