I dont know why they wanted me to maintain it. I'm a terrible seamstress.— Jiisho
Origins & Substance
Very early in the ancient history of the material plane, eldritch beings left their native planes and wandered into the material plane - most notable among these was
Shub-Niggurath, although she was not alone. This did not bode well for living things that were attempting to exist as the eldritch are antithetical to native life forms, seeking to establish their own creations and followers in the new home offered by a (relatively) unpopulated universe. Knowing that the people of their own creation would be unable to survive in a world populated with eldritch, the Voices decided a barrier was needed to keep these hostile beings at bay. They pooled their power to create what is colloquially known as "the weave".
The weave is an underlying structure that supports the universe in this plane and separates it from others. The weave is magical, and manifests external to the material plane as a barrier in time and space. Within the material plane, the weave is imperceptible and co-exists with the time and space experienced by the inhabitants of the material plane. Some wizards theorize that time and space themselves are an intrinsic part of the weave. The structure of the weave is not orderly as once might think of a woven cloth, but appears to be constructed more like felt, comprised of strands of magic that tangle and clump, then mat together in varying degrees of thickness throughout its continuity. It is known that the weave is thicker in regions where land and sea masses dominate, and is thinner where air or space are the dominant material form of the plane. The weave appears to be impervious to magic, and where intact, forms a definitive barrier to everything outside the material plane including matter and energy.
Eldritch Incursions
Rips, tears, and deliberate holes have been known to disrupt the continuity of the weave, often originating from the material plane as worshippers of eldritch beings most notably followers of
Shub-Niggurath have deliberately conspired to create portals allowing eldritch beings to enter.
One would think that the eldritch would tend to cross the weave in areas where the weave is weakest - in areas where air and space are plentiful and where land and water do not dominate. This does not appear to be the case however. Scholars believe that the eldritch cross into the material plane through rifts in the land and sea areas of the weave because of the density of the eldritch realms. The theory, upheld by observations of eldritch life forms, is that the native habitat of the eldritch universe is much denser than that of the material plane. Thus eldritch beings need high density areas typically water or stone close by to survive when they cross over. They seem to explode and immediately die when they enter the material plane through rifts and portals that form in the sky or amongst the space between stars.
Maintaining the Weave
Initially,
Jiisho was tasked with maintaining the weave, but passed this responsibility on to
Yulasta when the orc goddess ascended. Yulatsta proved more than capable of maintaining and even strengthened the weave, minimizing eldritch incursions into the material plane so that they eventually became almost unheard of to mortals. Since Yulasta's death, the weave has been developing holes and rips which have been entry points for eldritch who seek to enslave and/or consume the inhabitants of this world.
Recent developments in theological circles have speculatively identified that the
Elysium was itself a tool in Yulasta's task - that the goddess used thread or
Dunia Uzi that she spun from fibers she harvested from the World Tree to repair the weave.
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