In the fictional Guardians of Time Trilogy, author Marianne Curley constructs a highly detailed alternate universe in which much of the action of the series takes place, unknown to the regular world. In this universe, two organizations battle for control over time.
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The Guardians of Time (known also as The Guard) is a society dedicated to preserving history against the attempts of the Order of Chaos to alter it. It is headed by a sexless immortal called Lorian, who is backed by a Tribunal of nine members, each a representative of a house.
The headquarters of the Tribunal, as well as the Guard itself, is located in Athens, year 200 BC, outside of the mortal measurements of time. For their purposes, they also use a place called the Citadel, connected to another area known as the labyrinth (also used by Order of Chaos) which serves as a disembarkation point for the Guards' missions into the past. Guard meetings frequently take place in Arkarian's, a Guard member's, abode hidden within the depths of a mountain. Connected to this mountain is the hidden city of Veridian and later learned, also connected to Neriah's fortress.
The Order of Chaos (known also as The Order) is the collective group of villains in the series. It was created by, and is currently led by Lathenia, the Goddess of Chaos, the Order seeks to alter the Prophecy predicting their fall by changing the events of the past. As the Goddess of chaos, Lathenia attempts to manipulate the past, in order to alter the present to create chaos (floods, famines, etc.) for her own benefit. Her ultimate goal is to gain control of the world, because she believes that she should have been born first, rather than her brother, Lorian. The identities of the members of the Order are kept secret, even from each other, so we don't find out who many of them are in the books. The Guard battles against the Order, trying to protect the present from their attempts at destroying it.
Realms are separate locations existing in alternate dimensions. To travel to another realm, a rift must be opened to it, allowing travel to the other realm. Only Immortals, or several other powerful beings acting together can create a rift. A single person with the given power of agelessness, which endows the receiver with some reduced immortal powers, generally cannot force a rift to open by themselves.
The Earthly realm is where most of the book takes place. The Citadel, Tribunal, etc. are all in the Earthly realm.
The Earthly realm is unique in that it is the last of the living realms - that is, it's the only realm that is still creating new souls. In order for the realm to remain living, evil must not be allowed to completely dominate the realm. For instance, the Underworld was once a living realm, but ceased to be after evil took over.
The Middle realm is where lost souls wander until they reach the afterlife. They "cross over" when they cross a bridge over a river, leading them, presumably, to the Heavenly realm. This bridge is destroyed in The Key and replaced with a portal leading directly to the Underworld.
Souls generally wind up here when someone dies outside of their time. If the body their soul inhabits dies while they are in the past, their soul will enter the Middle realm instead of passing directly to the Heavenly realm. Souls trapped in this realm can be returned to their bodies in the present, but the person's Soul-mate must enter the middle realm and call out to them; they can hear no other person's voice and cannot exit any other way than the passover otherwise.
The Heavenly realm is an extremely large place; in The Key, Matt arrives somewhere in the middle of the realm, and travels 90 billion kilometers to reach the edge of the realm.
The Heavenly realm is divided into 7 levels, each with its own sun. On higher levels, you can see the suns of all the levels below you. Any souls not trapped in the Underworld can enter this realm upon death (it can also be visited by those who are not dead as well, as long as guided with an Immortal). John Wren enters this realm on level 1 after being freed from the Underworld. All levels below 7 appear to be some sort of purgatory, where the soul is cleansed before it is allowed to the next level (John Wren murdered his wife and then killed himself).
Dartemis hides by being just slightly outside of this realm's borders. It is unclear how this is accomplished or what realm he may be considered to be in, but it is clear that this convinces everyone that he is dead, as they cannot sense him anywhere in any realm.
There are a number of other ways to move from the middle realm to the heavenly realm. The key one is to seek forgiveness on what brings the soul to the middle realm.
There are also a number of additional reasons why souls can be in the middle realm. Currently there are millions (not hunderds of millions or billions) of souls in the middle realm. The oldest soul in the middle realm is is likely to have been there for thousands of years.
The Underworld very dark and full of strange creatures. These creatures are souls that have been trapped in the Underworld and have become deformed because of this. The land itself has developed trials that one must endure to cross the land.
At the center of an acid rain, there is a building capable of opening a rift into a similar room inside the Citadel. This building was constructed and used by the survivors. The survivors were people who fled the Underworld as it was about to be taken over by evil. They escaped into the Earthly realm and made the city of Atlantis. Their technology at that time was significantly more advanced than current technology. When Atlantis sank into the ocean, the survivors then built the Citadel, and made it invisible to natives of the Earthly realm, as their technology was far to advanced to be seen by them. Since then, the survivors have also been known as the angels, and they help operate the Citadel.
In the books, there are references to "other realms" and it is said that there are many of these other realms. They are never visited or spoken about in more detail than this.
In Marianne Curley's Guardians of Time Trilogy series of fictional books, members of the Guard and Order usually have two birth powers, sometimes three. They are taught to use these powers by their trainers. When they are initiated, they are given gifts by each of the members of the Tribunal. These gifts can be a strengthening or focusing of existing powers, abilities, additional powers (rare), or reinforcement of a character's weak area.
Members of the Guard and Order usually have two birth powers, sometimes three. They are taught to use these powers by their trainers. When they are initiated, they are given gifts by each of the members of the Tribunal. These gifts can be a strengthening or focusing of existing powers, abilities, additional powers (rare), or reinforcement of a character's weak area.
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