Basics of reality

The sun and the nightberg
The void doesn’t work like a spherical world. It doesn’t rotate around a sun in a vast galaxy of other planets. Instead, the sky stretches out infinite to every direction. The sun has a never changing position right above midland. The passing of day and night as the common men know is done by a very large island called ‘the nightberg’. This island is in an orbit high above Midland, even higher than any known mortal can sail, and is blocking the light for everything beneath it. The nightberg goes around his orbit in 24 hours, and causes around 9 hours of darkness in the small ring, and average 12 hours of darkness in Midland. The number of dark hours in the great ring can vary from island to island.

Stars don’t exist within the void. But during clear nights, distant island that still have the sun on them may glimmer brightly in the night, reflecting the light from the sun.

The rings
In general, the known livable area of the void in divided in 3 regions. The first is the earthberg called Arias, which houses the fabled city of Midland. This eartberg seems to be the magnetic center for other earthbergs, including the nightberg. Most eartberg follow one of the two magnetic distances; called the small and the large ring. These rings spin slowly around their magnetic center, making one complete 260 degrees round in on1 year.

The small ring in a dense sphere of earthbergs surrounding Midland and has a diameter of roughly 4000 km. This makes the distance between Midland and the earthbergs around 2000 km. The small ring is completely charted and is the home to many cultures and species.

The large ring has a diameter of around 14.000 km; a traveler from Midland needs to cross at least 7.000 km, while one from the small ring around 5.000 km to reach on of the earthbergs. The earthbergs on the large ring are few in number and scattered, but are vastly greater in size than those of the small ring. Most of the large ring has not been properly mapped yet.

There are known earthbergs that follow a larger path trough the void, even with other magnetic centers, crossing trough the large ring every hundred or thousand years. The weirdest of legends tell about other hubs of earthbergs beyond the reach of conventional travel, with whole new worlds and civilizations to explore.

Telling Time and date
Because seasons and months can vary from island and island, the year-count on Midland has become the standard in many cultures around the void. A year in Midland counts 320 days and the end of a year is celebrated during the second day of a three-day period when the lords of the night stay completely above Midland, cloaking it for 72 hours. In Midland, on day 159, 160 and 161, there will be three days without night, because the lords of the nights’ orbit goes completely around Midland. Midland has 2 seasons; Arter (darkdays) and Wermur (brightdays). On day 80 of a year, Arter ends and Wermur starts, and on day 240 Arter starts again, giving each season 160 days.

In this era, the Sertian year, counting 365 days, has become a standard for the complete small ring, existing out of 12 months and 7 days. While some islands on the large ring have years of more than 500 days.

Going up and down
There are many brave sailors who tried to fly higher and lower than anyone else, but who never returned. And those who return speak about unknown horrors and dangers beyond the understanding of mortals.

The twilight

As the higher you go, higher than gravepoint, the air gets thinner, the temperature lower and the light brighter. Slowly you enter the twilight, a realm of ice and illusions. The twilight is filled with a magical essence that seems to play tricks to the mortal mind. Delusions, mirages and paranoia are common problems for the sailors of the twilight. And if you get even higher, gargantuan blocks of ice and cloud giants guard the way trough the nightberg. Legends tell of great beauty and magical prosperity on the surface of the nightberg, also called the land of Everbright. And if you dare to sail even higher, mortal are able to enter the realm of Gods.

The underdark

As you go down, lower than the bleak world of Pandora, you are slowly entering the underdark. Here is the light slowly fading away, and the brooding air reeks of old grudges and bitterness. There are stories of unimaginable terror beneath the shadows of the clouds. Banished demons and imprisoned deities are hidden between the darkness, preying on the travelers with enough courage to go this deep below the clouds. Next to the stories of horror, an equal amount of legends tell about the many lost riches that are stranded in this strange world. Like ancient cities that fell out of the sky that have been seen lying in debris on lower earthbergs, with their riches unprotected. But there are even weirder stories, of an earthberg at the bottom of the underdark that stretches infinitely in every direction. This fables ‘ground’ is yet to be confirmed.

Other directions
For a precise position for something in the void, you need a way to measure its location. The most general way is to measure the distance and degrees from Midland. Midland is the magnetic core of the void, and all compasses point in that direction. Compasses are rendered useless in Midland itself, spinning wildly without end.

In general, people talk about midward and outward for the direction to and from the magnetic center. On a lesser account people say turnwise for the direction the rings are turning, and widdershins for going against the direction.

Weather and climate
The small ring alone has a wide range of climates, from snowy mountaintops to scorched badlands. The weather normally travels turnwise with the magnetic center. In general, temperature tends to be lower in the higher parts of the ring, and warmer in the lower parts. But climates on the earthbergs are influenced by natural phenomena’s like wind streams, or the sheer will of the gods.

For example, there is a hot air current that comes from below to crosses New Gallad, Harneton and the Blasted lands, which ensures a dry, hot climate. While others believe it’s the will of the burned god Baphomet to ensure Harneton stays a scorching desert. These wind currents come in both warm and cold weather, and are stable enough to be mapped and used for travel.

Clouds are ever present in the sky of the void, and often shape the edges of what can be seen in the sky. If clouds are far enough, they appear invisible in the atmosphere. This can, on a rare clear day, result in a blueish sky on all sides of the void. When clouds appear on ground level on an earthberg, it is treated as mist.

Besides the usual weather and climate features, the void has some unusual weather behavior.

The Mealstrom Between the small and the large ring lies the Maelstrom, an eternal storm without an equal in strength and size. The strong winds are notorious for pulling ships down with such a force that masts and sails are shattered instantly. Often pulling ships helplessly down below the Underdark. The Mealstrom doesn’t cover the complete sphere around the small ring, and is not as strong in every location. Oddly, the heart of the maelstrom turns widdershins with changing speed, so it hard to map the location of the storm constantly. But generally, it is known that the Maelstrom is stronger near the lower parts of the ring.

Wrathstorms The dangerous wrathstorms are lightningstorms enpowed by a flock of storm elementals. These elementals guide and navigate the storm to cause as much destruction and mayhem as possible. These wrathstorm are often believed to be manifestations of the anger of The Tempest, primal god of air.

Mistgales Thick flocks of mist that can be found around ruins, graveyards and other places where death has a presence. Mistgale tend to slowly drain the life energy from those that travel within it, dealing 1d4 wisdom damage to sentient beings for every hour spends in the mist. Undead seem to be strengthened within the mist, giving them one extra hit die of hit points as long as they roam in the mist.