The Otherworlds
Mortals dream of palaces bright and dark, inhabited by Gods and ancestors alike. They dream of real places: Otherworlds, separated from The World by paths laid down by Gods and myths. Western-biased cross-cultural tradition reckons that these realms belong to the Overworld where many Gods reign, the Underworld of the dead, or the realms in between.
In many cases, an Otherworld possesses a core realm with several attached subrealms. For example, Valhalla is a subrealm of Ásgarð (an Overworld Godsrealm) under Odin’s direct dominion. Similarly, Thor’s hall Bilskirnir is his own personal subrealm of Ásgarð. Not all Æsir possess personal subrealms, and may oversee halls in greater Ásgarð, but do not have the same degree of control over their home’s characteristics, or who may enter.
This is not an exact science. In some cases, two realms may be connected by gates or longstanding alliances, with each commanded by related pantheons. To keep to Norse examples, this is the case of Vanaheim, which is not Ásgarð, but possesses multiple connections to it through Gods and means of passage. In many cases, such bonds break the categories of World, Overworld, and Underworld. What defines a subrealm is the quality of its connections to its primary realm, and its dependence on the primary realm. If Ásgarð burned, Valhalla and Bilskirnir would probably feel the heat, but Vanaheim might be spared.
Ancestors: These souls exist in The World due to the deliberate efforts of their Gods. They’re not “ghosts” who have unnaturally lingered or become lost. Ancestors either dwell in a Midrealm, in their tombs, or among their people. If the latter, their Gods and cult traditions teach them how to guide and protect their people.
Chthonians: These fragments of the Underworld’s Primordials were never human, but perform every task that’s too petty for a Scion, but inappropriate for a Shade. They come in numerous varieties: demons, heart-eating beasts, psychopomps, and gate guardians. They rarely leave the Underworld, and when they do, it’s on grim or enigmatic business.
Eidolons: These souls have been sent to the Overworld to exemplify their pantheon’s virtues, prepare for some higher stage of enlightenment, or simply to be rewarded for loyal service to the Gods. Not all Gods make “good” souls (or any souls) Eidolons. An Eidolon often appears as they did during the point in their life the Gods decided to uplift them, or at an age befitting whatever role they will play in a Godsrealm, but changed to reflect divine influence. They might be taller, radiate serenity, or growl and fight with the enthusiasm of an einherjar.
Ghosts: Ghosts are lost souls who were prevented from entering or were cast out of an Afterlife, Godsrealm, or Midrealm. Some lose their way due to the upsetting or strange deaths. These anguished souls often return to familiar places, and may engage in repetitive or obsessive behavior as a result. Contrary to widespread belief, ghosts almost never appear out of obsessions or unfinished business, though they might appear to do so, due to the trauma they’ve experienced. Ghosts are more common than they used to be, and some believe this is a sign of the Titans’ renewed strength.
Shades: Most souls that manifest after death do so in the Underworld, as Shades. Pantheons with Shades use their own mythic methods (and a variety of divine and Chthonian staff ) to guide souls to promised Afterlives. Shades usually appear to be the person at the point of death, though in cases where the Gods punish or purify them, they may appear to be whatever age they were when they earned such attentions. Shades are usually bent, listless, quiet things. Some pantheons remove their memories as a mercy, or to prepare them for reincarnation.
Souls: The definition of the soul in Scion is nebulous, more defined by faith and pantheon than any overarching principles. Pantheons such as the Shén and Netjer treat the soul as a collection of aspects that can be separated and addressed with different rites, while the Devá’s religious rites act upon the characteristics that conceal a single, inner divine nature, destined to be liberated from the illusions of mortality. This leads to situations that outsiders may consider unusual. For instance, the Shén might guide a soul’s “Three Treasures” to an Afterlife, a Godsrealm, and a role as an Ancestor, all at the same time. These interactions are typically governed by a pantheon’s deep mythology and Fate. Gods cannot trivially divide and reunite souls, but souls may change aspect, split, and recombine when exalted traditions demand they do.
