Weave

The Weave

The Weave, controlled by Mystryl or one of her successors, is a way through which raw magic is accessed, tapped into, and used by casters of magic. The Weave is the way in which magic presents itself to beings for their use, and it flows throughout the world, touching almost every corner of existence, with exception of dead-magic zones. The Weave coexists with the Shadow Weave. The Weave does not exist on Abeir, making casting magic in that world more difficult than in Toril.

Nature of the Weave

The Weave is considered many things, including Mystra's body, the source of magic, all the studies of casters (arcane and divine alike) and the many energies and forces that exist around the planes. Many see it as a "fabric" on which magic is "drawn", and damaging the fabric causes magic to go awry. Some textbooks deliberately falsify the nature of the Weave, as an attempt to limit the knowledge associated with spellcasting. In the years after the Spellplague, the term Weave became a synonym of the use of magic. Casting a spell is equivalent to telling the Weave to rearrange itself to create an effect. The Weave is also linked to fate, and a rare few individuals can manipulate such connection to alter the future to their advantage. However, usually the Weave punishes those who use "her" in such way.

Special powers

The Weave is able to grant extra powers to certain individuals. Silver fire is an ability granted by Mystra only to the Chosen of Mystra and enables its users to envelop themselves in silvery white flames that bestow many potent magical powers. Spellfire is a rare talent that allows its user to manipulate the Weave in a variety of unique and powerful ways.

Spellplague

Because Mystra (and formerly Mystryl) is inextricably bound to the Weave (one cannot exist without the other), when Mystra was assassinated by Cyric and Shar on Tarsakh 29 1385 DR, the Weave collapsed and initiated the Spellplague. Henceforth, it has presented itself as scraps of burning crystal tumbling through an endless void. With the death of Mystra, Shar was unable to maintain the Shadow Weave and it collapsed as well. In 1479 DR, it was revealed that Mystra foresaw her own fall and let it happen because the Weave was growing more and more unstable, and needed to be renewed as part of a cycle fated to repeat again and again. As of 1487 DR, the Weave has almost been repaired to its former state.

Anomalies

Places such as dead-magic zones or wild magic zones are places where the Weave has been damaged or is non-existent.

Everywhere but Evermeet

When the elves caused the First Sundering, they almost destroyed everything, which the timely intervention of the Seldarine limited to the destruction of a continent. Alongside sundering the continent of Faerûn, they ripped the Weave in an irrecoverable manner beyond its self-repairing capabilities with the parts in Evermeet being the only whole parts of it, turning it into the only normal Weave to exist - thus causing no abnormalities to exist on that island. According to Corellon Larethian, the elves robbed themselves of the ability to cast true elven high magic outside of Evermeet and people such as the Grand Master Laeroth Runemaster suspected in the 13th century DR that their ancestors did indeed destroy the entire elven race's special connection to the Weave when they caused the disaster.

Wild Magic Zones

In wild magic zones, a spell can backfire upon its caster, target the wrong location, be dramatically increased in power, or many other things. A wild magic zone and its parameters can be detected using a detect magic spell. A caster can temporarily fix a wild magic zone with any dispel, or permanently fix it using a wish spell. Cosmic disasters like the Time of Troubles cause the emergence of severe wild magic zones after the Weave has been heavily damaged. After the Time of Troubles, most wild magic zone disappeared but some remained.
Another source of wild magic zones was the artificial distortions of the Weave called mythals. Apart from decay due to neglected maintenance, events such as the Fall of Netheril or the Time of Troubles have damaged them. The damage turns these corrupted mythals into - even by wild magic standards - unpredictable wild magic zones.

Dead Magic Zones

Dead magic zones are places where the Weave is no longer in existence. Both it and its boundaries can be detected in the same way a wild magic zone can, but from outside the zone. Unlike wild magic zones, most casters innately know when they've stepped into a dead magic zone. A dead magic zone can only be fixed with a wish spell or silver fire.

Type

Dimensional plane