A brief Cosmology

Heaven

In the fourth epoch, the gods set themselves apart from the world, building for themselves a magnificent home outside the Material Plane. Heaven is a great mountain with seven shining cities. Six array themselves before you as you ascend—one on each great slope. An archangel (a solar) watches over each city. The spire of the mountain is where the seventh city can be found, and though it is at the top of the mountain, it is said to be infinite. This is the city of the gods. At the center of the city stands a great hall, where the gods sit on their thrones to debate with each other, and watch the Material Plane.

Elysium

To follow the Compact, it was necessary to observe the good and bad deeds of all mortals. The gods created Elysium, where a “light shadow” (essentially, a likeness made of light) of every living mortal walks about. These likenesses are constantly observed by the guardian angels of Elysium (usually devas), who record their good deeds, great and small, in enormous ledgers that they deliver to Maal’s kingdom when each likeness’ corresponding mortal dies.

The Dark River

With the Compact, it became necessary for souls to travel from plane to plane, sometimes without guidance. Thus, the gods created the Dark River, which flows through every plane of the sphere, and is even said to have a source in the Material Plane. Although the Dark River gets its name because the waters appear black as moonless night to most travelers, it begins to shine as it approaches Elysium and the mountain of Heaven and eventually transforms into a bright river of light.

The Great Sphere

The Nameless One formed the four pillars and then placed the Great Sphere on top of them. When he created it, it was filled with emptiness in the form of ether and shadow. He pushed these into the center of the Great Sphere and created the Material Plane among them. He filled the rest of the Sphere with energy, ideas, images and sounds: the Astral Plane. Outside the Great Sphere, the infinite void stands apart from creation. Besides mystics and sages, few people discuss the Great Sphere as anything other than a container for the Material Plane. Indeed, “the Sphere” is mostly used as a synonym for the Material, even though it is a distinct realm that contains multiple planes.

The Astral Plane

When the Nameless One first created the Material Plane and bound Shadow and Ether, he left the rest of the Great Sphere filled with the energy that was most like him: a stillness thrumming with the power of possibility. This energy has no substance, but forms the great expanse that is found between the planes of existence. This is the vast emptiness of the Astral Plane, filled with light, sound strange phenomena.

The Four Pillars

The elemental planes exist as pillars supporting the Great Sphere, and even the gods who hold sway over the elements in the Prime Material do not control these pillars. Each one contains the purest form of the elemental energy it represents.

Water Pillar

The plane of water is filled with its element, which flows with arcane currents, rippling with light or unseen in uttermost darkness. The Water Pillar is full of life, some of which comes to the Material Plane from time to time. The Marid div dwell here.

Earth Pillar

This pillar is filled with every form of rock, dull and precious stones, dirt, sand and the pure energy of the earth, element. The creatures that reside here rarely come to the Material Plane, as they lack curiosity.

Air Pillar

In this realm of elemental air, endless sky and strange clouds (made of condensed elemental air, not water vapor) host an array of flying and floating creatures. Some of them frequently visit the Material Plane, but they’re invisible or hidden in the world’s clouds.

Fire Pillar

The Shaitan div were exiled to the Fire Pillar, dwelling between blinding flames and smoke that erupts without a source. The realm’s nature makes it hostile to beings that do not contain the old div’s inner fire.

Hell

The nine circles of Hell were built as a prison for the creatures called demons. It is now ruled over by Asmodeus, once the god of fire, and now the king of deception and lord of Hell. This is where lawful evil souls go when they have been condemned to punishment by Maal.

Gehenna

Created by the gods on top of a battleground of demons and devils, Gehenna is the place of observation. Just as every person casts a light shadow of herself into Elysium to be seen by guardian angels, so too does she cast a dark shadow of into Gehenna, where the daemons watch her, whisper vile little temptations in her ear, and record her crimes in dark ledgers. This is where neutral evil souls go for punishment when they’ve been condemned by Maal, and where demons and devils often do battle.

The Abyss

The most powerful demons, the qlippoth, are like dark shadows of the gods, and pure beings of Corpus Infernus. Using their incredible might, they long ago burrowed through the Great Sphere, and out into the void. Thus, the Abyss in which the demons reside is infinite, stretching out forever until in mingles with nothingness. They build themselves strange dark citadels there, and from them launch forces against Hell, marching across Gehenna and through planar gates. This is where chaotic evil souls go when they have been condemned by Maal.

The Land of the Dead

Originally found at the center of the earth in the Material Plane, the Land of the Dead was set apart as its own plane when the gods formed their Compact. This is where Maal rules with his wife Naryne, judging all souls based on the great ledgers kept by the guardian angels and the daemons. Those who have led exceptional lives live here for eternity in one of four great halls of reward. Some scholars consider those halls separate planes of existence. Those who have led lives of great evil are sent to one of the three evil planes for eternal punishment. A rare few are sent to Heaven to be with their gods. Most return to the Material Plane after a time and another chance to find the afterlife by their mortal deeds. From time to time, Maal’s half-brother Korak comes to the Land of the Dead to “reforge” a soul, hammering out all of its flaws and sending it back to earth. It is believed that only members of the five mortal races stand before Maal to be judged, and that other races lack the souls necessary to be sent to such destinies.

The Heart of the Great Sphere

Mortal races live on the Material Plane in the core of the Great Sphere, but are enclosed by the Crystal Sphere of positive and negative energy, and share their place with other mystic energies, strange realms, and of course, all of the beings that dwell within them.

The Positive & Negative Planes

When the Nameless One entered the Great Sphere and created the Material Plane, he contained the two forces from which all of creation came to be—positive and negative energy—within the Crystal Sphere. The Crystal Sphere encloses the Material Plane, and positive and negative energy roils out from corresponding poles like air currents. Violent maelstroms rage where they meet within the crystal. Few visit the surface of the crystal, much less describe the bizarre beings that might life there.

The Ethereal & Shadow Planes

Within this crystal sphere, the Nameless One gathered the energies that filled the Great Sphere when he first created it. These energies, ether and shadow, were perfect but had no substance. The Nameless One created the skies, earth, and seas on top of the ether and shadow by combining power of each with his own great words of power. So it is to this day that the shadow and ether are all around the world of substance, the Material Plane, but go mostly unnoticed.

The Material Plane

Everything a normal mortal can see and touch is a part of the Material Plane—the sun, moon, stars, land, sky, and water. With great magic, a person can see the Ethereal and Shadow Planes that coexist with the Material Plane within the Crystal Sphere. With even greater magic, a person might travel outside of the sphere, to other planes, communicate with their distant denizens, or summon them for worship or service.

Gates During the time of the compact, Tinel and Korak built many gates between planes, so that one could travel from place to place by knowing their locations and means of access. The only gate that is considered truly impassable by force or treachery is the gate to Heaven.