Cosmological Notes for the Montporte Dungeon Campaign

The players are finding it necessary to understand a bit more about the nature of the universe in our Montporte Campaign, which means that I have had to come up with something. I am trying to keep it simple, mainly because I am simple. I used Google Translate to help me out with the names of the planes.

The Five Planes
The player characters recently learned about the five planes, sometimes called realms. They are:

• Aarde: The plane where humans and their ilk dwell.
• Ioucura: The plane of madness.
• Syvyys: The plane of demons.
• Umírající: The plane of the fey.
• Zaj: The plane of dragons.

There are thought to be other worlds and locations beyond the five realms, but little is known of such places and even less is said.

The Four Elements
Air, Earth, Fire and Water serve as the fundamental building blocks of the five planes. They are the equivalent of our subatomic particles.

The Three Energies
Even as the universe is built with the four elements, it is infused and empowered by the three energies: Positive, Negative, and the life force, Chi.

The Two Provinces
There are two provinces: The Mundane and the Divine. The universe proper is of the Mundane. The Divine is completely outside of the universe but the beings of the Divine can participate and affect the Mundane through their followers.

Typically, the beings of the Divine are called "gods." Gods and their followers live in a symbiotic relationship, with the followers enabling the gods to intervene in the mundane universe while empowering their followers with divine magic and other abilities.

Magic
Arcane magic allows the caster to manipulate the four elements and three energies in order to cast spells. The techniques differ, depending on the caster, but arcane magic uses the power of thought and language to tap into the greater powers present in the elements and energies of the universe.

Druidic magic is similar to arcane magic except that the caster uses empathy and sympathy with the natural world instead of manipulation to cast spells.

Divine magic differs in that the caster is the conduit for divine power from outside the physical universe. Faith, ritual and holy symbols serve as the means by which one taps into this source of power.