Fantasy Space is divided into three zones or areas of space: Wildspace, the Phlogiston, and Void Space.
Wildspace is where all the planets are; each planetary system is contained within a Crystal Sphere, which is a physical object twice as large in circumference as the distance from the sun to the furthest orbital body. This space inside the crystal sphere is called Wildspace. Wildspace behaves much like what we know as space; it is a vacuum, and can be cold, but due to the crystal spheres, often it can be somewhat warm. Every crystal sphere is a little different.
Wildspace and Crystal Spheres are widely varied in
characteristics; some are simple spheres, some have giants roaming the
spheres, some have a nice hot sun at the center, some don't. In spheres
where there is a sun, the temperature of space is usually warm and
comfortable; however it can be dreadfully hot depending on a lot of
factors. Planets orbit their sun, which is also called Primary,
categorizing it with the planets as celestial bodies. These orbits are
varied in distance and sometimes trajectory, much like the planetary
systems we are used to. The stars one sees when one looks up into the
night sky are NOT other suns, as the ancients used to believe, but
rather magical crystals embedded in the inside surface of the crystal
sphere. Some of them have obvious functions, such as operating the
gates to get in or out of the crystal sphere. Others, who knows?
Surrounding all the Crystal Spheres is a thick gaseous matter called the Phlogiston.
The Phlogiston surrounds and connects all Crystal
Spheres. Phlogiston cannot exist inside a Crystal Sphere, probably due
to it's flammable nature. Phlogiston can be ignited by as little as a
lit candle, and the resultant conflagration can spread to many hundreds
of miles around the center. Everyone knows, if you travel through the
Phlogiston, you do NOT use anything with fire, unless you have it
contained. The Phlogiston has a planar attitude,
as it is several times as thick at it's "Center" as it is above. The
Crystal Spheres are described as "bobbing" in the Phlogiston, and in
fact it is often referred to as a "sea". Plogiston that exists above
this plane of density, the "atmosphere" of space, if you will, is the
same material as that below, but much thinner. The "atmospheric
Phlogiston" reacts to the "flow rivers" with a similar movement,
creating "air currents" which can be utilized by sails and rigging to
steer and drive spelljamming ships. The "planar" nature of the
Phlogiston suggests a gravitic source somewhere below it, but nobody has
been able to document such a source.
If you wish to travel from one Crystal sphere to another, say from Oerth to Toril, you will enter and navigate in the Phlogiston. The Phlogiston forms many flows, sometimes called rivers, that accelerate the movement of any ship inside it by a factor no one has been able to determine; speed is impossible to determine as there are no markers to use as a guide; one simply knows roughly how many days it will take to get from one sphere to another. Travel outside of the flows is possible, but much slower; travel inside Wildspace normally reaches about 4,000,000 miles a day, as an average. This speed varies according to the engine design of the particular spelljammer ship. In the Phlogiston outside of the flows, speed slows to just about double this speed, a fraction of the speed inside a flow. Also, the non flow areas tend to be inhabited by space born creatures, or hide outs for criminals. It's dangerous and slow, but if you don't want to be followed or detected in the Phlogiston, going outside the flows is a good idea.
The
Phlogiston was assumed to be the end of it when men and other demi
humans started to explore. It extends far "above" and "below" the
spheres, so the assumption was that the Phlogiston was the universe,
holding all the crystal spheres inside it. What they found out however,
after enough exploration, was that there was an even bigger area of
space, they called Void Space. They now understand their universe is a
completely dark, starless, frigid void. There is no idea if the Void
has limits, or where the Phlogiston is in relation to the "limits" of
the Void; perhaps they never will.
The
only recorded properties of Void Space is that it is entirely dark,
appears to be entirely empty, and is as frigid cold as one will ever
experience. Travel in Void Space is extremely dangerous, as the cold
will eventually affect the oxygen inside your ship, and you will freeze
to death. There is nothing in the Void, as far as anyone knows, so
there's nowhere to gain supplies of any kind. Navigating in the Void is
obviously dangerous and essentially impossible. For a while, if you
look down you will see the pinkish glow of the Phlogiston, but
eventually even that light gets lost, and you have no compass point to
guide you at all. It is surmised that there have been many a ship go
lost in the Void, but no one has recorded a successful discovery mission
thus far.
As this illustration demonstrates, the Phlogiston is
thicker at the center, grows thinner as it moves "higher" or "lower"
from the center of gravity. The "Surface" of the Flow is where the
Phlogiston is thick enough to "float" upon. This is where the flow
rivers are, the currents that increase speed of travel from crystal
sphere to crystal sphere. The gravitic center of the Phlogiston works
in 2 dimensions; one can "float" on either surface edge, without
experiencing any sense of "falling" or being "upside down." Of course,
such distinctions are irrelevant in space. There are no recorded
expeditions to the gravitic center; as far as anyone knows, the center
is just more densely packed Phlogiston.
Since
there is gravity acting on the Phlogiston, and any ships which sail
upon it, this means the gravity will also act on the interiors of the
ships; therefore, gravity is usually not a problem. However, things in
the Phlogiston have a way of surprising you, and the gravity that you
have come to expect may suddenly erupt in the opposite direction or
switch polarity and thrust the ship upwards. This is why most
spelljamming ships have a gravity system of some kind.
This is a top down image of the Radiant Triangle,
although simplified for illustration's sake. This image demonstrates
how the density of the Phlogiston increases around the flow rivers, and
becomes far thinner as it progresses away from the rivers. There are
also two dark spaces: the large one in the lower right hand corner is an
intrusion of VoidSpace**; this is typical in the areas where the
Phlogiston is almost thin enough as to be non existent or trace elements
only. The smaller one in the center of the picture is not VoidSpace,
or so it is thought, but a sargasso of dark phlogiston, still as
flammable as ever but colorless, and resistant to light of any kind. A
Sargasso is a great place for low life's to hang out, hide from the law,
etc etc, because they are relatively small and not impossible to
navigate in and out of, whereas the VoidSpace intrusions represent a
great threat in that they have been known to pull ships out of the
Phlogiston altogether, into the VoidSpace proper. CASAspace no longer exists, but it has not been changed in this illustration.
