Zeitgeist

just as the Farlands are an imperfect border plane for the material planes, so the elemental planes are for each other. travelling normally, an elemental plane will largely be rendered just like a material plane. but, because the elemental planes are so intricately woven around each other, their borders are just as imperfect as the Farlands. so, border elemental planes are where one plane is essentially stuck to or crossing through another.

here's the fun part though: the zeitgeist is not perfect. there are places where the connection to the Farlands has never been severed and the terrain exists in a formless space where anything goes. the Farlands may also be accessed through intentional teleportation, or more frequently - incorrect teleportation.

just as gods are pure divine essence in one form, so are their planes.. er, were. as soon as there were no gods remaining to give credit to the concept of one of these planes, something unprecedented occurred: just as the gods it used to be home to, the plane itself was absorbed into the zeitgeist. the eight outer planes, though of questionable physical form, were still ultimately raw divine Essence. now, that essence is all within the zeitgeist - but the planes aren't necessarily gone. if a person actually wanted to, they could physically travel to these planes still. they'll just have to keep in mind that they are, first of all, wastelands in which divine wars were fought and lost. second of all... well, they're all kinda mixed up with each other. and the geists. and the dead souls... it's a divine blender, and if the traveler isn't careful, they can be easily swept up in the madness and consumed.

QazNotQuaz: yes, there's portals all over the place. travel is just as thoroughly networked through portals as information is through the internet

Anyways, the robot dinosaurs are largely anomalous in nature. Nobody is quite sure who designed or built them, nor when - and especially not why. They occasionally wreak havoc in cities, but usually remain relatively conscientious of their surroundings. The vast majority of them prowl ruins in the Feywild, some types apparently feeding(?) off of the minerals therein and others seemingly arbitrarily mauling unexpecting creatures who wander within the border of their zone. Interestingly, the different dinosaur-bot groups still seem to exercise territorial control, herd/pack tactics, and other dinosaurlike instincts just as any dinosaur would, despite appearing to have been created and designed by the same mind.

warlocks can also make pacts with other kinds of powerful beings like liches and dragons, though this is generally not recommended. to be fair, however, neither is being a warlock in the first place.

many effects in dungeons and dragons assume the normalcy and importance of animals. things like wizards' and warlocks' familiars, druids' wildshapes, rangers' beast companions, and summoners' summons all hold animals to be extremely culturally important. in the world of the zeitgeist, this isn't entirely false perse, but it's definitely changed. now, certain kinds of constructs can also fill these roles! imagine, if you will, using a hummingbird-like drone as your wizard's familiar. similarly, a ranger may have a spider droid as their companion. in a pinch, a druid could take the temporary form of a dangerous mining drone, using its massive drills to defend herself. or, to assist in a search-and-rescue, a summoner could summon a small flock of vulture drones, which specialize in locating and identifying obscured targets. this isn't to say that classic animals and elements aren't also still choices - just that there are more options.

QazNotQuaz: quite possibly, yeah

QazNotQuaz

a friend of mine once described runic etchings as theatre tape - temporary markings to be referenced when the actual ritual takes place. in this world, that can be literal! imagine a coven of witches who use a stage as their runic grounds and theatrical performances as their rituals. the performers and stagehands may or may not know that they're performing a ritual, but they are willingly performing nonetheless.

you want zeppelins and cities kept flying by miracles of magic and technology? cus this is how you get that. the creativity and bizarre construction of airships is almost as over-the-top as the meaningless reasons people will come up with to challenge someone to a dogfight. ace fighters are commonly revered to the point of geisthood here, since a very ingrained subset of the culture is built around aerial combat.

the different kinds of minerals this plane is rife with make it a perfect location for a clash between futuristic mining operations, artificial yet anthill-like intricate citadels, and massive untouched or undiscovered cave systems where the potential riches are matched only by the terrifying beasts and malfunctioning machines that may be discovered within.

this plane's thoroughly flooded state makes it a perfect space for atlantean urbanization. everything from waterproof cyberpunk and intricate corallike city structures to inverted transparent fishbowls and biospheres with arbitrary gravity.

the pervasive presence of pyrotechnics in this plane allow it to produce a wellspring of power that it can provide to plenty of other places, most particularly to the pieces previously displaced from the prime plane. as such, it's undergone a very industrial kind of urbanization. towering pillars of smoke rise into the sky from the factories that cover large swaths of the plane while ruined and obsolete factories sit smattered about wastefully. forced slaves are just as common as they historically have been, if not more prevalent than ever. the lighting is also bizarrely inconsistent, as the smog and smoke mixes with the colorfully bright flames throughout.

just as ana is upwards into an auxiliary plane, kata is downwards into an auxiliary plane - the ethereal plane. it's more directly connected to the other planes and is used as an alternate means of travel between them. it's worth noting, however, that it did not shatter along with the material plane, so it can be used to traverse quadrants. the quadrants' magical and technological restrictions do apply to their corresponding locations in kata, though.

in this multiverse, ana is another term used to refer to the astral plane, as it is an alternate space from the other planes that rests 'above' or 'between' them. just as any other plane has been urbanized, so has the astral plane - this is where the closest analogy to a spacefaring society is found. it's a bleached white, empty expanse with very occasional things scattered about. random junk items and objects accidentally warped there, floating arbitrarily structured cities (inhabited or not), and astral ships are all things one may spot amongst the starless stark void.

ages upon ages in the past, the feywild was filled with bustling cityscapes living in a tenuous harmony with the nature around them. however, the feywild eventually decided it had had enough and began to overrun the cities with more raw natural calamity than they could handle. not long after, the place became a ruined waste of what it once was, reclaimed by nature. it has stayed that way until this day.