UNIVERSE : THE DARK BEYOND
The Cosmic Wellspring
The Cosmic Wellspring is where everything supposedly began, at the unknown center of the Dark Beyond, where the Everlasting Light sparked and revealed a universe of stars. It is a swirling vortex, the size of thousands of worlds, that draws in the space around it, like a drop of water on dry paper. Here the Everlasting Light is said to reside in its most powerful and potent form, though as Astral Light extinguishes, so too does the Everlasting Light continue to wane away.
It is said that all that has ever existed and will exist comes from the Cosmic Wellspring, where the universal energies converge and fan out from. It is also where all things will end, when the universe and all that is in it will gather when the Void of All reclaims everything in the Dark Beyond.
Void of All
The Void of All was there before anything existed. It is the place where nothing exists, and at the same time it is everything. It is the place in the Dark Beyond where no one has been and where everyone has been, where no one will be and where all will end. The Void of All has no real explanation, as it is a place, existence and state of being that bends and changes to its beholder.
The Creators fear it, for it has the potential to change everything to become meaningless and nothing. But the Void of All is an inevitability, as it always grows larger and stronger, until it has nothing left to consume and cover. As the Universal Chaos gains purchase, so too does the strength of the Void of All continue to expand.
Simply said, the Void of All is always surrounding us; held back only by the powers of existence and the Everlasting Light and Astral Light. When there is no longer anything existing, and the vestiges of the Everlasting Light are all gone, the Void of All will cover all things once more, as it had done before it all began.
Astral Light
Where there are stars, there is light. The Astral Light is the embodiment of the stars and their energies, and it feeds the universe and its denizens through the Arcane Threads, which themself give off Aether in all its boundless forms. Astral Light is what remains of the Everlasting Light, and helped create both the Celestials and the Shapers during its infancy. Through the eons, the Astral Light has slowly faded; swallowed again by the Void of All. New Light is always born, but for how much longer is uncertain. For each star that is broken or extinguished by the Celestials, the Astral Light weakens, and the Void of All reclaims more of the Dark Beyond.
As Astral Light wanes and disappears, so too does the Everlasting Light continue to weaken further.
Arcane Threads
The Arcane Threads hold the universe together. These strings of immense potent power keep the stars in place, and transfer the Astral Light between them by using the countless forms of Aether. Along with the Astral Light, the Arcane Threads played a role in forming the Shapers, and in turn the Creators.
Since the birth of the Celestials the Arcane Threads have suffered tears and misuse, as the Celestials play with them and rip them apart without much thought to their importance or consequence of their actions. Because of this not all stars are connected by the Threads, and broken Threads leak arcane and chaotic magical energies into the Dark Beyond; further destabilizing the Eternal Balance and feeding the Universal Chaos. These leaked energies sometimes gather in condensed streams that travel throughout the Dark Beyond, called Arcane Currents.
Shard of Origin
The Shard of Origin was an Aethosian creation. Its purpose was to create a source of cosmic energy, that could feed and sustain the entire universe by creating a network of Arcane Threads and astral stars that couldn't be tampered with by the Celestials. It was crafted with broken stars and Threads, and imbued with energies, memories and soul fragments provided by the Aethosian Creators. Given time, the Shard of Origin could have grown strong and large enough to hold back the Void of All as well, and possibly forever. Unfortunately, it was shattered by a powerful Celestial known as Var'Zon the Breaker, and its many shards flew into every corner of the Dark Beyond.
Worldshards
The Worldshards are fragments of the Shard of Origin. These shards ended up in the many corners of the Dark Beyond, and some are still travelling through the darkness to this day. Worldshards are extremely potent with cosmic energies, and many of them carry the memories of Creators who infused their own energies with the Shard of Origin. Given enough care and the right conditions, a Worldshard can be transformed into a living world, and its stored memories will create a template for life to be born. Nym's Eye is the prime proof of this idea.
Nym's Sphere
When the Celestial Nym perished after her battle with Var'Zon, her legacy lived on. With no body to sustain her, Nym's Aether moved on into her cloak, which had been cast far and wide across many stars. We refer to this space as Nym's Sphere, also sometimes referred to as Nym's Body or Nym's Cloak.
It is an expansive place in the Dark Beyond, and no one can say for certain what lies within it. However, there are what we know as worlds, livable and not, that exist within Nym's Sphere, although we have only ever truly known our own world. Other worlds are so far away that it would be impossible to visit them, even for the Creators of Nym's Eye, who are bound to the Worldsoul through Tariel's Soulbind.
Var'Zon is also supposedly contained somewhere within Nym's Sphere. It is not known exactly where, but his absence since his battle with Nym gives weight to the story of how she trapped him within her cloak.
