The broken realm.
Only read this if you’re really interested in the deep lore:
Today, Ulspen celebrates 100 years since the restoration of the world. Civilisation is beginning to experience a technological renaissance, having learned to live without the convenience of magic. While scholars spend years piecing together fragments of old spellbooks to learn basic incantations, towns are made safe by the Witch Hunter’s musket and arquebus. Stories and knowledge kept alive only by world of mouth for so long are now given permanence and shared widely as printing presses stamp out pages upon pages of knowledge to be distributed to each new city.
Although interplanar travel is now theoretically possible, vanishingly few mages have the craft to do so, and the gateways to Sigil only open unpredictably for a few minutes at a time. Separated by time, people on all planes are wary of those unfamiliar entering their realms. Despite this, some communication, largely mediated through prayer and divination, has become possible. News travels slowly but it seems that, displeased by his actions, Asmodeus’ agents caught Bel once Sigil became accessible, and on his orders had the one-time Duke cast into the inescapable prison of Caceri to spend their next eternity and all others after that suffering in chains.
Before the sundering, and after the recovery of magic, all spellcasters used the same general method to prepare and cast magic. Each day one would perform a ritual to summon to them spirits, negotiating with or imprisoning them, to use their power. Some, like bards or sorcerers seem to simply attract them simply by singing or channeling their inner connection to the weave. Even passive magical effects owe their source to these spirits as they crystallise and congregate around those whose prowess makes them a suitable habitat.
The native plane for these spirits is The Weave, a transitive plane that suffuses and mediates the transfer of power between all others. Those that have studied it liken it to a force of nature, a living ecosystem, capable of manifesting its own will with good and evil intent alike. When the planes were sundered from each other it became impossible to summon these spirits, except for those patronised by eldritch powers. And all magic stopped with it.
In the meta-language of the game, these spirits represent the ‘spell slots’ available to casters, or the ‘charges’ available for certain abilities or items.
There are generally two accepted ways of understanding the Planes, and their relationship to one another, these are the Compass Rose arrangement, and the River-Tree arrangement.
Aarakocra & Aarakenku, Dwarves, Humans, Halflings, Kalashtar, Kobolds, Sea Elves