The Divine Realm

What is the Divine Realm?

Where Struggles End and Peace Begins

The Divine Realm is where souls from all walks of life come to rest if they are unburdened by evils from their mortal life. Though there are very few, if any, who can say they approached the gates of this holy realm blameless, perfection is not a required trait to be accepted. At the precipice leading to this paradise stand two gods: Kelemvor, lord of the dead, and Ilmater, the god who suffers. Kelemvor, while a fair judge, is meticulous in his judging of souls and overlooks nothing. No sin is too small, nor is a good deed able to go unnoticed before him. Kelemvor does not allow any soul with evils within them to enter the gates of the Divine Realm.
However, this is where Ilmater's role comes into play as the second gatekeeper: For Ilmater has great compassion for mortals, who struggle and toil, that often times are repaid evil for good during their first life. After Kelemvor has gone over the account of a mortal life in its entirety, Ilmater will step in on behalf of souls who, while not perfect, truly had or tried with all their might to live lives that embodied the virtues of the heavens. He will cry out, "Brother, O Brother! Let not good be tossed out with evil! Give unto me these detestable things! Let the barbed bindings around my wrists tighten and pain me, so that this soul may find its rest and comfort!". Unlike Kelemvor, there is no criteria for what invokes the compassion of Ilmater. Even souls that the world has decided are destined for damnation are not exempt from Ilmater's sacrifice.
This is not to imply that Ilmater does this for all souls, as the wicked and debased rightly fear their day before these two. For such souls, Ilmater is the one they should fear most. For the god who suffers is passionate in sharing his pain with those who make the world broken and tormented. It is Ilmater who tosses souls Kelemvor has judged as guilty to the core down into the dark depths of creation, their broken forms twisting and tumbling to an even worse fate than what they suffered at Ilmater's bound hands. Souls saved by the hands of Ilmater however get to experience an unparalleled joy: For Kelemvor personally strikes out and erases all the mistakes, regrets, and evil acts done by a soul. This soul, now unburdened, may now enter paradise.

The Zenith of All Good

With all the souls who enter being absolved of any lingering evils, the Divine Realm is a place of absolute purity, with not other place like it in all of creation. It is where the faithful of various religions are given a new life tailor made for their walk of faith as well as on a purely individual levels.
A difficult concept to understand about the Divine Realm is that it is layered much like the Nine Hells, but morally inverted. Instead of diving deeper into evil, in the Divine Realm ascends into greater levels of justice, love, righteousness, and grace. Only the purest of souls, either through aided absolution by deities they served in life or by unfathomable moral fiber from some other source, will ever see the peak of the Divine Realm. It is rumored that peak of the realm hosts one of The Titans, though for obvious reasons it is impossible to verify this. What is known of the Divine Realm has been gathered mostly through religious texts from innumerable scriptures of many faiths and rare instances of beings of the realm descending down to Neuorban and telling of their homeland.

The Layers of the Divine Realm

The Elysian Fields

The foundational level of the Divine Realm are composed of vast, seemingly endless, verdant fields. From fragrant flowers to the choicest of wheat, the Elysian Fields are where souls that lived quiet and modest lives go to work and live, so much as they did on Neuorban. But it is completely changed. The land is always bountiful, work no longer breaks aches and pains to body or soul, and they work these lands with joyful hearts free of greedy or abusive taskmasters and impossible quotas. Even in the Divine Realm, the worship of the gods still continues, but can be done in earnest, honest hearts. Chauntea is one such goddess who roams this layer of paradise.

Etsem

In the center of the Elysian Fields lies an impossiblly dense grouping of trees that stretch into the skies above. This towering forest creates the vertical shaft known as Etsem. Etsem is home to care takers of nature. Druids and other guardians of nature are those that inhabit this layer, living forever in unbroken harmony with what they so diligently cultivated but did not attempt to master in life. Their temperance is rewarded with plants that no longer wilt in the sun and trees who are free from a cycle that leads to death. Etsem is where the goddess Eldath resides and where Lurue roams and sees to the birth of new unicorns.

Cornupia

Resting upon the foundation of Etsem's canopy is the glorious marketplace of Cornupia. Though fitting a place with no need for monetary systems of incentives, this is a marketplace of art, song, written and spoken word, and so much more. Cornupia is a haven for souls who pursued art for the purpose of finding real beauty, with their new home finally satisfying that desire. Here bards, painters, poets, and others exchange not their creations, but the essence of their beloved arts to one another. Milil, Gond, Lliira, and Sune are resident gods of this layer, with Sune taking the beauty that flows from Cornupia and pouring it back into the world through her faithful much as a priestess would pour a special perfume to cleanse a temple.

Lexordo

A large tower stands in the center of Cornupia, a place where justice and the rule of law become tangible, powerful forces. Within the tower lies the very blueprints of morality, justice, and the nature of order itself. Here, those who dedicated their lives to the study of order, philosophers and authors of law, can forever be a part of the finely tuned inner workings of creation, worshipping and basking in the glow of perfection for all time.

Overlook

Resting at upon the pillar of Lexordo, Overlook is made up of great stone halls and courtyards, where the enforcers and protectors of justice are sent to be reforged, made all the more capable and committed to rooting out evil, whether through subtle influence and aiding mortal agents of justice on Neuorban, or by doing battle with the forces of evil from the Abyss or the Nine Hells whenever and wherever these entities rear their foul heads. Souls that come here are warriors, soldiers, heroes, or anyone who bravely brought up arms to defend what is right or vanquish evil. Though they all come as mortal souls, they are forged into Virtues. Virtues are holy guardians with large wings like that of a swan, wrapped in golden armor and armed with sanctified weapons and make up the brunt of the Divine Realms defenders. The gods Torm, Tyr, Helm, and other protector deities reside here, training and perpetually honing the resident Virtues for when they are truly needed most.

Lumineth

High overhead of Overlook hangs the glorious radiance of Lumineth, home of light and truth bringers. Being the 6th layer of the Divine Realm, Lumineth has some of the purest souls in creation within it. This is the place all followers of The True Light Apostles wish to one day be called to forever reside in, a reward for service to The Great Sun, who is believed to one day return to that land of light and truth when her sorrows are washed away. Though not all True Light Apostles will pass on to this place, the greatest of their number reside their, believed to watch over not only the layers beneath them, but the world of Neuorban as well. Not much else is known of this place, other than sun gods like Amaunator reside within its radiance. It is speculated that those whose souls come to embrace "the truth of magic" will always find themselves in Lumineth upon their passing, which leads many of this school of thought to believe the goddess Mystra may likely call that place home as well.

Zion

The peak of the Divine Realm is shrouded in mystery, referenced in only the most sacred of texts within High Watch. The Chapel of the Inked Lady believes the The Inked Lady herself resides here, along with beings known as "Angels". Oddly enough, Virtues are often mistakenly called Angels by mortals regularly, with only a select number of enigmatic and wizened individuals chuckling at such a mix-up, claiming that even Virtues would rightly cower and fall to their knees in fear if they were ever honored to gaze upon a real Angel. The Inked Lady is said to be the master of all Angels, though what purpose they serve is just as unknown as the realm of Zion itself...

Type

Dimensional plane