Magic, Gods & Goddesses. Oh my!

The Magic and Pantheons of Maelstrom Earth has been woven together carefully to encompass as many styles of magic as possible. The are four ways in which a character can use magic within our world (and in all cases, one must work to master these forces) and they are as follows:

  • Your character was born with innate magical talents.
  • Through hard work, study, and discipline, your character mastered the mystic arts.
  • At some point a powerful entity or deity empowered your character with magical abilities.
  • You discovered an artifact or relic that grants you magical abilities.

Marvel, DC, Vertigo, ElfQuest, and Dresden form the backbone of our current canon. Other canons will have to be integrated into this, or staff will have to vote on modifying the system to accommodate them.

The Gods of Earth (Olympus, Wakanda, etc.) are beings of tremendous power who occupy a dimension or ‘demesne’. On their home dimension they are almost limitless in power, and even while on Earth they are beings of incredible power. Their home dimensions are attached to the Demiurge. The Demiurge is the source of all mystical power for Earth, and many attached worlds— an ancient being of fathomless power, and responsible for the proliferation of magic.

Asgard claims nine planets, including Earth, as part of their realm; other worlds are part of the Demuirge’s domain, but otherwise independent. In some cases, the magics of the various realms and worlds can touch and be interwoven.
The Otherworld, ruled by Morgana le Fay from her Realm of Avalon, has appointed two smaller groups to help watch over the day to day goings on of all thing mythical, magical, fae, etc. These two groups are the Winter Court, overseen by Mab and the Summer Court, overseen by Titania.

Many sources of magic exist beyond the Demiurge; the ancient Lords of Order empower Dr. Fate to fight agents of entropic Chaos, while Dr. Strange is empowered by Oshtur, one of the Eldest Gods created by the Demiurge. Other cultures and planets have their own magical traditions, but the tremendous power of the Demiurge produces a surprising number of extraordinarily talented magi.

Far beyond the Demiurge are entities of primal importance to the Universe. These are Primal Entities; manifestations of singular emotions or concepts. Galactus, who is Hunger; Death, Dream; Parallax, who is Fear; and others. Ancient but notable forces include the Celestials and the Watchers, two of the oldest of all sentient beings still alive. Every universe in the vast multiverse contained some ‘version’ of these powerful beings as expressions of those fundamental emotions. The Living Tribunal sits above all others as the ultimate arbiter of these primal powers.
External forces have visited this plane of existence; Dormammu, a being of infinite malevolence from an extraplanar existence; and the Beyonders, creatures not subject to time and space.

The Multiverse itself— all possible dimensions and places— is protected by the Heavenly Host at the order of the Creator-Of-All. The Heavenly Host exists across all multiverses, sometimes in parallel at once. The oldest of all creations is the First of the Fallen, a companion to the Creator. Sammael was made manifest not long after, and the rest of the Host followed. When Sammael fled heaven and became Lucifer, he created the dimension known as Hell and his allies populated it, corrupted into demonhood over the millennia.

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License