The Sixteen Realms

An old Ninjagese legend has it that the realm we live in is just one of sixteen that exist in parallel with each other. However, there lies as much truth in that tale as legend for historically realms other than our own have indeed been recorded to exist. However, their exact number and the nature of each varies among different accounts. In fact, even the number sixteen which has been popular in modern times goes only as far back as the ninth century AF, while the first records of the tale date back to the second century.

While the legend is of Ninjagese origin, study of the realms has spread outside of Ninjago as well. Notably, after the fourth century AF, when the Figorani travelled to Ninjago, it became a popular concept with them; and again during the late third millennium when the Galazian peoples reopened communications with Ninjago, the realms were researched by them, too.

It must be noted that the sixteen realms are different to alternate dimensions which are autonomous of each other for the realms aren't entirely independent and can be said to be more like pocket dimensions of the same universe. In most cases at least, because unlike what the Ninjagese legend suggests, not all realms are created equal. There's a main realm, the one which we inhabit, within which most others exist as pocket spaces, while there are also some realms that exist almost completely outside of the universe, but are connected to it nonetheless. That is, of course, only when these planes are accounted as realms at all.

A list of planes that are often described as Realms follows:

## Main Realm

Also known as Ninhongo or Ninjago Realm within Ninjago as well as the Physical Realm or Material Plane in some accounts, the Main Realm makes up for the majority of space within our Universe. It is considerably bigger than the other realms while many of the realms are 'contained' within it as pocket or parallel spaces.

## Underworld

The Underworld is a concept present in many religions and cultures across the universe and similarly the Ninjagese named the realm where according to legend disgraced warriors who cannot accept death pass on to the Underworld. However, the Underworld Realm doesn't have the same connotations as in other cultures for both in traditional Ninjagese folklore and in later research, other realms share traits that others attribute to the Underworld (see Departed Realm, Cursed Realm, Nether World).

While traditional Ninjagese folklore suggests that unwillingness to pass on leads one to the Underworld, that clashes with the theory of magic theorists that one becomes a ghost and passes on to the Spirit Realm, rather than the Underworld, for that same reason exactly. That is why it was later suggested that the Underworld is the Realm for those cursed to undeath.

The Underworld is said to dwell in a pocket space in the depths of Crux, or alternatively, in the depths of all "living" planets at once.

## Spirit Realm

Whether it is fear of death blocking you from passing on, a curse that separates you from your body, a spell to willingly leave your body temporarily or otherwise when one turns to a spirit, the Spirit Realm becomes their home. While a strong spirit may project itself onto the world of the living, it still dwells on this realm in the end. There are also natural spirits that were created as spirits all along.

While this realm is fundamentally spiritual and thus not material, for the mind to comprehend it, it often creates a physical-like reflection of the realm. This physical manifestation is often seen as a parallel to the living world, but devoid of the living people (though those who can project themselves to the living world can see those who are alive then).

### Astral Plane

Magic theorists have suggested that the Astral Plane is in fact one and the same with the Spirit Realm.

### Cursed Realm

In Ninjagese tradition, the Cursed Realm is where cursed souls dwell. It is reasonable that the similar idea led to attempting to reconcile the two planes into one realm. However, it must be noted that the Cursed Realm seems to have a more physical nature, as the whole structure housing the halls of the Cursed Realm was in fact said to be the entity known as the Preeminent. As such, it was suggested that the Cursed Realm was only a part of the Spirit Realm, existing nearer to the Material Plane and linking the two. Supporters of the theory say that when the Preeminent was destroyed rather than the whole Spirit Realm it was only the physically manifested in-between Cursed Realm that was destroyed.

## Departed Realm

The Departed Realm is a speculated realm where the souls pass on after death, if the people don't turn into ghosts or undead. As such, it is connected to the Ninjagese idea of the afterlife and others have made parallels with the idea of Heaven. However, since afterlife has not and cannot be confirmed within the living world, as far as we know, and due to its vastly different nature some have argue that it shouldn't be reckoned amongst the sixteen realms.

Because the idea of the Departed Realm is often connected to the claimed sightings of people from the other side (most notably, on the Hallow Festival -also known as as the Day of the Departed- when the connections between the realms is said to be the strongest), some suggest that the Departed Realm might actually refer to to the part of the Spirit Realm that is not the Cursed Realm. However, a counter-argument says that the spirits that pass to our world aren't always cursed souls or ghosts of those who couldn't accept death, but also the spirits of the peaceful. Because of that, another theory says that the Departed Realm is a plane where the memories of those who have passed are kept, forming into phasmatical entities similar to ghosts when they cross to the Material Plane.

## Ethereal Plane

Those who support that the Spirit Realm is the Astral Plane also suggest that the Ethereal Plane is one of the Realms. Whereas the Astral Plane is a realm of the mind, associated with thought and memories, the Ethereal Plane is a realm of the soul, associated with emotions and personality. It is a far more raw and fluid place than the Astral Plane and hardly comprehensible. One's experiences in it could be described as ineffable and they have a tendency to become vague and forgotten once you leave it. As such, not much is known of it.

