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The Abyss -
The Eidolon -
The Anima -
The Hollow -
The Vortex -
The Eternum -
The Dictat -
The Silence
The Abyss
The Abyss is a realm of darkness and shadows, of hedonistic pleasures and self-service, but one that is entirely free of any restraint and inhibition. Veilwalkers have described this realm as one where one walks in shadows and an eternal red twilight, but where the senses are constantly overwhelmed with seductions and allure. Demons shape themselves based on the wants and needs of those who come into contact with them, attempting to entice and seduce the unprepared into their schemes perfectly. The Abyss takes a central role in the history of Aloria, once having been called the Void, because of the cyclical Void Invasions during which Demons poured out to end all life on Aloria. After the Cataclysm, as the Abyss was more thoroughly explored, the term was changed.
The Abyss is the anti-realm of the Eidolon, where the perfect ordination and divine planning strongly chafe against the ultimate freedom and lack of restrictions inherent to the Abyss. The Abyss is the ally-realm of the Vortex, due to their common themes of unrestricted need, of change, and of evolution. The Abyss has two unique Schools of Magic called Blood Magic and Shadow Magic. Abyss Magic has traditionally been thought of as seductive and hedonistic and thus been considered corrupting, but has more recently been re-evaluated as eternally liberating and gratifying, freeing those who use Magic to overcome oppressive systems at the cost of their own discretion and wearing their desires and wants on their sleeves for all to see.
The Eidolon
The Eidolon is a realm of perfect tranquility, of divine ordainment and harmonious design, but one where dogma is all powerful and deviancy is repressed. Veilwalkers have described this realm as one where perfect geometry and divine design in repeating patterns and shapes create beautiful harmony, but where any changing of this perfect order is harshly punished. Demons shape themselves based on the principles of design and order, attempting to induce any trespassers into compliance, so that peace and harmony may be restored. The Eidolon takes a central role in the history of Aloria, because it was their violent subjection by the Seraph, that caused their anti-realm to venture into Aloria, and start the cyclical Void Invasions to also wipe out the Eidolon.
The Eidolon is the anti-realm of the Abyss, where chaotic lack of restraint destroys all semblance of harmony and divine ordainment as found in the Eidolon. There is of course also the fact that much of the Eidolon was destroyed from the repeat Abyss Invasions on Aloria, forcing Eidolon Demons to hide often to avoid the same fate. The Eidolon is the ally-realm of the Eternum, where the eternal stability and stasis of never-changing essentialism corresponds with the Eidolon's design. The Eidolon has two unique Schools of Magic called Chrono Magic and Light Magic. The Eidolon has traditionally been thought of as spiritual and tranquil realm due to its support of traditional virtues, but always narrow-mindedly represses anyone who acts outside of its desired "normal."
The Anima
The Anima is a realm of the Fae, of an abundance of life and vibrancy in colors and experience, but one where the trickery and deceit of the Fae causes forever-war between the four cardinal courts. Veilwalkers have described this realm as one of natural beauty very similar to Aloria, with vast wetlands, vibrant swamps, glacial cathedrals, and summer-warm flower fields. Fae and Demons are one and the same, in the Anima realm vast societies of immortal Fae exist that constantly wage war on each other, and conscript mortals and Veilwalkers from Aloria to fight meaningless battles to amuse the Fae. Out of all the realms, the Anima is the most Aloria-like, and the Fae are the most recognizable to Alorians as forming societies and expressing varied cultures and customs.
The Anima is the anti-realm of the Hollow, where the permanent death and absence of vibrancy of life clashes with the abundance in the Anima. The Anima is also the ally-realm of the Dictat, where knowledge hoarding and spoken truths are equally used to trick and deceive. The Anima has two unique Schools of Magic called Evergrowth Magic and Moxy Magic. Anima Magic has traditionally been thought of as whimsy and fantastical, but this often forgets the underlying trickery that the Fae are prone to, and that appearances can be very deceiving. The Anima is dangerous despite having the largest population of Veilwalkers living in it, because the Fae are so adept at hiding their inhumanity and insane politics, with whimsy and flair.
The Hollow
The Hollow is a vast necropolis realm where life has left few imprints, but where death is explored beyond mortal understanding. Veilwalkers have described this realm both as a horror of death, but also of beauty in finality and tranquility in the absence of suffering and pain or the indignity of death as there is no such thing as a living being that can die. Demons in the Hollow are often a coin toss between wanting to consume the souls of the living out of hatred for their condition or seeking to be perfect agents of the cycle of life and offering closure and a peaceful passing to those who are close to that threshold. The Hollow has had a history of negative interactions with Aloria due to powerful necrotic beings having declared a crusade against the living, becoming enemies of the Dragons of Aloria.
The Hollow is the anti-realm of the Anima, where the vibrant expressions of life and vitality repulse the denizens of the Hollow. The Hollow is an ally-realm of the Silence, as both represent an ideology of finality and death, one of living beings and the other of thoughts and ideas. The Hollow has two unique Schools of Magic called Necrotic Magic and Specter Magic. The Hollow frequently has war waged upon it by forces in Aloria and the Anima, especially in the living city of Kur, due to the Hollow's constant interference with Aloria. This desire to inflict constant death is not consistent, however, while many in Aloria know the great horror of the Malefica from the Hollow, few know the rebels in its ranks who are less obsessed with extinguishing life, and more with extending deathly peace and ending suffering.
