Subtle planes, summoning worlds, magical realms, astral realms, etc

The Nephilim game, at least as published in the USA, didn't really have a detailed or coherent cosmology. The summoning rules mention magical realms based on Kabbalah and achieving Agartha allows one to travel the "akashas" and "subtle planes." How these relate to one another, if any relation exists at all, is never explained. Some passages in the rulebook and the Major Arcana supplement suggest or state explicitly that some of the third circle evocations are Agarthans, Pharaonic Egregors, KaIm, etc. Meanwhile, the French version underwent its own series of revisions.

For my campaigns, I'd use a cosmology loosely inspired by the French version's. There are several sets of planes composed of different kinds of Ka, and these are organized into upper and lower planes. This directionality isn't literal but spiritual: the upper planes are closer to Agartha, whereas the lower planes are closer to Abaddon (see Major Arcana p71-2). There are basically four strata from highest to lowest: the subtle planes of Agartha, the elemental planes, the lower planes of the Black Moon, and the lowest planes of Orichalka.

The subtle planes are composed of Solar-Ka, so they're only accessible to Agarthans who can manipulate the solar field (see Nephilim rulebook p121). The subtle planes transcend space and time, so Agarthans can travel to the mythic eras as well as other times and places that no longer exist. Kabbalists imagine these planes in terms of Atziluth or Ein Soph Aur. They're linked in some way to the collective unconscious. [I've decoupled summoning from Kabbalah and now treat the latter as one possible but popular understanding of summoning. I don't know how the French handles summoning, which it literally calls "Kabbalah", so I can't really make much reference to that.]

Between Agartha and Earth are the elemental akashas or astral realms, which are composed of the elemental Ka and exist inside the magic fields. This is where evocations are drawn from: not really as aliens minding their own business until called, but to a greater or lesser degree called into existence by the will and imagination of the summoner and perhaps humanity as a whole. These planes are linked in some way to human imagination. Kabbalists imagine these planes in terms of the worlds of Yetzirah and Beriah. The Caribbean Loa built their own realms here (see Nephilim rulebook p189).

Earth is the material and spiritual world we experience: where humans and other mortal animals live, where the nephilim and the elemental beasts arise naturally from the movements of the magic fields. The Sun releases ethers that are refracted by the planets and these planetary ethers meet at the Grail (Earth's core) where they are transformed into the magic fields that sustain the Earth and its inhabitants [a French fansite includes handy graphics of this process]. Kabbalists call this the world of Assiah.

"Below" our world starts the lower planes or anti-planes. These are the astral realms of the Black Moon, where the worst fears and desires of humanity manifest as black lunar spirits and where Selenim that have achieved the third circle of Anamorphosis built their own dark realms. (The Ghede Loa, the Caribbean Selenim, live here too but in contrast to the Major Arcana maintain active ties with the other nations of Loa.) The lingering spirits of the Saurians are said to still roam these planes. 

At the nadir is the Orichalka anti-plane, Tartarus, the astral realm of absolute death and destruction formed by the fall of the Black Star. Kabbalists describe the anti-planes in terms of Da'ath and the Qlippoth. The Strength Arcanum paint all the anti-planes with the same brush and call this primeval force Abaddon, the Dragon, Dark Agartha, and other names, believing it to have countless manifestations. They credit its pollution of the magic fields with inspiring the birth of elemental beasts and the degeneration of Khaiba (see Major Arcana p71-2).

The Dark Agartha isn't a predestined absolute damnation, however. Even if they draw their Ka from the Black Moon or Saturn, Selenim and Ar-KaIm can still achieve Agartha. All elements, even the dark ones, are ultimately refractions of the infinite potential within Solar-Ka. [This is as of the French 3e. Prior editions specified Selenim could never achieve it, while I have no idea how it works in 4e/5e.]

So those are my thoughts. Hope you enjoyed!

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