Common Knowledge:

The study of the universe (including all the myriad worlds and dimensions it contains) is not a topic of great concern to the average person. Since they cannot see beyond the night sky, they know almost nothing of other worlds or the astral plane. What little they do know is told to them by their church and most churches have a tendency to exaggerate the importance of their deity. The only non-visible world they are aware of is Godsland since that is the home of their god and their eventual destination when they die.

Expert Knowledge:

The World as we know it (sometimes referred to as "The Prime World") resides in what is known as the Material Plane. Around this is the Astral plane, and beyond that the Elemental Energies, Godsland, and other miscellaneous dimensions. It is known that there are nineteen other worlds in the material plane, though little detail is known about these worlds.

It is believed that the material plane consists of an equal portion each of the four physical elements: Air, Earth, Fire, and Water. These elements are constantly battling for supremacy and occasionally one or more will win out for a brief time. This explains many phenomena such as Floods, Storms, Volcanoes, and Earthquakes. Life in all its forms, is also an amalgam of the four elements, but the balance there is much more equal and stable than in nature.

The Cosmos has a great significance to certain spellcasters who, over the years, have devoted considerable time researching the interactions of the various dimensions. The question of when and how the universe came to be has more theological than practical value and so has been largely ignored by magicians.

Magicians, almost without exception, are taught about the astral plane and the elemental world. Both realms are of crucial importance to the functioning of magic as they are the pathway and the source (respectively) of magical energy. Godsland is an esoteric world and information about it is limited exclusively to divine scripture. The various religions differ on a number of important aspects of Godsland, such as its location, its size, and its origin. The other worlds and miscellaneous dimensions have no bearing on normal magic or on theology and so are learned only by specialists.

Regarding the beginnings of time and space, most religions agree that the gods (either individually or in concert) did not create all that exists. Despite this accepted belief, though, little philosophical thought has been given to exactly who or what is responsible for creation and the common worshiper is usually taught that the gods were responsible for creation since it makes for a more powerful story.

Hidden Knowledge:

Many texts refer to a division between the Terran gods and the elven gods (see Religion for more information). It is known that the elven gods are older, but it is still not believed that they were responsible for creation. Instead, an even earlier race of gods is rumored to exist. Several names are used for this race, but "Earthmasters" seems to be the most common. Nothing is known for certain about the Earthmasters, but legends say that they lived in the material plane and left behind artifacts of tremendous power. Quests for these artifacts have been undertaken throughout history, and while some have claimed success, none have been able to prove their success. Many believe that the Earthmasters are entirely fiction.

See the sub-categories below.

Common Knowledge:

The World has three major continents known simply as the "Main", "Eastern", and "Northern" continents. However, they are also sometimes referred to by their ancient and formal names of "Thentao" (Main), "N'Galt" (Eastern), and "Immenri" (Northern).

The term “The Prime World” is never used by commoners – as they are mostly unaware of the existence of other worlds.

Expert Knowledge:

The term “The Prime World” is used only by the most esoteric of scholars. While most scholars are aware of other worlds, very few consider them seriously enough to require a modifier to the term “The World”.

The World exists as a flat, circular region surrounded by The Wall and centered on The Well. Around it moves the Sun, the Moon, Dancer, and the Stars. The wall itself is a thousand-foot-tall waterfall which rings the entire world. The well is a great, swirling maelstrom at its center where the water from the wall collects. Since far more water seems to come over the wall than goes out of through the well, scholars often argue about what happens to the remaining water. Many bizarre theories have been presented, but none have gained acceptance.

Beyond the wall is thought to be another land which is completely devoid of magic. If a person can make it to the wall, he will find a ferryman who will take him beyond it. However, the tale of the transgression (see Religion) details the origin and the purpose for the wall from a religious perspective and the punishments for violating that purpose. This alone has kept most of the curious away from the wall, but history is full of stories of people traveling to the wall. Since most failed to return, the trip is rarely undertaken.

Several experiments have concluded that the world is not actually flat, but is in fact convex. Since the well resides in the center, it is thought that it somehow draws the water up the sides of this dome and that this force is powerful enough to offset the tilt of the surface. Therefore, even at the edges of the world, where a person would naturally fall down the slope, he is held up by this unseen force. It is believed that this force has something to do with the mana flow (see Magic), but no conclusive experiments have been performed.

Hidden Knowledge:

Beyond the wall, it is not known whether the tilt continues, but some claim that the slope does continue and that the world is a sphere. The most common supporting argument for this theory is that the moon is a sphere (as can be demonstrated by its phases) and that the sun is at least circular and could easily be spherical. In the interest of order, so too should be the world. Measurements of the convex surface, however, indicate that if the world were a sphere, it would be vast and that the area within the walls would be but a fraction of its size. Since even the force of the well could obviously not hold up a person standing on the opposite side, most of this land is thought to be unlivable.

