The Fifteen Spheres
The universe’s balls—you don’t want to mess around with them too much.
The Elemental Spheres
Air
Like the Sphere of Water, these existences have within them no top nor bottom – they are only cloud-filled skies. Unlike the clouds of the material realm though, they never rain and many never dissipate. Some of these clouds are so ancient and thick that creatures have built entire cities and dens on and in them. Being no earth, there is little gravity that effects those within this Sphere, but currents of air do funnel through the eternal voids.
Fire
The realms of heat and flame. The elemental realities of fire are an instant peril to those who find themselves as planar travelers. The land is constructed of compressed fire while the skies are heat and flammable gas. The creatures that live in this near-inhospitable plane reside in the cooler parts, the sentient beings making cities of flame.
Stone
The realms of Stone consist of existences of solid stone, soil, gravel, gems, and ore. The creatures that live within this realm either burrow through the stone as if it is nothing or live within the endless (natural and built) tunnels and caverns. The plane is prone to earthquakes that constantly collapse and create the few areas of open space.
Water
The opposite of the Sphere of Fire, this realm is made up only of liquid. There is no floor nor surface, only water. Aquatic creatures of all sizes make these realms their home – many of which are made up of water themselves. Despite the lack of soil, kelp can often be found floating in the endless currents; it is within these miles of seaweed that many creatures make their homes. In fact, entire cities are made within these rootless metropolises.
The Transitional Spheres
Ice
This Sphere is the direct result of the interaction between the elemental spheres of Water and Air. Like each Transitional Sphere, the build of existence is like the material realm but made up of only snow, air, and water. The native creatures and beings of these realms thrive in this freezing environment and build igloos and other like structures from the snow and ice.
Magma
This Sphere is the direct result of the interaction between the elemental spheres of Fire and Stone. Like each Transitional Sphere, the build of existence is like the material realm but made up of only magma, stone, and fire. The native creatures and beings of these realms thrive in the dense, hot environment and build structures from the little non-liquefied stone that they can find.
Slime
This Sphere is the direct result of the interaction between the elemental spheres of Stone and Water. Like each Transitional Sphere, the build of existence is like the material realm but made up of only slime, stone, and water. The native creatures and beings of these realms thrive in this gooey amorphous environment and build structures from whatever hard substances they can find.
Smoke
This Sphere is the direct result of the interaction between the elemental planes of Fire and Air. Like each transitional Sphere, the build of existence is like the material realm but made up of only smoke, air, and fire. The native creatures and beings of these realms thrive in the chocking environment and build structures from hardened smoke and ashes.
The Heavens
Arcadia
Arcadia is the plane that gives the upper planar axle its name – heaven. The realm is like the Material Realm except air and water is much more abundant than that of fire and stone, and being the closest sphere to Zion, the native beings of these realities have an extremely long lifespan. This realm is also populated by the souls of creatures and beings that died upon the Material Realm – these souls, unlike the denizens of Gehenna, more closely resembled the energies of Zion than Abaddon upon the death of their bodies and therefore ascended to a new life of bliss amongst the beauty and splendor of Arcadia. Even here, one's soul is not immortal and as the eons pass, they slowly transcend to Zion, becoming the very life-giving energy that birthed them centuries before.
Ethereal
Being the closest sphere of the Heavens to the Material Realm, the Ethereal Plane (along with the shadow plane) most closely resemble reality as Faewalk knows it. This realm is so closely linked to the Material Realm that most of the structures, landscapes, and other locations exist on both the Material existence and in the Ethereal Plane. A traveler to this plane will find themselves in a very dim, foggy, version of our own world – they can even vaguely see and hear people on the material plane (although the ethereal sphere itself cannot be seen from the material sphere). In addition to these however are buildings – even cities – built on the plane and populated by the strange beings and creatures that reside there.
Zion
The upper-most sphere on the heavenly axis, the Sphere of Zion is made up completely of life-creating energy. The intense positive vitality contained in this existence overflows into each of the other fourteen spheres, allowing creation to exist throughout the multiverse – however, the presence of the positive energy becomes dimmer the further away from Zion it travels, until it is barely existent in the negative energy Sphere of Abaddon, the lowest plane of the Hells. Unprotected creatures from other realms that find themselves here quickly die because their bodies just cannot handle the raw power. The Material Realm and elemental planes fall exactly half-way between the Positive and Negative energy realms, giving the normal lifespan to the creatures within them. Making residence within this plane are the fabled angels, several species of dragon, and other creatures of intense life energy.
The Hells
Abaddon
The lower-most sphere on the hellish axis, the Sphere of Abaddon is made up completely of death-bringing energy. The intense negative energy contained in this existence overflows into each of the other fourteen spheres, bringing eventual death to everything that Zion gave life to – however, the presence of the negative energy becomes dimmer the further away from Abaddon it travels, until it is barely existent in the positive energy realm of Zion, the apex sphere of the Heavens. Unprotected creatures from other realms that find themselves here quickly die from the life-stealing nature of this eternal void. The Material Realm and elemental planes fall exactly half-way between the Positive and Negative energy realms, giving the normal lifespan to the creatures within them. Making residence within this plane are the dreaded devils, several species of dragon, and other foul creatures that thrive off the death energy and darkness.
