The center point of the sphere is a large fire world which
serves as the "sun" of the sphere. It is not stationary. Rather, the
Light from Above both rotates and orbits the exact center of the
sphere. This orbit is both small (in distance) and strange, because
there is nothing in the exact center of the sphere to orbit around,
and the orbit itself is a complex three dimensional dance that forms
not the normal oval or circle, but rather a sphere. The Light from
Above is said to be inhabited by faerie of heat and flame.
These giant irridecent pearls make up the stars and constellations of the sphere. They hover just above the surface of the crystal shell, with no visible means of attachment. Yet they do not move from their places. At least not often. Sometimes, for no discernable reason, one of the multi- colored batch of planetoid-sized pearls will "migrate" to a new position. This often sets off a little storm of migrations, as the stars realign themselves to reform the proper constellations...in new positions and poses.
The stars are often called the Lights from Below because of the legend that they were drawn up from the hidden depths of the sea by Oberon as gifts for his Lady. When he brought them to her, however, he found her with a mortal lover. In a rage, Oberon cast the pearls at the human, and crushed his skull. Saddened by this death, Titania affixed the pearls to the sky so that they would look down on Oberon in eternal reproach, so that the Lord of the Fae would not forget his unworthy deed.
Or so goes the legend.
The planet furthest from the sun, this frozen world is one great heart-shaped block of ice. Legend says that it is the heart of the Dragon of Icy Despair, a creature that was slain by Titania in the beginning of time so that it's cold breath would not spread hopelessness and futility among the forest folk.
Iceheart is inhabited by frost fae and ice creatures of all sorts, except for white dragons, as none of the dragonkind save faerie dragons inhabit Seeliespace IV.
All of these natives of Iceheart are said to be malign.
The planet of Sinkhole is an irregular glob of mud. It is
said that the fair folk were crafting a new planet when they suddenly
abandoned their work, not even half-finished. Sinkhole is an
unpleasant place, populated by mudmen and other creatures spawned by
the life energy invested, and wasted, in this could-have-been world.
This planet is neither grey itself, nor is it inhabited by grey gnomes. Rather, it's name is formed by taking the first word-like structure, the middle word-like structure, and the last word-like structure from its gnome-given name and stringing those three words together. This is how the tinker gnome colony came up with a use- name for their home.
The planet is essentially all plains and scrubland interupted by some low hills and many large still freshwater lakes. It's only native inhabitants are small rodents, small lizards, and even smaller insects. The gnomish colony has begun to turn much of this territory into land suitable for farming and manufacturing, but at slightly less than ten thousand in numbers, the gnomes can hardly take advantage of an entire planet's resources.
Once called Dvvaa, this planet is another unfinished work of
the fae...though it was further along than Sinkhole when it was
abandoned.
The primary world of Seeliespace IV, Eldreth is the only planet in the sphere with moons (apart from a few lonely asteroids and comets, the sphere is remarkably free of small planetary bodies). There are four of them, of approximately the same size. All are collectively called the Lights In-Between, but their individual names are Nbebou, Moukree, Purshar, and Gendob. The moons are uninhabited and do not have air envelopes. Their orbits are aligned so that there is no spot on Eldreth that does not have at least one moon in the sky at any one time, with usually more than one being visible. Also, the moons are composed of a strange white rock that reflects light so well that they are clearly visible even in broad daylight.
The primary continent of Eldreth is called Landreth. Fully half of this continent is occupied by the conglomerated nations of the Southern Empire...which is neither southern nor an empire. Rather, this nation is composed of many smaller nations which run their own affairs in various ways, whether by local councils or by tyrant overlords. The Empire does not care. What binds these lands together is their endless search for profit and prosperity.
The Merchant Houses, to which virtually all citizens belong, represent the overgovernment. They have written the Code by which all the local rulers must abide. In addition, the Houses send representatives to the Merchant Council...a grand body that makes law in the name of the Empire. The Code permits certain areas of Empire law to override local law, while other areas are reserved to the local rulers. It is however, the Advisory Committee, composed of the chosen representatives of the twenty most powerful Houses, that directly rules the Empire. They are the only ones with the power to add to or alter the Code, and they command the military of the Southern Empire.
