All that exists - seen or unseen - belongs to the Realms, the great structure of creation that binds every power, spirit, and soul. The Realms are not separate universes but layers of one existence, each resonating at different frequencies of reality itself.
At the center lies the Material Realm, where mortals live and shape destiny. Surrounding it flows the Ethereal World, a misty membrane between all things. Beyond stretch the Countless Realms - home to gods, demons, forgotten powers, and stranger things still.
Though mortals speak of "upper" and "lower," these are convenient lies. There is no heaven above or hell below. There is only resonance - states of being defined by intent, truth, and the nature of existence itself.
The Material Realm is not one world but infinite worlds.
Every campaign setting exists here. Every planet, every kingdom, every dungeon and distant shore. From mist-shrouded domains of horror to sun-scorched wastelands where demirealms lie, from your homebrew kingdom to any world borrowed from myth or legend - all of them exist within this central sphere of reality.
These worlds are separated by vast cosmic distances, magical barriers, or simply the membrane of the Ethereal itself. Some are connected by portals, ley lines, or ancient vortexes. Others remain isolated, known only to their own inhabitants. A party traveling through a portal from their home world to a realm of eternal twilight is moving laterally within the Material Realm - hopping between worlds, but never leaving the sphere itself.
The Material Realm is where physics holds sway, where cause and effect govern most outcomes, where mortality binds every soul to flesh and time. It is the stage upon which all mortal drama unfolds.
The Material Realm is your playground. Every world you create, every setting you borrow, every plane of existence your players visit during their adventures - if it has solid ground, breathable air, and follows the basic rules of reality, it belongs here. The beauty of this structure is that you're never locked into one cosmology. Your world can exist alongside countless others, and your players can discover connections between them if and when you choose.
Demirealsm
Demirealms are self-contained pockets of reality - fragments where the Material and Ethereal overlap. They obey most physical laws but are tinted by dream, magic, or divine influence. A demirealm might be a scorched desert always high noon, a haunted fortress that drifts in mist, or a valley where time slows because a god once died there. These places are real; their boundaries can shift too, and their rules can bend. Some persist for centuries, others dissolve when the will or power sustaining them fades.
For the Dungeon Narrator: demirealms are tools - bridges between the known world and the mysteries beyond. They let you stage planar stories without leaving the Material entirely. A demirealm can feel familiar yet uncanny: a world-within-the-world where the laws of resonance, emotion, or intent briefly take precedence over physics.
The Ethereal World
Surrounding the Material Realm on all sides flows the Ethereal World - a weightless, shifting veil between realities. It is not a realm of its own so much as the medium that separates and links all others, like an ocean surrounding islands of existence.
The Ethereal is where thought, memory, and dream have physical presence. Landscapes form and dissolve according to will, fear, and emotion. A traveler walking through the Ethereal might see ghostly echoes of the Material world, half-formed nightmares drifting past, or crystallized memories from civilizations long dead.
Magic flows through the Ethereal like blood through veins. When a wizard teleports, their body dissolves into mist and crosses this boundary before reforming elsewhere. When a soul dies, it drifts through this space before reaching whatever lies beyond. When a cleric calls upon divine power, the prayer travels through the Ethereal before touching their god's domain.
The Ethereal touches every realm - Material, Divine, Lower, and all the Countless places between. It is the path that allows spirits, magic, and travelers to cross between realities.
And within the Ethereal dwell the Gate Keepers.
Astral Travel
Some call the higher reaches of the Ethereal the Astral. Here, distance and gravity lose meaning, and motion is guided by will alone. Travelers drifting in this space describe it as endless silver mist or a sea of slow stars - a current of pure thought connecting all realms.
To journey "astrally" is to move not through matter but through intent, sailing the upper layers of the Ethereal where the mind becomes the vessel.
The Gate Keepers
Ancient custodians beyond mortal comprehension, the Gate Keepers exist within the Ethereal World, stationed where the boundaries between realms grow thin.
Each Gate Keeper embodies a threshold - not merely a physical gateway, but a metaphysical junction. Life and Death. Sleep and Wakefulness. Form and Spirit. Time and Eternity. Ignorance and Revelation. Dream and Waking. Truth and Illusion.
Their purpose is not to forbid passage, but to test the readiness of those who would cross. They are neither good nor evil - their duty is equilibrium. Some manifest as radiant beings of geometric perfection; others appear as monstrous reflections of fear, doubt, and consequence. Many take no visible form at all, existing only as pressure, as presence, as the sense that you are being weighed and measured by something vast.
Passage through a Gate Keeper requires more than strength. It demands alignment of intent, understanding of the realm you seek to enter, or simply the resonance necessary to survive what lies beyond. A soul bound for the divine halls must carry enough faith, virtue, or favor to pass the threshold. A mortal seeking to enter a realm of pure chaos must prove their will can endure the dissolution of form.
Some Gate Keepers are visible only in dreams. Others appear at sacred places, or in moments of death, resurrection, or teleportation gone astray. Most mortals will never knowingly encounter one - but every spell that crosses planes, every soul that departs the body, every journey into the realms beyond passes through their unseen judgment.
