Atlas Appendix
The Visual Atlas
The chapters that follow describe the Multirealms in words. A cosmological sourcebook called Atlas of the Infinite requires an actual atlas - diagrams that show the structure, the relationships, the relative positions of things that the prose can only gesture at. These diagrams are not maps in the cartographic sense. The Multirealms cannot be mapped - it is infinite, and its organizing principle is resonance rather than geography. What can be diagrammed is the structure: how the layers relate, where things sit relative to each other, what a planar crossing looks like in cross-section, how divine gravity organizes the upper reaches and entropy organizes the lower ones.
The Infinite Oblong
The complete cosmological structure of the Multirealms - the shape of everything. The oblong extends beyond what any di...
The complete cosmological structure of the Multirealms - the shape of everything. The oblong extends beyond what any diagram can contain. What is shown here is the structure - the relationships, the resonance tiers, the position of the Ethereal membrane. The infinite continuation in both directions is implicit in the fading at the ellipse's poles. There is no edge shown because there is no edge.
The Realism Gradient
The cross-section reveals what the full oblong diagram implies but cannot show in detail: the gradient is continuous, n...
The cross-section reveals what the full oblong diagram implies but cannot show in detail: the gradient is continuous, not stepped. There is no sharp line where the Material becomes the Ethereal or where the Ethereal becomes the divine. The transitions are gradients, and the named zones are regions of dominant character rather than distinct containers.
Methods of Planar Travel
A comparative diagram showing what each method of crossing looks like and where in the cosmological structure it operat...
A comparative diagram showing what each method of crossing looks like and where in the cosmological structure it operates.
The five methods shown are not the only ways to cross planar boundaries - Gate Keepers themselves can facilitate passage, divine intervention can move a cleric directly to their deity's domain, and certain artifacts create their own crossing mechanics. These five are the methods that planar travelers learn and use systematically.
The Ethereal World
The structure and named regions of the Ethereal membrane - the medium that connects all things.
The structure and named regions of the Ethereal membrane - the medium that connects all things.
The Hollow Meridian's position in the diagram is approximate - its exact cosmological coordinates shift slightly over time, which is one of several things about it that scholars find troubling. The routes around it shown in the Silver Roads represent the standard paths that experienced Ethereal travelers use to avoid it.
Divine Gravity and World Formation
How divine domains position themselves in the upper reaches and how Material worlds form in resonant proximity.
How divine domains position themselves in the upper reaches and how Material worlds form in resonant proximity.
The positions shown are approximate. Divine domains do not have coordinates in any system of measurement mortals have devised. What the diagram shows is relationship - the Norse pantheon's domain is near worlds where sky-father mythology arose naturally, not because the god chose proximity to those worlds, but because those worlds and that divine domain share a fundamental resonance that caused them to form near each other. The proximity is a consequence of what they both are, not a decision either party made.
Internal Structure: The Dreaming
The four regions of the Realm of Dream and how they relate to each other and to the sleeping minds that border them.
The four regions of the Realm of Dream and how they relate to each other and to the sleeping minds that border them.
Between the Dark Dreaming and the Dreamer's Seat is the least documented transition in the Dreaming. Travelers who have reached the Dreamer's Seat describe the approach as the experience of a dream becoming aware of being dreamed - a recursive quality that most find either clarifying or unbearable, with few positions between those poles.
Internal Structure: The Great Song
The four regions of the Realm of Song and the corrupted margin where Silence Eaters dwell.
The four regions of the Realm of Song and the corrupted margin where Silence Eaters dwell.
The First Chord is the most restricted destination in the Great Song. The Concord's divine inhabitants do not forbid access - they simply note that the Chord changes people, and that the change is permanent, and that not everyone finds the change welcome. This is presented as information rather than warning. The distinction is theirs.
Gate Keeper Threshold Map
Where the Gate Keepers are present and what transitions they govern.
Where the Gate Keepers are present and what transitions they govern.
The threshold types are not the Gate Keepers' names - Gate Keepers do not have names in any language mortals speak. The threshold types are descriptions of what each one governs, derived from accumulated accounts of travelers who have encountered them and attempted to categorize the experience.