Certain Primordials dwell in the Underworld as well. Their realms personify forms of destruction, absence, and mutation. Unlike the Primordials of the Overworld, those of the Underworld do not represent manifest Forms, but the unmaking of essential things. They are places where Chaos reigns and Darkness speaks. Paradoxically, these destroyers create, and visitors may encounter places of twilight and plains of shifting bones on the way to seeking audience with one of the Primordials’ nightmarish Exemplars. Furthermore, they also make Chthonians, who are either divine nor dead. They’ve colonized much of the Underworld, but usually play whatever part an Afterlife’s myth demands of them. Whether they rend sinner-Shades limb from limb or keep a Death God’s cup filled with wine, it does not matter. On the other hand, wise Scions know that although the Chthonians serve, they are not true servants of anything except the shadow side of Fate. The Furies are of their order, after all.
Stories about such places usually feature impassable mountains or mighty guardians, or require the visitor to demonstrate a certain character. Some metaphysicians believe all Godsrealms and Afterlives were once Midrealms, and were either pulled from The World entirely by Gods, or made inaccessible by evolving Legends. Indeed, some Midrealms are said to be places where the Gods used to live, before migrating to some heaven, or descending to the lands of the dead. Others belong to a pantheon’s rivals or foes. For instance, Thor used to stomp into Jotunheim to battle giants, get drunk, or look for Loki, and other Æsir visit to consult Mimir, who lives in the Midrealm, close to Yggdrasil. Yet the Òrìshà defy the trend of abandoning The World, and havecreated numerous Midrealms close to worshippers.
Some Midrealms never belonged to any pantheon. They’re strange knots in The World. Perhaps they arose out of fears and yearnings given form by the human capacity for empowering Legends. They could belong to extinct pantheons, or could be the remnants of some prior cycle of The World. You might reach one through the Bermuda Triangle. They’re mist-shrouded islands filled with gigantic or extinct creatures. They’re the strange fortresses of forgotten civilizations, and fiery mazes filled with monsters. Rumors of these attract explorers, both for their potential resources and because an unclaimed realm offers the chance for ambitious Scions to create their own secret nations, and even send them to the Otherworlds to forge their new Legends.
These are just a handful of the Midrealms that exist in fact or legend:
Camelot: It’s a mystery. The learned all believe Camelot existed. Nobody knows exactly who Arthur and his knights truly were, or what they were doing, but their legacy remains still, hewn into the oral traditions and literature of France and the British Isles. The Tuatha Dé Danann, Plant Dôn, and Theoi (via the circuitous route of their Roman guises and the theory that Arthur was a Romano-British general) all claim Camelot. Seekers have found ruins and artifacts. Not all appear to be 15 centuries old, either. People dig up modern plumbing from Celtic hillfort ruins, and find bespoke rifles stamped with the sign of the Round Table. Arthurian cults claim the knights have returned, scouting ahead for their king, who now awakens in Avalon. He’ll return in the hour of need, just like the legends say.
Doggerland: Until eight millennia ago, much of the North Sea was inhabited land, above water. Archeologists call it Doggerland, after Dogger Bank, a shallow region that represents the highest remnant of the old territory. People lived in Doggerland, hunting and gathering the bounty of its rivers and vast forests up until the end, when rising sea levels triggered a massive tsunami and crushed it all. It remains as a Midrealm, accessible through underwater gates at Dogger Bank. Explorers can visit its uncut forests, track mammoths, and avoid saber-toothed cats, but none of the original human inhabitants remain. The Tuatha Dé Danann visit frequently, because in their lore, three Gods and Goddesses came to Ireland before the Fir Bolg, after escaping a great flood. Their true names were lost, corrupted by Christian perception of their legends. (Similarly, the Tuatha Dé Danann don’t use their own mythic name for Doggerland.) If these can be proved to be relatives of the Tuatha Dé Danann, it solidifies the Celtic Gods’ claim to their mortal protectorate. They support a colony in Doggerland in the hope that a new population will call the unknown Gods out of hiding.
Jotunheim: Giants spring from many mythologies and may possess numerous Midrealms, but Jotunheim is the most famous one, because Æsir visit for battles, negotiations, parties, and feasts. Thor may have visited to kill his fill of giants, but he also began an affair with Jarnsaxa, which produced the half-giant Scion, Magni. The greatest Jotnar (Norse giants — singular Jotunn) live here, with numerous children and vassals. The mightiest are as strong as Æsir Gods, and a few are divine Scions. Jotnar chieftains include the enchanter Utgartha-Loki, Loki’s father Farbauti, and Mimir, wisest of the Jotnar. Gates can be found in wild places near old Norse settlements and in Ásgarð. The Midrealm is a Northern European wilderness, where the flora, fauna, and structures are double to 10 times the size of counterparts in The World.
