Etherium
The nine divine realms where the Regents dwell
Beyond the mortal realms exist the heavenly realms of the Etherium. Subdivided into nine divine planes, the Etherium is ruled over by nine deitic beings known as the Regents.
They are:
Parexi, the Pinnacle
Amlihos, the Shepherd
Venner, the Prestige
Imigos, the Tempest
Rashiva, the Annals
Kengos, the Order
Vivera, the Reverie
Valhinon, the Stalwart
Quiennes, the Stillness
Geography
The Etherium is no single place, but rather the collective amalgam realms that the Nineflow, the source of magic, flows through en route towards the Materium. Each of the nine divine streams, whose source is On themselves, travel first through the body of their respective realm before reaching the Etherium. These “bodies” are known as the Animus, quasi-sentient landscapes that behave and act according to a mysterious will and on broad timescales that not even the Regents themselves can discern. Not much is known about the Animus, as the Divine Gate has prevented souls from returning from the lands of the dead since before recorded history.
Impact of the Abstracts on the Animus
Due to the thin evidence found on the realms of the Etherium, much of our understanding of the Etherium comes from apocryphal sources such as religious texts, prophecy, visions of the otherworldly, and pure conjecture. However, just as a hydromancer can estimate the nature of a body of water upstream from herself due to what is washed down, so too have some provided solid evidence of what the world beyond our own is like due to observation. In addition, the gods are active, and we are privileged with visitations on the rarest occasions that indicate truths about the world above.
With the aforementioned hedging we can discuss the most commonly accepted truths about the Etherium. At the center of each runs a large river of On’s respective Abstracts. The stream is sourced by a fountain in the throne room of the reigning Regent, and from there it flows through the plane until it reaches its edge at the infinite edge on the other side of the plane. While the mortal mind struggles to grapple with angelic geometries, visions and religious texts talk of “an endless shore,” and that the Abstract river is “ever present,” or visible. Visions of the claim that no matter how far you travel within the plane, you can always see the river, “without strain of eye.”
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