Multiverse

In Arcana, the Multiverse is the innumerable separate, connecting, or overlapping Planes that separate the Material from the Astral. Since these planes of existence are separated by dimensions greater than the 4 we are most familiar with (height, length, width, and time), it is difficult to come up with an analogy that fully and adequately explains the interrelations of the planes of the Multiverse. One of the common analogies is that of the Stack of Plates.

In this analogy, each plane of existence is likened to a plate. This plate is then stacked on top of other plates and topped with yet other plates. Each plate is a separate, self contained world or reality, complete with its own unique physical and magical laws. Now, this stack of plates is placed in a washtub of water. The water is the Astral Plane, which touches and connects all of the planes at the same time.

Just to make things more complex, there are also "pocket dimensions". These small rifts in time-space are buried inside other planes and can occasionally be accessed physically, though crossing a dimensional border is dangerous if one can find it in the first place. Aside from their small, finite size, these pocket dimensions, or sometimes "microverses", can and often do, have their own laws of physics, natural orders, and magic. Some are found in specific locales, like one rumored to have been created during the Dargis-Coldmoon War. This pocket dimension is said to be somewhere in the Dolwood and helps perpetuate the magical and unpredictable nature of that forest. Others are found deep inside an atomic particle, perhaps inside the electron of a carbon atom on some brick in the wall of a tavern.