This explanation page for World of Darkness analyzes and ranks its cosmology according to this wiki's Tiering System .
Tapestry The Infinite Tapestry
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Anything's possible. „
~ The Infinite Tapestry, Page 9
Guide to the Traditions
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ㅤ "Reality is the sum total of everything. Reality is all that exists, has existed, or will exist. Reality lacks boundaries. Reality includes that which is possible but does not exist, for if a thing can be conceived then it is already a thing. Reality includes the absence of a thing, for nothing is, in and of itself, something. By extension, Reality includes that which isn't possible. „
~ Guide to the Traditions, Page 46
The Tapestry contains everything, anything that has been thought of is contained within it. This takes into account null sets and the pure non-existence that follows/measures it. See Platonic Realm for more: Guide to the Traditions
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While the Tellurian is the conception of reality, the Tapestry is reality given form. While the Tellurian is infinite, mercurial and macrocospic, the Tapestry is the discrete metaphorical lens slipped around it to provide definition for the murky chaos beyond. Everything given form is a part of the Tapestry. The Tapestry is not any more "real" than the Tellurian; it is simply an expression of inherent connections between the Tellurian's elements. The Tapestry is not static, elements of the Tellurian slip into the Tapestry on some occasions and out upon others.
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~ Guide to the Traditions, Page 47
All that is Real is in the Tapestry, yet is not more Real than the Tellurian. It is the expression of "Everything" and its (inter)connections/dependencies. Mage The Ascension (20th Anniversary Edition)
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Infinity is too big to wrap your head around. Like God, it needs a face. The Tapestry is that face - a metaphor for that which exists. Whereas the Tellurian is potential, the Tapestry is form. All woven together like some artistic curtain, the strands of interconnected existence create a shimmering whole.
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~ Mage The Ascension (20th Anniversary Edition), Page 90
The Tapestry is the face of "Infinity", and encompasses everything that "is". Lore of the Clans
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Where the Mahaparisatya focused on the jati hierarchy and interactions between vampires, the lessons of the Saṃsāra concentrate one's ethics toward a somewhat more spiritual viewpoint. The Path of Paradox evolves even as we must evolve, so that we might learn to see through the conflicting truths of this world.
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~ Lore of the Clans, Page 178
Akashic Brotherhood (1994)
The Tapestry has infinite superior layers of existence. These layers become less and less grounded in nature as all "things" in existence no longer have any materialistic composition to their forms, just the pure/true essence of their being. This includes the very principles and foundations of the law of non-contradiction , breaking it apart and disregarding it entirely. Tiering The Tapestry is 1-A+ (Absolute Infinite Layers into Qualitative Superiority ) because it is the face of all Infinities. It contains all "form" of history, imagination and any extensions from it, in particular Set Theory and its entire hierarchy (which can be measured by null sets ). Beyond this, all hierarchical layers showcase the disbandment of dualities and pluralities between all purely-qualitative states heading to a grander unity infinitely and consecutively greater than itself.
Umbra Umbra: The Velvet Shadow 1999
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The Umbra is a realm of pure spiritual energy that defies all natural physical laws. It can approximate any conceivable state of being. The Umbra coexists with the physical world, but lies apart from it at the same time. The spiritual world affects the world of matter and is, in turn, changed by it. The Umbra is all around us, but still removed from us.
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~ Umbra: The Velvet Shadow (1999), Page 15
The Low Umbra Beyond the Barriers (The Book of Worlds)
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The second lesson is that the Underworld is like nothing you, I, the Technocrats or any religion in the history of thought could possibly have imagined. Your Christian Heaven? A version of it has been built in the Underworld, perhaps several versions, but as for an absolute, perfect Heaven? It doesn't exist. There are but two absolutes in the Underworld: Transcendence, by which certain souls... move on, and Oblivion, which my Tradition calls the Great Unmaking.
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~ Beyond the Barriers (The Book of Worlds), Pages 72 to 73
Wraith the Oblivion (2nd Edition 1996)
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Known by many names but never mapped, the Underworld does exist as a "place" in the way that the living view geography. Instead, it is a non-Euclidean nightmare to any who think that a straight line is still the distance between two points. Even most wraiths don't quite understand the nature of the realm in which they dwell; they tend to resort to models of increasing simplicity and inaccuracy in order to explain their surroundings.
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~ Wraith the Oblivion (2nd Edition 1996), Pages 34 - 35
Wraith the Oblivion (20th Anniversary Edition)
The Low Umbra encompasses all afterlives humanity has/can ever dreamed of within layers upon layers upon layers upon layers endlessly (with each layer growing in all possible facets than the last whether it's scale, complexity or superiority), every (im)possible underworld and even heaven in philosophies and beliefs are contained within the Low Umbra, no matter how transcendental they are to each other. Eventually the distinction between each one breaks down entirely as it completely surpasses all forms of comprehension. The Shadowlands Wraith the Oblivion (2nd Edition 1996)
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The stillborn twin of the lands of the living, the Shadowlands correspond exactly to the Skinlands in terms of geography. A wraith standing in Times Square in the Shadowlands is, in a sense, standing in Times Square in the Skinlands, and runs the risk of being trampled by mortals who don't see him and rush right over his position.
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~ Wraith the Oblivion (2nd Edition 1996), Page 35
The Shadowlands is the closest Low Umbral realm to the Skinlands (more commonly known as the Tapestry). It is the corresponding reflection of the mundane world and all its empathic factors and memories. The Tempest Wraith the Oblivion (2nd Edition 1996)
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The Tempest is, if you will, the ocean of the Underworld. For it surrounds all and conjoins all, and every other part is somehow or another set in it. Even Oblivion, that titan darkness, manifests itself within the endless storm as a Void set like a jeweler's cut stone into a Labyrinth of darkness.
