Realmspace

Realmspace
Star map of Realmspace
Basic Information
Other names	Sea of Night
Type	Crystal sphere
Size class	J
Shape class	Spherical
Celestial bodies	The Sun (primary) Anadia Coliar Toril Karpri Chandos Glyth Garden H'Catha

Realmspace, also known as the Sea of Night by natives, is a crystal sphere that is home to the FORGOTTEN REALMS Campaign Setting and contains the world of Toril.

Overview

Realmspace, known as the Sea of Night by the natives of Toril, is about 6,400 million miles (10,300 million kilometres) in diameter. Its wildspace is slightly warmer than that of Greyspace, to the point where spacefarers can wear light garments and outfits suitable for summer weather. Many sages believe that the older a crystal sphere is, the warmer it is. This would mean that Realmspace is the oldest crystal sphere yet encountered.

Location

Realmspace is part of a stable triangular configuration in the phlogiston that includes Greyspace and Krynnspace. Currents within the Flow allow free travel from Realmspace to and from Greyspace, but only one way travel from Krynnspace to Realmspace. Realmspace also has Flow connections to Herospace, Greatspace, Clusterspace, Refuge, Moragspace, Shadowspace, Vodonispace and Winterspace.

Celestial bodies

Realmspace is a heliocentric system, with the system primary, a fire body known as the Sun, lying at the center of the sphere and orbited by 8 planets, their satellites, and a variety of asteroids, comets and nebulae.

The Sun

The Sun is Realmspace's primary and is a size H spherical fire body. Twelve sargassos orbit close to its surface.

Anadia

Anadia, referred to as one of the Dawn Heralds by the natives of Toril, is a size B spherical earth body, and is known for its xenophobic natives.

Coliar

Coliar, referred to as one of the Dawn Heralds by the natives of Toril, is a size G spherical air body, and is inhabited by lizardfolk, aarakocra and dragons.

Toril

Toril is a size E spherical earth body, and is one of the most populous worlds in the system. It is orbited by a single moon, named Selûne, and an asteroid cluster, known as the Tears of Selûne.

Karpri

Karpri, referred to as one of the Five Wanderers by the natives of Toril, is a size D spherical water body orbited by an artificial elven base.

Chandos

Chandos, referred to as one of the Five Wanderers by the natives of Toril, is a size F spherical water body with numerous unstable land formations that are prone to collapse or change at a moments notice.

Glyth

Glyth, referred to as one of the Five Wanderers by the natives of Toril, is a size E spherical earth body and is dominated by mind flayers. It has a large planetary ring system and three moons.

Garden

Garden, referred to as one of the Five Wanderers by the natives of Toril, is a cluster of size A asteroids which share a common atmosphere and are bound together by a colossal plant known as Yggdrasil's Child. Garden is classified as a liveworld by the Shou, and has twelve moons.

H'Catha

H'Catha, referred to as one of the Five Wanderers by the natives of Toril, is a size C disk-shaped water world with an enormous mountain jutting out of its central hub. The planet is dominated by a number of beholder nations, and has two moons.

Additional astronomicals

Apart from planetary bodies and their respective moons, there are several other celestial bodies littering the depths of Realmspace, ranging from comets and rogue asteroids to derelict ships and floating structures, and everything in between. Mystics and astrologers track several of the more "relevant" bodies, using their movements and celestial position at any one time to create predictions of the future. These predictions range from the births of kings to the deaths of famous personages.. Whether these objects are truly responsible for plagues and pivotal worldly happenings remains a topic of debate.

Caer Windlauer

Caer Windlauer is a majestic castle surrounded by thousands of acres of grounds that travels around the Sun in a slightly elliptical orbit, much like a comet.

Color Spray Nebula

The Color Spray Nebula resembles a massive fan-shaped rainbow-colored gaseous-cloud that slowly orbits around the Sun, and is revered by the worshippers of Mystra as a sign of their goddess's approval, and by the cult of Bane as the embodiment of their god's wrath.

Comet K'Thoutek

K'Thoutek is a cometary body that travels around the Sun in an elliptical orbit, and is believed to be haunted by the spirit of the grand wizard of the K'Thoutek oortlings.

Galleon Nebula

The Galleon Nebula resembles a massive multicolored galleon-shaped gaseous-cloud that slowly orbits the Sun. Torilian astrologers believe the nebula was placed in the heavens by the gods of magic as a sign that they should embrace spelljamming, whereas others believe it serves as a warning against the dangers of wildspace.

King-Killer Star

The King-Killer Star is a cometary body that orbits the Sun and periodically passess close enough to be seen in the skies of Toril, where it is closely linked to a mystical rage that overcomes those dragons inhabiting the planet.

Skull of the Void

The Skull of the Void is a massive skull-shaped celestial object that floats in the depths of wildspace near the edge of the crystal shell.

Crystal shell

Similar to all crystal spheres. the crystal shell of Realmspace is so vast that it appears as a perfectly flat, solid wall to most observers, though the surface itself is somewhat bumpy and cold to the touch. The crystal shell is made of a dark ceramic material that is completely invulnerable, and is immune to damage from all known forms of attack, including magic.

