The Three Kingdoms
Prior Composition
Current Composition
The Three Kingdoms are Ardda, The Middle Kingdom of Galaxies and Planets, Empyrean, The Upper Kingdom of Netherworlds. And Erebor, the Lower Kingdom of Underworlds. This universal System might more accurately be called the Four Kingdoms taking Andromedes, the Elemental Planes, into account, but because the dimensional planes of Andromedes interconnect with the Upper and Lower Kingdoms, and overlap the outter reaches of Ardda, the planes are considered a part of the Ethereal or netherworld Kingdoms and Ardda.
At the central axis of the universe is the Acheron Nebula surrounding Acheron itself with the abyss at its core, while Ardda, the Middle Kingdom of galaxies and planets surrounds Acheron and its nebula. Many planes are concentrated throughout the elemental sphere surrounding the middle kingdom of Ardda, the heavier elemental planes merging with the lower kingdom of Erebor with the more ephemeral planes intermingling with the upper kingdom of Empyrean.
Erebor and its realms lie at the southern hemisphere while Empyrean and its realms are at the northern hemisphere of the universal sphere. Where the universe was once an hourglass in shape, it expanded into a sphere when the spiritual embodiments of the upper and lower kingdoms of Leviathan and Acheron fused into Auros. The abyss is at the core of Acheron which is a part of all three kingdoms connected to them through the abyss by the eternal flame, axis and abyssal conduits of each, which form a sort of hyperspace shaft called the Great Trench or Axis. It is nevertheless considered part of Ardda much as the middle kingdom surrounds it.
The lower kingdom of Erebor is where the underworlds are concentrated and is also called the Kingdom of Darkness. Humans would refer to Erebor as Acheron or Hell, though Acheron (vast as it is) which is more acurately Hell is only a part of Erebor. Empyrean spans a vast dominion on the furthest northern end of the Universe, and includes the Kingdoms of Light. Auros or Zion, once called Haman, and named Heaven by humans, is part of Empyrean Major, while Valhalla and Elysium are part of the Upper Kingdom Minor. Many Pantheon Kingdoms such as Tuatha of the An Dagda (upper Kingdom), Tartarus the realm of Hades (lower kingdom), Olympus of Zeus and the Olympian gods (upper kingdom), and Annwn the realm of Pen Annwn (lower kingdom), are overlapping parallel realms or demi-planes of either the upper or lower kingdoms and the worlds a pantheon is linked to. Several worlds might fall under the influence of the same pantheons, their people paying their respect to the same deities or spirits in unique ways.
Erebor
The lower Kingdoms can be reached from Morashtar via planar gateways which access these realms, if these portals can be found and reached. Artificers can learn powers which unlock gates to certain planes.
Acheron
A vast cavernous kingdom that can be as horrid as it can be beautiful, which has cities, lairs, fortresses and keeps of all sizes scattered throughout its network, with a vast desert above called the Barrenlands, and the abyss at its core, which Acheron's Pit descends into. This kingdom is actually part of the Acheron Nebula which is at the center of the universe. It is however connected to Empyrean and Erebor by gateways, the eternal flame and by the throats of the Lower and Upper Kingdoms via access of the abyss. See Acheron Page for more.
Annwn
The underworld of the Sidhe, the Fomor, the Firbolg, and the Danu, many of whom live between Morashtar and Annwn. This is a medieval world of castles, citadels and villages set in a majestic landscape of dense forests, mountains, meadows and gardens all alit in an ethereal glow of light and shadows. The gods of this realm assume animal forms as often as not and they and many other inhabitants make it their aim to riddle and test any outsider who enters their domain. Annwn, Pwill, Killian, O'Braugh and Belorian are a few who preside over the various regions of this Kingdom which includes Tir na nOgh (Pwill), Durasgard (Killian), Morgal Eshvah (O'Braugh) and Aislemeth (the Crystal Kingdom, Belorian). Arawn Pen Annwn is the high king of Annwn.
