Rath: Icthin and Ulek

Veya told us an interesting tale tonight, as we gathered around the campfire and ate a delcious confection that Maxwell prepared known as "brownies". (Perhaps the fairie-like beings are a primary ingredient? It would certainly explain the delicious taste!)

I shall attempt to record as accurately as I can the story Veya related, as something tells me this information may be vital to our party's survival.

"As many 'walkers as you could ask, you'd find as many philosophies on the composition and "geography" of the Planes. My master taught that the planes are like a layered cake: at the extreme poles, you find the negative and positive energy planes. Moving inward, your find the demonic and celestial planes of various types. Towards the center of the "cake", you find the Material Planes, such as Toril, from whence I hail, and Krynn, the realm which my master and were fleeing on our way here.

"5,000 years ago, Icthin and Ulek managed to open stable and permanent gates between their realms. Given that Icthin was a world trapped in an Ice Age, and Ulek was a barren desert, it was an extremely profitable enterprise for both realms.

"For 2,000 years, the realms of Icthin and Ulek flourished: Icthin providing Ulek with moisture and fertile soil, which Ulek used to build oases into farms, and finally to convert an entire continent from an arid wasteland to a veritable breadbasket; in return, Ulek provided Icthin with livestock, raw minerals, and other necessities to keep the peoples of Icthin alive.

"Then, abruptly, on the 2,997 anniversary of the opening of the stable gates, there was a -- catastrophe. No one living is precisely sure what caused it, but both gates ruptured in the same instant, causing a powerful ripple of magic to cascade throughout the planes.

"There are many theories about what caused the rupture. Some 'walkers teach that the stable presence of such strong magic for such a long period drew beings of choas who wreaked destruction for their own unfathomable purposes; some tell of a rising feeling of bitterness in the Icthinians towards the Ulekites, while yet others say it was the Ulekites that began to resent the Icthinians; regardless of which realm they believe began it, both of these camps believe that a magical conflict erupted during the anniversary celebration, and the rupturing of the gates was a last strike by one side or the other. And there are still other theories: my master believed that every bit of material transferred from one plane to the other caused a slow buildup of magical energies in the gates until they reached a critical mass and erupted in a storm of magical energies.

"In fact, my master and I came here in search of clues to how these magical gates were constructed, and how they were ruptured, and what happened to those lands affected by the rupture. For you see, when I said "catastrophe" earlier, I meant it. The events on Icthin and Ulek spread across the known realms: sections of many adjoining planes suffered dramatic shifts in their known geography: habited lands were wiped from the map, while in other places entirely new regions appeared -- sometimes inhabited, sometimes chunks of wild jungle or mountain ranges, and in at least one case, an entirely new city appeared overnight -- uninhabited, but with all the structures in perfect condition, as though the city had just been built, while both Icthin and Ulek were closed to the planeswalkers forever. They simply...disappeared, and not in a clean fashion. It was as though your dwarven friend here had attempted to cut two layers from the center of the planar "cake" using his fine warhammer.

"I'm telling you this now because, mere moments before the he was attacked and slain before my eyes, my master told me that he believes this place, your plane, is the place we've been seeking: the remains of missing planes. As one form of evidence, he pointed out to me that some of your peoples worship the gods of our home plane, Toril: Moradin, Talos; while others worship gods from planes such as Oerik: Heironeous and Hextor. If it's true, this is important because the place we're going is connected to the planes, and there may be some side effects from trying to take you through the gate. You see, one of the more mystifying results of the cataclysm is that there have been no planeswalkers from your realm. Ever. You may have troubles passing through the gate."

An interesting tale, but I do hope she and her master are wrong. The last thing we need at this point is planar troubles.