Astral Realm

Artist's rendition of the Astral Realm.

The Astral Realm is one of the tree main planes of existence that compose an individual universe. It is best described as dream-like, as will and imagination tend to carry more weight than material physics. It is the place where souls gather after death, the coordinator and holy-land of Numen, and home to the venerable gods and fae spirits.

The Astral Realm is analogous to the 'Spirit' in the trinity of being. The entire plane can be said to be a world-encompassing archipelago - islands of mysterious metal or mundane soil, entries to the divine kingdoms of gods, and nests of the myriad of astral denizens easily stand out among its clear waters. The 'sea' of the Astral Realm is segmented into four different areas by the River of Time, which also isolates the entire Realm from the Garden of All-Creation resting at its core. The borders of the Astral Realm are defined by the Starlight-Crystal Wall, which encloses the plane in its entirety, isolating it from the rest of the Realm of Souls.

### **Environment**

The landscape of the Astral Realm is easily influenced by mythical forces as it is, essentially, the largest reservoir of Numen in existence. This fact makes the Realm a very attractive place for anything to do with magic, from training and comprehension, resource gathering or processing, the creation of contracts and charms, etc., all activities are imbued with the scent of the Astral Realm. Of course, nothing is without adversity, such a mystical environment has its fair share of dangerous phenomena, even when disregarding the extraordinarily beings that inhabit it. Sometimes, the currents of the Astral Realm may gather into dangerous Astral Storms due to larger-than-normal influx of souls, or the emanations of a deity. These storms are are wrought from condensed Numen, attacking the body and soul at the same time. They are incredibly potent and bring destruction to large areas, being equivalent to an attack at the level of an Arch-Angel. An astral storm makes travel and communication trough the Realm night-impossible, distorting its space and disrupting the casting of spells in the affected areas.

There are many archipelagos in each sea of the Astral Realm. Each island has an environment, ecology and strange materials unique to it, and although these are largely affected by the peculiarities of the sea area it is located on, islands from the same archipelago can more alien to one another than to an island from another sea area. An island can range from but a few square meters to behemoths hundreds of kilometers in diameter. Many of these might have been the personal creation of powerful mages, a pocket dimension where they experimented with, created or stored their riches, and that, instead of placing them as a singularity in the mundane world, decided to house it in their own body, causing it to be swept away into the Realm alongside their souls. Most, however, are generated spontaneously by the condensation of the Realm's Numen, and eventually destroyed by its storms.

### **The Four Seas**

The astral sea is cut into four corners by the currents of the River of Time. Whether by coincidence, by design, or due to an unknown law of nature, each sea area has a mythical link to one of the Cardinals in the Wheel of Divinity. Due to this, the environment of every sea area is somewhat different from the rest, and each suffers a stronger connection to one specific element of creation.

## **Appearance**

The expansive sea and sky seem perfectly smooth from ground-level, giving the impression that this world stretches on forever. The sky is densely packed with dusty clouds which can easily support creatures or even entire structures, depending on their density. Despite this, the Astral Realm is very luminous, mostly due to the bright auroras and star-like clumps of 'breath'. Indeed, the 'breath' here is very dense, giving the world a sense of lightness and energy. The clear seas reflect the spectacle above them in perfect detail, amplifying its majesty and wonder, though this can prove to be quite disorientating. The ever-changing nature of the Astral Realm make this a non-issue, however.

## **Trivia**

1. Many powerful creatures construct castles and fortress throughout the Astral Realm.
2. Some powerful mages and organizations also build enclosed bastions or battle-spires in the Realm to train their surrogates, gather resources and engage in diplomacy with astral and celestial entities.
3. A few gods like to build cities or palaces in their territories in the Astral Realm. These may house an entryway into their divine kingdom, though these already posses a natural gateway in the seas or sky of the Realm, making up their largest islands. Their appearance usually reflects that of the divine realm's.
4. Since the Astral Realm and the Starlight-Crystal Wall are the only barrier between the madness of the Realm of Souls and the mundane world, the gods need to devote a large amount of time toward its protection and maintenance. Leaving it unattended would have dire consequences for their believers, and so to themselves. Very few gods would have the leisure to devote all their energy into descending into the mundane world already, this danger only makes that prospect even less desirable.