Morgal Eshvah
This netherworld, also known as Dark World, is overlapped by three regions of the universe; Anwnn, The Shadow Realm, and Oblivion. Considered a sister world of Anwnn, it has a strange blend of life, undead, shades, elemental and spectral beings, wylde magic, and fae aspects. Considered a crossroads or haunted world, its veil to things and places 'in between' is thin.
The Dark Realms - Nemen
This is the gateway world of Oblivion in furthest reaches of the shadow realm; A world of mist and dusk covered entirely by the ruins of vast ancient cities, where all manner of dark spirits dwell. Beneath the endless rubble and mazes created by the broken walls, stairwells, partially intact towers, chambers and keeps, lies a network of tunnels, conduits and caves which interconnect in a labyrinth called Galgamesh (Underworld of the Lost). Only a few creatures, who have lived in this vast maze for centuries out of memory know their way around the world under and can show others the way out. These creepy inhabitants tend to require a test of anyone they even consider helping to escape, which usually involves finding them a specific tribute.
"Find me a body and I shall show you the way out."
"How do I find you a body? Moreover, how when I am lost in this place?"
"That is for you to figure out."
If one finds their way to one of the twelve Gateways of Oblivion and steps through it, they will find themselves swallowed up in the great nowhere and held suspended in time. If retrieved from this state a year or a thousand years later, only a moment will have lapsed for the one suspended defined by the time it took to step into the gate and be pulled out again; mere seconds. No aging occurs while held suspended in time. Locating someone in Oblivion is extremely difficult (LoD 1205) without the person who entered having an anchor placed previous to entering the void (LoD 345). There are those who seek oblivion as a means of traveling into the future via an anchor set to pull them out at a particular time. An incredibly inconvenient yet effective way to time travel.
The Dead Realms
A world where swamps, dead forests, marshy lakes, dried grass and dead plants dominate the landscape, with shadowy castles, villages, and citadels of a medieval age which change little throughout the ages. In this realm, not only is all plant life dead or reflected as spirit flora, but all things living are dead, undead, spirit, or the living dead. If the living remain in this realm for too long, it will kill them and make of them a wraith, phantom, living dead, zombie, or some other creature of the dead. -10% Start HP damage per day (If HP is 1000, -100 per day). The Solemn Forest is the region most enter into when arriving here. The most dangerous and yet most fascinating place is the Necropolis Capital, a citadel of tomb-like keeps with a vast undercity catacomb beneath. The castle at the center of this city of the dead has many towers and chambers and is resided over by a powerful lich king. There are 'Life Springs' in some of the kingdoms if they can be found, which restore a small amount of life, but they are usually well guarded and difficult to get to. These springs are made up of the life energy of spirits and are where life drained from the living goes. They look like normal springs but a mist rises from them which has a subtle glow of spectral energy which gives off an equally subtle hum. In time (2 d6 days) these springs recharge after being consumed. +50 health.
Empyrean
The upper Kingdoms can be reached from Morashtar via pathways offered by deities or immortals of an Empyrean realm, or more rarely from a rare fixed gate if such a portal can be found and reached. Artificers can learn powers which unlock gates to certain planes.
Auros
A Kingdom once known as Haman which was rebranded after the great merger of Acheron and Haman into Auros. This kingdom presents itself to inhabitants and visitors alike as their ideal world, only within that ideal world are the resident guardians they cannot control. The presiding God Auros, the Morning Star, the All Maker, who counts himself the father of creation because he simply is that, is rarely seen, and takes any social form he chooses, usually a handsome young man named Maelmorda. His presiding proxy over Auros on the other hand, who calls herself Gaia, prefers the form of a plain but lovely women, sometimes old, sometimes young, with either white or dark hair, bright blue eyes, and dark skin. As for the Morning Star's true form? The closest theory is that he is the culmination of all he created in form and spirit, thus her embodiment is simply incomprehensible and unknown.
The Empyrean kingdoms though often harder to reach can occasionally be entered by paths offered by deities or other inmortals of that realm. Erebor simply has less to fear from invasion than Empyrean.
