This is the larger setting of “Shadow Vale”. A future post may drill down into Shadow Vale itself.

The Three Realms

It’s not certain whether the Three Realms is (are?) a Corporeal World, a Demiplane, or something else entirely.

While it appears to be a single contiguous albeit dimension-defying planet, it in reality consists of three distinct worlds: the Brightlands, the Shadowlands, and the Darklands.

The Brightlands

Inside the Outer Wall lies a lush, rolling land of forests and farms. Most Brightlanders – the inhabitants of this realm – lead a bucolic life. Only a few Brightlanders pass the trials that permit them to serve the Paragons, godlike masters of this realm, and the Tetrarchs, its creators. Despite the seemingly endless landscape, inhabitants always have two landmarks: the dark Outer Wall always visible around the edge, and the shining Citadel of the Tetrarchs at the center protected by the transparent Inner Wall.

The Shadowlands

Outside the Outer Wall lies a barren world of gray dust, high mountains, and deep fissures. A wan light shines from above the Outer Wall, leaving most valleys in perpetual shadow. The so-called Shadowlanders eke out a living here, as do strange beasts, horrific monsters, and the enigmatic Goblins.

Farm Towns

While Shadowlanders don’t need to eat nearly as often as mortals, they do need food to fuel sudden bursts of energy and natural healing. For this they rely on farm towns.

Each farm town has high walls, an inaccessible location, and other defenses against raiders and monsters. Food tends to be the same crops: some type of fungus, a hardy cactus-like plant, a few smaller weeds for flavor.

The headman of the farmtown is usually chosen by the other farmers. Few Shadowlanders will put up with coercion for long.

Goblin Markets

Goblin markets pop up wherever and whenever the Goblins decide to put them. Word quickly spreads, and Goblins do a brisk business in weapons and other alien goods, including spices for those bland meals. When the Goblins run out of goods to sell, they close up shop and disappear again.

Trading Towns

To trade ordinary goods for graymetal or other goods and services Shadowlanders rely on trading towns. Like Farm Towns trading towns have walls and other defenses against raiders and monsters, but unlike farm towns trading towns contain a dense maze of stalls, shops, warehouses, inns, private residences, and other establishments too disreputable to mention.

The richest people of a trading town appoint themselves mayor and city council, then pay people to enforce their word as law. What matters in a trading town is not what’s right or wrong but what’s good or bad for business.

Strange Ruins

In the wastelands of the Shadowlands one sometimes – often – runs into ruins that according to the official history of the Three Realms shouldn’t exist. Shadowlanders explore them regardless, and try not to get killed.

The Darklands

At the edge¹ of the Shadowlands, surrounded by the Three Watchers, is the Dark Gate to the Darklands. A pit extends down into the darkness, and the Darklanders live along the spiral staircase leading down or in alcoves cut into the walls. At the bottom is an endless Void, over which a cage hangs: the inescapable prison of the Adversary, god-emperor of this benighted realm. The Brightlanders say the Darklanders rebelled against the Tetrarchs and Paragons at the dawn of time, and for that crime they remain eternally imprisoned. What the Darklanders say is, apparently, unimportant.

Other Realms

In addition to the primary realms are a few others.

The Numinous Realm

While the Tetrarchs and Paragons are immortal, lesser Brightlanders can die. Those who die in the Brightlands achieve “apotheosis” and become ancestor spirits in the Numinous Realm. The Numinous Realm is also home to guardian spirits of the wilderness. When the living need a spirit’s wisdom or intercession, a ritual can make them manifest for a brief time.

The Mental Plane

The Mental Plane connects all minds in the Realms, much like the Psychic Plane connects all minds in the Multiverse. It connects all beings in the Three (Plus One) Realms. Non-natives can use their existing psychic powers with or on each other but not with / against natives.

The Outer Wall

Notionally, the Outer Wall separates the Brightlands from Shadowlands. However, nothing apart from the light of the Brightlands comes over the Outer Wall. In particular nobody has ever flown over the Outer Wall, and the only way to the other side is through a Portal. So there’s no way to tell whether the Outer Wall of the Brightlands is the “Outer Wall” in the Shadowlands.

Portal Space

Portal Space is the only physical way in or out of the Three Realms. It appears as a short black tunnel between two endpoints which resemble a Roman arch in the nearest vertical surface. Portals fall into the following categories.

