Astral Reach Wiki

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\*France is not included in this campaign

# Welcome to the Astral Reach Wiki

Dedicated to providing players in this fantasy RPG setting with all the information they need to play! Here you will find:

* Information about the races of the planescape
* Rules for classes and character features
* Descriptions of available spells and rules for their use
* Rules and average prices for items you can purchase in-game

And much much more!

### Creating Your Character

Don't know where to start or what to do for character creation? No problem. We have that covered here too! Visit this page for a complete walkthrough.

We suggest getting to know the world you're jumping into a bit before making your character. You can find information in the different tabs under the **Introduction to the Campaign** heading below. Feel free to reach out to your DM if you have any questions about the setting.

## Introduction to the Campaign

* Setting
* Geography
* Deities
* Rules

Astral Reach is a custom setting that was born in the summer of 2018. It is loosely inspired by many sources, and multiple friends of mine have assisted in its creation.

Like in most D&D campaigns, your characters will be living in a world that contains heavens, hells, places of turmoil and chaos, and places that are safe and secure. The unique thing about this setting is that there is not a traditional "Planescape" - that is to say, there aren't the same sort of 4th-dimensional boundaries between different planes of existence.

The planes of this world are scattered, all floating in a 4-dimensional space known as the Astral Reach, or the Astral Sea. Imagine a model of a solar system: a central star, with many planets orbiting at different distances. Some of these planets have moons, and some smaller moons or rocks orbit the star itself, independent of the planets. This is a good model to picture the Reach and the movement of its components. However, the planets, moons, central star, and even the space between them aren't like our own reality in most ways.

* **The Astral Sea.** What would, for us, be the empty vacuum of outer space is instead a nebulous and magical void. The Astral Sea has no measurable air, but air- and water-breathing creatures seem to be able to breathe normally. Currents of magic, visible only through specialized instruments, run through the void in patterns unaffected by orbital mechanics. The Sea has a form of weather - astral storms and winds - which appear like swirling and slightly luminous mist that can shimmer in different colors. Strange creatures can be sighted too, natives of the Reach, feeding on the mist or the magical streams or on other living creatures. Gravity functions as it would in our own reality, so ships traversing the Reach are usually equipped with enchantments to simulate gravity.
* **The Sun / The Void Gate.** In the center of the 'solar system' there is a lightless void, much like a black hole. No matter what angle it is viewed from, this void is always surrounded by an enormous ring of blazing light. This has always been known as the "sun", though religious groups and some scholars call it "the Void Gate" instead. It exerts enough gravitational pull to keep the system orbiting in its current state, but it does not burn with heat. Many ships have attempted to explore it, and none have returned.
* **Planes.** The 'planets' in our model appear from a distance to be spherical bodies of water or glass, shimmering brightly with light cast from the sun. This sphere is the "sphere of influence". When venturing closer, or when viewed from a telescope, these bodies seem more like large marbles or lenses, showing a distorted image of a landmass as if looking through the eyes of a seabird flying in towards the coast. The closer one gets, the clearer and less distorted this image becomes, until you pass through the sphere of influence and into the sky above the landmass. Flying turns to gentle falling, and the void below you becomes the sea. Magial analysis confirms that each 'marble' is essentially a plane of its own, separate from the Astral Sea. Some scholars have been using the term "planet" to refer to them, but the term is shunned by the majority of sentient creatures and academics.
* **Moons / Islands.** Every plane has at least one moon orbiting it. These appear to behave just like any plane in the Reach, in terms of traveling in and out of their spheres of influence. They are also known as "demiplanes". The landmass/landmasses within a moon's sphere usually appear like islands surrounded by ocean, making "island" a popular name for them also.
* **Islet** refers to an island that isn't orbiting a planet, but instead orbits the sun. These vary in size, and sometimes interact in strange ways with astral storms.