Tuatha
A Kingdom of great halls, keeps, walled in gardens, farms, forests, mountains and fields on scattered islands in a deep blue sea, where great forests lead into Annwn. Home to the gods of the seasons, cycles, and crafts; including the major gods Dagda, Lugh, Rhiannon, Bel and Arianrhod.
Arcadia
A garden paradise with beautiful keeps and homes formed of the trees, rocks and plants here, as these elements weave together to form wonderous structures whose splendor enhances rather than clashes with the beauty of this kingdom.
Yllumaer
Yllumaer is an independant part of Empyrean's vast region, which was named after a presiding God named Aegorius (A-jor-ee-us), also called Aegius, a Tsetar named Joshua renamed it Yllumaer, the Realm of Light and Air, when he was named ruler and keeper of the realm. When the Tsetar named Joshua was spat out in his true form by the eternal flame, it was Aegius who offered Joshua a path to his spectral Kingdom, and there offered Joshua the opportunity to serve the voice in himself, to serve his heart. Through Joshua Aegius offered all the fallen Tsetar a home in his realm and named Joshua his successor.
Yllumaer is a kingdom of air, light, and many elements all coelescing in an atmosphere not unlike yet unique from the plane of air. A small world surrounded by floating islands and continents of land, where many ages long past the planet had been broken into pieces in a war between various god, Yllumaer has many climates despite its size, and its stone and marble cities are each a jewel on the landscape. One can leap off the edge of this world where there are cliffs, even massive cliffs where chunks of the world were broken off, and find themselves floating off into the low gravity well of this small world, whose gravity is low because of its size. Anything from botanical gardens, great towers and keeps, beautiful glades and lakes, ice capped mountains, shining cities, bridges made of floating rocks and boulders like stepping stones, or just scattered chunks of rock can be found floating around the edges of this world, some miles away from the planet itself, others a stone throw away. Each of this world's climates remain the same all year long, with only a ten degree temperature variation in each climate which occurs between daylight and twilight. It never gets completely dark on Yllumaer which has three suns, accept once every 500 years when two of the three suns align, and the entire planet grows dark every 1000 years when all three suns align and the largest floating continent eclipses them. M'Tagra is the temperate wilderness of Yllumaer which lies between all other regions on the main continent, which makes up more than one half of Yllumaer's landmass, the rest islands and small continents scatter around the sea of Emanua, or the land masses floating around the planet..
Aegien has long since been reclaimed first by Leviathan and then Auros and named Joshua heir of the world renamed Yllumaer. The Tsetar have since agreed to act as independent guardians of Auros alongside the Alamascan who chose to remain in Auros as its defenders.
Ardda
The Middle Kingdom of Planets
With trillions of galaxies in the universe with billions of solar systems in each galaxy, these are just the galaxies, systems and planets featured or mentioned in the game.
Galaxies, Solar Systems and Inhabited Planets
Milkyway Galaxy
Terran System: Earth
Antares System: Antares
Morning Star Galaxy
Leonese System: Morashtar and Cirsuil
Nova System: Congoril and Mortares (Darkstar)
Meridian System: Arcannus and Kaelvas
Auramos (Dark Nebula) System: Ardennia and Kovos
Auroros (Gateway Nebula) System: Random access to realms of Erebor, Empyrean or Andromedes.
Achosian Galaxy
Acheron Nebula A dark nebula which shrouds the Acheron System which this vast, ancient nebula surrounds. This Nebula spawned the Morning Star and Acheron Galaxies and was spawned by the creation of the multiverse in its coldest region.
Acheron System Acheron, The Abyss (Some speculate that the unimaginably dense sphere of the Abyss at the center of the universe acts as a sort of universal core which regulates gravity and galactic orbits throughout the universe)
Gateway Rolls
Interstellar travel to all the planets is possible from ancient Stellar Gates on Mortares or from just one such gate the Mortares erected on Morashtar. One can only return via these gates from one of these gates or with a Mortares Gate Talisman. There is a lever which sets to 12 locations. 12 is a random gateway to an otherworld or elemental plane.
If one does not know how to operate the gate, and understand the meaning of the gate symbols, the gate will deliver the traveler to a random location. These rolls also apply to any random galactic gateway encountered
Roll 2 d6 for destination.
