The Elemental Conflux

The source of elemental magic in most of the planes, The Elemental Conflux is place of constant flow and change. The four core elements fire, water, earth, and air each makeup shards or demiplanes that, together, create the Elemental Conflux. Although the shield of Ethereum thinly surrounds The Elemental Conflux as a whole, the individual shards have no such protections and collide with each other often. When these collisions occur between two shards, several things happen. Firstly the violent combining of two elements birth hybrid elementals that combine the two energies such as Mud, Steam, and Smoke Elementals. Secondly the collision causes "pieces" of the shards to break off and be flung across the Sea of Dreams. If these pieces find their way onto other planes of existence, they become phenomenon known as Elemental Nodes. These Nodes are drawn to natural areas that correspond with their element but are not always able to. Thirdly the energy produced by these collisions feed into Pandemonium causing bursts of uncontrolled elemental power there and possibly disrupting permanent Elemental Nodes across the Sea of Dreams. If an Elemental Node forms in a place affiliated with their element, such as a Water Elemental Node forming in the ocean, they may become permanent. However if they form in an area without access to their element to fuel them they fade after some time, usually affecting the area in some significant way however. Disrupted Elemental Nodes can cause poor weather in the area, even natural disasters if the node is large enough, or other chaotic effects varying wildly. Lastly there is an incredibly rare occurrence when three shards collide at the same time. This event would release vastly more energy and make it much more likely that Elemental Nodes will become unstable. in addition the mixture of the three elements simultaneously can produce Elementals known as Weirds that are hybrids of all three of the affected elements. Although there is no evidence of it every happening that has been discovered by the mages who study the different planes, most theorize a collision of all four shards is possible and would likely have devastating effects all across the Sea of Dreams.