Sunday, June 16, 2013

A Cosmology

Sigil is widely regarded as a microcosm
that reflects the shape of the macrocosm
that comprises the known universe. Imagine
Azathoth at the middle and you may start to
understand Our Lady of Pain.
A little something I am going to be using as my cosmology in games for a while. Each area will have some Powers (gods) and Inhabitants (monsters) detailed.

This universe is a great torus; galaxies and planets ring it, but its edges dissolve into the terrifying pseudo-matter that is The Outer Limits.

The Outer Limits
A realm where the laws of physics melt and reality bends back upon itself. It's an unfathomable distance from known space, and other realities pervade our own here. It surrounds the great torus on all edges. Dark energy pushes the torus further and further apart with the march of the aeons.
  • The Outer gods: Azazoth floats in the middle of all reality, just outside of it, attended by his pipers. Azaoth fuels the beginning and end of all things. 
  • In his mad dreams, Shub-Niggurath is ever pregnant and making cosmic horrors.
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The Astral Sea
This can be thought of as the stars, planets, and galaxies close enough to our own to matter.
  • The Stars themselves: Unfathomable entities that control the fates of men and whisper strange secrets to the mad. 
  • The Great old ones: Gods in their own right, the spawn of the stars, such as Cthulhu, originate here, though they tend to be subject to the whims of the cosmic ley-lines and many of them are mercifully sleeping on some planet until they can outlive death again.
  • Astral Oddities: Githyanki pirates, Chael, Maruts, Inevitables, Shmodrons, Neogi, Beholders, Illithids, Mi-go, Greys
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The Seven Heavens
A heavenly series of locales for almost any temperament. Of particular interest is Valhalla, the barrier to this reality, where warriors that please their gods are restored for feasting each night.
  • They Who Watch: Venca, Tiamat, Psionic Dragon Gods, Zagyg, the Pantheon of Law, the Igigi
  • The Heavenly Host: Cloud Giants, Angels, Daevas, Dead Heroes, Archons, Ambassadors of all kinds.
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Midgard (called Aert by common man)
The realm we know the best: the proving ground of the new human race. Elves and dwarves remain from the golden age, but mankind is still struggling to decide their own destiny.
  • They Who Walk Among Us: Avatars, Earth-bound Great Old Ones, immortals, nephilim, gibborim, rephaim, old man Bahamut, Iuz the Tyrant,
  • Mundane Monsters: Wizards (suffer them not to live) and their experiments, fey, robots, dragons, the undead, the uplifted beasts
  • The kingdoms: Kings, emperors, necromancers, and khans squabble over the lands of men
  • The demi-humans: Elves, Dwarves, and Hobbits withdraw into their alien societies
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The Underworld
Beneath the earth lies the dungeons of things forgotten or sealed away, and mazes made for strange reasons by the servants of various entities. The City of Death is here, eager to claim new souls for Nergal to rule over, and in its catacombs (death for the dead!) is the gate to Tartarus.
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The Gates of Tartarus
The Barrier that holds back the Titanomachy's losers. Devils are former servants of the gods, bound to hold the gates in recompense for their immemorial sins.
  • The Wardens: Cerebus, Hel, Lucifer, Yama, Hecatonchires, the 7 Anunnaki judges
  • The Hell-bound: The Evil Dead, Devils, Tasked-angels, Maras
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The 9 Hells
These realms of torture are intended to preoccupy and imprison the most dangerous beings from primordial times. The only escape is deeper down...
  • Titans and Ashuras: Maya-demons, Vrita, Kronos, Mnemosyne
  • Horrors: Cenobytes, Slaadi, the Ancient Dead
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The Abyss
A chaotic vortex in the middle of an elemental crucible that reaches down through an insanity that reflects The Outer Limits.
  • The Demon Lords: Baphomet, Orcus, Demogorgon, Juiblex, The Elemental Royalty
  • Chaos' childer: Demons, Oozes, Obyriths
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The End of Creation
Tharizdun, lord of paradox, is imprisoned at the bottom of reality, in the singularity of nothingness that lies there. His release would spell the end of everything.

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