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THE DARK SPHERE
Welcome!

Welcome to the Dark Sphere, a nexus for several of the different realities of the WebWorlds project. It is a reality of its own (with its own template), and a means of transportation between realities within and without the WebWorlds.

A number of cultures use the Dark Sphere, some highly technological, some magical, others a combination of both. From the Dark Sphere, many worlds can be easily accessed, and many worlds easily access the Dark Sphere. Additionally, the Sphere is so large that whole worlds may be concealed that no one yet knows about. (If you wish to link a world to the Dark Sphere, or have any adventures take place here, mail Jeff_Wilson63@bigfoot.com so he can update the page appropriately.)

There are many ways to enter the Dark Sphere, but very few locations that a newly entered group or person will find themselves. People entering the Dark Sphere may find themselves at an established base, adjacent to the crystal sphere, near a vessel, or in deep space.

The following bases are currently known or rumored to exist in the sphere. Base N'Ferra lies in the exact center of the sphere right upon the entrance to N'Ferra Sphere. Several other worlds can be accessed from this base. Base Arcane is meant to serve vessels from other crystal spheres. It lies about one-fifth of the way in from the edge of the sphere. Base Mastermind is a space station from an advanced realm dominated by robots. It lies 75% inward from the edge of sphere in a basically "south" direction. There are rumors that a planet-sized mass of flesh also exists in the sphere. There are no confirmed sightings, but the tales of those who may have seen it are fairly consistent.

People who arrive at the edge of the sphere will see a smooth, opaque, black crystalline barrier reaching as far as their lights project. The barrier is nearly impervious, responding only to spells or devices which will also work in the phlogiston beyond. It has no gravity (regardless of a person's reality), and no atmosphere. It is the only way to reach the phlogiston from the Dark Sphere.

If a traveler new to the sphere is lucky, he may end up in the path of a vessel traveling through the Dark Sphere. Most likely, this is a trade vessel from N'Ferra Sphere, but it could also be a spelljamming vessel originating beyond the crystal sphere, or a vessel from the Night Sky Galaxy.

If a new traveler is unlucky, they will end up in space, unable to see or contact anything else in the sphere. They are likely to think that the new realm is infinite, empty, and useless and either die or return to where they came, never coming back.

Natural Laws

The properties of the Dark Sphere make it an ideal place for interdimensional travel. It is very easy to connect to from other worlds, and once there, you can easily connect to other worlds. Additionally, any object entering the sphere is enclosed in a "shell" of its native reality. This (usually) means that things function the way that travelers expect (but see below).

There are a few natural laws which operate regardless of a person's home reality. First, conception is not possible. Any entity which reproduces sexually will not be able to do so while on the Dark Sphere. (This includes a large number of plants.) Pregnancies will proceed normally, but, while within the Dark Sphere, all creatures are effectively sterile. Second, the primal powers of gods do not function. Priests still have their powers, but gods may not intervene directly. Additionally, time plays tricks. People who take any amount of their journey through the Dark Sphere, will usually find that their journey took much less time than it should have. The rules for the distortion aren't clear, but the longer the journey, the more that is chopped off the time, and the more contact that the traveler has with other entities, the less that is chopped off the time.

The Dark Sphere is contained in a Crystal Sphere, as described by the Spelljammer™ system. Outside a reality shell, space in the Dark Sphere is strongly distorted. The diameter of the sphere is far smaller than it's cicumference normally warrants. The local value of pi is about 2.25 times its normal "flat" value (~7.06858). The radius of the shell is about 2.9 billion miles (21 days by spelljammer), while the circumference is about 41.0 billion miles (1.2 years by spelljammer). There are no native inhabitants or materials, and those who enter the sphere are likely to think that it is totally empty.

Everything which enters the Dark Sphere is enclosed in a "shell" which contains the reality that it entered from. However, over time, this shell will degrade. As the shell degrades, the things it contains gradually break down until nothing is left. The minimum time required for this to happen is 1 year to render something useless and 10 years before something becomes nonexistent. There are a number of things which can lengthen the time before things start breaking down. The shells around living things last longer, and those around strong-willed beings even more. Shells in regular contact with a gate to their home reality also last longer than the base time.