## Monster Realm

Above the Underworld, but still below the surface of Crux (and/or other planets), the Monster Realm is said to exist where abominable monsters were banished in the past. A dark realm where hope dies, it is ruled by fearsome Lord Vampyre, who also was imprisoned there long ago. Although bounded in the realms, its monstrous inhabitants always try to break through to the Main Realm and on those occasions they've made it, mayhem and destruction has invariably followed until they were sealed once more.

That is also the Realm from which, the dark wizard Monstrox summoned his army of monsters after he fell to the darkness.

## Nether World

Nether World, also known as Nether Plane, Demon World and sometimes even as Hell (though no real connection to the religious concept exists), is a plane of existence inhabited by fiendish creatures and known for its red hills flowing with lava and red plains burning with flames. However, the misconstrued idea that all of the Nether World is like this is inaccurate, as it is a plane that features a variety of environments, most of them tending on the harsh side. For instance, ice cold mountains exist in the Demon Plane as well.

Lying even deeper than the Underworld but at the same time almost outside of the world entirely, the Nether Plane is home to demons of all sorts, magical creatures who have a number of known types, but generally like goblins and fairies their form tends to be rather malleable and they don't pass on traits to their offspring genetically like creatures of the Main Realm. Demons aren't inherently evil, but often they will hurt others either out of malice or because they don't realise they're being cruel.

The Nether World is said to be a land where the passions of pain and desire are emphasised to the extreme. You will find both there and the whole world seems to conspire in order to make the people who travel to it succumb to such passions.

## Faerië

Faerië along with the Nether World and the Realm of Madness are the most slippery and out of reach realms of the sixteen, existing mostly outside of the Universe. Faerië especially is a mysterious place where reason starts to fail, replaced by dream logic. A land of fairy tales, it's magical and charming, but also deceiving and deadly.

The landscape including ancient forests, vast grasslands, deep seas, green hills and snowy mountains, it serves as a home to various magical beings such as faeries, elves, nymphs and satyrs.

Explaining Faerië is an impossible task, as it is by nature unreasonable, but we could perhaps endeavour to describe it as a land connected to the people's subconscious, both individually and collectively and it is a place where both joy and sorrow can be known.

## Realm of Madness

If Faerië is the land of fairy tales, then the Dark Realm can be said to embody the grim-dark kind of story where problems arise from where there shouldn't be consequences, where the difficulty of finding solutions is disproportionate to how easily you may find yourself in trouble and where even everything is pointless for you know that in the end you'll fail at anything you try to do.

A great darkness inhabits the Realm of Madness and it will do everything to break you, to drive you to desperation and insanity. However, the Dark Realm is also home to forbidden knowledge and powers that ambitious individuals may seek from time to time. But little hope exists for those who enter the Realm of Darkness. No one returns from the Dark Realm the same. And some do not return at all.

## Realm of the Oni and the Dragons

In Ninjagese folklore, the Realm of the Oni and the Dragons was the first realm to come into existence, housing both the creatures of destructions that were the Oni and creation that were the Dragons. In Figoranol interpretation, this realm was created during the Ith War that took place in the Primordial Universe, when the intensity of the war caused a spatial anomaly in the centre of the Universe, bringing about a parallel space where chunks of the broken original planet the Figrithen had been building ended up. The Oni were said to be created by three Oni Malrithen, while the Dragons were created by the Figrith Ganvethor in the likeness of the Dragon Ith, later known as Firstbourne. When the Oni and Dragons travelled to the parallel realm, they continued the feud of their fathers and mothers, a war that would last for ages.

## Cloud Kingdom

Lying on the clouds in the skies of Crux (and other planets as well, some say) the Cloud Kingdom is a realm of the skies. At its lower levels, it is inhabited by humans living in peace and tranquillity. However, when travelling higher one will find more sky-borne lands, where the original inhabitants of the realm live, those being the impressive and beautiful celestials.

The Cloud Kingdom known by the Ninjagese can be said to be the manifestation of the realm into the Material Plane linking the two realms similarly to how the Cursed Realm links, according to some, the Material and Spirit Realm.

## Realm of the Djinn

The Realm of the Djinn, known as Kingdom of Djinnjago to the Ninjagese people, is a heaven found at the clouds beyond the clouds and therefore is is found above the Cloud Kingdom. That realm is inhabited by Djinn, powerful magical creatures made of fire.

Djinnjago, which is more accurately a specific area of that realm where it meets with the Main Realm, was destroyed in consequence to the destruction of the Spirit Realm's corresponding material manifestation, the Cursed Realm.

## Chima

Chima is a pocket space that was created over the jungles of the planet Gallant I, upon the formation of a new Nexus-halan (Nexus child; they were secondary sources of Imagination springing from the original Nexus during the time of the Figorani) which caused spatial anomalies in the region with the result of it becoming a new realm.

Chima inherits its tropical nature from the planet it was created from while under the influence of Imagination, there known as Chi, several races of anthropomorphic intelligent animals rose to inhabit it.

And that leaves us with at least three more planes that may be considered Realms, but they remain currently unknown (at least to us).