The Flow

Spelljamming Through Corporate Wildspace

Wildspace is rough. It’s not a pretty place to be. Between Flowshifts, Warp
Storms, Stargates, Stellar Dragonflights, Titans, Starbeasts, and the occasional Planar
Surge, the natural hazards of Wildspace are immense. It makes you wonder why
anyone would ever even bother to explore it. But then, like most things that are absurdly
dangerous, there’s one really, really simple answer.

For money.

Jamming is the easiest way to make money among the Spheres. Nice, boring
delivery trips from one sphere to the next; serving as a Runner or a Soldier for one of
the great Trade Leagues; mercenary work, either for the Trade Leagues or smaller,
more independent enterprises; exploring the uncharted realms in hopes of finding a
Sphere to settle and start a little Trade League competition of your own; or just outright
piracy. Yes, there’s a lot of ways to make money in the Spheres, if one’s willing to brave
the myriad risks that come with it.

And that doesn’t just mean the natural risks of the Flow. Pirates, rival companies,
angry and uncivilized natives, opportunistic bastards, all sorts of people are looking to
stop you from making your hard-earned coin or bill. But that’s alright. That’s why you’re
paid big credit; you’re good at what you do.

Or you’re dead.

Welcome to the Flow. Keep your head low and your shield high, keep your purse
close and your wits about you, and remember the number one rule: mind the currents.

What Is The Flow?

 The Ebb And The Eddies, The Current, And The Warp
Basic knowledge for every Jammer is the nature of the Flow, at least as it’s
understood by thinking folk. See, it turned out that the various worlds we come from
aren’t so isolated at all. Every stellar system is protected by something called a Crystal
Sphere, a massive construct of energy and matter that blocks the Flow from entering.
Some people claim these Spheres are projections of local stars, some claim they’re
magical fields - but what they actually are really doesn’t matter and never has, not to
most folks. What matters is that they keep the Flow, and the problems it brings with it,
out of the civilized worlds, and that’s enough.

The Flow is another term for phlogiston - the stuff in which the Crystal Spheres
float, the great three-dimensional ocean. Phlogiston is a substance, like air or fire or
water; it’s also the single most magical substance ever discovered on any plane
anywhere, and just a few drops of raw phlogiston can bolster a spell significantly.
Unfortunately, it’s also the single most volatile substance ever discovered, making it
damned hard to actually get any of it to stay still long enough to capture. Phlogiston
looks like gaseous gold sparkling with silver; it’s clear enough that you can see through
it fine, too, and it’s warm and liquid to the touch even though it doesn’t act like any liquid
anywhere else. Wildspace is called The Flow because of the way phlogiston moves; like
a great big flowing ocean. Even when it’s captured or hardens into its strange gem-like
state, it still looks like it’s flowing, even though it’s not going anywhere.

The Current is what Jammers call the great motion of the phlogiston. There’s two
sorts of current - The Current, capitalized and fancy, is the greater motion of Phlogiston
as it can be charted from places like Sigil or the Outer Planes. People claim that
understanding the Current helps activities like predicting Flowshifts, finding new Crystal
Spheres, and understanding magic as it functions in Wildspace. On the other hand,
current - the lowercase version - is far more relevant to the average Jammer. It’s the
motion of the local Flow in that region of space, and the shifting of currents has doomed
more than one ship to disaster. Currents can be incredibly calm and predictable, and in
fact usually are; when they’re like this, savvy captains use the current to improve their
travel times, making their ship nearly twice as fast - or more! - than it would otherwise
be by using the direction of the Flow to their advantage. There are also points known as
Flow Rivers - permanent, major currents that are used by every group in Wildspace as
trade routes. The Flow Rivers are the most commonly-used means of travel; travelling
outside them is extremely dangerous, and tends to only be done when one is
desperate, foolhardy, or both. Unfortunately, the Flow can turn hostile, fast; called
Flowshifts, these violent shifts in the current can rend a ship in half, send it careening
into asteroids, planetoids, or Crystal Spheres uncontrolled, or throw it halfway across
the mapped regions of Wildspace before it can pull itself back on course. Flowshifts are
marked by rumbling in the currents, turbulence that most captains learn swiftly how to
recognize. They’re described as some of the most terrifying experiences of a Jammer’s
life.

