The Sublunar Realm
While the exact nature of the physical world of Terrace is debated by scholars, the general consensus is that Terrace exists as the lowest celestial sphere of the cosmos — the rest of which consists of a series of planes aligned as concentric circles. Existing in the celestial vod between the spheres of Terrace and the Moon — that is immediately below (sub) the Moon (lunar), the Sublunar Realm is the chaotic metaphysical plane of raw currents of magical and element forces said to be bounded by the more concrete and permanent spheres of Terrace and the Moon.
Jumbled, unformed, and constantly-shifting currents of raw magical and elemental energy exist in a state of constant flux. Thus, the Sublunar Realm is said to be a plane of existence where magic is particularly potent and the influence of the Powers is less filtered through the limits of physical, material reality as it is in the spheres of Terrace and the Moon.
Although itself ever-changing and inconstant, the Sublunar Realm thus exerts a certain influence on the material world, which, although more permanent and concrete is nevertheless susceptible to change and alteration — unlike the upper celestial spheres with are said to be unchanging and permanent.
While numerous Magicological theories have been suggested in regards to the exact nature of the Sublunar Realm, practical study of the nature of Sublunar Realm remains largely unfeasible due to the decidedly negative effects of prolonged exposure to such raw magic energies. Nevertheless the Sublunar Realm is known to be home to certain powerful metaphysical begins comfortably at home amid such raw magical energies — while the exact nature of these metaphysical beings is unclear and remains much debated, “gods” is often used for lack of a better, more suitable word.
While not themselves really objects of veneration among the people of Realmgard and poorly understood by scholars and magicologists, these so-called gods of the Sublunar Realm are known to communicate with sufficiently well-trained human sorcerers and are said to bestow superhuman knowledge and ability to those willing to reach out to them.
Although the gods of the Sublunar Realm are widely believed to be malevolent and evil by nature, this is largely a misconception and oversimplification arising from the lack of knowledge of the nature of the Sublunar Realm and its denizens. While the gods of the Sublunar Realm are dangerous and powerful, rather than being evil, they are instead governed by a morality that cannot be easily applied to human notions of good and evil. In fact, the gods of the Sublunar Realm can be quite benevolent and helpful to and protective of mortals they have proven fond of.
The location of the ancient fortress now known as Castle Ansangaar in the far northwest of Realmgard is known to be particularly and acutely connected to the currents and energies of the Sublunar Realm, making it renowned as a place of especially potent magical power for centuries. Indeed, first appearing in historical records as far back as the Realmgardic period, Castle Ansangaar — although known by various names throughout its long history — has been associated with powerful magic from the very beginning.
So, basically, picture Terrace (if you’ve forgotten, Terrace is the whole planet; Realmgard is one specific continent on that planet) as the middle of a Geocentric Cosmos:
Image via Wikimedia Commons. Public Domain.
I’ll spare you most of the details, but, in the real-world Geocentric model (as per Ptolemy) goes Earth -> Elemental Fire -> Moon -> Mercury -> Venus -> Sun -> Mars -> Jupiter -> Saturn -> Fixed Stars -> Primum Mobile (the motion of which basically moves everything else) and then God is outside the cosmos being the thing that started the whole thing moving.
All of which is to say, the Sublunar Realm is where all the really stuff weird is. And that’s pretty much consistent with my Sublunar Realm.
For the most part, I’m really interested in fleshing out an explanation beyond “where all the really weird stuff/uncanny gods is.” Mostly, my primary interest in introducing something called a Sublunar Realm into Realmgard is the opportunity to use the phrase “Sublunar Realm”…
Incidentally, those symbols I used for the header image are the real astrological/astronomical symbols for the Earth and the Moon — which, perhaps unsurprisingly, also get a fair bit of mileage in Sailor Moon…
Stay tuned for my recaps of both this week and the entire month of Mythology write-ups.
Also, today’s chapter is here:
And follow me here:
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
The author prohibits the use of content published on this website for the purposes of training Artificial Intelligence technologies, including but not limited to Large Language Models, without express written permission.
All stories published on this website are works of fiction. Characters are products of the author’s imagination and do not represent any individual, living or dead.
The realmgard.com Privacy Policy can be viewed here.
Realmgard is published by Emona Literary ServicesTM