The Vortex
The Vortex is a realm of constant and obsessive change, a realm where nothing is allowed to stay the same, and everything must constantly evolve for the better or worse. Veilwalkers have described this realm as an undulating storm of lights, shapes, and realities, where even the simple act of blinking can result in totally new landscapes appearing before one's self. Demons from the Vortex are agents of an imposed and constant chaos of trying out new things, being new people, looking different, and feeling otherly. The Vortex however is also a realm in defiance of fate, and refusing to just accept the ordained by higher powers. Nobody is too far to be saved. Nobody is beyond redemption. Nobody is too weak, or too frail, or too young or old. It inspires an unending fight to have the power to change one's fate.
The Vortex is the anti-realm of the Eternum where the demand for eternal finality chafes with the Vortex idea that nothing is set in stone. The Vortex is an ally-realm of the Abyss, because their constant desire and need to experience something different align while they both revel in chaos. The Vortex has two unique Schools of Magic called Flux Magic, and Genos Magic. The Vortex is more enigmatic than the other realms due to its constantly hanging nature, making its Demons harder to recognize. The Vortex is hard to grasp for scholars, because its changing nature defies categorization or convenient recognition. This also causes the Vortex itself to be difficult to navigate for Veilwalkers, due to the landmarks and landscape constantly shifting as they try to cross any of it.
The Eternum
The Eternum is a realm of opposition to change, of eternal durability, and of fixed fates and rigid destinies. Veilwalkers have described this realm as comfortably familiar, of an unfading beauty in the static clouds, and celestial objects without orbits. Demons from the Eternum are in a state of constant peace with premonitions of what is to come, oracles of destiny and agents who defy change in the same breath. In the Eternum, comfort of the familiar and refusal to move on creates an eternity that refuses decay, rot, and rusting. It creates an eternity where beloved objects and people exist forever in a fixed point, and even where dreams of forever-Empire go to bloom, with all the wonders of splendor and tyrannical horrors of that concept come to pass. The Eternum is just that, the beautiful tyranny of eternity.
The Eternum is the anti-realm of the Vortex where the constant change and evolution wears down the durability of the Eternum. The Eternum is the ally-realm of the Eidolon, because of their design-based ideologies perfectly aligning. The Eternum has two unique Schools of Magic called Stasis Magic and Fated Magic. The Eternum is one of the least familiar realms in Aloria, because Demons from it just do not often venture beyond the familiarity of other Eternum itself, while Demons from other realms more frequently venture out. The Eternum to some is an unfading mirror in which they can preserve everything they fear to lose. To some, it forces them to come to terms with the undeniability of their destiny and find peace, while others experience this very matter as a tyrannical and inescapable weight on their shoulders.
The Dictat
The Dictat is a realm of knowledge and endless lyceums of learning, where information is stored, categorized, re-categorized, and re-categorized once more. Veilwalkers have described this realm as an impossibly vast library where not only useful concepts and thoughts are stored, but every little meaningless idea or quote that was ever uttered is obsessively focused on. Demons from this realm cannot stop talking, cannot stop divulging information, and also have an obsessive need to learn more, to know more, and to always understand more. The Dictat in this rivals the Dragon sites for pure information, though searching through all of it would be beyond the means of even those who live a thousand lifetimes, for so much of it is just endless noise and pointless drivel that is repeated over and over ad naseum.
The Dictat is the anti-realm of the Silence, with its attempts to kill ideas and thoughts directly attacking the efficacy of the libraries of the Dictat. The Dictat is the ally-realm of the Anima, as the Fae and Dictat Demons find kinship in their obsessive compulsions, and both being monuments to the complexity of the experience of life. The Dictat has two unique Schools of Magic called Script Magic and Codex Magic. The Dictat is an intellectual's greatest dream come true, and a student's worst nightmare. The endless rows of books and scrolls invite a constant learning that makes one forget the passage of time or purpose for all this knowledge. The Dictat inspires a level of obsession not quickly matched by the other realms, one that is difficult to detach from due to emotional absence in the Dictat.
The Silence
The Silence is a realm of not even the faintest of whispers, a realm where no thoughts are uttered, and where ideas go to die. Veilwalkers have described this realm as an endless sea filled only with empty steles to mark the graves of names, ideologies, religions, and histories that were wiped from existence. Demons from the Silence consume knowledge for the purpose of unraveling and then destroying it. At first value, the Silence might be considered a purely harmful realm where one comes out knowing less, but this fails to appreciate that sometimes, life cannot go on without forgetting terrible experiences or traumatic events. Sometimes, ideas and ideologies are so inherently evil and putrid, that some unseen hand from the outside coming in and wiping their existence, can only be thought of as a tyrannical benefit.
The Silence is the anti-realm of the Dictat, where it is repulsed by the endless noise of ideas, thoughts, and voices. The Silence is the ally-realm of the Hollow, both being realms where things go to die. The Silence has two unique Schools of Magic called Amnesia Magic and Sound Magic. The Silence brings explicit benefits in those who seek peace, but is vastly misunderstood among Alorians due to their inherent terror of things coming to an end. The Silence embodies the fear of one's name being forgotten, of not remembering the faces of loved ones who have long passed, of losing the means and know-how of hobbies and skills. The Silence casts such a large shadow, that those who react in terror, often forget that true insanity would follow those who are unable to forget.