Welcome! This is the Almanac of Alaria—a guide to the world of Alaria. It aims to provide enough information to answer any of the Big Questions™ ranging all the way from “How does magic work?” down to “Why is this country at war with this other country?” Hopefully you find it useful for whatever your needs may be.
Common Pages
A collection of different campaign ideas
The Alarian Planar Stack, also commonly known as Alaria, is the focus of this almanac. Within it lie several planes, stacked on top of each other.
In the very middle is the Material Plane—a world of kingdoms and conquest and magic, dominated by typical masses of land and ocean. However, on the opposite side of the Material Plane—as though on the flip side—lies Celesté: the realm of daemons. It is a dream-like mirror image of the material plane.
Celesté was created when the Alarian Planar Stack fragmented and Ezz poured in from beyond. The material plane peeled apart and a new plane of conceptual existence was born. Emotion, free will, and thought poured into Alaria. Celesté is made of the coalescense of thought/emotion/etc on the material plane. Where there is thought, there is a counterpart to the material planes.
“Above” the Material Plane is the Astral Plane. Although technically connected to the Material Plane, it is quite distant from it, and the laws of physics and nature are different. The Astral Plane is home to ghosts, and consists of small desert islands scattered throughout a vast ocean under a bright white sun. The spirit cannot naturally survive here, but creatures exist here—just with weaker free will. They are agents of Aurus, living pawns of his will.
On the flip side of the Astral Plane is Astraeva. Astraeva mirrors the Astral Plane but is devoid of souls. Aurus has no power here—spirits are weaker here—it is nearly barren except for a few notable points of interest. Psyic energy still exists here, but it is weak.
“Below” the Material Plane is Malstaris—an intensely dark, mountainous, ashen land filled with caves and covered with black lakes. Like the Astral Plane, it is physically connected to the Material Plane, but has different laws of nature, and is fundamentally inhospitable to creatures that live on the Material Plane. The spirit cannot naturally survive here, but creatures exist here—just with weaker free will. They are agents of Nydus, living pawns of his will.
On its flip side of Malstaris is Eindumor. Eindumor mirrors Malstaris but is devoid of shadows. Nydus has no power here—spirits are weaker here—it is nearly barren except for a few notable points of interest. Psyic energy still exists here, but it is weak.
In addition to these planes, there are nine planes of the primary elements, known as the elemental planes, each thinly overlayed on the top sides of the three main layers.
Lastly, there are two very faint planes that overlay all of the rest of the planes—the Ethereal and Nethereal Planes. Physical objects do not exist in these planes, but elements of ones spirit, among other types of energy, can be found on these planes.
Many of the planes are physically connected to one another, although their connections do not always obey Euclidean laws of geometry.
Each plane is a square, meaning that each plane has four sides where the plane ends. Crossing any one of these borders results in flipping to the “opposite” side of that plane. For exmaple, if you were on the Material Plane, upon reaching the edge of the ocean, you could continue travling that direction but now be traveling back towards land (as though mirrored) and now in Celesté.
Likewise, traveling to the border north, south, west, or eastern border of Malstaris would take you to Eindumor.
Traveling between the Material Plane and the Astral Plane or Malstaris requires vertical distance, as opposed to horizontal. The sky of the Material Plane is the furthest abysses of the Astral sea. As you travel up higher and higher, the air becomes ocean, and eventually you reach the Astral Plane. Similarly, to reach Malstaris, one must travel up through the Crags of Geth in Phlethagoras until one eventually reaches the surface again, on Malstaris.
Getting to the other planes is more difficult, and usually completely incompatible with one’s survival. Although some people can channel power from the elemental planes, and others can see or dream on the Ethereal or Nethereal Planes, none can sustain spirit, soul, or shadow.
Psyic energy makes up the space between the planar layers of Alaria. It is an ever-present, omnipresent, swirling mass of the thoughts of all life within the planar stack. Through special practice or natural ability, this energy can be harnessed to perform magic on Alaria.