Space
The Crystal Spheres
Each of the different systems of reality exist inside one of the crystal spheres. Huge constructs that defy imagination and concepts of size, the shells of these spheres are so large that they appear flat never-ending walls when you are near them. Impervious to damage and magic, it is said even the gods don't know where they came from. The only way through them is by stumbling across one of the naturally occurring "Apertures" that seem to open randomly. Luckily for the captains of spelljamming vessels, there are rituals that seem to trigger the appearance of an aperture, there are also creatures that live in wildspace that seem to be able to do it innately. From what the philosophers can tell, the purpose of the shells is to keep the phlogiston apart from the rest of reality.A general rule of thumb is that a shell is twice as wide as the orbital path of it's outermost body.
Wildspace
When you look up into the night sky everything you see is inside one of the spheres, and what you are seeing is wildspace. Inside the sphere is mostly nothing; no physical matter, no gravity, no air. Most systems are heliocentric, but geocentric is not all that uncommon. The planetoids of a system vary in size, composition, and shape. From gigantic spherical fire bodies, small frozen cubic water bodies, or even shapeless pockets of air bodies. The "stars" are artifacts on the surface of the shell; planar portals, or moon sized cities, who knows.... Ambient temperature inside the sphere is usually comfortable, at worst a summer night.Once inside a sphere you are under the jurisdiction of the local gods, and the rules you are used to may change (i.e. black powder does not work in Greyspace). Most known spheres are fairly well mapped out, and star charts can be purchased containing details such as planet locations, orbital patterns and important details such as the presence of fresh air or major ports and how to interact with groundlings.
That being said, there's a lot of empty space and who knows what can be found out there. These rules can be guidelines; the verse is a weird and wonderful place.
Phlogiston
If wildspace is what is inside the Spheres, Phlogiston is what is outside of it. Also known as the Rainbow Ocean or the Flow; Phlogiston is both the name of the space outside of wildspace, and the material it is made of. The material is similar to a rainbow hued haze that shimmer like oil on water. It gives off a dusky illumination roughly equivalent to twilight so decks of ships do not need to be illuminated, though you had better have some form of magical illumination if you need it inside of a ship because phlogiston is extremely flammable. It permeates everything exterior to a sphere, and all the efforts to study it the philosophers have not been able to classify it, any sample collected evaporate when it's brought inside a sphere.The spheres bob like corks in the rainbow sea, but some spheres stabilize in relations to one another. Realmspace, Greyspace, and Krynnspace form such an arrangement. Strong currents connect the spheres and a ship can use them to travel the mind boggling astronomical distances between them faster. Some flows work in both directions, others are one way. The relative movement between the spheres cause these flows to bend and move, meaning that the waypoints used in travel are unreliable.
Travel and Navigation
If the inside of a sphere is large; the flow is vastly, unfathomably larger. Inside the rainbow soup there are no landmarks, no sense of direction, no guiding star. With the help of charts a skillfull navigator can dead recon themselves off of a known staring point, and the closest thing to a recognisable feature are the currents that you can find and follow. Surfing these currents is the safest and fastest way to travel between the spheres, but even on these express lanes a voyage can take weeks or months. Those brave enough to venture off the beaten path may find rogue planets or wholey undiscoverd shells if they are lucky; or they may find nothing. Either way their journey will be longer, further straining the ships Air Envelope and other provisions.Phlogiston and the Planes
Once you leave the a sphere, you leave all the access you had to extended reality. You cannont contact any of the other planes of existance, and even extra dimensional space like a bag of holding will not work. It has been argued that because of this seperation the phlogiston is the "real" prime material plane. Any magic that relys on access to another plane will not work including staples such as Divination and Teleportaion, even spells as powerfull as Wish cannot contact bridge the gap. This also means that you are removed from your god; if you die in the flow your soul cannot go to its final resting place.The problems with fire
Phlogiston is spectacularly flamable. Any open flame exposed to the phlogiston will cause the immediate area (including a ship's phlogiston-laden air envelope) to burst into flame. The resulting fireball rapidly expands to three times its normal diameter. For this reason lamps, lanterns or any similar device, as well as any weapon which rely on a spark or flame to operate (such as a bombard or pistol) are strongly discouraged from being used in the Flow. Any fire-related spell, such as a fireball, immediately explodes in a ball of fire centered on the caster.
Fire Effects (already trippled)
| Source | Radius | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Spark / Flint & Steel | 2 in | 1d2 |
| Candle | 4 in | 1d6 |
| Lantern | 1 Ft | 2d6 |
| Oil Flask (lit Molotov) | 5 Ft | 3d6 |
| Kitchen Fire | 10 Ft | 4d6 |
| Defined effects (fire spells or alchemist fire) | x3 | x3 |
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