The 24 Realms

Overview

For thousands of years, wizards, astronomers and children of the divine have fixated themselves on the reality that Avalǿn isn't alone in the universe; an idea that there are other worlds out there that mirror our own or disregard what we class as natural law completely. These worlds harness the chaos and power from the great entities that look over us, whether those magics be elemental, divine or downright maleficent.

History

During a time when the world was still young, the first humans came to discover remnants of ancient gateways left behind by the Primordials that could be used to travel between realms of fire and ice, endless forests and towering mountains. At first, this was completely unfathomable to the race of people that discovered them, and so many were wary of the gates and built their Kingdoms far away from them. But as time progressed, the people of Avalǿn grew increasingly curious as to where exactly these portals led to. And so, they began looking for answers. Some time in the 34th Millennium BXR, a sect of Estrialist devotees began to loosely assign their lesser deities to each realm that had been discovered, by alignment and divine powers (for example, the noble Sun God of Divine Protection was thought to overlook the Seven Heavens whereas the cunning Fiendish God of Pride and Indulgence would reside somewhere in the Nine Hells. This gave an explanation as to how and why the realms were formed in addition to increasing the validity of the Estrialist pantheon with each new plane that was discovered. Mesilism later adopted this idea of a series of worlds but conversely believed each one represented an aspect of their Overgod, Neryn. The last of the realms to be discovered was Byrexior - otherwise known as the 'Underdark', in 1151 BXR, which incidentally is the closest realm to Avalǿn. The reason why it took several thousand years to be discovered could possibly be due to how the thin fabric between the worlds makes it incredibly hard to traverse from one to the other, and insanely dangerous at that. In the coming years, Avalǿn began to exploit Byrexior for its materials, which later culminated in the Wars of Xandria. Ever since, Avalǿnians have cut off all contact with Byrexior by destroying every gateway they could find, and are beginning to refrain from planar travel altogether in fear of instigating another bloodbath with one of the more dangerous realms. Therefore, the number of planes thought to exist today has remained at 24 for centuries. Many believe that figure accurately fits with the presence of the divine; others daren't search the corners of the universe for more.

"If our ancestors knew that these other realms could house creatures stronger than us, quicker than us and smarter than us, I'd bet all my gold that they would've burned those gates with fire."
— Famed Historian Graver Silverbrand, 354 AXR

The Echo Realms

The Innermost Echo Realms are closest and most similar to our world of Avalǿn, lying inside of the borders of the Ethereal Plane. These planes consist of Aurélia (the Feywild) and Ebon Davarr (the Shadowfell), both of which are mirror worlds of the Material Plane, and Byrexior (the Underdark), which acts almost akin to an underworld for Avalǿn. These realms are the most stable out of any of the planes due to their proximity to Avalǿn, which in turn means that the natural law of these worlds, such as the force of gravity and levels of magic present aren't vastly dissimilar to the ones we experience on our home world.

The Elemental Realms

The Elemental Realms lie just beyond the Ethereal Plane and just before the Astral Sea. The four fundamental elements that make up our universe are rendered by each of these worlds: Axis, the realm of Air, Deis, the realm of Water, Ta'eris, the realm of Earth and Charis, the realm of Fire. Being slightly further from our home world of Avalǿn, these planes possess abnormalities that we wouldn't exactly regard as commonplace - such as skies of floating islands in the plane of Air and pressure that could crush a Tarrasque in the plane of Earth. The Elemental Realms may be slightly more inhospitable than that of the Echo Realms, yet their peculiarities make them ever the more interesting to travelers and planewalkers.

The Outer Realms

The 16 Outer Realms are located in the midst of the Astral Sea and are the furthest from Avalǿn. According to Estrialist belief, each of these planes corresponds with the alignment of its God, with the landscape and inhabitants reflecting the Divine capabilities of the deity that overlooks it. Half of the Outer Realms harness positive energy from the Astral Sea, making them, for the most part, orderly and peaceful, whereas the other half harness the negative energy from the Astral Sea; this instead brews chaos and animosity within the most evil of the realms, namely the Hellish Planes and the Abyss. Many of these worlds are unstable due to the sheer amount of untamed magic around them, thus making them unpredictable and extremely dangerous.

The Transitive Realms

The Transitive Realms is a name given to the Ethereal Plane and the Astral Sea; both of which are made up of an empty nothingness bar discarded items and islands floating in the void and aberrant magics that wander the wastes. Neither plane is regarded as one of the 24 actual realms, as they act more like the fabrics that hold these worlds together as opposed to worlds of their own. Estrialists believe the Transitive Realms came to be this way due to the lack of Divine Presence felt here; these planes were left to their own and slowly became wastelands of the forgotten. Due to the emptiness of these realms, both the Ethereal Plane and the Astral Sea are incredibly easy to traverse; in the absence of planar gates, these worlds are a good alternative to traversing the universe. Alas, eager travelers be warned: these realms are the least stable of them all, and lurking in the nothingness are ravenous leviathans awaiting their next fare.