Fundamental
A world of worlds, the Nebula is a world of worlds each following its own principles and regulations. Each holds a degree of sovereignty within the boundaries of it's shard in the Aether. Similar to the Laws of Physics in our world, planar scholars have been at work describing the different phenomenon that occur with matter, magic and unmatter- particularly of the stark and explosive contrasts where reality breaks between the shards. Benefitting themselves and other planar travelers, the common tongue has given name to some of the more notable traits and phenomenon and have coined them as Fundamentals or Fundaments.
Attributes Encompassed by Fundamentals
Directed by the enigmatic will of the shards, the following worldly attributes have been noted to be directed by the planar laws of the shards. Of note, Fundaments are limited in that they only describe phenomenon that vary from the normal. Normal may vary from shard to shard but there is a distinct shared baseline that can be described but not canonized by the inter-Nebular community. As such, Shardshaping and it's study is relegated to a soft science at best and an abtruse artform at worst.
- Magical Law (Arcane)- Each magical discipline has a grasp of some piece of Fundamental Theory, but Arcane Theory has the best understanding on how the Aether and the leylines underlying it affect the floe of magic within the shards. Shards can maintain such leyline conditions such that within the boundaries of the world particular disciplines of magic are more or less potent, adding a circumstance modifier to spell DC and spell attack rolls. Within these realms magical crafting can be particulary potent as well, providing the ideal circumstances to enhance the underlying mechanics of spells.
- Natural Law (Nature)- Every vegetable, animal, and mineral can be maintained and directed by a shard, harnessing the elements of the Aether to balance the latent ecosystem inherant to the shard. Slow, but persistent the natural cycle corrects itself through the ebb and flow of aetherial mana and Natural Magic. Tied to unseen proportions, the elements of a plane and the unwitting flora and fauna are perpetuated and culled when outside of their inherant ratios by agents of nature. Fundaments such as these are a driving factor to creating the great plates of Aether in the Nebula, creating flowing accretions when the edges of the shard are perforated.
- Mechanical Law (Arcane, Nature)- The invisible forces that govern the multiverse are as mutable as the Aether between the shards, it sometimes falls within the sovereignty off a shard to have sleights in normal physics within its edges. Gravity, pressure, and even time can react differently in a shard than the lands of its celestial neighbors. Fundaments attributing to this may create a positive or negative circumstance for particular adventuring skills among planar travelers. Extreme fundaments of this variety can very easily create a hostile environment leading to a land devoid of life, a barren shard.
- Spiritual Law (Divine, Occult)- Despite what popular faiths may detail in the final judgement of mortal souls, the land a raw and unfettered soul resides in is often subject to the laws of the shard it currently resides in. Many such souls are privvy to pursue the afterlife they seek or forfeit their soul to the divine being they entrusted it to. In several fickle realms, when a soul is freed from it's fleshy form it may be retained or dismissed from the realm according to the divine law of the land. In some such cases, it may be brought new life when combined with the details of a Natural Law. Travelers in the Nebula have found that this can complicate the process of ressurection, or simplify it significantly.
- Valence Law (Occult)- The Nebula not only is home to the many eminent planes but also the many transient planes run through it allowing for the travel of spirits, aetherial creatures and energies simultaenously. Shards have some sovereignty of the transient floes and channels they are ingrained in, becoming more permissive or restrictive to the nether realm, first world and astral planes. Through knowledge of the occult, the laws the hidden laws of attraction and repulsion that cause the planes to drift and separate are made a bit clearer.
Essentia
To gain understanding of the ever shifting laws and standards of creation, of the shards is a massive undertaking. To document the magic underpinning the mechanisms of a shard is the work of multiple lifetimes- an impossible task. To leverage this sisyphean task, shardshaper have deployed a means of interperating the inner workings of a shard, nucleating them into lines of magical text to develop patterns of correlation and causation. These arcane inscriptions are called Essentia.
Each Fundament is comprised of one or more lines of Essentia. The primary line of text dictates the law and the following lines support it. In the common tongue, essentia is often simply referenced to as Fundaments despite the distinction. Shardshaping essentia is a doomed art, never meant to encapsulate the entirety of a shard's laws. Never encompassing the entirity of arcane laws that govern the realm, essentia outline only the aspects that experience major fluctuations, that are exchanged during Convergence events, where Shardshaping occurs naturally.
For Shardshapers whose craft deals in the changing of Fundaments, these essential laws are a resource to explore and exploit. The essentia is not the true underpinnings of magic behind the Fundaments, only an annotation. Creating truly novel Fundaments through essentia is an impossibility- beyond the limits of Shardshaping. As a byproduct of the annotation process however, particular vulnerabilities can be distinguished. With this principle, derivative rituals were inevitably created to alter previously crafted Fundaments. By manipulating these vulnerable segments, Shardshapers created functional offshoots, child Fundaments.
Written in the common tongue as a statement, the essentia can be recognized in this collection one line at a time in a green 'aloud' box. Any vulnerable segments of the text will be annotated with an underline, followed by a subtext footer tag. A simplified version of the Essentia will not have the vulnerabilities annotated and will simply contain the primary lines of text.
Fundament of Fire's Impotence
All spells, items, and abilities with the Fire trait have their effects treated as two levels lower for the purposes of counteract checks.
An example of an essentia written in simplified format
Fundament of Fire's Impotence |
Fundament 6 |
All spells, items, and abilities with the Fire1 trait have their effects treated as two levels lower2 for the purposes of counteract checks.
1Change Fire to Earth, Air, Water, Metal or Wood. (Material Alteration)
2Change two levels lower to any integer between three levels lower and three levels higher (Magnitude Alteration)
2Change two levels lower to any integer between three levels lower and three levels higher (Magnitude Alteration)
An example of an essentia written in the expanded format
Tools for the Trade
In the spellcasting arts, prepared casting for wizards utilizes a spellbook, while witches employ the use of a familiar to source their prepared spells. To store and prepare essentia, shardshapers utilize a stone core called a megalith. Using the power of the raw aether, masonry tools and these megalith they use permutations of the following rituals to suit perform their craft, increasing their collections and shaping the landscape of the very multiverse.
Glossary
In order to keep language in order here are some of the words used in relation to fundaments and essentia to aid you.
- Fundaments- unseen and otherwise undictated laws defining aspects of reality in the domains of divinity, magic and physics.
- Annotation- a comment or explanation of a more advanced or indecipherable text. Essentia is a magical annotation of a Fundament.
- Essentia- A game construct that represents distinctly different rules a shard has. It can be recorded, changed, or substituted using ritual.
- Parent Essentia- The essentia as it is found in the wild. It can be recorded into stone and then altered through ritual to create different effects on worlds.
- Child Essentia- Essentia as it is found in an artificial environment. It can be recorded into stone but it cannot be altered further. This is useful for distributing useful essential permutations to other shardshapers without giving them something truly dangerous.
- Megalith- Literally a giant rock. Incredibly unwieldy to carry around but it carries the complicated language of creation.
- Notion- A fundament that carries the distinct memory of something that belongs there, a creature species, material, population configuration or environmental condition.
Metaconclusion
Fundaments are game rules that regionally apply to the game world. They provide variation and challenge to normal gameplay and can create new and interesting mechanical or roleplaying situations for players to deal with. If players find a particular fascination with Fundaments they can choose to dabble within this system without breaking the other systems in the game. As a game master these are in-game great short hands for describing how different the rules for a shard work, or how they have changed after an event.
Gamemaster Tools
Here are some of the Fundaments in the #Start Up set of shards. Interpolate Fundaments from the following or create variations of them for your players to find and experiment with.
List of
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