The Multiverse

What is the Multiverse?

The multiverse is a transfinite expanse of mind-boggling immensity.
The world of Caraeus lies in the Material Plane at the metaphysical center of it all, but it is far from the only world. There are worlds of pure form, such as for example the Elemental Plane of Fire, and worlds of pure thought, such as the Infinite Layers of the Abyss, each an infinite reality, or Plane of Existence, with slightly different laws of reality. There is a constant flow of form and thought; a flow that the mortal races have long since learned to tap and call magic.

Building Blocks of the Multiverse

At the 'bottom' of the Multiverse (in so far as one could meaningfully speak of up and down in a collection of interconnected infinite spaces) lie the six Elements and Energies that make up everything in the Multiverse. Each of these has long since congealed into an infinite plane where its single type of energy or element overwhelms all others.
The Elements are: Earth, Fire, Air, and Water.
The Energies are: Positive and Negative.
Collectively these six Planes are referred to as the Physical Planes. From these six form, energy, and substance flow 'up' into the rest of the multiverse.

All In Alignment

Much as the Physical Planes lie at the metaphysical bottom of the Multiverse, the Spiritual Planes lie at the top. These nine Planes are made of thought as much as they are made of the physical. Each is the embodiment of a combination between the moral forces of Good and Evil and the ethical forces of Law and Chaos.
They form the afterlife for those souls that strongly aligned themselves in life. They Spiritual Planes are:

The Heavens of Celestia, a place of Law and Good.
The Sanctuaries of Utopia, a place of pure Good.
The Fields of Elysium, a place of Chaos and Good.
The Nirvana of Mechanus, a place of pure Law.
Purgatory, a place in balance between all four.
The Chaos of Limbo, a place of pure Chaos.
The Hells of Baator, a place of Law and Evil.
The Battlegrounds of Tartarus, a place of pure Evil.
The Layers of the Abyss, a place of Chaos and Evil.

From these nine thought and concepts seep 'down' into the rest of the multiverse.

Center of It All

The Material Plane, and thus the world of Caraeus, lies at the center of this all nestled between the upward flow of form from the Physical Planes and the downward filtration of thought down from the Spiritual Planes. But the Material Plane does not lie alone. Several Planes lie metaphysically close to the Material. Ever so slightly below the Material lies the Ethereal, a Plane of possibility that acts as a shield to the unbridled forces flowing up from the Physical Planes.
Ever so slightly below the Material lies the Plane of Shadow, a place that is at the same time the shadow cast by the Material in the upward flow of form and a safe collecting place of the downward flow of thought.
These two form a protective cocoon around the Material that keep it as stable as it is. Lastly there is the Plane of Faerie, neither above nor below the Material it lies somewhat isolated from the rest of the Multiverse. There is some debate among scholars as to the nature of the Plane of Faerie.
Some claim that, much as many of the Spiritual Planes can have different layers each a slightly different interpretation of the nature of the Plane, Faerie is in fact a second layer to the Material. Some claim it is an echo of the Material somehow. Yet other believe it to be a 'rough draft' made and abandoned in the Age before Ages.

Everywhere and Nowhere

At the same time infinite and infinitesimal, the Astral Plane lies between all other planes. Both space and time lose their meaning here. Of all the strange places one can visit, this is without doubt the strangest.
It is, however, the glue that holds all other Planes together, the 'Sea' in which they flow, the 'Tree' from which they grow.

Planar Traits

Each plane of existence has its own properties—the natural laws of its universe. In general, the Material Plane is considered the default plane for the adventurers. All comparisons are made against the Material Plane, so other planes are similar to the Material Plane unless a stated otherwise.

Gravity

One variable that can change is gravity, ranging from heavier to lighter to absent entirely.
Furthermore, the direction of gravity's pull may be unusual, and it might even change directions within the plane itself.

