The Gap | Demiplanes

The Gap is less a place than the absence of one — a moth-eaten hole in the fabric of reality that forms the boundary of every realm. Named for the Jotun expression Ginnungagap (meaning “empty threshold”), it appears as a veil of depthless gauze to the naked eye, yet those who venture through its ethereal folds describe it as a warped reflection of whichever plane lies nearest, like an image caught forever between mirrors. On the Material Plane, the influence and visibility of this so-called “Space Between Spaces” wax and wane with the seasons, thinning in autumn and thickening again in spring. Within this liminal haze dwell several native species, most notably two breeds of spirits: rakshasas, bestial embodiments of evil born alongside the first mortals, and youkai, lingering echoes of the Old World whose mightiest ancestors—the Kami—once reigned over nature itself. These beings drift through the Gap’s shifting borders, neither fully corporeal nor wholly spectral.

Beyond the Nine Realms and their immense proportions lie countless pocket realities known as demiplanes — wrinkles in the Gap that sit between a true plane of existence and an extradimensional space. Many flare into being as brief, unstable bubbles that collapse within days, unable to muster the energy needed to persist, while others are conjured by mortal mages and kept deliberately small so they can endure within the Gap on their own limited inertia. Larger or more ambitious demiplanes drift until they manage to anchor themselves to one of the Nine Realms, overlapping with or suturing into their host’s fabric to stabilize. Once bound, each enters an uneasy relationship with the plane it feeds upon: some share magic and vitality in a mutually beneficial exchange, while others cling like parasites, quietly siphoning aether to survive. Over time, an anchored demiplane may alter its host, be itself altered, or fade entirely, leaving only faint planar scars behind.