All that resides within Nym's Sphere cannot leave its confines, as its threads trap almost everything that enters it. From speculations and theories, it is believed that perhaps only two entities that we know of can reliably leave and enter Nym's Sphere at will: the Celestial Eoth the Traveller, and the Overgod Tariel.
Worldspheres
Worldspheres are what we refer to as Living Worlds, similar to our own, and they are minor spheres where at least one or two worlds exist. Like our own Worldsphere, Nym's Eye, other Worldspheres are likely built and designed in a common fashion. However, it is impossible to prove, and only theories develop the idea. The typical definition states that all Worldspheres are worlds that exist within Nym's Sphere, and a Worldsphere is not necessarily limited to only one actual planetary world.
Of the Worldspheres that are known, there are seven of them in total; first revealed to exist by the Overgod Tariel, who claimed to have been to the other worlds, but didn't reveal more than that to their fellow Creators before the Soulbind. In turn Arkath conveyed Tariel's tale to us mortals.
Astronomers sometimes spot the Worldspheres far across the Veil when it is weakened by the Moonwake and Moontide. Categorically, we number the Worldspheres in order of Tariel's journey, and their claims of which worlds were created first.
Nym's Soul is the First World, and it is the last to have been discovered by astronomers, but supposedly the first to have been created in Nym's Sphere.
Nym's Spine, our nearest neighbour, is the Second World.
Nym's Neck consists of two twin-worlds, known as the Third and Fourth Worlds.
Nym's Hand is the Fifth World, and is the farthest away world that we know of.
Nym's Heart is the Sixth World, and it is the brightest of the Worldspheres.
Nym's Eye, our own world, is known as the Seventh World, and is the last to have been created; according to the Overgod Tariel.
There are possibly more Worldspheres within Nym's Sphere, and astronomers eagerly study the Veil during the Moontide and Moonwake to find them, although according to what Tariel has revealed there are only seven in total, but astronomers remain sceptical. Besides, it is always possible that an Eight World could be discovered having being created after ours.
As to whether these Worldspheres are inhabited is anyone's guess, since travel to them is most likely not yet a possibility. If they are indeed living worlds like our own, then the question remains: what kind of life exists there? Why did Tariel visit those worlds? And why did they leave to come to ours?
Riftworlds
Between the fabrics that hold the universe, there are endless, strange worlds and dimensions that are part of what we simply refer to as the Riftworlds. These worlds that exist and don't exist are believed to be the work of the Void of All, which has possibly consumed other worlds throughout the Dark Beyond and placed them within a large dimensional pocket. Theories suggest that the Riftworlds are the endless, alternate universes; previous and future iterations of our universe that have been swallowed by the Void of All to mingle in a single space, and one day our own universe might very likely join them.
The Riftworlds only began to appear as rifts on the planet Nym after the world's Convergence with the Tearworld of Ibel'Ach, which suggests that the Riftworlds have a connection with eldritch, void-like Aether. It likely also means that the world of Ibel'Ach is constantly plagued by similar rifts, which might also suggest that Ibel'Ach's inhabitants are originally from the Riftworlds.
Mages in most magocratic societies are forbidden from studying the Riftworlds due to the danger of destabilizing reality, but those who have entered into a rift and returned speak of worlds that warp and twist, and refute all sane understandings of reality and the various laws such as arcane and cosmic laws. In many cases those who return from a rift have been driven mad; spouting intelligible nonsense. Those who secretly study and seek to gain power from the Riftworlds are typically referred to as warlocks, who not only try to understand the Riftworlds, but also draw energy from them.
In some cases when rifts appear on their own in our world, beings from the Riftworlds have entered into Nym. These occurrences are extremely rare, but are also without doubt very dangerous to the fabrics of reality on Nym. Warlocks might learn to control these beings, but overall it is considered too risky to even be attempted. Riftworlds that appear frequently on the night sky, spotted through powerful telescopes when the Veil is weak, are likely too far away to cause any harm to Nym's Eye. However, their size is believed to be comparable to a standard Worldsphere, and they appear as swirling vortexes of unstable energy.
The most famous rift in our world is the Calastar Rift in Valaís, which was created after the failed mass Spellmerge of Calastar's mages during the first Chanter's March in the Age of Towers. The lands around Calastar dissolved and crumbled into the seas, creating the Great Bay of Calastar. The Calastar Rift still looms over where Calastar City once stood, watched over by Rift Knights of Malassar's Watch. It has seen little activity since it first appeared, but the fact that it has yet to dissipate, and that attempts to close it manually have failed, means that it is potentially still a dangerous threat.
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Other similar such large rifts include the Sun of Qaravon storm in Darion (which consumed the lands of Old Thalia), and the Eye of Perished Xin in Canthra (which sucked and warped the Xin Empire into another dimension altogether).