Libertalia and the Gyre: The pirate republic of Libertalia really existed, but it was more of a fellowship than a nation. Freebooters agreed to a few laws, and promised to unite against anyone who blatantly broke them. Citizens called Liberi vowed to aid each other, and liberate the enslaved, for many were once slaves themselves. Collaboration with any state’s navy was forbidden. By the end of the 17th century, harassment from the British Royal Navy and internal arguments threatened to finish Libertalia, so its captains turned to the Gods. They honored sea Gods of course, but prayed to anyone who could help, especially the Òrìshà, who many Liberi already loved. The Òrìshà led a coalition of Gods to aid Libertalia. At their command, a pirate fleet set out for the heart of the Sargasso Sea. Seaweed trapped their ships. Strange vines grew out of the water, enveloped them, and bound them together. A witness would have seen them drag every ship beneath the waves, but it took them to a secret, plant-choked ocean realm instead. Now Libertalia survives in this Gyre, as a floating city of hundreds of ships. When Libertalia needs more room, it steals a vessel. Modern cargo ships have made it possible to support over 10,000 people, who live by theft and fishing, and ceaselessly worship the Òrìshà and sea Gods who saved them.
Such themes can be overridden by the will of Gods and pantheons, by mighty legends, or by Fate, which makes the rules but doesn’t always keep them. The most common Overworlds are Godsrealms: places created or ruled by the Gods of certain pantheons, or by a pantheon as a whole. Some Gods accept the souls of the righteous or enlightened dead (as judged by the pantheon’s ethos). These Eidolons are bright and strong, unlike the Underworld’s grim shades. In some Godsrealms, they enjoy lives of pleasure and plenty, or they act out a God or pantheon’s values. Swarga’s souls enjoy paradise under the direct rule of Indra, and work toward final liberation of the self. In Odin’s subrealm of Valhalla, einherjar feast and battle without restraint, for death can no longer cut short the joys of either. Eidolons are usually unbound by the limitations of the flesh when it comes to performing whatever tasks the Gods set them to. Not all Gods dwell in the Overworld Godsrealms, and not all pantheons send the righteous dead there.
Other Overworlds are Primordial worldbodies: a mixture of natural Purviews, a place-beyond-place, and the vast consciousness that constitutes each Primordial. Each of the Eldest are planes of existence unto themselves, representing the vast energies and ideal principles they once bound into the act of creating The World, and which they may well still exercise to attain it. Some Primordials possess no means of passage into themselves, and are only known through Legend. Others are utterly inhospitable, because they contain energies incompatible with foreign life, but even Primordials of Fire and Darkness may shape parts of themselves to permit visitors some chance of survival, and although they are theoretically all-powerful, Primordials do not always crush enemies who invade them. A Primordial’s inhabitants include Elementals, who have split off from the source and effectively become independent beings, and Exemplars, who represent one or more aspects of the Primordial’s identity. Both beings are considered Titans, and if they were involved in the Titanomachy, were imprisoned. Thus, to speak to certain Primordials, one must visit their imprisoned “voices.”
In many cases, an Otherworld possesses a core realm with several attached subrealms. For example, Valhalla is a subrealm of Ásgarð (an Overworld Godsrealm) under Odin’s direct dominion. Similarly, Thor’s hall Bilskirnir is his own personal subrealm of Ásgarð. Not all Æsir possess personal subrealms, and may oversee halls in greater Ásgarð, but do not have the same degree of control over their home’s characteristics, or who may enter.
This is not an exact science. In some cases, two realms may be connected by gates or longstanding alliances, with each commanded by related pantheons. To keep to Norse examples, this is the case of Vanaheim, which is not Ásgarð, but possesses multiple connections to it through Gods and means of passage. In many cases, such bonds break the categories of World, Overworld, and Underworld. What defines a subrealm is the quality of its connections to its primary realm, and its dependence on the primary realm. If Ásgarð burned, Valhalla and Bilskirnir would probably feel the heat, but Vanaheim might be spared.