Expert Knowledge:

The Sun has been estimated at anywhere from 1 to 300 million kilometers from the World and is believed to be either a great fireball left over from the creation or a world whose elemental balance went astray and fire won out. Whatever its origin, since there is no evidence that any elements other than Fire exist on the Sun, some use this as support for the theory that one day, one of the four elements will gain the upper hand on the World.

The Sun travels across the sky in an arcing path that most view as circular. However, as the amount of time it spends above the World varies from month to month, the center of this circle is believed to revolve around the World as do the Moon and the Stars.

Hidden Knowledge:

Another sun is known to exist on the astral plane and many feel that these two suns are linked in some way. They do not seem to have the same period or intensity, though, and so many discard this theory. Some have even argued that the sun is not comprised of fire, but is a source of positive energy. Since an equal and opposite negative energy source has never been discovered, this theory is generally disregarded.

Expert Knowledge:

Whether or not the Moon is or was a world like our own, it is believed to consist almost exclusively of elemental earth. No evidence of fire or water can be seen, and since air is earth's opposite, it is also assumed to be missing. The moon does have a link with water, though, as it has a noticeable influence on the tides. This link has never been satisfactorily explained.

Hidden Knowledge:

The mage Hrothnoth from the second age claims to have traveled to the moon, but never revealed his method. Since Hrothnoth was famous for building magical sailing ships, it is thought that he manufactured a flying ship and traveled to the moon in that way. His account of the moon is that of a lifeless and sterile world made entirely of sand and rock. He was forced to bring his own air, fire, and water in order to survive and so many use his account as further proof that the moon is a world where earth won out over the other three elements. Hrothnoth, though, was known to have a flair for the imaginative and many believe his tale was intended as fiction.

Expert Knowledge:

This body is an enigma to magicians and scholars worldwide. It is a relatively small object, just over one hundred kilometers wide, and it has no easily predictable path across the sky. When traversing from horizon to horizon, it has a measurable cycle of 76.5 days. However, during any given day, it moves across half the sky in a north-south direction, often times rising and setting several times.

One school of thought believes it to be a mini-world, similar in most respects to the moon. A more accepted belief, though, is that it is a small island piloted through the sky by a reclusive god.

Its size and distance are known with quite an accuracy due to a pioneering observation made late in the second age by the mage Dyan. One day during an eclipse of Dancer and the Moon, Dyan teleported a great distance and noticed that Dancer's position varied noticeably on the face of the Moon. By carefully measuring the angle of difference, and assuming that the Moon was sufficiently far enough away, Dyan calculated that Dancer was approximately 40,000 kilometers above the World. Since eclipses of this nature occur frequently, this experiment has been confirmed several times and subsequent extrapolations have indicated that Dancer is no more than 150 kilometers in diameter. What has eternally confounded cosmologists, though, is the fact that Dancer is oblong in shape and that it appears to tumble as it traverses the sky. Many say, therefore, that no right-minded person, god or other, would ever pilot such an unstable craft.

Hidden Knowledge:

Hrothnoth was unable to travel to Dancer (he claimed it moved too fast for him to catch) and no other accounts exist as to conditions on Dancer. However, since its surface is visually similar to the moon's, its environment is thought to be identical. One theory states that Dancer was originally a part of the moon and that it was either cast out by angry “moon-men”, or was taken from the moon by the god that now drives it. Some even say that Dancer is a kingdom that once was powerful on the moon and fled the destruction of its world by escaping into the sky.

Expert Knowledge:

Unlike the previously mentioned worlds, most Stars are constant and move about the sky in a precise fashion, having one cycle every 24 hours. These points of light are thought to be weakenings in the fabric of the heavens where light and magical energy leak in from the other realms (primarily the Elemental Energies). Stars exist on the astral plane, but are neither constant, nor have the same cycle.

Hidden Knowledge:

Some believe that the stars are other worlds because their constant pattern is reminiscent of the dodecahedron shape of the twenty worlds (see below). Over the centuries, many scholars have tried to map out the heavens and deduce its patterns. The most widely circulated star charts are those drawn by the scholar Aldgar in the first age. The charts survive because they have been transcribed by thousands of scholars since Aldgar's time. Aldgar's charts were thought to be incredibly accurate, but more recent attempts to duplicate his work show some minor differences in the position of certain bright stars, bringing Aldgar's work into question.

