Lore

## **The Coiled Junction within the Rainbow Sea**

The Phlogiston or the “Rainbow Sea '' as it is called by the Star Sailors that chart its flowing paths is an expanse of primordial energy in which bob crystalline spheres that house a multitude of various worlds of the material plane and the void of Wildspace or “Aetherium”.

This wide and sweeping, nye on endless sea contains scores of these spheres that can be accessed via sailing great distances aboard special vessels known as spelljammers. Spelljammers are themselves powered by magic and cross the Phlogiston like ships crossing a great sea.

Even at the amazing speeds attained within the Phlogiston, ships can spend weeks if not months sailing between the various crystal spheres. However some spheres reside in close proximity to each other akin to an Archipelago of islands… The Coiled Junction is one such cluster of Spheres within the flow. The Junction branches off from the primary flow of the Serpent's Path where it meets the Sphere of Minaspace and diverted into the Junction Proper and off toward the Uncharted Flow of the Roiling Causeway.

The Junction however is rife with its own danger, the chiefest of which is the Fal’hesteroth Maelstrom; known by most as the ***Roil***. This chaotic stretch of phlogiston is racked with storms and turbulent currents that practically cuts the junction in two separating the known sections of the flow from the uncharted and undiscovered spheres within the maelstrom.

Passage through this dangerous stretch is alleviated by the presence of a series of Lighthouses that serve as vital navigational landmarks since their creation following the War of Roses.

## **The Illithid and the War of Roses**

While the Spheres of the Coiled Junction enjoy an age of relative peace… There was a time where the Realms within were locked in a heated war for survival with an invading race of psionic aberrations known at the time to the denizens of the Junction as the Illithid.

These strange and cunning creatures begin their invasion slowly, seeming to many as bogeymen and sailor stories. But as time passed the threat grew beneath the noses of the junction’s varied rulers. When the Illithid finally launched their assault formally, the worlds they conquered were caught completely unawares.

The war was long and bloody with naval battles spanning across the spheres. 25 years into the grueling conflict the Dwarven King, Dumas Hammerhand; of the free port of Stoneholm had by luck and blood discovered the location of the beating heart of the Illithid Invader’s. He met in secret with the various rulers of the Known Spheres… The Tsar of Polyshar, High Queen Celestine of Yal’rena, The Void Jarl of Midgard, Elven King Thailaas of the Crescent Dominion, and even The Ali'i nui of Honua he nui.

They would forge the foundation of the First Council and in doing so, unified with the sole purpose of driving back the Illithid tide. Within the coming year the combined forces of these rulers mounted a final assault against the Soveriegn Elder Brain Yish’lshal’benh’noff on the Illithid hive world of Sha’lmar. The Gargantuan invading naval force spearheaded by Stoneholm; itself a colossal vessel served as a mobile fortress, and flagship for what was to be known as the Reckoning.

The war ended on Sha’lmar with the planet itself torn asunder and the fractured and leaderless Illithid scattering to the winds. In the years that followed the various navies of the council leaders have hunted the illithid to supposed extinction within the Coiled Junction. Stoneholm, heavily damaged from her role in the final battle, was towed into anchorage into the heart of the debris field of Sha’lmar.

There it continues to serve as a freeport and Neutral meeting place of the council of crowns. It’s been 60 years since the end of war and the Coiled Junction has enjoyed an era of peace, but wind of change are blowing… the Pirate King Jareth Blacksun has been Executed and a new Golden Age of Piracy has begun, The Elven Armadas of the Crescent Dominion put pressure on the Verithian Empire and by proxy the council as they seek to expand their holdings and even the Council Spheres have goings on separate fronts.

It is an age of Gold, Glory and Adventure… time will tell what course history will chart

## **That Which Lurks Beneath.**

***Unknown to all***, the Phlogiston holds a terrible secret. Much like a terrestrial sea, the phlogiston has it’s depths; the shallower flows host both spheres and creatures strange and dangerous. Deeper still is a murky abyss that is the barrier between creation and the twisted “Sea floor” that is the Blind Eternities.

The Blind Eternities also known as the “Far Realms” is an incomprehensible contradiction to the inherent planar cutoff within the Phlogiston. The Far Realms serve as the Black Murky depths of the Flowing Rainbow energies of the Phlogiston and ships that “Sink” in the Phlogiston have a 10% chance of traversing the thin veil between the Material and the Far Realms.

Full of Nightmares and Monsters this primordial “ocean floor” is host to all manner of entities, ***some more curious than others...***