THE UNDERWORLD
The Underworld (or Underworlds — it can be used in the plural) is named for the age-old conceit that it describes places beneath the mortal realm, where bodies rot in graves and ashes eventually settle. It’s a region filled with realms attuned to specific mythologies, though a few rare realms have never been claimed by any culture or pantheon. Although mystics mutter that there can be no Overworld without the Underworld, and an imbalance in one would set calamities upon the other, some pantheons recognize neither place — they have other realms for the dead to go.VARIETIES OF THE DEAD
With many pantheons and myths in play, Scion accepts a variety of destinies for souls after death. Sometimes souls do not manifest at all, and some pantheons even destroy souls for one reason or another. In The World of Scion, an ecumenical language used by modern Western scholars divides the dead into the following types. Every culture and pantheon has its own names for them. After death, all souls lose the ability to readily take material form in The World, but rituals, divine intervention, and powers belonging to a small number of their ranks may provide exceptions. However, all the Dead can interact with each other while in incorporeal form.Ancestors: These souls exist in The World due to the deliberate efforts of their Gods. They’re not “ghosts” who have unnaturally lingered or become lost. Ancestors either dwell in a Midrealm, in their tombs, or among their people. If the latter, their Gods and cult traditions teach them how to guide and protect their people.
Chthonians: These fragments of the Underworld’s Primordials were never human, but perform every task that’s too petty for a Scion, but inappropriate for a Shade. They come in numerous varieties: demons, heart-eating beasts, psychopomps, and gate guardians. They rarely leave the Underworld, and when they do, it’s on grim or enigmatic business.
Eidolons: These souls have been sent to the Overworld to exemplify their pantheon’s virtues, prepare for some higher stage of enlightenment, or simply to be rewarded for loyal service to the Gods. Not all Gods make “good” souls (or any souls) Eidolons. An Eidolon often appears as they did during the point in their life the Gods decided to uplift them, or at an age befitting whatever role they will play in a Godsrealm, but changed to reflect divine influence. They might be taller, radiate serenity, or growl and fight with the enthusiasm of an einherjar.
Ghosts: Ghosts are lost souls who were prevented from entering or were cast out of an Afterlife, Godsrealm, or Midrealm. Some lose their way due to the upsetting or strange deaths. These anguished souls often return to familiar places, and may engage in repetitive or obsessive behavior as a result. Contrary to widespread belief, ghosts almost never appear out of obsessions or unfinished business, though they might appear to do so, due to the trauma they’ve experienced. Ghosts are more common than they used to be, and some believe this is a sign of the Titans’ renewed strength.
Shades: Most souls that manifest after death do so in the Underworld, as Shades. Pantheons with Shades use their own mythic methods (and a variety of divine and Chthonian staff ) to guide souls to promised Afterlives. Shades usually appear to be the person at the point of death, though in cases where the Gods punish or purify them, they may appear to be whatever age they were when they earned such attentions. Shades are usually bent, listless, quiet things. Some pantheons remove their memories as a mercy, or to prepare them for reincarnation.
Souls: The definition of the soul in Scion is nebulous, more defined by faith and pantheon than any overarching principles. Pantheons such as the Shén and Netjer treat the soul as a collection of aspects that can be separated and addressed with different rites, while the Devá’s religious rites act upon the characteristics that conceal a single, inner divine nature, destined to be liberated from the illusions of mortality. This leads to situations that outsiders may consider unusual. For instance, the Shén might guide a soul’s “Three Treasures” to an Afterlife, a Godsrealm, and a role as an Ancestor, all at the same time. These interactions are typically governed by a pantheon’s deep mythology and Fate. Gods cannot trivially divide and reunite souls, but souls may change aspect, split, and recombine when exalted traditions demand they do.
INHABITANTS
The dead’s Shades inhabit the Underworld in millions. Most dwell in the realms made for them by their pantheons, called the Afterlives. Some pantheons torment their Shades for their supposed failings in life, either for all eternity or until they’ve been sufficiently purified, and may even allow a few to become Eidolons and reside in an Overworld. But most pantheons who keep Shades do not see their Underworlds as places of punishment, but simple necessities. After mortals enjoy the vivid World, that which remains must be cared for, or at least made useful, as servants or moral examples — one appreciates life by seeing the gloomy fate that awaits beyond it. Yet the Netjer make their home in the Afterlife of Duat, and reward Shades by giving them something close to mortal lives in a place reminiscent of the Nile Valley. They do not punish damned souls, but destroy them.Certain Primordials dwell in the Underworld as well. Their realms personify forms of destruction, absence, and mutation. Unlike the Primordials of the Overworld, those of the Underworld do not represent manifest Forms, but the unmaking of essential things. They are places where Chaos reigns and Darkness speaks. Paradoxically, these destroyers create, and visitors may encounter places of twilight and plains of shifting bones on the way to seeking audience with one of the Primordials’ nightmarish Exemplars. Furthermore, they also make Chthonians, who are either divine nor dead. They’ve colonized much of the Underworld, but usually play whatever part an Afterlife’s myth demands of them. Whether they rend sinner-Shades limb from limb or keep a Death God’s cup filled with wine, it does not matter. On the other hand, wise Scions know that although the Chthonians serve, they are not true servants of anything except the shadow side of Fate. The Furies are of their order, after all.