For the Dungeon Narrator: Gate Keepers do not exist to block travel, only to preserve balance. They are the invisible custodians ensuring that when a soul, spell, or traveler crosses between realms, the transition doesn't tear them apart. In most cases - teleportation circles, divine spells, planar portals, or astral projection - the required resonance is already provided by the magic itself. The spell, relic, or deity guiding the passage acts as the "key," allowing the Gate Keeper's judgment to pass silently. The players might sense a fleeting pressure, a whisper of awareness, or a shimmer in the air, but their journey continues unhindered.
Gate Keepers become active only when a crossing is unsanctioned or unsafe - when a mortal attempts to move between realms without proper resonance, faith, or preparation. Even then, the encounter is not a barrier, but a moment of revelation. It may manifest as a vision, a question, or a symbolic trial that defines what kind of traveler the character truly is. The purpose is to make planar travel feel profound, not punitive. The cosmos acknowledges their passage, but does not deny it unless they themselves are not ready.
Gate Keepers should feel rare, significant, and unsettling when encountered. They are not combat encounters (though they can become one if a player foolishly attacks). They are tests, riddles, or moments of cosmic reckoning.
A Gate Keeper might ask a question that has no right answer, only a true one. They might reflect the worst fears of the person trying to pass. Or they might simply observe, allowing passage to those whose souls resonate correctly - and barring those who do not. Use them sparingly, but make them memorable.
Countless Realms
Beyond the Ethereal lie innumerable planes - some vast and eternal, others fleeting as a half-remembered dream.
Mortals call some of these the "Divine Realm" and others the "Lower Realms," but these are crude labels born from limited understanding. In truth, there is no ladder between heaven and hell. There are only states of resonance, layers of existence defined by their nature, their intent, and their relationship to truth itself.
The realms mortals call "upper" tend to be radiant, ordered, creative - places where belief shapes reality and divine will manifests as law. The realms mortals call "lower" tend to be shadowed, consuming, chaotic - places where hunger devours form and corruption spreads like rot.
But even this binary is a lie of convenience. Between these extremes exist countless other realms that defy easy classification.
All Mythologies Are True: In your game, every deity that has ever been worshipped - whether in mythology, in other game systems, or in your own imagination - exists somewhere in the Countless Realms. Thor and Zeus can both be real. Anubis and Hades can both rule domains of the dead. Your cleric can serve a god from Greek myth while the party's paladin follows a deity from your homebrew pantheon. They simply dwell in different corners of the infinite divine expanse. This gives you total flexibility - pull from any source, mix and match, or invent your own. The cosmology supports it all.
The Realism Gradient
The Material Realm sits in the middle - balanced between the two extremes. Cause and effect govern most outcomes here. Physics holds sway. A sword cuts because it is sharp, not because you believe it should.
But as you descend into the Lower Realms, reality becomes even more rigid, more bound to suffering and entropy. Stone grows heavier. Darkness becomes tangible. Hunger is not metaphor but law. The deeper you go, the more the world resists change, resists hope, resists anything but slow collapse.
And as you ascend into the Divine Realms and beyond, reality becomes fluid. Intent shapes form. Truth manifests as light. A god's word becomes law not because of force, but because their will resonates so powerfully that the realm itself agrees. Mortals who venture too far into these places find themselves unraveling - their thoughts solidifying into landscapes, their fears and hopes taking shape around them, time losing meaning as past and future blur together.
This is why the Gate Keepers test travelers. Not every soul can survive the shift in resonance. A mortal crossing into a realm of pure divine law might find themselves judged by their every thought. A traveler descending too deep into the Lower Realms might discover their body growing heavier, their hope dimming, their very will to continue fading under the weight of that place's nature.
The Ethereal World is the buffer - the place where this gradient can be felt and navigated. It is why magic flows through it, why souls travel within it, and why the Gate Keepers dwell there, ensuring that only those who can endure the shift are allowed to pass.
When Do Realms Matter?
For most campaigns, the Realms are background cosmology - the structure that explains where divine magic comes from, where souls go when characters die, and why certain spells allow planar travel. Your players don't need to understand the full structure unless they start asking questions or their adventures take them beyond the Material world.
The Realms become important when:
- A character dies and their soul must travel to their deity's domain
- The party attempts planar travel or uses teleportation magic
- A cleric performs a resurrection or speaks with their god
- The story involves demons, celestials, or other extraplanar beings
- The players discover a portal to another world or plane
- You want to introduce cosmic stakes - wars between gods, breaches in reality, or threats that span multiple realms
Movement Between Realms
Lateral Movement (Within the Material Realm): When characters use a portal, ley line, or vortex to travel from one world to another within the Material Realm, they're moving horizontally through the Ethereal. This is relatively safe - the destination is still Material, still bound by physics and mortality. The journey might be disorienting, but it won't unmake them.
Resonance Shift (Leaving the Material Realm): When characters attempt to leave the Material Realm entirely - entering a god's domain, descending into the Lower Realms, or venturing into one of the Countless Realms - they must pass through the Ethereal and, potentially, encounter a Gate Keeper. This is dangerous. The resonance of the destination realm might be incompatible with mortal existence. This is why powerful spells exist - they allow the caster to navigate the Ethereal safely and arrive at a compatible destination.