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~ Wraith the Oblivion (2nd Edition 1996), Page 7
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To say only that the Tempest is the eternal storm of the Deadlands it to be guilty of gross understatement. Eternally raging with a fury unthinkable in the lands of the living, the Tempest is the raw fury that underlies all of the Shadowlands, separating them from Stygia and the Far Shores. Inhabited by shrieking Spectres and other, fouler things, it is a roiling sea of chaos within which time; space and distance cease to have meaning.
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~ Wraith the Oblivion (2nd Edition 1996), Page 36
Wraith the Oblivion (The Sea of Shadows)
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Part sea, part desolation, part storm, the Tempest claims the largest part of the Underworld. Like space, which holds the sun, moon, planets and stars within it, the Tempest holds realms upon realms within its chaotic folds. Though it is usually imagined as a vast, murky ocean, the Tempest is as much a storm as it is a sea. In places, the Tempest becomes land-like and doesn't even resemble water. Even in those areas, however, the fury of the storm is felt in gritty, stinging winds and the charnel stench of Moliated or smelted souls. The whipping, stinging, black rain which turns to acid at times, wounding and scarring wraiths unlucky enough to be caught within it.
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~ Wraith the Oblivion (The Sea of Shadows), Page 22
Dirty Secrets of the Black Hand
The Dark Kingdoms Oblivion (Mind's Eye Theatre)
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Deep within the Tempest is the third sort of territory known in the Underworld. It is here that we find Stygia, home of the Hierarchy and capital of Charon's empire. Further into the Tempest are the islands known as the Far Shores, as well as the other Deadlands or Dark Kingdoms. Many wraiths see the Far Shores as places of peace and tranquility, but official Hierarchy policy is that they are more Purgatory than Paradise.
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~ Oblivion (Mind's Eye Theatre), Page 15
The Labyrinth and the "Void" Orpheus (End Game)
The Labyrinth is an infinite and eternal... labyrinth of everyone's worst fears and sufferings. It is without any form of "constant", ever-changing with no fashion of charting available at any time. Mage The Ascension (20th Anniversary Edition)
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As with the High and Middle Umbrae, the Tempest houses a multitude of Realms: Dark Kingdoms, hellholes, the dens of powerful entities, and the refuges of souls considered lucky by the standards of this region. According to death-mage lore, ghosts forge so-called Necropoliupon islands in the Tempest. Beyond these Dark Kingdoms - which are built, from what I'm told, out of crafted souls - there's a titanic Labyrinth chewed out of the Maelstrom itself by monsters that might have once been human. At the center of that cyclopean maze, legends say, there's a Void... THE Void, called by some folks the Great Unmaking. This gateway to Oblivion is the punch line to our cosmic joke. All that is, was, or ever aspired to be gets swept into the Void eventually and becomes nothingness once more.
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~ Mage The Ascension (20th Anniversary Edition), Page 100
The Void[ Note 1] Middle Umbra Dream Zone Umbra: The Velvet Shadow
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The Dream Zone is one of the greatest domains, a realm unto itself formed by the collective dreams of humans and shapeshifters. It is a place wherein archetypes rise as real as solid earth in the waking world, where symbolism is more real than any literal meanings. On the periphery of Near Umbra and Deep Umbra, the Dream Zone lies outside the reach of Moon Bridges and even the Pattern Web. If any Spirit Gates reach the Zone they were long ago lost to the Garou Nation. The simplest way for a shapeshifter to reach the Dream Zone is to fall asleep within the Penumbra. Her slumbering mind reaches through the mist of thought and into Dream itself. The realm reflects the dreamer's own dreams, of course, but so much more than that. She can press on, journeying deeper into the dreams of others and their mysteries. One of the most intimate bonds between packmates is to venture within each other's dreams.
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~ Umbra: The Velvet Shadow, Pages 42 - 43
The possibilities of accomplishments that anyone can achieve are as vast as what they can imagine themselves. One can challenge the literal impossible for valour and glory and shall succeed. Near Dreaming Dreams and Nightmares
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It is almost impossible to map the Twilight Realm. Areas of dream-reality mutate constantly, as the dreams that shape them change. These geographical changes are referred to as the Firchlis and be troublesome affairs. There is no guaranteed route through the Dreaming, not even in that area closest to the mundane world, the Near Dreaming. That's one of the first rules of the Mythic Realms.
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~ Dreams and Nightmares, Page 23
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Most changelings experience déjà vu when they enter the Near Dreaming. Glamour fills the air and their souls are reminded of what the world once looked like and how they once lived, many incarnations ago. For most, it brings about a sense of well-being.
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~ Dreams and Nightmares, Page 27
Beyond the Barriers (The Book of Worlds)
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The easiest way to reach the Maya is, of course, by going to sleep. Naturally, as a mage, you will want more detailed travel plans, so I advise those of you who wish to reach the Maya on your own to practice meditation. One you achieve the right state of mind, you may enter the space between dreams, the Near Dreaming.
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~ Beyond the Barriers (The Book of Worlds), Page 78
Far Dreaming Dreams and Nightmares
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The Dreaming changes the deeper you go beyond its borders. As the influence of humanity's consciousness fades, as the more powerful dreams present themselves, the Dreaming becomes more irreal. The Dream Realm called the Far Dreaming no longer holds any reflection of the Flesh World and surrenders instead to the endless possibilities of the imagination. The Far Dreaming is undiluted by banal influences, though it, too, is created by mortal dreams.
