The Umbra

At the centre of the universe lies Sol, the sun, source of all life.  Third world in orbit around that great furnace is the Earth, the realm of Gaia.  It is the physical world that we all know and acknowledge, but around it move other worlds of which most humans know nothing.

The Umbra, the spirit world or Astral Plane, is a dimension that lies next to and around the world of matter.  It co-exists with the physical realm (where it is called the Penumbra) and extends outwards into the vastness beyond.  At the edge of Earth’s atmosphere, the physical realm as we know it ends.  In ancient times the physical and spirit realms of our world were one, but by the hand of mankind they were sundered.  Outside of Earth, however, the physical and the Astral are still one and the same.  There is a barrier where the Earth's atmosphere ends, called the Gauntlet, and beyond lies the Near Umbra, what modern man calls the solar system.  Beyond that, in turn, lies the mysterious infinity of space, the Deep Universe, also known as the Deep Umbra.  It is truly the final frontier.

THE PENUMBRA

The Umbra that co-exists with, yet separate from the Earth is the spirit world spoken of in myth and legend.  It is a strange and eerie place, a world of shifting mists and shadows.  Those few who can see into this realm, and the fewer still who can leave their physical forms behind to explore it properly, know that it is home to spirits and etherial beings.  It is by portals through the Penumbra that one can reach the Shadow and Reflection Realms of Earth, the latter being those other dimensions that are all that remains of the universes created prior to this one.  It was to prevent the inhabitants of those universes from leaking into this one that the Council of Elements, the body later to become the Bureau, was formed.

THE NEAR UMBRA

A vessel leaving Earth’s atmosphere passes through the Gauntlet and into the Umbra proper.  The Near Umbra holds the sun, the moon and the other planets, as well as their Reflection and Shadow Realms.  Arcadia, for example, is the Shadow Realm of Luna.  Here physicality and the spiritual are one and the same, so telecommunications satellites orbit even while ancient supernatural entities watch.

THE DEEP UMBRA

Beyond the edge of the solar system lie the infinite reaches of space, the Deep Umbra.  What modern man might call ‘aliens’ are indeed extraterrestrials, but they are just as likely to be powerful spirits as little green men.  Out here lie places mankind has never seen and beings of such power to seem as gods.  Thankfully, these beings have their own concerns, incomprehensible to humanity, and seem content to leave the rest of reality alone.  It is also said that in the Deep Umbra lies Malfeas, the Doorstep of Hell and home of The Wyrm.   

REALITY PRIME

Until recently, the Bureau policed all Shadow and Reflection Realms equally, for all were (mostly) stable realities.  Each planet had a single Shadow Realm, a vastly different world that just happened to occupy the same space as the planets we knew (such as Earth and The Shadowlands and the Moon and Arcadia), and an apparently infinite number of Reflection Realms, the n-parallel worlds spoken of in science fiction.

However, there was a shock revelation: the Earth of the Parallax Club was in fact Reality Prime, the supposedly mythical dimension of which all others were merely pale imitations.  According to Bureau legend, whereas normally most Realms exist independently of each other, what happens in Reality Prime affects ALL other dimensions.

Given what is happening, this is not good news...