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Description
It's been a while since I uploaded a map. So have a map!

This is a diagram of the cosmos of the Horror Shop 'verse, reaching from the mundane world we all know, deep into metaphysical space.

This particular map of the known multiverse was taken from the collections of Alistair Hamilton, archmage, master of obeah, and former head of the New York Veil Treaty. Though the Atlantean projection used is rather simplistic in overall design, it does represent a solid introduction to the complexities of the known realms.
At the heart of the multiverse stands the Mortal Realm, also known as the Material, the Prime, or Gaia. The Mortal Realm is the axis around which the rest of the known multiverse spins. While humans primarily inhabit this realm of the Earth, many of the supernatural races--including dragons, giants, therianthropes, and the undead--also call this world home. Of the estimated 7.6 billion souls on Earth, 7.5 billion reside in the Prime.

Surrounding the Mortal Realm are five supernal planes, each bridging the conceptual gap between our reality and the fundamental forces of the multiverse. Each of these realms is a reflection of the Mortal Realm as seen through the lens of its respective pillar. The closer one is to the Mortal Realm, the more the Supernal Realm resembles the Prime, while the further one gets, the more abstract, alien and hostile it becomes.

Faerie, also known as Arcadia, Fairyland and the Storybook Realm, incarnates the ideals of life and passion. In this realm, everything is alive, from trees to rivers to the stars and planets to space and time to stories themselves. Those stories are faerie's human analogue, coming to life as the race we know as the fey. The fey create avatars known as characters to act out their own personal tales better and engage in needlessly dramatic intrigue within the various fairy tale kingdoms and courts that dot the verdant realm. At the heart of Faerie stands the legendary Fountain of Youth, also known as the Well of Souls. The Fountain is the source of all the anima--or life force--in the cosmos and is the cause of Faerie's extraordinary vitality.
Chaos, also known as the Elemental Domains, 'Aalam al-Jinn and Hundun, is a roiling realm where various primal elements flare into being, incarnating the ideals of change and creation. Its human analogues are the sapient elementals known as jinn. The jinns possess the ability to shape the very forces of creation through the art of wishcrafting. Over the centuries, the jinns have carved for themselves several nations out of the raw chaos, including the ifrits' City of Jewels, the sylphs' Republic of Four Winds, and the gnomes' Kingdom Under The Mountain. Chaos' cosmic foundation is the Keystone, the great monolith upon which is written all the natural laws of reality. It is the Keystone that determines the strength of gravity, the interactions of the nuclear forces, the properties of electromagnetism, the speed of light, and many other fundamental properties needed for the rest of creation to exist as it does.

The Underworld, also called the Realm of the Dead, Stygia, Sheol and Purgatory, is a bleak realm incarnates death and the inevitability of fate. This is the only realm where the human analogues are entirely derived from the souls of other races. For, as far as any scholar has been able to tell, all the reapers in existence are mortals who, in death, joined the enigmatic guardians of death. The exact workings of the Underworld are poorly understood, as the reapers don't appreciate the living meddling in the affairs of the dead. The pillar of the Underworld is only hypothesized, as no one has ever been able to confirm the existence of the Gates to the Afterlife. What is known is that the Underworld is not the final destination for the souls of the dead--there is something that lies beyond.

Shadow is known by many names, including the Netherworld, the Nightmare Land, Under the Bed and Closetland. It is a dark and fading realm that incarnates destruction and fear, where every day is Halloween and every night is another horror story. Indeed, the human analogues of Shadow are the horrors, living incarnations of fears and phobias. The horrors are ruled over by 31 ancient bogeymen, who have carved great domains out of the shadows. Each of these domains represents a specific, primal fear of mankind, such as the fear of fire, the fear of disease, the fear of loss, and the fear of the dark. At the deepest, darkest part of Shadow lies the Pit, the End of Everything itself. The Pit is oblivion, entropy, and the inevitable heat death of the universe made manifest. However, destruction is a necessary part of creation, for it allows room for new creation to flourish. The Pit is especially notable for being the endpoint for both the anima produced by the Fountain and the raw matter generated by the Keystone. The horrors' Parliament of Shadows hangs suspended above the Pit by great chains of adamant, crafted by some unknown civilization in a long-forgotten age.
Finally, there is the Spirit World, also known as the Invisible Realm, the Axis Mundi and the Totemic Realm. This strange realm defies a lot of conventions, as everything here has a spirit, a soul, and sentience. It incarnates the cosmic principles of will and balance. The region closest to the Prime holds the domains of the temporal spirits: the spirit of a particular river, or town, or street. As one travels deeper into the Spirit World, the spirits become more abstract: there are the spirits of the days of the week, of holidays, of nations, and so on. Beyond, one finds purely abstract domains, where dwell the spirits of math, language, or emotion, before reaching the palaces of the Archetypes, the most fundamental of spirits: the Spirit of Law, the Spirit of Nature, the Spirit of Time, the Spirit of Death and their ancient kin. The spirits compose this realm's human analogues. The pillar of the Spirit World is the World Soul, the greatest of all the spirits of the spirit world. It is the spirit of the Earth itself and represents the zeitgeist of our age. It is also the only pillar known to be sentient, willing to converse with mortals who are able to brave the strangest and most abstract reaches of creation.

