The Shattered Nebula
A sprawling cloud, catching the cosmic light like panes of stained glass, it is the place where all places exist. A chaotic primordial soup, brimming with the dispersed planar material of essence of over a thousand worlds, it is the place where everything exists and also what exists between everything. It is characterized by an abundace of dream like geography that defies conventional physical philosophies, and abandoning the fundamental laws of nature that exist in shards. Pushing an pulling, expanding and contracting, the Nebula has been compared to the sea or a cosmic amoeba.
In the cosm lines of division are drawn in a peculiar, but consistent pattern that mark out the first supercategory of regionalism in the multiverse: places where things exist, and places where things do not exist. Dividing the multiverse into pockets or sinuses of not-matter, matter accumulates like large webs- or strings of ejected planar material between cradled worlds.
Aether, makes up the material of things in the Nebula. It is responsible for the ebb and flow of all things throughout the nebula. Concentrated, it forms the terra firma that extraplanar material adheres to- forming great bands comparable to a living things musculature.
Void, is a region of concentrated nothingness, a pocket where things do not exist. A suffocating, desolate place, light is weakest at the center of voids making them ideal anchor points for isolated lairs and prisons.
Traveling the Aether is all but a simple matter, though the path can be wrought with dangerous obstacles and creatures, it can be traveled by simply moving across the terrain. Exploration in the void however has been proven to be a dificult endeavor, even for the most powerful wizards due to it's hostile nature. Vessels and infrastructure can get across voids at great cost and engineering, an endeavor that once defined portfolios of the multiverse's most powerful empires.
Stellar Bodies are titanic landmarks, often dwarfing shards by comparison that affect the extraplanar environment around them. Devoid of edges, these nebular bodies take the form of great orbs or super structures that project their own extraplanar laws in the Aether around them. So powerful are they the primary characteristic of what makes a stellar body is that the chaotic nature of the multiverse is ordered around them, organizing into a band of aether separated by a small void around the periphery of the body.
[br ] Shards that travel in the orbit of these titans are brought to heel also by extraplanar laws projected by the orb. Such events are notable to the residents of these realms and realms that frequently come in and out of orbit often form a strange planar seasonality.
The most precise and smallest division of regional territory in the Nebula is the Aetheric neighborhood around a shard or realm. Like little islands, they are the most densely populated areas in the Nebula and also the most resource abundant. Perhaps because it is where sapient life originated, theory around shards are the most studied, explored and debated aspect of the multiverse.
Shards are nestled, cradled within the Aether- or perhaps the origin of it exists shattered worlds. Great slabs, six miles across at their greatest point, six sides apiece and six miles from top to bottom the aptly named Hex is a unmistakable work of terrifying arcane ingenuity. Carved from some unknown place, these worlds project their own powerful magics and form nigh unbreakable bonds with eachother to form shards. The origin of these hexes is one of the multiverse's great mysteries, forming great cults, philosophical orders and courts to study.
Fundamental far larger and more powerful than mere demiplanes, these worlds have internal directives called fundaments or planar law. Like a memory, all things act in obeyance to the fundamentals of the shard. Things can be tied to a shard's distinct memory of it's mysterious origin, entire species and materials might be spontaenously generated from the shard given the right how powerful the laws are. Powerful shards may have extreme fundamentals that makes life incredibly difficult for travelers visiting the place, creating abandoned hostile realms untouched for centuries.
Edges are the divisory walls between the shard, the void, and the aether around it. Governed by the Fundamentals of the place, it is an obfuscating force that keeps the material of the plane inside while restricting the extraplanar creatures and materials outside. Shards with weakened edges are characterized by a higher amount of migration and travel and are exposed to the more chaotic nature of the multiverse, but it's inhabitants often are raised to be some of the most well adapted planar explorers themselves. These edges form rather abruptly at the border of a hex, and use a variety of magical and mundane strategies to barricade the plane.
Convergence can occur at the borders of shards, when they collide in the aetherial sea. As a consequence of being imbedded in the Aether, they are subject to the shifting and manuevering of the Nebula. Worlds colliding, each with their particular fastidiousness creates a conflaguration of cosmic magic often creating connections between them. These resulting connections can be minor flings resulting in an interplanar war or extinction event- or can be longtime ordeals such as the bonds that create realms.
