Aetheric polarity • Elemental planes • Spirit taxonomy
Plasma, liquid, solid, gas, and aether (also called quintessence). While the first four states of matter define elemental behavior, aether is the shaping force behind consciousness, universal law, and metaphysical formation. Aether forges mind, body, and soul — connecting all realms through conviction, structure, and aspiration.
Aether manifests in two opposing energetic currents — Radiance and Rot, Light and Shadow — which govern the cycle of creation and dissolution. These forces are distinct from good and evil and instead represent affirmation and negation, cohesion and entropy. Together, they are the metaphysical axis around which all other elements align.
There are six elemental planes that serve as the basis of all formation:
Worlds capable of sustaining mortal life typically exist at points of intersection — regions where the elemental states converge in relative balance. Fire (plasma), water (liquid), earth (solid), and air (gas) are the material basis for natural laws. These elements are further modulated by light (radiance) and shadow (rot), the metaphysical conditions necessary for perception, energy flow, memory, and entropy.
In these overlapping zones, stable ecosystems and conscious life can emerge. It is in such regions that the mortal realms form — places where material, energetic, and aetheric forces exist in sufficient tension and harmony to enable mortality, will, and growth. They vary in their elemental balance, aetheric alignment, and planar permeability. Some are stable and disconnected from external influence; others experience active bleed with the elemental planes. Occasionally material worlds may even overlap with one another.
The planar realms of Faerie and the Nether are metaphysical overlays formed from the collective emotional byproduct and cognitive output of mortal souls. Where souls resonate, they shed spirit — belief, fear, passion, superstition, and grief. These emissions aggregate and coalesce into vast reactive planes:
These planes primarily overlap with mortal realms, especially where mortals are populous or emotionally active. In some cases, they reflect or echo the geography or memory of the mortals that generated them. In other cases, they are wholly alien. They may also overlap with elemental realms, resulting in elemental spirits.
Within Faerie and the Nether, small localized demiplanes — called pocket realms — can form. These pockets emerge from high concentrations of emotional, spiritual, or ideological resonance. They reflect intense, focused, collective mortal thought or belief. Examples include:
Some mortal realms are partially overlaid by such pockets. In these areas, the environment may exhibit minor anomalies, metaphysical traits, or manifestations tied to the theme of the pocket. Other mortal realms remain isolated, without direct overlap. The presence and influence of pockets depends on spiritual density, cultural memory, and the degree of planar alignment in the region.
Shared mortal beliefs about reward and punishment can shape metaphysical territories within Faerie and the Nether — forming realms often referred to as heavens and hells. These are subjective afterlives, shaped by cultural values and emotional reinforcement. When sustained by large-scale faith or organized religion, these demiplanes can grow significantly in size and stability. Powerful, long-standing belief systems may generate deities capable of manifesting tangible influence and forming expansive afterlife realms.
In some cases, the collective reverence of followers may even allow such gods to bind or receive the souls of believers after death, anchoring them within the heaven or hell their doctrine envisioned. The structure and function of these realms vary depending on the culture or ideology that shaped them. If belief in the doctrine diminishes over time, the corresponding realm may begin to weaken, fragment, or collapse — releasing its spirits, dispersing its energy, or leaving echoes of its former presence behind.
These realms reflect belief more than morality. A heaven formed in the Nether may be cold but tranquil. A hell in Faerie may be bright but cruel.
Spirits are metaphysical beings — souls pulled and formed either through concentrated mortal belief, emotion, and myth, or sired by older spirits. Their appearance, behavior, and power depend on the nature and intensity of the thoughts that created them. While often labeled according to their influence, the labels are subjective. Classifications vary by culture, but include:
These labels are not universal. Any spirit may be called god, demon, or fey depending on the observer. The only constant is that all spirits are sustained by the will and spirit of collective mortal souls.
Aether gives rise to three core mortal components:
spirit is emotion-driven, amplifiable by presence and passion, and behaves like a wave. Mana is logic-driven, activated by thought, and behaves like a circuit. Spells and magical effects emerge when the ego aligns these forces toward an outcome.
The mortal soul is formed from the oneiric metaphysical component of aether. At the birth of a mortal realm, each soul's resonance is set directly by local elemental ratios and amplitude, defining an initial fundamental frequency. In later inception, blank egoless souls drawn from Faerie and the Nether are pulled toward embryos whose parental elemental alignment, prenatal conditions, and ambient metaphysical environment present a close resonance match; establishing a baseline frequency that subsequent emotional activity modulates over a lifetime.