2. Earth
3. Morashtar
4. Cirsuil
5. Antares
6. Congoril
7. Mortares (Darkstar)
8. Arcannus
9. Kaelvas
10. Ardennia
11. Kovos
12. Auroros (Gateway Nebula) Random access to realms of Erebor, Empyrean or Andromedes.
Roll of 12 and gate delivers traveler to one of the netherworlds or elemental planes.
If 12, roll 1 d6.
1-3=Erebor, 1 d6
1-Acheron
2-Acheron Badlands
3-Anwnn
4-Dark Realms
5-Dead Realms
6-Morgal Eshvah
4-5=Andromedes, 2 d6
2-Acid
3-Air
4-Earth
5-Fire
6-Flora
7-Light
8-Shadow
9-Spectral
10-Storm
11-Time
12-Water
6=Empyrean, 1 d6
1-Arcadia
2-Auros
3-Elysium
4-Olympia
5-Tuatha
6-Valhalla
6(3s)-Yllumaer
Andromedes
The Planar Dimensions
The elemental planes can be reached from Morashtar via planar gateways which access these realms, if these portals can be found and reached. Artificers can learn powers which unlock gates to certain planes.
A god named Androalphus laid the groundwork for the elemental and dimensional planes while many others built upon his kingdom.
The Shadow Realm
Nazadun: a vast primordial forest kingdom which lies between the Dark Realms, Shadow Realm, and the Dead Realms that is accessible from all three planes. This seemingly endless twilight forest is broken only by paths, occasional meadows, widely scattered castles and villages, and the great citadel of Aamedgar which rises up from the peaks of the Esschelan mountain range. Nazadun is a haven for shades, vampires, demons of darkness, wraiths and other dynamic spirits,
Morgaith: a shadowy kingdom which lies at the very center in the depths of the shadow realm. This seemingly endless darkness is broken by braziers and everburning torches fueled by firevents which draw fire from Shivardda, the plane of fire. Paths, roads, meadows, scattered castles and villages, and the great citadel of Nathroamir, named after its immense watchtower, which rises up from the central axis of this circular city, looms on the horizon against the sea of Nathandor (Black Sea) and the plane of Strife, a vast field which surrounds the castle where many battles have been fought. Far to the east, swallowed by the penumbra of this land, are the peaks of the Jagged Tooth Mountain range. Morgaith is a haven for shades, vampires, demons of darkness, wraiths and other dynamic spirits.
Plane of Light
Solendor: This is a plane where almost everything gives off some kind of light, the plants, the rocks, the beasts, and even the soil, and where stairways of light rise up out of the gossamer forests; great peaks thrust up covered with a glowing pale grass where great towers, shrines, and keeps of white stone stand. Four suns and eight moons rise and fall over this land which is never dark. The Levimancers of Solendor are friendly, cheerful people who love to entertain and celebrate all of life's wonders, but they can turn deadly if they, their people, or their territories are threatened. Many animals here have eyes, claws, or tails which can burn with lazor light to defend themselves and some can even spit a radioactive or ultraviolet liquid so potent that it can burn right through flesh and bone causing extreme sickness or even death. Creatures here are immune to the dire effects of radiation.
Plane of Fire
Shivardda: Canyons sculpted into bizzare shapes by lava, dead forests, volcanos, and lava fields make up the main landscape of this Kingdom. Stone bridges and dirt or rock pathways lead around and above the magma bubbling up from the ground in many places. In the Infernal Desert; firestorms can be encountered when pockets of heat reach their peak. Fire elemental creatures, hell raptors, fire beasts, and demons resistant to heat and fire live here. A very harsh plane which damages anyone who has no heat or noxious gas resistance, the damage increasing when one gets too close to volcanos, lava pools or vent. There are oases to be found here where cooler temperatures and water can be found. There is even one forest (Delcaris) where the central part of the woodland is still alive, albeit this humid jungle boasts some dangerous beasts and people.
