Cosmology

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"Dimension" redirects here. For RuneScape's 200th quest, see Dimension of Disaster.

Structure of the multiverse.

Cosmology is the study of the universe, which is divided into several planes, sometimes known as realms and dimensions, within which exist worlds and other celestial bodies.

These planes are separated from each other by the Abyss, and separated from the Abyss by planar barriers. Because of the universe's planar structure, it has sometimes been described as a multiverse, however, the various planes of existence actually belong to only one universe. However, other parallel universes do exist. Because of the Abyss' nature as the "glue between worlds", it is possible to use it to travel to other worlds. It is also possible to travel to the same world using the Abyss as a shortcut. At the edge of the Abyss is a membrane, also known as the periphery, separating the Abyss from the Void, which is infinite emptiness. Inside the periphery are many different realms, created by the Elder Gods. Their current creation is also known as the current revision, because they 'revise' or restructure the universe every time they wake up from their slumber.

Types of Planes

Planes come in several forms, whether they be coterminous planes, incorporeal planes, multi-dimensional planes, the shadow realm is conveniently all three of those, while other planes may be layered, such as Infernus, which consists of multiple planes stacked on top of each other . All of the planes inside the multiverse can be separated into 4 different types.

• The lower planes are the oldest worlds in the current revision, except for Freneskae, which is a remnant of the previous. All the worlds on this plane are unbalanced and often lean towards a specific element. It is on these worlds leftovers from the previous cycle are most obviously visible. An example of this would be Ancient Magicks, which were first discovered on these worlds. The currently known, lower-plane worlds are:

World	Planar Alignment	Creator
Freneskae	Balance	Elder Gods
Infernus	Smoke	Elder Gods
Vampyrium	Blood	Elder Gods
Leng	Ice	Elder Gods
Shadow Realm	Shadow	Elder Gods

• The elemental planes were created by the elder gods when they split up. The worlds on this plane have an obvious alignment with a certain element. Which element depends on which god or gods created the world. Occasionally the Elders would return to these older worlds to refine their abilities of creation. The currently known, elemental-plane worlds are:

World	Planar Alignment	Creator
Muspell	Lava	Ful and Bik
Abbinah	Smoke	Jas and Bik
Yu'biusk	Mud	Wen and Bik

• The catalytic planes show a high level of sophistication. They were created when the elder gods had already learned much about the universe and were trying out new techniques for creating worlds. They combined familiar elements with other elements of the universe. The catalytic worlds themselves are divided into 3 different types. These are the currently known Catalytic worlds:

World	Planar Alignment	Creator	Sub-plane
Ocularis	Body	Bik and something else	Primordial plane
Teragard	Law	Wen and something else	Primordial plane
Kethsi	Mind	Jas and something else	Primordial plane
Naragun	Nature	Bik and something else	Higher plane
Hallow	Astral	Jas, Wen and something else	Transcendental plane
Tarddiad	Soul	Jas, Bik and something else	Transcendental plane

• The balanced planes were created last. They are capable of generating a steady flow of Anima Mundi. The worlds are created with the combined strength and knowledge of all the elder gods. It is here that the Elder gods created their perfect world and went to sleep. The currently known balanced-plane worlds are:

World	Planar Alignment	Creator
Gielinor	Balance	Elder Gods

All worlds

Main article: Category:Realms

World	Inhabitants	Description	Type
Abyss	Abyssal creatures	The Abyss is made of the detritus of previous universes.	Binding-realm
Abbinah	Aviantese	Abbinah is a harsh place with little water and a shattered outer core consisting of floating islands, as well as a chaotic open core that is the only place where water can be found. The islands move at high speeds, with only a few city-sized islands in stable orbit. From above, Abbinah is obscured by hurricanes and storms that rage across the surface.	World
Britain	Humans	Unknown	Unknown
Cheanannais	Fairies, Pixies	Rich in nature.	World
Cosmic entity's plane	Cosmic Being	The cosmic plane is a small bit of land floating in what seems like nothingness.	Unknown
Enchanted Valley	Wood Dryads, Centaurs, Tree spirits, Rock Golems, River trolls	The Enchanted Valley is a world full of nature. The main area of the valley is surrounded by a thick layer of trees. At the center of the main area lies a lake.	World-shard
Fisher Realm	Humans	The Fisher realm consists mostly of grass fields and trees.	Unknown
Freneskae	Nihils, Muspahs	Once considered a "perfect" world, Freneskae is now a dark wasteland. Its toxic atmosphere is riddled with constant lightning storms, and volcanic eruptions and lava flows mar its surface of bare rock. Its native life struggles to survive in the harsh climate, and as a result it is a world of constant warfare.	World
Gielinor	A high variety of species	Gielinor is a mixture of mountainous, barren, forested, volcanic, snowy and tropical areas. Most of its cities lie in kingdoms, and others on numerous islands. Much of Gielinor is lush with water resources, enabling the existence of vast rivers and seas. There is also a large, destroyed continent to the north called the Wilderness. Known continents of Gielinor are the Wushanko Isles and the Forinthry site, which is today called the Wilderness. Tropical areas lie to the south, while the north is cold and icy. The south-east is largely a barren desert, the far west is a dense taiga forest, and the far east has a humid, marshy climate.	World
Gorak Plane	Gorak	The Gorak Plane is a relatively small area, shaped roughly like a doughnut with grey clouds in it.	Unknown
Iaia	Ilujanka	Iaia is a planet inhabited by cold-blooded creatures. The world possesses three moons, a star and consists mainly of marshland. The star is not visible because the world is surrounded by a cloud of dust.	World
Infernus	Demons	Infernus is a world devoid of any life and contains liquid fire and rocks.	World
Kethsi	Kethsians (formerly)	Kethsi is a world of vast ruins and large, putrid swamps.	World
Killerwatt plane	Killerwatt	The Killerwatt plane is a world consisting of small islands floating in nothingness.	Unknown
Land of Snow	Queen of Snow, Snow imps	The land of snow is a cold world covered with snow.	World-shard
Leng	Glacors	Leng is a frozen and inhospitable world of the lower planes.	World
Mazcab (previously known as Chantli)	Airuts, Goebies	Mazcab is a world mainly covered in reddish sand and rocks but with an abundance of water. Unlike most other worlds, Mazcab has a variety of biotopes such as jungles and deserts.	World
Naragun	Naragi (extinct)	Naragun consists of what appears to be giant trees supporting shattered floating islands, which have leaves dangling from the bottom of them. Lights can be found dangling from the branches on the sides of these islands.	World
Ocularis	Stalkers	Unknown	World
Primordial realm	None	This realm is a specific part of the Abyss, which consists of the leftover "junk" that the Elders used to form reality. It is an empty realm aside from the seemingly endless fields of sacred clay.	World-shard
Puro-Puro	Imps, Implings	Puro-Puro is a world consisting mainly of wheat-fields.	Unknown
Renmark (destroyed)	Centaurs, Ice sprites	Renmark was a world of wild nature where the four seasons were in constant conflict.	World
Runecrafting altars	None	Varies	Pocket-dimension
Runespan	Essence creatures	The Runespan is an area of small floating islands connected to eachother by magic. In the middle is a huge tower, the runecrafting guild.	Pocket-dimension
The Spider Realm	Spiders	Realm is a dark, empty place divided in levels. Each of the levels are made up of gigantic spun webs which must be navigated across in order to reach the top.	Unknown
The Spirit Plane	Gorajos, Sinkholes, Gulega, Honovi	The spirit plane appears to be a lush, wooded plane in which spirit shards are abundant.	Unknown
Tarddiad	Elves	Tarddiad is a world covered entirely by trees. It also includes various crystalline features.	World
Teragard	Humans	Teragard is a cold world covered in ice. At the centre of the world, is a rift to the Abyss known as the Schism.	World
Vampyrium	Vampyres	Vampyrium is a world with a blood-red sky and many castles and fortresses.	World
Yu'biusk	Goblins, Orks, Ogres, Cyclopes, Ourg, Hobgoblins, Trolls, Fayrg, Raurg.	It was originally a cool and wet place, covered in marshes, swamps, and other wetlands. Now it is a wasteland ravaged by war.	World
Zanaris	fairies, Gatekeepers, Orks	Zanaris is the moon of Gielinor. It is mostly covered in fungi, plants and forests. The normal laws of physics and logic do not apply on Zanaris; for instance, animals can talk and plants require no nutrients or sunlight to grow, and emit a faint glow.	Moon

