Article 3: Worlds, Realms, and Planes

Authors note: Due to the sheer volume of articles this series has resulted in I want to take a moment to tell you they are intended to be read sequentially, the ideas building on each other as they progress. While they can also be read individually, a fuller understanding can only be reached by starting at the beginning, found here: https://www.pjbenjamin.net/a-long-overdue-elucidation/

Article 3: Worlds, Realms, and Planes

It has always been important to me to keep the Firmament a place of wonder. A place that seems so impossibly full that it shows our isolation from such wonder in sharp relief. When I began my first novel these elements took shape naturally, yet I was drawn irresistibly after the relevant hows and whys. And as the author, I had the opportunity to create every answer I desired. For me, this has always been my conflict, for what inspires wonder is the experience of something bigger than can be taken in, yet it was my God-given nature to seek understanding at expense of this very thing. In some ways, the rules I have for the Firmament are for my benefit. Not only to ease my curious mind but to create a space where I can manifest things larger than I have experienced from the safety of my understanding. I would argue that one of my biggest personal challenges is to write in such a way that I leave things unexplained. But not because I want to keep the reader naive. It is quite the opposite. It is because I believe that wonder experienced rightly is not about ignorance, but rather invitation. An invitation to experience humility in such a way it inspires the desire to seek wisdom.

On the whole, this section is on the structural cosmology of the Firmament. What it might contain, and how it fits together. And while I plan to tie things more deeply together in my concluding article, for now, I want to give you the Rule, and explain its terminology and intent. As you read I would ask you bare in mind that this Rule is written as a condensed summary, designed to state, not fully explain. If something so large could be explained in such brevity, I would have no need for the articles.

Rule Two of the Firmament:

The Firmament is physically filled with Worlds, Realms, and Planes. Worlds are the physical planets separated by distance. Realms are dimensional interpretations coexisting tangentially with the physical, separated by condition. Planes exist in parallel to one another, and may contain their own Worlds or Realms and are wholly separate. There exist as well Connecting Realms from which one might move between different Worlds, Realms, or Planes in the Firmament. They exist in various stages of complexity, from full environments to voids.

Let us begin with Worlds, as it is the easiest explained. If you have experienced any science fiction in the last hundred years then this will come as no great surprise to you. Worlds are, as I said, separated by distance. That is to say, one will encounter them should simply move far enough. Any planet in any universe, fictional or otherwise would be considered a World. Earth and our moon, Jupiter, the exoplanets of Alpha Centauri, or even the planet Vulcan are each Worlds in themselves. For example, we have traveled to the moon, but no matter how far we blasted off into space, regardless of life span or speed, we would never reach Hades, Avalon, or Narnia. And though planets are Worlds, it does not mean that all Worlds are planets. A flat land that you could sail off the edge of, a hollow earth, or even the discarded carapace of a massive celestial caterpillar could all be a World. What is important is that they are locations reachable by the inhabitants of that Plane. For Worlds in existence are placed within a Plane. And it needn’t be our own, as we will see in the next section.

When writing the second rule it became necessary to list the Planes last, as they contain the other two. Despite this, I will be explaining Plains before Realms. The reason for this is that Realms are better explained in contrast to the other options. The easiest explanation for Planes would actually be incorrect for the cosmology of The Firmament. That incorrect example would be “Parallel Universes”. It is not incorrect linguistically, however quite wrong if you apply the popular meaning to it. A parallel world, or universe, is a widely accepted science fiction element. The general idea is that for each decision that is made a different “alternative” world springs forth where the opposite, or different, choice was enacted. I will go more deeply into this in another Rule, but I felt it was important to clarify that a Plane is not a place like that.

In the popular meaning of “Parallel Universe” you could see the sum totally of reality as each universe existing in different layers, each made from the same base elements but structured differently based on individual choices. Imagine, if you will, a sampling of meats from a barbecue restaurant, all stacked in a glorious monstrosity of meaty delights. One layer of ground beef sausage, one layer slow cooked beef brisket, and another rib meat. All beef, all even conceivably from the same cow. Yet depending on the preparatory choices made those different layers could have become very different, despite being from the same place. But no matter how much you do, they won’t be anything but versions of beef. Even if it’s all the same indulgent entrée.

