The Nature of Space - Part 3

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The Nature of Space - Part 3
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Nature of Stellar Spheres - Sages believe stellar
spheres are created by overlapping elemental and
spiritual energy wave patterns. Every star system has
several vortices and connections to the outer
spirutual planes and the inner elemental planes.
Energy patterns eminate from these connections, and
interact with other energy patterns, creating a star
system. The patterns all interact and overlap to
create a unified super-pattern consisting of many
energy types. This pattern is manifested to the senses
of most sentient beings as a star system.

The farther one goes from the generating sources,
towards the spatial edges of the super-pattern, the
weaker the super-pattern becomes. At a certain point
it weakens enough that it becomes negligible. This
point is always spherical, and this boundary is what
is called the stellar sphere (the world "stellar
sphere" is also synonymous with star system, it has
two meanings). From Normal Space this point cannot be
detected by normal means, and from Aether Space it
appears as a huge solid sphere. Many theorize that
this is because the nature of Aether Space means it
cannot exist inside in the same spatial area as a
super-pattern. Many believe the only thing that Normal
Space and Aether Space share is the same time-space
continuum, but due to the lack of elemental and
spiritual energies in Aether Space, time and space
warps and acts differently here.

It is impossible to contact either the astral or
ethereal planes from Aetherspace, or the inner or
outer planes. Any spells that involve these planes
will not work, either. When one leaves the safety of
one's ship, one will also find that the aether plane
has no temperature or pressure. It is neither hot nor
cold. A traveler who leaves thier ship in Aether Space
would find that they would neither freeze nor boil,
and they would not need air, water or food. However,
if they traveled too far from their source of spell
propulsion or space travel they would begin to loose
thier connections with the planes that make them
exist. All ships capable of traveling through aether
space must use technology or have magics woven into
them that provide a stable point for beings from
within stellar spheres. If someone left that
protection their connections to the energy fields
native to stellar spheres would begin to dissapate. As
this happened, they would begin to fade away,
dissapating into nothingness. To another it would
appear as if the individual was slowly turning into
aether and blowing away!

There are odd anomolies to this rule, however. These
are stars, planets, and planetoids that seem to have
some magical quality that keeps them from dissapating.
All known sciences say that the existence of
connections to the inner and outer planes cannot exist
in Aether Space, and that the absence of these
connections itself is Aether Space. But somehow, these
unique celestial bodies are able to exist in the
aether without a stellar shell around them. Most sages
believe they actually do have a stellar sphere, or at
least a quasi-stellar sphere, but it is very weak and
exists immedately above the celestial body, hugging it
like a tight garment. They theorize that the stellar
sphere is weak and less defined than most stellar
spheres are. According to the theory, one passes
through the shell naturally without having to use
technology or magic, and one does not even notice when
the shell is penetrated. Whatever the cause, the
results are planets, asteroids, or other bodies that
seem to float in the aether without an apparent
stellar shield surrounding them. Natives from within
stellar shells who land on one of these bodies can
survive there without dissapating, but they require
food and water again, though only to varying degrees.

There are also some permanent space stations in Aether
Space. These are artificial creations, and they are
protected by the same kinds of magics or technologies
that are used to protect ships that travel through
space. Some civilizations have even built huge
"jump-generating" space stations near or at the
stellar limit of their star systems. These stations
are half in and half out of the aether. They generate
a huge field that surrounds them for hundreds of miles
where the jump from Normal Space to Aether Space and
back is done automatically, without a ship's crew even
noticing that it was done. When these stations are
approached abnd passed by a ship coming from the
Normal Space side, it seems as if one just keeps
sailing past the space station and into the rainbow
clouds of the aether. When a ship comes from the other
way it seems as if the space station is hovering in
the middle of a huge hole in the star system's stellar
shell.



Aether Storms - There are legends that the aether is
highly flammable, because the "momentum" nature of the
aether amplifies the energies inherent in fire and
creates a huge fire ball out of any small fire that is
created. This may be true in some galaxies, but it is
not the case in the galaxy the Dragon Galaxy is part
of. Sages guess that this is because there is some
subtle diffence in the way fire is manifested here
when it is created by a traveler, or that it could be
due to differences in the magics used to enable beings
from inside of stellar spheres to travel through
Aether Space. This subject will be discussed in more
detail later.

Though fire storms are not a rule, there are mighty
aether storms that seem to suddenly appear out of
nowhere. No one knows what causes them, and it is
almost impossible to predict when one is coming unless
one has a good view of the storm physically moving in
one's direction. Sometimes they seem to just rise up
out of the center of thick aether channels within
moments, and other times the thin, transparent aether
seems to suddenly thicken and transform into a storm.

Some say these storms are created when spontaneous
elemental or spiritual vortices open up, releasing
alien energies into Aether Space. They theorize that
if enough of these vortices open up near the same
space and time and stabilize, they will cause first a
massive aether storm, and when the storm clears an
infant stellar sphere and star system will exist.
There are also legends which hint that aether storms
are somehow connected to ether cyclones, a mysterious
phenomenon that sometimes connects the ethereal plane
to the astral plane. Tales of aether storms clearing
and unwitting travelers finding themselves in the
ethereal plane, astral plane, or alternate prime
planes of existence abound, as well as tales of some
ending up in various inner or outer planes (most
likely by being blown through elemental vortices
hidden inside the storm).

Aether storms are also caused by momentous events
within stellar spheres, like a star going supernova.
These events seem to somehow travel through the
stellar shell (though if one looks at the shell it
doesn't seem to move or change at all) and into the
aether, where they agitate the aether and whip it up
into a storm. Sometimes, if the event is violent
enough (like when a black hole is created) the stellar
shell seems to actually vanish and wink out of
existence, sometimes for moments and sometimes for
years. When this happens the entire contents of the
old stellar sphere physically enter Aether Space until
the stellar shell winks back into existence or the
physical contents transform into aether.

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