Realmic Atlas

Terms for Realms

Overview

Originating from the expeditionary journals of one Elias Dods, First Chronicler of Seawatch, this collection of terms and definitions has become the widely used standard for identifying and classifying the Cosmos' many Realms. It is rooted in what the legendary scholar believes to be the defining pillars of all Realms, traits that encapsulate a world's heart and soul and characterize its peoples. These pillars include a Realm's general level of technological achievement and its people's adherence to the quest for scientific progress; its denizen's grasp of one or more of the magical arts and their acceptance of such power into their daily lives; the Realm's overall level of safety and survivability for traditional forms of life in the Cosmos; the Realm's diversity in life both native and exotoric in nature; and finally the Realm's connection to the rest of the Cosmos.

I have seen the utter majesty of the universe, having witnessed both wonders and horrors in equal measures across the Cosmos. I have gazed upon barren worlds scorched featureless, vibrant planets full of technological marvels, alien utopias built by magical genius, chaotic rocks frozen solid for eons, and so many...many...more.

— Elias Dods, First Chronicler & Realmhopper

Meta Knowledge

Generally, no characters will have knowledge of the Realmic Atlas. If you believe your character should have knowledge of the subject, talk with your GM.

Simplistic Categories

The purpose of the Realmic Atlas is simple: to offer a quick and comprehensive way to depict the state of a Realm, describe the life found within it, and inform Realmhoppers of its relative standing in the Cosmos.

Exampleland

Realm of Tests

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Realm Index

M E - H H A

Technology

Neolithic

These Realms are nearly devoid of any form of technology or scientific pursuit. Its peoples engage in a neverending battle for survival against the environment and one another, allowing for nothing but their brutal quest to live. They often have not moved past simple hunter-gather societies with only the crudest survival tools at their disposal and many misunderstandings about the natural world.

Primitive

These Realms have only just begun to be mastered by their peoples, who have learned the most rudimentary methods for assuring their survival and creating simple tools. Additionally, they have a general understanding of technology and scientific innovation techniques; this has allowed them to begin refining materials, construct permanent structures, and establish agriculture methods.

Medieval

These Realms have established technology prevalent among many of its peoples and often support dedicated scientific communities engaged in furthering their Realm's knowledge and research. Its peoples have discovered sure-fire methods for refining raw materials, discovering rare new substances, manufacturing complex constructions, and erecting large works of artistic and architectural wonder.

Industrial

These Realms have progressed into an age where technology is intrinsic to its people's continued growth and prosperity. These peoples have intimate knowledge of the laws that govern their world and the best methods to succeed. They have a general mastery of production and are capable of staggering feats of engineering genius, even incorporating magic into their quest for scientific progress, propelling their societies to even greater heights.

Developed

These Realms are nearly entirely developed, leaving little room for other pursuits. Technological progress and innovation have often outstripped most other survival methods, becoming so prevalent that scientific marvels are commonplace and mundane. Its peoples need not worry about food production or the construction of buildings. Instead, they focus entirely on the next horizon or challenge for their people's most remarkable minds to conquer.

Astral

These Realms are marvels of mortal genius, incomprehensible and alien to many other Realms. Its peoples have the knowledge required to make their dreams and aspirations a reality in the mortal world, and few of the Cosmos' secrets remain hidden from their inquisitive minds. The wonders they are capable of producing some may even confuse with magic but are inevitably the achievements of only a sharp mind and a complete mastery over the land.

Magic

Non-magicals

These Realms are devoid of any prominent magical community or widespread use of its arts, though you may find magical forces prevalently in the worlds' natural environment. Though rarely seen in the Cosmos, these Realms represent places where magic is often hostile to use, the center of cruel social stigmas, or lost to the annals of history. Also known as Mundanes, these peoples often find themselves adrift in the chaotic Cosmos, outmatched by the many magically gifted cultures of other Realms.

Amateurs

These Realms are home to inexperienced practitioners of one or more of the magical arts; these peoples are just beginning to reveal magic's intricacies and the secret workings of their world. They have a general understanding of their Realm's unique bounds for magics and its guiding principles, but few, if any, have learned the true extent of its vast potential or developed any real ability to wield it with proficiency. Spellcasters on these Realms are rare and godlike beings among primitive mortals.

Journeymen

These Realms have burgeoning magical communities driven by curiosity and a quest to unlock the Cosmos' many secrets. These peoples have discovered the true nature of their Realm's unique magic system and its limitations. They have begun their steady march towards mastery of the material world. Innovation and discovery have become cultural cornerstones of the societies that dominate these worlds, and many magicless commoners view the mystical arts through a mythical or even fanciful lens.

Experts

These Realms have developed an understanding of the governing principles that bind all forms of magic across the Cosmos and the limitations found within those laws. These peoples are advanced in their knowledge and have often made one or more forms of magic commonplace in their day to day lives. Magic at this stage of development has often replaced technology in one way or another and many cultures have learned to incorporate the magical arts into their scientific and technological achievements.

Masters

These Realms are home to true masters of one or more forms of magic, capable of staggering feats of prowess that shape not only the histories of their worlds but the very nature of their existence. These peoples have adopted magic as a necessary part of civilization, making it a staple of their diverse cultures and paramount to the growth of their societies. They cannot imagine a world not guided and ruled by their magical gifts and are often shocked by Realms that lack a similar level of magical progression.

Transcendents

These Realms are extremely rare, home to peoples that treat magic, not as a tool but an extension of their very existence. These people are unrivaled exemplars of one or more of the magical arts and have an intimate knowledge of the laws that bind all magic and guide the Cosmos itself. Magic on these worlds is often an extension of life itself and has become an inseparable cornerstone to both sophontic and bestial life, fueled and shaped by the wills and whims of Spellcasters so powerful they are akin to gods.

