Mortal Realm

A sketch of the Mortal Realm by tumblr user @thewatchau with help from tumblr user @shamrockace

### Inhabitants

Humans, Sentient Creatures, Animals

The Mortal Realm is the physical realm of mortal souls, in contrast to the Fae Realm of magic and immortal souls.

## Continents

The Mortal Realm consists of a variety of continents, some of which I (the author) have yet to name.

* Tirónar
* Effrens
* Iontassia
* Senfara
* Unnamed Continent (Name TBA)
* Vaqone
* Frozen Wastes

## Physical Description

The Mortal Realm is depicted as spherical and roughly half the size of the real-world earth based on the map above, at approximately 6000 miles from north to south pole, compared to Earth’s 12,400 miles.

Despite the differences that a smaller planetary size (and potentially mass) would indicate, the Mortal Realm is implied to imitate most geological, meteorological, gravitational, and temporal characteristics of the real-world earth.

That being said, the author is not a scientist, and while she has done her best to research what realistic weather patterns, climates, and geography would look like in each region based on similar locations in the real world, there are likely to be inconsistencies evident to those better informed about these topics.

Therefore, for the sake of suspension of disbelief, any accidental discrepancies between the Mortal Realm and the real Earth can be explained as side effects of the former’s smaller size or another unstated difference between the real world and the Mortal Realm. After all, it’s never officially stated whether the Mortal Realm exists within a universe with planets and stars like the real one at all, nor are there plans for the story or characters of The Watch to explore those details.

## History

### The Dawn of Souls

Once Upon a Time, the Fae Realm and the Mortal Realm were entirely separate. There was no magic anywhere in the Mortal Realm; by extension, there were no creatures with souls (including humans).

However, something caused the Fae Realm and the Mortal Realm to crash into each other, and the two realms fused together like soap bubbles. No one knows exactly why. Some people believe that a supreme creator-being actually caused the Fae Realm and Mortal Realm to collide in order to create beings with souls. Others believe that the Fae Realm and Mortal Realm are ruled by two separate deities who, upon meeting when their realms collided, worked together to craft a being made of something from both realms.

Regardless of why it happened, the result was the same. While there was still a clear separation between the Mortal Realm and the Fae Realm, they would be forever connected through an ever-changing metaphysical boundary between the two. Anywhere that these two realms met, magic would leak from the Fae Realm and into the Mortal Realm.  Wellsprings of magic, dubbed “Fae Gardens,” appeared all over the world, though some regions had more than others.

Thus, magic entered our world, creating the first beings with souls, such as humans, dragons, unicorns, giants, merfolk, and dwarves.

### The Age of Souls

With the dawn of souls, sentient and non-sentient beings alike began to grow and flourish in diverse ways across the continents of the Mortal Realm.

The magic that flooded into the Mortal Realm caused some of the local flora and fauna to evolve into magical creatures. Over time, the mundane forces of the Mortal Realm and the magical forces of the Fae Realm developed the balanced state of coexistence we see throughout the world today. An ecosystem full of magic can also sustain mundane flora and fauna and vice versa, but neither can overwhelm the other. The Mortal Realm has remained in this state of magical and mundane balance to this day.

## Trivia

Some brainstorming has been done regarding the tectonic plates of the Mortal Realm and how the smaller size would affect other characteristics. While the discussion didn’t result in a ton of concrete new conclusions that would affect the lore as a whole, the ideas tossed around were interesting. You can find the post with that discussion here.