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~ Dreams and Nightmares, Page 38
Deep Dreaming Dreams and Nightmares
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One can no more properly describe the landscape of the Deep Dreaming than one can explain the texture of a rainbow. The Deep Dreaming is the very heart and soul of the Twilight Realm, the very essence of Glamour and the center of faerie power. Within its endless borders lies Arcadia, where the true fae still dwell.
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~ Dreams and Nightmares, Page 53
The Dreamings are the entirety of the dreams of mankind and likely other sentient life. All contents and perceivability ever imaginable are present. The farther you go into the Dreamings, the deeper and primal archetypes of dreams within dreams within dreams appear. The High Umbra The Infinite Tapestry
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These masters immerse themselves in pure thought until the physical world recedes, to be replaced by a world composed of meaning rather than substance. From this vantage, the human mind (asleep or Awake) appears less like an independently functioning engine of abstraction, generating its idiosyncratic stream of thought according to its own whims and wants, and more like a receptacle or radio receiver that tunes into and is filled with filtered-down notions from a vast upper reservoir of higher truths, divine plans, pure speculations or extravagant, nonsensical whimsies.
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~ The Infinite Tapestry, Page 37
Vulgate The Infinite Tapestry
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The astral region adjacent to the Penumbra is known as the Vulgate, or common area, where the most widely held notions of reality directly reflect the physical realm. Medieval Hermetics knew it as the Mundus Imaginalis, or "world of images". To students of the Qabala, this is Yesod, the ninth sephira on the Tree of Life; the Ahl-i-Batin call it the "alam al-mithal", or Realm of Similitudes, in which the transcendent Unity becomes immanent in phenomenal diversity and takes on the forms that ultimately manifest in physical reality. The Vulgate looks and feels much like the physical world, with the same sense of solidity and immediacy.
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~ The Infinite Tapestry, Page 44
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Although the Astral Umbra may appear differently to all who enter it, seemingly comprised of billions of separate, mutually contradictory realities, the work of the Mercurian Cosmologists centuries ago showed that, where some ac-counts agreed, a roughly continuous ideospheric geography could be stitched together and posited with some degree of certainty. The lowest level of Astral Space, which is adjacent to, and corresponds most closely to, the Penumbra, is the Vulgate. This is the idea of the world, and mimics physical reality in general look and behavior, if not in the specifics of place and time. There is no clear demarcation between the Penumbra and the Vulgate, so it is possible to wander from the mists of one into the mists of the other without realizing one has done so, except by recognizing and interpreting certain landmarks. Rising above the lowlands of the Vulgate are innumerable Spires, impossibly steep mountains with craggy rock faces, whose peaks are lost in distant cloud banks that hide the abstract Epiphamies — the highest of the High Umbra — from the view of those below. Atop the Spires, the seeker may encounter the Courts of the High Umbrood, spirits of transcendent power who may appear as the archetypal gods of ancient mythologies, imparting the sacred wisdom required for safe Epiphamic navigation.
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~ The Infinite Tapestry, Page 38
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Generally, astral doorwars simply open for the person who finds them; occasionally, you'll need a password or other form of key. Once you get through that entrance, you'll find yourself in the Vulgate: the portion of the Astral Umbra dedicated to common concepts and easily-grasped ideas. Here, the truly weird aspects of the High Umbra begin to manifest: flying eyeballs, four-dimensional temples, Escherian landscapes, and snowing geometry... that sort of thing.
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~ The Infinite Tapestry, Page
The Vulgate, also known as Yesod by the Qabalans, is one of the "lowest" realms within the High Umbra. It incorporates the most easiest accessible concepts that the collective philosophy and mindsets of humanity and even other sentient species has thought of. It acts as a doorway to the micro-realms and domains that incorporate and interact with the simplest mental concepts (such as learning, the thought of the sky, etc.). That being said, these concepts being simple does not exclude them being inherently transcendent to the existential planes. The Spires Beyond the Barriers (The Book of Worlds)
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As the Vulgate grows more abstract, sharply defined structures interrupt the view. Called the Spires by most, they appear as ridges, mountains or towers originating in the Vulgate, ascending so high into the Astral Umbra that their peaks cannot be seen from below. The Courts, heavens, hells and such are built on, in or as part of, the Spires. The coarsest elements, fire and brimstone, harps and fluffy clouds) sit low on the Spires ー nearly in the Vulgate. The Epiphamies drift around the peaks and beyond. Those who would reach the Courts must travel through the Spires.
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~ Beyond the Barriers (The Book of Worlds), Page 24
Mage The Ascension (20th Anniversary Edition)
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Rising here and there throughout the Courts, rooted in the Vulgate but peaking upward into infinity, you'll find the Spires: reflections of the idea of higher consciousness. As with so many other things in the Otherworlds, the Spires turn abstract concepts into concrete forms. Some of them appear as towers, minarets, or mountains that make Everest look likea speed bump. Many resemble glass cathedrals with spires that fade into the sky. I've seen beanstalks leading into the clouds and literal stairways to heaven. They're all Spires. So if you want to get your head in the clouds, then you'll often have to climb these things. And that, my friend, is not easy!