## The Conflagration

There are many unexplored planes and islets in the sea, and the recorded history of the Reach is relatively short (spanning about a millenium). The modern era began with a terrible raid known as the Conflagration, where monsters and skyships descended upon the inhabited planes with fire and magic, and just as quickly vanished without a trace. Since that dark day, the people of the Material Planes have been researching and inventing, venturing out to the Astral Sea to explore and grow stronger, lest they be caught unprepared again.

## Technology

Perhaps, say some, the Conflagration was a blessing in disguise. Technology has flourished since that day, and modern conveniences make city life safe and easy. Each plane has developed skyships of their own, and the smartest of the inventors of the realms have built huge starports that orbit one plane's sphere or another. Research into permanent inter-planar teleportation magic is in full swing.

Steam and clockwork machines, invented by gnomes and other brilliant minds, provide constant energy that can heat water, create light, dig tunnels, and lift payloads without the use of magic. Clockwork cannons, rifles, and pistols are employed by any ship traveling the Reach that cannot afford the more expensive (but more effective) experimental Fireball cannons. New advances in Golemancy use magic and clockwork combined to create animated constructs that can perform simple tasks, interpret humanoid speech, and even give simple replies. Artificers and Mechromancers are in high demand throughout the material planes.

Technology of this sort is omnipresent in trade cities throughout the realms, but rural and remote settings still have not fully embraced the modern wonders - whether by choice, or because they simply don't have the wealth or the need for large infrastructure development.

Perhaps the most useful invention is the ***scry-glass***, also known as a "magic mirror". These come in varying shapes and sizes, but all feature a glass pane seeming to be filled with murky, swirling smoke. A creature looking into a scry-glass can contact the holder of another glass, provided that they have met their target or know the arcane symbol sequence identifying their target's glass. Each glass then shows the other holder's head and shoulders, allowing for face-to-face conversation. There are not yet public scry-glasses available in any realm, but many scry-glass messaging services exist which can convey messages in a sort of postal system across the Reach, for a small fee.

## The Dangers of the World

Despite all the technological progress, most of the land within each realm remains untamed. The broken realm of Seiyance in particular is a testament to this; civilization may carve out its place in the world, but it will be a very very long time before the wilderness poses no significant threat to it. All major cities in the realms are extremely defensible, and outside of the civilized portions travelers can expect to encounter monstrosities and beasts that can kill in a single blow.

The ocean may be safer than the wilds, especially near the coast, but even that has its dangers. The waters that surround most realms have no defined borders that separate them from the starry void. Many aberrations are rumored to lurk within the water, creatures that were born there in the borderlands, coming in towards shore to seize prey in the dead of night.

Even the Astral Reach itself is not safe, for great creatures the size of islets roam the stars - dreadnoughts, titans, krakens, and the like. Few ships have brought back tales of anything of the sort, but that only means (say the sailors in the taverns) that once you can see those beasts, it is already too late.

## The Balance

The wilderness-dwellers of the realms, in particular those in Vander, believe that the technological revolution is cause for concern. The delicate balance of the magical forces of the planes is being disrupted by mining, building, destruction of forests, killing of animals, and binding of elemental magics to golems and other magical constructs. No civilization concerns them more than the Vandrin Empire, for they are at the forefront of the revolution.

Here you can find general information on the major realms found in the Reach, within the Material Planes. For more detail on any realm, click on the heading links to be taken to a separate page.

## Vander

Vander is the 4th plane orbiting the sun. It is the seat of the Vandrin Empire, which has claimed a sizeable chunk of the land within as its own over the past centuries. The Empire has also claimed Vander's moons, Port Zigall, and a couple of nearby islets, though most of these do not have much civilization to speak of.

The Vandrin Empire maintains a strong military with many branches, and the government strives to remain at the cutting edge of magical and technological advancement, with varying degrees of success. Its outer colonies are relatively independent, so long as they continue to provide the Empire with the resources that they were meant to produce. It is believed that the Imperial Circle's goal is to one day conquer the rest of the Reach, and then perhaps expand onwards to other systems. If this is the case, then their goal is a long way from achievement.

Having been a major interplanar trade destination for the better part of seven centuries, Vander is a melting pot of culture and bloodlines from all over the system. Most of Vander's population has human, goliath, or gnomish ancestry, but most other races are also well-represented in its cities.