Plane of Water
Anuardda: (an-war-dah) An underwater world with sprawling underwater cities, with deep sea rifts which can reach tremendous depths where its leviathons live, or where vast shallows with white sand bottoms stretch for miles around patches of land too small to call islands. Though this plane can be explored by landlovers, exploring its inhabited regions requires water-breathing capabilities or apparatus.
Plane of Air
Anmath Nual: A planar kingdom where islands, towers, keeps, villages and even cities float in the air with vast bridges between some locations, whereby to reach other areas, one must be able to fly or be capable of surpassing expanses, some great, others small. All creatures which lives here can fly, people and animals alike, and some beings and plants as well even float through this ethereal atmosphere, including fish which swim in an ocean of air. This world is a actually a great bubble with the bits and pieces which make up anything with mass (living or element) floating around within it atmosphere of air. Each mass has low gravity, whereas larger masses have more gravity, enough to hold things down. Even the largest masses can be lauching points into the air if one pushes themself off in a leap with enough force. Heavy boots worn by some of the people here help prevent them accidentally floating off a land mass if they should jump too high. The largest land mass is only fifty miles across. Many of these floating islands are named after key features, such as Mountain Garden, Waterfall City, Lakeland, Dune Desert, Tall Tree Forest, Foaming Water Canyon, Boulder City, etc.
Plane of Storms
Grymoria: A vast Kingdom of Ice where snow, ice, glaciers, ice-caves, and snowcapped mountains dominate the landscape. Almost any creature one encounters here can spit, throw, infuse, sling or command ice elements.
Ymllaadri: A great Kingdom of Tempests by a sea including many islands where high winds, pouring rains, hail storms, tornadoes, hurricanes, crashing lightning and thunder, ball and aural lightning, dominates the climate. Any creature met here is likely able to spit, throw, infuse, sling or command various storm elements if not all of them. The Sounding Sea of Ymllaadri meets with the ice fields which indicate the beginning of Grymoria. Within the Sounding Caves of Ymllaadri, is the ancient lost Citidal of Llos'Aadri and its tunnels leading to the Chamber of Gateways, a cave where there are passages which lead to all the elemental planes, including Ymlladdri itself. Symbols (which are easy to decipher), are carved into the stone above each tunnel, revealing where each passage leads. An obvious clue to where each tunnel leads is the elemental conduit one must pass through at the end of each passage (much as one can see through it to the plane it will enter) to leave the cavern and enter the other plane. There are hidden doors here as well which open into various underworlds including but not limited to Acheron and Anwnn
Plane of Earth
Talyss: A world of canyons, deserts, rock mountains, dirt, sand and stone where all structures are carved out of stone and earth. Terramancers and many earth elementals inhabit this plane.
Talgeard; the Plane of Flora
A Kingdom of botanical gardens, orchards, wilderlands, jungles, grasslands, and forests where sentient plants called Talgeardians dwell. There are many insects, including a race of insect people called the Virosians which the Talgeardians have symbiotic relationships with. In this world the lives of plants are valued more highly than the other beasts and people who live there, whereby the consumption of animal flesh is accepted and killing all but carpet plants is considered murder. Only eating the fruits of plants is acceptable, and then ONLY if the seeds are preserved. All structures are formed of live plants which are woven and twined together, while the hollows and roots of immense trees also provide homes for this world's beings. The Talgeardian Verduremancers who dwell here are very tricky and not be thought of salad brains at all.
Acid Plane
Imdgrys: (eem-day-grehs) All within this plane is damaging but for the stone paths. The rain, the dirt, the acid breathing--spitting--spraying animals, the vegetation, the water sources, all here eat away at anything it contacts but those things which evolved on this plane to resist acid, and that which is capable of resisting acid.
Spectral Plane
Mantizor: The 'otherside' of whatever world you step out of, where other elements beside the spectral ether and telekinetic energy have no sway and all countours seen and felt are substantial only because of a telekinetic field which defines surfaces. Only by finding phased areas called conduits can you leave the spectral plane and reenter the world it edges, or enter 'dark conduits' which lead deeper into the spectral plane beyond the middle kingdom. There one might find the Fortress Citadel and Kingdom of Santoriz, named after the great spirit Santor, ruler also over Mantizor. There is also Nisi, Elephant Lord of Escongrinn, the jungle and grasslands territory of the spectral plane.
