The Chromatic Chord

Knowledge of the Cosmos

How much the world's peoples know of each tier of the cosmos, from the Primes and the Dark Entities down to the Material Plane, how that knowledge grows from era to era, and what medieval people believe.

Overview

The structure of the cosmos is real, and it is hidden. Knowledge of it follows a gradient: the higher a tier stands, the less is really known about it; the closer to the Material Plane, the more.

At every tier there are competing theories, many names for the same thing, and schools that disagree. Some speculation comes closer to the truth than other speculation, but nothing about the true layout of the universe is known for sure.

The Gradient

Each tier's own documents describe what is true of it. What people can know of it, and how, runs from least known to most known:

TierWhat can be knownEvidence
The Primes, with the BoundaryAlmost nothing directly. The Primes are felt only as the order of things, never met, and every account of what they are, how many, and whether they are persons or forces is inference.Scholarly inference; alignment custom; the rare, overwhelming meeting with an avatar
The Dark Entities: the Beyonders, Cast-Outs, and UnformedThat something hostile to the order of things exists, and what it does where it appears: the hosts it leaves, the ground it marks, the people it changes.Fear, taboo, and rumour; protective rites; the hosts people meet; scholars' few accounts
The Stewards and the Resonants as people meet themThe gods are well known as gods: their names, natures, wishes, and places. That a god is a condensation of a Prime, sustained by worship, is not known; Stewards are known only as figures of myth and doctrine.The gods' cults and religions; answered prayer and divine magic; myth; mystics' accounts
The Anchors beyond the Material Plane, and the HarmonicsThat other realms exist, that some are hostile or extreme, and that magic draws on deep sources; their number, order, and nature are theory.Travellers' and mystics' accounts; beings from other realms met on the Material Plane; the practice of magic and its schools; scholarly inference
The Resonant Zones and the VeilWhere they are, what they do, and what they cost, often precisely; why they are so is disputed.Direct experience of zones and of the Veil's thin places; harvest and settlement; travellers' accounts
The Material PlaneThe lived world, in as much detail as people's records, roads, and crafts reach. That it is one Anchor among many, a balance between extremes, is itself a scholar's idea.Everyday experience; record; craft and ordinary magic

Knowledge does not divide evenly between peoples. Long-lived peoples with deep record, dense societies with schools and clergy, and those who live beside zones or travel the Veil know more of some tiers than others, and their accounts rarely agree.

One thing breaks the gradient: the Dissonance lies closest to the Material Plane and is the least known thing within the world's reach, told of only by sealed books, rumour, and the rare survivor (see what people know).

Knowledge Across the Eras

Each more advanced era knows more, and more precisely, than the one before it. The Medieval Era is the first described; later eras are only later eras here, and what they learn is not yet set.

No era ever understands the cosmos fully or correctly. Opinions keep disagreeing, and the same concept keeps going by different names, in every era.

The Medieval Era

What medieval people roughly know or believe at the medieval present, c. 1,350 CR:

TierMedieval knowledge and belief
The PrimesHonoured, not studied: ordinary life follows alignment custom, seasonal rites, oath forms, burial practice, and taboos whose breaking counts as an offence against a Prime. Most people never think of this as worship.
The Stewards and the ResonantsThe gods are the best known part of the divine: plural, local, and close in local cults, systematic in the few organized religions. Each faith has its own account of what its gods are and where they came from.
The Dark EntitiesFeared rather than known. Every layer of religion keeps protective rites, taboo, and fear of them: organized religions as doctrine and study, local cults as warning stories and charms.
The other Anchors and the HarmonicsKnown as other realms and as the sources of magic.
The Resonant Zones and the VeilKnown as places: zones are harvested and some are settled, and the Veil is crossed by the few who dare, at old shrines, boundary roads, and thin places.
The Material PlaneKnown as the world itself, unevenly: well near home and along roads and records, thinly beyond them.

The deep doctrines belong to the highest circles of scholarship only, and are argued there rather than settled: see the knowledge and belief of Resonant Continuity and of the Fate-Songline Doctrine.

Reference Terms

Prime, Harmonic, Anchor, Resonant Zone, Steward, Resonant, Dark Entity, Beyonder, Cast-Out, Unformed, the Veil, and the Boundary are the reference terms of these records, not names people in the world use. In-world names vary by people, faith, and era, and are not yet fixed.

Truth and Belief in the Records

The cosmology, divine hierarchy, and magic documents describe what is true. What people know of a tier is stated in one line on that tier's overview, linking here.

In the Writers’ Guide

See Also