### Meridia

Meridia is the largest moon of Vander, and is the homeland of the aasimari. Boasting coastal towns, rolling hills, and three high peaks, the isle is a frequent stop for ships coming in and out of Vander itself. Despite this, few outsiders choose to settle in Meridia unless the strongly religious culture suits them.

## Risilia

This realm lies within the plane of the same name. It is an archipelago with a curious, unnatural shape, set in a vast ocean that contains a few other wild islands. The archipelago has three chains of islands spiraling out from a central island, nearly equidistant from each other. The inhabitants consider the central point sacred, a bridge between their realm and the Feywild, their paradise.

Risilia is home to the elves, as well as to many types of fey creatures. It was finally discovered by explorers within the last two centuries, having evaded detection for so long due to the vastness of Risilia's ocean and the treacherous, misleading mists that fill it. Given its long-lived inhabitants, negotiations with the leaders of the Risilia are still ongoing. However, the general impression that Risilian government gives is that their people have been isolated from the rest of the Reach for many many centuries, and would rather stay that way for centuries more.

## Antok

Antok is largely wasteland, a dry and arid place with few oases of arable and livable land. Its most distinguishing feature, however, is the Stormwall, a giant mass of storm clouds that perpetually roils over the northeastern side. It recedes and grows, but never retreats for long. Many inhabitants believe the Stormwall has been reaching farther with each advance, and retreating less far on average.

The plane's sphere of influence hugs the shoreline closer than other plane's spheres, and the Stormwall itself seems to extend right up to the edge of the sphere. Interestingly, it seems impossible to approach the plane in such a way as to enter behind the Stormwall. There are rumors of a way to do so, but these seem more like legend than fact.

Antok has a civilization bordering the sea, and its capitol is a canyon city known as Ephra. Most of the large settlements must be built in this way, to gain shelter from the harsh weather that rolls in from the wastes. It is home to humans, centaurs, kobolds, and a scattering of tieflings and other races.

### Aurus

While Aurus is not the largest moon of Antok, it is the most influential and famous. It is home to the Auran Conclave, a magocratic society where magical arts shunned elsewhere (such as demon-summoning, necromancy, and blood magic) are taught and tolerated. Despite many efforts to bring Aurus under the sway of a larger power, the moon has remained independent of all external governance since its founding.

## Seiyance

Also known as the Shattered Plains, this realm is a collection of floating islands suspended in midair. Time and space work slightly different here than in any other realm in the cluster. Springs of water flow from seemingly bottomless sources, carving rivers and lakes in the large floating islands and cascading off into the empty sky below, perhaps to be magically reabsorbed into whatever their source is.

The realm is peopled by rukk and halflings, both of which live together in harmony in great cities, built into the sides of the floating mountains and jutting out from them. This design is due to the number of wild, terrible dangers that roam the flatlands and jungles of the realm; cliffside dwellings, while hard to build, are much more defendable against the creatures of Seiyance.

## Friskal

Most of Friskal is a mountainous tundra, but closer to the sea there are more tolerable climates for non-natives. Explorers believe that Friskal is the largest of the civilized realms, given that they haven't fully explored the borders of the realm. Cold climates and harsh conditions (not to mention the legend that great winter dragons dwell in the further reaches of the realm) deter explorers and ships from going too far off the beaten path.

Friskal is peopled by humanoids, though most of these are animalistic - the tabaxi are the best-known example of them, though there are also harpies and bearfolk.

## The Starports

Dating from before the Conflagration, the starports are perhaps the greatest feats of technology surviving to the current day. Essentially artificial moons, the starports are floating cities sustained and suspended by powerful enchantments. They orbit their parent planes at a fair distance, serving as supply stops and waypoints for astral ships traveling across the Reach. Gathered literature and evidence has established that these ports were built centuries ago by gnomish artisans, aided by the expertise of elven and dwarvish enchanters and architects. It is hypothesized that they were originally built as ark ships for people whose moons were disintegrating around them.

