Cosmology of Creation: Difference between revisions
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:I leave it to the sociologists and anthropologists to describe what the Prime Material Plane actually is. You, my dear reader, may also take it as an exercise to determine it for yourself, if you feel brave enough to do so. Beware, however, that your limited sense of what ''is'' not limit your judgement to what ''could be'', and most especially to what ''must be''." | :I leave it to the sociologists and anthropologists to describe what the Prime Material Plane actually is. You, my dear reader, may also take it as an exercise to determine it for yourself, if you feel brave enough to do so. Beware, however, that your limited sense of what ''is'' not limit your judgement to what ''could be'', and most especially to what ''must be''." | ||
==The Well of Power== | |||
Also known as the Fount of Reality or the Nascent Seed, the Well is that place from which all flows. It is widely supposed to be 'within' the Plane of Force, but it exists at such a high level of power no mortal has ever gotten any proof of its existence. There is fierce debate among the learned as to whether there is one Fount or many, or even if the Fount, the Well, and the Seed are completely different things. Exploration of such matters usually drive the curious past the Apotheosis, and once that terrible threshold is passed, little useful information trickles back. | |||
==The Silent Black== | ==The Silent Black== | ||
The Silent Black is assumed to be what lies past the edges of the Astral Sea. It is the place where everything winds downs and grows tired and eventually grinds to a stop. | |||
==The Outer Madness== | ==The Outer Madness== | ||
Also known as the Deep Dark, the End, the Terrible Black, the Void, and a million other names each as bleak and terrible. | |||
Beyond the infinite expanses of the Silent Black, underneath the Hells and above the Heavens, outside the edges of reality as we know it, existence eventually grows mad with the ennui of nothingness. The expanse of the Outer Madness flows away in all possible directions through all possible flows of time, forever. This would be a very boring place, except that in the Outer Madness, there are monsters. | |||
==Solaria== | ==Solaria== | ||
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==The Elemental Planes== | ==The Elemental Planes== | ||
Air, Earth, Fire, and Water | |||
These four planes are manifestations of the basic physical building blocks of the universe. Each is made up of a single type of energy or element that overwhelms all others. The natives of a particular Elemental Plane are made of the same energy or element as the plane itself. | |||
The Elemental Planes contain the building blocks of reality, a 'well' from which the Prime Material and all its countless imitators are constructed by some unknowable agent. Each Elemental Plane is made up of a single type of energy or element that overwhelms all others. The natives of a particular Elemental Plane are made of the same energy or element as the plane itself. | |||
The four classic Elemental Planes are the Plane of Air, the Plane of Earth, the Plane of Fire, and the Plane of Waterit is from these planes that the creatures known as elementals hail, yet they house many other strange denizens as well, such as the genie races, strange metal-eating xorns, unseen invisible stalkers, and mischievous mephits. | |||
==The Energy Planes== | |||
Five commonly known energy planes exist four in two pairs, in opposition, and the Plane of Force, which is posited to be the opposite of the Outer Madness. | |||
The first pair consists of the Positive Energy Plane (from which the animating spark of life hails) and the Negative Energy Plane (from which the sinister taint of undeath hails). Energy from both planes infuses reality, the ebb and flow of this energy running through all creatures to bear them along the journey from birth to death. | |||
The second pair consists of the Plane of Light (from which all light originates) and the Plane of Darkness (into which all light flows and is extinguished). Both of these Planes bleed their characteristics into all other planes, which is why light and dark are universal in most planes. Note that there is some high-level debate as to which way light and Dark flows: Some sages believe it flows as light into dark, while others feel that darkness flows over light. | |||
The last Energy Plane is the Plane of Force, and extremely hostile realm (even for a plane). The Plane of Force suffuses all reality and is the source of all motion. Force effects tend to be very strong and difficult to resist, and the highest ciphers believe that there is possibly infinite progression of 'nasted' demi-planes within the Plane of Force, each of higher and higher power, leading toward the Fount of Reality. These tales are probably apocryphal, as no mortal has direct evidence of any of this, althouh the ciphers and sages insist their scribblings demad that it be so. | |||
==The Astral Plane== | ==The Astral Plane== | ||
A silvery void that connects the Material and Inner Planes to the Outer Planes, the astral plane is the medium through which the souls of the departed travel to the afterlife. The Celestial Cascade is a vast structure within the Astral Plane which facilitates this transport of souls. Souls are valuable to those with few scruples, and as a result, the Celestial Cascade is enormously well-defended, and the secrets of reaching it require Deific might, or close to it. Despite the near-certainty that the Celestial Cascade exists, there is very little information about it in the hands of mortals. | |||
A traveler in the Astral Plane sees the plane as a vast empty void periodically dotted with tiny motes of physical reality calved off of the countless planes it overlaps. These motes may look like distorted 'bubbles' of reality, or as panes like holes in the void, or as circular motes of land, or flying mountains, or as disconnected, jagged landscapes, or may other manifestations. Despite the terrors of the Astral Plane, it is generally the safest of the planes...for certain values of safe. | |||
==The Ethereal "Plane"== | ==The Ethereal "Plane"== | ||
The Ethereal Plane is a ghostly realm that exists as a buffer between the Material Plane and the Shadow Plane, overlapping each. A traveler in the Ethereal plane experiences the real world as if the world were an insubstantial ghost, and can move through solid objects without being seen in the real world. Strange creatures dwell in the Ethereal Plane, as well as ghosts and dreams, many of which can sometimes extend their influence into the real world in mysterious and terrifying ways. | |||
The Ethereal Plane possibly borders the Outer Madness, and from the Ethereal Plane some sages have detected multiple versions of the Realm of Shadows, as well. | |||
==The "Plane" of Shadow== | |||
The eerie and deadly Shadow Plane is a grim, colorless duplicate of the Material Plane. It overlaps with the Material Plane but may be smaller or larger in size, and is in many ways a warped and mocking reflection of the Material Plane, one infused with negative energy (see Inner Planes) and serving as home for strange monsters like undead shadows and worse. There is some evidence that the Shadow Realm is actually many realms, and there may be multiple iterations of Shadow. There are reports of travelers who enter the Shadow Lands and come back to a Prime Material that they forever feel is slightly different than the one they came from. | |||
==The Realms of Hell== | ==The Realms of Hell== | ||
==The Demesnes of Daemonkind (The Abyss?)== | ==The Demesnes of Daemonkind (The Abyss?)== | ||