EVERYWHERE, SURROUNDED BY EVERYWHERE

In Zeitgeist, the planes are limitless, ever-expanding spaces all layered amongst each other. People, capital, and information all flow freely between them through a variety of means — most commonly magical in nature. Even so, not one is quite the same as another.

QUADRANTS, or the “Old Prime City”

Ages ago, plane-shaping experimentation by an overly ambitious magitech facility was mishandled and breached containment, shattering the once-whole “Prime City” plane. Along two clean north-south and east-west slices, reality was segmented from itself into four quadrants. Some quadrants were damaged more than others.

[11] — THE NEO-PRIME

To the southeast lies the [11] quadrant, now best known as the NEO-PRIME. It was mostly unscathed by the event, and grew significantly in population as a result. It was renamed when its “prime” position became undeniable.

[01] — THE ANTI-MAGIC

In the northeast is the [01] quadrant, also called the Anti-Magic plane. Suffused throughout it in its entirety is an overwhelming effect which disallows magical effects. As such, its citizens and magic-decrying immigrants instead focus even more on technological advancement.

[10] — THE ANTI-TECH

Its natural mirror, the Anti-Tech plane, lies of course to the southwest in the [10] quadrant. In just the same manner, an overwhelming effect interrupts the function of “technology”, which was first (loosely) magically defined with the advent of digital-electronic computing. Any sufficiently compact mechanism, especially one which relies on electricity or magnetism, is rendered inert. Steampunk, dieselpunk, and other alternative tech-punk technologies thrive instead.

[00] — NULL

In the northwest is the [00] quadrant, which received both the anti-magic and anti-tech effects. It’s still afforded many of the same alternatives as its neighbors, but suffered heavy losses nonetheless. As such, it’s the most realistic sphere in Zeitgeist.

THE FAEWILD

Occasionally called the “first world,” this plane is uniquely alive. It’s known as much for its otherworldly forests as it is for its strange, fair folk. It was overrun with cities regardless, but only for a time. Nature has since reclaimed itself, with apocalyptic force — and with mechanical dinosaurs. Ruined megastructures still lay strewn about, but the land is only inhabited by those who don’t wish to rebuild them.

ELEMENTAL PLANES

The Elemental Planes (or “Elemental Sources”) are the spaces from which the magically fundamental elements are drawn. The most important ones are these four, of course — not to mention the easiest to inadvertently travel to.

🜁 ELEMENTAL AIR

Elemental Air is an infinity of skies. In lieu of any natural surface to stand on, a wide variety of artificial platforms and ships float about. These range in size from a flying skateboard meant for one person all the way up to a vessel for transporting an entire Sector.

In the highest reaches of the sky in any Quadrant, it’s possible to become so lost that “down” will never bring you back to the plane you travelled from. The very rare buildings which reach this height are the only true skyscrapers.

🜂 ELEMENTAL FIRE

As the Elemental Source of Fire, this plane is uninhabitable to most. Even so, it’s dense with construction — especially industrial complexes. Other places may generate energy and process raw resources more efficiently, but none compete with the zeal of Fire.

Inadvertent portals to Fire are vanishingly rare, but events which reach such a magnitude are often unavoidable for the masses caught in them. Rare natural static portals can manifest, but never travel to “pure” fire.

🜃 ELEMENTAL EARTH

The Elemental Plane of Earth is home to a vast network of tunnels and caves, among which lie the richest veins of the most precious natural minerals. However, it’s also teeming with dangerous things with no interest in making a lucrative deal. Its many long, cramped tunnels are occasionally interrupted by unfathomably cavernous spaces which feel natural to non-natives.

In the deepest depths of the earth in any Quadrant, it’s possible to become so lost that “up” will never bring you back to the plane you travelled from.

🜄 ELEMENTAL WATER

Many spaces in the infinite deep-sea of Elemental Water are effervescent and bright, but the vast, heavy water can be equally claustrophobic and dark. Its sectors often require water-breathing, but iconic “Bubble Sectors” provide points of integration for all types.

Oceans vast and deep enough to reach to Elemental Water are uncommon in the Quadrants, but they’re certainly around.

PLANAR FABRIC

Though fundamentally separate, every plane is stitched together by the same inter- and intra-planar fabrics.

ANA — INTERPLANAR SPACE

From any plane, travelling in the extradimensional direction “ana,” most intuitively imagined as “towards, up, and out,” leads to a vast emptiness named as such. Ana’s zero-gravity nothingness is a directionless stark white, blemished only by the variety of junk which drifts listlessly through it. In addition to the debris, spaceships, and constructed space stations, there are also colorful portals and borders dotted around, joining the space directly to other planes.

KATA — INTRAPLANAR AETHER

From any plane, travelling in the extradimensional direction “kata,” most intuitively imagined as “away from, down, and in,” leads to a separate plane which appears as a ghostly mirror of the first. Movement is effortless here, lacking gravity or even most corporeal barriers. Though only a dim and hollow projection of its attached plane, Kata’s auxiliary role often sees it cluttered with magical cabling, rogue echoes of stored data, and other related artefacts. Incorporeal beings such as ghosts also tend to reside here.

NON-PLANES

Space and reality’s attachment to “a” given plane acts somewhat on a sliding scale. Multiple planes can be in one space at the same time, and some space is outside even Ana.

BORDERS

Two or more planes can border each other, occupying the same space. The resulting “Border Plane” blends each side in some measure, and can allow for mundane travel between them. Borders are an incredibly broad concept, encompassing most cases of “natural” planar travel and non-euclidean space, as well as some hyper-specific realities.

nothing.

The neutral white emptiness of Ana is the final frontier insulating the planes woven throughout it from the unreality which lies even further beyond. Nothing should be out here. Worse than empty, this void is undefined, a roiling chaos yet to be.

THE FARLANDS

Where planar space somehow makes a stable border with “nothing,” it blends itself with madness. An illogically infinite shopping mall, an archaic half-reality clad in yellow wallpaper, a glitch in the Matrix. Normally, entrances to these spaces are extremely rare, small, and fiddly. When the “Old Prime City” was shattered, however, the space along its seams was exposed unto the roil. These sharp cuts into the farlands tend to manifest as monumental cliffs of corrupted terrain, shifting parodies of the buildings and terrain they intersect with.

DEMIPLANES

There are also ways to use arcane magic to manifest “fake space,” usually by borrowing some cloth from Ana. Arcane demiplanes achieve their “more space per space” by any variety of hacks — stealing space from another plane, computationally approximating reality, or literally just lying are a few common approaches to this problem. Many are stable. Many others aren’t, and it’s these which are the primary source of Ana’s space junk.