The secrets to how these starports were enchanted have been lost to time, but recent research into the field of self-sustaining enchantments and demiplanes has allowed enchanters to make similar constructs, and to add onto the existing ports. These facsimiles must be sustained by magical rituals and materials regularly, but they can sustain life.

### Port Zigall

Orbiting Vander, Port Zigall is the largest starport, and has the most sinister reputation of the port cities. Built in many layers supported by massive dwarven-steel scaffolds, it would take an elf's lifetime to visit every alley and road, let alone the myriad secret passages and abandoned pipes running throughout. The huge structure serves as a hideout for many lowlifes and criminals from all around the Reach. Creatures visiting or living there should never do so unprepared or unwarily.

### Port Eris

Orbiting Friskal, Port Eris is tidally locked with the sun, making it a place of a strange duality. On the sunward side, the rich and powerful dwell in sprawling estates, granted a semblance of a night cycle by an enchantment which dims the sun's light periodically. Meanwhile the dark side of the port is a sprawl of slums and foundries, all toiling by enchanted lamplight or firelight to support the port's workings and businesses.

### Port Nir

Port Nir orbits Antok, and boasts a unique technological marvel of the ancients; an array of huge enchanted mirrors floating around it in a ring which reflect and amplify the light, heat, and magical energy of the sun and focus it on a large crystalline structure in the port's center. The energy collected in this massive device powers the city's infrastructure, as well as the extensive shipyards which are the main focus of the city's trade.

The existence of deities is undeniable in the Astral Reach. Their influence is felt in every corner of the Material Planes; their most devoted followers gain mystical and powerful abilities as rewards for their faith and for living according to their patron deity's wishes, and they have also been known to speak directly to many people in visions and dreams. There are few atheists or agnostic persons in the Reach (and those few are widely considered lunatics or liars), but even so, not every person in the Reach is devoted to a religion.

Scientists, Theologists, and Arcanogists have studied and experimented for centuries to ascertain the true nature, scope, and powers of the deities that govern the pantheon, as well as the rules that govern their existence, with little success.

## Cosmic Forces and Dimensions

Science, magic, and divine-granted insight offer no explanation for how the biggest foundational rules of the cosmos were set in place, or why they seem to be universal constants. Collectively as "The Cosmic Forces", these concepts govern reality as the denizens of the Reach know it, and while their behavior can be observed, it cannot be explained.

* Gravity --- A force which attracts objects with mass to each other. The greater an object's mass, the greater its pull.
* Electricity --- A force which can be harnessed using magnetism or magic to transmit energy along a suitable, conductive material.
* Magnetism --- A force which attracts or repels attuned objects - more specifically, aligning them to a "field".
* Magic --- A force which can convert matter to energy or vice versa, controllable using conscious thought and conductive materials. It can also harness or simulate all three other forces.

Most individuals know of these deities, but seldom pray directly to them. In most religions, the Cosmic Forces are seen as founts of power, from which lesser (but still very powerful) deities draw their strength.

## The Gods and their Sparks

Deities draw their power from their own Divine Sparks - shards of what scholars theorize must be the true essence of magic itself. Due to their nature, deities can destroy and consume one another if given the chance, and in these cases the survivor adds the other's spark to their own. No spark energy is ever lost.

Just as sparks can combine, they can also be split. Often deities grant tiny fractions of their sparks to their servants, and even to very faithful followers. For example, every demon in the Hells has a tiny fraction of a spark, which grants them their immortality and power. The same goes for every angel and every elemental, and indeed all the immortal creatures of the planes.

## Religion

Because of the nature of deities and sparks, the pantheon is always changing, albeit slow by mortal reckoning. Civilization changes with it; cults rise and fall with the rise and fall of their masters, and religions often shift so the new gods inherit the name and depiction of the old ones. Few people in history have ever met one of these gods in person, so it is hard to say whether the gods truly reflect what their worshipers believe. Despite this, observation and records show that deities, like mortals, have a defined alignment. Some gods act in selfish, destructive ways, while others consistently act justly and compassionately.

