Revision [429]
This is an old revision of AAWorld made by Samanthia on 2012-12-06 21:27:33.
The World of Alurith
The Adventurer's Academy > The World of Alurith
Though different cultures and languages have different names for the major plane of existence in the Adventurers' Academy setting, the most common name used at the Adventurers' Academy is Alurith.
Cosmology
Alurith is one of many planes of existence within its universe. It is commonly held to be the 'prime plane', but those who have studied the structure of the universe in more detail are not entirely sure that may be the case. Regardless, most people spend their entire lives on the prime plane of Alurith, even most adventurers -- though some of the more powerful or crazy adventurers do travel to other planes and there are stories of private fortresses or even entire cities in other planes.Alurith frequently has 'intrusions' of other nearby planes (for some value of 'nearby') which are generally the elemental planes (earth, wind, fire, water), sometimes meta-elemental planes (snow/ice, smoke, lightning, wood, metal, crystal, etc.), and occasionally stranger planes that are closer to concepts than physical things. Some sages claim that Alurith is not exactly a plane itself, but rather a junction or intersection of many, perhaps even all, planes, all constantly shifting and changing in amount and balance.
Geography, sort of
Within most areas of the world of Alurith, the landscape is reasonably like something found on Earth, and most likely to stay that way for years and generally decades. However, there are many areas of 'planar intrusion' or 'planar conflict' where other planes are intruding or overlapping with Alurith.Sometimes these conflict zones are relatively stationary -- a spring of water that appears, and over the course of only a few years, creates lake where it began, and then slowly drains away. A more violent example might be a sudden volcano, or an earthquake which opens a giant chasm of air into the ground. Other times, the zones move in waves or ripples, flowing over the land, down into it, or up into the sky.
From a mundane point of view, Alurith is roughly a normal planet floating in the void. However, it is also an intensely magical place, and unless travelers take active measure to suppress magic, exploring extreme areas of the world can often lead into the nearby elemental planes. That is, burrowing miles deep into rock and stone will likely, without precautions, slip into the elemental plane of earth. Diving deep enough in an ocean may lead to visiting the elemental plane of water. Pushing high enough into the atmosphere may lead to the plane of air -- or void.
It is not recommended for most people, even adventurers, to slip entirely over the border into an elemental plane. The topology of the elemental planes does not always match that of Alurith -- even if a traveler found another place to slip back to Alurith, they might end up hundreds or thousands of miles away from where they started unless they were very familiar with the other plane. Also, the elemental planes are not the most hospitable lands for normal people -- unless precautions are taken, death is a common result, or contamination. In the latter case, the nature of the elemental plane will start affecting the person (i.e. the plane of earth making them physically tougher, slower, and generally more stone like, and mentally slower, calmer, etc.) This makes it even harder for the victim to return to Alurith and they may eventually become completely assimilated into the plane.
Note: Sufficiently skilled/crazy/experienced ship mage-pilots can attempt feats like steering an airship or water craft through the elemental plane of air or water, respectively. This can cut dozens, even hundreds of miles or more of travel. However, it does risk losing the entire ship, and can result in the ship ending up in a random location. This requires much power -- either from the ship mage-pilot, or the drive mechanism of the ship -- as well as skill and experience. Generally, the latter two are gained by becoming an apprentice to someone who has been able to do the trip successfully, and going through enough successful trips to get a 'feel' for the other plane. This is fairly rare as only a few crazy captains are willing to risk their ships that randomly that often.
