Worlds of Existence primer

The cosmology of 13th Age divides the universe into a few ages and a few worlds: the World or the Land, the Overworld, the Underworld, Hell, the Otherworld, the Aquatic Age, and others. Other worlds are alluded to in the sourcebooks, but we never received a map of the worlds so that GMs could detail it as they wished. This is my expansion of that cosmology.

Ancient Greek Cosmology

This cosmology consists of five worlds of existence. The world that heroes typically originate from is known simply as the World and the other four worlds are defined in relation to it. (The map inset right provides a rough overview.)

• The World itself ("Middle Story") is fairly diverse, including the human empire of the lands ("Earth"), the mermaid and sahuagin kingdoms of the depths ("River of Ocean"), and the efreet and azer nations of the volcanic wastes ("Pillars of Heaven").
• The Overworld  ("Vault of Heaven") and Underworld ("Hades") are briefly explained in the rulebook. They are loosely based on Norse, Hebrew, Greek and Mayan mythology.
• The Netherworld ("Tartarus") is only ever alluded to, but it is the world from which demons and devils originate. The Abyss is a giant chasm in reality that connects the World to the Netherworld, which the Gold Wyrm plugs with his body (or alternately descends into to fight demons every night). The devils have carved the many terraces of their Hell here.
• The Otherworld (not shown on map) is not part of canon but was briefly mentioned in the Pelgrane blog. As I understand it, the Otherworld exists beside the World and GMs could use it to fulfill whatever needs the Overworld and Underworld cannot. For example, phase spiders travel through this world and the fey hold their courts here. The Otherworld may be loosely based on Celtic and Aboriginal mythology and on pre-Tolkien fantasy novels.

I hope to explore these worlds in more detail in the future.