The everworld
The Everworld is the name collectively given to a group of seven alternate planes of reality, bordering the "normal world" of Zenkora. Each plane governs a different facet of the universe, a realm that is also a physical manifestation of various concepts. Travel between the regular world and the planes of the Everworld was once plentiful and rife with thrill and adventure. Now the Everworld looms in ancient obscurity, once again waiting for pioneers and pilgrims from all corners of the universe.
I. The Nexus
by Wesley Chu
“Sword and spear alike, I choose no side to tread. Seek another way. The World is closed to you.”
Also known as "the World of Ways," the Nexus is the plane governing physical space, locations, and movement. Those who can enter or tap into the natural energy of the Nexus can travel at astonishing speeds, or visit any place in the universe.
The Nexus is the ultimate dream of the wayfarer, the miracle land of the traveler, and the birthplace of the speedster and the teleporter. All who utilize extraordinary methods of travel draw power from the Nexus, knowingly or otherwise.
II. The Dreamscape
by Wesley Chu
“I am king of this world of dreams. I watch over desire; lust and delight are my subjects. But the royal seat that enthrones me likens to a tower, for to execute my noble duties I must govern above, and wait on the feast from afar, not sit at the table myself. The king of wanton beasts am I, though I be not the paragon of them. As chances pervades good order, so must some order be maintained here.”
The Dreamscape is the realm of imagination, and the plane in which all sentient lifeforms are partially submerged. When souls slumber and dreaming begins, the souls are further immersed in the Dreamscape, where the fabric of that reality is warped to create fantastic vistas and possibilities beyond comprehension.
However, this realm can be visited by methods other than sleeping. Those who venture into the Dreamscape, as well as its native residents, find the plane divided into fourteen regions: The Void Gate, Gods' Landing, Tarragon Haven, The Thousand-League Forest, Auldhenge, Faerie See, Gargamon Range, All-Fathoms Sea, The Edgeless Ruins, The Mines of Gargamon, The Blinding Desert, The Painted Gardens, The Midnight Moors, and Clandestar Hold.
The most prominent native species of the Dreamscape are the Fae: whimsical, shapeless creatures, living concepts made flesh and filled with fickle caprice. From the royal High Elves to the deepest delving Dwarves, the ever volatile lands of the Dreamscape are both kept safe and perilous by the machinations of these unpredictable beings.
III. The Afterlife
by Wesley Chu
“I know not what lies beyond the veil of flame, though long I have peered at it, and glimpsed the sign of beauty.”
The Afterlife. The Everforce. The Hereafter, the Great Unknown, and beyond. These and countless others are the names of perhaps the most mysterious of all the Everworld planes, and one with particularly and notoriously unyielding borders. The great enigma of the Afterlife is such that all in Zenkora, from the highest god to the lowest soul, and not even the Afterlife's own great guardian, is fully aware of its nature.
A select few over the ages have managed to re-emerge from the Afterlife, sometimes through summons, and sometimes through vast intervention of great powers, but those who do know of the Afterlife's true workings are bound by perpetual silence. Only one thing is known, and it is known to everyone: the Afterlife awaits all, in the end.
IV. Fractallia
by Wesley Chu
“Though through these woods I may fly with the speed of a thunderbolt, so quickly the leaves and branch-worlds grow that no journey is ever the same.”
This is the realm of boundless growth, the plane that governs the mathematical concepts of the universe. Here, those concepts are given physical forms, and grow endlessly. For some, it is a plane of endless life; for others, it is a monstrous and cancerous prison. Yet all who venture into Fractallia are struck with its awesome beauty, the glory of its shimmering and shifting vistas that stretch swiftly into infinity.
V. The Illusium
by Esther Chu
“You may think these skies bright, but many shrouds were woven in ages past. Even now, they shield us from the blinding gems, the precious of the Illusium.”
The Illusium is the brother of Fractallia, being that plane that houses the concepts and laws of physics. The Illusium is also densely populated by an infinite number of impossible structures, and filled with a source-less radiant light that permeates almost every corner and un-corner of the plane.
Of the many entrances to the Void in the Everworld, the Illusium holds one of the most significant: that is the Timeless Void, an extra-dimensional chamber in which strands of timelines are suspended in nothingness. Here also are the Clockroaches, savage monstrosities who hunger for time itself, kept only at bay by the endless vigil of the Timekeepers.
VI. Miscellulata
by Wesley Chu
“Ever-tumbling, deeply rumbling, always crumbling...”
All forms of matter, and all combinations of all forms of matter, have an eternal home in the vastness of Miscellulata. This is a plane of compartments, in which every material, possible and impossible, are kept in gargantuan quantity, acting as the universal repository and metaphysical reference for matter. Those who use magic in its myriad ways to summon or create matter do so by drawing it from Miscellulata, and when vanished or destroyed, so the matter returns to Miscellulata.
VII. The cerebula
by Wesley Chu
“Come! Let us hear the singing of the stars!”
The final realm of the Everworld is a deep abyss of darkness, in which a brilliantly blazing galaxy of stars are suspended. Each Everstar is a massive engine, a generator of souls, the source of all life.
The Evergen are the protectors of the Everworld, each a sovereign guardian of a different plane.