When the Celestial Nym perished after her battle with Var'Zon, her legacy lived on. With no body to sustain her, her astral energy 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, what we know as worlds, livable and not, 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 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.
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 claims to have been to the other worlds, but didn't reveal more than that to his 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 his 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 neighbor, 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.
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 energies. 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.