Planes of Existence

This page is a copy of the original lore which can be found hereand should be rewritten to be a summary of the lore.

Many theories imply an almost limitless number of planes of existence in which deities, lifeforms and magical entities reside, when in truth this is only half-true. We are in fact divided, by the immortal planes and the mortal planes. The immortal planes are not something that can be physically reached or touched, as in a mortal sense, they do not exist. They are states of mind and thought, only to be perceived but never entered in the sense that you could walk about inside it. The mortal planes were created long after the immortal ones, and this was when the very concept of ‘physicality’ was born. The mortal souls were bound to their physical plane due to the inability to access the immortal ones, assuring that no matter how strong they may become, the Aenguls and Daemons would forever be their masters.

The Immortal Planes

Each Aengul and Daemon creates their own plane of existence, their own paradise, simply because it is in their power to do so as non-physical beings that only are equally as non-physical as the immortal planes they create. Each of these immortal planes is connected to the center point and source of the planes, a hub, if you will, for the Aenguls and Daemons to connect and communicate, this central plane has adopted the mortal’s naming of ‘The Seven Skies’.

Residing in an immortal plane grants abilities far beyond mortals due to the sheer amount of greater freedom permitted, for not being bound in a fleshy prison allows access to the magical ties laid by the Creator that network the immortal planes, permitting their existence. These ties are tethered to the unique plane simply known as ‘The Void’ which shall be expanded upon in further detail shortly. In all technicalities Aenguls, Daemons and mortals are all souls, and souls no different to each other. However, when Aengudaemons first discovered these 'magical ties', some of them uncovered more than others and built their planes on top of them to seal them off to other Aengudaemons that would attempt to draw power from them - the end result being that certain Aengudaemons are more powerful than others with a greater access to the void, the ones with more 'ties' are able to sustain their own realms independently, while lesser Aengudaemons need to group together in order to form a protective plane for their own ties. The only difference between mortal and immortal souls would be that Aengudaemon souls are unbound and Mortal souls are bound to the mortal plane, so it is not in fact the being itself that is powerful, but rather, the plane they are in. Should a mortal soul somehow find its way into the immortal planes, it too, would become an Aengul/Daemon. However it should be noted that in reverse, should an Aengudaemon fully manifest itself into the mortal plane, it will be bound there, but maintain the powers it had from the immortal planes. An immortal plane only becomes material when a mortal body enters it, this physical reflection of the plane occurs so that it may be understood by mortal-kind, having only ever experienced their bound and physical form - This also prevents the un-binding of the mortal's soul from their fleshy prison upon entering their plane, maintaining their normal form without ascending to the status of an Aengudaemon.

There is a significantly powerful wall between immortal and mortal planes, however there is also a door with a handle on only one side. The mortal planes can be accessed by the immortal ones, but not the other way around - as designed by the Aengudaemons. However, the effect that the Aengudaemons have on the mortal planes is rather limited due to this magical barrier, so in order to significantly alter the course of events in the mortal planes, the Aengudaemon would have to step out from their non-physical form and manifest themselves, thus rendering themselves mortal, yet still incredibly powerful. Death was only introduced when the concept of physicality was created, so this is the only way that an Aengudaemon may die.

There are two unique immortal planes:

The Void

The Void, as mentioned previously, is tethered to the immortal planes, and through these tethers may the Aenguls and Daemons sap magical potential directly from the void to be molded into their own desires, however, their potential power is limited by the fact that prolonged access to the void is impossible, as such magical power is limitless and can’t be contained within a single Aengudaemon’s soul. The Void will simply consume any attempt to alter or affect it, due to it being the heart of all energy and potential, so everything the Aenguls and Daemons have comes from the Void, but it has it on an infinite scale.

The Spirit Realm

The Spirit Realm is well known to be the home of the Spirits, a kind of pseudo-deity that shares traits with both Aengudaemon and mortal but is neither. It is only accessible by the living through shamanism, where the shaman does not physically visit but “projects” their own spirit into it. The Spirit Realm and the Spirits were created by the Daemon Apohet, who at first intended for them to be mediators of the mortal realm, in order to remove the need for Aengudaemons to become involved in what he saw as its corrupting influence. Later though he plotted to use the Spirit Realm and its inhabitants to his own ends, but was thwarted in this by the Archaengul Aeriel who imprisoned him in his own realm.

