Cosmology and the Planes
Most ordinary life happens on the material plane, but existence on Kairos is greatly impacted by The Nine Pillars of Creation and the other planes beyond.
The Nine Pillars still largely exist as swathes of existence which can be manipulated by those with the will and power to do so, but they have a strict hierarchy. Celestial beings, who have no soul but rather a "spark" of divinity which dictates their existence, live in conjunction with The Middle Path, the border between The Nine Pillars and the material, also known as the astral sea. The most powerful of these gods are Monarchs. There are nine of them in total, and each rules over one of The Nine Pillars. These gods cannot leave their own Pillars. According to myth, they are inextricably linked with their Pillar. It's said if one of them were to leave their pillar, it would fall, and if one Pillar falls, they all do, bringing about the end of everything. The Monarchs have a strong enough spark of divinity that they often have many angels, and should a Principality in their Pillar be destroyed, they can split their divinity into an entirely new god to fill the empty spot.
The tier of gods who exist beneath these ones are called Dominions. These gods are attached to a Pillar, and they are most powerful when they're at home, but they can travel between the Pillars if they so choose. They cannot breach The Middle Path and travel to the material, but they pass through it. Dominions are powerful enough to create angels and unaligned celestial creatures.
The lowest ranked of the gods are called Principalities. These are deities who can travel to the material plane if they so choose. These gods tend to have the fewest clerics, and they cannot create other Celestial beings, but they are still beings of immense power. Despite the fact that they can travel to the material, they are rarely sighted. Many of the gods are in constant conflict with each other, and announcing one's presence on the material can lead to massively destructive battles between divine creatures. This was much more common in the early days of The Dawn-Age, when the pantheon changed as Principalities and Dominions fought more often.
WARNING: What follows may feel like spoilers. It's very unlikely that your character would know much of what comes next in this document. You are more than welcome to read it, but if you prefer to have a level of knowledge similar to your character's, consider stopping here. If you would like to know a little about the planes but not acquire specialized knowledge, read only the section under the heading and skip the subheadings.
The Ethereal Plane
The Ethereal blankets the inner planes, acting as the bubble keeping them all bound together. Most of the Ethereal plane's function is as a means of travel between the material, the shadowfell, and the feywild by creatures who have the ability to pass through it.
The Ethereal Plane is a misty, fog-bound dimension. Its “shores,” called the Border Ethereal, overlap the Material Plane and the Inner Planes, so that every location on those planes has a corresponding location on the Ethereal Plane. Visibility in the Border Ethereal is limited to 60 feet. The plane’s depths comprise a region of swirling mist and fog called the Deep Ethereal, where visibility is limited to 30 feet.
The Border Ethereal
From the Border Ethereal, a traveler can see into whatever plane it overlaps, but that plane appears muted and indistinct, its colors blurring into each other and its edges turning fuzzy. Ethereal denizens watch the plane as though peering through distorted and frosted glass, and can’t see anything beyond 30 feet into the other plane. Conversely, the Ethereal Plane is usually invisible to those on the overlapped planes, except with the aid of magic.
Normally, creatures in the Border Ethereal can’t attack creatures on the overlapped plane, and vice versa. A traveler on the Ethereal Plane is invisible and utterly silent to someone on the overlapped plane, and solid objects on the overlapped plane don’t hamper the movement of a creature in the Border Ethereal. The exceptions are certain magical effects (including anything made of magical force) and living beings. This makes the Ethereal Plane ideal for reconnaissance, spying on opponents, and moving around without being detected. The Ethereal Plane also disobeys the laws of gravity; a creature there can move up and down as easily as walking.
The Deep Ethereal
To reach the Deep Ethereal, one needs a plane shift spell or arrive by means of a gate spell or magical portal. Visitors to the Deep Ethereal are engulfed by roiling mist. Scattered throughout the plane are curtains of vaporous color, and passing through a curtain leads a traveler to a region of the Border Ethereal connected to a specific Inner Plane, the Material Plane, the Feywild, or the Shadowfell. The color of the curtain indicates the plane whose Border Ethereal the curtain conceals; see the Ethereal Curtains table.
