The Dictation of Cosmic Order, usually just called Dictation, was a cosmic treaty that defined the shape of Ochebana for the following millennia.

History

In 41'000 b. OW, the Celestial Wars drew to a close with the fall of devil suzerain Antedeus, the rise of Asmodeus and his Infernal Army, and the final series of battles called World Creation. The devils were technically defeated after the annihilation of the Infernal Army, but many demon hosts and lords still remained on the battlefield, and the celestial legions were considerably weakened.

Nevertheless, seeing themselves as the final victors of a war that lasted ten millennia, the celestials held a great council on the newly formed Oshmondu, emitting the Dictation. This was supposed to be a new fundamental law binding the universe. Although it was technically created by the celestials, fiendish and other cosmic parties had considerable influence on it.

Structure

The Dictation contained a number of rules.

Material Planes

The most important phrase of the Dictation was that "the prime [should] remain pristine". During the Celestial Wars, the center of the multiverse had been a one-layer plane that was simply a vast expanse of dirt with some larger lakes. However, after the World Creation, it had turned into a world of islands and oceans that was quickly becoming a melting pot of the inner and outer planes, a place where ideas from the outer and physical shapes from the inner planes converged into the mortals. In order to preserve the young creation that was seen as the pinnacle of all the cosmic forces, this "prime material world" was to remain pristine forever.

Concretely, this meant that the prime material plane was in surrounded by a magical shield, the most important aspect of which was that it blocked teleportation from any external plane into the material world without considerable efforts from inside. The material plane could still be reached through physical means, but this required crossing the Outer Ring, the elemental planes, and oceans. Additionally, titan elementals were given the responsibility to inhibit the entrance of outer plane creatures into the material world. Thanks to these protections, Oshmondu remained relatively untouched from direct extraplanar intervention, allowing it to develop surprisingly independently as a kind of microcosm. Of course, many Oshmondian mortals made their way out, and many extraplanars - primarily celestials and deities, but sometimes also fiendish armies and other entities - did visit the material plane.

In order to keep mortals relevant in the cosmos, however, a second layer of Oshmondu was created; this layer was called Thozeia, but was commonly called Holy Kingdoms. Its geography had some similarities to the prime layer; the biggest difference between the two, however, was that Thozeia was completely accessible from the outer planes through teleportation. The celestials, who had a head start, quickly gained the most influence over the layer's humanoids and forged them into huge theocracies designed to battle fiends. While the war there never reached the levels of the Celestial Wars, it did become the primary battlefield between fiends and celestials.

Distinct Planes

While before, Ochebana had been a mere massive continent with vastly different biomes and some loosely defined "planes", the Dictation outlined exact borders for different "planes of existence". This was supposed to bring greater order and balance to the world; a more short-term goal was to ease the reconstruction process due to the war's vast devastation by localizing efforts. The main way these distinctions were drawn were through the Weave's signing to each plane.

Though the signing was largely absolute, there were still major grey zones. Some areas, like the Elemental Plane of Fire, were not at all a single plane like the others. Other places, like the Infinite Depths, went completely against definition.

Acceptance of Outer Ring Jurisdiction

Already before the Celestial Wars, the Outer Ring had been a ring of stone that nearly surrounded the entirety of the inner planes. It was up to 100 kilometers wide, usually just a flat plain of rock, and its edges were usually sheer cliffs that fell down to the planes or oceans around it. It was theoretically the realm of the Krynn, beings that predated everyone else and who were supposed to maintain cosmic order. They weren't very numerous, however, and despite their physical formidability had been largely ineffective at stopping armies from crossing over the ring and waging the war on the material plane. But, seeking legitimization and the power to inscribe the Dictation into cosmic fabric, the celestials sought to include the Krynn in their new order.

Thus, the Krynn officially had the ultimate say in matters of cosmic order. They were seen as the main policemen of the universe, there primarily to enforce that no outer plane beings travelled to the inner or material planes, but also to arbiter justice on the highest scale. While they did gain some law-making abilities as well as some magical powers to most notably limit and empower teleportation, they were in truth still far less powerful than many outer plane beings.