In fact, the only thing more terrifying to most Jammers than Flowshifts is the
Warp. The Warp is the name Jammers give for a unique behavior of phlogiston when
realms not of the Prime Material cross over into Wildspace. The Phlogiston takes on
elements of that strange plane, poisoned by its elements into extreme patches of
whatever it is that plane is made up of - whether it’s fire, earth, chaos, law, or something
even more abstract. This doesn’t sound so bad, and indeed, on its own, it wouldn’t
make the Warp nearly so terrifying to Jammers. The problem is that the Warp isn’t
stable, at all; like most things that are magical in nature and interact with the Flow, the
Warp takes those elements and then magnifies them into truly unstable explosions of
magical nature. Warp-tainted areas can be terrifyingly dangerous - even Law Warps are
terrifying places of natural order that strangle any form of chaos, sometimes including
the chaos that is biological life. Worse yet, people who spend too long in the Warp can
come back...changed, tainted by the aspect of the plane they had their unfortunate
encounter with. The good news is, the Warp rarely remains around for long; planar
overlap tends not to be permanent except in the worst of cases, and when the plane
leaves, the Warp goes away with it. The bad news is, while it’s there, it’s incredibly
disruptive, and it can and has happened over major shipping lanes - sometimes without
warning.

If that weren’t enough, sometimes the Flowshifts and the Warp interact, and it’s
never, ever good. Normally, currents don’t really bother the Warp much; phlogiston
goes in, is forced into its new state, and remains there. That’s what makes the Warp
easy to spot - they’re patches of sky that just don’t look quite right, don’t have that same
transparency as the gold-tinted phlogiston. Unfortunately, particularly violent Flowshifts
can dislodge the Warp-tainted phlogiston entirely; because of its extremely volatile
nature, the tainted phlogiston swiftly infects the phlogiston it’s forced into with its bizarre
nature, and it’s thrust out of the overlap zone and into Wildspace as a whole. These
Warp Storms are surges in local reality, planar explosions that can encompass whole
sectors in their maelstroms of energy. Though they almost never last long, and they
disperse swiftly into the greater mass of the Flow, they’re the single most dangerous
natural event in the entirety of Wildspace; all it takes is one Flame or Law Warp to
completely consume a sector.

Finally, there’s Planar Surges. Planar Surges are very similar to the Warp, being
periods and points at which non-Prime planes cross over into Wildspace - but unlike the
Warp, Planar Surges are physical manifestations of the plane in the Flow, creating not
just Warp, but a piece of the plane left behind inside the new Warp. These pieces of
other planes tend to be small enough to be destroyed by the Flow once the Warp ends;
however, particularly big Planar Surges have produced remnants big enough to sustain
gravity, air, and even life - and subsequently, semi-permanent Warp zones. Fortunately,
these Warp zones are almost never large or strong enough to produce Warp Storms,
and such remnants tend to get colonized, claimed, or strip-mined quickly. Unfortunately,
that’s little comfort to Jammers who find themselves smashed up against a piece of the
Elemental Plane of Earth that wasn’t there a minute ago as a sudden Planar Surge robs
them of their lives.

The good news is, not every natural event in the flow is deadly to intelligent life.
Stargates are perhaps the most beneficial random event in the history of Jamming;
wholly natural portals that open in the Flow, they’re so-called because of their
appearance: brilliant rings of starfire that can be seen for miles inside the Flow.
Stargates are not permanent in most cases; they open, stay open for a while, then
close. While this makes them dangerous, they are almost never deadly - Stargates do
not and as far as anyone can tell cannot open in the Warp. They are still quite
hazardous, of course; an uncontrolled stargate is the quickest way to find yourself on
the opposite end of Wildspace, completely unmapped and uncertain, without provisions
for a long journey. However, those few stargates that can truly be called permanent are
revolutionary, hastening travel times between those points immensely. Subsequently,
these stargates have become hubs of trade, and Trade Leagues fight fiercely for their
control. Any Crystal Sphere with a naturally-occurring, permanent Stargate near or
inside it - the one exception to the Flow’s interaction with Crystal Spheres - is sure to be
the sight of speedy colonization, whether the locals want it or not.

