The Orrery

Historical Overview

Background

The most recent, and popular, model for depicting the relationship between the Mortal Planes and all others is the Orrery Model. This, physically, consists of the Mortal Plane anchored in the center, around which the other planes rotate in their approximated locations. It is adjustable to reflect their seasonal proximities to the Mortal Plane, during which their effects are more prominent.

The Orrery is the product of a breakthrough in reflecting the waxing and waning powers of each plane throughout the year." - University of Alarca missive

Physical models are located in most centers of learning, and can be found in all major cities.

Planes

Mortal Plane

In this model, the Mortal Plane is the center around which the other planes revolve. Not all models have it as such, as the previously predominant model was pyramidal. At the peak was Maru's furnace of creation, from which flowed all others, until reaching the Mortal Plane at the bottom. The centricity of the Mortal Plane, compared to those of the gods, remains the largest criticism of the Orrery model.

Transitory Planes

The Veil

Around the Mortal Plane exists a thin realm called the Veil. This semipermeable barrier separates Mirth, Obscurus, and the Void from the Mortal Plane.

"The pond seemed to fluctuate as we pierced the Veil, allowing us to step through and see the glow of Mirth" - Caerwyn Glimmereye

The Veil also forms the medium through which many magics operate. Laylines flow through it, and teleportation magic glides the user along it to their destination. Not only does it facilitate mortals' use of magic, but it protects them as well.

"Rituals in the desert were more powerful, more raw. Tahat's wrath rendered the Veil so thin here that I expended little power in my castings" - Osyæn Ghostcloak

Various spots on the Mortal Plane have a particularly thin connection to the Veil, becoming powerful magical foci. The magics of Mirth, Obscurus, or various divine planes occasionally breach the Veil in its thin spots, creating important or dangerous locations on the Mortal Plane.

Mirth & Obscurus

Mirth and Obscurus are two sides of the same coin in the Orrery model, though their similarities are less defined in practice.
Mirth
Mirth is a realm of frivolity, strange wild magic, and tricksy creatures. Believed to have been created by Iarus as a backdoor to enter the Mortal Plane, it is representative of much of the god of trickery's portfolio.
Accessible through thin points in the Veil, often buried deep in nature, the barriers to Mirth are weakest at the equinoxes. This is when and where the powers of Mirth's various groups seep into the Mortal Plane. The Vinelands of Anhara is one such location, where the Court of the Summer Queen exerts control over the region's wilderness. The more benevolent of the fae, Mirth's influence in the Vinelands has given it a reputation for a region of romantic questing and wild magic.

"He grasped the Fae upon the arm
and swore an oath to save his kin
for the Fae man had used his charms
to trap her deep within the bryns." - Ballad of Etienne Bryn

With their power rising in the winter and fall, the Court of the Winter King pierces the Veil in the Coquet Heights, when exerting power in Anhara, or in the frozen mountains of the Boreal North more generally. They are a more malevolent group of Fae, often conflicting with the Summer Court. Their battles are said to result in particularly early or harsh winters.
Both groups of Fae are characterized by their love of trickery, most often manifested through harmless pranks or dangerous pacts. Many myths and legends involving Fae are themed around their hiding of magical, enchanted items, or their kidnapping and hiding of various mortals.
Obscurus
Obscurus is less a plane unto itself, and more a series of pocket dimensions, with their access points scattered across the Mortal Plane. Where the Veil is pierced by Obscurus, the world's dark gods, The Obscure Ones, manifest their powers.
Where the various planes are is unknown. Many are theorized to be at sites of great dark magic, such as deep under Meridia, in the Vestiges of the Vestral Downs, or under the waves of the Unknown Tides.
Many of the gateways to Obscurus are more powerful at particular times of the year, such as the start of spring or winter. Demons, devils, and undeath cross more easily into the Mortal Plane at that time.

