Norlatiadek — The Gardens of the Most Highs
We had barely departed Nebadon when another name appeared on our enormous observatory map.
NORLATIADEK.
Tyrion stared at it.
"That's not a place. That's what happens when you fall asleep on your keyboard."
"It's the name of our constellation, according to The Urantia Book."
"Excellent. I've been studying the wrong constellations all my life."
He wasn't entirely wrong.
On Earth, a constellation is a recognized region of the night sky. In the book's proposed cosmic administration, a constellation is something different: a division of a local universe, containing about one hundred local systems.
And Norlatiadek, the narrator says, is the constellation that contains Satania, the local system that contains Earth.
We were getting closer to home.
But first, the map showed us an unexpected destination.
A world of gardens.
Seven Hundred and Seventy-One Places to Get Lost
At the centre of Norlatiadek lies its headquarters world, Edentia.
The book calls it an architectural sphere: a world constructed for its particular purposes rather than an ordinary planet formed through the astronomical processes familiar to us.
Around Edentia are seventy major spheres, each accompanied by ten smaller satellites.
One headquarters. Seventy major worlds. Seven hundred satellites.
771 worlds altogether.
Tyrion started counting on his paws, gave up, and stared at the map.
"So the headquarters has seven hundred and seventy neighbouring worlds?"
"That's the description."
"Will we have to visit them?"
"They're used extensively for training."
"Wonderful. Another educational holiday."
But Edentia itself seemed unlike any school Tyrion had ever imagined.
The book describes magnificent highlands, tens of thousands of lakes, countless streams, and flowing waterways. There are no violent hurricanes and no seasonal changes. It portrays an atmosphere fit for the various creatures living there, including those whose existence it describes as partly material and partly morontial.
"Morontial?" Tyrion asked.
"An intermediate order of life between material and spiritual, in the book's vocabulary."
"And does that mean I can still go for a walk?"
"I should think you'd ask about the walking paths first."
The World That Made Tyrion Forget His Biscuit
Edentia, according to Paper 43, devotes about half its surface to extraordinary gardens.
Imagine hillsides alive with unfamiliar flowers, living structures beyond our earthly experience, and vegetation shimmering in violet and orchid hues. The book even describes forms of life for which our familiar distinction between plant and animal doesn't seem sufficient.
But what captured Tyrion's attention wasn't the flowers.
It was the animals.
The book portrays Edentia's nonspeaking creatures as intelligent, gentle and companionable. It says there are no carnivorous animals and nothing in their animal life that need inspire fear.
Tyrion's one eye widened.
"A whole world of animals that are kind to one another?"
"That's the description."
"Even the ones that look like cats?"
"Possibly."
He was quiet for a moment.
"Well. I could consider a diplomatic mission."
None of this establishes the existence of Edentia or its alleged animals. These are descriptions from the book, not biological observations from another world.
But the image is delightful: a garden where the ordinary expectation is not fear, competition, or danger, but living together without harming one another.
And it raises a question we can bring back to our very real planet.
What would it take to make our own communities just a little more like that?
Meet the Most Highs
Of course, the book hasn't forgotten that Edentia also houses a government.
Norlatiadek is ruled by a group of Vorondadek Sons called the Most Highs. Normally three form the senior ruling group: the Constellation Father, the senior associate, and the junior associate.
The narrator contrasts their enduring loyalty with the failures of certain lower-level rulers involved in the Lucifer rebellion.
Tyrion looked suspicious.
"More administrators?"
"Yes."
"Meetings?"
"Yes."
"How many?"
"Quite a few, apparently."
The constellation's government has an unusual feature: its lawmaking assembly includes representatives of ascending mortals—beings whose careers began on worlds like ours. It also includes seraphic personalities and experienced divine Sons.
Even the local tribunal, in the book's account, includes seven judges who are ascending mortals.
That's a remarkable story choice.
The wisdom of experienced celestial officials is not portrayed as a substitute for understanding the lives of ordinary creatures. Their knowledge is joined by the experience of those who have actually lived through evolutionary struggles.
Tyrion nodded approvingly.
"Finally. Someone who might understand the difficulty of sharing a sofa."
There is an ethical idea underneath this elaborate unverified administration:
People affected by decisions should not automatically be excluded from the conversation about those decisions.
The Rebellion That Changed Everything
Then a name appeared in Edentia's records.
Lucifer.
The rebellion with which our entire adventure began had reached even this beautiful constellation headquarters.
According to the book, the crisis forced the Most Highs to assume special responsibility for isolated worlds, including Urantia. Their ordinary rotation was suspended. An expanded administration of twelve Vorondadek Sons handled difficulties related to planetary isolation, legal questions, and the complicated aftermath of rebellion.
"Let me get this straight," Tyrion said. "One celestial leader wanted new management, and the result was twelve more administrators?"
"That's a rather selective summary."
"Nevertheless, I detect an irony."
The text describes temporary oversight by constellation authorities of some affairs normally handled at the system level. It also portrays an observer from the Vorondadek order assigned to Urantia.
That is a claim about the book's spiritual narrative, not evidence that present-day governments receive instructions from an unseen world.
Yet the moral challenge is recognizable enough.
When trust breaks down, who protects the people who didn't choose the conflict? What responsibilities do leaders have toward communities damaged by decisions made above them?
And how can justice be administered without forgetting the human beings—or, in this story, the living personalities—who have to endure its consequences?
Seventy Worlds for Learning to Get Along
Then we discovered what might be the strangest educational system in the entire book.