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~ Mage The Ascension (20th Anniversary Edition), Page 97
The Infinite Tapestry
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A Spire is an unusually tall and steep mountain, usually craggy and forbidding, of the sort generally seen in cartoons and fantasy-genre illustrations. They dot the landscape of the Vulgate; nearly every branch of the River delta either contains one or shares one with its neighboring branches, and the older branches may have several apiece. This often gives the impression that any given cultural pantheon, or High Court, resides solely or primarily on the Spire nearest the branch representing the culture that worshipped them; this is usually the case, but not always, especially along the modern coastal regions. Here they may have more unnatural appearances: tall stacks of hewn rock, towers of polished machine-tooled metal and even pinnacles of cut or blown glass sometimes rise from amid the cities on the shoreline. To contact the old pagan gods, though, it is generally best to travel inland and listen for where the River sounds like the language in which the gods first found their names. Among literate cultures there will be an array of glaciers around the base of the Spire embodying the sacred texts — especially those lost to history — describing the pantheon. Those we best remember and study in the modern day may also lie among foothills where the echoes of their respective Mythic Ages still sound, and where spirits act out the well-known legends. Let the astral traveler beware, for the monsters of these myths may yet live on in the caves and crevasses of many a Spire.
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~ The Infinite Tapestry, Page 62
The Spires are the ever-transcending realms connecting realms of the Vulgate. They are the result of many minds concentrating on the same notion, causing it to be elevated from the Vulgate into the higher realms. In order to climb throughout the Spires, one must meta-physically ascend themselves to a higher-self. Platonic Realm Void Engineers (Revised)
Many (non)existing realms among them would be the Ultimate Ensemble and Set Theory , with it encompassing all form of complexities including dimensions and cardinalities which even includes Absolute Infinity . Paradigm Explored: Number and Shape
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"The Manifold Mountain cannot be described as a peak, because it lacks one. Somehow it climbs higher and higher, and despite seeming to thin out, never actually becomes smaller. It is a place of pure shape, growing more complex on the ascent. At the bottom are the simple things: spirits representing lines and curves, planes, spheres, Platonic solids, and their higher dimensional analogues. As complexity increases, surfaces appear, as do complex high dimensional objects, irregular shapes, and even moduli spaces: shapes whose points parameterize variations of simpler shapes. The trouble is that no mathematician has ever understood the way the mountain determines complexity, leading to long searches for any specific figure.
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~ Paradigm Explored: Number and Shape, Page 26
The Manifold Mountain showcases the never-ending hierarchy of mathematics and its effects gradually becoming more complex and grand. From 0-dimensional points to lines, planes, spheres to higher and higher and higher dimensional properties.
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"Visitors find the Toposes are particularly good for helping them solve puzzles. As alternate logics, they are able to produce strange and unexpected solutions to problems, exploiting information that seems disconnected but placing some sort of logical chain between them. They can provide training in Enigmas (even allowing characters to reach the sixth dot of it) as well as the mathematical Abilities of Science and Academics. All they want in exchange is Sleeper attention. The smallest of them especially will give quite a bit to have the visitors return to Earth and write a research paper studying their structures and promoting them as interesting environments in which to do mathematics. Especially if they can do so in a way that makes them look better than Set Theory.
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~ Paradigm Explored: Number and Shape, Page 28
The Toposes are denizens (beings/entities) of the Platonic Realm representing the very nature of the mathematical concepts themselves with them also representing all alternate systems of logistics and calculations alongside their influence within reality. They may even be in a way greater than all of Set Theory itself, the very scaffolding of all mathematical logic and (sub)set hierarchies. The Epiphamies The Infinite Tapestry
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An Epiphamy is the most difficult aspect of the High Umbra to understand, as well as the most fundamental. If the Vulgate can be thought of as interpersonal Astral Space and the High Courts as personal Astral Space, then the Epiphamies are transpersonal Astral Space. Scholars in the Order of Hermes and Celestial Chorus called it the "Mundus Intelligibilis" and the Realm of Divine Names; qabalistically, it is known as the Macroprosopus, or "Greater Countenance" comprised of the upper sephiroth on the Tree of Life. To the Ahl-i-Batin, it is "Alam al-Lahut," the Presence of the Divine Attributes; to many technomancers it is the Pandimensional Metaverse. Some teach that, like so much else in Astral Space, an Epiphamy is formed as a result of human belief and tends to present itself in whatever shape is expected. They explain that the Epiphamies as a whole can be conceived as the culmination of human mental activity, all the highest-level abstractions and most intense feelings superimposed to form a semi-continuous landscape of excruciatingly significant imagery.
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~ The Infinite Tapestry, Page 84
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Let it not be thought that an Epiphamy is some sort of "place" floating high above the Vulgate, for an Epiphamic revelation can occur anywhere in the Tellurian, whether Umbral realm or even the material world. The purely transcendental nature of the Epiphamy allows it to intersect any other level or type of reality — dreamscape, Seeking, spirit glen, Horizon Realm or another Epiphamy — in a way that Dimensional technomancers describe as "perpendicular to the local space-time axes". Experiencing an Epiphamy, even when on the physical plane, may seem to take days, even a lifetime, but once one emerges from the experience one may find that no time has passed at all. One of the best examples of this comes from Batini lore, the Night Journey wherein the Prophet Muhammad is borne upon al-Buraq to tour the various heavens of Islamic cosmology. Just as al-Buraq was taking flight, a pitcher of water sitting nearby was knocked over. After spending an evening traveling to the furthest knowable ends of the universe, Muhammad is deposited at his dwelling just in time to see the pitcher fall over and spill across the dry ground.
