The Wyld

The First, Arcane Layer of Reality

"Think about it: a solitary, eccentric enough person to meditate for decades on the offchance they might be able to reach into the Aurora and pull out a fireball, what stomach does a person like that have for tyranny? For any sort of rule, really? I'm telling you, this is nature reasserting balance: magic wants to rule, nature places it in the hands of introverts."

According to Layer Theory of Dimensional Cosmology, the Wyld is the common name for the first and "shallowest" layer of reality known as the Aurora, the Arcane Layer, the Luminiferous Æther or the Arcane Paraecologies. It falls above the Mundane (2nd), Spective (3rd), Interesoteric (4th) and the (still theoretical) Intermultiversial layers.

About 92% of known planes in the the Known Universe are made of only this layer, where a lens or dome of Arcana breaches the Void. These planes are designated by the Daybreak Empire as Class I worlds.

In Class II+ planes, this layer is the luminescent halo or lens of arcane energy that hovers above the rest. Some reaction of an unknown nature causes the arcane halo to dim and brighten in semiregular cycles, creating day and night. The stars in the night sky are these shimmering discs seen from afar.

Arcanus is the stuff from which arcane magic is sculpted.

Casting Arcane Magic

To cast arcane magic is to commune with the Aurora in a deep enough matter that you draw it down and sculpt it into the desired effect. For most, achieving this state of communion takes decades of meditation and mind-state exploration, and even if one has the ability, entering this state on-demand requires a great calmness that circumstances don't always allow for. Furthermore, those willing and able to meet these criteria are often eccentrics, poorly suited for mentorship roles. All in all, wizards on Waking Materia are rare; young wizards even rarer.

Risks

On top of the difficulty in learning these methods, wizards must also contend with certain risks. The more time one spends communing with the Luminiferous Æther, the more time one spends, in a sense, on a different plane of existence, weakening their connection to the Material dimension we call home. Results include various types of cognitive dissociation, mood swings, loss of appetite and dangerous phenomenon called involuntary channeling, where one casts effects unconsciously, for example in their sleep.

The Question of Life in the Wyld

The Arcane Layer is thought to be a layer of pure energy, however some odd behaviours that can arise from the Wyld that cannot be reconciled with natural, unintelligent phenomena, and some have theorized that some form of "life" does exist in the luminescent Aurora. The famed First Age poet and oracle of Jabberwock, Zaffa the Idiot, commented on the existence of creatures he called D'jinn that ruled over the plane, and while he thought diplomacy with the beings was theoretically possible, they are too alien and eccentric by Material standards for this to ever be likely.

The Luminiferous Aether dances above the Material dimension.

Type

Dimensional plane