The Celestial Heavens, or simply Heaven, was a realm in the Spirit World, the domain of the Celestial Empire of Kara-Tur. "Heaven" was often a byword for the Celestial Empire itself, or for the Celestial Emperor.[2][1][note 1]
Inhabitants
Heaven was home to the Celestial Emperor and the Nine Immortals, as well as the Lesser Immortals and other officials of the Celestial Bureaucracy.[2]
Heaven was also home to the Ancestors, the spirits of the dead who'd been judged by the Lords of Karma to have lived a life of goodness and merit. They and enjoyed eternal lives without pain, weakness, or suffering.[2]
Locations
Each deity of the Celestial Bureaucracy had a small realm in Heaven.[1] At the Center of All Heaven, the Celestial Emperor ruled from his Jade Throne[2] in the Celestial Palace.[3]
Activities
The Moon Women of the Lesser Immortals had the great responsibility of maintaining Heaven itself. They refilled the oil lamps in the Sun, polished the crystal orbs of the stars, and steered the motions of the Moon and the constellations.[2] The Ladies of Compassion roamed Heaven to find and alleviate pain and suffering.[2]
Magic
A Sage (or "Budda", as they were known in Tabot) was a spirit who'd lived a life of boundless merit, purity, and resolve, with the sole goal of attaining perfection and becoming one with the will of Heaven, to become Heaven itself.[2]
Appendix
Notes
- ↑ Discussion of the Celestial Empire and its associated Bureaucracy in Kara-Tur: The Eastern Realms mentions that it is based in a realm called "Heaven" or the "Celestial Heavens". Player's Guide to Faerûn page 165 confirms the Celestial Bureaucracy is based in the plane of the Spirit World. Taken together, these imply that Heaven is a realm in the Spirit World. The Spirit World covers all of the continent of Kara-Tur, as does the sphere of influence of the Celestial Empire, suggesting that Heaven and the Spirit World are coterminous, even one and the same. For precision, this wiki adopts the view that the Spirit World and Heaven are distinct, with the former being a plane and the latter a realm upon it.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Richard Baker, James Wyatt (March 2004). Player's Guide to Faerûn. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 165. ISBN 0-7869-3134-5.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 Mike Pondsmith, Jay Batista, Rick Swan, John Nephew, Deborah Christian (1988). Kara-Tur: The Eastern Realms (Volume I). (TSR, Inc), pp. 24, 25, 26. ISBN 0-88038-608-8.
- ↑ Gary Gygax, David Cook, and François Marcela-Froideval (1985). Oriental Adventures. (TSR, Inc), p. 118. ISBN 0-8803-8099-3.