Divine Kingdom

A divine kingdom refers to the plane of existence or pocket dimension ruled by a being with godhood, typically the after-life of their believers. This realm exists parallel to all other dimensions simultaneously, including the Realm of Souls, the Astral Plane, and the other planes of reality. The characteristics of a divine kingdom vary wildly, as they dependent entirely on the nature and whims of the entity.

### **Metaphysics**

A being with sufficient godhood will evolve to exist across an ever increasing number of dimensions, such as time, fate, the Astral plane and, ultimately, the Realm of Souls, where They enter into the Pleroma. A deity's divine kingdom is, in essence, the trans-dimensional portion of Their 'body'. No real distinction can be made between a God and Their divine realm. It grows out of Their godhood and the death of One means the destruction of the Other.

The deity can control every factor of Their divine kingdom as easily as one closes their fist. From the passage of time, the lifespan of any beings that live there, its size, the laws of physics, and any other special property They envision - even if it has no counterpart in the material world. Every part of a God's realm is subject to Their whims. That said, the kingdom will always spawn and tend to have characteristic befitting Their nature, Domain and subconscious.

As deities are synonymous with Their Divine Kingdoms, Their mystical authorities and Connections are also applicable to Them, which is how a soul, cleansed of worldliness, can be sent to a specific realm even when even Gods would be unable to pry into it. A soul with lingering attachments might incorporate 'wordily' features, which is why they aren't able to pass on naturally, and become bound to haunt the world as ghosts and similar specters.

A true-deity's divine realm is infinite, making it impossible to exist in the material planes. This is the main reason as to why it is so difficult for gods to descend into the material world. When a god wishes to descend, they must first shrink their divine kingdom (as much as an infinite mass and space can be considered to have shrunk), and either descend within it , appearing to mortals as a celestial body such as a planet, moon or star, or clench it (similarly as how one would clench their but) and appear with their bodies.

#### **Development**

As it develops from the accumulation of godhood, a divine kingdom first emerges as a singularity in a creature who grows into the Hero Stratum, fusing with the entity's soul. This soul-singularity has some mystical properties, namely making it harder to resurrect or raise the Hero as an undead. It also causes the Hero's soul value to increase greatly, and allows them to partly resist the godhood of Saints.

Once a being becomes a Saint, their soul-singularity evolves an embryonic divine realm, becoming a conceptual place within the Yetziraich Sea. The Saint may project their divine realm outward into the world, boosting their physical and mental fortitude, their Authority, the powers of their Domain and cutting off some Connections. In doing so, the projected embryo lets them unleash their partial True Form without suffering significant side-effects.

The Divine Kingdom undergoes a qualitative change alongside the entity's body once They ascend to the Stratum of Angel. Here, the kingdom becomes a pocket realm, entirely isolated from the rest of existence. The Angel is unable to project the kingdom, as it has fully become a part of Their body. However, because of this same factor, They only need Their presence to amplify and exert influence trough Their godhood. Additionally, the kingdom acquires the dimension of space, allowing Them to store objects and entities within It. Depending on the Angel's Domain, the divine realm might not have 'time' at all.

Finally, once They achieve Apotheosis and become false Gods, the Divine Kingdom expands to its full breath of dimensions and characteristics. It is very common for deities to house sentient creatures (besides the souls of Their believers) to worship Them, as well as biospheres, geosphere, etc, until it becomes a fully-fledged world. The beings that inhabit these worlds tend to become the deity's personal force, willingly or not.