Expert Knowledge:

It is known (or at least believed) that there are twenty worlds in the material plane. Interconnected in the shape of a dodecahedron, each world rests on a vertex and is connected to its three adjacent worlds by magical portals. It is not known whether this dodecahedron shape is figurative only or whether the worlds are physically positioned in such a manner. The World is one of these twenty and it is believed that neither the Moon nor the Sun belongs to the set since their descriptions do not match those of the three known neighbor worlds. The stars, however, have among them a group of four wanderers which current belief says are the three adjacent worlds of Xotei, Greyhawk, and Kona. The fourth visible world is difficult to see and is thought to be one of the next adjacent worlds. The fact that four worlds can be seen, rather than nine is proof to some that the dodecahedron is merely a figurative arrangement.

Access to the portals which connect the World to its three nearest neighbors has been sporadic throughout the centuries. However, a vague description of the near worlds can be gleaned from the variety of adventures reported over the years. The World's three neighbors are called Xotei, Greyhawk, and Kona. Xotei is believed to be a world rich in magic where every person is a wizard. Greyhawk is much more like the Prime World and is settled by the same quartet of races: Human, Elf, Dwarf, and Orc. Kona is a savage land, full of beautiful plants and ferocious animals and it is said that the gods that rule Kona live among their worshipers.

Hidden Knowledge:

Kona is the name of the world which the Godslayer invaded. When he arrived, he slew the Sumerian gods (see Religion) and destroyed or corrupted all life on the world. When Lord Ozzie destroyed the Godslayer, the explosion seems to have destroyed the portal linking Kona with its three neighbors. No precedent for such a catastrophe exists and since the origin of the portals is unknown, it is not known whether they will ever reattach themselves.

Literally hundreds of worlds are listed in various texts, but since no parallels can be drawn among the descriptions, few are accepted as fact. The crew of the spaceship Aquila came from a world they call "Earth" and it is assumed that this world is part of the twenty worlds, but its location in the dodecahedron is not known. The true mystery about Earth is that neither Aquila nor the Captain and the Engineer came to this world by way of the portals, the only known way to travel between worlds.

Expert Knowledge:

Permeating all of the material plane is an invisible, intangible substance known as “Ether”. The ether links the material plane with the Astral plane and is believed to be the medium through which all the heavenly bodies float and the substance with which the demons and spirits fly. Some scholars refer to the ether as “The Ethereal Plane” – though it is technically not separate from The Astral Plane.

If a wizard becomes adept with the ether, he can use it to travel outside of the material plane or to go great distances within the material plane. A few beings are said to actually live on the astral plane, feeding on the Elemental energies that flow to the twenty worlds.

The ether exists in parallel with the material plane, though there are often differences. In most places, an “ethereal” entity can see objects on the material plane – though only indistinctly and only at a short distance. The converse is true only if the observer is trained in such things.

There are regional differences in the ether. In some places, the ether contains a verdant wilderness known as the Feywild. In other places, it is a dark, shadowy world known as the Shadowfell. Around the Dark Bay, the land remains intact as it was before the end of the world, though tremendous storms rage and the region is hard to explore.

The astral plane is a strange place where the mind is supreme over the body. The most common form of astral travel is to leave your physical body behind and release your mind to roam on its own. Once the step is taken away from the material plane, the traveler will find that his astral body is not necessarily similar to his physical body. Often times, great warriors have traveled to the astral plane and found themselves barely strong enough to move. On the other hand, an infirm old man could find himself wearing warrior's armor and possessing great strength in his astral form.

A less common mode of travel to the astral plane is taking your physical body with you. The advantage of this method is that you can often times travel great distances on the astral plane much easier than on the material plane.

Normally, a person has only a tenuous link with the astral plane. It is believed that the astral plane is the home for a person's spirit, though astral travelers are rarely able to kill someone whose body remains on the material plane. When a person's physical body dies, their astral self is released and drifts through the ether until it arrives at the gateway to Godsland. Once there, the spirit is granted admittance to the halls of the dead.

A trained mind can use the astral plane as a starting point for travel to the elemental world and this journey has been made a number of times by adept astral travelers. However, since the elemental world is a land seething with war and turbulence, such a journey must be taken with extreme care.

Hidden Knowledge:

The route taken by the deceased from the astral plane to Godsland is a carefully guarded secret, though it is possible to learn it while alive. Entrance to Godsland, though, is strictly controlled by a being known as the guardian. The guardian can take any form it desires and has supreme authority over the admission of souls through his gate. Still, stories exist of clever travelers who have tricked the guardian to gain admittance. Most of these stories, though, end up in tragedy when the traveler annoys one of the many gods who live in this realm.