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~ The Infinite Tapestry, Page 85
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To walk to an Epiphamy from the top of a Spire, one need only step off of the Spire's precipice, out into empty space. For the novice who entered the Umbra by Stepping Sideways or Astral Sojourn , this is a supreme act of faith, since she has nothing but the tales of those who have gone before – and perhaps of any High Umbrood who deign to accompany her – to tell her that she will not just drop to a painful death. (Even experienced astral travelers sometimes taunt each other with the speculation that an Epiphamy of Hubris manifests as a torturously prolonged plummet down a steep jagged cliff face....) Once she takes this leap, though, an aetherial bridge automatically appears beneath her feet, providing as much level footing as she may require, even expanding to keep her from falling if the vertiginous high-altitude view causes her to lose balance. The bridge will extend forward, enabling her to walk among the clouds and, hopefully, leading her to the Epiphamy she seeks.
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~ The Infinite Tapestry, Page 85
The Epiphamies are more than just spaces or structures but rather the interconnected states of memories and beliefs themselves. All comprehensibility of the collective consciousness is confined within the Epiphamies. Beyond the Barriers (The Book of Worlds)
The Epiphamies are at the very summit of the Spires and their infinite abstractive hierarchies. They embody complete abstractions and symbologies. They are utterly subjective in qualities and properties, not one individual can see them the same way. Additional Information Additionally, the Epiphamies are the very pinnacle of conceivable imagination. They are as boundless as whatever the consciousness can ever create or subject themselves to.
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Swirling around the highest reaches of consciousness, the Realms within the Epiphamies are realms in name only. These regions are too abstract and ephemeral to feel much like our crude constructs of reality. Composed of symbols and superluminal concepts, these regions drift in and out of contact. For the astral traveler, Ephiphamy Realms remain solid for a few fleeting moments. Such mysteries are too transcendent for a mortal mind to grasp for long.
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~ Mage The Ascension (20th Anniversary Edition), Page 97
The Etherspace The Infinite Tapestry
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The True Horizon stretches from the limits of Earth's atmosphere to the hazards of the asteroid belt. Just as Earth casts reflections into the Otherworld, space also casts a spiritual reflection. In the spirit world, deep space has never been a lifeless vacuum; instead, invisible and insubstantial winds soar through it. A vast sea of luminiferous ether roils ceaselessly, conducting heat, light, and spiritual energy. In our reality, this area is empty space, a lifeless vacuum, but outside of Earthly reality, it holds infinite possibilities. Some modern mages call this Etherspace, but for others, all of this territory is the Horizon.
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~ The Infinite Tapestry, Page 10
Mage The Ascension (20th Anniversary Edition)
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Certain cosmologists insist there's a second Horizon - a True Horizon - located out past the moon and Mars, in the region of this solar system's Asteroid Belt. Between Earth's Horizon and this True Horizon, a cosmic Umbra often called Etherspace reaches outward toward the stars. Here, a traveler might pass from the hard vacuum of scientific space into the strange expanse of spirit space, where the laws of legend still prevail.
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~ Mage The Ascension (20th Anniversary Edition), Page 113
The Etherspace reaches unfathomably beyond all preceding realms and structures in every single facet. Within it are the nine worlds corresponding to the nine spheres separated by Horizons which act as barriers even more potent than the Guantlet shielding the Umbra from the infinite mundane reality. Horizon (Realms) Mage The Ascension (20th Anniversary Edition)
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Cast against the Horizon by the physical and metaphysical light of the Sun, the Shade Realms - once known as the Vada feature strange vortices of energy that are said to contain the essence of the Nine Magickal Spheres. Occupying what could be thought of as the Umbrae of various planets - which, through some head-twisting quirk of celestiography, typically manifest on the Horizon of our own world - these Realms often go by the abbreviation S.R. followed by the Sphere associated with the Realm in question.
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~ Mage The Ascension (20th Anniversary Edition), Page 112
Shard Realms The Infinite Tapestry
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This introduction from the cosmological documents of a noted Hermetic is typical of a common view of the cosmos. It's as good an explanation as anything else. No one can thoroughly document all the realms and extra dimensions beyond the First Horizon. If we need an anchor for our extra-dimensional epistemology, it might as well be the nine Shard Realms.
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~ The Infinite Tapestry, Page 117
Mage The Ascension (20th Anniversary Edition)
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Genesis stories both secular and sacred allude to a Big Bang that birthed the universe. According to certain cosmologies, the Shard Realms - which we now know as the planets of our solar system - were especially significant chunks of metaphysical debris. Reflecting mystic principles, these Fragmenti were considered the realms of ancient gods: Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, and so forth. We can see their influence in the everyday puzzles of astrology and the corresponding zodiac, through which we are "children of Mars" or "littered under Mercury."
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~ Mage The Ascension (20th Anniversary Edition), Page 113
The Shard Realms are the complete manifestations and embodiments of the Quintessential Spheres, which have their own Umbral reflections and abstract hierarchies. Deep Umbra The Infinite Tapestry
Laws of the Wild (Revised)
Umbra: The Velvet Shadow
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The Umbra at the furthest reaches from earth is considered the Deep Umbra. Here the laws of reality have very little sway over the world and its inhabitants. The Deep Umbra lies beyond the known realms of the Astral, Near, and Deep Umbrae, on the other side of the nearly impenetrable Membrane. If the Near Umbra is considered a shell encasing the Earth, the Astral Umbra above and the Dark Umbra below, then the Deep Umbra is the unknown wilds beyond the shell, stretching far away to the infinity beyond imagination.
