Metaphysics of the Rift

The Rift is not simply “outside” of Duskfall—it is around it, a roaring sleeve of elsewhere that squeezes the world like a fist. Sailors swear they can hear it on windless nights: a hush, then a distant grinding, like glass on stone. Scholars call it a plane, but the word is too clean for what it is.

What is the Rift

The Rift is a distinct Plane that fully surrounds Duskfall, nearly isolating it entirely from the rest of the multiverse—a sphere within a sphere, as scholars put it. Inside, it manifests as a cosmic-horror swirl where the other planes of existence press together and overlap all at once. Mortal minds cannot truly grasp its vastness or its alien truths without courting Rift Madness (see Rift Madness). Unlike many planes, the Rift has no strict, discrete layers; the term survives only as shorthand to describe the “edges” and a “middle” that blend. Their boundaries drift and braid seamlessly, shifting not like walls or borders but like terrain and weather changing across the mortal world.

Structure

The Rift’s “layers” are descriptive, not discrete; borders bleed.

The Verge

The Verge, also called the Veilshore, is the liminal rim first encountered when crossing from the world, and most Breachpoints open here (see Breachpoints). It echoes the material world in a shifting parallax where multiple planes overlap and trade dominance moment by moment. Common telltales include familiar geography at the wrong angles, muffled acoustics, and intermittent single-plane “flashes.” In play, the Verge offers the easiest entry and exit and hosts the greatest Breachpoint activity.

The Conflux

The Conflux, also called the Conflux Sea, comprises the vast middle: a roiling expanse of floating isles, spheres, and irregular bodies. Here reside the stars, sun, and moon of Duskfall as they truly are; not as seen from the world. Numerous Titans dwell in the Conflux, each stabilizing regions into a near-singular plane aligned to the Titan’s nature. Concentrations of like-natured beings can likewise thicken local behavior toward their nature, creating temporary stabilized pockets—useful as sanctuaries, traps, or staging grounds. In play, the Conflux is the realm of long-haul journeys, lairs, and weather that behaves like metaphysics.

The Horizon

At the outer rim is the Horizon, also called the Horizon Belt, where matter condenses into a storm-thick belt of broken isles and splinters of elsewhere, some still humming with their native planar rules. Among these are Horizon Splinters—shards attuned to specific planes. Reaching and attuning a correct splinter is what enables planar travel to that destination (see Magical Disruption—Planar Travel). In play, the Horizon invites navigation puzzles, key hunts, gate rivalries, and the meddling of Titans.

Time Desynchronization

Time in the Rift does not synchronize with the world. Over long spans it averages out, but short forays skew wildly—and it never runs backward. An hour wandering the Conflux might cost only a minute on Duskfall…or a day. Parties can stagger on return, and rendezvous plans should reflect that risk.   For adjudication, track time spent in the Rift and determine the skew upon exit or scene end. Choose a skew band appropriate to the fiction—minutes, hours, or days—and use the table below to determine randomly or the GM may determine the time skew on their own.

Result	1 Minute (1d12)	1 Hour (2d6)	1 Day (3d4)
1	Special*	—	—
2	1 Hour	1 Day	—
3	30 Minutes	12 Hours	3 Days
4	15 Minutes	6 Hours	2 ½ Days
5	10 Minutes	3 Hours	2 Days
6	5 Minutes	1 Hour	1 ½ Days
7	1 Minute	1 Hour	1 Day
8	30 Seconds	1 Hour	1 Day
9	15 Seconds	30 Minutes	12 Hours
10	10 Seconds	15 Minutes	6 Hours
11	5 Seconds	5 Minutes	3 Hours
1 2	1 Second	1 Minute	1 Hour

*Each character rolls separately and appears at the individual times they roll.

Stabilization & Influence

The presence of a Titan’s lair can lock a region into single-plane behavior; borders remain porous but become more predictable under a Titan’s sway. Likewise, concentrations of like-natured beings can thicken local behavior toward their nature, producing temporary “plane-like” pockets. These influences imply more predictable routes, ritual sites, and creature behaviors—and increased threats from territorial forces such as patrols, sentries, traps, and other defenses. While they provide some sense of security in the stability of the planar shifting, they are not to be underestimated for the creatures that dwell here are often extremely territorial and have defensive measures in place to maintain their reign over these regions.

