Board Thread:Show-Related Questions and Answers/@comment-10745887-20161024002352/@comment-4839682-20161024054946

By "story realm" you mean a land with easily accessible magic. All are "real".

Rumple needed someone else to cast the Dark Curse because be couldn't sacrifice the heart of the thing he loves most. It wasn't his only "easy option", it was what he forsaw with his Seer powers.