Realmspace
Realmspace is the term used to describe the Torilian system and its surrounding environs within the Prime Material Plane. To those on the surface of Toril, Realmspace is called the Sea of Night, while the Netherese referred to it as the Skyward Realms. Contained within a crystal sphere suspended in the enormous expanse of the phlogiston, Realmspace consists of wildspace (empty vacuum), a sun, eight planets and their satellites, and a variety of asteroids, comets, and nebulae.
The Crystal Shell
The crystal shell of Realmspace has a radius of 3.2 billion miles (5.15 billion km). Like all crystal spheres of this size, it appeared to be perfectly flat from the inside or from the outside. The shell is immune to damage of any kind and prevented the phlogiston from entering its wildspace interior. The Realmspace crystal shell has a unique feature: its interior was lined by cryptic glyphs and wards, printed in illegible characters that are several hundred miles tall. Any attempt to magically read one of those writings, if successful, triggered the ward, which released a spell hundreds of times larger and more destructive than normal. No two writings are alike and they can all be activated an infinite number of times. It was believed that those writings had been placed on the sphere as a means of protection, but their exact origin was unknown. The dashes, dots, and tildes in the writings produced openings to the Quasi-Elemental Plane of Radiance that ranged between a few yards and hundreds of miles in diameter. These brilliant portals, thousands of miles apart from each other on the sphere's surface, were seen from its inhabitants as stars and constellations. Although the Radiance plane was highly destructive to creatures and ships that dared enter it, portals through the sphere could be safely created on top of a star-opening, temporarily superseding it. For an inhabitant on one of the planets, that particular star would seem to disappear for a few minutes and then reappear. The inner surface of the sphere was inhabited by a mysterious group of hundreds of thousands of humanoids known as the Wanderers. Some of the stars visible in the Northern hemisphere of Toril were named by the elves of Eaerlann. A few of those were used to name the mountains in the Star Mounts. While most original names were forgotten, their translations in the mounts' names being all that remained, a few of their original names survived to the mid‒14th century DR, such as the stars Y'tellarien, or "The Far Star"; Y'landrothiel, or "Traveler's Star"; and N'landroshien, or "Darkness in Light". The reason why the Elven star names were used to name the mountains was unknown and thought to be an ominous secret kept by the elves. The space around Realmspace was a vertex in a stable triangle in the flow of the phlogiston. The other two vertices were in the location of Greyspace, where the world of Oerth was found, and Krynnspace, home of the world of Krynn. The phlogiston had a strong current that flowed between Realmspace and Greyspace, making two-way travel between the two crystal spheres relatively fast and simple. There were one-way flows from Greyspace to Krynnspace and from Krynnspace to Realmspace, but not in the opposite directions. Due to this current, it was impossible to travel directly from Realmspace to Krynnspace and from Krynnspace to Greyspace. For that reason, traveling from Realmspace to Krynnspace was easier if one went through Greyspace first instead of going directly. A close neighbor of Realmspace was Refuge, a small crystal sphere that contained a spaceport controlled by the Arcane. Refuge itself was a vertex in another stable configuration of the flow, known as the Arcane Inner Flow, which contained the crystal spheres of Pirtelspace and the elven-controlled sphere of Darnannon.Geography
The Solar System
The Sun
Main article: The Sun The largest fire body of Realmspace was located at its center and radiated a comfortable amount of warmth throughout the entire sphere. It was particularly susceptible to solar flares, which erupted almost continually.[5]Anadia
One of the two Dawn Heralds, this small, amber-and-green-colored planet[1] was closest to the sun and mostly populated by halflings and umber hulks. It was covered in canyons that dwarfed the Great Rift, and the equatorial regions were unlivable because of the sun's proximity.[6] Coliar Coliar was a gas giant mostly populated with avian life-forms and other flying creatures. Floating islands of water and earth revolved around the planet's core. Elminster was said to own a resort on one of these islands.[7] The planet was covered with clouds and appeared as a gray-white sphere from Toril. It was considered one of the Dawn Heralds.[1] Toril The third planet in the system was the most populated, teeming with life. Approximately 60% of the surface being covered with water, fauna on Toril ranged from creatures living in the air, on the land, under the water and subterranean habitats. This planet was formerly known as Abeir-Toril.[8] Abeir Toril's "twin planet", existing near Toril's orbit but located within a "pocket dimension" that was out of synchronicity with the rest of Realmspace. It had roughly the same characteristics of Toril.[9][10] Selûne Selûne was Toril's largest natural satellite.[1][11] It orbited about 183,000 miles (295,000 kilometers) from Toril,[11] although some sages from the late 14th century DR claimed that its orbital distance was only about 20,000 miles (32,000 kilometers).