Nexus

Where the sky never grows dark and the day is never blinding. Where there is magic in breath alone and power in every action. Where there is tale waiting to be told. That is Nexus. A place of magic and fantasy, where all grand tales come true, where our stories are told. It is a place where dreams and nightmares are caught in an eternal struggle, where Angels and Fiends, Gods and Monsters, and the very world is caught in an eternal battle for the future, and it is the birthplace of the greatest of heroes, the greatest of villains, and the greatest of buffoons.

Nexus is not the world we live in, obviously. That fact is obvious. Thus, while hard, it should be remembered to leave aside your Earth-based notions of reality, like physics as a whole. This is detailed in Fundamentals, but if you don't want to read all of that; There are no atoms in Nexus. No photons, no subatomic particles(If the idea of subatomic even applies when the atom is nonexistent), no elements or periodic table. Instead, everything is described in terms of Air, Earth, Fire, and Water, with varying levels of Negative and Positive energies, and with other magical forces sometimes becoming involved. You see because there is Light(Itself a feature of positive Fire being nearby) in an area, not because there are particles bouncing off atoms and into your eyes. Such talk is likely to get you thrown in Asylum.

Cosmology
This section describes the true cosmology of the world; That is, where the planes are, how they work, and so forth. Most will have their own pages, but here's a brief overview.

Inner Planes
The Inner Planes are described as everything encompassed by the Ethereal Plane, a transitive plane. It connects to the Elemental Chaos, Prime Material Plane, the Shadowfell, and the Feywild, and lastly to the Astral Sea, which touches only it's farthest points.

Elemental Chaos
The Elemental Chaos is the home to the elemental planes and energy planes, and all of their combinations. It surrounds and encompasses the other Inner planes, not including the Ethereal plane, but in a similar way, such that you could use either to travel from Inner Plane to Inner Plane. The elemental chaos does connect to the Astral Sea as well, making it a viable(Though less direct) path from the Inner Planes to the Outer Planes. These Planes are organized, in a planar sense, as to the following table.

Fundamentals
Discussed above, the fundamental reality of Nexus is very different from our own. As a side effect of this, there is no study of Physics or Chemistry, though Astronomy and Alchemy are studied stronger than anything in our world is, with the added benefit of being highly magical. Specific details of Nexus' reality are organized by field of study.

Alchemy
Alchemy is the study of the interactions of Air, Earth, Fire, Water, and Energies. Because the elements themselves make up everything, Alchemy describes both the practice and the study, though they are sometimes differentiated by calling the practice of Alchemy "Potionry." Alchemy properly studies the nature and interactions of the Elements when they are broken down to Essentia, their purist and most idealized forms with no impurities or Compounded Essentias. Direct study of these interactions is preferred, however distilling the elements down in such a way is much easier said than done. Entire labs of equipment must be utilized, as even magic, barring high-level spellcasting and rituals, do not often reach the desired level of purity.

Properties of Air
Air is the element of change and motion. With neutral energies, Air acts as a medium for breathing and movement(Though does not assist or impede either). With positive energies, Air improves both of these, and allows flight even for those not adapted to such things. Negative Air impedes these things, and fully Negative Air(Air - in formal texts) is wholly unbreathable and serves as a sort of mystic paralytic, even halting the momentum of things newly introduced within pockets of it.

When Air bonds with other Essentia, the result is always less dense, due to air having no weight but taking up space, and is usually(Read, almost always) more malleable.

Air is used in life to allow movement. Without Air, the many components of life are unable to move, and die quickly.

Properties of Earth
Earth is the essentia of weight, stability, and gravity, in addition to structure itself. Negative-energy-filled Earth is easy to break, crumbles with minimal effort, and cannot be built up. Positive Earth is hard, rigid, often crystalline, and hard to break. Neutral earth can be used for building and stability, but not very well, usually taking the form of dirt and sand.

When Earth bonds with other Essentia, the result is always more dense, more stable, harder to move, and harder to break.

Earth is used in life to allow form itself. Life doesn't... Uh... Find a way, when it doesn't have a proper form.

Properties of Fire
Fire is the element of power, in addition to heat and cold. Yes, cold. Fire is the element which brings cold. Not with neutral energies, though; In fact, with neutral energies, Fire doesn't change the temperature at all. Perfectly neutral fire serves as a medium for emotion and thought, and produces radiance. The higher energy a fire has, the more heat it gives off, the more light it gives off, and the more conducive it is for feeling and thinking. The lower energy fire has, the more Cold it produces, and the less light it gives. Fire- also doesn't serve as a medium for thought or emotion, quickly leading to a spiritual death alongside the cold granting a physical one.

When Fire bonds with other Essentia, the result is usually more dense, and the result often exemplifies the other components' features(Such as Fire bonded to Earth(Metal) being harder and more solid than Earth alone) rather than manifesting it's own.

Fire is used in life to allow thought. Without Fire, living creatures lose the mental capacity to function properly, and they die quickly.

Properties of Water
Water is the element of clarity and flow. It is slow, but moves with purpose. Positive Water moves faster and carries more with it, and is often completely invisible- Perfectly clear. Negative water is murky, slow, and what it carries is harder to use for any purpose.

When Water bonds with other Essentia, they become easier to use, but harder to improve(Such as Clay, a result of Water and Earth Essentia being mixed).