Origins

No single truth is accepted. The Rift predates reliable chronicle by at least eight millennia, and even that dating is suspect—expeditions return with contradictory clocks. Priests, Wardens, and scholars therefore trade in theories, each bolstered by shards of evidence that refuse to settle. Most learned treatises blend two or more, arguing over which is cause, which is symptom, and which is merely a story mortals tell to endure an unbearable sky.   God War. In this account, the gods fought a Great War and the scale of that conflict tore reality, birthing the Rift. Proponents point to recurring liturgical motifs about seals, oaths, and a sky “split into many voices,” arguing these are encoded memories of divine combat. Critics counter that the conduct of Titans within the Conflux—stabilizing regions according to their own natures—suggests a non-divine origin or, at least, a postwar state that no longer turns on the gods.   Gods vs. Mortals. An ancient civilization rose to such magical sophistication—or worldly power—that it challenged the gods. In one branch of the theory, that civilization forged the Titans as engines for the war; in another, the Titans are the survivors, a people remade to endure the aftermath. Proponents point to complex, nonmodern arcane geometries across Duskfall—monolithic structures the Order of Magi now occupies or that have been repurposed, such as the Moonbeam Lighthouse of Westerlunde. Skeptics counter that such works may be responses to the Rift rather than its cause, and that any sufficiently advanced culture leaves behind constructions later ages struggle to interpret.   Mortal Hubris. Taught chiefly by the Church of the All-Father, this account frames the Rift as punishment. In its telling, an ancient people reached for divine power; the gods shattered that civilization and cursed the world with the Rift before withdrawing. The doctrine is as moral as historical: it explains suffering, enjoins restraint, and justifies disciplines meant to “keep the veil thick”—fasts, quiet hours, warded processions, and strictures on reckless magic. Detractors note that Breachpoints wax and wane regardless of piety and that the Rift’s behavior follows mechanics—tethers, anchors, reassertions—more than devotion. Even so, Mortal Hubris remains a dominant lens across Duskfall, shaping policy and penance alike and—at the smallest scale—serving as the bedtime warning used to keep children in line.   Prison. The prison hypothesis treats the Rift as intentional containment. In one variant, Duskfall itself is the prisoner, ringed by a barrier that admits travel only through Horizon procedures; in another, the Titans are confined, their stabilized realms serving as bindings; in a third, the Rift is a ward against an exterior threat, a wall turned outward rather than inward. Advocates lean on observable constraints—planar travel diverting into the Rift, Breachpoints that close in size-steps, and regions that resist intrusion unless approached under specific rules. Opponents argue these may be artifacts of an injury, not evidence of a lock made by a jailer.   Cosmic Wound. This view posits a rupture in the multiverse’s fabric, whether caused by a God War, mortal overreach, or some event now lost. The Rift is then read as wound, scar, or infection: borders that bleed into one another, local “scabbing” where Titans or like-natured masses stabilize behavior, and lingering fevers expressed as time skew. Supporters see coherence in how the Rift averages out over long spans yet swings wildly in the short term, and in how similar natures can “thicken” a pocket toward a single rule-set. Critics object that wounds heal; the Rift persists.   Blended Readings. Most serious scholarship quietly combines elements. Common syntheses include: a God War that opened a Cosmic Wound later weaponized or widened by a hubristic civilization; mortals who triggered a crisis that became a Prison once powers—divine or Titan—moved to contain it; or a wound that accreted structures over millennia until the present arrangement emerged. None of these blends command consensus. In practice, Rift Wardens and other field scholars record context—layer, sky, local stabilization sources—and work with the rules that apply here and now, leaving ultimate origins to theologians and archivists brave, or reckless, enough to keep asking.

Knowledge Limits

The Rift is hostile to certainty. Its shifting nature, lethal hazards, and the difficulty of reaching it leave mortals—even Rift Wardens—with few hard answers. Deep study courts Rift Madness. Consequently, field logs emphasize context—layer position, sky condition, known stabilization sources—over universal claims; what proves true here and now may fail an hour later, a mile away.