High Portals

A High Portal opens only for a Tetrarch, a Paragon, or an outside Visitor issued a talisman called a “Citadel Key”. (Only the intended recipient can use the Key.) It opens directly onto a reception room. Citadel Guards keep Visitors in the room until a Brightlander escorts them inside … or throws them out. Visitors travel to the Brightlands to establish diplomatic contact, and overzealous guards have occasionally scuttled said contacts.

Low Portals

A Low Portal opens only for a Tetrarch, a Paragon, or a Brightlander with a Travel Pass issued by a Paragon or authorized magistrate. (Only the intended recipient can use the Travel Pass.) It connects the Outer Wall in the Brightlands and a Corporeal World. A travel pass expires on their return to the Brightlands.

Pilgrim’s Portals

A Pilgrim’s Portal opens for a Pilgrim, a mortal chosen by a Paragon to live in the Brightlands. (Some Corporeal Worlds worship Paragons as gods.) It connects to the Outer Wall in the Brightlands. While a Pilgrim remains in the Three Realms they are transfigured into a Brightlander body. When (or if) they return to their starting point they regain their original body.

Outer Wall Portals

An Outer Wall Portal opens only for a Tetrarch, a Paragon, an authorized Wall Guard with their Truncheon of Office, or a Brightlander with a Travel Pass from a magistrate or Paragon. (Only the intended recipient can use a Travel Pass or Truncheon.) It connects the Outer Wall in the Brightlands to the Outer Wall in the Shadowlands on those rare occasions Brightlanders take an interest. Unauthorized individuals who attempt to enter an open Outer Portal hit an invisible wall.

Goblin Portals

A Goblin Portal opens wherever a Goblin puts it for whoever walks through. It connects a specific place in a Corporeal Realm to a hidden spot in the Shadowlands, sometimes with a stop in the Labyrinth, the Goblins’ home. The Citadel maintains that Goblins could not have hijacked Portal Space, therefore Goblin Portals do not exist, therefore no Goblins can appear in the Shadowlands. The existence of Goblins in Shadowlands is irrelevant.

Connections to the Multiverse

Three Realms connects to the larger Multiverse in the following ways:

• The Void Between Worlds: There’s some evidence that the Void at the bottom of the Darklands is the Void Between Worlds. Apparently no Darklander has braved the Void to find out.

• Corporeal Worlds: The only physical way into the Three Realms is Portal Space. Portals in a Corporeal World open wherever and whenever a Diplomat or returning Pilgrim previously entered a portal, an ordinary Brightlander uses his Travel Pass, or a Paragon or Goblin decides they do.

• Astral Plane: There’s some evidence that Ancestors can travel the Astral Plane, but no Astral Traveler has ever entered the Numinous Realm.

• The Psychic Plane: Whether the Mental Plane connects to the multiversal Psychic Plane is an open question; no psychic as yet has reached out of Three Realms to the Astral Plane or a Corporeal Plane.

Peoples of the Three Realms

Excluding Brightlander animals, Shadowlands monsters, incorporeal spirits, and whatever else lives in the Darklands, the inhabitants of the Three Realms fall into the following categories.

Tetrarchs

The four rulers of the Brightlands allegedly built the realm after their war with the Darklands, as a haven of peace for their loyal followers. They outrank and outclass the Paragons in every way.

Unlike the other humanoid species in the Three Realms, but like the Watchers who silently guard the Dark Gate, all four Tetrarchs have four eyes, no hair, no clear gender, and noseless, alien-looking faces. No one dares ask them why.

The four Tetrarchs are:

• “The Mightiest”, a muscular magenta titan almost 290 cm tall, notionally commands Brightlander defenses but often goes monster hunting in the Shadowlands.
• “The Craftiest”, a gold-skinned lean titan about 275 cm tall, steers the Brightlander bureaucracy. They also run the internal and external intelligence services and set up intrigues between departments to foster competition.
• “The Wisest”, a thin, cyan-skinned titan a full 300 cm tall, usually sits in meditation monitoring the Numinous Realm and supernatural threats beyond the understanding of the others.
• “The Eternal”, a large titan with jet-black skin only 260 cm tall but easily the heaviest, manages Brightlander support systems, including the Houses of Healing², the granaries, and the Citadel’s numerous maids and servants. Some say the last role gives them a better intelligence network than the Craftiest’s.

