Realms
"Look up to the sky, girl, and what do you see? You see stars yes?... Hundreds, thousands, millions of stars. A few of them are planets like this one, rocks floating in space, with animals and people crawling around in the mud on their surfaces. Living their lives, loving, fighting wars, dying...
Most of those tiny motes in the sky are suns just like Ryshell, fierce life-giving furnaces suspended in the void, but those others are not smaller, no, they are much further away, so far away that the bright furnace is dimmed to a speck. Beyond these are more, and beyond those more still, in every direction...
And all of this, all this vast creation, is our universe, our Realm, that we call Pelagus. In our vanity, we call this the 'prime' realm. Ha! What fools people are...
Now look down into this bowl. Water, soap, agitation, the result is foam... Bubbles if you like. Our Realm, our entire universe, all those stars and planets, are inside one of those bubbles! Which one? Heh! I have no idea, no one does, maybe the gods, maybe not even them. If you asked one, they would probably claim the knowledge, hmph! They 'claim' a lot of things...
Our realm, one of the countless others, is touching those around it. Above, below, left, and right, all touching each other. And watch as I draw my finger through the foam, see how the bubbles push and pull against one another. There is tension there between the bubbles, and so there is between the Realms, that tension is important. That tension is energy. That energy can be used. For it is from the tension between the realms whence comes all magic..."
Sometimes called plains of existence, or dimensions, the correct term is, in this case, is Realm. There is an unknown number, possibly an infinite number, of different Realms, all of which have slightly different rules of nature. Pelagus is the name given to the Realm where Nahele resides. It is generally known as the Prime Realm and most others are discussed in terms relative to that. It seems to be larger than most, but it is unknown if it is indeed the largest. Knud, the original home of the Gnomes, for example, seems to be a comparatively tiny Realm with a sun that never moves, but simply grows dimmer at night. Around the time of the end of the first age, it seems that the walls between Pelagus and Knud became weakened. This allowed beings to cross between the two Realms easily, but since that time, this barrier has become strong once again, making travel between the two Realms much more difficult. The weakening of the barrier allowed the Gnomes and many other 'Fey' species to cross from Knud, and this was the first time they were seen in Pelagus. The Old Gods are described as being trapped in a 'Lens Realm' called Yonsha. This seems to be a Realm that has been 'turned' inward upon itself, the more one tries to leave, the more solid the boundary becomes. There are also the Elemental Realms. These alone seem to be boundless in number, being more conceptual in nature, more than the traditional meaning of elemental. There are, of course, the realms of Earth, Air, Fire, and Water, but there are more, such as Light, and Dark, Life, and Death, Shadow, and Dreams, and even some for which we have no names or explanations. While many Realms are huge beyond comprehension, they are vastly outnumbered by much smaller Realms. As mages have sought to explore and even map the Realms, they have discovered innumerable small Realms, some completely empty and seemingly barren, other teaming with strange life that is beyond even the description of 'alien'. Some of these 'Pocket Realms' have proven useful as secret places accessible to only a few, or as ways to travel great distances in a short time. Most of the gods have taken realms for themselves. These are as varied in nature as the gods themselves. Whether they created them or took already existing ones is unknown, but they have used them for their residence since restricting their access to Pelagus after the second gods' war.
Sometimes called plains of existence, or dimensions, the correct term is, in this case, is Realm. There is an unknown number, possibly an infinite number, of different Realms, all of which have slightly different rules of nature. Pelagus is the name given to the Realm where Nahele resides. It is generally known as the Prime Realm and most others are discussed in terms relative to that. It seems to be larger than most, but it is unknown if it is indeed the largest. Knud, the original home of the Gnomes, for example, seems to be a comparatively tiny Realm with a sun that never moves, but simply grows dimmer at night. Around the time of the end of the first age, it seems that the walls between Pelagus and Knud became weakened. This allowed beings to cross between the two Realms easily, but since that time, this barrier has become strong once again, making travel between the two Realms much more difficult. The weakening of the barrier allowed the Gnomes and many other 'Fey' species to cross from Knud, and this was the first time they were seen in Pelagus. The Old Gods are described as being trapped in a 'Lens Realm' called Yonsha. This seems to be a Realm that has been 'turned' inward upon itself, the more one tries to leave, the more solid the boundary becomes. There are also the Elemental Realms. These alone seem to be boundless in number, being more conceptual in nature, more than the traditional meaning of elemental. There are, of course, the realms of Earth, Air, Fire, and Water, but there are more, such as Light, and Dark, Life, and Death, Shadow, and Dreams, and even some for which we have no names or explanations. While many Realms are huge beyond comprehension, they are vastly outnumbered by much smaller Realms. As mages have sought to explore and even map the Realms, they have discovered innumerable small Realms, some completely empty and seemingly barren, other teaming with strange life that is beyond even the description of 'alien'. Some of these 'Pocket Realms' have proven useful as secret places accessible to only a few, or as ways to travel great distances in a short time. Most of the gods have taken realms for themselves. These are as varied in nature as the gods themselves. Whether they created them or took already existing ones is unknown, but they have used them for their residence since restricting their access to Pelagus after the second gods' war.
Realms and Magic
The energy for performing magic comes from the differences between Realms. In a way, it is like the flow of electricity that is created by the difference between the positive and negative poles. However, with magic, it is as if there are an infinite number of these poles. When a mage tries to perform magic, they are channelling that difference into a focused point and shaping the energy to their will. This weakens the boundaries between the realms in that localized spot. The Realms constantly seek to remain at an equilibrium, entropy pushes against the efforts of the mage. The more power that is required for the spell, the further that barrier needs to be weakened, to allow that power to flow.
I cannot even begin to comprehend the scale of the cosmos..." "Good, that is as it should be. Perhaps you will not be such a terrible student, after all, miss Quinn."
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