Water in life is used to carry and support the body's functions. Without water, life fails to support itself, atrophying and dying quickly. Like kinda needs all the Essentia or it'll die quickly.

Properties of Compounded Essentia
Essences bonded together make up everything in the world around. Wood, metal, fog, storms, lightning, plants, life in general; It is all the result of Essences being compounded. Each Compounding results in new and strange properties which aren't possessed by the essentia alone, and listing them all is a fool's errand... One which many Alchemists have taken up, but a fool's errand still. They often have some of the split properties of the Essentia it is made from, though this is weaker the more dilute such Essentia is; Magma, which is primarily Fire with some Earth mixed in, has very little of Earth's structure or stability, but is plenty heavy, and otherwise behaives like Fire Essentia.

Astronomy
Atronomy is the study of the Stars of Nexus. The magical nature of Nexus causes the stars to manifest, rather than there being actual bright things very far away. In fact, the stars are subjectively identical everywhere in Nexus, even in separate Crystal Spheres. One says "subjectively everywhere" because the stars themselves align to the tune of their observer. They always appear in the same general location, relative to other stars, however they might appear closer or farther depending on the observer's interpretation of the stars, aligning into separate constellations for separate people. The constellations are normally taught and shared within cultures, and world travelers don't often make it a point to discuss the stars, so this information is usually relegated exclusively to Astronomers and world-travelling mages, whom often study the spells trapped within the stars.

Astronomy is applied in a unique way; In the sky, there is one Star for each Spell ever cast in Nexus. The stars can then be analyzed to discover the spell. As such, Astronomers learn vast amounts of magic by analyzing their stars, even if they are unable to cast spells.

The Mundane
Where Fundamentals talks about the equivalent of "Physics" and "Science," such posh ideas which will land you in asylum, this section discusses the ways the characters in Nexus think of distances, time, other measurements. Enjoy! These will never matter! Enjoy!

Distance
Distance is measured in Nexus in a few different measures. There are 4 main measures for distance in Nexus- Strands, Chords, Weaves, and Bolts, then these up or down by factors of 10(Such as Decachords or KiloStrands, though these terms are almost always used with Strands and Bolts, rather than Chords and Weaves). Translated to human terms, Strands are 6 inches, Chords are 10 feet, Weaves are 200 feet, and Bolts are 8000 feet. Other places use additional measurements, as necessary- Particularly, on Azzerrani, they also use the measurement of a "Klaive Bar," the equivalent of 1920 feet.

Other places, such as Amedala, use wholly alien methods of measurement. Translated from Gith, they are called Thoughts, Words, Stories, Tales, Fables, and Epics. They correspond to 1 Inch, 12 feet, 1.728 feet, 20.736 feet(~4 miles), 248.832 feet(~48 miles), and 2.985.984 feet(~565 miles) respectively.

Humidity
Humidity is a slightly different idea in Nexus as on Earth, as it measures the amount of Water essentia bonded to Air essentia within an area, rather than the vapour in the air, but it is otherwise the same idea. Due to the way Essentia mingles in Nexus, there is no idea of "Wet Heat" or "Dry Heat," but humidity does things other than aggravate or soothe temperatures. It is measured with one number, occasionally paired with another(Though the second is only used for volume clarification, when it matters). This number is "The amount of Water Essentia divided by the amount of Air Essentia within the volume."

This sounds more complicated than it actually is. The number usually ranges from 0~100, with 100 having as much water as air within the volume. It more or less works like normal humidity at this point, however numbers above 100 are possible(Like in Life, at this point, it usually becomes rain and reduces the humidity down to 100 or lower).

Usually is the key word, because rain also requires the air and water possess positive energy, and a lot of it. With net negative energy, the number can grow more or less as large as possible, but it becomes unbreathable and can freeze(Yes, the air can freeze, and still float above the ground. It is a rare phenomena, and a very, very strange one) with enough Water Essentia relative to the Air, and/or with enough negative energy.

Time
Time in Nexus is measured in Ticks, where there are 100 Ticks in one Lrie, 100 Lrie in one Wind, and 100 Winds in one Day. There are 10 days to a week, and 364 days to a year.

A day in Nexus is the equivalent of 25 hours of Earth time, thus making each Tick just under 5 seconds. This will not effect gameplay.

Temperature
In Nexus, the temperature is measured in the Frei(Other systems exist, such as Ceelneiru, but they are nonsense pretenders to Frei's logic and simplicity) system. This uses three numbers, shown as XX:XX:XX, where the first number measures the proportion of fire(With 00 being no Fire Essentia or direct Compoundings of it, and 100 being all Fire Essentia or it's direct Compoundings), and the second measures the average energy the Essentia has(Spanning from -100 to 100, with -100 and 100 being purely Fire- and Fire+ within the measured area). The third number is used to measure the absolute amount of Fire Essentia present. This number is usually ignored, but when measuring areas which are primarily fire, or are just that extreme in temperature, it is necessary.

Depending on location, the temperature usually(99% of the time) stays within 10~30:-40~40(Between -20 F and 80 F, respectively, though the translation itself doesn't really work, as the first number is "How fast it changes your temperature" and the second is "What temperature it changes you to"... The two aren't linked, as on Earth), though particularly cold climates(Like mountaintops and tundras) often reach 50:-60(-130 F), and hot climates might reach 60:70(160 F).

Weight
Weight is measured in Stones. Each Stone is approximately 15 pounds. Moving on.