An individual soul continuously releases spirit as a byproduct. Some of this energy can be retained as a local buffer against external metaphysical influence, but retention is limited by individual will. Excess uncontrolled energy disperses into the surrounding metaphysical medium, contributing to regional planar makeup. Isolated wavefronts lose coherence within minutes. Sustained activity at sites such as shrines, battlefields, or theatres can create constructive interference, producing standing patterns that persist for years and serve as seeds for pocket‑realm formation. This overflow displays an inherent tendency toward Radiance or Rot based on the cohesion–entropy profile of originating emotions, rather than conscious intent.
When biological support ends, a soul detaches from its physical anchor and is pulled toward Faerie or the Nether along gradients set by its prevailing resonance. It initially retains memory and personal identity, but these traits dissipate as willpower relaxes. Unless intercepted by a pocket realm, confined within a powerful heaven or hell, or otherwise held in place, a blank soul drifts within Faerie or the Nether until it is drawn back to a compatible embryo at conception. Bodiless souls that remain anchored in the mortal realm, whether ego‑intact or ego‑eroded, are classified as ghosts.
A ghost is the soul of a deceased mortal that has remained cohesive instead of entering the usual post‑mortem passage toward Faerie, the Nether, or dispersing and fading toward other destinations. Its persistence is sustained by a strong will, intense emotion, unfinished purpose, or an external binding. Because ghosts are a direct remnant of mortal consciousness—rather than a construct of collective belief—they are classed separately from spirits.
The mortal body is formed from the structured material component of aether — stable and organized enough to support fixed chemical bonds, gravity, and measurable time. This structured order allows the soul to operate within a lawful environment where intent can produce consistent effect. Reliable physics let the soul test its will against a meaningful predictable world, turning agency into narrative and design into action.
Bone marrow, during normal hematopoiesis, not only forms blood cells but also produces mana: microscopic particulate crystals composed of trace elements. These particles remain suspended in plasma and reflect the host’s intrinsic polyhedral morphology and unique elemental resonance — a proportional imprint of the six elemental planes — based on the creature’s biology, diet, and birthplace. This prismatic pattern and elemental ratio governs how efficiently an individual can channel magic aligned to each element and facet of reality.
As long as blood circulates and the nervous system is active, the mind can direct mana along vessels and nerves, aligning their crystalline lattice into spell-ready geometries and altering their resonance and vibration to suit the desired magical effects. Thought overlays pattern onto matter — allowing reason and lucidity to manipulate the world's laws without violating them. As a material entity, mana adheres to the laws of conservation. The weave and flow observed in spellcasting is the acceleration and reorientation of billions of crystalline particles into ordered paths with cognitive mental precision.
Once blood leaves the body, however, this control network collapses. Clotting halts the flow. Without neural pulses and enzymatic upkeep, the mana crystals fall inert.
Mana integrates magic into the same physical framework that stabilizes the mortal realms. By obeying conservation of mass and energy, magical phenomena avoid disrupting the elemental equilibrium — acting as bends in the laws of physics, not breaks. This moderation buffers extreme surges of Radiance and Rot that might otherwise shatter reality.
At death, the mortal body completes its cycle. Mana sediments and decays — precipitates into soil, drifts on air currents, seeps into plant roots, or diffuses along leylines — supplying that material for ecosystems reuse, just as flesh returns to and fertilizes the soil. The mortal coil thus serves as a stabilising medium: it converts nutrients into mana and returns that by‑product to the environment, imposing axiomatic law and equilibrium at the eye of spiritual chaos and elemental pressure.
Hollows are unfortunate, artificial, or accidental beings with a body and sustained by mana, but lacking a soul. They may move, act, and even think, but they do not resonate with or generate spirit. They cannot be touched by soul-affecting magic, and they do not project presence into Faerie or the Nether. They are metaphysically inert — animated by mana alone.
Some hollows are created deliberately, such as constructs, arcane golems, or magical clones. Others arise through misfortune — when the soul is forcibly removed, fails to bind, or decays prematurely. Many forms of undead fall into this category. Reanimated entities such as zombies, skeletons, or even vampires are typically considered hollows: their bodies move, their minds may persist, but their souls are absent, severed, or inert. They require mana to sustain themselves. Some undead may retain memories or personality fragments, but they do not participate in the soul cycle or project spiritual resonance.
Spirits are made of soul and spirit. Hollows are made of body and mana. One flows from belief and emotion. The other obeys thought and structure.
All official Kniraven settings operate within this cosmological framework. Whether exploring urban fantasy, sword and sorcery, horror, sci-fi, post-apocalyptic wastelands, modern occult conspiracies, or interplanar conflict, each setting draws from the same underlying structure. This ensures consistency across storylines while allowing for infinite variation in tone, theme, and scope.