Survivability

Uninhabitable

These Realms are incredibly hostile to most forms of life, even for the few creatures that may originate from it. These worlds are brutal, unstable, and barren of the necessities for sophontic life to thrive. Few Realmhoppers ever willingly journey to these cursed Realms, for these places devoid of cultures and civilizations, can only be survived through careful planning and a modicum of luck.

Desolate

These Realms are relatively stable, supporting some form of atmosphere and a somewhat predictable natural order. They are rarely home to anything more than native Elemental life and, in some rare cases, support one or two cultures united by their forlorn quest for survival. These Realms contain very few raw materials and often lack a major resource required for life to flourish on these dying worlds.

Sustainable

These Realms are the most abundant worlds found across the Cosmos, supporting environments that contain unique biospheres of scattered wildlife home to several burgeoning native sophontic cultures. Several of these Realms are home to the necessary resources required for even exotoric life to take root and thus attracts many Realmhoppers from other Realms on their travels through the Cosmos.

Habitable

These Realms are among the most stable worlds found in the entire Cosmos, supporting their own diverse ecologies and all the conditions necessary for native life and most exotoric life to thrive in abundance. They usually support many unique civilizations, creatures, and plant life; serving as the home for innumerable cultures with distinct values, traditions, achievements, and histories.

Lush

These Realms are rarities in the Cosmos, supporting ecosystems home to many creatures and peoples born from the native environment or who have traveled Realms to settle there. Many grand civilizations are likely to have risen to prominence on these blessed worlds; these societies are vibrant in their individuality, supported by a world filled with potential and rich with resources to exploit.

Resplendent

These fabled Realms are said to be sanctuaries for all forms of life, with environments so welcoming to other species that many exotoric travelers settle these worlds as their new homes and abandon their homelands. These Realms are unrivaled paradises in the Cosmos, capable of saving creatures fleeing from their homeworlds' destruction or sheltering its natives from terrible lives of toil and danger.

Diversity

Lifeless

An overwhelming and oppressive silence of nothingness burdens these still Realms. Out of all the impressive, wondrous, and terrifying powers of the Cosmos, these worlds contain nothing more than empty air and eerily still horizons. Whether life has yet to take root in these Realms, or some catastrophe pushed it to extinction, these Realms are hauntingly devoid of any and all forms of life.

Elemental

These Realms churn with the Elemental life formed from the purest expressions of the Cosmos' Primal forces. Under these natural attendants' care, their worlds endeavor to maintain a delicate equilibrium between their Realm's Primal energies. They mold the terrain and shape its guiding powers, thus establishing predictable natural cycles and allowing the simplest of plant and animal life to form.

Bestial

These Realms have evolved beyond the most simplistic forms of life in the Cosmos, supporting both naturally born Elementals and a burgeoning ecosystem of complex wildlife. They lack natively-born Sophonts but serve as the homes for a myriad of plants and animals. These worlds have often developed species uniquely suited to thrive in their bizarre environment, in ways no other creature can.

Hybrid

These common Realms contain established, self-sustaining ecosystems with rudimentary sophontic life working to claw an existence from the wilderness around them. These Sophonts are far from their world's apex species and often live at odds with their natural environments. Yet, a balance exists within these Realms, wherein the natural world and the civilizations of Sophonts act to balance one another.

Pervasive

These Realms have been overtaken by the Sophonts that dwell there, becoming their worlds' dominant species. The natural world and its denizens exist at the mercy of their sophontic masters, and even the Elementals may find themselves enslaved to the desires of the civilized world. Sophonts are the true and undisputed masters of these worlds consumed by the endless march of civilization.

Symbiotic

These Realms exist shrouded in myth and legend, places where Elementals have ascended beyond their most basic instincts and merged with the sophontic life rooted in their worlds. There is no division between life forms in these Realms. All is one, and the same on these paradise planets, for only here does the truest form of harmony and equilibrium exists between nature and Sophonts.

Connection

Isolated

These lonely Realms exist cut off from the greater Cosmos, with little to no presence of other Realms to be found upon it. While there may still be foreign Primal energies present in these worlds, they have no significant connection to the Cosmos. Few of these worlds exist in the universe; to attain such isolation is almost unheard of and often the unforeseen or dire side effect of a greater issue.

Breached

These Realms have suffered only a smattering of influence from other worlds. They may have been the target of organized assaults, the focus of an exotoric study, or even the destinations for some adventurous Realmhoppers. Whatever outside influence exists on these Realms, it is minor and inconsequential to the state of their natural environment and the peoples that dwell there.

Altered

These Realms have irreversibly changed due to the influence of other worlds. They may support entire alien species, suffer under unnatural phenomena, or even battle off exotoric invasions. These Realms are often targets for other Realmhoppers but rarely support their own communities of Realmic travelers. They are often only at the earliest stages of understanding their greater place in the Cosmos.

Connected

These Realms are the first worlds to be genuinely open to the Cosmos, supporting an experienced Realmhopper community well-versed in traveling among the Realms. They have developed techniques for traveling using temporary gateways between Realms, through which they may welcome Realmhoppers from other worlds; embracing their trade, stories, and experiences from alien planets.

Linked

These Realms are often advanced worlds that have established deep connections with other Realms. Their primary travel method involves permanent portals maintained by the Realm's denizens; whether natural or artificial, these gateways offer unfettered access between bridged Realms. These linked worlds are inextricably bound and often share a great deal with each other.

Junction

These Realms are the heart of travel in the Cosmos, serving as hubs for Realmhoppers hailing from all corners of the universe. These worlds offer gateways to at least a dozen realms and facilitate travel and relations between many places. Though not all of these Realms have created permanent portals, their knowledge of the universe allows them to create doorways to nearly anywhere in the Cosmos.