Traveling through the Deep Ethereal to journey from one plane to another is unlike physical travel. Distance is meaningless, so although travelers feel as if they can move by a simple act of will, it’s impossible to measure speed and hard to track the passage of time. A trip between planes through the Deep Ethereal takes 1d10 × 10 hours, regardless of the origin and destination. In combat, however, creatures are considered to move at their normal speeds.
The Feywild
When the gods walked on Kairos, the world was shaped by their divinity and their power of will. When they were pulled from it, the remnants of that power had to go somewhere; Kairos could not abide its sudden natural laws without expelling the dream-stuff it was once made from. This power echoed past the material and accumulated into what's now called The Feywild.
The Feywild is a vibrant, colorful land which resembles the natural world of the Material plane, but which has been warped by its infusion with ancient dream-stuff. Mushrooms tower hundreds of feet above the ground where pixies make their homes, lavendar-scented mists sweep underfoot, and the twin suns move erratically through the forever-twilit sky. This plane is home to Sylvan beings like dryads, satyrs, pixies, sprites, and some elves, as well as centaurs and magical creatures such as blink dogs, faerie dragons, treants, and unicorns. The darker regions of the plane are home to such malevolent creatures as hags, blights, goblins, ogres, and giants.
Fey creatures can be born as if on the material, but they can also be created. When a powerful being dies in the material, the magic they held may coagulate in the feywild and create a new creature from the echo. This new being has no connection to or memory of the thing they came from, although some say their personality may influence the fey creature, such as a tyrannical ancient dragon giving rise to a particularly ornery redcap.
Fey Crossings
There are places where the old magic sticks to the material, creating an anchor between the two planes. Fey crossings are places of mystery and beauty on the Material Plane that have a near-perfect mirror in the Feywild, creating a portal where the two planes touch. A traveler passes through a fey crossing by entering a clearing, wading into a pool, stepping into a circle of mushrooms, or crawling under the trunk of a tree. To the traveler, it seems like he or she has simply walked into the Feywild with a step. To an observer, the traveler is there one moment and gone the next.
Like other portals between planes, most fey crossings open infrequently. A crossing might open only during a full moon, on the dawn of a particular day, or for someone carrying a certain type of item. A fey crossing can be closed permanently if the land on either side is dramatically altered — for example, if a castle is built over the clearing on the Material Plane.
Memory Loss
A creature that leaves the Feywild must make a DC 10 Wisdom saving throw. Fey creatures automatically succeed on the saving throw, as do any creatures, like elves, that have the Fey Ancestry trait. A creature that fails the saving throw remembers nothing from its time spent in the Feywild. On a successful save, the creature’s memories remain intact but are a little hazy. Any spell that can end a curse can restore the creature’s lost memories.
Time Warp
The Feywild is made from dream-stuff that existed before time was created in The Exodus, and it has a hard time aligning with the prime material's passage of time. Because of this, travelers in the Feywild may find that more or less time has passed than they would have expected on the material when they return to it. A wish spell can be used to remove or prevent the effect on up to ten creatures. Some powerful fey have the ability to grant such wishes and might do so for a high price.
The Shadowfell
Ashnwara did not create death in the Exodus—mortals had always known it—but she brought the idea of an end to those things which had never known a temporary existence. In rebellion, some of the beings left behind tried to create their own plane where they could have immortality again. The result was messy, and although they did create another plane, it was derived of the life they so badly wanted to preserve. The things that built it became dark and warped, twisted into undead things. Some of them accepted that their experiment failed and took on the life that the cloying shadow of the plane wanted them to take. These creatures became masters of the shadow at the cost of their souls. The Shadowfell feeds on those that have tied themselves to it, and those beings sustain themselves on the shadow-plane in a cannibalistic cycle that never ends. Death still touches this plane, but because of the way it was built, Marran cannot breach it to ferry souls away. Those trapped in the Shadowfell cannot escape it through death.
Shadow dragons and undead creatures haunt this bleak plane, as do other creatures that thrive in the gloom, including cloakers and darkmantles.
Shadow Crossings
Similar to fey crossings, shadow crossings are locations where the veil between the Material Plane and the Shadowfell is so thin that creatures can walk from one plane to the other. A blot of shadow in the corner of a dusty crypt might be a shadow crossing, as might an open grave. Shadow crossings form in gloomy places where spirits or the stench of death lingers, such as battlefields, graveyards, and tombs. They manifest only in darkness, closing as soon as they feel light’s kiss.
