The Rain & Max Saga

Into the Aether

Through the Akashic Library — a guide to the realms, races and histories behind the saga, with original artwork from the world-building archive.

Back to the saga

The Realms

Beyond the Astral Planes

The Source
The one creator of the universes. No physical shape or form — pure energy. Creator of all: the Akashic Library, the Ethereals, the Arc Angels, the Astral Planes, the Arcturia Realm, the Seven Chakra Realms, and the pure elements Ignis and Nin.
The Akashic Library
Every knowledge and history of the realms — past, present and future — logged as soul journeys. Its location is ever changing, past the Astral Planes within the rim of the Ethereal Realm. A massive stone staircase climbs to great wooden doors surrounded by ornate pillars.
The Gates of the Akashic Library
The living threshold between the known and the recorded. Twin doors inlaid with turning galaxies flank a great arched gate where nebulae swirl like smoke and the path itself seems to breathe. Here the prophecy first recognizes those who are named.
The Great Doors
Hand-carved and inlaid with living galaxies, the doors show the universes themselves turning in their panels. Only a record keeper — or one named in the prophecy — can open them.
Inside the Library
Inside there is no ceiling, only endless carved wooden shelves in a warm Victorian light, leather-bound books and Ethereal record keepers drifting between the stacks. From a distance the books look like orbs of light; up close they take physical form — and at the centre, a portal opens onto the stars.
Akalik — the Ethereal Language
Part Arabic, part Chinese, part numbers, written like an equation. Twenty-two consonants. When Max reads Akalik for the first time, the script flutters and rearranges itself into English.
The Ethereals
Angels, Arc Angels, light workers and record keepers, made by the Source from pure energy and shaped by their characteristics. The record keepers never leave the library; the rest live in the Ethereal Realm. They feed on the beam projected by the three moons of the Allium and the crystal core of Arcturia.
Archangel Michael
The most powerful of the ethereal Angels. Defeated the Dragon in the ancient war, father of the pure elements Ignis and Nin, and bearer of the Sword of Light. His presence marks the line between the Ethereal Realm and the Darkness that would unmake it.
The Arcturia Realm
A large planet with a crystal core and three moons, pink skies, and carbon-and-crystal life carrying ZmDNA. Solarpunk crystalized cities and rural villages. Races: Allium, Arcturians and Ascendants; languages, Arcturian and Akalik.
The Crystal Core & Three Moons
The core's gravity pulls the three moons together into a gigantic diamond that projects a beam of energy into the Ethereal Realm — the food and life source of the Ethereals, and the sun of the whole system.
Arcturians
The civilians of Arcturia: tall and lean, any skin tone, any hair colour, softly pointed ears and round eyes rimmed in iridescent white or gold. They study nature, crystals, the Akashic records and soul progression, and believe true power lies within.
The Allium
The royal family of Arcturia — bright white hair that shifts colour with emotion, a crystal embedded beneath the hairline, elvish ears and pink oval eyes. Telepathic, able to transcend by meditation and speak with the planet itself.
The Royal House
The Allium govern from the Royal City on the crystal mountain, guided by the record keepers and the belief that the Source is the source of all.
The Royal Palace
Carved into the crystal peak above the solarpunk capital, the palace was the heart of pre-Discord Arcturia — an open, light-filled seat of a civilization that had never known war.
The Ascendants
An elitist faction of Arcturians who put their faith in science, technology and cybernetic ascension — taller and stronger than the Allium, and convinced that power should be built rather than earned.
The Master Ascendants
The rebellion's architects. They harness the raw power of the crystals directly, breaking the covenant with the planet and setting the Discord in motion.
Arcturian History — Discord
War between the Master Ascendants and the Allium. The Allium do not believe in violence; the Ascendants harness the crystals and win. The planet is torn into two pieces and the crystal core dies.
The War Machines
Crystal-fed mechs and weaponised tech turned on a people who had never built an army — the moment Arcturia's solarpunk age ended.
Post-Discord — The Desert
The lower half of the shattered planet: a desertpunk world of canyon ruins and salvage, where the surviving Arcturians are enslaved and the Allium line is hunted.
Post-Discord — The City
The Ascendants rule from a cyberpunk metropolis raised on the debris of the fallen royal city — neon, chrome and surveillance where crystal spires once stood.
The Astral Planes
The gateway to the parallel universe system created by the Source. Its inhabitants are fallen Ethereals like Eight, lost Akumas and lost souls — and the webs Eight spins to navigate and to hunt.
The Gateways
Thresholds between realms — monoliths, doorways and portals that open when the prophecy calls Rain and Max across the planes.