Paragons

Paragons stand about 2.25 to 2.5 meters tall with perfect human proportions for a person 1.8 to 2m tall. Their skin tones and hair colors not only run the gamut of “natural” colors of Earth but “unnatural” ones as well. Most have male or female genders but cannot reproduce. According to rumor the Paragons were once ordinary Brightlanders uplifted to their current state after the Darklander War. If true, no Brightlander has become a Paragon since.

Paragons are immune to all weapons save those made of Skymetal and Darkmetal, two metals unique to the Three Realms. Paragons also excel at the Three Realms magic, which includes mental contact with any other being in the the Three Realms and possibly beyond.

Under the guidance of the Tetrarchs Paragons rule the Brightlands. Nearly all have roles in the Brightlander Bureacracy; the remainder run the Mightiest’s Defense Forces or aid the Wisest’s metaphysical explorations. None serve the Eternal, as the Eternal’s responsibilities are too plebian for a Paragon.

Brightlanders

Brightlanders stand about 2 meters tall, plus or minus 10%. They have the same rainbow of coloration as the Paragons. Unlike the Paragons, most of them can reproduce; only a fiftieth are sexless, the rest evenly split between male and female. Gender usually follows biological sex, but not always.

Brightlanders take damage from all weapons, although mortal scale weapons harm them less. Brightlanders seldom die from their wounds unless the weapon is made from Darkmetal or they’re decapitated, cut in half, or thoroughly burned. Even when slain, though, their spirits ascend to the Numinous Realm. All Brightlanders practice the Three Realms magic to a greater or lesser degree.

Brightlanders perform all the menial tasks of the Realm, including farming, making things, and serving the Paragons.

Pilgrims

Pilgrims enter through a Pilgrim’s Portal. On their way through they are granted a Brightlander body while their mortal body waits in repose. Pilgrims generally worship the Brightlanders as gods.

Shadowlanders

Shadowlanders are physically identical to Brightlanders but for their scars and other effects of living rough.³ Many Shadowlanders or their progenitors originally came from the Brightlands, and were thrown outside the Outer Wall for some offense against the Paragons or Tetrarchs.

One feat Shadowlanders do that Brightlanders don’t dare to do is shapeshifting: growing out claws, lengthening one’s legs, masquerading as an Earth mortal, or even reshaping oneself into a quadrupedal form. Shapeshifting trades one disadvantage for another: quadrupeds move faster but can’t use tools, and mortal-sized Shadowlanders blend in on Earth but can’t fight properly with shorter limbs and more compressed muscles.

If slain a Shadowlander may form into a pitiful ghost or malignant wraith, spirits that haunt the Shadowlands. It’s said that some Brightlanders try to collect these spirits and lead them to the Numinous Realm, but no experienced Shadowlander believes it.

Shadowlanders eke out a living farming, mining, making necessities, and/or raiding the people who farm, mine, or make things.

Darklanders

Most Darklanders should be locked away in the Darklands. They’re not.

Darklanders can change shape to mimic any existing corporeal creature or any corporeal creature they can imagine. That said, many Darklanders stick to a single grotesque shape that maximizes their strengths and minimizes their weaknesses: brawny but stupid ogres, clever but weaker imps, charming but non-combatant devils, and a few dreaded Dark Lords who seem to have no weaknesses.

Darklanders are even harder to kill than Shadowlanders; one must burn all parts of the body or they will return. Also unlike Shadowlanders, a dead Darklander does not form a ghost or wraith, and cannot ascend to the Numinous Realm. They’re simply dead.

Darklanders in the Shadowlands act much like the natives do, only with lots more pillaging, ruin, and domination.

Visitors

A Visitor is any non-native mortal or immortal being who enters the the Three Realms. They break down into the following categories:

Diplomats

Diplomats arrive in the Citadel through a High Portal to establish relations between the Brightlands and other worlds. Most get no farther than the Citadel, one way or the other.

Goblins

Goblins are mortal and fragile creatures from outside the the Three Realms. Each stands no more than 1.5 meters tall, and most closer to 1 m. All wear gray environment suits to help them survive the harsh conditions of Shadowlands and its occasionally percussive inhabitants.

Goblins do a brisk trade in weapons and luxuries within the brutal wasteland of Shadowlands.

Others

Others come in through a Goblin Portal. Mortals without protection are likely to perish. Even immortals will have a rough time in the Shadowlands. Who knows why anyone would come through.