Normal Gravity: Most planes have gravity similar to that of the Material Plane. That is, if something weighs 10 pounds on the Material Plane, it weighs 10 pounds here as well. The usual rules for ability scores, carrying capacity, and encumbrance apply.
Heavy Gravity: The gravity of this plane is much more intense than the Material Plane. As a result, Balance, Climb, Jump, Ride, Swim, and Tumble checks suffer a –2 circumstance penalty, as do all attack rolls. All item weights are effectively doubled, which might affect a character's speed. Weapon ranges are halved. A character's Strength and Dexterity are not affected, but these ability scores don't let the character do as much. This limitation applies to both travelers from other planes as well as natives, though the natives know of the limitation and plan accordingly.
Light Gravity: The gravity of this plane is less intense than on the Material Plane. As a result, creatures find that they can lift more, but their movements tend to be ungainly. Characters on planes with the light gravity trait suffer a –2 circumstance penalty on attack rolls and Balance, Ride, Swim, and Tumble checks. All items weigh half as much. Weapon ranges double, and characters gain a +2 circumstance bonus on Climb and Jump checks. Strength and Dexterity don't change as a result of light gravity, but what you can do with such scores does change. These advantages apply to travelers from other planes as well as natives.
No Gravity: Individuals in a plane without gravity merely float in space, unless other mechanisms (such as magic or force of will) are available to provide a direction for gravity's pull. An example of a plane with no gravity is the Astral Plane, where everyone gets around by simply imagining themselves moving in a particular direction.
Objective Directional Gravity: The strength of gravity is the same as on the Material Plane, but the direction is not the traditional “down” toward the ground. It may be down toward any solid object, at an angle to the plane itself, or even upward, creating a chandelierlike world where everyone has to hang on or be thrown out into the void. In addition, objective directional gravity may change from place to place. The direction of “down” may vary, so individuals may suddenly find themselves falling upward (similar to the reverse gravity spell) or walking up walls.
Subjective Directional Gravity: The strength of gravity is the same, but each individual chooses the direction of gravity's pull. Such a plane has no gravity for unattended objects and nonsentient creatures. This can be very disorienting to the newcomer, but is common on “weightless” planes such as the Plane of Air. Characters can move normally on a solid surface by imagining “down” near their feet.

Time

The rate of time's passage can vary among different planes, though it remains constant within any particular plane. Time becomes interesting when one moves from plane to plane, but it still moves at the same apparent rate for the traveler.

Normal Time: This is the standard rate of time, compared to the Material Plane. One hour on a plane with normal time equals one hour on the Material Plane.
Flowing Time: On some planes, time can flow faster or slower. One may travel to another plane, spend a year there, then return to the Material Plane to find that only six seconds have elapsed. Everything on that native plane is only a few seconds older. But for that traveler and the items, spells, and effects working on him, that year away was entirely real.
Erratic Time: Some planes have time that slows down and speeds up, so an individual may lose or gain time as he moves between the two planes.
Timeless: On these planes, time still passes, but the effects of time are diminished. Those effects should be specifically defined for timeless planes. Such conditions as hunger, thirst, and aging might not be affected in a timeless dimension. By the same token, natural healing may be affected, meaning that no wounds heal except by magic. If a plane is timeless with respect to magic, any spell cast with a noninstantaneous duration is permanent until dispelled.

Size

Planes come in a variety of sizes and shapes. Most planes are infinite, or at least so large that they may as well be infinite.

Infinite: These planes go on forever, though they may have finite components within them, such as spherical worlds. Or they may consist of ongoing expanses in two directions, like maps that stretch out infinitely.
Finite: Set borders and edges limit these planes. These edges may be borders with other planes or hard, finite borders such as the edge of the world or a great wall Demiplanes are often finite.
Self-Contained: Here the borders wrap in on themselves, depositing the traveler on the other side of the map. A spherical plane is an example of a self-contained, finite plane, but there can be cubes, toruses, and flat planes with magical edges that teleport the traveler to an opposite edge when he crosses them. Some demiplanes are self contained.

Morphic

This trait measures how easily the basic nature of the plane can be changed. Some planes are responsive to sentient thought, while others can only be manipulated by extremely powerful creatures. And some planes respond to physical or magical efforts.

Alterable Morphic: These planes are the norm. Objects remain where they are (and what they are) unless affected by physical force or magic. You can build a castle, animate a statue, or grow crops in an alterable plane, changing your immediate environment as a result of tangible effort.
Highly Morphic: Highly morphic planes change so frequently that it's difficult to keep a particular area stable. Such planes may react dramatically to specific spells, sentient thought, or the force of will. Others change for no reason.
Magically Morphic: Specific spells can alter the basic material of these planes. The plane of Shadow, which can be drawn elsewhere and used to duplicate other spells, is a good example of a magically morphic plane.
Divinely Morphic: Specific, unique beings (deities or similar great powers) have the ability to alter objects, creatures, and the landscape on these planes. Ordinary characters find these planes similar to alterable planes in that they may be affected by spells and physical effort. But the deities may cause these areas to change instantly and dramatically, creating great kingdoms for themselves. Divinely morphic planes are common on the Outer Planes, which is one reason deities live there.
Sentient: These planes are ones that respond to a single thought—that of the plane itself. Travelers would find the plane's landscape changing as a result of what the plane thought of the travelers, either becoming more or less hospitable depending on its reaction.

Elemental and Energy Traits

The Planes are made up of fundamental elements and energies. Within the cosmology of cosmology, there are four basic elements and two types of energy that together make up everything. The elements are earth, air, fire, and water. The energies are positive and negative energy.
The Material Plane reflects a balancing of those elements and energies; all are found here. Other planes, particularly the Inner Planes, may be dominated by one element or type of energy. Other planes may show off various aspects of these elemental traits.