The Southern Empire is an experiment by the mysterious rilmani, who are attempting to forge a stable human society of true neutrality. The rilmani stand behind the Advisory Committee and prevent any one force from dominating the Empire. This is fortunate because one of the Empire's Twenty is controlled by the Talonmist family of Toril and one of their mages sits as a member of the Advisory Committee.
Another quarter of Landreth is shared by four territories. The Kingdom of Aelfir is a feudal society in the Celtic style. Dukes rule almost unchallenged over their fiefs and duns, with lesser lords owing those Dukes fealty. Over the Dukes of the Realm stands the High King, who is more a referee than a ruler. The king is really no more powerful than one of the Great Dukes, but he holds the fealty of all the dukes, and keeps the peace between them. But the king must be careful a majority of his dukes do not unite against him, for by tradition, a unanimous dukal vote can unseat and re-elect a king...and less than unamimous votes have unseated kings when those in the majority had the troops.
Aelfir has a human population of near eleven million. The humans are all sworn to the service of a local lord. This lord answers to a baron who is himself liegeman to one of nine Great Dukes. The nine Great Dukes swear fealty to the High King, who rules the tenth and largest Great Duchy himself.
Every noble commands a warband of standing troops which he must place at the service of his lord. Many mercenaries and wanderers also either owe their loyalty to a lord or can be quickly hired. Each Great Duke can thus raise an army of five to fifteen thousand trained warriors. The High King has a standing army of twenty thousand troops and their lords to defend his rich central realm. Should the High King call, Aelfir can muster an united force of over one hundred thousand trained human warriors. In addition, the realm has the resources to call up to five hundred thousand peasant levies should the need be great enough, but few of those would be worthwhile on a true field of battle.
Aelfir also has large populations of firbolg, wood giants, gnomes and dwarves. These peoples live in their own communities and answer to their own leaders, but those leaders must swear fealty to the human High King. More than once in Aelfir's history, the strength of these non-human allies has allowed a High King to face down his Great Dukes. Recently, the High King Kerlain has granted more lands to an influx of rock gnomes, dwarves, firbolg and wood giants from the Giant Lands. These young and adventuresome members of their races came to fight against the army of the fallen Black Prophet in return for territory of their own in Aelfir. Exactly how many firbolg, wood giants, gnomes and dwarves live in Aelfir is unknown, but many thousand of each race answer any call to arms sent out by the High King. There are a number of dwarves and gnomes, and even a few firbolg and wood giants, who chose to permanently reside in human communities. These non-humans fall under the jurisdiction of the human lord in whose lands they dwell.
Aelfir is also home to the sylvan races of the fae. These beings live side by side with the mortals and giants of Aelfir, but answer to no lords save their own. The seelie have the upper hand in the fae realms of Aelfir. They live in a symbiotic relationship with the humans, a friendly partnership with the giants and gnomes and mutual respect and avoidance with the dwarves. The humans see little of the sylvans, but their hand can be felt everywhere and no one would forget to leave out a dish of cream at night. The sylvans do not interfere with mortal politics or rule when it does not directly concern them, but should their interests or the safety of the realm be at stake, the fae will act in direct alliance with the High King and the other mortals of Aelfir.
The newest population in Aelfir is that of the refugee Northmen. With most of their people dead due to the Blacklands or at the hands of unseelie hosts during the war against the fallen Black Prophet, the Northmen are much reduced from the mighty houses that warred with Aelfir in the days before the Coming of Entropy. The Northmen have found shelter in Aelfir, but have also caused conflict. They refuse to disperse into Aelfir's population and to swear fealty to the native lords. Instead, the Northmen insist on owing fealty to their own jarls, who then swear their own loyalty directly to the High King. The Great Dukes fear a reduction in their own power, and thus oppose the Northmen's semi-independence, but after the great sacrifice of over twenty thousand Northmen warriors fighting against the unseelie during the war against the fallen Black Prophet, the seelie supported High King Kerlain's decision to grant the Northmen the status they demand. Kerlain ceded the harsh lands along the north-western border of Aelfir to the Northmen's jarls, but the Northmen had long ago grown used to such frigid tundra and taiga and now thrive there in their limited nubmers. The remaining one hundred and twenty-five thousand Northmen, of which twenty-five thousand are hale and hearty warriors, relish the thought of taming these territories and rebuilding their depleted strength.
