Cosmology
"If the Gods are omnipotent, or nearly, it stands to reason they are permitted to make mistakes."
- Proverb attributable to Camus Inakas
This article is the target of major revisions.
Cosmology is the study of the nature and orientation with respect to one another of the planes of existence within the Wisterian Multiverse. Most cosmologists in Ahren adhere to a model of cosmology promulgated by Atarlie schools of magical thinking, which themselves have been influenced by knowledgeable sources such as the the Schola Sylvestri, known as the Wisterian Model, or the Cosmologica Ars Magica, referencing the arcane school which promulgates it.
The various schools of thought surrounding cosmology fundamentally agree on the existence of the planes and their movements through the sky; however all differ in ways major and minor over the interpretation of the significance of these various planes, and even their natures. Generally speaking, the planes can be thought of in three seperate groups:
- The Concurrent Planes, a set of planes which broadly overlap with one another, best thought of as alternative realities or "other worlds"
- The Elemental Planetessemals, a set of eight planes which have strong influences on the use of magic and which can be seen to move through the night sky.
- The Heavenly Kingdoms, a set of four planes, the interpretations of which wildly differ, which dominate regions of the night sky, and;
- The Cardinal Abstractive Planes, a set of four celestial objects which have peculiar interpretations unique to each culture on Wisteria.
The Concurrent Planes
The Concurrent Planes are a set of alternative realities - the existence of which is sometimes disputed by the major schools of magic to various degrees - which are thought of as being co-extant, or parallel, to material reality, and by definition includes material reality as part of the set. These planes are complete, parallel-constructed realities which differ from each other in their fundamentals but not "spatially". While few sophant creatures can simply step between the concurrent planes, the concurrent planes are none the less the easiest planes to reach by magical means and sometimes serve as transitional spaces between material reality and the other planes. For unknown reasons, the magical and reality-driven barrier between the Emperical Realm and the other concurrent planes is far thicker than the barrier between the various planes, which is what leands to disagreement over the number and nature of these planes.
Ahren - the Prime Material Plane
While Ahren is held by many to be the center of its solar system and with many mortal species holding Ahren as home, there is some debate as to whether the planet Ahren is also at the center of its own plane. The plane itself, referred to properly as the Prime Material Plane or the Empirical Realm, refers to the physical universe which Ahren exists within. According to the Wisterian Model, this universe is at the center of many additional multiverses, which each rotate through the Astral Plane around the axis of the Prime Material Plane.
Ahren is thought to be a flat world, hemmed in by the firmament that has been stretched across it like a cover, and extending down into depths unknown even to the Clans of Magnus. Strange things happen in the Deeps.
The Ethereal Plane
See Also: The Ethereal Plane
The Ethereal Plane, at least in respect to the portion of the Prime Material occupied by Ahren and its immediate celestial environs, is fully coterminous with the Prime Material Plane. Home to outsider species such as dopplegangers and ethergaunts, this strange, otherworldly plane is a shadow of a memory of Ahren, often alien to those who transit from Ahren into the Ethereal. This is the medium through which many teleporation effects transit. The Ethereal plane is sometimes referred to as the "Unseen World", and those with insufficient mastery over light sometimes substitute transposition into this plane for proper invisibility, to their own peril.
The Astral Plane
The Astral Plane, known by various terms such as the Greater Heavens, the Planar Firmament, and so-forth, this plane is thought of as the space which exists above and beyond the Bounds of the Sky of the prime material plane - that is, it's where all the stars and other planes exist. For this reason, Ars Magica practitioners consider the Astral Plane especially important to understand and it figures heavily in astrological, quintessential, and other magical calculations. The mages of Heroka recognize a specialist class amongst themselves known as the Astrographers whose whole purpose is tracking, predicting, and correlating measurements of the astral plane to facilitate interplanar travel.
The Bardo
See Also: Bardo
The Bardo is a spirit world, a coterminous plane with that of Ahren, in which all is in its natural state - cities have not been raised, forests have not been razed by mortal hands, and so forth. Some mortal souls - those who are touched with the knowledge of Awakening, however mild, do not travel to any of the Dogmatic Planes, but instead linger for a time in Bardo before divinity or nature draws them back into Ahren via rebirth. A few gods; those who reached their zenith through Awakening or those whose connection to nature is stronger than any particular ideology, call The Bardo home. As a truly neutral plane, it is pulled upon equally by the four Cardinal Abstractive Planes.
