Konnichiwa!

It is obviously taking me WAY longer than I had hoped or expected to finish rewriting the 1st chapter of my fantasy story Master of Death (sorry about that BTW), and while I am still going to continue working on it, I figured I'd throw this blog out there in the meantime, to help people to better understand the worlds in which the story of MoD takes place.

First of all, the universe in which the story of MoD takes place is known as Sangai, which simply means "three realms" in Japanese, referring to the three realms of Asgard, Midgard, and Helheim.

Those familiar with Norse mythology may recognize these names (and some of the others that I'll use later on in this blog) as being the same as those of some of the 9 worlds that exist on the world tree Yggdrasil in it, and while the world of MoD is not based on Norse mythology, like a lot of good fantasy stories it was partly inspired by it, and if you know what these places are in Norse mythology you'll probably understand why I gave each of them the names that I did.

Anyway, in the context of MoD it would actually be more appropriate to think of these three different realms as Heaven, Earth, and Hell as they are described in the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam), but these comparisons aren't completely appropriate either, so allow me to explain what each of the Three Realms of MoD actually are.

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Midgard

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Midgard is the realm that is most similar to our own Earth, and consists of 2 continents and a number of small islands, existing in an ocean of seemingly infinite vastness simply known as the Endless Sea.

The main continent in Midgard is the supercontinent Terrapin, which as its name implies is actually the carapace (the upper half of the shell) of an enormous sea turtle known as Sekaigame, whose name literally means "World Turtle" in Japanese.

The supercontinent of Terrapin is enormous, and is inhabited by a number of different races, including (but not limited to) various races of Humans, Elves, Fairies, Dwarves, Gnomes, Goblins, Hobgoblins, Orcs, Trolls, Ogres, and even Lizardmen.

Some of those races (those in bold print) have actually been living on Terrapin for over 65 million years, and much like in our own world, a terrible mass extinction event took place on Terrapin 65 million years ago, when a meteor known as Datenshi (which means "Fallen Angel" in Japanese) struck the continent, and the time before this catastrophe is known as the Old World Order, and the time after it is known as the Current World Order.

Many changes took place within each of the three realms when the Old World Order came to an end, and on Terrapin countless species (including all of the Dragons, Dinosaurs, and other giant reptiles) are believed to have gone extinct when Datenshi fell, with the Elves, Fairies, and some of the smaller reptilian species like the Lizardmen managing to survive through it all.

The other continent in the realm of Midgard is Niflheim, more commonly referred to by the inhabitants of Midgard as Arctica, and as both of those names imply, it is an EXTREMELY cold place!

Most of the inhabitants of Terrapin know very little about Arctica other than how cold and dark it is there, primarily because members of the non-ancient races (those who did not exist during the Old World Order) are forbidden from even setting foot on the icy continent, in accordance with ancient treaties established millions of years ago between the non-ancient races and the Yuki-onna, an extremely ancient and powerful race of Snow Fairies who have lived on Arctica for hundreds of millions of years.

The day/night cycle on Terrapin is a result of Sekaigame swimming counterclockwise in a circle around Arctica, resulting in the sun (which is circling Arctica clockwise in the sky above Midgard) rising in the east and setting in the west for those living on Terrapin, with "east" being the direction that Sekaigame is facing as she circles Arctica, "north" being the direction of Arctica (which is always to Sekaigame's left), and "south" being the opposite direction of Arctica, spanning outwards forever into the infinite vastness of the Endless Sea.
(If you look at the sorts of "maps" of our own world made by Flat Earthers, you should get an idea of how the whole north/south thing works.)

Seasonal changes on Terrapin occur as a result of Sekaigame and the sun moving north and south periodically as they circle Arctica, with winter occurring when Sekaigame is closest to Arctica and summer occurring when she is furthest away from it.

On Arctica itself there is no day/night cycle or seasonal changes however, and it is always winter there, and it is always night.

Most of the beginning chapters of MoD focus on the events taking place on Terrapin at the time, especially the ongoing World War between the 2 great powers there: the Evilonian Empire in the west, and the kingdoms of Velnir and Akushina in the east.

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Helheim

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Helheim is the name of the underworld in MoD, and in the Current World Order it is divided into 2 distinct regions: the Dark Elven Kingdom of Svartalfheim, and the demon-infested hellhole known as Muspelheim, with a small quiet space existing between these 2 regions known as "the Dead Zone".

Helheim actually exists inside of Sekaigame's plastron (the lower half of her shell), and so there is no sunlight whatsoever there, and all of the different kinds of environments there are quite unlike anything known to exist in our own world.

During the Old World Order, the Drow (Dark Elves) actually had inhabited all of Helheim alongside some of the other ancient races, but when Datenshi fell 65 million years ago, hundreds of millions of demons somehow suddenly appeared in western Helheim, killing millions of Drow and forcing them to flee far to the east in order to survive.

