“The ‘Verse” is an independent product published under the Shadowdark RPG Third-Party License and is not affiliated with The Arcane Library, LLC. Shadowdark RPG © 2023 The Arcane Library, LLC.
Overview
These works rely on the following cosmology, called the Uncounted Worlds.
In the diagram below, every box represents a plane or world; every box cluster stands in for an unbounded set of worlds. Each line represents the ability to contact or travel into another world, with arrows indicating the direction in which beings usually flow.
An earlier article contained a version of the diagram, only vertical and better drawn.
The Causal Plane
Time and space have no meaning in the Causal Plane. Mortal minds touching this plane experience precognition, retrocognition, and more esoteric forms of ESP. More than brief contact brings madness. Some religions believe that beings closest to the Creator live here.
The Mental Plane
Minds interact telepathically through the Mental Plane, also called the Psychic Plane. Any being native to this plane would have to exist without physical form or sensations.
The Astral Plane
The Astral Plane contains mainly forgotten ideas, dead gods, and the Astral Wardens. These last patrol the Astral Plane and ensure that its visitors do not damage the plane or cause mischief.
Demiplanes
Demiplanes have rules like – or wholly unlike – the Worlds We Know. Many look and feel like a corporeal world. Some are dreamlike or nightmarish, others like a complicated game, still others baffle minds from corporeal worlds. Gods and less exalted things make their homes in demiplanes.
Corporeal Worlds
Corporeal Worlds include the Worlds We Know and other worlds of matter, form, time, space, and sensation. Individual worlds vary in natural laws, magical laws, and technological limits.
Primal Worlds
Some corporeal worlds absorb Lawful power, strengthening them. Their denizens resemble gods more than mortals. Examples include Akasha the home of devas, the Empyrean Realm of archons and luminaries, and the Labyrinth that touches all worlds.
Shadow Worlds
Conversely, Chaotic power has twisted and weakened some corporeal worlds. They lie closer to the the “Dark Realms” from which demons and outsiders come.
The Void Between Worlds
Between and around all worlds lies a great, toxic void. It actively eats away at existence, and creatures cannot survive in it for long. This is the Void Between Worlds.
Void Zones
The Void contains zones of normal space from the remnants of destroyed worlds. Void Raiders survive, barely, in these zones, and pilot their Void Ships to the fertile worlds just on the other side of a portal through the Void.