The Dreaming
Thought of as the realm of the Great Fae, the Dreaming is a concurrent plane in which reality is inconstant - that is, it's a realm where the beliefs and dreams of sophont races have almost as much pull as those of gods. The Fae are thought to be native to the dreaming, and many cultures that make obeisance toward the Fae consider them, effectively, to be the gods of this realm.
As Understood By the Schools
Ars Magica
The Schola Ars Magica is rarely divided, but their divisions tend to show up most strongly against cosmological lines. In both the Western (Bastonian) and Eastern (Atarlied) schools, it is agreed that the Empirical Realm, Ethereal Plane, and Astral Plane all exist - though the common name for the latter differs depending on whether you favour the human or elven scholarship, with elves preferring the term Planar Firmament and Bastonians preferring Greater Heavens, for religious reasons. Western Ars Magica scholarship denies the existence of the Bardo completely as a kind of "southern heresy" and considers the Dreaming to be a subset of the Ethereal plane, whereas the eastern school accepts the existence of the Bardo and the Dreaming, considering all five of the planes listed above as factual and extant.
As stated above, both schools consider the Astral Plane to be extremely important and make great efforts to measure and understand the signs and portents of the Astral. It is believed by the Ars Magica schools that a firmament called the Bounds of the Sky exists at the 'bottom' of the Astral Plane, against which the other planes and the stars shine, which is why the sky appears to be flat, or otherwise have no depth. This boundary serves as the "trinary boundary" between the Astral Plane and where it intersects with both the Ethereal and Empirical planes. However, moving between the concurrent planes is thought of as fairly trivial by specialists in the right magics, and even bypassing the Bounds of the Sky is possible with the aid of the right apparatus.
Secrets of Nature
Though occasionally separated between the Secrets as known to the Star-Counters and the Carcolie druidic cults, the Secrets of Nature actually largely correspond with regard to the concurrent planes. These druids believe that the Ethereal, Astral, Dreaming, and Bardo planes all exist as one plane known as the Spirit Realm; the separation between those planes is, to them, merely conceptual and once access into the spirit realm has been made, switching between these supposed sub-planes is comparatively trivial to those who know the right Strange Trods. Among the Confederacy of Sages some Outrunners which operate under the auspices of the Star-Counters can use Long Walk shortcuts through the spirit realm to shorten distances on the material plane.
Orcish Shamanism
Orcish Shamanism teaches similarly to the Secrets of Nature that most of the concurrent planes are as one. In fact, they believe that the original realm of the orcs and many other creatures is effectively the Bardo; the Fire-keeper transplanted the pre-sentient orcs into Ahren from the Bardo and kindled them into sentient beings. Many orcish gods have their realms in the Bardo - in addition to the Fire Keeper, it's thought to be the proper land of all the orcish hero-gods.
Way of the Elements
The Way of the Elements teaches a modified form of the cosmology promulgated by the Ars Magica school, with regard to the concurrent planes - it explicitly names the Bardo as existing (and in fact, the term Bardo is native to the Petrenean tongue), and combines the Ethereal and Astral Planes into one entity, collectively known as the Realm of Ghosts and Dragons.
Other Interpretations
The dwarves of the Clans of Magnus do not speak of the Concurrent Planes as being entirely separate. They believe that, through passages in The Depths, it is possible to move between these realms without the use of magic. Therefore, these are not alternate realities but alternate locations, leading to some dwarven maps to border on unreadable and unusable to other polities. The Astral Plane is recognized as something separate-and-apart, but also thought of as unreachable - it is the light of the god-fires reflecting off the facets of the crystal dome that separates the world of things-that-are from the world of things-that-aren't.
The Four Heavenly Kingdoms
Variously known as the Dead Lands, the Stellar Kingdoms, or the Seasonal Realms, the Heavenly Kingdoms can be thought of as the four afterlife realms of this cosmology, though the reality of that proposition is hotly contested amongst the various religions and schools of magic across Wisteria. These planes - Heaven, Hell, Elysium, and the Abyss - all play host to the afterlife in at least one world religion. These planes are clearly visible on sufficiently dark nights through the firamement of the Astral Plane in the night sky, and their respective passage through that night sky (known as the Parade of Heaven) largely marks the passage of the seasons through Ahren.