The hatred that the Drow feel for the demonic invaders who perpetrated this genocide against them cannot be overstated, but there had actually been attempts at peace negotiations with the demons in the distant past, although these attempts at peacemaking always failed because the Drowish diplomats sent to negotiate would always be attacked immediately by the first demon to lay eyes on them.
(You can't really negotiate with an enemy like that, lol!)

While the Drow's diplomatic efforts may have been unsuccessful, they have been able to maintain a sort of frozen conflict in Helheim by building a great wall around Svartalfheim, constructing a massive army of golems and deploying them outside of it to protect them, and by not only regularly patrolling the Dead Zone to ensure that is it clear of demons, but even sending raiding parties into Muspelheim itself, both to slay demons and also to free some of the damned souls that are trapped there.

In the Current World Order, Svartalfheim is oftentimes referred to as the "shadow side" of Helheim, whereas Muspelheim is known as the "flame side" of Helheim, and while Svartalfheim is actually inhabitable by people from the surface (although it is always incredibly dark there), Muspelheim has become a completely inhospitable place to all forms of life since the demons took it over, and so special magic is needed to be used by the Drow before they can go on their raiding expeditions, in order to be able to withstand the toxic miasma and high temperatures there.

Aside from the Drow and the demons there are many other unusual creatures that inhabit Helheim, and while nothing but demons can survive in Muspelheim anymore, there are many different unique subterranean ecosystems in both Svartalfheim and the Dead Zone, filled with all sorts of different living things.
(The Dead Zone isn't completely "dead", in other words.)

Among the non-native residents of Svartalfheim are the damned souls and Vampires that live there, both of which are given refuge there by the Drow.

The soul of anyone who worshipped an evil god during their lifetime winds up spending their afterlife being tortured in Muspelheim by demons for all eternity, and although some of these individuals arguably deserve it, the Drow believe that eternal torture is inhumane, and they make a concerted effort to free as many of these damned souls as possible during their raiding expeditions, and offer them refuge in Svartalfheim upon freeing them.

Those afflicted by Vampirism typically have a hard time living on the surface, not only because of the constant threat of sunlight, but also because of the persecution that they oftentimes face there, and while the Drow tend to be somewhat isolationist most of the time, they have made it a point to offer refugee status to any Vampires living in Midgard who seek it, and they have negotiated treaties with almost all of the governments of Midgard to help facilitate this.

Although the origins of Vampirism are demonic, the Drow do not see Vampires as demons, but rather as victims of demons much like themselves, and so the Vampire inhabitants of Svartalfheim can live relatively worry-free lives there, with their unique dietary needs being addressed through voluntary blood donations from Drowish donors.

Helheim can only be reached from Midgard without dying by opening a Wyrmhole (a kind of portal) using the ancient Dark Magic spell "Go to Hell", and while even young Drowish children can easily travel between Helheim and Midgard, no member of any non-ancient race has ever been known to do so prior to Helena Dusklight.
(And she learned how to do so from Necky.)

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Asgard

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Asgard is the most remote and inaccessible of the three realms, even moreso than Helheim.

Like Helheim, it is divided into 2 distinct regions: the Light Elven Kingdom of Alfheim, and Vanaheim, the Kingdom of Angels.

The Light Elves of Alfheim are close relatives of both the Dark Elves of Svartalfheim and the various Elven races of Midgard, as well as the various races of Fairies that live in Midgard.

Although it is incredibly difficult even for Light Elves to travel between Alfheim and Midgard, they are able to maintain a somewhat active presence in the lower realms thanks to a unique form of telepathy that they developed, that allows them to communicate with their fellow Light Elves across realms, something that is normally impossible to do.

Much less is known about Vanaheim however, and it is believed that Vanaheim is where not only the Angels, but also the various gods of the Three Realms exist, although even the Light Elves know very little about what exists beyond the Gates of Heaven.

In the same way that those who worship evil gods go to Muspelheim when they die, the souls of those who worship the one true God (who is the Peace Goddess Evelyn according to Evelynists like the Light Elves) go to Asgard instead, and rather than burning in Hellfire for all eternity, they feel Heaven's Light shining on them instead.
(Eternal pleasure instead of eternal pain.)

Asgard is almost impossible for the inhabitants of Midgard to reach, with the only known way of doing so without dying being to ascend the Bifrost, a magical bridge of light that reaches down from the heavens towards the North Pole in the very heart of Niflheim, the most remote and inaccessible place in all of Midgard.

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I hope that y'all enjoyed reading all of this!

IDK when I'll actually finish my rewrite of Chapter I, but if y'all liked this blog I'll probably write more blogs like it if I can, maybe explaining the history of the world, the different races and religions, or the different characters.

Anyway, if anyone has any questions about any of the stuff that I covered in this blog, or has any suggestions as to what I should work on next, please leave a comment.

Sayonara!