Layers of Reality

In the world of Primeval, esoteric energies flow through all of reality. While they form a contiuum of energy, matter, and awareness, each point of each coexisting atop and within one another, these energies are conceived as existing in layers.

These planes each are thought to contain certain "flavors" of energy and are thought to embody a pure aspect of the greater cosmos. All together, these layers form a functioning whole.

The following are the most commonly identified layers:

The Dark: The Dark is a place of perpetual night, where flows of darkness washes over a barren, blasted landscape of bare rock. These flows of darkness constantly expand and recede, revealing landscape and objects according to the instinctive needs of the viewer. The Dark, while sometimes a frightening, phantasmagoric location, manifests aspects of any viewer, showing them the truth of their inner selves in a visceral, confrontational manner. It is said, however, that the darkness will never reveal anything the viewer is not ready to see.
The Sacred Lands: The Sacred Lands are a collection of natural environments preserved forever in their most pristine, most ecologically balanced form. All environments are represented, be they ocean, praire, mountain, or tundra, and each is inhabited by the most pure form of flora and fauna appropriate to it. Some conjecture that the Sacred Lands are the mold from which the Mundane world was crafted. The Sacred Lands are home to many spiritual, mystically empowered life, including idealized totemic spirits of every species of animal which are effectively the Incarna of animal life.
The Eldritch: Containing vast flows of esoteric energy itself, both in manifested and unmanifested form, the Eldritch is considered the source of magickal energy. The Eldritch is considered the well spring and its form is extremely malleable and shifts its form with the thoughts and will of those that pass through it. It is said that every spell or magickal working ever cast is still in the Eldritch as an echo, making it an excellent source of mystical knowledge.
The Mundane: The Mundane, formed from equal parts of all the elemental forces, represents the most basic form of reality, where all beings sentient or otherwise are able to perceive and interact within. This is the "material plane," and, while essentially mundane, it contains within its fabric wellsprings of elemental energies called "Elemental Flows."
The Elemental Flows: When the Mundane was created, not all parts of its elemental mixture separated evenly, creating pockets of "pure elements." Within these pockets, the rules of Mundane reality are bent or replaced entirely by the rules of the governing element. In rare instances, two elements may mix together in a flow, creating sometimes bizarre extremes.
The Celestial Reaches: The Celestial Reaches arch above all the world, a fabric of stars, planets, and celestial bodies that move on their own paths. In this extreme, thought, emotion, and mind become rarified and pure. The higher one moves into the reaches, the more than thought creates reality. This becomes a place of pure consciousness, where intellect divorces itself from form and substance and the incarnation of an individual begins to break down completely into "The All."
The All: The All is perhaps the most mysterious layer of reality, as it represents a place where all incarnations dissolve into every other, where bodies are cast off, where individual consciousness melds with others, and where souls melt into one supreme being of ineffable extent. It is from the All that all sentient life derives, as portions of consciousness are extruded into Mundane reality to occupy physical form, and to which all sentient life returns, bringing with it the experiences of individuality for the All to experience in turn.

Travel and Denizens (top)

The layers of reality are all accessible from one another, as they are superimposed upon one another at all points. The methods of reaching each layer varies depending on its nature. Elemental flows can be walked into, once located, as they exist within the Mundane. The Dark requires extensive meditation, but is essentially a state-of-mind. Mystical means also exist to open portals or to induce appropriate levels of awareness. It is noteable, however, that The All, cannot be reached except through the natural dissolution of one's incarnation.

The layers may also sport differing levels of population, both native and those borne from travellers through them. The most populous are the Sacred Lands, the Mundane, and the Elemental Flows. Each sports life that mirrors our own, although often such life has supernormal aspects based on the layer (i.e., elemental life will nearly always exhibit mystic abilities associated with their element).

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