User:Paleomancer/Emerald Sun (3.5e Campaign Setting)/Cosmology

Emerald Barrier

The Emerald Barrier is a magically constructed boundary that seals Tellur away from the rest of the material plane, as well as sealing it away from most of the other planes as well. While portals to other realities do exist, these are unstable and appear and disappear without warning. This even effects time, as the boundary prevents time travel, preventing anyone from simply unmaking the boundary. Given the propensity of Tellus to simply absorb other worlds outright into itself, this is not necessarily a bad thing.

Dimensional Subduction

It is not commonly known among most scholars in the multiverse, but when different areas of space are suddenly thrust adjacent to one another by a dimension rift or portal, the two realities clash, each seeking to restore the loss of equilibrium by absorbing the other. Normally, this occurs on an atomic scale, far beyond the means of even the most powerful deities to detect. If the tear is egregiously large, or if a conscious will controls the opening, the result can be more devastating. In such situations, the result is not unlike planetary gangrene, destroying the material and spiritual natures of the worlds on either side of the portal. Tellus, because of its atypical affinity for the Dreamlands and its status as a prison for powerful extraplanar beings, is unnaturally resilient to dimensional incursions and tends to absorb them into itself, not unlike one continental plate being pressed into the mantle by a strong counterpart. As a result, Tellus has become much larger than its surface would suggest, and some scholars suggest that this is why so many sentient species has evolved here; their worlds were parallel realities absorbed into Tellus itself.

Dreamlands

The Dreamlands is a realm born from the unified unconsciousness of all living, construct, and undead beings.

Planar Traits

The Dreamlands is linked to the Material Plane; like all world-spanning dreamscapes, it is a collection of every personal dreamscape possessed by every living creature, from the smallest viral particle to the greatest cosmic entity, in all of time, past, present, and even future.

Physical Traits

• Gravity: Normal in anchored points (realms of Elder Fremd, for instance), but subjective elsewhere.

• Time: Normal/Erratic. Material plane denizens who spend less than one day equivalent on the Dreamlands experience normal time passing, and need not worry about unusual time fluctuations. Those who spend more than one day in the Dreamlands instead experience erratic time, as their subconscious starts to merge with the unified dreamscape. Without sufficient protection, a visitor may spend a lifetime in the Dreamlands, only to discover that mere seconds passed on the material plane, while others may spend a day and come back thousands of years later.

• Size: While the Dreamlands as most Tellurians understand it is limited to Tellus itself, it is in actuality immeasurably vast in size, since it is connected to the dreamscapes of every other part of the multiverse. Like the void of space, much of it is uninhabited and barren, with oases of life centered on inhabited locations in the Material Plane.

• Morphic: Alterable/highly/divinely morphic, quasi-sentient. By nature, the Dreamlands is quasi-sentient, and most of the dreamlands is unstable enough that unconscious (but not conscious) thought spawns terrain, obstacles, and creatures drawn from the desires, memories, and emotions of visitors. The longer characters spend in the Dreamlands, the more their unconsciousness influences the landscape around them. Generally, this manifests in smaller changes that cannot easily be controlled: unexpectedly rough terrain for suppressed anger, or a monster that resembles a phobia, a shade of a loved one, and so on. If characters lose sanity (at least four points) to the plane, the effects are more dramatic: powerful monsters appear out of this air, storms divide party members, etc.

Not all areas of the Dreamlands are so quick to transforml; these are the dreamrealms, the personal dreamscapes of individual entities. The dreamrealms of powerful Fremd are divinely morphic (though only a Fremd of the same or greater power level as the creator may modify it), and are tailored to suit their ruler's inclinations (pratically any planar condition in the DMG may apply, and can change at a whim). Mortal creatures have smaller Dreamrealms, over which they have similar control, but generally these are not consciously available to enter. Anchored dreamrealms are instead bound to a major concentration of material plane life/unlife, such as a settlement, a life-rich biome, or a graveyard. These are alterable, since their affinity for an uncountable number of individual dreamrealms grants them unparalleled stability, even past the destruction of the progenitor location.