Often small cults and communities spring up and die down surrounding the worship of "demigods" or "lesser gods". These beings have a fraction of the power of a true deity, but are still more than capable of influencing the material planes and rewarding faithful followers with gifts and abilities.

In mortals, religiosity is widespread because most gods answer the prayers of their faithful with signs, visions, and blessings of supernatural power. To a god, followers are very valuable, as tools that can enact the god's will. In numbers, such tools can help a god achieve their goal of a higher state in the consumption of other spark-fractions. These followers rarely understand the greater plot that a god has, but they have faith that their god's designs will serve them or their moral values in the end.

## Commonly Worshipped Gods

These are widely known deities that have a strong following in the Astral Reach. This is by no means a complete list, but it may be of use to players for inspiration, reference, or popular deities.

This is a collection of the different homebrew rules this campaign will be using. It will be added to as more rules are needed or desired.

***Flanking***

* When two allied creatures are threatening an enemy creature, if a line can be drawn between them that crosses the enemy creature’s space, those allies are considered to be flanking that enemy. Their melee attacks have advantage against that enemy.

***Sharpshooter / Great Weapon Master***

* Sharpshooter and Great Weapon Master are feats that players can take. Due to their power, neither of these feats can be taken by a player until they are at least level 6.

***Feats***

* For most classes, every 4th level grants an Ability Score Increase. Players can choose to replace this with a Feat of their choice.

***Modified Fear***

* The rules for the Frightened condition are slightly different than in the Players’ Handbook:
* A frightened creature has disadvantage on Attack rolls against the source of its fear as well as Ability Checks while that source is within line of sight.
* The creature can’t willingly move closer to the source of its fear.

***Modified Invisibility***

* The rules for the Invisible condition are slightly different than in the Players’ Handbook:
* An invisible creature is impossible to see without the aid of magic or a Special sense. For the purpose of Hiding, the creature is heavily obscured.
* Attack rolls against the creature have disadvantage, and the creature’s Attack rolls have advantage.
* The creature’s general location (within a 10-foot radius) can be detected by any noise it makes or any tracks it leaves (Passive Stealth vs. Passive Perception). If the creature stays still and makes no sound, they may make a Hide roll for free.

***Crafting & Learning a Skill***

* I am implementing a system that allows players to learn tools, languages, and skills outside of those granted by race, class, and background. Speak to me about the details; otherwise, I will announce those rules when they become relevant.

***Sparring***

* Sparring confers short-term benefits on characters, depending on their fighting style. I have a table that outlines these benefits, which I will roll on when you spar or train for an appropriate length of time.

***Spell Limitations***

* 2 Spells can be cast per turn (if one is a bonus action), but the second spell scales with character level according to the following table:
	+ Levels 1-4 ----- Level 1
	+ Levels 5-12 ---- Level 2
	+ Levels 13-20 --- Level 3

***Resurrection***

* I’ll be following a custom set of resurrection rules, which you may ask me about. I will explain them the first time that resurrection becomes relevant.

***Strength Intimidation***

* Players who wish to intimidate can use either Strength or Charisma for their ability check, whichever is higher. Note that a player proficient in Intimidation could add their proficiency bonus either way.

***Long Rest Benefits Reduction***

* Long Rests no longer allow you to recover your full health so quickly: instead of the normal benefits, the following rules apply to hit points and hit die, upon completion of a long rest:
	+ Characters regain a number of hit points equal to half their hit point maximum.
	+ Characters regain half of their hit dice, instead of all of them.
* Spell slots and class abilities still function and recover as normal.

***Ranger Pets***

* Players who playing the Ranger class with the Beastmaster Conclave may choose from the following for their Animal Companion:
	+ Ape, black bear, boar, direwolf (young), giant badger, giant fox, giant weasel, grizzly bear (young), mule, owlbear (young), panther, winter wolf (young), wolf.
* The Young animals are going to be customized stat blocks that I will make, should you choose that animal. We can negotiate other animals should you not be satisfied with any of the above choices.