Game-Master Notes, DO NOT READ

• Celegia is inside the Crystal Sphere Celestia. Celestia has one earth body, Erth, which holds the Celegian Empire as a modestly capable player of the Great Game, all nestled within several Celestial Spheres, upon which dwell various stars, outer worlds, the many whorls, spikes, comets, and other features of the spheres, the Dawn, and the Sun, among many other lesser realms.
• The Celegian Pantheon, working through Termanant the Greater God, agreed with the Greater Powers of Celestia to isolate the Celestian Sphere until the Great Contest is finished.
• The Celestian Sphere is very, very far away from any other spheres with the Spark, and it is extremely unlikely any polity would be able to ever locate it from outside. Even if this nigh-impossibility ever happened, the Celestian Sphere is sealed from the inside by agreement with the Higher Reality entity known as the Invincible Stone Guardian of Thrax, which has never been defeated, or even challenged, in any state of conflict in which it has an agreed interest. The Crystal Sphere is sealed, utterly and absolutely, until the Contest concludes.
• Celegia is currently (as of C99) in a very strong defensive position (thanks to the Veils) but still only fourth, behind the third-ranked Hoard, with their mana rips, tattering attacks, and Carnivora. Currently the Hoard is approaching the borders of Celegia in C99.
• Stronger yet than the Hoard is the horribly alien and indescribably loathsome hyper-empire known as The Bevy, whose rather prosaic psychic focus is balanced by their overwhelming singularity of purpose, their awesome mobility, the truly gigantic resources they command, and the truly vast numbers of their Subservient.
• Strongest of all is the Theogonian Empire. Unless something drastic happens, as of C99 the Theogonian Empire is cruising toward a win in the Great Contest, so overwhelmingly strong that all others should submit to destruction simply to make things neater.

• Inside the Celestian Sphere, there is Erth, a vast supramundane earth body well over fifty million miles in diameter. Erth is between one thousand and a hundred thousand miles thick, and is hollow. Gravity is reversed inside the great hollow Erth. In the center of Erth reality becomes vague, and there is expressed one aspect of the True Hum, the mighty Dark Sun, Furnace, whose dire radiance has blessed and blasted the inner World for aeons. The Dark Sun was only the first of the curses bestowed by the Greater Powers, as the entire Inner World was gifted to the Invincible Stone Guardian of Thrax by the various Overdeities many hundreds of thousands of years ago, in exchange for the Guardian's Seal upon the Crystal Sphere.
• Erth lies within several Celestial Spheres, which create the day, night, dawn, and twilight cycles all inhabitants of Erth are familiar (save the remaining Inner-Dwellers, who suffer the dire blessings of Furnace toward eternity).
• The Unterwelt is vast beyond imagining, and lies within Erth between the Inner and Outer worlds. The Unterwelt is a thousand times larger than the surface, but poor, desperately poor, in...everything. To say that the uppermost reaches of the Unterwelt covet the surface world is putting it mildly.
• The Surface extends from the innermost Celestial Sphere to roughly twenty miles below the ground. Note that all Dwarves live in this twenty miles. Below that, it is the Unterwelt.

• Celegian Prospects. Despite being fourth, and a weak fourth at that, the Celegian Empire is not out of the Great Contest. They Empire has been making a very strong defensive core, with their Veils, and if they can develop ways to stop the mana rips of the Hoard, and grow large enough to combat the endless waves of the Subservient from The Bevy, they may make it to an honorable second. The Theogonian Empire is daunting.

Theogonian Majesties  

A form of auramancy

All Theogonians are Clerics, Fighters, Paladins, or Warlords. No Arcane magic at all, but their Majesties fill this lack handily.  The Theogonians also have 'blassed items' which serve as lay magic.  Over 80 percent of Theogonians are Lawful, over 70 percent are Neutral. Over 80  percent of Theogonians wear medium or heavier armor as everyday clothing.  This is a modesty/chastity thing.

All Theogonians practice Majesty. There are Seven Majesties, each of which has seven levels of strength. 

The Seven Majesties:

Rush
Crush
Push
Shush
Thrush
Flush
Blush

Each majesty has seven ranks, details to come.

• Developments
• Exploit the Celestial Cascade to reach Outside, engaging the Inner World or even reaching out to Reht, the Shadow Erth.
• Astral -> Force Fundament -> Turning Houses. If the Churches of Domana, Karena, and Teb can figure out the secrets, Celegia will be vastly informed.
• Primal -> Geomancy (Blood Magic/Aura Magic/Belief Magic) -> Tattermancy. The core strength of The Hoard is not greatly different from how Celegia uses the Primordial Hum. They may be able to corrupt/steal from the Hoard.
• Alchemy ->Technomancy -> Echoing. Leads to cosmic tram-lines, sky windows, Becoming, God-Web, even more significant things.

Mana Wells -> Turning Houses -> Gates -> Ley Lines -> Veils. Currently Celegia's only unique strength.

• The Church of Teb must be nurtured, Termanant is unable to intervene directly doe to the agreement with the Greater Powers.
• If Teb is allowed to, may be able to extend the Veil rituals into the vastly more powerful, and flexible, Void Bubbles and Mana Valves.
• Void Bubbles are completely unknown to-date in C99, but could be developed by extension of Tattering stolen/shared by the Hoard.
• Mana Valves could give Celegia the power to defeat even The Bevy and maybe even challenge the Theogonians, but there is no clear path to develop them in C99. Maybe the PC's could influence?