Until the arrival of the Invaders, Passarspace was empty (or nearly empty) of sapient inhabitants; this, perhaps, accounts for its magical oddities.
MAGICAL EFFECTS
Possibly because of its nearly lifeless condition, magic in Passarspace is weaker than in most other spheres: with a few exceptions, spells of 7th, 8th, and 9th levels simply will not function (the underlying magical `weave' from which magic is drawn simply is not strong enough for these spells to work). Bad as this situation is now, it was once much worse; the oldest Invader records indicate that they had great difficulty getting spells greater than 4th level to function when they first arrived two centuries ago.
The fragile state of magic in this sphere affects actual spellcasting; a wizard must pass a intelligence check in order to successfully cast a spell here, regardless of the spells level. This restriction does not apply to specialist wizards casting spells of their specialist school - but even they can get only a bare handfull of 7th-9th level spells to function here.
Dimensional spells (Deeppockets, Dimension Door, Teleport, ect) are an exception to the weakness of magic in this crystal sphere; these spells all function normally, regardless of level, and wizards do not need to make an intelligence check when casting these spells in order for them to work. The ease with which these spells function here has led some Invader scholars to conclude that the `Maw' is actually a dimensional vortex.
