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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Nebuchadnezzar" data-source="post: 475428" data-attributes="member: 1938">Cosmology of Horror VaccuiThe multiverse is sircular like an eyeball, in the centre rests the prime material plane which connects to the four elemental planes, Hell, Heaven, and countless demiplanes. The Astral Plane is the space between everything within this sircular multiverse, or a road, if you will, that goes everywhere. Surrounding the multiverse is the Void, infinite stretches of black nothingness where the souls of the dead linger. They peer into the multiverse and cling to the barrier between the place of the living and the place of the dead. The multiverse is like a glowing lightbolt in a sea of darkness.   Heaven: Derelict and abandoned, nearly every celestial of Heaven vanished along with their divine lords. The few celestials that remain know nothing of where their kin has gone. Many angels mourn the dissapereance of sisters and brothers, lovers and companions. But Heaven is not open for all to pillage and loot, however. Two archangels of awesome power guard the gates of Heaven, repelling fiend and mortal alike. Most celestials have given up the conflict against evil now that so few warriors of light remain to wage the war. Although the natives of Heaven are inherently good,  despising cruelty and vice, no longer do they seek out evil to destroy it. There are exceptions though: The Exalted is an organization of celestials and their allies who devote their existance to the destruction of fiends. They especially seek to curve fiendish influence on Khanesh. Every celestial has his or her own purpose and goal. Some remain in Heaven, tending to its decaying beauty. Several walk the earth, dwelling on the Prime Material Plane alongside mortals. Others relocate to Hell, either to observe, fight, or join their evil counterparts. The most renowned celestial on Khanesh is Corsentius, ruler of Heedsan and the deity Abdeshum's former right-hand. Having gained the faith and devotion of nearly thirty thousand worshipers, Corsentius is the first angel with the ability to grant divine spells to his followers. He strives to reinstate the theocratic empire of old Mardukia when every creature of the land awed and respected Abdeshum. With time Heaven will become a sort of museum, a place where the relics of Light linger without any caretakers, just two silent guardians intent on not letting anyone or anything into the exhibition halls.    Hell: The fiends of Hell exist for one purpose only: to corrupt all that is good. Such is the nature of fiends, and they take great pleasure in doing so. This pleasure they gain from spiritual corruption is physical - and extremely addictive. Younger fiends are far more driven by this pleasure than their older kin. This is why fiends encountered on the Prime Material Plane are likely to be quite young and weak compared to the ancient creatures lairing in the deepest reaches of Hell. Fiends lose the ability to gain physical pleasure from corruption as they grow old, just like humans lose sexual ability and potency with age. These elder fiends are able to question why they must corrupt good. And they do so for untold millenia. After nigh an eternity, these ancient fiends become desperate and ridden with the loss of purpose. All are driven into an intellectual corner: when nothing in the multiverse can offer meaning to an ancient fiend, only death is left with the ability to answer why. This is torture to fiends, for their kind can never die like a creature of the Prime Material Plane. They are simply reborn in Hell as a younger version of themselves and are again driven by the instinct to enjoy the exstacy of corruption. Killing themselves or being killed by another is not a solution for these elder fiends. In the end, they find no answer, no meaning, they cannot destroy themselves, making Hell their Hell. Many sages believe Hell to be a place where fiends torture the souls of mortals. How wrong they are: fiends are both torturer and tortured.    The Elemental Planes: Primal planes old as time itself, the Elemental Planes represent the building blocks of the multiverse. They are the essence of that which set the multiverse apart from the formless nothingness of the Void. The Elemental Plane of Air is a place of huge clouds and howling winds. The Elemental Plane of Fire is all flames and fire, always burning, though there is nothing to burn. The Elemental Plane of Earth is a solid plane of earth with neither water, fire, or air. Likewise the Elemental Plane of Water is an endless ocean without a bottom or surface. Denizens of these planes are called elementals, and they are often summoned to Khanesh by the magic of a priest or wizard.    The Demiplanes: Scattered across the multiverse are thousands of demiplanes created by deities and individuals gifted with awesome magic. These demiplanes differ from ordinary planes in that their lifespan is limited: demiplanes can exist from anywhere between a day and a thousand years, as designated by its creator. A demiplane can never be endless, they are usually quite small compared to Heaven and Hell. Most demiplanes were created by deities, and though these deities have either died, been forgotten, or simply dissapeared, their homes linger on in the multiverse. When a demiplane dies, it slowly fades away, and so does anyone and anything native to it.  While some demiplanes are nearly empty, others teem with life and many strange, wonderous things. The demiplane called Zenith, created by the vanished deity of mankind, Abdeshum, is home to many creatures. Humans brought over from Khanesh dwell there, as do thousands of guardian-creatures which protect Abdeshum's relics from looters. It is said each passing of a year heralds time's end for a single demiplane. In that case, demiplanes are slowly dying out. As there are no known deities left in the multiverse, and with magic in Khanesh becoming less powerful, demiplanes will all wither away within the next eight hundred years.       The Void: Little is known of the Void. Despite what many priests and religious followers claim, it is the place where the souls of the dead freeze in the chill of nothingness. The Void is thought to be infinite. Nothing made of fire, water, earth or air can exist in the Void. There is no way to enter the Void without dying - magic cannot grant access to it, though it can bring a soul back to its corperal body. Undying things draw their power from the Void and are attached to it in a manner no living creature ever could be. Mortal, celestial and fiend alike dread the Void. During the time of gods, even the most powerful deity quivered before the Void's nothingness. There was a pact between the gods that even the most chaotic and impulsiv god swore to uphold: Never communicate the Void's existence to a mortal. If a celestial or fiend imparted such forbidden knowledge unto mortals, then both the mortal and outsider in question were to be destroyed. The deities did this to protect the greatest lie of all: that of eternal life. Priests and followers were promised eternal life with their chosen god, their soul would reside in the divine home of gods. The promise of a heavenly afterlife drew hundreds of thousands to cults and churches, swelling the ranks of a god's faithfull. But there never was an afterlife. The Void is the soul's destination, not Heaven. As the Divine Silence struck the multiverse, fiends saw an opportunity to cause untold havoc in Khanesh. They told of the Void and the gods pact to protect their lie. Nearly a million lives perished in the chaos that followed the Divine Silence - entire empires fell apart and the elves commited suicide in an event later known as Ulialume's Wake.</blockquote>

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