The Planes in the Firmament are quite different. Unlike what was described above, the very nature of each Plane is different, including no copies or replicas of the others. They might be as exhaustively large as our cosmos or made up of a single World. The Firmament Planes are more like a traditional hamburger than a stack of beef. A quarter-pound patty, tomato, lettuce, mustard, etc. Each exists as cohesive layers, but no matter how you prepare it, that beef patty won’t be a fruit like a tomato, and neither will become a leaf or a seed-based condiment. They are all part of the same burger, but each layer is distinctly, irrevocably, different in substance and nature. Any place you might reach outside of our universe, with a few special examples I will go over near the end of the article, would exist in a Plane. Narnia comes to mind as a possibility, not reachable by spaceship, but only through special paths or magic. Narnia even has its own flow of time that does not match up with our own, and the same might be true of any of the Firmament Planes.

Finally, we come to the Realm. In the rule, I describe them as Dimensional interpretations coexisting tangentially, and I will admit that in a desire for brevity, I may have lost some clarity. In short, Realms are a part of a World, but they do not encapsulate it. Rather, they are different interpretations of the same physical space. The Grecian Hades is much like this. Under the ground, and reachable by those who have died. It might be possible for people like Orpheus to charm an entrance with music, or else bargain with Charon passage across the river Styx. Only, excavate as you might, you won’t uncover Hades under Greece with a shovel. This is because despite existing within the same physical space, they coexist only tangentially, that is, they only meet naturally at a single point. That point is specified by a condition. Conditions could be as mundane as a secret entrance, or more fantastic like reachable only by the pure of body or heart. Still others must be granted access by its inhabitants. The conditions are as varied as the Realms themselves. For this reason, people might find entrances to them and yet be unable to return a second time. This category might include all manner of enchanted forests or even Avalon. The only unifying factor among the Realms conditions is that they must be entered into by a creature with a soul, or else brought by one. And our World is not peculiar in this way. Other Worlds have their own Realms. Allow me to hold up Malachandra (the planet Mars) of C.S. Lewis’s ‘Out of the Silent Planet’ as a plausible example. We have never visited Mars in person, and it might well be that our inability to find Malachandra is that we observe the planet with machine or calculation. If we came to Mars in person, not rovers, we could conceivably be granted entrance by their Oyarsu as the protagonists were.

The last space described in my rule is a sub-category of Realms that I call Connecting Realms. They are indeed Realms, but with two important distinctions. Firstly, while a standard Realm reaches only one place, like Hades underneath Greece, these Connecting Realms reach other Worlds, Realms, and even Planes. Without them, it would be all but impossible for one to move between them all. A notable example might be as complex as the ‘Wood between the Worlds’ from C. S. Lewis’s ‘The Magicians Nephew’, or as simple as a wormhole. Secondly, unlike the standard Realm, these sorts of “in-between” places are not tied down so geographically. So long as the conditions are met they can be accessed from many places. A Realm of dreams could be a good example of this. The condition might be only that the person sleeps, and could be entered into by anywhere. As a result, these Connecting Realms can be dangerous and are often guarded.

Now there is one final distinction to be made, a final space, one that in truth is not strictly a World, Realm, or even a Plane. A great existent constant that presides over and through all of creation. Heaven. Based on my own definitions it would technically be a Connecting Realm. It can be accessed from any part of creation depending on circumstances. And yet to call it simply a Realm is to do it a disservice. Heaven is the dwelling place of God, it is his home in so far as a creature with an infinite scope can be said to have one. From it, one may reach any and all of his creation, and it is to here where those who set themselves against him are denied entry. All analogies break down around it, for it is wholly unique. It might be more accurate to see it as a dimension that permeates all of creation, a great superseding constant. As far as the Firmament is concerned, one’s location in heaven is greatly determined by where one enters into it. And its location might be better explained as the true universe, of which the Firmament is but a microcosm. A picturesque view of this aspect of heaven is found in C. S. Lewis’s “The Last Battle” when Aslan speaks of Aslan’s Country, and we see the earthly heaven is part of Narnian heaven, for all heaven is part of the same home.

It is not wholly necessary to understand every principle set forth here to enjoy the Firmament, and indeed many who travel in my books have little idea of what they are facing. And may never. It is enough for me that there is a system in place to work from, a system by which all manner of fantastic places and peoples can exist in a shared Christian cosmology. Yet while such rules exist to separate and manage, we must never forget our first rule. We have a king who is sovereign over every aspect of creation, and the ways are his to open and close as he wills. And there are very good reasons to have closed our humanity from them, as we will explore in our next rule.

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