Factions In The Flow

Corporations And Nations
The Flow may not be the easiest place to make a living, but it’s definitely the
quickest way to make a living. The various nations and Trade Leagues that map, trade,
and colonize the Flow pay top currency for those brave souls who work within it; those
who are willing to sell their lives wholesale find the generosity of these organizations to
be boundless and expansive. Then, there are the brave, brave few - those who start
with nothing but a dream and try their damnedest to achieve the highest of highs, and
build a trade empire of their very own. It’s not a noble ambition, but, well, there’s not a
lot of room for nobility in the Flow; you might stick to your guns, but you’ll have to do it
as literally as you do figuratively, or you’ll find yourself compromising just to stay alive.
 The Tanzarie Free Trade League is the most well-known of the Trade Leagues.
Uncompromisingly ruling the section of Wildspace known as the Tanzarian Expanse (or
the Tanzaries, if you’re feeling slangish), it established what most people understand to
be the Trade League standard, as well as entering the name into the common
vernacular. It was the first major organized existence independent of nation or Crystal
Sphere, founded wholly by a group of Jamming merchants who came together to make
an exorbitant profit roughly one hundred years ago. These merchants may have been
from disparate environments, but all of them had two things in common - brilliant
business acumen and utter ruthlessness.
The Tanzarian Expanse proved the place to go; with little in the way of Crystal
Spheres, but incredibly central to several major Jamming-capable worlds, it was an area
that had long been ignored as a place for colonization. However, as these merchants
proved, that was a critical mistake. Tanzarie was home to a fortuitous Planar Surge
remnant, an excessively large chunk of the Elemental Plane of Earth that had left on it a
massive amount of air. That chunk was claimed by this merchant’s council, and, paying
many soldiers and builders to help them, they soon established the first permanent
Jamming Station outside a Crystal Sphere.
Fully-equipped with shipyards and garrisons, “Tanzarie Rock” is the most
commonly-visited Jamming Station in Wildspace; roughly thirty percent of all economic
transactions pass through it at any given point, and there is almost never a point in
which ships are not docked on it for either repairs, customs, or trade. It has become a
city unto itself, if not a small nation; fed by an ever-growing list of colonies and trade
agreements, Tanzarie Rock has been called the crown jewel in the “Tanzarian trade
empire”, and it’s more than a few members of the League that think that statement
should transition to being far more literal.
The area around Tanzarie Rock is perhaps the most heavily-policed section of
Wildspace, controlled by the Tanzarie Free Trade League’s private mercenary fleet, the
Burning Aegis. The largest privately-owned Spelljamming organization in the Flow, the
Burning Aegis oversees the military interests of the Tanzarie League, both at home and
in foreign areas. They police trade routes owned by the Tanzarie League, guard (and
oppress) colonies, and defend Tanzarie Rock with the most impressive displays of spell,
sword, and shotgun known to the Flow. The Burning Aegis reports directly to the
League’s leadership; the chain of command goes right to the top, with League leaders
deciding the fate of whole Spheres with a few words and coins in the right hands.
Worse, the Burning Aegis began the practice of recruiting colonists for their fleet;
roughly twenty percent of the Burning Aegis is made up of colonials, generally in grunt-
level positions. These colonists sell themselves (or are sold by their rulers) to help the
Burning Aegis maintain power; many of them find that they like the taste of coin the
Tanzarian fleet provides, and quickly fall in line with the League’s thinking.
The Tanzarie Free Trade League is run, nominally, by a council of merchants.
Thanks to the sheer factionalization within the Tanzarie League, the Council members
tend to appoint their successors based on personal agendas and overarching agendas;
these successors are voted in by the masses, with every employee above Free Trader
status granted a vote in the elections. In theory, this keeps the Tanzarie Free Trade
League free of those who would wield its influence towards selfish gain; in practice, this
means that the League is wielded by vast political parties instead.
There are three major parties within the Tanzarie League. The first - the Imperial
Tanzians - pushes for the League to cease being a Trade League, and take up its
rightful place as the Empire it already behaves like. Adherents, often called “Impzians”
both internally and externally, believe that Tanzarie has every right to make itself a true
and proper inter-crystal nation, and should exercise that right wholeheartedly. They
push for more rapid expanse, more colonies, and more militarization among the League
itself, as well as the incorporation of the Burning Aegis into the Trade Fleet proper. The
Impzians have two votes on the council - councilman Flynn Anderson (Elf Rogue 6) and
councilwoman Aerila Anderos (Human Fighter 7/Rogue 1).
The second major political party is the Tanzarie Trade Alliance. The TTA pushes
for the de-imperialization of the League; they believe that greater profits could be made
if the League stopped wasting money on colonial upkeep and resumed being an actual
trade league, removing their abilities to wage war and otherwise act like a great big
nation. The TTA, likewise, has two votes on the council - the current Head Councilman,
Lord Renard d’Cannith (Human Artificer 7), and councilman Saliatho S’traayv
(Ophiduan, Anguineum Caste), both of whom are firm believers in the laissez-faire
policy.
The third and final party is the Tanzarie Confederacy. Like the Imperial Tanzians,
they push for a true shift in the company paradigm, moving it towards a nation - but not
an Empire. Instead, the Confederates push for Tanzarie to become, well, a Confederacy
of nations - granting sovereign powers to each colony under their rule and becoming an
overarching government to support and encourage them. The Confederates are the
smallest political party currently represented on the Council; they hold only one chair,
held by the lovely and persuasive Lady Guinevere Alamanse (Human Bard 9).
Currently, the Tanzarie Free Trade League has no currency of its own, trading in
both Gold and Steel due to their proximity to Krynn. Both the Confederates and the
Imperials wish to change this, and a move towards an in-house currency seems likely.

