The Big Stretch

**The Big Stretch** is the name for the Material Plane or "world" upon which four continents rest- Halintar, Kaiken, Ohwald, and Guddacha. At their center is the Vortex Isles, a massive whirlpool surrounded by both seaside and floating islands.

## Description

The most accepted truth researched by arcane and scientific scholars explains that reality is sorted into a series of "planes" of existence. There are two major "layers", inner planes and outer planes, as well as two transitive planes that make up the space between them. Scholars call the cosmology of our existence the Great Wheel cosmology.

### Inner Planes

#### The Material Plane

Though the Big Stretch is the colloquial term for it, the proper term for the realm upon which all material life exists is called the Material Plane. There are many theories on it's true scale and dimension, but after many centuries of experimentation and exploration it's agreed that the plane is flat rather than round or continuous- it does not wrap around for you to reach the other end, instead reaching a cutoff point where it seems to transition into the transitive planes.

Four continents sit at the four "corners" of the Stretch, Halintar, Kaiken, Ohwald, and Guddacha. They are each quite massive, and have such a distance between each other that sailing to each other is quite a difficult endeavor. In fact, the four continents were unaware of each others' existences until only a little under a century ago. Because of this isolation the cultures and populations of the four continents are quite diverse.

At the heart of the Material Plane is a massive whirlpool, called the Vortex Isles. Islands cling to it's outer bounds within the sea, and many more are magically suspended in the air above. There is a warped magical energy to the area, causing beings of other planes beyond the Stretch's cosmology to be pulled into the world.

(( IRL-only note - Unlike typical D&D cosmology, the Big Stretch functions on a singular Material Plane basis- it is the only plane of existence in it's cosmology, rather than being a singular sphere within a series of Material Planes. However, other Material Planes outside of the Big Stretch's Great Wheel can be reached via the heart of the Vortex Isles, which seems to be a "weak point" within the Stretch. Characters or races nonexistent in any of the four continents or from another campaign may fall through planar ryfts and end up washed ashore in the Vortex Isles. ))

#### Echo Planes

Two planes wrap around the outside of the Big Stretch, echoing it in terms of broad layout but also fantastically different from it. They may be considered two sides of the same coin, one ethereally beautiful and the other fantastically terrifying. These planes are called the Feywild and the Shadowfell, respectively.

#### Elemental Planes

Four major planes exist around the outside of the echo planes, each encompassing an elemental power: air, water, earth, and fire. The spaces between them are known as the elemental chaos, where smaller planes of elemental power wedge themselves. There is theorized to also be two other major elemental planes, consisting of "positive energy" and "negative energy" but this is mostly theory and has yet to be properly proven.

### Outer Planes

*(See: Great Wheel Cosmology)*

The outer planes of existence are many, sorted by a loose definition of morality that polarizes and balances the group around the outer edges of reality.

### Transitive Planes

#### Ethereal Plane

This transitive plane crosses the gaps between all Inner Planes of existence, including the Material Plane itself. It has a "shore" that laps over the Big Stretch, creating a mirror image of the plane upon which magical creatures or adept mages can blink into to seemingly vanish from the material world for a time. Beyond the shore is an incomprehensible swirling mist, colorful and undefined, and impossible to navigate without expending much magical energy to travel through properly.

#### Astral Plane

Beyond the innermost part of the cosmology is the Astral Plane, which connects the elemental planes to the Outer Planes and flows even beyond that into endless space. The souls of the departed find their way here, floating in purgatory eternally until their soul is claimed by the beings of the outer planes that desire them or promised them an afterlife home while they were alive. Occasionally, solid matter may appear here, items lost even to the material world itself.

## History

*(See Official Halintar Timeline)*

It unknown how long the Big Stretch has existed. Between inter-continental wars and the wear and tear of time, the earliest recorded history may not be accurate to the plane's true age. Halintar's recorded history reaches back over about 3,000 years, though the deities themselves (as well as a small handful of their descendants) are far older.