[1][note 1] Only one side of it ever faced the planet; the other side was called the "dark side", yet it was not always dark. This was where most activity took place. Although Torilians had named it after the deity Selûne, the moon's own inhabitants named their home after Leira. Trailing in the orbit of this satellite were the Tears of Selûne.[11] Karpri The first of the Five Wanderers, Karpri,[1] the fourth planet in the system, was an oceanic world. It was an absolutely beautiful place to behold from wildspace.[12] From Toril it appeared as a large star but as a sapphire ball with white caps when viewed by magical means.[1] The poles were covered in pack ice hundreds of miles thick and stalked by deadly cold-loving predators, while floating on the equator's waters could be found seaweed, which at some points could support up to five tons of weight but were also home to massive, dangerous insects. The waters of the world were inhabited by aquatic elves and predacious sea life, making this planet as dangerous as it was beautiful.[12] Chandos The next of the Five Wanderers,[1] Chandos was another oceanic world. Its seas contained lumps of rock that, when piled high enough, created highly unstable islands. Those living on these islands were the human, dwarven, and orcish descendants from a pair of spelljammers that crash-landed here long ago. Over time, they lost their technologies and developed an enmity for each other, forgetting their pasts and becoming primitive.[13] From Toril, this planet appeared as a greenish-brown smudge, which changed over time.[1] Glyth The third of the Five Wanderers was a gray planet that had a beautiful ring and three satellites observable from Toril.[1] In truth, Glyth was a harsh, ringed planet that, as of the mid-14th century DR, had been occupied by the dreaded illithid for about a century.[14] Plant life was continually burned by the harsh atmosphere or by the mind flayers to prevent their humanoid cattle hiding from them. A remarkably pure, edible gelatin "water" could be found in the place of seas, and while the planet still had ice caps as normal, nothing lived there. Most activity occured underground. As well as the planet's rings[15], Glyth was orbited by three satellites. One, known as Haven,[15] was a hollowed out asteroid and treated as neutral ground for the different mind flayer factions. Another, Mingabwe,[16] was a trading port for non-illithids. Orbiting Mingabwe was Polluter, an unmapped asteroid. A group of over 300 mercenaries from the Code Helm resided here conducting raids against illithids in the system.[17] Garden Garden was not actually a planet. It was a series of earthy-masses connected together by a massive plant. Non-sentient life-forms created a balanced ecosystem with the many varieties of plant life growing here, but otherwise it was populated by pirates. Garden was also orbited by twelve satellites.[18] Garden could rarely be seen from Toril, but when it was spotted, it appeared as a tiny green speck.[1] H'Catha The last of Toril's Five Wanderers, H'Catha, appeared as a crystalline glimmer of white.[1] Consisting of a flat disc of 300‑mile-thick (480‑kilometer) water with a single mountain in the center, close-up, this world looked like a giant wagon wheel, with the Spindle (the mountain) always pointing directly at the sun. Near the base of the mountain, six ports, each owned by a different type of beholder accepted spelljamming traffic from non-H'Cathan beholders and the Arcane. Other species were only allowed to land if they had goods to trade and left as soon as they were done.History
The wildspace of the Realmspace crystal sphere was unusually warm compared to others. This led sages to speculate that the sun and Realmspace itself were the oldest among the generally known crystal spheres.
It was believed that the creator races from Toril were the earliest intelligent inhabitants of Realmspace, and the first to develop the magical means necessary to travel to other crystal spheres and other planes, around the same time when inhabitants of other spheres also started to travel. These early migrations into Realmspace dated from the apex of the draconic domain over Toril. The first to arrive were dwarves, followed by treants, elves, and, lastly, mind flayers.
A second wave of migration, roughly coinciding with the time primitive humans started to develop their civilization and with the establishment of Ostoria, heralded the arrival of halflings, gnomes, merfolk, giant-kin, titans, and tritons, as well as―unbeknownst to other races―sharn and phaerimm.
Centuries later, around the time of the apex of Ostoria, a third wave of direct migrations from other crystal spheres saw the arrival of beholders, lesser dragons, leucrotta, centaurs, satyrs, and wemics, among others.
The last wave of migrations, estimated to have happened around the time humans learned magic from the elves, laying the foundations of what would later become Netheril, saw the arrival of pegasi and other winged humanoid races.
During the Time of Troubles, the chanting of the Wanderers had temporarily ceased due to the fall of Realmspace's powers. For the duration of this period, no portals could be opened through the crystal sphere.
Travelers in Realmspace were sometimes terrorized by a mysterious and intimidating bat-shaped vessel known as the Batship, an invasive presence that originated in a remote crystal sphere and adopted Realmspace as its hunting grounds.
Included Locations
Remove these ads. Join the Worldbuilders Guild
Comments