On the History of the Planes and the Bifrost Cube

After slaying Wolstrom Fjellskod and recovering the Bifrost Cube, the party re-encountered Valkenbraz in the pass. He told the party a bit more about the Bifrost Cube. Here Élise has written her understanding of the history of the planes, the cube, and how they are interlinked.

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Long ago, the planes were separate, disparate worlds adrift in the sea. The Empire of Eternal Darkness, led by Nidhogg, was trying to consume all worlds and leave nothing behind. It was stopped by beings known as the astrals, who were somehow able to bind all the worlds together and surround them with an energy shell, with positive and negative poles. They used the material plane to anchor everything together as a kind of center.
 
The Bifrost is the raw energy that was used to bind these worlds together.
 
The Bifrost Cube is not this energy itself, but rather handles it, or is linked to it in some way. It was created by Annam with a specific function. It creates and connects gates to worlds to which Annam has some connection. These worlds, incidentally, are the worlds from which all the races that inhabit Midgard came -- save for the dragons. These are the Nine Realms:
 

• Midgard (Material Plane)


• Ysgard


• Nidavellir (Arcadia), The Dark Moon Hills, home of the Lord’s Manse (Siegfried’s domain) and celestial dwarven kingdoms.


• Alfheim/Olympus (Arborea)


• Vanaheim (The Beastlands)


• Muspelheim (Elemental Plane of Fire), Home of Surtur, the god of fire giants


• Niflheim (Elemental Plane of Ice), Home of Thrym, the god of frost giants


• Myrkheim (Shadowfell), Home of the Myrkalfar (Shadar-Kai)


• Jötunheim

 
These, of course, are not all the planes. Other planes that are not related to the Bifrost Cube include but are not limited to:

• Mount Celestia


• Nine Hells


• Abyss


• Feywild


• Outer realms


• Other Elemental Planes