Surrounding the realms material and supernal is the Astral Plane. This is the great noosphere that represents humanity's collective unconsciousness, the bounds of human understanding. It surrounds all the other realms completely, and infuses them all. There are many small domains carved out of the Astral by various powerful entities, all of which orbit freely around the Mortal Realm like planets in a solar system. Some scholars even argue that the five supernal realms are merely stable astral domains created by the interactions of the Pillars with the mortal realm. Mages, dragons, and powerful creatures from other realms can create their own small domains within the raw potential that is the Astral. Some of the most notable Astral domains include:
the Abyss, a wound on human understanding created by sin and evil, and the domain of demons.
the Akashic Records, a great library storing the collective sum of humanity's knowledge.
Cyberspace, a virtual world first created in the 80s, shaped by the internet and the growing digital networks connecting mankind.
the Dreamland, countless small domains made from the dreams of mortals.
the Empyrean Realm, the shining home of the angels.
Oceanus, the World Sea, the great river that connects to all other bodies of flowing water in existence.
the Wheel of Ages, the primordial orrery that lays out the path of history, both past and future.
the World Tree, a great tree whose roots reach deep into Shadow and the Underworld, and whose brows reside in Faerie and the Empyrean. Climbing its trunk will bring you from one realm to another.

The Outside lies beyond the Astral. It is the blind infinities between the stars, the void beyond creation, it is the time before the Big Bang and after the Pit consumes all of creation. The things Outside defy the expected rules of science, of life, of existence itself.
To all those who managed to read through this, thank you so much! I couldn't have done this without the help of , my partner in crime for the Horror Shop comic which will give life to this multiverse, and to , who has been my backstop on all things Horror Shop for nigh-on half-a-decade now. Also, tip of the hat to , whose brushes I used extensively in making the background for this piece.

As per usual, Horror Shop, the horror species and this specific planar layout belongs to yours truly - - but feel free to direct any and all questions, queries, and comments my way regarding anything about this massive ramble, or permission to use it anywhere in any way shape or form, and I'll get back to you posthaste!

And if you'd like to see more Horror Shop stuff, please the Horror Shop webcomic: www.horrorshopcomic.com/

Description
It's been a while since I uploaded a map. So have a map!

This is a diagram of the cosmos of the Horror Shop 'verse, reaching from the mundane world we all know, deep into metaphysical space.

This particular map of the known multiverse was taken from the collections of Alistair Hamilton, archmage, master of obeah, and former head of the New York Veil Treaty. Though the Atlantean projection used is rather simplistic in overall design, it does represent a solid introduction to the complexities of the known realms.
At the heart of the multiverse stands the Mortal Realm, also known as the Material, the Prime, or Gaia. The Mortal Realm is the axis around which the rest of the known multiverse spins. While humans primarily inhabit this realm of the Earth, many of the supernatural races--including dragons, giants, therianthropes, and the undead--also call this world home. Of the estimated 7.6 billion souls on Earth, 7.5 billion reside in the Prime.

Surrounding the Mortal Realm are five supernal planes, each bridging the conceptual gap between our reality and the fundamental forces of the multiverse. Each of these realms is a reflection of the Mortal Realm as seen through the lens of its respective pillar. The closer one is to the Mortal Realm, the more the Supernal Realm resembles the Prime, while the further one gets, the more abstract, alien and hostile it becomes.

Faerie, also known as Arcadia, Fairyland and the Storybook Realm, incarnates the ideals of life and passion. In this realm, everything is alive, from trees to rivers to the stars and planets to space and time to stories themselves. Those stories are faerie's human analogue, coming to life as the race we know as the fey. The fey create avatars known as characters to act out their own personal tales better and engage in needlessly dramatic intrigue within the various fairy tale kingdoms and courts that dot the verdant realm. At the heart of Faerie stands the legendary Fountain of Youth, also known as the Well of Souls. The Fountain is the source of all the anima--or life force--in the cosmos and is the cause of Faerie's extraordinary vitality.
Chaos, also known as the Elemental Domains, 'Aalam al-Jinn and Hundun, is a roiling realm where various primal elements flare into being, incarnating the ideals of change and creation. Its human analogues are the sapient elementals known as jinn. The jinns possess the ability to shape the very forces of creation through the art of wishcrafting. Over the centuries, the jinns have carved for themselves several nations out of the raw chaos, including the ifrits' City of Jewels, the sylphs' Republic of Four Winds, and the gnomes' Kingdom Under The Mountain. Chaos' cosmic foundation is the Keystone, the great monolith upon which is written all the natural laws of reality. It is the Keystone that determines the strength of gravity, the interactions of the nuclear forces, the properties of electromagnetism, the speed of light, and many other fundamental properties needed for the rest of creation to exist as it does.