Other routes from the astral plane will take a traveler to Limbo, the Shadow realm, or the plane of Time. These routes are extremely dangerous and difficult as the traveler must venture far away from the relatively safety of the material plane.

It is known that in the first age a great war raged between denizens of the astral plane. Their origin is unknown, but they are believed to have been descendants of a mortal race which learned the innate ability to travel astrally. The two races most often mentioned are called the Githzerai and the Githyanki. It is rumored that a few of these beings remain to this day and that their powers on the astral plane are incredible.

Expert Knowledge:

The Elemental Energies have as their source a realm often called the Elemental World. It is not a world in the traditional sense and some even say that it is infinite in size. Still, it is arranged (at least figuratively) in a spherical shape with the four physical elements equally placed around the equator and the two poles occupied by the spiritual elements of positive and negative energy, also known by their generalizations: Good and Evil.

The structure of the elemental world: (names of the Elemental Princes are in Italics)

Only in the border regions where two or more elements mingle together does life as we know it flourish. In these regions, there exist entire kingdoms of man- like beings known collectively as the elemental spirits. These spirits guide the activities of the elements on the material plane as well as in their home realm. Ruling over the Elemental Energies are the Elemental Lords. There are six in all, and under each of the physical elemental lords are two princes, one governing the border with Positive Energy, and the other governing the border with Negative Energy. To act as intermediaries between the ever-warring lords, a race of mixed elementals were created called the Djann. The Djann often travel between the elemental world and the material plane and are believed to know a tremendous amount about the twenty worlds.

One of the fundamental treatises on the elemental energies is known as Melf's Guidance of Symmetry. It covers the relationship between the elements and how they can be combined to produce effects greater than their parts.

Hidden Knowledge:

To defeat the Godslayer, Lord Ozzie drained the energies from the positive and negative energy realms and the physical realms were thrown into anarchy. The borders between all six realms became indistinct and the mysterious shadow force advanced throughout the elemental world. It is now believed that only pockets of the original elements remain and that the entire realm has been converted to shadow. Whether this is a permanent effect remains to be seen.

Expert Knowledge:

Though it is in many ways like another World, this special world is not part of the twenty material worlds. This is the world where the gods live and where all mortal souls go to rest between lives. On this world reside the great cities of Olympus, Heliopolis, Asgard, and others. Deep under this world is the Underworld¹⁾ where evil souls are held for punishment.

Hidden Knowledge:

Since information concerning Godsland is almost entirely from divine scripture, most unbiased scholars take it with a grain of salt. No accounts of Godsland exist outside of religious texts and since annoying the gods is not a hobby of most magicians, few have attempted to seek additional information.

Expert Knowledge:

Despite all attempts to rationalize the structure of the cosmos, there still exist realms which do not fit in with the structure. These places, occasionally are found by lost explorers of the Astral plane and their descriptions sometimes defy logic. Among the myriad of stories, though, three realms stand out: Shadow, Limbo, and Time.

Shadow is a pocket dimension between the elemental realms. It is said to be the perfect equilibrium between all elements. It's denizens are thought to be devoid of intellect, though there are tales of a Shadowlord which rules the realm much like the Elemental Lords rule the Elemental Energies. In recent years, this Shadowlord has been proved to exist, though very little is yet known about him.

Limbo is the realm of chaos. It is the antithesis to the material plane. Much of this dimension is unfathomable to the mortal mind and the only tales that exist usually end up with the hero going insane. The only common aspect is the omni-present “Winds of Limbo”, a mean-spirited wind that constantly shifts and changes intensity.

Time is not so much a realm as a concept. Still, travel through time is part of a few stories and there are indications that a realm exists, complete with a Time Lord to govern it.

Hidden Knowledge:

The Shadow realm is largely obsolete now, since the Shadowlord advanced into the elemental world. It is not known whether the original dimension remains in its original form.

Limbo is home to a group of entities commonly called the Lords of Chaos. It is said that they are eternally at war with the gods in Godsland and that they seek nothing short of the destruction of the material plane. Some accounts of Limbo say that the Githzerai from the first age fled here when their war with the Githyanki went poorly. Their current status is unknown, though evidence exists that a race of warriors called the Slaad do exist in Limbo and some have tied the two races together in their texts.

The realm of time is not known to exist for certain, but is believed to be a place from which a traveler can access any time in the past or future. The ruler of time, though, is known to exist and he is a merciless being named Parádoxa, whose power in many ways exceeds the gods. His duty is to correct or prevent paradoxes. Only the time mage Kwalish from the early second age has recorded a believable account of the time lord and in that account, Kwalish mentions the existence of an army of servants to Parádoxa, whom he called Time Elementals.

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