The Paradox of Existence

This ancient tome looks as if it was never fully completed, and is the work of a powerful mage apprenticed to the Grand Magister of Torovia, a woman named Valys.
This book contains all the research that I know of the Greater Realm, or the Realms within Realms. It is known that the Mortal Realm is where we reside, but there are also places beyond, unfathomable planes that could be infinite across time and space. While the ever worsening war being waged by outsiders to the Mortal Realm rages on, I fear I will never be able to fully complete this research, as more and more of my time is being pulled into other disciplines, namely my masters quest to create a magical weapon of sorts, one that would give Torovia the power of the gods. If it is possible then I suppose I will have much more time to continue my research.

What we know of the Greater Realm is this; the Mortal Realm is just that, a Realm where all beings born to it are capable of dying. It is the ancestral home of humans, halflings, varl, and dwarves, as well as the myriad of beasts and plants that we share our plane with. Our teachings say that it was created by the gods, but I question whether or not that is entirely true, my research shows that they may have come into existence alongside the Mortal Realm. There are also the best known of the other realms, Elysium and Hell, which we are told were created by Celestine and Baelfury. However there is a discrepancy, while those realms have brought forth beings that are immortal, angels, devils, demons, archangels, it is true that they also are home to the aasimar and the tieflings, two races that are entirely mortal. This leads me to believe that these two realms share a commonality which I believe may be that they were both created from the Mortal Realm.

Then there are the Feywild and the Shadowfell, realms of life and death, of chaos and order. They seem to be far more constant than the others, and needed for the cycle of life to continue. The elves and gnomes who came to the Mortal Realm eventually lost their immortality, which we believe is not the case for any who still reside in the Feywild. Likewise, the only beings we have seen come from the Shadowfell, Ro’s Riders of Death, are as close to the power of a god than any other being. Finally there are the elemental lands, the places of fire, water, air, and earth. These realms contain the fundamental building blocks of the Greater Realm, and seem essential for its existence. Although they fluctuate constantly, they seem to be stable as a planar realm. My research shows that the Mortal Realm lies in the center of the elemental planes, while the Feywild lays between fire and air, the Shadowfell between water and earth, Elysium between air and water, and Hell between earth and fire.

These places conclude what I have called the Greater Realm, but there are two more places of interest. The ethereal plane, which is not really a plane at all, but the space inbetween the realms. It is believed that it is possible to travel it, and that some great creatures unknowable to our mortal minds may even exist there. There is also the absence, the thing that isn’t, what some call the void. It is more a force than a thing, but there are theories that it can take form on the planes of the Greater Realm. We believe void onyx to be one such thing, which is where it draws such great power from, but is also potentially dangerous. It is believed that the force of nature that is this void wants nothing more to consume everything, making it nothing. I shudder to think of such a thing, and it is no wonder why the denizens of the Feywild hate it so, for it is so contrary to what it is.

But how does all this fit together? How has for such a long time existence held out against this void? Well I believe it is through a process called orderings, where the laws of the universe are rewritten. Entire planes may vanish, gods may fall to mortality, and great beings may rise to the strength of a god during one of these events. I have little evidence to support this theory, but I believe these orderings happen when the universe swings too far towards any one principle; death, life, good, evil, chaos, order. Homogeny may be the key to the voids success, and in order for the universe to survive it must change.

Type

Manual, Magical / Occult