The Void

In many ways a transitory plane, yet its own realm, The Void is the primordial sea in which the Divine Planes float. It is not visually represented on the Orrery model, and is rather the absence of representation. To travel to Divine Planes, the Veil must first be pierced, and then exited through into the Void.
Within the Void itself, excluding the Divine Planes, float a variety of theorized items and bodies. Very few mortals have actually visited the Void, with only a few of the most powerful mages from the Era of Legend having had the chance. Regardless, based on the scant surviving writings from that era, and other legends, a few broad ideas have come to the fore.

"Her divine winds spirited their souls through the Void, thin ethereal trails of past lives drifting towards the mountains." - Caerwyn Glimmereye

The Void is generally agreed upon amongst most mortals to be the transition for souls from the Mortal Plane to the realm of whichever god claims them. It also hosts the most powerful divine servants of those gods, as well as some of the more sneaky gods, able to slink through to the Mortal Plane without invoking Maru's ire.
The Void's foremost reputation however, is as a battlefield. While different cultures have different interpretations, the theological consensus is that around Creation, a great battle took place in the Void. The gods known as The Obscure Ones, the dark gods of the world, tried to take control of the nascent Mortal Plane. Meda's Eyes intercepted many, allowing a few to slip through, and leaving the others' corpses littering the ether.

Meda's Eyes

Meda's Eyes, from the Mortal Plane, appears to be all the stars in the sky as well as the Moon. It is believed that this is simply all that is visible from the perspective of Mortals, except deep in the mountains of the Boreal North. There, Meda's Eyes form a colorful display of lines in the sky on a few nights a year, believed to be when she is defending the Mortal Plane from particularly determined dark gods.
These displays on the Mortal Plane are representative of what Meda's Eyes look like in the Void, a criss-crossing web of color, forming a protective net around the gods' work. The net is not impervious, and on nights of the year, such as the solstices, she is said to blink, allowing the forces of the Void and dark magic to grow more powerful.

Iarus

Cosmologically speaking, Iarus' Plane has no real position or orbit. On the Orrery model, it is depicted in a tight orbit around the Mortal Plane, representing his unique position in regards to humanity. As the trickster god, the god of freedom, he had no real role in Creation, and thus was never separated from the Mortal Plane with the Crossing Over. Maru allows him some leeway in interacting with the world given that portfolio, and he has tunneled his own passages through the Veil.
What his plane looks like is heavily dependent upon the culture depicting it. It often has similarities to Mirth, as Iarus is sometimes believed to have created that plane as a backdoor into the mortal realm. As such, his realm is often described as enterable first through Mirth.

Mae & Lorun

Mae and Lorun, twin planes for twin gods. They are depicted directly adjacent in the Orrery model, making their own orbit around each other as they simultaneously orbit the Mortal Plane. Not as close as Iarus to the Mortal Plane as Iarus, Mae and Lorun nevertheless receive lenity from Maru, who allows them continued influence over the flora and fauna they created.
Mae
Mae's realm, Mae's Pool, is accessible from deep within the forests of the world, and the Pool of Mae in the dense jungles of Panag Rho, the nation she used to rule. The Pool of Mae, the lake on the mortal realm, is believed to be a mirror of her divine plane.
Her plane is thought of as a pool surrounded by jungle trees and a ring of mountains. Within the pool is a honeycombing system of caverns, extending as deep as the trees are tall. On each landing of branches grow different plants, copies of each Mae created on the Mortal Plane, as well as some that do not appear there. These plants are protected by her creations, earth elementals.
Mae not only governs the flora of the world, but its minerals as well. Deep within the caverns under the lake lie aquatic vegetation as well as veins of ores from the common to unheard of. The pools' caverns is where the souls of Rhogues enter, before settling inside the trees, with the most virtuous closest to the water.
Lorun
Lorun's realm is also accessible from deep within the forests of the world. Also known as Lorun's Grove or the Hunting Grounds, it is the home of all seen and unheard of fauna. Much like his sister, Lorun is allowed access to the Mortal Plane to keep watch over his creations.
Access to his plane is believed to be possible either through Mae's Pool or by falling asleep within a grove within the woods. There, satyrs and other divine avatars are said to guard over the god's flocks until he, or mortals who gain his favor, are allowed to go hunting.

