Geography

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.