Everyone knows that the fey live in the Dreaming, and that spirits of the dead can linger in the Bleak Gate, but most people are unclear on just what they are. They disagree on whether you can physically go to these realms by walking, or if you would need magic, and if you went there just what you’d see.
The Waking
The main world of the ZEITGEIST setting is sustained and enriched by the energies of other worlds. It is orbited by Av, the Plane of Mirrors, a pale white moon that in rare conjunctions appears to be translucent like glass. Scholars believe its presence causes the Waking to be mirrored into the Dreaming and the Bleak Gate.
THE BLEAK GATE
Common lore of the Clergy calls the Bleak Gate ‘Purgatory’, and envisions it as a hollow copy of this world lying just underground, a place where the dead pass through on their way to their reward or punishment in the afterlife. The dwarves of Drakr know better, and believe that it is a vision of the distant future, of what the world will look like when everyone has died. Berans believe it lies on the dark side of the moon.
THE DREAMING
The Clergy states that the Dreaming, which they call the Green Temptress or Hell’s Garden, is where people’s minds go when they sleep, and that the beings called the fey are dreams given flesh by evil magic. Folk religion in Ber proclaims that the moon is a looking glass, and the Dreaming is what we look like reflected in it, while many Drakrans believe it’s a trap between this world and the afterlife, meant to trick people from their just ends.
Vona
The sun, source of pure arcane force and magical radiance, but too bright to observe the surface. It influences revelations and discoveries.
The following describes the planes and planets at the start of the GEARS OF REVOLUTION adventure path, before the Great Eclipse of 502 AOV.
Jiese
The plane of fire, home to serpent men whose skin glow like coal. Ancient myths claimed this was a dragon, which chased the eagle Avilona. Jiese influences war and strife, as well as notable births.
Avilona
The plane of air, where desolate islands of rock float amid the clouds, covered in long-abandoned ruins. Ancient myths claimed this world was a titanic eagle, fleeing ravenous Jiese. Influences weather, notable deaths, and animals.
Av
This ancient name for the moon comes from a legend about a sleeping queen of the fey, cursed to slumber after her soul was captured in her reflection on a bottomless pool. Influences nothing, but reflects subtle clues of people’s desires.
MAVISHA
The plane of water, home to krakens lurking beneath the waters and leviathans swimming rippling liquid columns that writhe above the sea like the tentacles of a living world. Legend states that a drowned bride long ago cursed sailors to join her in the lightless depths of this endless ocean. Influences the seas, great movements of people, and conflicts within families.
URIM
The plane of earth, or rather a scattered, shattered belt of relatively tiny shards of metal, which sometimes fall from the sky bearing precious ores and accursed worms. Influences the earth, the rise and fall of fortunes, and random meetings of strangers.
APET
The distant plane, said to be a permanent storm of sand and dust on a featureless plane, with the only point of reference being an arc of silver an unknowable distance above. Influences subtle nuances of distance and time, as well as the grand cycle of ages.
NEM
The plane of ruin, this planet is a myth among the skyseers, who say it sheds no light, and can only be seen as it glides silently through the heavens, devouring stars and leaving nothing but a hole in the night. Influences secrets and the dead.
After the Great Eclipse in 502 AOV, the planetary configuration changed
Jiese, the Fire of Industry
Close to the sun, this burnt rock is riven with seams of red. Jiese’s influence makes advanced technology possible. Outside this planar system, the innate fluctuations of magic in the rest of the multiverse makes most industry unreliable.
Caeloon, the Paper Wind
Caeloon was a world nearly destroyed in fire, rescued and reborn in the Great Eclipse. A soothing green planet, its presence is ineffable, but lends people inner strength in times of despair.
Ostea, the Beating Heart
A planet the color of dark wine strengthens resistance to infections, and also enhances divinations fueled by blood. Deaths by infection are down from before the Eclipse.
Urim, the Shattered Golden Chains
Flecks of gold glint along one stretch of the starry night, revealed by telescopes to be a stretch of asteroids. Urim’s presence causes gold to impede teleportation and extraplanar travel. One otherwise nondescript boulder amid the tumbling debris of Urim, Teykfa the Ticking Pendulum, produces a subtle regular chime, faintly audible across the vast gulf of space to those who watch the heavens. Awareness of it helps track the passage of moments, and instills a clearer sense of the grand scale of time.
Mavisha, the Mysterious Deep
A watery blue orb, Mavisha causes divination about islands to be unreliable. A small green moon orbits it, Ascetia, the Hidden Jungle, and though little is known of the world, scholars tie its presence to how since the Eclipse interest in history has increased.
Amrou, the Salt Waste
A pale orb that flickers on the darkest nights, Amrou empowers nonmagical defenses against the supernatural. Acts that were once mere superstitions – like pouring a line of salt to fend off fiends – now actually have some effect, albeit temporary. Knowledge of these apotropaic techniques are taught to everyone in Crisillyir, to help survive the various evils that escaped during the Eclipse.