Heaven
See Also: Heaven
The Bastion of Heaven, as it is called, is a plane strongly aligned with good and law, and dominates the night sky during summer, visible as a bright cluster of stars. Strongly colonized by much of the Bastonian Pantheon, Heaven is the native plane of Archons and the ultimate resting place of the souls of many believers in the faith of Bastonia.
Elysium
See Also: Elysium
Elysium is a plane strongly aligned with good and chaos. It is strongly colonized by (and occasionally the origin of) several of the High Elven Pantheon, Gnomish Pantheon, and Halfling Pantheon, and the place where many High Elves, Gnomes, Halflings, and other folk believe their souls will go when they die, with varying strictures on how that process should function. Azatas are native to Elysium. It is visible as a colorful stretch of lights across the sky on sufficiently dark nights during springtime.
Hell
See Also: Hell
Hell is the cosmological antepode of Elysium, being therefore strongly aligned with evil and law, visible in the autumn. The Enemy of the Bastonian Pantheon claims to have created hell, along with the Princes of Hell, who are the ruling caste among the native inhabitants, a race of infernals known as Devils. Bastonian belief centers hell as a place of damnation and the souls of wicked Bastonians as well as others who have made deals with or earned the attention of Devils often end up here in the afterlife. It is visible as a bright cluster of flame-red stars on crisp autumn evenings.
The Abyss
See Also: The Abyss
The Abyss is the cosmological antipode of Heaven, a plane of vacuous emptiness punctuated by occasional bursts of hellish surrealism. While neither evil-aligned Dogmatic Plane is particularly easy to live with for mortals, the Abyss is perhaps the most hostile, and few gods, if any, call it home. It yawns like a gaping hole in the night sky during winter nights, when seemingly even the stars are too cold to glow.
As Understood By the Schools
Ars Magica
The Schola Ars Magica divide most strongly over the role and function of these planes, which are thought of best in their religious terms, and therefore the distinction should be seen as theological rather than academic. Western scholars are usually adherents to the Church of Bastionia in which Heaven, Hell, and the coming war between them figure heavily; in the east, the other pair are actually more emphesized.
Heretical Western scholars borrow the Eastern view that Ahren turns and so presents a different view of the sky each night. The less heretical view, promulgated in the west but increasingly regarded as anachronistic among learned mages, aligns with the view of the Church of Bastonia that the Heavens march in accordance with the maneuvers of the armies of heaven and hell.
Secrets of Nature
The scholars of the Secrets of Nature do not use the terms Elysium, Heaven, Hell, or Abyss to describe these Seasonal Realms; instead, they are the Lands of Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter respectively. All four realms are considered deeply relevant and fundamentally accessible to the talented mage, but in general the summoning of "spirits" from any of them is considered a dangerous ability at best and strongly discouraged.
The procession of these planes throughout the year is thought of as being caused by the natural spin of the astral plane.
Orcish Shamanism
Orcish Shamanism teaches similarly to the Secrets of Nature that these planes are the domains of seasons, but the orcish belief that Kodo the Devourer is involved in the creation of the Abyss means that they also tend to refer to that plane as the Hungry Lands. It is considered dangerous to find oneself without fire on nights when the Hungry Lands are visible in the sky in spite of the fact that winters are relatively mild in the lands of the Orcish Nation.
Way of the Elements
These realms are the realms on which the teachings of the Way of the Elements School differs the most strongly from Ars Magica. All four planes are thought of as equally important and present, and in the cosmology of the Way schools, each is thought of as a Celestial Cardinal, similar to the cardinal directions. These Stellar Kingdoms are ruled over by the gods of the other world religions as Celestial Mandarins and each is the realm of various kinds of Outer Creature - demons, azatas, and so on. These realms are not what is moving; it is believed that Ahren itself is voyaging among their realms on the Stellar Pilgrimage.
Other Interpretations
The dwarves of the Clans of Magnus do not speak of the Heavenly Kingdoms as planes; astronomy does not figure heavily in their cosmology or magic.
The Eight Elemental Planetessemals
The Eight Essential Planes are further removed from the Concurrent Planes, and are not reached directly from the Concurrent, but rather through transit across the Astral Plane - despite appearances through the use of Gates or Wild Portals, which nonetheless cover some distance across the Astral to connect each end of the portal. These eight essential planes, sometimes called the primordial planes, are bastions of each of the Elements, or Essentia, common to the understanding of Ars Magica. These planes move at different rates through the cosmos, occasionally wandering nearer or further in relation to each other, and to Ahren. The interpretation of the movements of these planes visible on the night sky is used by almost every major culture on Wisteria in their own respective schools of magic, to explain and predict the ebb and flow of magical potencies over time.
