Elemental Rifts

Elemental rifts are extreme thinings between Prime Material plane and Elemental Plane, manifesting as some sort of crack, hole or a full gateway, from which elemental essences trickles into material plane. Most of these gaps are small and insignificant with minimal effects, yet the large ones can truly twist the reality around them in confusing and terrifying ways.

While usually caused by disasters, these rifts are disasters in of themselves, as they can spew out untamed elemetal energies and elementals and even warp the laws of physics around them.

Manifestation

A rift can exist on anything from inside a solid surface to floating to a thin air: fixed point, like a thinner than paper peep-hole to another dimension. Smallest ones might be visible only on one side, meaning that if one might look it from any other side than one, they would see nothing, yet larger ones usually manifest with a glow or pilar of the element placed on the otherside or other type of flourish as the trickle of energy has turned in to a pour.

The rifts come to be for multiple reons, some little less undestood than others; some are made by mages, others are natural occuring thinnigns that have popped open and others were torn open by grand magical disasters. And as the rifts can sometimes keep tearing up in to bigger and bigger forms, they might become disasters themselves.

Which ever element is most present in the elemental plane where the rift takes one, starts to seep in to material world; if the rift takes to plane of water, it might trickle in water, fire might bring lava or keep the area in constant state of burning, etc. Larger rifts can let ion elementals, or even start to mutate the beings living in close by in weird ways. The rules of natural worlds might bend in chaotic ways, and one may use these rifts as portalks to enter said Elemental plane - yet this is not advicable, as most of the elemetal planes are inhospitable for folks of material plane.

Localization

While technically speaking, elemental rifts can appear anywhere, they are most prominent and devastating in the continent of Dalvia. Multiple, large rifts have caused massive havoc and complete warping of the area, causing chaotic, elemental storms and disasters.

Largest rifts known include examples like:

The End of Spiral

Large hole that water of the sea suddenly vanishes in middle of the Cursed Heart, spiral-shaped island in Dalvia caused by a large magical mishap known as The Cracking, thus making it also a crack scar. The ocean suddenly just drops to massive sinkhole in the middle of the sea, without any warning. Hole never seems to fill and so far, the waterlevels haven't dropped either, which is rather baffling. Every few months to few years it manifests a massive tornadic waterspout, that terrorises nearby areas.

Sandfall

Little like a floating island, Sandfall seems like an upside down island that appears from the sky aput 22 metres on the air, constantly pouring sand and rocks to land or originally sea below it. Sometimes the pour is mere trickle, sometimes it is a full avanlance. Is also located in Dalvia. Causes earthquakes, landfalls, large wawes and numerous head injuries. Area is also pesteres with large colonies of Mephits.

Type

Metaphysical, Elemental