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~ Umbra: The Velvet Shadow, Page 103
Werewolf The Apocalypse (20th Anniversary Edition)
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Beyond the membrane, Gaia's presence is less and less perceptible in the Deep Umbra. Reality breaks down, and navigation becomes progressively more difficult. This is the home of the Weaver, Wyld, and Wyrm, and it’s a challenge for even the eldest Garou. The only comforting sanctuary is the domain of Luna as she passes through the heavens. As with the Astral Realm, mages are far more prepared to deal with the horrors of this realm than werewolves are.
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~ Werewolf The Apocalypse (20th Anniversary Edition), Page 318
The Deep Umbra is deep space, stretching out past all forms of infinity in every direction. Here, there is absolute nothingness within this sub-void however there are dynamic realms including the Outer Planets (Shard Realms) drifting along the black sea of space endlessly. Tiering The Umbra and all its Realms are High 1-A because it is completely superior to the entire latticework of the Infinite Tapestry alongside its infinite self-transcending systems. Everything before and within it is but a mere shadow towards a truer existence of what can and can't be. The following showcases the specific tiering within High 1-A :
Low Umbra and Middle Umbra: At least Countless Layers into Meta-Qualitative Superiority "High Umbra: "Meta-Meta-Qualitative Superiority "
Spires and Epiphamies: "Absolute Infinite Layers into Meta-Meta Qualitative Superiority "Etherspace: "Meta-Meta-Meta Qualitative Superiority "Deep Umbra: "Meta-Meta-Meta-Meta Qualitative Superiority " Tellurian & the Consensus The Tellurian Demon the Fallen (Core)
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"In the uncorrupted world, this coffee could also exist simultaneously as a song or an aesthetic idea or even a sentient and helpful creature. Different things on different layers, all equally real, all similar, but each discrete ー even while they were simultaneously experienced." Seeing Matthew's expression, he continued.
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~ Demon The Fallen (Core), Pages 25 - 26
There are "infinite", (il)logical-possible worlds of Reality, subsets of possibility that also takes into account null-sets within the Tapestry that never were, yet are. Even with the omnipotence paradox, with the multiple worlds it "resolves" those "problems". Mage The Ascension (20th Anniversary Edition)
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"Tellurian" essentially means everything. It's Reality with a capital R – everything that has been imagined, can be imagined, or has yet to be imagined. It's a word for something that transcends words… an ineffable name of God, if you will.
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~ Mage The Ascension (20th Anniversary Edition), Page 90
The Tellurian is absolutely everything that ever was, is and ever will be as well as all that is/can-(not) be imagined. It completely transcends words and descriptions for its sheer magnitude. Mage The Ascension (Second Edition)
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Mages refer to all of reality as the Tellurian. You have often heard those around you speak of the universe. They believe that they are speaking of everything that there is, as if the universe were all-encompassing. The universe is but the physical part of reality—— the stars and planets, and the creatures and objects found therein. We also see the world of the spirit which exists side by side with physical reality, overlapping it and occupying the same space. We call the sum-total of all earthly things the Tellurian, the physical and spiritual together ー all the possible realms of existence, all that is natural and supernatural, all hopes, dreams and possibilities. In short, all of reality that ever was, that may be imagined, and that might someday be. It's a complex concept, but a simple one as well. This is the mages' understanding of reality, the understanding that allows a willworker to bend reality to her will, for all things are already possible, though not everything is easy to bring into being in the mundane reality of our Earth. This was not always so, but that's another story.
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~ Mage The Ascension (Second Edition), Page 16
Hopes, dreams, goals both natural and supernatural, possible and impossible are with the Tellurian. All understandings and forms of thought throughout all possible worlds that was, is and can be are the Tellurian. Consensus Hierarchy Mage The Ascension (20th Anniversary Edition)
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More of a belief system than a specific practice, Gnosticism refers to an overall view that the Creation we perceive as reality is actually the construct of some corrupt or malevolent force. To escape the prison of this fallen reality, a Gnostic seeks wisdom and knowledge (gnosis) that will lead to eventual transcendence.Mage embodies an essentially Gnostic cosmology, one in which “Sleepers” Awaken, transcend their humanity through knowledge, and potentially Ascend to a higher state. Still, many mages are not Gnostics, either because they do not see their world as innately corrupt; they refuse to believe in higher or lower powers; or they feel that everything is miraculous if and when you open your eyes enough to recognize that fact. Although Mage features certain Gnostic elements, it's more existential – in the sense that one must find meaning in existence among a meaningless and potentially hostile cosmos – than purely Gnostic in its foundations. „
~ Mage The Ascension (20th Anniversary Edition), Page 39
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The first card of the Tarot is the Fool – that pretty boy or girl about to walk off a cliff. And yes, the Fool's androgynous, like many characters in Coleman's deck. I like to think she did that on purpose, so that folks who knew how to look past their preconceptions could see themselves, male or female, on that journey. Our Fool's got belongings slung over his or her back, with a little dog yapping right at the edge of the drop. Meanwhile, the Fool's staring off into the sky, perched on the edge between disaster and flight.
