THE PLANESEos is one world set within the
Prime Material Plane (Also known as 'the normal world' or 'the real world', by those native to it). It is by no means the only world within that plane, as many other ones exist, and can be accessed through Spelljamming (See the next post for information on that). Beyond the Prime Material plane entirely, there is a host of other realities to find.
The are four ways to travel to the planes, as follows:
Plane-hopping: Some planes are, by their very natures, linked together at certain points. A character sailing through the river Styx will find that their boat-trip will take them across numerous planes, for example. Most of the Outer Planes are linked to all adjacent planes in the Great Wheel, and a character can get around by simply orienting themselves correctly, and traveling. Similarly, all of the Inner Planes are linked together.
Portals, Curtains and Shallows: There are many naturally-occurring links between planes. The heart of a volcano in the Prime Material might have a shallow to the Plane of Magma, while an unholy temple of Ilsensine might, in specific times of the year, form a portal to Acheron. If such a pathway between the planes is known about, characters can simply travel to it and use it as a means to plane walk. This form of transport is thus reliant on knowledge, which characters may know personally, or seek to find out through study or help from NPCs.
Personal Magic: Powerful magic-users and manifesters are capable of transporting themselves immediately from one plane to another, sometimes taking passengers along. This is seen as the 'brute force' means of plane travel, and allows instant access to any plane in the multiverse. Some magic items and artifacts exist that create this same effect.
Spelljamming: Spelljammers are the premier way to travel both through the Prime and the various other planes. Almost all such craft have some ability to shift between different planes, and in that way they become a base of operations for adventurers, merchants and nations which can travel anywhere in the multiverse.
The nearest planes to the Prime are those that touch directly upon it, as follows:
The Plane of Shadow borders on the Prime. In its ‘
shallows’, it is a dark reflection of the Prime Material Plane, with similar geography, landmarks and sometimes even cities set on analogous locations. Traveling long into the Plane of Shadows takes one ever deeper into that plane, and it begins to morph into its own dark, horrifying reality of darkness, death and loss.
Faerie is seen by many as the Plane of Shadow’s analogous opposite: it borders on the Prime in the same way, though it is instead a world of bright colors, mysteries, mysticism and wonderment. There are many stories of travelers being enraptured by the charms and wonders (or malice) of the fey creatures and landscapes, not to be heard again for centuries, until they finally return, changed forever.
The Ethereal Plane is a vague land of raw possibility, a world not yet made. From the shallow side of the Ethereal one can faintly glimpse the Prime, seeing it as if through multicolored curtains of shimmering light. The entire plane is covered in a slow-shifting rainbow fog of proto-matter, which reacts to the thoughts of those who come within it: discipline is advised, as thinking long about one’s fears or enemies can be deadly in the Ethereal Plane. This property can also be used in benign ways, and there are actually a few cities within the Ethereal, built out of the thoughts of every one of its inhabitants. Through the Ethereal, one approaches the
Inner Planes.
The Astral Plane is a silvery universe of reason and thought. It is a vast void, littered with the remnants of old, faded thoughts and the raw possibility of new ones, fading into a horizon of silvery nothingness that seems always unreachable. Those with powerful wills and some training can fly through this void: the stronger the will, the faster the flight. Throughout the Astral, the husks of old dead gods float, turned to stone as the final effigies to faiths forgotten. The natives of the Astral Plane have little respect for these deific graves, building their cities upon them. Through the Astral Plane, one approaches the
Outer Planes.
Beyond these four planes that touch directly on the Prime, there are two groups of planes, somewhat more remote:
The Inner Planes are also commonly called the
Elemental Planes, vast worlds made out of the materials that make up the rest of reality:
Earth, Fire, Water, Air as well as
Positive and
Negative energy. Every one of these materials is its own plane in the Inner Planes, as well as every combination of them (for instance, the union of Fire and Positive energy brings about the
Plane of Radiance). All these planes have shallows with each other in a way similar to how Faerie and Shadow has with the Prime, places where the different materials mix and join. Some of these shallows are destinations in their own rights, with breath-taking cities of impossible architecture built in the uncanny mixing of the stuff of reality.
The Outer Planes are the planes of thought and belief. These are worlds made out of the faith, fears and beliefs of every sentient person in the multiverse, as filtered and mixed through the Astral Plane. In the Outer Planes are such famous planes as the
Nine Hells of Baator, the
Abyss,
Mount Celestia,
Elysium and more. The Outer Planes are shaped like a great wheel, with Good-Aligned planes been typically drawn as being northwards (The Upper Planes), evil-aligned planes southwards (The Lower Planes), Law westwards and Chaos eastwards. At the center of it all, representing neutrality, are the
Outlands, the outer plane that most closely resembles the Prime Material. At the center of the Outlands, built upon the tip of an infinite spire, is
Sigil, which some claim is the city at the center of the multiverse. It certainly is at the center of the Outer Planes.