Morden & Co. Shipping

The Glittergold Consortium is perhaps the second-largest organization in

Wildspace, and they’re still growing remarkably quickly. Established by the Church of
Garl Glittergold as a means for the various Crystal Spheres and Trade Leagues to
standardize money, the Glittergold Consortium is less a Trade League and more an
inter-Sphere bank. The Glittergold Consortium’s headquarters is located on the plane of
Bytopia, within Garl Glittergold’s realm of Glitterhome (Garl himself is considered to be
the de facto Consortium Head, though he rarely actually gets involved with the
Consortium in any direct manner).
The Consortium monitors trade on the largest known scale. Most major Trade
Leagues share their ledgers with the Consortium’s priest-accountants, some of whom
are paid as retainers full-time; as a result, the Consortium has access to everything from
price fluctuations to supply inventories, and is able to balance currencies accordingly.
The Glittergold Mark - officially called the GGM, but more commonly known as Garls in
the vernacular - is the standardized currency of the Consortium; it comes in 1-, 10-, and
100-Mark coins. Current going rates equate one Gold Piece to One Hundred Marks.
Every known Trade League and jamming nation accepts the Garl as a legal currency;
the alternative would be isolation from the greater Wildspace economy, which could
singlehandedly cripple any of these organizations in a heartbeat. The Consortium has
made itself one of the most powerful organizations in Wildspace, if not the most
powerful; given they extend their reach into the planar city of Sigil itself, it’s hard to
make a case against them. The Consortium is capable of all sorts of incredibly feats of
economic prowess; moneylending, claim-staking, moneychanging, and - for those
businesses who indulge in the open market started by Morden & Co. Shipping - stock
exchange. Indeed, it is fair to say that the Consortium is the bank of Wildspace, and
those few small banks that have popped up in attempt to challenge them have very
swiftly been subsumed.
The Consortium is, of course, not simply a company, but a religious order as
well. As it is run by the Church of Garl Glittergold, it incorporates their practices into its
business structure. Banker-Priests are expected to be funny and upbeat, not take
themselves too seriously, and treat the client with the utmost respect; they’re expected
to be charming people-persons, as much salesmen as they are clerics and bankers.
They play pranks on each other, they work together for the good of the Consortium, and
they defend the Consortium’s interests with the same religious zeal they defend their
own communities.
Consortium Clerics are nearly ubiquitous among Wildspace. Known by the
worlds at large as Coinbrights (a play off the usual specialist cleric title for the Church of
Garl Glittergold, “Glitterbrights”), they act as goodwill messengers (for a price),
spreading healing and other divine spells to the masses of Jammers who have need of
them. Their office-churches can be found around Wildspace, with prominent offices
located in the headquarters of most major Trade Leagues. The Consortium also tends
to send members to colonized Spheres, ensuring that they know more or less
everything about the comings and goings of traders and their ilk.
Recently, the Consortium has been going through a rough patch.

The Daily Dragon is the most important outlet for news both economic and
political in the entire Flow. Bankrolled by the Glittergold Consortium, the Daily Dragon is
effectively a Trade League in its own right; it maintains a standing private army, has a
massive reach and readership, and deals in one of the most important currencies in
Wildspace - information. If there’s something to know going on, the Daily Dragon makes
sure they know it, with informants spread all across Wildspace. Reporters travel far and
wide, often hitching rides on ships to get from place to place. It runs a wide variety of
news stories, from market speculation to interviews and personal pieces to political
columns to local news. The Daily Dragon has offices on most major Crystal Spheres,
and is read by more people than any other piece of literature ever printed - including
major religious documents. The Daily Dragon utilizes a magical printing method to
produce its work, taken from Eberron; they contracted with Morden & Co Shipping to
send their paper to the far reaches of the Flow, and later purchased the right to sell their
product inside Tanzarian Wildspace as well.