Veru

The divine plane of Veru takes different forms depending upon the cultural depictions of her portfolio. For example in Anhara, it is the Pearled Tower, a white island tower surrounded by a magical hedge maze. Encapsulating Veru's domains of questing, oaths, and love, the Tower is wrapped up in Anhara's long tradition of the Romance of Nobility.

"The Lady Semillon was trapped deep within the maze, as punishment for her Court of Love's farcical mimicry of its Veru-blessed forebearer." - Braelea Loyalist Book of Tales

It is believed that she governs oaths not taken to specific gods, and oathbreakers are sent to wander her hedge mazes after death. Her court within the tower is populated by the most interesting oath breakers, unrequited lovers, and those who were overly ambitious in life. While for some this is a punishment, with them cast out into the mazes once they no longer interest her, she also takes in the spirits of lovers and those who nobly failed on quests, keeping them at her side.

Mistra

The Choir of Mistra, her divine plane, is the resting place for her worshipers, usually Anharans. Also known as the Towers, Mistra's realm is a mountain surrounded by roiling tempests.
The mountain itself is covered in a series of crystal towers, arrayed like pipes on an organ. The winds of the most virtuous Anharans whistle through the heights of the towers, like chimes. Those unworthy both of the towers and of staying on the Mortal Plane as winds whip around in the tempest. As punishment, they exist as air elementals.
Between the tempest and towers exist all birds from the Mortal Plane, and others created by Mistra which never descended.

Enos & Churus

Enos and Churus, having related portfolios, orbit each others' realms. They represent the divine peacekeepers, making the Mortal Plane and other realms run smoothly.
Enos' realm, the Divine Loom, is believed to mostly consist of his great tapestry of linear time. There, the information passed to the god of time by Chorus are recorded.
Churus, the god of truth, knowledge, and mysteries is often absent from his realm, The Vault. He wanders the world, disguised, recording events with the aid of his divine servants. Also known as the Binder, the Vault contains Churus' records bound into book and scroll form.

Pyrae

Pyrae's plane is most frequently depicted through the lens of Tahati beliefs, as it is the final resting place for the souls of Tahati or other Pyrae worshippers. The plane comes in two main parts, the Burning Sands and the Infinite Oasis.
The Burnings Sands surround the Infinite Oasis, and are filled with the wandering spirits of less virtuous Tahati. A vast desert, it is interspersed with lava oasis, with shores of glass and obsidian. The desert itself is hemmed in by a mountain range of porous, volcanic rock.
In the center of the Burning Sands is the Infinite Oasis. This is the paradise for Tahatis who earned eternal rewards, and is protected by fire elementals from the wandering ghosts of the Sands. The Oasis cannot be found through wandering the Sands alone, but is rather led to by caravans of penitent ghosts, seeking redemption.
Entry to this realm may also be gained by getting lost in al-Tahat, or some believe from the ruins deep in the southern desert.

Nemura

Nemura's realm is best depicted by the Litoric Islanders, and while beliefs vary between islands, it is generally known as the Sea Beneath the Sea. This realm is a surfaceless sea, of vague depth, but never deeper than sunlight shines. A sourceless light emanates down through the water, despite the Moon being constantly visible.
Floating within the sea are islands of coral, on which live water elementals, protecting the species of fish, both those seen on the Mortal Plane and those which were never present. Deeper down floats a palace of coral and pearl, home to the most virtuous of Islander spirits.

Maru

Maru's Furnace, the first plane, the womb of the world. Visibly the sun, it was here that Maru is believed to have created the other gods and the raw materials that eventually became the Mortal Plane. Maru himself is represented as a golden human figure in most art, and many believe he simply is his plane, the sun.