The Rift concept

Base concept for the rift:

The World:
The Pangaea-style continent of Thurn is the only known continent in this world, covering a vast area composed mostly of barely-explored plains, small areas with heavy concentrations of population, and almost entirely unexplored areas of dense jungle. The people of the continent identify themselves by town or city, not by nation, and are largely a peaceful people.

Throughout the continent are areas known as Rift Fields, places where interplanar portals explode violently into existence and then disappear after weeks, days, hours, or even minutes. The Fields are scarred by centuries of these violent bursts of energy, typically resembling barren deserts in terms of landscape. Very little can survive for long in a Field, and those forms of life that can are typically shaped by the magic, changed beyond recognition.

What these planar portals connect to varies from portal to portal. Most link to unassuming worlds or forests, peaceful enough places. Others connect to chaotic realms, inimical to life as we know it.

One such portal seems, for all intents and purposes, to be mostly stable. It rests near a town called Hanice, a frontier-style town that caters to those who seek to find fame or fortune by travelling through the portal, known colloquially as the Rift.

The Rift is unique among the other interplanar portals that appear and disappear around the continent for several reasons. It is, as far as anyone who's examined it can tell, permanent. Whereas the others explode into existence and then disappear shortly after, the Rift has been where it is since time out of memory. Secondly, the rift will from time to time close and reopen, with the other side leading to a different plane. Directly connected to this is a mysterious crystal that is found on the other side of the Rift, in every location that it has linked to. Known as Elysian crystals, these items are incredibly valuable and contain arcane power beyond the scope of any mortal magic user. There exists only one of these, and always one of these, somewhere in every plane the Rift has led to. After the crystal is retrieved, the Rift collapses within a matter of hours and reopens to a new location. It has never collapsed unless the crystal has been retrieved, and has always collapsed shortly after its retrieval.

The existence of the Rift and the crystals it leads to have created a separate class of workers, outside of those normally found in society. Known by many names, those who dive through the rift in search of the crystals it holds are regarded as either the epitome of bravery or as hopeless fools, depending on who you ask. These adventurers band together in Hanice, seeking others to form teams with to increase their chances of success on the other side of the rift. It's a cutthroat market, with teams perfectly willing to hinder or even kill each other once beyond the rift, in the name of retrieving the crystal and claiming the reward for doing so. Teams fighting teams, individuals fighting individuals, and even team members killing their allies in the night, taking the profit for themselves, are all common occurrences.

The players in this setting are rift divers, those who were chosen by fate or themselves to journey through the rift and seek their fortunes.