Over time, however, the relative strength of the Krynn and their allies grew considerably, to the point where they had the power to enforce "planar balance" - to make sure that in the ongoing Planar War and other such conflicts, neither celestials nor fiends ever gained too much strength and upset the existing order. Most of the time, they had the unspoken support of both celestials and devils in this, as their enforcement of Outer Ring sanctity limited the extent of the Planar War and kept losses from rising too high for both sides.

Gods and Followers

A major restriction was imposed upon the power of deities, the celestial leaders. Their power was now limited to the number of mortals who actively prayed and followed them: Thus, a god's fugue - the magical network centered on them, which bound to all believers - became the measure of their power. Of course, this highly limited the deities, who now had to seek followers through indirect means in the material plane. This also made them much more interested in mortals, since their power - and accordingly their influence, prestige and support base in their outer plane homes - now depended fully on them. They emitted guidance, inspiration, and sometimes also knowledge and power to those that prayed to them. In Thozeia's case, they also led huge armies of believers to fight in their name against their enemies.

Each god could also form pantheons, strict alliances of multiple gods. They united their fugues, growing and receding together even if people only prayed to single members and not the whole group. While their power source was united, there was nothing forcing the members to actually work together or have common interests. In fact, many pantheons were scattered across multiple planes and sometimes even members even worked against each other.

Additionally, each god or pantheon was attributed a domain, which was either Oshmondu or Thozeia. A god could technically only have followers in one layer, and could have nothing to do with the other. Thozeian gods were physically incapable of entering Oshmondu, but they could send telepathic messages and sometimes even allow holy casting there. Oshmondian gods, meanwhile, could walk Thozeia in their full forms, but not gain any followers there. Some could also enter Oshmondu, but most often didn't wield their full power and weren't allowed to intervene directly in mortal affairs, instead taking up residence in remote locations.

The Weave

Rebuilding. During the Wars, magic had been rather loosely codified. While a proto-Weave existed, most magic came directly from beings of great power - deities, demon lords, primordials - that had an informal connection to this source of power and redistributed it to those connected to them. Notably, Shahlisor had greatly abused this source of power in the Poultrification. To codify and restrict the use of this source of power, it was placed under the control of a single impartial primordial called Faerna. She formed a unique, indestructible link with Shahlisor's Oculus Garnet, giving her the power to do so.

Restricted Access. To restrict access to the new, more powerful Weave, a strict set of rules, which was however still somewhat imprecise and possible to interpret in many ways. While many of the major limitations, such as the great difficulty of producing real material objects or teleporting creatures, were already inbuilt into physical reality, the Dictation's cosmic law also made transmutation impossible. This school of magic was oriented around changing the constituent elements of any physical thing. The main idea here was that rare elements, such as silver or gems, couldn't be created out of other similar but more common elements, so that not too many weapons able to harm both celestials and fiends could be made.

Plane Signing. Furthermore, the Weave was given slightly different patterns depending on which plane of existence it was drawn from. This was mainly to facilitate the operation and Connections of local primordials, and discourage inter-planar invasions by always giving locals an edge. It also allowed plane-specific "special effects", such as the elemental plane of fire's burning and the infinite Labyrinth Winds, to work properly. A side effect was that spellcasters of even minor gabarit were able to tell which plane of existence they were currently in.

Oculus Waerne

The very powerful Antedeus could not be fully destroyed. If he was killed, his soul would survive and eventually reform in the Seven Hells. Instead, his soul was torn from his physical body and imprisoned in Waerne, his enormous ceremonial sword. The physical body was given to a more accommodating devil lord, Asmodeus. The blade, now called Oculus Waerne, was initially taken to an underground fortress in the dwarven Eternal Empire, where it was entombed. The idea was that Antedeus would forever remain trapped in the relic, never again threatening to raise united fiendish armies.