Shadowfell Despair
A melancholic atmosphere pervades the Shadowfell. Extended forays to this plane can afflict characters with despair. After a long rest, characters not native to the Shadowfell must make a DC 10 Wisdom saving throw. On a failure, the character is affected by despair. Roll a d6 to determine the effects, using the Shadowfell Despair table.
Soultrap
When a creature with a soul dies in the Shadowfell, it cannot pass on as it is meant to in the material. When a creature dies, they must roll a d20, which determines on the Spirit's Fate table what happens to the trapped soul. This result is not made known to players, and may render resurrection impossible as barons of the shadowfell and hungry soul-eaters are quick to take the resource that is a dead spirit. Likewise, it's possible that with nowhere else to go, the spirit may return to the body it belongs to. A resurrection attempt of a creature that died in the Shadowfell will automatically fail if the attempt is made outside the Shadowfell.
The Middle Path - The Astral Sea
Beyond the inner planes lies The Middle Path, the sea that separates the Material and its echoes from The Nine Pillars. It is a great silvery sea, the same above and below, with swirling wisps of white and gray streaking among motes of light like distant stars. Most of the Astral Sea is a vast, empty expanse. Visitors occasionally stumble upon the petrified corpse of a dead god or other chunks of rock drifting forever in the silvery void, but more common is running across another traveler through the Middle Path, for better or for worse. Some of the beings that travel through The Middle Path are benevolent and happy to have visitors. Others are mischevious, liars, or worst of all, hungry.
Creatures on the Astral Plane don’t age or suffer from hunger or thirst. A traveler in the Astral Plane can move by simply thinking about moving, but distance has little meaning. In combat, though, a creature’s walking speed (in feet) is equal to 3 × its Wisdom score. The stronger the creature's will, the easier it can control its movement.
Astral Projection
Traveling through The Middle Path by means of the astral projection spell involves projecting one's spirit there, usually in search of a gateway to one of the Pillars. Because The Middle Path can only be breached by mortals, this allows a character to manifest in one of the Pillars as if he or she had physically traveled there. A character's death in the Middle Path causes no actual harm during travel via astral projection. Only the severing of the silver cord that connects the traveler to their body can result in the character's true death. There are, however, a few things that can sever a silver cord, and some of the gods who travel between planes carry weapons which can sever the connection between body and soul. A character who travels directly to The Middle Path has no silver cord.
Psychic Wind
A psychic wind isn’t a physical wind like that found on the Material Plane, but a storm of thought that batters travelers’ minds rather than their bodies. A psychic wind is made up of lost memories, forgotten ideas, minor musings, and subconscious fears that went astray in the Astral Plane and conglomerated into this powerful force.
A psychic wind is first sensed as a rapid darkening of the silver-gray sky. After a few rounds, the area becomes as dark as a moonless night. As the sky darkens, the traveler feels buffeting and shaking, as if the plane itself was rebelling against the storm. As quickly as it comes, the psychic wind passes, and the sky returns to normal in a few rounds.
The psychic wind has two kinds of effects: a location effect and a mental effect. A group of travelers journeying together suffers the same location effect.
The Pillar of Creation
Canethri's seat in the cosmos is a monument to artistry and creativity and one of the most comfortable Pillars to those traveling from the Material. Her realm is a twisting gallery of art, music, and invention. Angels gather and sort the relics in arbitrary ways that don't last, undoing each other's work as they decide how best to sort through the entirety of mortal history's artworks without any coordination. Beyond Canethri's direct dominion, The Pillar of Creation seems to be a vast floating fortress with massive ballrooms, dining halls, and balconies that overlook an endless sea of clouds. On the material, it would seem like a centre of industry, but the air is clean, music echoes sourcelessly through the halls, and celestial creatures who call this Pillar home use its huge rooms for dancing and dining.
Planar Effect: Canethri's Inspiration
Any creature on this plane who has not angered Canethri gains a 1d4 to all d20 rolls.