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~ Mage The Ascension (20th Anniversary Edition), Page 40
As they cannot perceive the mystical workings of this reality, as well as what lies further beyond it, the common masses are called "Sleepers," and in contrast, Mages who actively delve into this alien world are called "the Awakened." The key difference being that, while normal people think of the physical world as primary and discard their thoughts and daydreams as secondary, Mages see the latter as part of a deeper and "truer" reality, every bit as real, if not more so, than the physical one. The "illusory reality", is the Tapestry, the universe that is woven into existence out of the infinite possibilities of the Umbra by the collective belief and thoughts of the masses, containing every possible concept that their minds are capable of grasping. The Technocracy refers to this sphere of existence as "conventional space," and as seen above, the Sons of Ether think of it using the metaphor of the Walls of Troy. Truth Beyond Paradox
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"Consensus isn't yours, Roy," ExMachine says. "It doesn't belong to the Technocrats, and it isn't controlled by the Council, and not by the Nephandi or Marauders either. Your various global guilds and conglomerates try to shape what the masses believe, and you create gods left and right. Gods that are smarter than you. Your pride won't let you see what’s right in front of you."
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~ Truth Beyond Paradox, Page 139
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I’m mulling over what ExMachine said about consensus. If mage consensus is created by the gods, then that means, even as a mage, I'm still a type of sleeper. I'm a sleeper to the larger picture. The picture the gods can see.
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~ Truth Beyond Paradox, Page 140
“
Boosted IQ. Product delivered as promised. A++ seller. More tricks than described, but will buy again.
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~ Truth Beyond Paradox, Page 141
Much like Mages control the Consensus of the Sleepers, so too do the Gods control the Consensus of the Mages, and just like regular humans are "asleep" to the spiritual reality which Mages experience, Mages are also "asleep" to the world which the Gods experience, and the latter to something or someone even more unfathomable. As such, the Consensus is an all-encompassing hierarchy of beliefs that form illusory realities that victim are perfectly immersed in. Tiering The Tellurian and the Consensus are among the highest of High 1-A because it is (im)possibility itself, throughout all frameworks and worlds. It can not be described in any (non)-conceivable shape or fashion besides through pure metaphors, showcasing the complete and abstract symbology/representation of every and all forms of attributes and qualities, truths and falsehood, zenith and summit of all hierarchies. The latter as it is the omnipresent system within each Tellurian. With it being described as being turtles all the way down , it is an infinite regression of deeper truths deconstructed from the worlds they beings experience. It. Is. Everything.
Alder Bole, Pattern Web & Void The Axis Mundi influencing the cosmological models of every Tellurian.
Alder Bole Beyond the Barriers (The Book of Worlds)
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These spirits tell a myth, one widespread and consistent to a remarkable degree with many of our own:
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~ Beyond the Barriers (The Book of Worlds), Page 125 - 126
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Depending on one's perspective, the Alder Bole could easily be called the Tree of Life, of the Knowledge of Good and Evil; the Sacred Tree; or the World Tree. The Alder Bole is said to have existed since the earliest times, even to have spawned many Realms. A manifestation of Pattern (or the Weaver), it is certainly one of the last vestiges of pure creation remaining. The Pure Ones are said to have sheltered themselves beneath this tree, and some claim that the One Itself climbed the Bole's branches and hung himself upside down searching for wisdom.
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~ Beyond the Barriers (The Book of Worlds), Page 127
Axis Mundi (The Book of Spirits)
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The term "axis mundi" comes from the study of Shamanism. It is the ritual center of the world in a shamanic ceremony, the world naval or the world tree where the shaman enters the upper or lower worlds of reality, seeking cures from spirits for ailments.
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~ Axis Mundi (The Book of Spirits), Page 14
Verbena (Revised)
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Prime sits at the center of the wheel, the center of creation, embodied as the World Tree, the life that sustains the Tellurian and extends its branches and roots everywhere. For the Verbena, Prime is the union of opposites: the meeting of earth and sky, day and night, masculine and feminine, summer and winter, life and death. From that dynamic balance springs all creation. It is the union of the Goddess and God in the Great Rite, the moment of conception. Some Verbena equate the Sphere of Prime with the godhead or Great Spirit, which is to the gods as the gods are to mortals, the sun-source of divinity and life.
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~ Verbana (Revised), Page 53
Prime and even Quintessence itself is embodied by Alder Bole. All Godheads implementation of Quintessence and Prime into their Creations is borrowed in some way, shape, form and/or fashion from the World Tree and shall one day return to its everlasting source.
“
A common Verbena metaphor for the Tellurian is the World Tree, also known as the Great Tree or the Tree of Life. It stands at the center of everything, the axis mundi, the point around which the world turns. The World Tree's roots deep in the earth represent the past and the foundations of the world. They reach into the Underworld, the land of the dead, where death literally fuels new life by composting into the earth. They are the dark recesses of the mind, the shadow side of creation, home to chthonian gods and goddesses.
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~ Verbena (Revised), Page 52
The Spirit Ways
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"The World Tree - it's beyond that barrier isn't it?" Adam asked. It was a shimmering rainbow wall in the middle of the village. The people ー infinite faces, infinite colours ー stood around him, watch as he approached the barrier.・・・
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~ Spirit Ways, Page 73
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Of all the visions that a shaman may receive during his life, none is more sacred than the World Tree, the living heart of all Creation. It extends everywhere ー nothing escapes its touch. It is, has and always will be ー it's possible it was the first manifestation of Earth before anything else was created.The Book of Worlds as its most blatant manifestation, and the Null Zone exists within its trunk and branches (literally inside the Tree). Maya, the Dream Realms, are a mirror of the World Tree ー in dream, everything is possible and played out. Here, the eternal cycle Dynamism, Stasis and Entropy ー continues as it has for millennia.
