A Cosmological Survey of Daedric Domains and Extramundane Space
Oblivion is not a single place but an infinite multiplicity of realms, each governed—or contaminated—by will. Unlike Mundus, which is bound by the sacrifice of the Aedra and stabilized by linear time, Oblivion remains unfixed, its laws shaped entirely by identity, intent, and dominance.
Oblivion exists between Aetherius (pure magicka and divine origin) and Mundus (the created world). It is the middle state of reality: neither fully abstract nor fully constrained. Time, gravity, death, and causality are optional. Meaning comes from authority, not consensus.
Every distinct plane within Oblivion is either:
Ruled (direct extensions of Daedric Princes), or
Unruled (wild voids, demi-realms, or abandoned conceptual spaces).
To enter Oblivion is not merely to travel—it is to submit to a foreign ontology.
A Realm of Oblivion is not territory; it is identity externalized. A Prince does not inhabit their realm—the realm is the Prince, rendered spatially comprehensible to lesser minds. Mountains express temperament. Weather enacts ideology. Terrain enforces philosophy.
As such:
No two realms share internal logic.
Maps are unreliable.
Mortals cannot alter a realm without altering the will that defines it.
Daedra native to a realm are not born; they are expressed. When slain, they are reabsorbed and remade unless destroyed under rare ontological conditions.
Sphere: Dusk, Dawn, Prophecy, Conditional Love
Moonshadow is a realm of eternal twilight, where crystalline coastlines bleed into luminous oceans and shadows stretch with intention. Reality is soft, emotionally reflective, and symbolic. Time functions cyclically, reinforcing repetition and inevitability.
Mortals visiting Moonshadow often experience prophetic insight paired with personal loss. Fulfillment is always followed by correction.
The realm favors beauty that wounds.
Sphere: Conflict, Usurpation, Testing
This realm is an ever-shifting battlefield of ideological crucibles. Cities rise only to be overthrown. Authority exists solely to be contested. Survival requires betrayal—or mastery of it.
Boethiah’s realm reforms itself after each conflict, erasing permanence. Nothing remains victorious for long.
Stagnancy is punished as heresy.
Sphere: Bargains, Desire, Technical Truth
A deceptively idyllic realm: rolling plains, palaces of comfort, and rewards perfectly matching desire—at first. Over time, consequences reveal themselves with absolute literal precision.
Every structure reflects a completed contract. Every inhabitant is someone who misunderstood their wording.
The realm enforces promises more strictly than morality.
Sphere: Knowledge, Memory, Forbidden Truth
Apocrypha is an infinite archive made of thought, ink, and eyes. Knowledge physically weighs upon the soul. Time jerks and stalls. Sound distorts meaning.
Visitors are not attacked but catalogued. Leaving requires giving something unknown to yourself.
Understanding here is possession—and possession is permanent.
Sphere: Predation, Sport, Proving Strength
A vast wilderness under constant moonlight. Forests, tundra, deserts, and plains overlap, each hosting endless hunts. Prey and predator switch roles fluidly.
Death is not failure—only cowardice is.
The realm imposes hierarchy through pursuit. Survival grants favor; mercy grants nothing.
Sphere: Oaths, Betrayal, Endurance
The Ashpit is a brutal wasteland of slag, storm, and broken fortresses. Every inhabitant was abandoned, betrayed, or cursed.
The land itself scorches weakness but honors perseverance. Promises spoken here are unbreakable.
Malacath’s realm rewards suffering survived, not victory won.
Sphere: Destruction, Cataclysm, Revolution
A realm of volcanic landscapes, storming fire, and iron fortresses. Destruction is continuous but purposeful. Structures exist only to be broken.
The Deadlands are perpetually preparing for the next collapse.
Creation here is a prelude to annihilation.
Sphere: Secrets, Manipulation, Webs of Influence
This realm is layered impossibility: corridors folding into themselves, whispers embedded in stone, and truths revealed only through misdirection.
No being is alone here. Every action triggers unseen consequences.
Power belongs to those who never appear responsible.
Sphere: Infinite Energies, Purified Light
An oppressive radiance saturates this realm. Color replaces shadow; motion replaces rest. Undead cannot exist—nor can anything that violates Meridia’s imposed order.
Free will erodes under constant illumination.
The realm cleanses by erasure, not healing.
Sphere: Domination, Enslavement, Corruption
Coldharbour mirrors Mundus in grotesque parody. Cities exist to break inhabitants. Landscapes discipline rather than nurture.
Here, domination is proof of superiority. Resistance is cultivated only to be crushed.
Souls are commodities, not identities.
Sphere: Decay, Revulsion, Entropy
A realm of darkness, rot, carrion, and inversion. Structures crawl. Gravity disturbs. Hunger never ends.
Namira’s realm teaches truth through rejection: what mortals despise is what sustains existence.
Beauty here is forbidden by definition.
Sphere: Shadow, Fate, Uncertainty
Perpetual dusk and silence. Light bends, paths vanish, and probability twists. The realm protects through obscurity.
Those who hide are preserved. Those who seek certainty are lost.
Evergloam is inevitability without announcement.
Sphere: Pestilence, Natural Order
A structured hellscape where decay is regulated. Disease spreads with precision. Disorders exist to correct imbalance.
The realm functions like an organism maintaining itself through purging excess.
Suffering is not cruelty—it is calibration.
Sphere: Excess, Indulgence, Freedom
A constantly shifting parade of pleasure palaces, feasts, hunts, and intoxication. There is no single form—only indulgence without restraint.
Consequences are delayed until enthusiasm destroys itself.
Pleasure here is honest—and fatal.
Sphere: Madness, Contradiction, Unbounded Thought
Split between Mania and Dementia, the Isles express creativity and paranoia simultaneously. Logic exists only locally.
Madness here is not random—it is multivariate truth unfiltered.
Order is an option, not a rule.
Sphere: Dreams, Nightmares, Memory Distortion
Reality here behaves like a dream under threat. Forms melt. Fear becomes landscape. Memories repeat with variation.
Visitors risk losing not their lives—but their identities.
Sleep is the doorway, not the refuge.
Beyond the Princes lie countless minor realms:
Demi-planes created accidentally
Abandoned experiments
Collapsed identities
Ascended mortal fragments
Oblivion pockets formed by failed rituals
These realms are unstable, unpredictable, and often lethal. Most are unnamed.
Movement between realms requires:
Daedric invitation
Ritual binding
Artifact resonance
Major planar conjunction
Mundus resists Oblivion intrusions. Large-scale breaches destabilize reality, causing environmental collapse or metaphysical infection.
Souls in Oblivion are assets. Some are consumed, some repurposed, some immortalized as echoes. Death here is not release—it is reassignment.
Daedric Princes cannot create souls—but they can redefine them.
Aetherius: Source, purity, magic without will
Oblivion: Will without sacrifice
Mundus: Sacrifice given form
Oblivion represents what the gods became when they refused to die for creation.
The Realms of Oblivion are not destinations—they are arguments. Each realm declares a truth about power, freedom, decay, or dominance. Entering one is agreeing, if only temporarily, that its philosophy is valid.
The Aedra sacrificed themselves to make a world.
The Daedra refused—and now offer alternatives.
Oblivion is proof that reality did not need to exist this way…
only that it chose to.