Realms
Three realms, thirty floors
The journey starts where people stand, descends into the underworld, and climbs out through the sky. Every floor has its own ground, its own sound, its own four colours.
The Middle World
14 floors · levels 1–700
The Underworld
7 floors · levels 701–1050
The Sky
9 floors · levels 1051–1500
The Middle World
The realm people live in. The journey starts here, because the middle world is by definition where a person stands: steppe, tent, lake, barrow, summer pasture. The palettes stay on an axis of green, gold and earth; this realm grows sideways rather than upward — a geography, not a pile.
The Underworld
The descending arm of the shaman's journey. The telling counts the underworld as seven layers and Balbal builds seven: it starts at Erlik's iron gate, crosses nine dark rivers, and climbs from Shahmaran's cave to the inscriptions of the Eternal Stones. The tone darkens and the palette moves to red and violet.
The Sky
The ascending arm. In Altai shamanic telling the sky has nine layers, and those are Balbal's last nine floors: above the sea of fog to Tulpar's trail, from Huma's golden nest to Father Moon and Mother Sun, and on to the Golden Stake that holds up the tent of the sky. Each floor is brighter and emptier than the one before.