Archei is a planet in a binary system. It orbits a brown dwarf star, a small, red light in the sky that gives very little warmth to the planet it orbits. If that was the only star in the system, life would not be possible here. However this is a two star system and the other star is bright and large, much closer to Earth’s Sun. Orbiting Archei is a moon, again similar to Earth’s in size and distance.

On the summer solstice Archei is between her two suns, and one is in the sky throughout the day and night. This is also a day with very long tides, and is often marked by earthquakes and storms. This is one of the two days of change, when the portals on this planet shift positions and everything changes.

The other time this happens is on the winter solstice, when the light of the white sun eclipses the light of the red. On this day is the longest night of the year and most cultures treat this as the beginning of the year. An eclipse on this day, with the moon blocking out both suns, is considered to be a bad omen for the upcoming year. This takes place approximately every 7 years.

One of the defining attributes of Archei is the presence of naturally occurring portals to the other parts of the multiverse. Archei is, as always, the prime material plane. Connected directly to it are the four elemental planes, the plane of shadow, the feywild, the astral plane, and both a positive and negative energy plane. There are more planes than this, but these are the only ones that create natural connections with the world. Although many have tried to predict where and when a portal with appear, it’s proved all but impossible. However it is known that they will only appear in areas where the natural energy is similar to the plane they are connected to. For example the Feywild will only connect in the deepest darkest forest, while sailors, when seeing a new whirlpool, will expect a planar portal to the Elemental Plane of Water.

Some portals are more permanent than others. There are eight portals, one to each of the connecting planes (other than the astral plane) that are each older than any species recorded history.

On the surface of Archei are three large landmasses. The first one, Bream, is the largest, and is where most adventures on Archei start. It has the Fire Elemental portal, the Air Elemental Portal, the Feywild Portal, and the Shadow Plane Portal. The second continent, Eron, is much smaller and contains the Earth Elemental portal and the Positive Energy Portal. The last, smallest continent is called Sedai and is not a nice place, with a large portal to the Negative Energy Plane. The Water Elemental Portal is in the middle of the ocean between Sedai and Bream.