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12:13, 28th March 2024 (GMT+0)

Cosmology.

Posted by The GMFor group 0
The GM
GM, 2646 posts
Wed 24 Jun 2020
at 13:23
  • msg #1

Cosmology

The information within this thread is OOC unless otherwise stated.
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:28, Wed 24 June 2020.
The GM
GM, 2648 posts
Wed 24 Jun 2020
at 14:27
  • msg #2

Structure of Creation

The Heartstar and the Realms

The Heartstar is the very center of reality, the primordial birthing-furnace from which everything sprang from and shall ultimately return to. This massive orb of spectral, iridescent flame rages silently in timeless space as its quasi-sentience watches over all of Creation, keeping a balance and ensuring its own continued existence. Extending outward from the Heartstar are massive energetic conduits whose ends bear the Realms. These conduits serve as lifelines, connecting a Realm to the Heartstar and allowing it to create, nurture, and ultimately reclaim these Realms and the energies within them. Beyond these major connections there are thousands of lesser connections which connect Realms to one another. These connections are dormant by default but temporarily activate to accommodate divine paradox or can be made stable for a period of time to allow the creation of portals.

While both the major and lesser connections are conventionally stable they can be severed by cosmic accident or intentional design. This leads to the creation of Lost and Secret Realms respectively. Each of these Realms can only be reached through the use of theurgy or waystones. That said even a Lost Realm is eventually, inevitably, reclaimed by Creation.

Divisions of the Heavens

Within Creation there are three major divisions of space: Realmspace, the Void, and Oblivion. Realmspace is any space within the confines of the Realms or the energetic conduits of the Heartstar. The Void is the vacuous volume space created by nihility released by the Heartstar. Beyond the boundary of nihility is Oblivion, a reality-eroding nothingness that separates Creation from other similar realities, should they exist at all.

Celestial Motion

The Heartstar is, for all extents and intents, stationary. The Realms, and by extension their energetic conduits, are not. No the Realms move about space in seemingly random fashion, pulled by unseen currents within the Heartstar and repulsed by the boundaries of other Realms. When a Realm is first matured it has an extended orbit, making it more exterior, and as it ages it tends to move closer to the Heartstar. This phenomena is what allows new Realms to be seeded with their initial population of monsters and for the eldest worlds to form a resilient barrier to ward off chaotic intrusion.
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:48, Wed 24 June 2020.
The GM
GM, 2649 posts
Wed 24 Jun 2020
at 14:29
  • msg #3

Energies of Creation

There are many potent energies within Creation that have a natural lifecycle which ultimately begins and ends with the Heartstar. The core of the Heartstar is comprised entirely of an energy known as Quintessence. Quintessence is immensely powerful but highly volatile causing it to degrade into its five principal components: nihility, dominion, anima, aether, and celestial.
  • Nihility is the energy of nothingness and its sole function is to create the boundary between the Heartstar and Oblivion making it similar to a divine aura. Nihility has no more stable state and due to the inability to measure it directly no living being is, or has ever been, sure of its longevity.
  • Dominion which is an energy of pure creation and control that suffuses Realmspace. Only divine beings are granted control over this energy and even they can only command certain resonances, or domains, within the nigh-infinite spectrum of its power.
  • Anima is an unusual energy in that it can carry mortal will and be used to alter, at least temporarily, the structure and function of Creation. Anima is used nigh-exclusively to perform arcane magic whose alterations focus on manipulating spiritual, elemental, or planar energies rather than dominion which is reserved for the powers of theurgy alone. Anima is effectively immaterial although it can be brought into an unstable physical state.
  • Aether is a potent but largely unstable energy that creates the foundations of Realmspace. Aether rapidly decomposes into spiritual energy which itself degrades at some rate into the six elemental energies: fire, water, air, earth, light, and darkness. These elemental and spiritual energies allow for mundane life to exist and form the elementary basis for mundane and gross matter within Creation.
  • Celestial energy is the energy from which divine beings, such as gods, are composed of. It is the latest energy to appear within Creation with several generation of beings prior to gods being composed of combinations of aether, anima, and dominion. Its greatest advantages are its inherent resilience, amenability, and ability to tempered through ascension and death.

Beyond these principal energies there are two lesser energies which arise as a consequence of mortal existence: mental and emotional. Together they form the basis for psychic energy which is what comprises the astral plane.
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:51, Wed 24 June 2020.
The GM
GM, 2650 posts
Wed 24 Jun 2020
at 14:49
  • msg #4

Realmspace

Realmspace is anything formally within 'Creation' which is defined by the energetic boundary created by the conduit to the Heartstar. This boundary is composed of a metastable form of Dominion making it exceptionally resilient. Within this boundary Realmspace is comprised of a Realm's native astrological features, the space around the Realm, and the Realm itself. In terms of astrological features each Realm has at least one star and often one or more moons, although there are the rare worlds which do not possess moons. These features can be reached through sufficiently advanced magic or technology. The space around a realm and between its astrological features varies but is often immense, easily hundreds of thousands of miles to any moon and millions to its star. Finally the Realm itself is not simply what is visible but a fairly complex collection of six layers or planes:
  • Prime Elemental: The lowest of the planes the prime elemental plane cannot be reached through conventional means and is largely speculated to exist.
  • Shadow: The shadow plane exists above the prime elemental plane is the lowest traversable plane. This plane is virtually devoid of substance, mirroring only the base geography of the material plane. What matter does exist within the shadow plane is largely gaseous shadow-matter, shade, or ectoplasm. It can be shaped with the appropriate application of magic or sufficiently advanced technology but is highly unstable outside of the shadow plane.
  • Material: The material plane or physical plane is the plane of gross matter and mortal life. Here physical laws and conventional logic prevail.
  • Spiritual: The spiritual plane is often referred to as the first of the 'higher' planes. Here spiritual and elemental energies coalesce to form amortal entities such as spirits and elements. Its geography resembles the physical world in some places, often those most attuned to elemental or spiritual energies, and radically different in others.
  • Astral: The astral plane is a plane of pure consciousness, created by the composite of mental and emotional energy created by mortal beings. Here physical laws cease to function and in their place willpower and intention rule. The astral plane has many native inhabitants in the form of thoughtforms but these are often transient by their very nature. Within the astral plane there is a lesser division which creates the psychosphere, the abode of emotional energy, and the noosphere, the abode of mental energy.
  • Metaphysical: The highest plane which exist largely as a concept. This is the figurative plane that only divine beings can reach where they disembody and perceive through the mantle of their domains and celestial consciousness.

This message was last edited by the GM at 19:57, Wed 24 June 2020.
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