But there is something else. The Multiverse. There, but not really there, shifted out of sync with Era and the Universe, there is a place of fantastic locations filled with horrors, wonders and creatures of all kinds. This is where demons, devils, gods, the souls of the dead and much much more live out their endless eternities.
The Multiverse is an everchanging place, created by the fuel that is the souls of Era, a place where belief holds supreme, and where power and will can control the very earth and air around you. It is, by mortal standards a weird place to understand, and some areas are completely beyond the grasp of mortal comprehension.
The Multiverse is best described as a gigantic sea of astral stuff, infinite but yet finite. Two great continents oppose each other, the Seven Heavens and the Eleven Hells. In between those two infinite continents is the equally infinite Astral Sea. Souls float through the Astral Sea, but it is also possible to travel it by means of special-made ships. Technically, you can swim or rather fly through it as well, if you are incapable of tiring, because the voyage will likely be very long, and the hazards many.
The infinite Astral Sea is filled with islands, or dominions if you will (others call them planes or even realms). There are an infinite number of these, and they come in all sizes. Some infinite in themselves, others have finite borders, some are even as small as houses. Some disappear after a couple of years, others have been there always.
The most known of these islands (or realms) are:
The Underworld: This infinite dominion is where the dead souls of Era go to sit in judgement by the Raven Queen. After dieing, a soul breaches the Veil (the barrier between Era and the Underworld) and ends up in the Astral Sea. From there, it begins it's journey to the Underworld, to be judged and placed for eternity. The Raven Queen herself rarely participates in the judgement per say, and instead the Queen of queens has a bureaucracy to take care of all the mortal souls. Each soul is examined and weighed, seeing where he would fit the best. Every act a mortal has made during his lifetime is taken into consideration. The Psychomania, (The battle for man's soul) is always the fiercest here. The Underworld has no sun, caught in a perpetual state of twillight, and while you do not die from going there, almost everyone who goes there is already dead, on the way to be judged, or simply there, serving the Raven Queen for eternity.
The Casino: One of the smaller dominions, about the size of a small town, the Casino is the home of none other than Mask, one of Era's nine gods. Why he has chosen this very small dominion baffles many sages, but knowing what Mask stands for, there is surely a reason they haven't figured out. The focal point of the Casino is the House, a huge building where every type of gambling and vice can be satisfied. It is also a safe, neutral ground, where both angels and demons rubs shoulders. Be warned however, the immortals have no use for coin, and rarely bet for gold or gems. Instead, souls, memories, futures, children and many other things are at stake here. Some have even claimed that once in a while, Mask himself plays against those who have defied the odds and won extraordinarily many games, with nothing less than his godhood at stake, against the life of his opponent. Needless to say, no one has beat Mask yet. The Casino has a few gates to various establishments on Era. Noone knows for sure how many.
The Eternal Bazaar: Just like the Casino, the Eternal Bazaar is a relatively small dominion where neutrality rules with an iron fist, making it possible to encounter both agents of ultimate good and evil. No one knows who is in charge of The Eternal Bazaar. There are no laws, and thus a_n_y_t_h_i_n_g can be bought or sold. But fighting is forbidden and struck down quickly by intelligent golems (called Pacifiers) that teleport in whenever trouble starts. The Bazaar is basically just a huge, city-sized marketplace, where you can buy anything. Inns abound as well, since those trading rarely stay just a day or two. Even though you can buy anything, it can be a challenge to find what you need to buy, or a seller to buy your goods. Short of magic, patience and heavy use of market-scouts (people who make it their business to be well-informed about other people's needs) are the only ways to get a deal done. Traders from all over the Multiverse come here with their goods, and sell them, and with the no fighting rule, you could have to deal with a mind-flayer or a celestial angel.
The Three Pillars of Order: Assuming that the Seven Heavens and the Eleven Hells are on a north-south axis (although there is no such thing as north and south in the Astral Sea), then The Pillars are located far to the west. Rising out of the Sea, these enormous pillars are said to have been there since before Creation, before the gods arrived. Moradin lives here, with his followers and other creatures of Order, working on the laws of the universe and such. Moradin lives on the top of the central pillar, and according to some angels, he can gaze at the world from the top of the tower, seeing everything that happens in the Multiverse. The Pillars themselves are divided in an infinite number of floors, each with corridors, rooms, halls and much more, precisely arranged and built for whatever purpose said part serves. Maps of each floor are plentiful, and you move between the floors by using gargantuan elevators that go to where you need to go in the blink of an eye.