Time Plane - Chronostaan
Chrovania: This is a gateway world which brings one into the Universe where time travel is so much the norm that if something is done to alter history a new time line is NOT created, rather the entire universe and all worlds affected shift to accomodate the changes. Simultaneously this is also where all time lines created in other universes appear, whereby there are countless reproductions of the same universe, many of which do not last at all long relative to others owed to the fact that alternate timelines, particularly accidental ones, have a tendency to collapse far more readily than stable 'drafted' and 'origin' time lines.
The people of this world are called Chronesians. Their natural life span is anywhere between 180-200 years of age. Some of these people, the 'travelers' in particular, those who time travel and manipulate time, are immortal through cloning via a seven day process which also clones the memory and personality of each predecessor. This process can be sped up by time manipulation techniques. The moment a clone has 'matured' to replace a dead clone; a new clone 'injection' is placed in stasis to be activated when the death of its antecedent has been confirmed. Clone Injections are a gel containing genetic materials and memory receptors which are injected into a cloning environment stasis field (CESF) to produce a clone. The advantage to cloning is that one's mind and will is their own, the disadvantage is that they are still prone to disease and rare genetic defects, and should something happen to their 'cloning vault' they will be unable to replicate should they perish. Most clones travel WITH a spare clone injection in the event something happens to their vault. The last disadvantage is the slight chance of a 'duplicate clone' occuring, which can happen if a confirmed death was not actual. Duplicate clones are legal IF they are registered. Rogue duplicates on the other hand are illegal for security reasons. Clones tend to beat aging by chronomantic techniques (reverse aging and the like). Other clones may be perfectly content with the natural process of aging as a matter of pride. The more times a clone survives to die by old age, the more respected he or she is by other clones.
The second process of immortality is achieved via nano-technology whereby a 'carrier' is injected with self-replicating nano-droids which are perpetually repairing any damage to nano-carriers and building replacement nano-droids as they are needed or destroyed. The advantage to nano-carriers is that injuries, disease, toxins, genetic flaws and the very process of aging is eliminated; The most obvious disadvantage is that time travel is extremely difficult for carriers to achieve, much as they are traveling with a vast colony of microscopic androids inside of them. The only way a nano-carrier can become a traveler is to use a nano-canister, a special transfer device which transfers the nano-droids inside of them into the canister which is designed for transporting nano-droids en-mass through time. Once a destination is reached, the nano-droids can be transfered back into the body. The transfer causes some great amount of discomfort much as the body is so well adapted to accomodate the droids. Another disadvantage is in the fact that the millions of nano-droids within a carrier develope a colony or collective mind which acts an alter-ego and personality, a price many are willing to pay for immortality.
Lastly, travelers may become immortal via a blood engendering immortal or an immortally altered state.
A person here may be a Rah (high commander) one moment and a pauper the next and not even be the wiser for it. Others might be quite keen to the change. Some races here have a time sense ability which makes them aware of shifting time events, while others do not share this trait. A person, place or even a species here may exist one moment and not the next; or important events in history may be completely rewritten, although owed to strict time manipulation laws these sorts of drastic occurances may not happen as often as one might believe.
Time travelers are required to attain 'Time Stamps' for one, a tattoo which identifies someone as a 'traveler', and to become a legal traveler one must pass rigorous tests before being issued a time travel stamp. The penalty of breaking the 'law of existance', the 'law of imperitives' or 'traveling without a stamp' is erasure and in extreme cases as with the elimination of a leader or species, erasure with no chance to 'reoccur' ever again.
It is dangerous to be a 'rogue traveler' here. If outlanders seek a visa they are treated with respect and granted a temporary stamp in the form of a bracelet. Outland travelers are otherwise dragged to a Processing Center if caught by a Chronesian officer and if any laws were broken an outlander waits here until they stand trial in a 'time courte'.
True oracles or diviners are aware of Chronostaan, and by being able to tap into the nuances of time here, they are able to predict the future, present and past.