The Material Plane

The Material Plane is the physical world of mortals, forged from primordial chaos by ancient deities. Once a active battlefield where gods, giants, and titanic armies walked the earth, it has since been sealed away from direct divine presence by a cosmic barrier known as the Divine Gate, leaving its inhabitants to shape their own destinies. The plane exists as a vibrant reflection suspended between the timeless twilight of the Feywild and the deathly, decaying shadows of the Shadowfell.

History

The Dawn of Creation

Eons before recorded history, a group of formless gods arrived at a world churning in primordial chaos. Recognizing boundless potential within this disorder and seeking a chance to learn about their place in the universe through creation, they tamed the environment and created life. Elves were born first, followed by dwarves, humans, and other mortal races. To help their children survive this tumultuous, chaotic land, the young gods gifted them small slivers of their own divine essence, which birthed magic.

The Age of Arcanum & The Ancient Sky

During the Age of Arcanum, the mortal races achieved unimaginable feats of arcane innovation, building grand cities. In this era, the night sky was vastly different. Sel3ne (the Moon) did not appear as a celestial body because she physically walked the earth alongside mortals. The stars formed three major constellations: the Hand (with long, delicate fingers), the Castle (with turrets and crenellations), and the jeweled Hammer.

It was during this golden age that the legendary dwarven craftsman Gond—who was not a deity but a mortal blacksmith of unparalleled talent—constructed the miraculous Forge of Spells and built a massive mechanical guardian known as The Blacksmith to protect it. However, progress bred unchecked ambition. Some mortals sought godhood, attempting to use magic for the ruthless pursuit of immortality and ultimate power, which disrupted the cosmic balance of the plane.

The Calamity and the Great Schism

Though the exact trigger of the war is debated—attributed by some to mortal hubris attempting to touch divinity, and by others to conflicts between mortal nations that drew their patron deities to the battlefield—the result was The Calamity. This devastating, magical arms race pitted heroes against monsters, angels against devils, and legendary wizards against great warriors.

As the destruction mounted, the gods fractured into two factions: the Prime Deities, who defended their creations, and the Betrayer Gods, who sought to destroy or enslave them, believing mortals could not be trusted with free will or magic. In a desperate bid to preserve his magical research from the ravages of this global conflict, the archmage Halas Lutagran constructed the Folding Halls of Halas, an extra-dimensional manor of about one hundred interconnected rooms accessible only by a clockwork-puzzled key called the Heirloom Sphere.

When the Calamity finally ravaged the north, the grand cities of the Age of Arcanum were utterly ruined, leaving the natural world scorched, barren, and scarred.

The Divine Gate & The Era of Divergence

To end the ruinous presence of unchecked divinity, the Prime Deities constructed the Divine Gate, a powerful barrier that sealed both themselves and the Betrayer Gods away from the mortal realm. This sorrowful farewell ushered in the current era, marked by the Era of Divergence. Since then, a long line of stars stretching across the middle of the horizon has symbolized the Divine Gate, and the gods’ influence can only be channeled through their most devout mortal worshipers.

The Pact of Phandelver & The Curse of the Hand

Approximately one thousand years ago, a historic alliance known as the Pact of Phandelver was forged between the humans of Highthorn (led by King Phandelver II), the dwarves of Axeholm (led by Queen Kima), and the reclusive elves of the Hand of Sehanine (led by Archmage Larellion). Together with the Gnomes of the Vale, they utilized Gond’s Smelter to power the legendary Forge of Spells.

The Pact unraveled due to growing mistrust, catalyzed when Larellion’s daughter, Vyldara, poisoned Queen Kima out of jealousy toward her sister Agatha (the “Moonlit Prodigy”). Vyldara was cut down by the dwarven guard, but Sehanine Moonbow did not claim her soul, and she rose as a banshee, turning Axeholm’s residents into undead shadows. Highthorn was sacked and became the ruin known as Cragmaw Castle.

Believing his daughter had been kidnapped, Larellion fell into despair. As hordes of monsters descended, he cast the Mythal of Moonshadow, shifting the Hand of Sehanine into the Ethereal Plane. Angered by this abandonment, Sehanine Moonbow and Corellon twisted the mythal into a divine curse, trapping the elves in repeating time loops and transforming Larellion into a mad Baelnorn. Recently, the Magnificent Five phased the Hand back using Vyldara’s Hearthstone, defeated Larellion, laid the spirits of both Vyldara and Agatha to rest, and permanently lifted the millennium-old curse.

The Dragon War of the North

Three centuries ago, a coalition of five Chromatic Dragons conspired to lay waste to the rising northern cities of the Sword Coast: Cryovain the Everfrost (White), Skaldreth the Red Rage (Red), Barakis the Sandstorm (Blue), Nocturne the Dread Prince (Black), and Virethas the Jade Queen (Green). While Luskan submitted and paid tribute, the cities of Waterdeep, Neverwinter, Silverymoon, and Baldur’s Gate formed the Lord’s Alliance to push back the threat.

A legendary band of heroes—including Elminster Aumar (the Sage of Shadowdale), Lady Tanager Alagondar of Neverwinter, Hrothgar Hillsfar of Kuldahar, Esfaloth Nightbreeze (The Fey-Touched), Gorion of Candlekeep, Kiara Shadowbreaker, and Uther Vendrock—confronted this terrifying threat.

The heroes successfully defeated the dragons using five specialized Dragon Masks, each corresponding to a chromatic color, which granted their bearers the power to influence and control the minds of the great wyrms. Using these masks, the party convinced the Black, Red, and Blue dragons to fly away and never return to the northern Sword Coast. Hrothgar Hillsfar buried the White Dragon Mask in his own empty grave in a tomb by the shores of Lac Dinneshere, the frozen lake near Kuldahar.

However, the masks failed against the smartest and most wily of the group, the Green Dragon Virethas, the Jade Queen. She had to be dealt with directly and was slain outside Neverwinter by Lady Tanager Alagondar, who tragically died in the same strike. To protect the secret Firbolg community of Kuldahar and his family from future draconic vengeance, Hrothgar asked Elminster to cast a powerful version of Modify Memory and True Polymorph on him, turning him into the frail old human adventurer known as Farwald.

Recent Events & The Draconic Threat

Today, the Cult of the Dragon seeks to resurrect Virethas. Sidorna, the Green Wyrmspeaker, sought to claim the Soul Stone of Elire Stork (the sister of Gilmore Stork, a descendant of Alagondar) within the Dragon Barrow, which was built within the very skeletal remains of Virethas, and trigger the reincarnation of Virethas. Although the Magnificent Five interrupted the ritual, Virethas was resurrected as a weakened, adult-sized shadow of her former self and escaped into the sky.

Meanwhile, in the far north, Cryovain fled south to terrorize the Sword Mountains, while Talis is currently held in Neverwinter’s high-security Peninsula Prison.

Factions of Note

The Zhentarim

The Black Network is currently fractured by a bitter internal schism. The chapter leaders across the plane are:

Members of this shadow guild recognize each other by a secret symbol: a dragon with its wing bent inward, swallowing a crescent moon.

Cosmology and the Pantheon

The deities of the Material Plane are split into two distinct factions, represented by their alignment, teachings, and their cosmic tarot cards:

The Prime Deities

The Betrayer Gods

Geography and Settlements

The Sword Coast