The Underworld, also called the Realm of the Dead, Stygia, Sheol and Purgatory, is a bleak realm incarnates death and the inevitability of fate. This is the only realm where the human analogues are entirely derived from the souls of other races. For, as far as any scholar has been able to tell, all the reapers in existence are mortals who, in death, joined the enigmatic guardians of death. The exact workings of the Underworld are poorly understood, as the reapers don't appreciate the living meddling in the affairs of the dead. The pillar of the Underworld is only hypothesized, as no one has ever been able to confirm the existence of the Gates to the Afterlife. What is known is that the Underworld is not the final destination for the souls of the dead--there is something that lies beyond.

Shadow is known by many names, including the Netherworld, the Nightmare Land, Under the Bed and Closetland. It is a dark and fading realm that incarnates destruction and fear, where every day is Halloween and every night is another horror story. Indeed, the human analogues of Shadow are the horrors, living incarnations of fears and phobias. The horrors are ruled over by 31 ancient bogeymen, who have carved great domains out of the shadows. Each of these domains represents a specific, primal fear of mankind, such as the fear of fire, the fear of disease, the fear of loss, and the fear of the dark. At the deepest, darkest part of Shadow lies the Pit, the End of Everything itself. The Pit is oblivion, entropy, and the inevitable heat death of the universe made manifest. However, destruction is a necessary part of creation, for it allows room for new creation to flourish. The Pit is especially notable for being the endpoint for both the anima produced by the Fountain and the raw matter generated by the Keystone. The horrors' Parliament of Shadows hangs suspended above the Pit by great chains of adamant, crafted by some unknown civilization in a long-forgotten age.
Finally, there is the Spirit World, also known as the Invisible Realm, the Axis Mundi and the Totemic Realm. This strange realm defies a lot of conventions, as everything here has a spirit, a soul, and sentience. It incarnates the cosmic principles of will and balance. The region closest to the Prime holds the domains of the temporal spirits: the spirit of a particular river, or town, or street. As one travels deeper into the Spirit World, the spirits become more abstract: there are the spirits of the days of the week, of holidays, of nations, and so on. Beyond, one finds purely abstract domains, where dwell the spirits of math, language, or emotion, before reaching the palaces of the Archetypes, the most fundamental of spirits: the Spirit of Law, the Spirit of Nature, the Spirit of Time, the Spirit of Death and their ancient kin. The spirits compose this realm's human analogues. The pillar of the Spirit World is the World Soul, the greatest of all the spirits of the spirit world. It is the spirit of the Earth itself and represents the zeitgeist of our age. It is also the only pillar known to be sentient, willing to converse with mortals who are able to brave the strangest and most abstract reaches of creation.

Surrounding the realms material and supernal is the Astral Plane. This is the great noosphere that represents humanity's collective unconsciousness, the bounds of human understanding. It surrounds all the other realms completely, and infuses them all. There are many small domains carved out of the Astral by various powerful entities, all of which orbit freely around the Mortal Realm like planets in a solar system. Some scholars even argue that the five supernal realms are merely stable astral domains created by the interactions of the Pillars with the mortal realm. Mages, dragons, and powerful creatures from other realms can create their own small domains within the raw potential that is the Astral. Some of the most notable Astral domains include:
the Abyss, a wound on human understanding created by sin and evil, and the domain of demons.
the Akashic Records, a great library storing the collective sum of humanity's knowledge.
Cyberspace, a virtual world first created in the 80s, shaped by the internet and the growing digital networks connecting mankind.
the Dreamland, countless small domains made from the dreams of mortals.
the Empyrean Realm, the shining home of the angels.
Oceanus, the World Sea, the great river that connects to all other bodies of flowing water in existence.
the Wheel of Ages, the primordial orrery that lays out the path of history, both past and future.
the World Tree, a great tree whose roots reach deep into Shadow and the Underworld, and whose brows reside in Faerie and the Empyrean. Climbing its trunk will bring you from one realm to another.

The Outside lies beyond the Astral. It is the blind infinities between the stars, the void beyond creation, it is the time before the Big Bang and after the Pit consumes all of creation. The things Outside defy the expected rules of science, of life, of existence itself.
To all those who managed to read through this, thank you so much! I couldn't have done this without the help of , my partner in crime for the Horror Shop comic which will give life to this multiverse, and to , who has been my backstop on all things Horror Shop for nigh-on half-a-decade now. Also, tip of the hat to , whose brushes I used extensively in making the background for this piece.

As per usual, Horror Shop, the horror species and this specific planar layout belongs to yours truly - - but feel free to direct any and all questions, queries, and comments my way regarding anything about this massive ramble, or permission to use it anywhere in any way shape or form, and I'll get back to you posthaste!

And if you'd like to see more Horror Shop stuff, please the Horror Shop webcomic: www.horrorshopcomic.com/