The Black Hole Bobonosia (formerly Jermyn) Dream World Enchanted Valley Fremennik spiritual realm Fisher Realm Freneskae Gorak Plane Grim Underworld Gielinor (default realm) Iaia Infernus Kethsi Killerwatt Plane Land of Snow Leng Mazcab (formerly Chantli)

Naragun New Domina Ocularis Primordial Realm Puro-Puro Renmark ScapeRune Shadow Realm Spider Realm Spirit Plane Spirit Realm Tarddiad Teragard Vampyrium The Void Yu'biusk Zanaris

Lesser-known realms

The outside of the Body altar

• Runecrafting altars (located within pocket dimensions created by the magical energies of the runestones and altars)
• Runecrafting Guild ("within a strange plane parallel to RuneScape", more commonly known as the Runespan. The Runecrafting Guild was created within the Runespan by the magic of the Runecrafting Guild Wizards)
• "The Void" (the realm that the various pests in Pest Control use to reach Gielinor)
• Realm of the Grim Reaper (visited by all players upon death for the first time in Gielinor; where some of the Halloween Holiday Events take place, in the Reaper's very house; possibly the Grim Underworld, though no connection between the Reaper and the demons has yet been established)
• Britain, the world where King Arthur, Merlin, the Lady of the Lake, Morgan Le Faye, Sir Mordred, and the Knights of the Round Table hail from
• Plane where Shield of Arrav was created
• Home plane of the dark beasts (described as a "shadowy dimension" and where the potent dark bow came from when the bow was released; the Examine text of both reveals that they have come from a "darker dimension")
• Home plane of Otherworldly beings
• Home plane of Balance Elemental (where it apparently returns upon its demise)

The waterfall in the Enchanted Valley

• Enchanted Valley (classified under Other Realms in Fairy Ring journal)
• Sparse Plane (actually part of the Zanaris dimension but isolated; classified under Other Realms in Fairy Ring journal)
• Realm of the Orks at Orks Rift
• Multiple realms Har'Lakk the Riftsplitter opens portals to whilst attacking the player
• Dimension of the Culinaromancer (visited once in the final sub-quest for Recipe for Disaster; blocks Prayer to the Gielinor deities, prevents you from calling upon creatures from the Spirit Plane through Summoning, and forces your gravestone to appear outside portal instead of within dimension upon death)
• Realm of Agrith-Naar (possibly part of the Infernal Dimensions; where Guthix banished him to after the God Wars, before he bypassed his Edicts somehow, apparently by causing natural disasters on Gielinor)
• Realm of Thammaron (possibly part of the Infernal Dimensions; accessed in the Shadow of the Storm)
• Realm of the Imps and/or Hellrats (possibly part of the Infernal Dimensions)
• Numerous pocket dimensions of POH (created with the assistance of the Wizards and their research into folded pockets of space)
• Home plane of Tumeken (where he came from before arriving in Gielinor and creating the Menaphite Pantheon)
• Home realm of the wolf Hati, of "elemental power and endurance, spawned from a place beyond this world"
• At least some of the Random Event locations
• Homeplane of the Behemoths
• Homeplane of the Gorajo

The rune essence mine, though secluded from the rest of RuneScape and accessible only through a certain teleportation spell, is nevertheless a part of Gielinor (unlike the Runecrafting altars or Runecrafting Guild), located in the ice fields to the north.

Alternate realities

Besides the main worlds, RuneScape has alternate realities. These are worlds like RuneScape, but slightly different. The currently known alternate realities are:

• Dimension of Disaster
• ScapeRune