Pyrenum
See Also: Pyrenum
Pyrenum is is the Essential Plane of Fire. It appears as a dim and enormous red star in the night sky, usually near the horizon, being more or less prominent during the year. Interpretations of its meaning and influence vary wildly based on the various schools of magical thought across Ahren, but it is universally agreed upon as the realm of fire-spirits. Pyrenum is the Atarlied name; the Star-Counters term it the Dragon Star.
Akara
See Also: Akara
Akara is the Essential Plane of Water. It is visible in the night sky especially during spring and summer, as a dim blue sphere, though keen eyes are required to pick it out, in the absence of tools or arcane means. Akara is thought to be the ancient Baghari or pre-Baghari name for the star. Water spirits are known to originate in this realm and it is often said that the plane entering a period of retrograde motion is empowering to Arcwhales.
Petrii
See Also: Petrii
Petrii is the Essential Plane of Earth. A vast expanse of stone, sand, and the like, occasional pockets of air and caverns within it are peopled by the hearty Shaitan, and other earth-elemental outsiders. It glows of silver starlight, though it is too fat to be a star, and visible through much of the year, trailing the moons. In the extreme south of the Shimmering Shore, sages have promulgated images of the earth-star as it appears under strong magnification, in mottled grey and green, which is said to have influenced their view of Earth as two destinct essences - Metal and Wood.
Antistasis
See Also: Antistasis
Antistais is known as the Essential Plane of Wind, a vast and often featureless sky riven by weather, sometimes more destructive than ever seen on Ahren, and occasionally dotted with flying/falling islands of solid land where various species live, including the indigenous Djinni. It's silver-white or paynes grey, a bit too dim to be a proper star, and often visible near the horizon in the hours just after sunset.
Lumina
See Also: Lumina
The essential plane of light, Lumina brings with it many dangers, as it is perpetually illuminated from almost all sides, to the point of being hazardous to normal mortal health. It is antipodal cosmologically to Tenebaria. Home to an elusive and insular race known as Luminaria, the light of Lumina is believed to be the source of the spark of sentience.
Tenebaria
See Also: Tenebaria
Tenebaria is the Essential Plane of Shadow, making it the antipode to Lumina within Wisterian Cosmology. Though shrowded in perpetual darkness and considered a near ascendant of the Abyss, Tenebaria is not actually good or evil aligned, and is simply a place of darkness. The Mesmerites, a species of dopplegangar native to Tenebaria, hale from here and often travel to other planes in search of new experiences. The star itself is not visible in the night sky - a keen observer marks it by its passage before other objects.
Tindalos
See Also: Tindalos
Tindalos is the Essential Plane of Time. Like its close cousin, Xeno, it is unique among the Essential Planes in that it cannot be reached by normal means of extraplanar travel, and it is extremely rare even on cosmological time-scales for wild portals to bring travelers to Tindalos. Coterminous with all points in time that have been, are, shall be, or never were, across all planes in the cosmos, Tindalos is the subject of speculation, ambition of the occasional power-hungry wizard or sorcerer, and chiefly known only by the evidence of its impact on other planes. Several strange and aberrant species are said to be native to Tindalos, none of which are known conclusively to exist, chiefly the Hounds of Tindalos, a race of shape-shifting beasts who police the multiverse against those who would thwart fate or alter the flow of time too severely.
Tindalos is visible in the night sky as the Constant Star, a star in the northern sky around which the entire astral plane sometimes appears to spin. For this reasons, gnomes familiar with horology refer to it as the Pivot Star.
Xeno
See Also: Xeno
Xeno, sometimes known as the Great Between, is the Essential Plane of Space. Alongside its cousin, Tindalos, it is known by the effects of its movement through the cosmological cycle rather than direct travel, and is nearly impossible to reach. It is said to be the plane between other planes and the Astral Plane - a theory often challenged. In the same sense that Tindalos is coterminous with all points in time, Xeno is said to be coterminous with all points in space. It is unique among the Eight Essential Planes in that no species is said to be native to it, though there are rumours of a god of many bodies who calls the plane home.