Gehenna
Gehenna is the plane that gives the lower planar axle its name – hell. The realm is like the Material Realm except stone and fire is much more abundant than that of air or water, and being the closest sphere to Abaddon, most native beings of this existence thrive off the death-giving energies of the Hells. This existence is also populated by the souls of creatures and beings that died on the Material Realms – these souls, unlike the denizens of Arcadia, more closely resembled the energies of Abaddon than that that of Zion upon the death of their bodies and therefore descended to a new life of pain and torture amongst the horrors, chaos, and demons of Gehenna. Even here, one's soul is not forever imprisoned and as the eons pass, they slowly fade away into Abaddon, becoming the very negative energy that consumed them centuries before.
Shadow
Being the closest sphere of the Hells to the Material Sphere, the Shadow Sphere (along with the Ethereal Sphere) most closely resembles reality as we know it. This realm is so closely linked to the Material Realm that most of the structures, landscapes, and other locations exist on both the Material existence and in the Shadow Sphere. A traveler in these realities finds themselves in a very dark, shadowy version of their own world – they can even vaguely see and hear people on the material plane (although the Shadow Sphere itself cannot be seen from the Material Sphere). In addition to these are buildings – even cities – built on the plane and populated by the distorted beings and creatures that call the plane their home.
The Material Realm
The worlds as we know them, the planet of Faewalk is located within this existence. Directly in the center of the multiverse, the Material Realm draws influence from the other fourteen Spheres as well as the countless other Planes of Existence as equally as possible.
The Astral Sphere
Not one of the Fifteen Spheres because of its complete independence from the others, this Sphere has not even been proven to exist. It is this fabled home of the deities of the Church of Odredba — perhaps even other beings of divine power can be found here.
Illusion of Worlds
The hypothetical space between the spheres and realms of existence, the Illusion of Worlds is hypothesized by both theoretical researchers and the occasional planar-traveler who claim to have landed in the gap. While the Fifteen Spheres each represent a building block of overall reality and piety is thought to come from the Astral Sphere, the Illusion of Worlds is believed to be where thought and sentience originates. Although this space has no material substance, the tangible illusion of space is created for those that find themselves there due to the strength of a brain’s concentrated thoughts and electrical signals in a universe created entirely out of it. Those that say they entered the Illusion of Worlds describe an environment completely manipulatable by thought as well as an omnipresent genderless voice that guides those lost there to control and define their thoughts enough to get back to their home realm. Interestedly most of those claiming to have interacted with this entity, whatever it should be, acquired the ability to perform existential magic on their home world.
Some scholars theorize that dreamscapes are a natural byproduct of a sleeping individual interacting with the Illusion of Worlds.
Realms
There is no single plane of existence. Instead, each Sphere is composed of countless realms of existence. A single realm is a fully intact reality with its own peoples, history, and sometimes physics. The world of Faewalk defines a singular realm of the Material Realm– other notable realities that Terra’s researchers have discovered include Earth, Nadden, and Aerith.
Realms of existence interact with each other on a much wider scale than the Spheres – it is relatively easy to pass from realm to realm within a singular sphere whereas the amount of energy to pass to a realm of a different sphere is much greater. Realms are so close that some have even grown into a symbiotic relationship where wormholes (natural and unnatural doorways between the realms) are common place and the environments directly influence one another.
Scholars do believe that Faewalk's realm is located directly in the center of the Material Sphere and as such acquires properties from every reality.
New realms of existence are believed to be constantly forming, though there is great debate on how and why they form. In recent years this theory has been reworked to include that realms also can disappear or dramatically change, as was witnessed with the Recension and Discombobulation.
The Recension
A Diverted Catastrophe
Echoes
Ripples in reality, the Echoes were shockwaves created when Faewalk's existence slowly splintered and warped from how it was in order to become hospitable to new forms of life. When an Echo occurred, the sky directly over the disturbance site turned a vivid green and steadily transitioned back to the normal color the further away one got from the source. An Echo could last anywhere from several seconds to several days; the longer an Echo lasted, the more the sky appeared to be ripping into a gaping hole and greater changes were able to occur. When the Echo ended, the sky returned to normal but the changes were permanent.
The Discombobulation
For whatever reason, Faewalk isn’t the most stable of realms and it is influenced by narratives more than any other existence (that Faewalkians know of). Stories, particularly from a plane called Earth, heavily influence the world with every media portraying Faewalk (and, for some reason, any other realm that was not named in the story) manipulating the world or spitting people into it (whether those people existed on their “home planet” or are themselves a form of story is still unknown). Even stories on Faewalk tend to change reality a bit and one at least one occasion authors have met their own book characters. This phenomenon is called the Discombobulation.