The Spirits themselves may be divided into three categories: Elemental, Immortal, and Ancestral (and then further into Greater and Lesser). This is reflected in the structure of the Spirit Realm, in that there are three main separate planes, each being exclusively inhabited by its corresponding kind of Spirit. Each plane is drastically different from any other, due to the nature of their inhabitants.

The Elemental Plane is a world of extremes and is entirely composed of elements, going from deep valleys of fire and smoke to gaseous great plains. In all cases, the landscape goes through cycles of status quo and change, except for the realms of Fanzra, who’s realm is a violently chaotic place of constant change, and Andrif’s who’s realm is an immutable land of pristine marble structures. The Shamans who may work with the inhabitants of this plane are Elementalists, Farseers, and Witch Doctors.

The Immortal Plane is a vastly different place. Some areas are almost indistinguishable from the mortal world, such as Freygoth’s which is an encapsulation of nature to rival the Aspects’ own plane, completely devoid of the handiwork of sapient beings. Others are worlds of things only seen in mortals’ imaginations and nightmares, such as Ogrol’s realm, an endless prison where the cacophonous cries of the desperate echo into eternity. Others still are beyond anything that the sane can mentally conjure, like Wodanaz’s, an ocean of raw arcane energy that constantly moves in any way, some beyond the comprehension of mortals, and defies the laws of logic and physics. All change their scale, shape, and size in accordance with the changing powers of their Spirits. Witch Doctors and Farseers are the shamans who may commune with this plane.

The third plane is the Ancestral, where the souls of the honourable and willing departed come to rest for all time, guided here from the Soulstream by Kor. This plane is by far the most similar to the mortal world. It's landscape does not change on a whim but it is not trapped in stasis, and has mountains and rivers and forests and meadows. There are feasting halls, hunting grounds, libraries and even things like battlefields where those ancestrals who wish to may practice the art of war without fear of death or pain. In short, one may keep themselves occupied for all of eternity in the ancestral plane, or they may rest, as those who have earned their place their deserve to. Only Lutaumen are granted the honour of communicating with the revered ancestrals.

The Mortal Planes

While there may be potentially limitless immortal planes, there are simply two mortal planes. And due to their physical nature, they are both literally side by side, a giant two-sided disc floating through an infinite expanse of nothing. Why the Creator decided to create two planes is unknown, perhaps one was destined for failure, perhaps there was a mistake, perhaps it was simply to fill an empty space, or perhaps Iblees’ doing was foreseen. The Aengudaemons named one side ‘Axiom’, and the other ‘Aerios’, and it was in Aerios that the four races were born in a small section of land they called ‘Aegis’.

Iblees had manifested himself in Aerios, and despite the disc-like nature of the two planes there were very few ways to travel between the two, and Iblees had never intended to do so when he first arrived. And while he may be able to affect Aerios greatly with time, he would never be able to affect Axiom in the slightest due to the fact that he left the immortal planes and was unable to even see beyond his current plane. However, with Iblees being one of the first Aengudaemons to manifest themselves, he managed to manifest his own immortal plane into mortal form; naming it the ‘Nether’. As Iblees’ Nether was now of a physical nature, it was simply attached to Aerios, buried deep, deep below the ground rather than being its own separate plane as popular belief may have lead people to believe.

Aegis was located in Aerios, and when the races fled into what they had come to know as ‘The Verge’, they had actually stepped into Axiom and sealed the portal shut behind them, leaving Iblees trapped and bound in the opposite plane with no clear way of reaching them. The races then sailed to Asulon, and finally to Anthos, both of which are located in Axiom. Due to the ruins scattered across Axiom, it’s likely that ancient civilisations had roamed these lands long before, and for whatever reason died out, while a few surviving cultures were discovered: The Mori and the Kharajyr. However no such ruins have ever been found in Aerios to this point, which would imply that perhaps each plane had its own unique races, but only the races of Aerios had managed to discover fragments of the long-lost others.

The Verge Portals

The Aengudaemons created gateways between the two mortal planes, perhaps for their own purposes in having their minions transfer between planes, however such portals are incredibly rare - one was used to escape from Iblees and flee into Axiom, another used to flee the flood of Anthos. But there are certainly more out there, awaiting discovery. These portals are incredibly delicate, and as seen before, don’t require Aengudaemon interaction to close them. There is no other way between the two planes, as should you find yourself at the very edge of your own plane, stepping beyond it would suck you into nothing, and then you’d be absorbed back into the void. And it should be noted that just discovering a Verge Portal doesn't mean it can be opened, for only one plane will posses the gateway with the key.