However, throughout the crystal shell, seemingly naturally occurring portals open to the phlogiston, allowing solid bodies to pass through to and from the Flow, without allowing the phlogiston itself to enter the perfect vacuum of wildspace. The portals themselves appear to open and close at random. These temporary doorways can be found through the use of divination spells or by magical items specifically designed for that purpose. Portals can also be opened through the use of magic, allowing the magic user to open a portal whenever desired. However, opening a portal immediately closes a naturally occurring portal on the other side of the sphere, with possibly catastrophic results for any ship or creature passing through the portal.

A famous mage from Toril once claimed that there are always 3,200 portals open throughout the sphere at any one time.

Unique to Realmspace, the entire interior surface of the crystal shell is covered by millions upon millions of glyphs and wards. The symbols and words are hundreds of miles tall and completely illegible. However, a suitably powerful mage can read the glyphs if they so wish, by casting a read magic spell, but this would be a mistake: merely discerning the meaning of the words invokes the magic inherent to these writings, The magic stored within the glyphs are many times more powerful than an equivalent spell cast by a magic user, and there is only one-in-one-thousand chance that the spell triggered is beneficial in any way. The glyphs appear to be permanent, allowing them to be triggered over and over. For some unknown reason, the glyphs cannot be duplicated in any way, and cannot even be copied onto paper.

The Wanderers

Also unique to Realmspace is the group of humanoids, known as the Wanderers, who continually walk across the inside of the crystal sphere. These humanoids, representing all known sentient bipedal lifeforms within the sphere, number in the hundreds of thousands. Aligning themselves in a perfectly straight line, they walk side by side across the inside of the sphere, in a north-south direction. They all possess the mark of Torm on their palms.

The Wanderers walk continually and without interruption. Their mouths move in a rhythmic pattern, resembling chanting, and their hands make various gestures, similar to the gestures made when casting spells. There is no way to communicate with them, and there is no way to interrupt their journey. According to legend, the Wanderers are the souls of individuals who died performing evil deeds of horrific proportions. When they died, they were cursed to eternal servitude; to march in perfect formation while chanting across the sphere for the rest of their existence.

Their purpose is to create, through their chanting, the portals that allow spelljammers to pass in and out of the crystal sphere. If the Wanderers were to cease to exist, the portals would no longer spontaneously open throughout the sphere. Without the chanting of at least one Wanderer, the crystal sphere would be sealed until another evil individual dies within the sphere. Occasionally a portal will open directly in the path of the Wanderers, and individual Wanderers can actually fall through the portal, into the phlogiston. Once gone, the missing Wanderers can be replaced, but the process is incredibly slow (only every five years or so is an individual deemed reprehensible enough to warrant this eternal servitude.)

Constellations

Every dot, dash and tilde within the glyphs that cover the surface of the crystal sphere shines with the flickering, everlasting light of the stars of Realmspace. Each of these pseudo-stars is in fact a gate that opens to the Quasi-elemental plane of radiance, and it is these gates that give the sphere’s inhabitants the illusion of twinkling stars and constellations.

The portals to the Plane of Radiance all range in diameter from only a few yards to hundreds of miles long, and it is this difference in size which gives the illusion of distance in the celestial heavens. Most of the gates are large enough for spelljamming ships to pass through, but travelling through these planar portals is tantamount to suicide.

Once a ship enters the Plane of Radiance, any wood, cloth, or other combustible material bursts into flame immediately, and soon after all metallic substances begin to melt. All living creatures that enter the Plane are either immolated immediately or die soon after if they cannot escape. Creatures can escape easily enough by backing out or by turning around, assuming they survive the heat long enough to do that.

Luckily, the tremendous heat within the Plane of Radiance does not spill over into the vacuum of wildspace. Additionally, as long as a spelljamming vessel remains at least a hundred miles away, the bright light radiating from a star poses little danger to the eyes of any passengers or crew. When a spelljamming vessel breaches the crystal sphere, the portal supersedes the planar gate, allowing safe passage over it. Once the portal closes, the planar gate once again shines with its never ending brilliance. Any inhabitant planet-side who happens to be watching the stars at that particular moment will see one of the stars wink out of existence for a few minutes.

The stars form patterns that make up various constellations. However, few of the constellations of Realmspace have ever been identified by name. These include the Dragon of Dawn, the Firbolg, the Harp and the Sword and Dagger. Subsequent to the events of the Time of Troubles, the Dragon of Dawn and the Firbolg were combined to create a new constellation, named the Lady of Mystery in honor of the newly ascended goddess Mystra (formerly the mortal woman known as Midnight.)

Appendix

External Links

• Realmspace article at the Forgotten Realms Wiki, a wiki for the Forgotten Realms campaign setting.
• Constellation article at the Forgotten Realms Wiki, a wiki for the Forgotten Realms campaign setting.
• Candlekeep (the leading Forgotten Realms fan website)