The Elemental Chaos: If the Pillars of Order are to the west, then the Elemental Chaos is to the east. The Elemental Chaos is the raw material of creation, that from which the universe was made. Perhaps the only thing older than the Pillars of Order and mostly untouched by outside influence, the Elemental Chaos is a roiling tempest of matter and energy. All the elements can be found here and despite the chaos, sometimes areas coalesce into shapes and terrain, but most of the time, much of the Elemental Chaos resembles a stormy sea of churning destruction. On the edge of the Elemental Chaos, you can find the greatest city in the Multiverse, the City of Brass. A city whose size dwarfs all metropolises elsewhere, the City of Brass is home to perhaps the most cruel, brutal and intelligent race in the Multiverse, the Efreeti. From there, the noble houses of the Efreetii raid the Multiverse for gold and slaves to finance their eternal powerstruggle to impress their Sultan.
The Faerie: Some call it the Feywild, some call it Elfland but the real name is the Faerie. As of the of the few dominions that are in direct conjunction with Era, it is the one we know the most about. Plenty of gates exist, and it is thus the "easiest" way to access the Multiverse. Of course, this does not mean that the Faerie is not a dangerous place, because it is very much so, despite it being a place of beauty. Above ground rule the Kings and Queens of the Faerie folk, and they are very capricious and careless about humans. Below ground rule the formorians, one-eyed giants infused with magical powers and sadistic madness. Being without souls, the fey have no stake in the Psychomachia, other than perhaps selling those that have a soul to the devils or the angels. And if the fey folk were not enough to have to contend with, you need to account for the dominion itself. Time flows differently in the Faerie, sometimes grinding to an halt, sometimes speeding up so much that you will be meeting up with your loved one's grand-grand-daughter instead of reuniting with the love you left behind before venturing into the land of the fey.
The Dread Realm: The Dread Realm is a place of eternal twillight, a place of no colors, a place of desolation and despair. Imagine an endless world made of large rocks and mountains, with no plants, no water, no sun, no animals and most of all, no living beings at all. Here lives only those that do not need to feed, those that could not find a place elsewhere, even in the Underworld. Here comes those that did not believe in anything, in anyone, to torment each other for eternity. Visitors are advised to be armed, powerful and get out as fast as possible. No one survives there for long.
The Seven Heavens: In some ways, the Seven Heavens remind a lot of the Faerie. They are both beautiful places, filled with beautiful people. But where the Faerie is an endless forest of serene meadows and wild streams, the Seven Heavens incorporate every type of terrain and a far wider range of creatures. Also, in the Seven Heavens, you are never cold, hot, wet nor hungry. You always feel well, and you are never sick. or The Seven Heavens are, as per the name, divided into seven realms, seven hills (as in, the terrain goes upwards) of sorts, each ruled by either a god or an archangel. At the top of each hill sits the capital and palace of that realm. The seven realms and their respective rulers are as follows: Nirvana (Mika'el), Arcadia (Ra'fael), Elysium (Ga'briel), Olympus, Arvandor (Corellon), Celestia (Bahamut) and Hestavar (Pelor).
The Eleven Hells: The first thing that hits you when you enter the home of devils and demons, is the heat. While it is not a heat that kills, it is a very unconfortable to spend much time. And as if the heat wasn't enough, nature (if you can call it that) itself seems to want to kill you. Rocks are razor sharp, clouds rain acid, lightning storms kill and destroy everything in sight and the water is poisonous. As the Seven Heavens, the Eleven Hells are divide into eleven realms of their own. Each realm is a series of underground caves, where devils and demons live in shelter of the lightning storms and acid rains of the barren above. Each realm is widely different, but one thing they do have in common, is that they each have a god, an archdevil or a demon lord in charge and their capital is found in the deepest part of the caves. The eleven realms and rulers are as follows: Pandemonium (Dispater), Tarterus (Bel), Hades (Asmodeus), Gehenna (Mephistopheles), Avernus (Tiamat), Acheron (Mammon), Chernoggar (Bane), Tytherion, Azzagrat (Grazz't), Thanatos (Orcus) and The Abyss (Demogorgon).
The Far Beyond: The Far Beyond is actually not a part of the Astral Sea. It is instead another dimension altogether, wrapped all around the Multiverse. It is said to be a place that defies even godly logic and comprehension, that here rules creatures taken from the nightmares of gods, and should they ever open a portal to the Multiverse, it would be the end of it. It is a place that can not be accessed by mortal means. Some sages speculate that is can somehow be reached via the infinite space that surrounds Era, but no one has managed to prove this yet. While no human, dwarf or elf has ever returned from The Far Beyond, the dimension of madness sometimes spills over, slips through cracks of reality and touches men, women, monsters and beasts. Those that are only grazed by madness incarnate only lose their mind, while those that are truly touched become something else. Mind-flayers, beholders, aboleths and foulspawns are all products of various creatures who once was something else, before they were touched by the madness of the Far Beyond.
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