Xeno is sometimes visible in the hours immediately before dawn in the eastern sky. A mad sage of the Star Counters once claimed that under magnification, the star is cubic; however, most observers agree it is simply a bright, mobile star.
As Understood By the Schools
Ars Magica
The Schola Ars Magica gave these planes the names by which they are listed above, and those names are largely considered dominant throughout much of the world. Ars Magica, unsurprisingly, promulgates all eight of these planes' essences as elemental to the use of magic. Equally unsurprisingly, a basic understanding of astrological and astronomical calculation is considered fundamental education for wizards and scholars alike under this school. Ars Magica practicioners maintain extensive tables of ephemera to help compute past and future positions of these stars, which are the most influential and specific objects tracked in Northern Astrology.
These stars are collectively agreed upon to be the light of their respective planes as reflected by the astral plane, and their motion through the night sky believed to be entirely mathematical, though the math is complex enough that the ephemera tables are necessary for all but the most learned scholars.
Secrets of Nature
The Secrets of Nature school is most strongly internally divided over these stars. The primary group of the school, the Star-Counters that lead the Confederacy of Sages, is aware of the existence of all eight and computes their motions more accurately and efficiently than even the Ars Magica scholars, allowing them to use Stellar Almanacs to make extremely accurate predictions of disasters, weather, and other portents. Conversely, the Cult of the Stormseers has no use for the motion of any of these stars other than Akara and Antistasis, which both figure heavily in their own soothsaying regarding storms.
Both cults agree that these lights are themselves extremely powerful spirits, the forebears of all other spirits and elementals of their kind, and their motions subject to ritual propiation, though their will is largely inexorable.
Orcish Shamanism
Orcish Shamanism teaches effectively identical view to the Star-Counters interpretation of the Secrets of Nature with regard to these elements, with the only distinction being that only Pyrenum, Akara, Petrii, and Antistasis are important - admittedly by their own name. The orcs believe that their god Gul Spell-Speaker has bound the spirits involved totemically and thus consider their motion both predictable and divinely-ordained.
Way of the Elements
The four planets recognized in Orcish Shamanism are well-known in south to be medallions shining upon the necks of celestial dragons, and their motions have similar connotations - the other four planets are observable but thought to be tokens of lesser importance, as the standards of celestial generals off on their marches.
Other Interpretations
In Baghar, all eight planets are recognized, as the glint of the light of Anghara against the lens of the astral plane as it turns on the so-called Lathe of Heaven.
The Four Cardinal Abstractive Planes =
On the furthest edges of the cosmology are four planes that each represent, in its purest form, a moral or ethical ideal: Vita, Stasis, Axioma and Pandemoneum. Each has their own hazards, and apart from the occasional stable pockets in their own domain, are possibly the most dangerous planes of existence in this cosmological model. These planes can be reached from the Astral with varying degrees of difficulty.
Vita
See Also: Vita
Vita, the life-source, star of animus and wellspring of energy, is the sun of Ahren.
Stasis
See Also: Stasis
Stasis is the death-source, the drain of energy, the star of demise. It shows no light and is visible only by its absence - it is thought to be the thing at the center of the Abyss that stars surrounding the Abyss are avoiding (or were destroyed by). The Orcs do not believe in a plane of stasis; this thing (visible by magical beings) is an aspect of their primordial god Kodo the Devourer.
Axioma
See Also: Axioma
The Plane of Great Order, Axioma is known as either the moon of Ahren or the bright moon of Ahren - Ars Magica scholars believe it is one of two moons of the planet, while the scholars of the Way of the Elements and the Star-Counters both believe there is no other moon. This place is the source of all organization, and goes through a cycle of phases which drives in lockstep with the Rophalin Calendar, with months being exactly lunar. Axioma is known to be important to the tides, especially in springtime when it is in celestial conjunction with Akara.
Pandemonium
See also: Pandemonium
The Plane of Great Chaos, or the Perversion of Order, Pandemonium is known to some as the Dark Moon of Ahren. Ars Magica scholars postulate it as an invisible extra plane which periodically overtakes Axioma, causing the phases. Other schools say that the orderly nature of the system of phases means that the phases are "of Axioma" itself. Cultures without a concept of Pandemonium-as-celestial-object but which are aware of the influence of Pandemonium usually blame trickster or mad gods.