The Multiverse

The multiverse can never be fully understood. We can only guess at its workings, and rather poorly at that.
- Xhar´Neza

The Foundation

At the core of the multiverse lies the Prime Material, also referred to as Maelan by its inhabitants, and it holds everything else together. It represents all the aspects life has to offer in one enormous melting pot. As you start to move beyond Maelan, you will find that the planes seem to focus only on certain aspects that can be found on the Prime Material. While it might not always seem that way, the planes are strongly depended on a healthy Prime Material.

The Fiery Pits of Infernalis require mortal souls from the Prime Materiel to fuel their armies. Without those souls Infernalis would certainly wither and die.

The Origin

The Origin of the Multiverse is unclear. There is no definite answer. What most origin stories seem to have in common though, is that they all start with the Prime Material, and from there the rest of the Multiverse was born. The theories diverge whether the Multiverse is still expanding, or whether it is done. Some even suggest it started contracting again until everything is returned to the Void.

According to the teachings of Aerin two cosmic beings, called Mael and An, escaped the infinite chaos and formed the Prime Material from their combined essence.

The Lay of the Land

At the center lies the Prime Material. Surrounded by the Shadow Fell and the Feywild. All three are surrounded by the Ethereal Plane, which serves as a barrier for the Astral Plane. Beyond the Ethereal Plane lies the Astral Sea, a seemingly infinite expanse of stars connecting all the other planes (The Elemental Chaos, The Heavenly Fields of Celestia, The Fiery Pits of Infernalis) together. Across the Astral Sea span the Rivvens, evermoving strips of a specific type of energy, said to be the life blood of the multiverse.
The Astral Sea is a very flexible and maleable plane. With the necessary magical knowledge small individual planes can be created, which are not freely accessible. These are also known as pocket dimensions.

The maleability of the Astral Sea makes navigating it a daunting task. Space and time work differently here. Sometimes taking a planar cruiser from Sigil to Infernalis takes only a few hours, and other times it can take a few months.

For instance, when you put something into a Bag of Holding, you store those items within a pocket dimension in the Astral Sea.

The Wound

The Wound is the greatest blasphemy the Joghat ever inflicted upon the world. It is surprising the Forces did not simply eradicate us for our transgressions.
- Gothos

The Wound is an indirect result of a desperate attempt by the Joghat to free themselves of the Dragons. According to the ancient Joghat texts, the world was once filled with dragons of all kinds reigning with a tyrannical grip on the world. So the Joghat devised a ritual to send most of the dragons away. In that process they opened a way to what they called the Far Realm. While they managed to send most of the dragons into the Far Realm, they were not prepared for what would come out of it. Those creatures hit the Joghat worse than the dragons ever did and their societies collapsed. In a last ditch effort they managed to guide the Force of Destruction, Zethingandr, towards the Far Realm. That encounter collapsed the connection to the Far Realm, and killed Zethingandr, only the Wound remained.

The Wound is a dark, starless part of the Astral Sea, and while the connection to the Far Realm collapsed it was not completely broken. There are still horrors from the Far Realm entering the known multiverse through the Wound. They are, however, far fewer in number and the Gatekeepers have been keeping them in check for millenia.

Apart from the first quote, nothing about the multiverse should be taken at face value. There is still very little known about the underpinning structure of how it all works, and where it comes from. All we can do is theorize, and most of those theories are based on knowledge from ancient Joghat texts. There is, however, nothing to indicate that the Joghat had a distinctly better understanding of the multiverse than current cultures do.

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I am the law. Here and across the planes. Cross me and incur my justice.
- Lady of Pain

While it is clear to most that the Prime Material lies at the heart of the Multiverse, the Gatekeepers and the Lady of Pain seem to suggest that Sigil lies at the core of the Multiverse, and that the Prime Material is just a plane, like any other.

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Whereas, the teachings of Aerin indicate two creator beings, the Joghat theorized the presence of Forces, powers above the gods, keeping the multiverse in balance.

The Multiverse

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