The Pillar of Chaos
Nimhaesh's domain is a devouring unreality, utterly incomprehensible by anything used to the material's natural laws. Matter shifts underfoot, distance changes in front of one's eyes, and gravity roils like a wave. Noise and anger fill the empty spaces, and color pierces the skin like knives. Nimhaesh's fury turns everything into iron shards that threaten to tear foolish travelers apart at the soul. There are pockets of this Pillar that are less destructive, but to visit them, a traveler must either aim for it and land there or weather the storm of transcendant chaos to reach them.
The Abyss. After the Exodus, the fiends who had been feeding on mortals in The Celestial Age were little more than fodder for more powerful things to kill, and three of the gods capitalized on this. Nimhaesh offered to carve a part of its realm into a place for them to reside, and The Abyss was born under The Pillar of Chaos. Over the years, the demons have built their own horrid layers, and Nimhaesh largely stays out of their affairs, but Nimhaesh is technically the god of the Abyss.
Planar Effect: Nimhaesh's Madness
At the end of a long rest, a creature not native to this plane must make a DC 10 Wisdom saving throw or gain an indefinite madness effect. A creature who has already failed this saving throw suffers a level of exhaustion instead. Finishing a long rest in this plane does not alleviate this exhaustion unless that creature is resting in the domain of a god who tunes out the chaos.
The Pillar of Light
At the centre of The Anaphroc's Pillar is the beacon of neverending light that is The Burning Citadel, a towering structure visible from everywhere in The Pillar of Light, where a light like a hundred suns shines across the Pillar. The Anaphroc's angels work about The Pillar, maintaining absolute order throughout. Beyond the Citadel, hundreds of golden roads stretch from the centre, floating high above a sea of liquid light. Four of these roads lead to other gods' domains within the Pillar. The others stretch on endlessly, only coming to an end when the Anaphroc needs them to and in an order that seems esoteric to all but the monarch. Most of the Pillars are full of celestial life, but this one is bereft of willful creatures. Even its angels are only extensions of The Anaphroc's sight and will.
Pillar Effect: Anaphroc's Radiance
While in The Pillar of Light, creatures always use the average damage result for attacks and spells. For example, an attack that normally deals 1d10 + 5 damage always deals 10 damage in this Pillar.
The Pillar of Lies
Jorith's Pillar is a swathe of maleable shadow, the embodiment of secrets and deception. Beyond the all-consuming darkness, even darker shadows move in the nothingness, sewing fear of what lies beyond. Jorith's voice echoes in the devouring silence and the sea of black fog hides those pockets which belong to other gods until one is already inside them. The Queen herself exists in all spaces, in all shadows, and she watches all who travel through her domain, hungry for what lies behind the eyes.
Gehenna. After the Exodus, the fiends who had been feeding on mortals in The Celestial Age were little more than fodder for more powerful things to kill, and three of the gods capitalized on this. Jorith hid away the yugoloths and allowed them their own domain in her realm. She likely doesn't lead or order them, but they do foment her will in the Pillars and in the material.
Planar Effect: Jorith's Doubt
Wisdom (Insight) checks always fail here. In addition, any creature who attempts to make one must roll a DC 10 Wisdom saving throw or gain the following flaw as part of an indefinite madness effect: "I believe everyone is trying to deceive me in order to bring about my downfall."
Additionally, the constant whisper of The Queen of Lies take a grating toll. Any creature who takes a long rest in this Pillar must make a DC 10 Wisdom save. On a failed save, the creature cannot sleep or is plagued by nightmares and does not gain the benefits of a long rest.
The Pillar of Magic
Ves thel Án holds court where The Weave is closest to reality, holding the strings together in her astral realm. The Pillar of Magic is a sea of magic which rises and falls into the sky and over the shining obsidian islands that sit atop it. The sky above looks like a night sky, but those swirling colors that seem to be galaxies are actually pockets of arcana far in the distance. Seemingly at random, threads of silver become visible and fade away where The Weave crosses into the divine realm. The Pillar of Magic is, despite it all, a quiet one. The creatures in this realm swim placcidly through the oceans or float through the distant skies minding their own business. There are other landmarks, such as the forest Myrial along the horizon; they seem infinitely far away, but they don't take long to reach with the intent to get there. At the heart of it all, Ves thel Án works the thread, holding together the strings with her very essence.