Air-Dominant: Mostly open space, these planes have just a few bits of floating stone or other elements. They usually have a breathable atmosphere, though there may be clouds of acidic or toxic gas on the plane. The gravity trait for an air-dominant plane is usually either objective directional, subjective directional, or no gravity. Creatures of the earth subtype are uncomfortable on air-dominant planes because there is little or no natural earth to connect with. They suffer no actual damage, however.
Earth-Dominant: These planes are mostly solid. Travelers who arrive run the risk of suffocation if they don't reach a cavern or other pocket within the earth. Worse yet, individuals without the ability to burrow are entombed in the earth and must dig their way out (5 feet per turn). Earth-dominant planes normally have objective directional or subjective directional gravity. Creatures of the air subtype are uncomfortable on earth-dominant planes because these planes are tight and claustrophobic to them. But they suffer no inconvenience beyond having difficulty moving.
Fire-Dominant: These planes are composed of flames that continually burn without consuming their fuel source. Fire-dominant planes are extremely hostile to Material Plane creatures, and those without resistance or immunity to fire are soon immolated. Unprotected wood, paper, cloth, and other flammable materials catch fire almost immediately, and those wearing unprotected flammable clothing catch on fire. In addition, individuals take 3d10 points of fire damage every round they are on a fire-dominant plane. In general, fire-dominant planes have normal gravity conditions. Creatures of the water subtype are extremely uncomfortable on fire-dominant planes. Those that are made of water (such as water elementals) take double damage each round.
Water-Dominant: These mostly liquid planes likely drown those who can't breathe water or reach a pocket of air. Water-dominant planes have either the no gravity trait or one of the two directional gravity traits. Creatures of the fire subtype are extremely uncomfortable on water-dominant planes. Those made of fire (such as fire elementals) take 1d10 points of damage each round.
Positive-Dominant: An abundance of life characterizes these planes. The two kinds of positive-dominant traits are minor positive-dominant and major positive-dominant.
A minor positive-dominant plane is a riotous explosion of life in all its forms. Colors are brighter, fires are hotter, noises are louder, and sensations are more intense as a result of the positive energy swirling through the plane. All individuals in a positive-dominant plane gain fast healing 2 as an extraordinary ability for as long as they remain there.
Major positive-dominant planes go even further. Creatures on a major positive-dominant plane must make a Fortitude saving throw (DC 15) to avoid being blinded for 10 rounds by the brilliance of the surroundings. Simply being on the plane grants fast healing 5 as an extraordinary ability. In addition, those at full hit points gain 5 additional temporary hit points per round. These temporary hit points fade 1d20 rounds after the creature leaves the major positive-dominant plane. However, a creature must make a Fortitude save (DC 20) each round that its temporary hit points exceed its normal hit point total. Failing the saving throw results in the creature exploding in a riot of energy, killing it.
Negative-Dominant: These planes are vast, empty reaches that suck the life out of travelers who cross them. They tend to be lonely, haunted planes, drained of color and filled with winds bearing the soft moans of those who died within them. As with positive-dominant planes, negative-dominant planes can be either minor or major.
On minor negative-dominant planes, living creatures take 1d6 points of damage per round. At 0 hit points or less, they crumble into ash.
Major negative-dominant planes are even more severe. Each round, those within must make a Fortitude save (DC 25) or gain a negative level. A creature whose negative levels equal its current levels or Hit Dice is slain, becoming a wraith.

Alignment Traits

Certain planes have alignments just as characters do. Most of the inhabitants of these planes also have that particular alignment, even powerful creatures such as deities. In addition, creatures of alignments contrary to the plane have a tougher time dealing with its natives and situations.
How a plane develops an alignment trait is a chicken-and-egg situation. Certain planes are predisposed to particular alignments, so creatures of those alignments tend to settle there. This makes the planes even more disposed to that alignment, and so on.
The alignment trait of a plane affects social interactions there. Characters who follow alignments other than most of the inhabitants may find life more difficult. Alignment traits have multiple components.
First are the moral (good or evil) and ethical (lawful or chaotic) components; a plane can have either a moral component, an ethical component, or one of each. Second, the trait describes whether each moral or ethical component is mildly or strongly applied.

Good-Aligned/Evil-Aligned: These planes have chosen a side in the battle of good versus evil.
Law-Aligned/Chaos-Aligned: Law versus chaos is the key struggle for these planes.

