The Million Spheres cosmology uses the Myriad Planes concept from the DMG, and Beyond Countless Doorways by Monte Cook as a basic framework.
The Prime: The world in which the campaign exists. The prime is more a “universe” than just the single planet of Alfaysia. There are thousands and thousands of other solar systems and perhaps even other inhabited planets. For those so inclined, space travel could be a real possibility. Some even say that Alfaysia was settled originally by an Ancient Race from beyond the stars. Sages say that the Prime and the worlds within it represent the ultimate embodiment of Law.
The Void: The “universe” of the Prime is surrounded by the void, an infinite expanse of complete emptiness. It is said that it is in this void that the outer beings originated, incomprehensible and maddening, that are anathema to worlds of reality. Legends tell of times when creatures from the Void can descend on the Prime. Ancient sorcerers are said to traffic with such alien creatures in an attempt to gain greater power and knowledge. Others who claim to have seen such mind-rending monstrosities claim they are like blots of fetid living blackness, nearly formless. The Void surrounds the prime, but also mingles with it.
Astral Plane (Astral Sea, the Silver Void): The Astral Plane is the realm of thought and dream, where visitors travel as disembodied souls to reach other worlds. 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. Even though the Astral Sea is a three-dimensional expanse, it possesses a distinct astral horizon that forms something like the surface of an ocean. The mists below this surface are darker and denser, and those above it are brighter and more open. The Astral Plane metaphysically links the prime worlds sperates them from the Void. (concept Astral is the Lattice of Heaven?)
The Ethereal Veil: The Ethereal Veil is a gray shadow of the world. For the most part, the Veil functions exactly as described in canon. Standing in the Veil, you see a gray shadow of reality. You can see the misty forms of buildings, of trees, of people going about their business… but you cannot be seen or heard, and you cannot affect the adjacent reality. With few exceptions, the Veil is empty. It reflects the adjacent reality, but it holds nothing of its own, and for this reason people rarely stay there for long; there’s no food, no water, and most of the time, no people. As noted earlier, the Veil is an extension of whatever plane you’re currently on. Haunts and Borders are two special places where the Ethereal takes on more concrete form.
- The Ethereal Veil extends from the plane its attached to, but no farther. There’s no Deep Ethereal, no curtains to other planes; the Astral Plane is the primary corridor for travel. However, the Borders are where planes come together, and it may be possible to move between material and the connected planes in such places.
The Feywild: An infinite realm named for the scattered lands and demesnes of the fae, the Feywild is a vibrant mirror reflecting the adjoining plane. It is a land of soft lights and wonder, a place of music and death. It is a realm of everlasting twilight, with glittering faerie lights bobbing in the gentle breeze and fat fireflies buzzing through groves and fields. The sky is alight with the faded colors of an ever-setting sun, which never truly sets (or rises for that matter); it remains stationary, dusky and low in the sky. Away from the settled areas ruled by the seelie fey that compose the Summer Court, the land is mirrors the natural world but turns its features into spectacular forms. In-between the realms of the fae, the lands take on ancient and elemental aspects of primeval splendor.
The Shadow Realm: The Shadow Realm is in some respects a transitional plane allowing passage into other planes. The Shadow Realm is an infinite expanse of shadowy existence mirroring what is occurring on the surrounding planes. Strange and evil creatures inhabit these domains. It is lit from an unknown source with but the dimmest gray light, giving all its stark and mostly barren features as deep ashen gray. If a spell calls for travel to the ethereal plane, it means the Shadowlands. The Shadowlands are sometimes called the Spirit Plane, as this is the first destination of souls after death before they progress to other realms.
- As the Feywild and the Shadow Realms both reflect and mirror the prime world, there are countless pathways and hidden gates between both them and the natural worlds.
Alternate Primes: There are other versions of the main world. Some ahead in time, some behind in time, some diverging as a result of different events. For example, there are alternate primes where the Science, not Magic, is the dominant force and world is ruled by logicians and the magic has receded (some would say that might be our world). Other primes might have the Wensharian Empire never having fallen, or the Alfar never having retreated to the forests in isolation. While there can are an infinite number of alternate primes, the rivers of time tend to follow a convergent path in the long run.
The Inner Planes (Elemental Planes): A realm of energy and matter, the Inner Planes are the fountain and forge, the building blocks for the worlds of the Prime. At their outermost edges, where they are closest to the Material Plane (in a conceptual if not a literal geographical sense), the four Elemental Planes resemble places in the Material Plane. The four elements mingle together as they do in the Material Plane, forming land, sea, and sky. But the dominant element exerts a strong influence on the environment, reflecting its fundamental qualities. As they extend farther from the Material Plane, the Elemental Planes become increasingly alien and hostile. Here, in the innermost regions, the elements exist in their purest form: great expanses of solid earth, blazing fire, crystal-clear water, and unsullied air. At the center of the Cosmos, the pure elements dissolve and bleed together into an unending tumult of clashing energies and colliding substance called Limbo, the Elemental Chaos. Elementals can be found here as well, but they usually don’t stay long, preferring the comfort of their native planes.
Limbo (Elemental Chaos): Limbo is a plane of pure chaos, a roiling soup of impermanent matter and energy. Stone melts into water that freezes into metal, then turns into diamond that burns up into smoke that becomes snow, and on and on in an endless, unpredictable process of change. Limbo conforms to the will of the creatures inhabiting it. Very disciplined and powerful minds can create whole islands of their own invention within the plane, sometimes maintaining those places for years. Sometimes the unpredictable borders of Limbo flow and ebb across the worlds of the Prime, causing chaos and change, or even the creation of new worlds. Limbo is both center and border of the Cosmos. (Chaos is contradiction)
The World Tree: The World Tree: At the cosmic intersection between Limbo, the Inner Planes, the Prime Worlds, and the Astral Plane stands the World Tree--growing in the elemental earth, fed from the elemental water, warmed by the elemental flame and expanding in the elemental air. It is said that a version of the World Tree extends into every Prime. Legends tell that it is the flowering of the World Tree that created all the planes. Some sages have said that the World Tree will one day lose its flowers to bloom again with a new cosmology. Priests, believing in the eternal nature of their gods, generally reject this notion.
The Oldlands (First World): In the shadow of the World Tree is a vast glade and forested realm. Farther out into edges the Oldlands are ringed with hills and mountains as they transition to wilder and more primeval lands: a broad region whose boundless terrain blends to match the extreme forces that shape it. Arid, flame-scarred plains give way to heroic mountain ranges sculpted in the likenesses of forgotten beings, moldy caverns ruled by sapient fungi, bottomless seas, and other fantastic terrain. The beasts of the field, good and evil, lawful and chaotic, roam here. The law of the wild still prevails, but there is no death, there is no aging, there is no illness. Elemental and Primordial spirits take form and inhabit the lands. The creatures of this realm can be killed, but they cannot die, being renewed the following day. Visitors, however, are not renewed in the same manner. The outer edge of the Oldlands are ringed with hills and mountains as it transitions to wilder and more primeval lands: a broad region whose boundless terrain blends to match the extreme forces that shape it. The edge contains gates to worlds that retain an affinity with the Oldlands. Here uncommon cities can be found filled with creatures of all kinds, along with the rare strongholds of wizards who have given up on the Prime. Some have argued that it is this plane that is the embodiment of Neutrality.
- The World Tree can appear as different things to different creatures, an immense mountain, an endless tower, or a swirling tornado. Within ten miles of the base of the "tree" magic begins to fade, with magic being totally gone/useless within one mile of the base.
Word count: 1,622