A special case are the locations known as Dream Oases, which are unusually resilient to change and to the will-sapping nature of the Dreamlands in general. Dream Oases are favored as sanctuaries by visitors and as dream-rich feeding grounds for indigenous Fremd; in most cases, the oasis serves as a neutral ground where enemies, and even predators and prey, can meet without conflict. Their fortuitous traits come at a terrible price: any material plane entity whose sanity is destroyed by the Dreamlands or its inhabitants, and who is not returned to their home plane, is eventually absorbed by the plane. As the distinction between their physical form and their mental state is destroyed, their personal dreamrealm expands into the plane, forming a dream oasis. Most oases form accidentally, and may contain the trapped souls of multiple creatures, but Fremd and unscrupulous mortals have been known to deliberately create Dream Oases as a way to help navigate more treacherous areas of the plane.

• Sanity Drain: Prolonged exposure to the Dreamlands tends to sap the mental stability of even the strongest mind. Outside of Fremd, personal, or anchored dreamrealms, any creature not native to the Dreamlands who spends more than one hour in the plane must make a Will save (DC 10 + 1/2 its own HD + its charisma modifier) or take 1d6+1 Wisdom drain; this save must be repeated for every 24 hours after that first hour. The damage cannot be healed while the character remains within the Dreamlands by any means, including deific intervention. Any creature brought to 0 Wisdom while in the Dreamlands enters a horrifying state where they cannot distinguish between dreams and reality; such a condition can only be removed with a wish or miracle spell or effect once the creature has been removed from the Dreamlands. If left untended, the plane absorbs the very soul of the victim, trapping them in the plane and creating a Dream Oasis. This planar trait effects even those creatures normally immune to ability drain or that possess no intelligence score, including undead and constructs. While there are spells and abilities that can shield this sanity drain, only being or becoming a native creature of the Dreamlands offers any permanent protection (and given the minimal sanity of most Dreamlands creatures, maybe not even then), which means normal immunity to ability drain or damage NEVER applies, even for creatures that don't have Intelligence scores, like skeletons. Bound locations

Elemental, Energy, Alignment and Magic Traits

• Elemental Dominance: Usually none, although the realms of the Great Old Ones may be tailored to suit their inclinations and locations tied to material plane regions tend to reflect that environment (An extinct supervolcano on the Prime is associated with a whirlpool of flame on the Dreamlands, for instance).

• Energy Dominance: None, although there are exceptions, as noted above.

• Alignment Traits: Usually none, except for locations tied to major events or entities, such as the realms of the Great Old Ones or the site of a brutal massacre.

• Magic Traits: All Tellurian magic draws upon the power of the Dreamlands, so normally it is unaffected. The only major exception occurs within the Dreamrealms of powerful Fremd, the masters of whom may restrict or enhance mortal thaumaturges depending on whether the caster is a follower of that Fremd or of a competitor. Divine magic cast by that entity's followers is empowered and heightened, and divine casters with rival patrons must make a caster level check (DC 15 + spell level) to use their powers. Arcane magic is unaffected.

Planar Connections

The Dreamlands is coterminous to the Material plane, but has a particularly strong bond in locations that are or were regarded with strong emotions or are bastions of life (major city, site of major battle, coral reef, forest). When bastions of life dwindle or die, the counterpart of the Dreamlands also dwindles (and vice versa). In more unstable areas of the Dreamlands, portals to the Dreamlands of other worlds or realities can be found, but only the Fremd are skilled enough to navigate without chance of failure.

Inhabitants

The Great Old Ones are the most notable inhabitants of this realm, but there are many creatures that thrive here, both from the material plane and arising from the dreams. The latter are known as the Fremd, or "aliens," composed of dreamstuff. Lesser Fremd are like the animals and plants of Tellur, and exist in complex ecosystems that ultimately derive their energy from the unconscious thoughts of mortals. Intermediate Fremd are not unlike mortals, and frequently serve Greater Fremd (comparable to powerful outsiders in other settings) and the Great Old Ones. Other inhabitants include the Nightghaunts, certain tribes of Ghouls, Doppelgangers (who arise when the plane drains Wisdom from visitors), and the strange shapeshifters known as Skinwalkers.