When individuals in two different reality shells try to affect each other, the result depends on the nature of the two realities. (Example: A modern man fires a gun at a fantasy mage. The gun will do damage normally, because there's nothing in the mage's reality that says guns are impossible. The mage turns around and throws a fireball. The fireball fizzles as soon as it contacts the gunman's reality shell. This is because, even if the gunman believes in magic, his reality does not permit it.) However, if something is in the situation where it's reality shell becomes completely surrounded by another reality shell (as in an enclosed building), they proceed to adopt that reality instead of their own. Next Example: The above gunman enters N'Ferra station, and is ambushed when he leaves by the mage he shot earlier. The mage casts a fireball, and the gunman expects it to fizzle. Now, however, he's carrying around N'Ferra reality, which permits the use of magic, and the fireball will strike him. Note that the reality that a person enters the Dark Sphere with is that of the realm he traveled from, which is not necessarily his own realm.

Bases

Base Arcane

Base Arcane is a waystation for spelljamming vessels from spheres other than N'Ferra. It is made from four overgrown elven Armadas. The arcane have a permanent representative at the station, and there are representatives of all of the major spelljamming races.

Base of Darkness

Not a true base, but worth mentioning. Several of the evil supernatural powers from connected realms have made alliances. The "Base of Darkness" is where they meet to discuss their alliance. In all liklyhood it isn't a physical place. There are no rumors of this base, and only the GM knows if it really exists.

Base Mastermind

This base guarded a wormhole to it's home dimension, a TL/8 culture dominated by robots. Proving implacably hostile, N'Ferra destroyed the base, but fragments of it can still be found in the appropriate region.

Base N'Ferra

Base N'Ferra is a base and staging area for N'Ferra Sphere. Lying in the center of the sphere, it guards the route into N'Ferra. Any form of dimensional travel which intersects the center of the sphere causes the traveler to end up in N'Ferra, and they try to guard this point as much as they can. The base itself looks like a lens made out of wooden scaffolding.

Any vessel will be approaching the base from space will be intercepted and inspected by a customs vessels. If the customs vessel runs into problems there are several large N'Ferra warships nearby to support it. The upper surface of Base N'Ferra is very active. Ships come and go, arriving at and departing from the base to wildspace and N'Ferra Sphere.

The base has large and growing population (around 25,000), and all the amenities of a large town. Prices are two to three times (depending how necessary the item is) as much as in N'Ferra. Wages are doubled for Poor and Struggling Jobs, x2.5 for Average and Comfortable Jobs, and tripled for Wealthy Jobs. The base's economy is based on trade -- to N'Ferra, through the Dark Sphere, and with other dimensions.

Several smaller stations exist outside base N'Ferra's gravity envelope. These smaller bases contain gates to other realms (including Kalyr), and stations where new gates are created and new realms explored. Originally, gates were formed inside of N'Ferra station, but several incidents convinced the N'Ferran authorities to move all those activities to outside the station proper.

Base Vlathachna

Base Vlathachna is a planet-sized organism. It guards the gate to a realm of living horrors. Currently the leaders of base Vlathachna have managed to conceal their existence. They are totally alien to anything else in the Dark Sphere, but dedicated to conquering the entire area.

Beacons

N'Ferra and the Arcane have set up several beacons to aid in traveling the sphere. The beacons are crystalline tetrahedrons which flash different colors. No two beacons have the same set of colors, and a person with a beacon map can travel certain routes in the sphere without much difficulty.

The author is a member of	This page was created by Jefferson Wilson using the Programmer's File Editor (PFE) by Alan Phillips, and with the assistance of the Web Design Group's HTML 4.0 Reference.	Validated to
	© 2000 by Jefferson Wilson. All rights reserved. This page last updated April 1, 2005. Contact Jeff_Wilson63@bigfoot.com with suggestions or problems.