Shardshaping is a ritual art, inspired by the natural phenomenon and the mysterous magic that birthed the shards. Since the discovery of magic and the mortal meddling, every tradition has had a hand in replicating this magic. Using mana, the magical energy inherant to the land a convergence can be emulated or forced with great, often unyielding quantities of magical power. With this, planar law can be manipulated and realms can be forged, or broken with enough time and the dedicated instrumentation of raw magical power.
Regionality
In the cosm lines of division are drawn in a peculiar, but consistent pattern that mark out the first supercategory of regionalism in the multiverse: places where things exist, and places where things do not exist. Dividing the multiverse into pockets or sinuses of not-matter, matter accumulates like large webs- or strings of ejected planar material between cradled worlds.
Aether, makes up the material of things in the Nebula. It is responsible for the ebb and flow of all things throughout the nebula. Concentrated, it forms the terra firma that extraplanar material adheres to- forming great bands comparable to a living things musculature.
Void, is a region of concentrated nothingness, a pocket where things do not exist. A suffocating, desolate place, light is weakest at the center of voids making them ideal anchor points for isolated lairs and prisons.
Traveling the Aether is all but a simple matter, though the path can be wrought with dangerous obstacles and creatures, it can be traveled by simply moving across the terrain. Exploration in the void however has been proven to be a dificult endeavor, even for the most powerful wizards due to it's hostile nature. Vessels and infrastructure can get across voids at great cost and engineering, an endeavor that once defined portfolios of the multiverse's most powerful empires.
Influence of Giants
Stellar Bodies are titanic landmarks, often dwarfing shards by comparison that affect the extraplanar environment around them. Devoid of edges, these nebular bodies take the form of great orbs or super structures that project their own extraplanar laws in the Aether around them. So powerful are they the primary characteristic of what makes a stellar body is that the chaotic nature of the multiverse is ordered around them, organizing into a band of aether separated by a small void around the periphery of the body.
[br ] Shards that travel in the orbit of these titans are brought to heel also by extraplanar laws projected by the orb. Such events are notable to the residents of these realms and realms that frequently come in and out of orbit often form a strange planar seasonality.
Worlds within Worlds
The most precise and smallest division of regional territory in the Nebula is the Aetheric neighborhood around a shard or realm. Like little islands, they are the most densely populated areas in the Nebula and also the most resource abundant. Perhaps because it is where sapient life originated, theory around shards are the most studied, explored and debated aspect of the multiverse.
Shards are nestled, cradled within the Aether- or perhaps the origin of it exists shattered worlds. Great slabs, six miles across at their greatest point, six sides apiece and six miles from top to bottom the aptly named Hex is a unmistakable work of terrifying arcane ingenuity. Carved from some unknown place, these worlds project their own powerful magics and form nigh unbreakable bonds with eachother to form shards. The origin of these hexes is one of the multiverse's great mysteries, forming great cults, philosophical orders and courts to study.
Fundamental far larger and more powerful than mere demiplanes, these worlds have internal directives called fundaments or planar law. Like a memory, all things act in obeyance to the fundamentals of the shard. Things can be tied to a shard's distinct memory of it's mysterious origin, entire species and materials might be spontaenously generated from the shard given the right how powerful the laws are. Powerful shards may have extreme fundamentals that makes life incredibly difficult for travelers visiting the place, creating abandoned hostile realms untouched for centuries.
Edges are the divisory walls between the shard, the void, and the aether around it. Governed by the Fundamentals of the place, it is an obfuscating force that keeps the material of the plane inside while restricting the extraplanar creatures and materials outside. Shards with weakened edges are characterized by a higher amount of migration and travel and are exposed to the more chaotic nature of the multiverse, but it's inhabitants often are raised to be some of the most well adapted planar explorers themselves. These edges form rather abruptly at the border of a hex, and use a variety of magical and mundane strategies to barricade the plane.
Convergence can occur at the borders of shards, when they collide in the aetherial sea. As a consequence of being imbedded in the Aether, they are subject to the shifting and manuevering of the Nebula. Worlds colliding, each with their particular fastidiousness creates a conflaguration of cosmic magic often creating connections between them. These resulting connections can be minor flings resulting in an interplanar war or extinction event- or can be longtime ordeals such as the bonds that create realms.
Shardshaping is a ritual art, inspired by the natural phenomenon and the mysterous magic that birthed the shards. Since the discovery of magic and the mortal meddling, every tradition has had a hand in replicating this magic. Using mana, the magical energy inherant to the land a convergence can be emulated or forced with great, often unyielding quantities of magical power. With this, planar law can be manipulated and realms can be forged, or broken with enough time and the dedicated instrumentation of raw magical power.
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