MIDREALMS
Like a Godsrealm or Afterlife, a Midrealm develops a mythic character powerful enough to make it a domain of its own. Consequently, travelers can’t reach it except through the appropriate gate or Axis Mundi (as non-ideal places, they cannot be visited through a Touchstone). The smallest Midrealms are alleys, glades, and temples that cannot be entered except through the proper methods. The largest hold mountains and nations. Without the proper means of access, a Midrealm takes up no space in The World, though it will usually either possess a rough geographic correspondence set by tradition, or be said to exist somewhere near its most prominent gate. Mythic Bleed commonly occurs in these places. In certain parts of the United Kingdom, campers dream of Camelot, and everything grows a bit bigger near a gate to Jotunheim.Stories about such places usually feature impassable mountains or mighty guardians, or require the visitor to demonstrate a certain character. Some metaphysicians believe all Godsrealms and Afterlives were once Midrealms, and were either pulled from The World entirely by Gods, or made inaccessible by evolving Legends. Indeed, some Midrealms are said to be places where the Gods used to live, before migrating to some heaven, or descending to the lands of the dead. Others belong to a pantheon’s rivals or foes. For instance, Thor used to stomp into Jotunheim to battle giants, get drunk, or look for Loki, and other Æsir visit to consult Mimir, who lives in the Midrealm, close to Yggdrasil. Yet the Òrìshà defy the trend of abandoning The World, and havecreated numerous Midrealms close to worshippers.
Some Midrealms never belonged to any pantheon. They’re strange knots in The World. Perhaps they arose out of fears and yearnings given form by the human capacity for empowering Legends. They could belong to extinct pantheons, or could be the remnants of some prior cycle of The World. You might reach one through the Bermuda Triangle. They’re mist-shrouded islands filled with gigantic or extinct creatures. They’re the strange fortresses of forgotten civilizations, and fiery mazes filled with monsters. Rumors of these attract explorers, both for their potential resources and because an unclaimed realm offers the chance for ambitious Scions to create their own secret nations, and even send them to the Otherworlds to forge their new Legends.
These are just a handful of the Midrealms that exist in fact or legend:
Camelot: It’s a mystery. The learned all believe Camelot existed. Nobody knows exactly who Arthur and his knights truly were, or what they were doing, but their legacy remains still, hewn into the oral traditions and literature of France and the British Isles. The Tuatha Dé Danann, Plant Dôn, and Theoi (via the circuitous route of their Roman guises and the theory that Arthur was a Romano-British general) all claim Camelot. Seekers have found ruins and artifacts. Not all appear to be 15 centuries old, either. People dig up modern plumbing from Celtic hillfort ruins, and find bespoke rifles stamped with the sign of the Round Table. Arthurian cults claim the knights have returned, scouting ahead for their king, who now awakens in Avalon. He’ll return in the hour of need, just like the legends say.
Doggerland: Until eight millennia ago, much of the North Sea was inhabited land, above water. Archeologists call it Doggerland, after Dogger Bank, a shallow region that represents the highest remnant of the old territory. People lived in Doggerland, hunting and gathering the bounty of its rivers and vast forests up until the end, when rising sea levels triggered a massive tsunami and crushed it all. It remains as a Midrealm, accessible through underwater gates at Dogger Bank. Explorers can visit its uncut forests, track mammoths, and avoid saber-toothed cats, but none of the original human inhabitants remain. The Tuatha Dé Danann visit frequently, because in their lore, three Gods and Goddesses came to Ireland before the Fir Bolg, after escaping a great flood. Their true names were lost, corrupted by Christian perception of their legends. (Similarly, the Tuatha Dé Danann don’t use their own mythic name for Doggerland.) If these can be proved to be relatives of the Tuatha Dé Danann, it solidifies the Celtic Gods’ claim to their mortal protectorate. They support a colony in Doggerland in the hope that a new population will call the unknown Gods out of hiding.