The landscape of The Pillar of Magic may be beautiful, and the inhabitants are mostly peaceful, but it can still be dangerous. The ripples that are felt by mages when the Weave is disturbed are torrents here, and they're seemingly random. Ves thel Án is quick to repair any damage, but within this Pillar, those small breaks feel like violent fissures.
Planar Effect: Ves thel Án's Charge
Every spell cast in The Pillar of Magic is cast at a level higher than the expended slot. Additionally, after casting any spell, the caster must roll a d20. If the result is a 20, the character produces a Wild Magic Effect from the Wild Magic Surge table.
The Pillar of Night
The Pillar of Night is a great field of glittering white flowers, mountains in the distance, and an unfathomably vast sky of stars above. Caelia does not have a temple or a keep in her realm like many gods do; rather, she dances in the stars and the moonlight above the entire realm, coming down only when she must to converse with her vassals. This Pillar is full of celestial creatures, and it has an ecosystem of its own. Most of the realm's residents are celestial beasts who go about their lives in the starlit wilderness. At the top of the food chain is Eios, the gargantuan owl-like creature that serves as Caelia's mount and patrols the realm.
Planar Effect: Caelia's Embrace
Any creature that finishes a long rest here gains the effect of a Lesser Restoration spell. Additionally, its hit point maximum increases by 2d10 until their next long rest, and it gains that number of hit points.
The Pillar of Oaths
Elidys's Pillar could almost be a city on the material. The sky is eternally cast in the orange glow of a sunset over the bronze city that never tarnishes. The denizens of this plane are largely those who were once residents of other Pillars and have somehow found themselves tied into this one. At the center of it all, Elidys's temple is an open building where he sits on his throne, receives guests, and delegates. The pockets in this realm are simply larger buildings in the city, including Ulysse's temple and Ophelya's war room.
The Hells. After the Exodus, the fiends who had been feeding on mortals in The Celestial Age were little more than fodder for more powerful things to kill, and three of the gods capitalized on this. Elidys created Hel, which was eventually split into The Hells as they became more populated. While Elidys's Pillar is a fairly kind landscape which follows simple laws, he leaves The Hells to their devils, and they aren't nearly so welcoming. Each layer has its own archdevil, but they all report to Elidys, who rules with the iron fist of the god who only knows complex plots and divinely-binding oaths.
Planar Effect: Elidys's Law
Every creature within this Pillar cannot speak a deliberate lie as if permanently under the effect of the Zone of Truth spell.
The Pillar of Paths
Sarathael's Pillar is made of sprawling forests and valleys cut by long winding paths that connect the places within. There is no navigating this realm, only taking a path and finding the end of it. Sarathael himself is not hard to find, however. He wanders the roads endlessly, watching time and fate play out in a never-ending cycle, and he is drawn to the new, the anomalous, and the lost. Along these roads are ruins of lost places, messages etched in stones from other wanderers, and homes to celestial beings. Birds sing in the trees and a gentle breeze touches the branches as night and day pass in unpredictable intervals.
Planar Effect: Sarathael's Wanderlust
A creature on this plane gains the benefits of a long rest after only an hour of nothing more strenuous than eating, drinking, reading, and tending to wounds.
The Pillar of Winter
Kira's plane is a realm of snowdrops and flurries. Blue grass bends in the breeze where it isn't buried underneath glistening snow. Kira herself wanders, but she is difficult to find. Most of the time, she is alone, meditating or simply enjoying the silence of her realm. There is no sound of birdsong in her blanketed hills and valleys, but white-furred creatures dig for hiding bugs or rodents. Flurries fall from the sky even when there are no clouds overhead. Icicles hang from the branches of ancient trees where tiny celestials make their homes. The largest real structure in this plane is Enach's library, but it appears much smaller than it needs to be to hold the endless shelves inside.
Planar Effect: Kira's Chill
All creatures on this plane are considered resistant to cold damage and fire damage. Anyone who has spent more than one day in The Pillar of Winter must make a DC 10 Constitution saving throw or become resistant to cold damage and vulnerable to fire damage as their body stays acclimatized to the chill of the winter plane. A Greater Restoration spell can end this effect.
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