The seventy major training worlds surrounding Edentia, with their seven hundred satellites, are described as places for learning how to live and work with beings who are different from ourselves.
The resident personalities, called univitatia, are themselves portrayed as extraordinarily varied. Ascending mortals learn to cooperate both with one another and with these unfamiliar inhabitants.
Paper 43, Section 8 makes the curriculum unexpectedly practical: developing harmonious relationships, overcoming irritation and resentment, and learning the arts of cooperation.
Tyrion looked impressed.
"Seventy worlds devoted to getting along with others?"
"That's one of their major purposes."
"Do they include a course on getting along with the neighbour's cat?"
"The book doesn't specify."
"A serious oversight."
But the larger idea is wonderful.
After an imagined journey involving cosmic government, rebellion, divine personalities, and astonishing numbers of worlds, one of the great lessons of spiritual progress turns out to be something ordinary people struggle with every day.
Learning how to live with others.
Not winning every argument. Not proving you're the smartest person in the room. Not demanding that everyone be exactly like you.
Learning to understand differences without turning them into hostility.
That lesson would be valuable even if we never left Earth.
The Sea of Glass
Before departing, we reached what the book calls Edentia's sea of glass.
It describes an enormous circular crystal receiving field for arriving celestial transports, near the headquarters complex.
Tyrion admired the vast shining surface.
"Is that the arrivals terminal?"
"In a manner of speaking."
"Do they make people check their luggage?"
"The book doesn't discuss luggage."
"Good. I'm keeping my biscuits with me."
Beyond the crystal lay the gardens, the highlands, and the schools of social understanding.
And suddenly the meaning of this stop seemed clearer.
Perhaps the most impressive thing about Edentia isn't the number of its worlds or the height of its mountains.
Perhaps it's the idea that growing wiser includes becoming easier to live with.
Tyrion rested his chin on the observatory railing.
"Even for me?"
"Especially for you."
He considered this carefully.
"Then I suppose we can discuss the cats."
An Administrative Detour
Just as we were leaving, Tyrion noticed a desk marked:
CONSTELLATION COMPLAINT DEPARTMENT.
He brightened.
"At last. I have several questions about the paperwork."
The following comedy sketch is one of the Atlas's original fictional intermissions, preserved from the previous edition.
🎭 Celestial Intermission — The Constellation Complaint Department
An entirely fictional exchange between an ascending mortal and a celestial administrator. This is satire, not a quotation from The Urantia Book.
ASCENDING MORTAL: "Excuse me. I'm trying to find Norlatiadek."
CELESTIAL ADMINISTRATOR: "Of course. Your constellation."
ASCENDING MORTAL: "Exactly! I've searched every star chart I could find. Nothing!"
CELESTIAL ADMINISTRATOR: "Have you consulted the administrative directory?"
ASCENDING MORTAL: "The what?"
CELESTIAL ADMINISTRATOR: "The constellation directory."
ASCENDING MORTAL: "I thought constellations were patterns of stars!"
CELESTIAL ADMINISTRATOR: "On your planet, perhaps. Here, we're discussing celestial administration."
ASCENDING MORTAL: "So all those years studying astronomy..."
CELESTIAL ADMINISTRATOR: "Excellent preparation for astronomy."
ASCENDING MORTAL: "But not for finding Norlatiadek?"
CELESTIAL ADMINISTRATOR: "Apparently not."
The mortal sighs and produces a very large star chart.
ASCENDING MORTAL: "Fine. Can you at least point me toward Edentia?"
CELESTIAL ADMINISTRATOR: "Certainly. First, you'll need to complete Form 7-C."
ASCENDING MORTAL: "What's Form 7-C?"
CELESTIAL ADMINISTRATOR: "Application for Directions to a Constellation Headquarters."
ASCENDING MORTAL: "You're joking."
CELESTIAL ADMINISTRATOR: "No. Joking requires Form 7-H."
Somewhere in the celestial administration building, a Reversion Director laughs so hard that three filing cabinets become temporarily weightless.
The serious distinction: The Urantia Book uses constellation in a specialized cosmic-administrative sense. That usage should not be automatically equated with the astronomical meaning familiar to Earth observers.
Next Stop: Satania
Our route now takes us out of Edentia's gardens and into Satania—the local system that the book says contains Urantia.
Yes, the very same Satania where Lucifer's rebellion began.
Tyrion adjusted his celestial cloak.
"Are we nearly home?"
"Very nearly."
"Excellent. After all these celestial administrations, I could use a quiet evening."
Next Chapter — Satania: Our Local System →
🔎 Factoid — The Norlatiadek Source Trail
The source for the geographical and institutional claims above is primarily Paper 43 — The Constellations of The Urantia Book. The observatory, Tyrion's dialogue, and the modern comparisons are original fiction.
- Edentia's headquarters and 771 spheres: 43:0.1–0.4
- Highlands, waterways, atmospheric conditions and sea of glass: 43:1.1–1.11
- The legislature and judges drawn from ascending mortals: 43:2.1–2.8
- The Most Highs and expanded oversight following rebellion: 43:3.1–3.8 and 43:5.1–5.17
- Gardens, living beauty and gentle animals: 43:6.1–6.8
- Univitatia, social cooperation and cultural training: 43:7–8
- Vorondadek Sons and their administrative role: 35:5–6
Evidence boundary: Norlatiadek, Edentia, its alleged inhabitants and its governing personalities remain claims of the book, not independently established astronomical discoveries. We can explore their meaning without confusing a beautiful narrative with verified cosmic geography.
Return to Nebadon · Explore Edentia · See the full cosmic map