It's likely that the alignment trait for some planes has two components: one moral and one ethical. There are law-aligned, good-aligned planes, and chaos-aligned, evilaligned planes, for example. But there aren't good-aligned, evil-aligned planes (opposing moral components) or law-aligned, chaos-aligned planes (opposing ethical components).
Each part of the alignment trait gets a descriptor, mildly or strongly, to show how powerful the tug of alignment is on the plane. A plane could be mildly good-aligned, strongly chaos-aligned, for example.

Mildly Aligned: Creatures who have an alignment opposite a mild alignment of a plane suffer a –2 circumstance penalty on all Charisma-based checks. Evil characters on a mildly good-aligned plane, for example, have a hard time getting along with the natives. Whether a character is lawful, neutral, or chaotic wouldn't matter for such a plane—only good, neutral, or evil.
Strongly Aligned: These planes apply the –2 circumstance penalty to all creatures not of the plane's alignment. In other words, neutral characters suffer the penalty too. A strongly good-aligned, strongly law-aligned plane would apply the penalty to creatures with a neutral aspect to their alignment (as well as to evil or chaotic creatures).
The circumstance penalty on strongly aligned planes covers more situations, too. The –2 penalty affects all Intelligence-, Wisdom-, and Charisma-based checks. It's as if the plane itself was standing in your way.
The penalties for the moral and ethical components of the alignment trait do stack. A neutral evil character on a mildly good-aligned, strongly chaos-aligned plane would suffer a –2 penalty on Charisma-based checks for being evil on a mildly good plane, and another –2 penalty on Intelligence-, Wisdom-, and Charisma-based checks for being neutral on a strongly chaos-aligned plane. Such a character would have a –4 circumstance penalty on Charisma-based checks and a –2 circumstance penalty on Intelligence- and Wisdom-based checks.

Neutral-Aligned: A mildly neutral-aligned plane does not apply a circumstance penalty to anyone. Such a plane could become a gathering point where those of different alignments could meet, or the prize that extraplanar forces fight over.
A strongly neutral-aligned plane stands in opposition to good, evil, law, and chaos. Such a plane may be more concerned with the balance of the alignments than with accommodating and accepting alternate points of view. Strongly neutral-aligned planes apply the –2 circumstance penalty to any creature that isn't neutral. The penalty is applied twice (once for law/chaos, and once for good/evil), so neutral good, neutral evil, lawful neutral, and chaotic neutral creatures suffer a –2 penalty and lawful good, chaotic good, chaotic evil, and lawful evil creatures suffer a –4 penalty.
Material Planes are usually mildly neutral-aligned, though they may contain high concentrations of evil or good, law or chaos in places. This often makes the Material Plane a battleground for the various aligned planes and their natives, who may try to change the alignment trait of the Material Plane itself.

Magic Traits

The magic trait tells how a plane handles spells and supernatural abilities. As with other traits, the magic trait describes how magic works compared to how it works on the Material Plane.

Normal Magic: This magic trait means that all the spells and supernatural abilities function as written.
Dead Magic: These planes have no magic at all. A plane with the dead magic trait functions in all respects like an antimagic field spell. Divination spells cannot detect subjects within a dead magic plane, nor can a spellcaster use teleport or another spell to move in or out. The only exception to the “no magic” rule is permanent planar portals, which still function normally. Spellcasters on a dead magic plane feel immediately uncomfortable and experience mild headaches.
Wild Magic: Spells and spell-like abilities function in wildly different and sometimes dangerous ways on planes with the wild magic trait. Any spell or spell-like ability used on a wild magic plane has a chance to go awry. The caster must make a level check (DC 15 + the attempted spell level) for the spell to function normally. Failure means something strange happens.
Impeded Magic: Particular spells and spell-like abilities are more difficult to cast on these planes, often because the nature of the plane interferes with the spell. Fireball spells may be cast on the Elemental Plane of Water, but the opposing natures of the spell and the plane makes it difficult.
To cast an impeded spell, the caster must make a Spellcraft check (DC 15 + the level of the spell). If the check fails, the spell does not function but is still lost as a prepared spell or spell slot. If the check succeeds, the spell functions normally.
Enhanced Magic: Particular spells and spell-like abilities are easier to use or more powerful in effect on these planes than they are on the Material Plane.
Limited Magic: These planes only permit spells and spell-like abilities from certain schools, subschools, descriptors, or levels to be cast. Other spells and spell-like abilities simply don't work; for them, this plane functions like a dead magic plane.

Remove these ads. Join the Worldbuilders Guild

The Multiverse

What is the Multiverse?

Building Blocks of the Multiverse

All In Alignment

Center of It All

Everywhere and Nowhere

Planar Traits

Gravity

Time

Size

Morphic

Elemental and Energy Traits

Alignment Traits

Magic Traits

List of Planes

Comments

Find your way!

Resources

WHO WE ARE

LEGAL

Get the news

Our Shop

Development

EVENTS

REACHING OUT

A BIG THANK YOU