City of Rifts
The City of Rifts is a rich world that is filled with many unique magics and worlds to explore. Information is controlled more tightly here, although planar travel will often provide characters with the potential to acquire unique spells, feats, and abilities that otherwise would be unavailable.
This campaign also provides a new spell system that utilizes the combination of the universal essences that make up reality. This system provides unique mechanics that change the field of combat.
Backstory
At the point where all things become one, and the point from where all things came, a terrible disruption occurred. The very fabrics that hold together all Planes had come undone.
The distinction of one Plane from the next had become harder and harder to maintain, as creatures that once were, creatures that never were, and creatures that had not yet been, began to appear and become one with the native lives.
As time progressed – whether a millenia or merely a century – those great and powerful beings, the Origins, returned to reform reality. However, their powers had weakened, for they derived their strength from the stability of all planes. And so they tried as they could and consumed themselves to stabilize the foundations of reality.
It is during this point in time and space that you exist – at the heart of the unravelling – at the City of Rifts.
The City of Rifts
The City of Rifts is a sprawling city filled with many unique and interesting oddities to see. The visuals are striking, whether they be the Ochre Towers reaching towards the sparkling sky as if the fingers of some dying god or the otherworldly pits that sing the names of those who walk close. Hundreds of riftstone pillars sprout forth from the ground, some having been formed to act as housing, and others seemingly nothing more than strange growths.
Although almost overwhelming with its varied structures, the city is not without order. At the center is the Essence of the Origins – the very location that the last Origin consumed itself. Connecting to this center are all locations deemed important by the Council of Origins.
Council of Origins
The Council of Origins are those powerful few who established a functioning society after the stabilization of reality. They placed themselves as the caretakers of reality and pour countless resources into studying the unravelling and efforts to repair it.
They established the Five Heads of Structure, each of which manages a distinct part of the city-society.
Five Heads of Structure
The Five Heads of Structure are giant autonomous mechanisms that watch over different physical locations and processes within the city.
Head of Travel
The Head of Travel manages dimensional transportation and the District of Dimensions. Much activity passes through this area, as it is the main hub by which the Council and the city’s citizens travel to different planes.
Head of Research
This Head of Research manages the research of methods to improve the state of reality. Beyond researching methods of repeat, it governs the research of new spells, the creation of unique magic items, and similar.
Head of Commerce
The Head of Commerce keeps an eye on transactions between the city-society and other planes. Any individual that seeks to do business with other planes must become part of the Alliance of Trade, thereafter being covered for extortions, loss of property and goods, and similar at the expense of a 15% tax on all external transactions.
For those within the Alliance of Trade, there is a flat reduction of purchasing from other members by 10%. This difference is covered by the taxation of external transactions.
It also manages the distribution of sufficient wealth to citizens of the society.
Head of Civilization
The Head of Civilization keeps a watchful eye on the populace of the entire city-society – those who actively harm other citizens without sufficient reason are sent to the Head of Learning to be analyzed.
Head of Learning
The Head of Learning controls the massive databanks and libraries that contain information on the different planes, their populations, their magics, and much more. It is directly linked to the Head of Research, so as to expedite the research process.
Access to the different databanks are controlled through various restrictions, the most obvious of which is the Overseers. Each Overseer overlooks a distinct range of spells that fall within a specific type and power level. Overseers are mostly autonomous from the Hand of Learning, however their Watchful Implants remain active so long as they are within their libraries.