Dverelei

Dverelei (pronounced /ˈdvɛrɨlaɪ/) is the most common name for the cosmos that contains the plane of Lothenmydhe. Dverelei is a cosmos permeated by magic—which ultimately has its source in the fundamental forces of the cosmos, but in complex ways not well understood. Gods and demons, both apparently ultimately creatures of magic, have significant effects on life and events everywhere in the cosmos.

Physics

The smallest integrands of all matter in Dverelei are tiny bubbles known as xuax, each of which is composed of some mixture of four fundamental materials known as humors. These xuax have an axis of spin along which they have a tendency to move, giving rise to the phenomenon of gravity. A force called the alignment force makes xuax of different axes tend to line up, which is why within a given plane, or at least within a local region of a plane, most objects have the same gravitational orientation. Other important forces in Dverelei are the accretionary force, which causes xuax to join together, and the elastic force, which prevents their overlapping.

Each chore of the cosmos consists in actuality of three parallel spaces. Most creatures are only aware of the middle, or primary space, but objects, including living beings, actually occupy part of the other two spaces, known as sister spaces, as well, being therefore in a sense four-dimensional. Though the primary space and the sister spaces are not directly connected, there is a force called the cholic force that governs interactions between xuax on different strata. The cholic force is one of four chylic forces, each of which is associated with one of the four humors, and all of which are difficult to study because, unlike most forces, they have strengths independent of distance.

Chemistry

Each xuat is made up of a combination of humors, or more specifically of some basic amount of humor called a quantum (Dverelei). In practice, xuax of more than four quanta seem inherently instable, so only sixty-nine xuatic elements occur in nature. The four humors are bile, black bile, blood, and phlegm—the animal secretions of the same name being somewhat impure forms of these fundamental fluids, made up mostly of monoquantate xuax of the corresponding humor. Other elements are made up of various combinations of humors; a xuat of water, for instance, contains one quantum of each humor, while a xuat of bloodstone contains four quanta of blood.

Magic

Magic in Dverelei—at least the most widespread form, known as elemental magic—works because of the chylic forces. Essentially, subtle internal changes that mages make in their brain and body chemistry lead to significant effects elsewhere, even without the mages' conscious awareness of how they're doing it. There are therefore four main systems of magic in Dverelei, one for each of the chylic forces. Glamour deals primarily with shapes, with life, and with senses and emotions; necromancy with travel and communication between planes, with mind and will, and with the spirits of the dead; sorcery with motion and with thought and ideas; and witchcraft with enchantments, with changes of substance, and with spells of knowledge, .

Gods

The gods of Dverelei seem to be in some sense realizations of mortals' hopes, desires, and aspirations. (This doesn't mean they're universally benevolent; a hope to avoid starvation could be personified as an evil god of famine who must be placated.) Though the gods are certainly responsible for having created most of Dverelei's current planar structure, most scholars believe therefore that mortals actually existed first and somehow (perhaps unconsciously) created the gods—or perhaps some mortals became the first god; it still does happen sometimes that a mortal becomes a god, a process called apotheosis. At any rate, though, now the gods are the masters of the cosmos, and have the worship and devotion of most of its mortal inhabitants.

Demons

Demons are terrible beings apparently native to a chaotic plane known as the Maelstrom. They come in infinite variety, no two demons being the same and every demon bearing a complex combination of organs and appendages, but they are all immensely powerful—perhaps less so than the gods, but certainly much more so than a mortal. When demons come among mortals, it usually heralds disaster; if the demon is not there to engage in wanton destruction, then it may be there to gain servitors and plant more subtle seeds of evil.

Like gods, demons may have been ultimately created by mortals, but if gods represent humans' hopes and desires then demons may have arisen as embodiments of what they dread and fear. Nevertheless, not all demons are uniformly evil, though certainly those that aren't are extremely rare exceptions.

Axes

Divine Axes

Some of the gods classify all beings (including themselves) along to four divine axes characterizing the beings' outlook and manner—what are now called "ideals". Often considered the most significant is the so-called quantitative axis, or axis of will, the axis of good and evil. The other three ("qualitative") axes include the axis of restriction, which some call order versus chaos, the axis of revelation, the ends of which are knowledge and privacy, and the axis of breadth, the ends of which are merism and holism. Each axis also has a middle position, or fulcral ideal—respectively dispassion, structure, discretion, and method.

A creature's idealistic classification, or orientation, is somewhat subjective and arbitrary, and two gods might disagree on the classification of a given mortal with respect to any or all axes. For example, while all gods are likely to agree that most demons are evil, a soldier who slays thousands for the cause of defending his kingdom might be considered to be good by one god—he fights for a noble goal, and the casualties are acceptable collateral damage—and evil by another—he has no care for the lives of the innocent as long as he gets what he wants, and however noble the ends they do not justify his means. Generally, what is most important is one's orientation according to the god one worships; it is that that will primarily determine one's destination in the afterlife, among other things. Still, in dealing with servants and agents of other gods, obviously one's orientation according to those gods may be important as well.

Demonic Axes

There is a second, more seldom used set of axes that were defined by the demons in mockery of the divine axes. These demonic axes are more properly wheels, since each has three equal positions rather than two ends and a middle, but in any case they are seldom referenced by anyone but the demons and their agents.

Planes

Mortal Planes

The plane of Dverelei that is nearest a standard terrestrial place and that is home to most of its mortal life is Lothenmydhe, a plane made up of multiple layers of flat expanses of land of varying elevations that join with each other at multiple locations. There are other Mortal Planes besides Lothenmydhe, however, including the planes of Cleycis and Daska.

Planes of the Gods

Most of the gods make their homes in the Planes of the Gods, a set of planes they created that includes the Planes of the Pantheons, organized according to the divine axes; the Planes of Balance, home to those gods who consider the axial system unnecessary and useless; and the Shadow Planes, reflections of the Planes of the Pantheons the exact origin and nature of which remains something of a mystery. Also significant is the Maelstrom, which seems to be the original home of the demons, though many demons now dwell in the Demons' Planes they created to ape the Planes of the Gods.

Other Planes

Aside from the Mortal Planes and the Planes of the Gods, other significant planes include the Beasts' Planes, homes of the powers of the beasts; the Planes of Virtue, created by certain gods as embodiments of what they considered cardinal principles of ethics and morality; and the Thousand Pits, the enigmatic home of the malevolent ygvral that feed on mortal despair and agony.