Sanguine Ashfall

Deep Lore Fantasy Realms: Building an Immersive World

Stained Hearts takes on the shape of a multi-dimensional system. Take that in the terms of space within space, not parallel worlds.

Now, I don’t want to go all deep and detailed as the concept of realms is a big part of the overall world, but not to the story. Some realms are part of the normal lives of humans, while most are not. The times you will see realms within the story are in parts of action scenes. There is one exception in book three where one realm will be the setting for about 1/3 of the story.

Instead, this post is to help gain an insight into some of the realms known to mankind. On the Lore page, the topic is discussed briefly and even shares a quick snippet on how new realms come and go. This page goes into more of the physics, settings, and beings within big themed realms.

Deep Lore Fantasy Realms

Ganar Realm

The Ganar Realm is the first realm to exist, meaning that within the concept of a universe, this was all there was. The Ganar Realm is a mystical realm shimmering in light day and night. It’s mute in color variation, but not in hue. A never-ending forest mixed in the clouds, where everything is bright blues and whites and every tone in between.

The only living things here are called Ganar Beasts. Many humans refer to them interchangeably as spiritual beasts in the present tense. Ganar Beasts reflect real-world animals with a twist. There are families, i.e, fox family, bear family, wolf family, etc. The twist is that each has a differentiation in one appendage. The appendage dictates the specialty, and the number indicates the power and ranking.

For example, the wolf family:

Lowest Tier – a wolf with one set of eyes
> Sensory Tracking (visualize scent)
Middle Tier – a wolf with two sets of eyes
> Sensory Tracking & Paralyzing Gaze
Highest Tier – a wolf with three sets of eyes
> Sensory Tracking, Paralyzing Gaze, & Vital Pinpoint (visualize major arteries, veins, ABP points)

Not all families have the same ranking system or count. For example, the fox family has 9 tiers. They are designated by the number of tails they have. This plays on the famous mythical nine-tailed fox.

The main points to take away from this are that humans celebrate these beasts BECAUSE they brought ABP, or aura-bound properties, into the world.

Deep Lore Fantasy Realms

Ketara Realm

The Ketara Realm was the first realm to manifest from the Ganar Realm. What was not explained about the Ganar Realm or its beasts is that everything in the realm, including the beasts, is made up entirely of aura. The trees, clouds, grass, bodies, everything is made up of what I can best describe as a dense, shaped mist that moves like the physics of real-world things like trees and animals on Earth.

Aura stood alone as a breeze when the universe was born and slowly shaped into the Ganar Realm. Aura alone was not enough to expand the universe and allow it to thrive. Through natural evolution, like a dust sprite escaping a cluster, a piece of the Ganar Realm split and formed the Ketara Realm.

By means of science, magic, or spirituality, the aura warped into DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, and all the fun things beyond that. Trees gained bark, clouds gained fluff that could condense and release, and animals gained muscle and bone.

The Ketara Realm is like a large, free-roaming sanctuary if a sanctuary were the size of a country like Australia. You could even think of it like the outback, but most things aren’t trying to kill you. Granted, humans can’t access this realm. Not unless you’re a very specific person.

Now, the animals here did not gain the extra appendages nor the power and ranking as the Ganar Beasts do. The aura in ABP is what allowed for all those extras, and ABP evolved in Ketara to DNA, thus losing those benefits. Ketara Animals are like the deer and cow we see on Earth, taking on to the next realm.

Deep Lore Fantasy Realms

Bowa Realm

The Bowa Realm was the first realm created by the split and combination of two other realms, like a child. The ABP from Ganar split and mingled with a piece of Ketara. From them came Bowa.

The Bowa Realm started with animal and plant life, but quickly introduced humans through the evolution of monkeys, elephants, and lions. In this universe, when DNA entered Bowa, only a few animals were capable of intertwining ABP into the mix. These three animal groupings merged into the animal we know as humans. In the present day, monkeys, elephants, and lions do not exist on the planet, but they do in Ketara and Ganar.

From that point on, humans evolved in the way they live. New technologies were created, and new discoveries were made. The difference between them and us is that they have what we would call abnormal abilities.

Now, not all humans received ABP in the same way, just like how DNA is unique. For reference, monkeys absorbed the most ABP, and elephants absorbed the least. Descendants of monkeys had more extensive or stronger powers, whereas the opposite is true for descendants of elephants, and lions sat in the middle. This is explained briefly in a high-level overview on the Lore page.

Deep Lore Fantasy Realms

Astral Realm

The Astral Realm was created as an extension of the Bowa Realm. For all life, there must be a beginning and an end. Now, this is a strong belief that changes per religion or opinion. In Stained Hearts, it takes on a different approach.

ABP has changed over time to condense into the Astral Realm, while DNA stays in the Bowa Realm. As a new life is formed, orbs travel from the Astral Realm down to the Bowa Realm to give extra life to the DNA. As a soul departs the Bowa Realm, the ABP leaves the body and traverses back into the stream of the Astral Realm.