Jotunheim: Giants spring from many mythologies and may possess numerous Midrealms, but Jotunheim is the most famous one, because Æsir visit for battles, negotiations, parties, and feasts. Thor may have visited to kill his fill of giants, but he also began an affair with Jarnsaxa, which produced the half-giant Scion, Magni. The greatest Jotnar (Norse giants — singular Jotunn) live here, with numerous children and vassals. The mightiest are as strong as Æsir Gods, and a few are divine Scions. Jotnar chieftains include the enchanter Utgartha-Loki, Loki’s father Farbauti, and Mimir, wisest of the Jotnar. Gates can be found in wild places near old Norse settlements and in Ásgarð. The Midrealm is a Northern European wilderness, where the flora, fauna, and structures are double to 10 times the size of counterparts in The World.
Libertalia and the Gyre: The pirate republic of Libertalia really existed, but it was more of a fellowship than a nation. Freebooters agreed to a few laws, and promised to unite against anyone who blatantly broke them. Citizens called Liberi vowed to aid each other, and liberate the enslaved, for many were once slaves themselves. Collaboration with any state’s navy was forbidden. By the end of the 17th century, harassment from the British Royal Navy and internal arguments threatened to finish Libertalia, so its captains turned to the Gods. They honored sea Gods of course, but prayed to anyone who could help, especially the Òrìshà, who many Liberi already loved. The Òrìshà led a coalition of Gods to aid Libertalia. At their command, a pirate fleet set out for the heart of the Sargasso Sea. Seaweed trapped their ships. Strange vines grew out of the water, enveloped them, and bound them together. A witness would have seen them drag every ship beneath the waves, but it took them to a secret, plant-choked ocean realm instead. Now Libertalia survives in this Gyre, as a floating city of hundreds of ships. When Libertalia needs more room, it steals a vessel. Modern cargo ships have made it possible to support over 10,000 people, who live by theft and fishing, and ceaselessly worship the Òrìshà and sea Gods who saved them.
THE OVERWORLD
The Overworld is a metaphysical region containing many realms, but metaphysicians commonly speak of “Overworlds” in the plural to refer to realms within it. Overworlds are often associated with the sky and stars, virtue, truth, purity, and piety. People often translate the names of realms therein as “Heaven,” and in certain World systems, it is said to be closest to the Platonic Forms or supreme enlightenment. Evil, deception, and decrepit things can exist in the Overworld, but these are often players and props in mythic dramas that demonstrate higher themes. In the Overworld, a venomous dragon exists to be slain, or to embody the sins of the one who confronts it so that by being defeated (or perhaps accepted), they grow enlightened.Such themes can be overridden by the will of Gods and pantheons, by mighty legends, or by Fate, which makes the rules but doesn’t always keep them. The most common Overworlds are Godsrealms: places created or ruled by the Gods of certain pantheons, or by a pantheon as a whole. Some Gods accept the souls of the righteous or enlightened dead (as judged by the pantheon’s ethos). These Eidolons are bright and strong, unlike the Underworld’s grim shades. In some Godsrealms, they enjoy lives of pleasure and plenty, or they act out a God or pantheon’s values. Swarga’s souls enjoy paradise under the direct rule of Indra, and work toward final liberation of the self. In Odin’s subrealm of Valhalla, einherjar feast and battle without restraint, for death can no longer cut short the joys of either. Eidolons are usually unbound by the limitations of the flesh when it comes to performing whatever tasks the Gods set them to. Not all Gods dwell in the Overworld Godsrealms, and not all pantheons send the righteous dead there.
Other Overworlds are Primordial worldbodies: a mixture of natural Purviews, a place-beyond-place, and the vast consciousness that constitutes each Primordial. Each of the Eldest are planes of existence unto themselves, representing the vast energies and ideal principles they once bound into the act of creating The World, and which they may well still exercise to attain it. Some Primordials possess no means of passage into themselves, and are only known through Legend. Others are utterly inhospitable, because they contain energies incompatible with foreign life, but even Primordials of Fire and Darkness may shape parts of themselves to permit visitors some chance of survival, and although they are theoretically all-powerful, Primordials do not always crush enemies who invade them. A Primordial’s inhabitants include Elementals, who have split off from the source and effectively become independent beings, and Exemplars, who represent one or more aspects of the Primordial’s identity. Both beings are considered Titans, and if they were involved in the Titanomachy, were imprisoned. Thus, to speak to certain Primordials, one must visit their imprisoned “voices.”
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