Atlas of Creation

Creation is a vast and complex place. The realms, the Void, and the innumerable forces, paths and portals that link them all weave together to form the fabric that holds all of existence together.

The Void
The Void is the foundation of Creation, with its initial design being designed by the Primordial, Nyx, who was then assisted by her brethren in forming it at the dawn of the Age of Genesis. The Void is the vast emptiness inside which Creation is housed, both containing and separating the various realms. Mortals perceive the Void as space, finding it most easily visible in the night sky. Due to its utter emptiness, the Void is inhospitable to life, and living beings attempting to travel through it require magical or technological protection. As a result of this fact, as well as the vastness of the Void, most interrealm travel employs portals and other methods, rather than Void traversal.

The Void is also known as the Elder Darkness, for it is the source of all shadows, which leak into the Terrene Realms through the protective barriers that guard them known as the Ouranian Spheres. All those who draw upon the powers of the Dominion of Darkness take their power from the Void.

The Terrene Realms
The Terrene Realms, better known simply as the realms, is the name given to the various habitable worlds within Creation which were designed by the Primordial Gaia. Most every realm is protected by an Ouranian Sphere and illuminated by Aetherial Fires. The realms are for the most part composed of Earth and teeming with the energies of Life, and flourishing with organisms of the Wild. All manner of environments exist within the realms, from deserts to jungles to frozen tundra.

Many of the realms were obliterated during the event known as the Great Maelstrom, at the end of the Bronze Age, which was brought about by the reckless and imprecise activation of Ynoch's World Engines. A large portion of the surviving realms were merged together into conglomerate realms, the most prominent of which is named Earth. Those realms which housed World Engines, and thus served as eyes of the storm within the Maelstrom, remained largely intact.

The Sea of Chaos
In the present, the Sea of Chaos exists around the edges of Creation, where the hollow of the Void borders the infinite energies of the Prime. Initially, the boundaries between the Void and the Prime were firm and impermeable, yet through the efforts of the Primordial Apophis, who hated Creation, the Prime has leaked through. There have been several occasions where the Sea of Chaos has swept across Creation, reshaping and destroying realms.

Despite the Sea of Chaos being located on the fringes of Creation, its diluted energies suffuse the cosmos. These energies can be commanded by those who wield the Dominion of Chaos.

The High Tempest
The High Tempest is a difficult to access layer of reality, created by Ouranos, mightiest of the Primordials. It is a vast plane of shifting storms, blizzards, and raging seas, where Ouranos has resided ever since his castration at the hands of his son Kronos, having sealed most of its gateways off. Vestiges of the Tempest manifest in the rest of Creation as the Ouranian Spheres, which surround the various Terrene Realms, shielding them from deadly emptiness of the Void, the searing rays of the Aetherial Fires, and the destructive energies of Chaos. These Spheres are what mortals would call an atmosphere.

The High Tempest is the power source for the Divine Dominions of Sky, Water, and Frost. Additionally, thanks to aeons of effort by Ouranos, it is also a bastion of Order, despite its seemingly chaotic form, with its energies having been used to crush Apophis's efforts and unmaking Creation on numerous occasions. With the Tempest sealed off and Ouranos having neglected the maintainence of the Ouranian Spheres, however, the elements within Creation derived from the Tempest are largely bereft of this power.

The Aetherius
The Aetherius, much like the High Tempest, is a plane of existence separate from the rest of Creation, though it is far more accessable than the former. The Aetherius is the source of Light and Fire within the universe, created by the Primordial Ra, and is also permeated with the essences of Life and Order. It is quite similar to the Prime, in many aspects, as it is a mass of crackling, pulsating energy. It was designed to be that way by Ra, to remind his sibling Apophis of the home that he so desparately wished to return to, before Ra infused a massive amount of Order into the plane, barring Apophis from ever entering it again.

The Aetherius's manifestations within the rest of Creation largely comes in the form of the Aetherial Fires, also known as suns and moons. Accessing the energies of the Aetherius also allows for Aetherial Travel, so long as one has sufficient protection from the plane's naturally hazardous power. Additional manifestations of the Aetherius within Creation include the Bifrost, located on Asgard, which allows for a form of Aetherial Travel.

The Abyss
The Abyss, otherwise known as the Great Maw, Hell, or simply the Pit, is a collection of realms formed by the Primordial Tartarus. Shunned by his Primordial siblings and driven to the empty depths of the Void, Tartarus created a dark mirror of the Terrene Realms, an interconnected web of worlds, all within his control and his alone. An outcast from his more skilled and powerful siblings, Tartarus's skill in the act of creation was vastly inferior, especially without any form of support from his brethren, and the realms within the Abyss are a twisted mockery of their Terrene counterparts.

Worst still than their shoddy workmanship are the inhabitants and nature of the Abyss. Though Tartarus was a poor maker of worlds, his gift at spawning abominations is unsurpassed, and his Abyss is rife with all manner of twisted horrors birthed by the Bloodlord. Worse still, perhaps, is the corrupting atmosphere of evil within the Abyss. The malicious Thoughts and hateful Aura of Tartarus permeate every inch of his domain, and the pervasive force of his malignance seeps into the minds and hearts of all who dwell there. Every fear and doubt is preyed upon, every vice nurtured, and any trace of nobility eroded by the hateful power of Tartarus's will, dooming those who remain too long in the Abyss to twist into dread shadows of who they once were.