In other media, the Astral Realm relates to the Astral Plains or Heavenly River. (Fun Fact: I gained the inspiration for the Astral Realms design from the River of the Heavens from one of my favorite games: Okami)

The Astral Realm is set in the stars, where the time of day is always dusk below but dark and starry above. Pillars emerge from the clouds that outline the waterless stream of aura. In the openings near the tip are condensed sources of aura that control the flow of all other aura to and from Bowa.

Deep Lore Fantasy Realms

Shallows Realm

The next known realm to follow the Astral Realm is the Shallows Realm. Originally coined the Shikigami Realm, I wanted to move away from a common reference that already exists in myth (Shikigami).

As humans moved through the eons on the planet, they learned more about what it means to be bored, drained, depressed, etc. Through this fun thing we call free-will, humans discovered the bonus effects of wild substances. Drugs entered the market, followed by alcohol. This led to parties, flings, regrets, and many topics that hit taboo subjects.

This series is rated for adults due to the language and subject matter. Future posts that are not part of the core posts might get age-restricted due to certain topics explored. The Shallows Realm is the physical representation of those topics.

The Shallows Realm, also commonly referred to by humans as the Shallows, is home to all the built-up negative energy over time. That energy comes from grief, anger, depression, all the emotions that hurt us. All the emotions that turn us into people we were never meant to be.

This dark energy collected to create the setting for Shallows Beasts. These beasts also reflect the shape of animals, but warped, like the Ganar Beasts. The difference with these beasts is that they still have DNA for physical appearances, but the ABP is corrupted, creating affixed appendages.

This doesn’t mean extra eyes or legs. It means an object, like a mask, gets added as an appendage. There are rankings, too, like the Ganar families. One example is the Oathweeper. The Oathweeper family is still in development, but the original concept was that the Oathweeper would reflect the seven deadly sins. In the new concept, it will have one mask for each broken oath there is. I currently have love, loyalty, and protection. I want to get closer to the 8 masks concept, as I love the concept art for the beast.

Other beasts in the making are the Mourntail, to represent death, and other unnamed, undesigned beasts. These beasts will each represent an individual subject in the following: gambling, alcohol, wrath, sickness, envy, greed, pride (and the other deadly sins), and more.

The Shallows Realm is a dark, bleak place where the air is tinted green and light barely exists. The moon is shrouded by dark mist, and thin, sharp obelisks stretch out from cracks in the ground sporadically. Strange patterns with no known meaning sprawl across the ground and up the pillars.

Deep Lore Fantasy Realms

Dream Realm

The Dream Realm is a natural expansion of Bowa, but also the first realm to be discussed that is incorporated into the story. In How Divine Favor Becomes a Curse in Dark Fantasy, I introduce the 20 lineages. Each lineage family is connected to a god, and each god is a founder in Kinawa’s shape. (Kinawa is the planet on which Stained Hearts takes place)

Of these families, one of the main supporting characters is the Dream Sorcerer. The Dream Realm was primarily formed by the strong pull of the imagination as people slept at night. The god of dreams came second when it came to the Dream Realm’s creation.

In this realm, it is like a never-ending maze where each door leads to a different person’s dream. For every new dream, a new door pops up. The floor is purple-stained wood, and no visible roof or sky is present. The walls are slightly lighter hues of purple, and all the uniqueness of the realm is beyond each door.

Deep Lore Fantasy Realms

Chaos Realm

The Chaos Realm is unlike the Dream Realm, in which its formation was dependent solely on the god of Chaos. The Chaos Realm is the other realm that is incorporated into the story by a lineage family heir.

Now, the question on most minds would be, how is the Chaos a god considered a fundamental pillar in the shape of the world? The Dream God is considered a solo god, meaning they have no counterpart. You could argue: but what about nightmares? My rebuttal: nightmares are still dreams. Plus, I have a spin on that for one of the books in the series.

I say all this to point out that the Chaos God is a dual god, meaning it does have a counterpart: Order. Where one exists, the other must as well. This does not make Chaos an evil counterpart; it is just the yin to the yang. Chaos is the reference to free-will, and free-will is only what you make of it.

In this realm, the color palette is limited to reds, yellows, oranges, browns, and blacks. Rocks scatter on the ground and fly through the air. Water follows no current, and trees can look at you disapprovingly just like your mom. The inhabitants are a bit… strange, too.

Deep Lore Fantasy Realms

Madness Realm

The final realm in this discussion is actually NOT commonly known. Scratch that, anyone who has seen this realm or heard of it is not alive to tell the tale. This is like privileged knowledge to even hear about this realm.

I’m not here to say how it was created, who or what it is attached to, or exactly what goes on inside. I share this only to tell you it’s out there, and it’s coming for the protagonist.

Take from the image provided to get a feel for what the realm is like. Get the full atmosphere when the protagonist witnesses it first-hand.

Deep Lore Fantasy Realms

Read more with other core series posts:

How Divine Favor Becomes a Curse in Dark Fantasy

What Makes Dark Romance Fantasy So Addictive?

Meet Solus Cerventes: Dark Fantasy Female Protagonist – & the Cast

The World of Kinawa in Stained Hearts

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