One outgrowth of the conflict over the Northmen was the short-lived parliament of two houses that Kerlain and his lords were publicly convinced into instituting by the philosopher Shiflin Taylor Magus. One house was to be constituted of Aelfir's lords, the other of the Northmen's jarls. High King Kerlain has since dissolved this gathering on advice from the fae and Taylor herself.
West of Aelfir is much untamed wilderness inhabited by a smattering of peoples and groups, stalked by monsters and ruled by the fae and elves, if by anyone. Aelfir claims much of this land, but the independant duns and human princelings who rule them ignore Aelfir with impunity. This is also the last refuge of the elusive elven clans. These are divided into two groups: the sylvan elves and the nomadic high elven riders.
The high elves are divided into thirteen tribes or clans, each with a totem. While they do worship the Seldarine, they strive to achieve the ideals of their totems, which are said to be powerful spirits that guard their chosen people. The totems are: Eagle, Bear, Otter, Wolf, Beaver, Raven, Cougar, Horse, Mouse, Salmon, Moose (the Landreth moose looks more like a buffalo than a moose), Badger, and Snake. The high elves meet yearly at midsummer in a great religious festival celebrating the solstice. There they have many competitions and their great chiefs and priests hold council. They have no permanent dwellings, but do revisit the same spots yearly as they migrate with the seasons. The only high elf cities on Eldreth are found on the Island of Summer across the Straights of Kumraith, where elves journey when they feel the need to take leave from the mortal world. Few elves who make this journey ever return, and the elven communities there are much closer to elven culture on other worlds such as Oerth and Toril.
Some of the high elves who dwelled upon the more northern territories or who migrated to the eastern side of Landreth took to worshipping the Vanir. These elves have dark and mysterious ways, and live in small communities hidden from men. They do communicate with their brethren, though infrequently, and are known to harbor strange beliefs and magics.
The sylvan elves actually do have a few "cities"; tree fortresses where different tribes gather to trade goods and information. Other than this, each tribe has its own lands. Some tribes dwell in villages while others migrate between semi-permanent or entirely temporary camps.
The sylvan do not worship totems, though they do honor spirits. Primarily, they pray to Solonor Thelandira, the god of the sylvan elves, but they also pay homage to the rest of the Seldarine and to Titania's court.
On the northern border of the Blacklands - on other side of the continent from the lands of the elves - hidden in a small cluster of mountains that have resisted the scouring sands of the Sea of Entropy, is a lake island known as Eilam Nam Ailur. In recent months, something extraordinary has happened there. Both lake and island have been infused with energy from the plane of Arborea. A mysterious mist shrouds Eilam Nam Ailur and wards away all intruders. Though it is no longer hidden as well as it once was, it now is a place of retreat and safety, of learning and healing, for the elven peoples of Eldreth.
East of Aelfir are the Giant Lands. This area is mostly mountainous, but includes both active volcanoes and a small glacier. It is a mishmash of territory, ruled by many small nations of giants and giant-kin, while dwarves and rock gnomes burrow in the mountainous depths and strange rocky fae hide in realms of their own. Wise outsiders leave the Giant Lands to themselves.
Finally, there is the northernmost quarter of Landreth. What was once northern Aelfir and the fjords of the Northmen, as well as much wild territory and the very northern border of the Giant Lands, plus vast tracks of ocean which adjoin these land-bound regions, is now the Blacklands of Entropy. Created in the Entropy War the mutants and poisons of the Blacklands seek ever to expand south and bring their corruption to the people of Aelfir, and beyond. Many of the Blacklands' foul creatures of the land and air have been hunted and slain since the Blacklands' creation, while many more were butchered when the Black Prophet's Army of the Blacklands was crushed, but no one doubts that yet more hideous things dwell in the blasted north and in the hidden depths of the corrupted ocean, awaiting their chance to raid southwards once more. Apart from Blacklands creatures, only twisted unseelie fae call the corrupted regions home.
In 1373 DR, a large central portion of the Blacklands was restored
by the god Badir's use of the First Word. This territory of beautiful,
rugged highlands and numerous rivers, is called the Korren-Badir, or
Badir's Gift. However, while the power of Entropy on land has suffered
numerous, possibly crippling blows, Entropy's power in the ocean remains
strong.