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~ The Spirit Ways, Page 74
All Tellurians are connected to the World Tree in every (in)conceivable way and fashion, all of its possible worlds and abstractions. Werewolf the Apocalypse (20th Anniversary Edition - Core Rulebook)
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Despite this, the stories all start simply: The Earth is at the center of Gaia. The Heavens reach above it; the Underworld lies below it; the spirit world of the Umbra surrounds it on all sides. The Garou recite a line attributed to a legendary Galliard: "realms beyond the one you know... worlds above and worlds below." From this truism, account sand details vary. The Pure Ones tell stories of a World Tree that rises through the center of creation; for the Stargazers, it's called the Axis Mundi; for the Get of Fenris, it's Yggdrasil; in more elaborate legends, the roots of the tree grow from the back of a World Turtle on an endless sea. All of these stories are different, and all of them are equally true.
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~ W20 (Core Rulebook), Page 307
Alder Bole is the very source of all legends and cosmological models along with all of their qualities: the World Turtle(s), Yggdrasil, the Biblical Tree of Knowledge, the Kabbalah Tree of Life and its Sephiroth, the Bodhi Tree, etc. and then some. All ideologies and narratives. All Is the Alder Bole. Pattern Web Book of the Weaver (OEF)
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The Pattern Web is the lattice that underlies all of reality. It can be said to be alive, but not really conscious. It is the spiritual scaffolding which supports both material and Umbral reality, the framework for all that exists.
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~ Book of the Weaver (OEF), Page 31
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It is a question as old as time, and as fundamentally unsolvable as the conundrum of the chicken and the egg. Who preceded whom — the insect race, replete with multi-tiered societal hierarchies, role-driven interdependence, and instinctive modes of mass communication, or the Weaver's brood, host to their own systems of rank, reign, and rapport? Did both structures evolve independently? Were flesh and spirit once one, divided long ago by the Sundering? Or do connections still exist, carefully hidden from sight? Most agree that the spider-form commonly attributed to the Weaver is a convenient metaphor at best, the product of frustrated cave painters and overimaginative storytellers, spiritual leaders attempting to attach labels and legends to that which they did not understand. Is the eight-limbed spider a crude representation of a figure with countless connections and symmetries? Were the first prehistoric Earth-denizens unable to enumerate her complexities, associating infinity with the number of non-opposable digits on both hands? Like her contemporary Umbrood, and most things native to the spirit world, the Weaver-Celestine (if such a being can even be said to exist in a single place or time) is most likely as incomprehensible in image as she is in identity — the spider behind the spider, as it were. But what does lie beyond? Hundreds — thousands — have launched themselves into the heart of the mystery, daredevil dancers spiraling into their own consumptive quests for whatever truths lie concealed at the center of the Pattern Web. To date, none have returned with any answers.
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~ Book of the Weaver, Page 79
The Void The Book of the Fallen
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At its ultimate extreme, the Nightside becomes the Void: extinction — not merely death but anti-life. One does not go from the edges of the Nightside to its darkest extremes easily; most mystics never get that far at all, and even Fallen mages get stuck (or stop themselves) in the Dark Wilderness or the Underworld. Very few, even among the Fallen, reach the heart of true Extinction. And once you reach that place, it's near impossible to come back again.
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~ The Book of the Fallen, Page 99
Houses of the Fallen
Tiering Alder Bole, the Pattern Web and the Void are all deeper into High 1-A+ (Type 1 ) as the Pattern Web is the very foundation of reason and meaning itself for all forms of semantics for roles, purposes and thoughts within Alder Bole. The Void is the absolute anti-thesis to possibility and all laws of thought with it being the very zenith (and nadir) of all; the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. It is beyond any and all forms of Nothingness, it isn't even Nothing, it just isn't. Most of all, Alder Bole is the source of all (im)possibilities and abilities in all the Tellurians and Realms.
The Supernal Book of the Wyrm (Second Edition)
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The Triat is what human mystics would call supernal ー existing outside of time and space, but so integral to the very fact of existence that their influence can be perceived in all things at all times. Chaos, order and balance are not visible features of creation, but are principles demonstrated by it; careful examination, thought and intuition reveals all three to be present in the orbits of planets, of electrons, or of a loved one's eyes. Likewise, the story of the Triat is expressed over and over in the history of the universe, of mankind, and even in the life of an individual human being.
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~ Book of the Wyrm (Second Edition), Page 18
Chronicle of the Black Labyrinth
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Quaes: That which is Supernal may not be named, for all names are finite and limiting, and are thus below the Abyss.
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~ Chronicle of the Black Labyrinth, Page 46
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"In the time before time, the worlds of flesh and spirit were one. Mysticism and magic were everywhere, and all things were seemingly possible. Monstrous creations stalked their prey, and the Wyld spawned a thousand possible creations. Then the fabric of the world was torn asunder, separating spirit and matter. From one world, two were born: the Earth and the Umbra. Since then, the two worlds have slowly drifted farther apart. The Weaver erected a calcified barrier called the Gauntlet between the two worlds. In the physical world, reality solidified into laws and rules, time and distance. As the barrier solidified, magic slowly faded from the world. Gaia created the Garou as guardians of Her creation, but as the two realms drifted farther apart, we found it more difficult to protect them both. To aid us in our task, Gaia granted us the ability to walk between worlds, and since then, we have learned to survive as creatures of both flesh and spirit."
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Tiering The Supernal is High 1-A+ (Type 2 ) because it is the framework for all frameworks of (il)logical (im)possible large worlds . It is a complete supplement and complementing cycle signifying the coming and going of All that Is/Not. The Wyld signifies every (Im)possibility through every Creation there can('t) ever be. The Weaver gives all that possibility form/reality and finally the Wyrm is the complete absence of everything and nothing, all possibility and form thereof.
Notes 
