Pentalithic Ramblings

For the Tarosir setting I have created an almost entirely new planar mythology, though pretty much everything in the SRD is still true. This post will summarize the planes; later posts will go into greater detail on specific planes.

Outline of Cosmology

The setup is quite a bit simpler than the Great Wheel of the standard D&D cosmology. In the centre is the Material Plane and the Faerie Plane, separated by a shared Shadow Plane. Each has their own Ethereal Plane, though. Arrayed around this are the six Inner Planes, which are pretty much as described in the SRD; however, the names are slightly different. I omit the word “Elemental” from the common names of the elemental planes, and the energy planes are called the Plane of Life and Plane of Decay. (It should be obvious which is which.)

There are only six Outer Planes; five of them form a sort of pyramid around the Inner Planes, while the sixth encircles everything. The Astral Plane connects all of the other planes, and there is a Plane of Dreams as well.

There are also a number of demiplanes as well as the enigmatic Planes of Mirrors, but these will not be covered here.

Material Plane

The Material Plane has the following planar traits (most of these are defined in the SRD):

• Gravity: Normal
• Time: Normal
• Shape and Size: Self-contained sphere, about 25,000mi or 40,000km in circumference
• Morphicity: Alterable
• Affinities: No elemental or energy traits
• Alignment: Mildly neutral-aligned
• Magic: Normal

The Material Plane is the location of the continent of Tarosir. The existence of additional material planes has not been entirely ruled out.

The Material Plane is spherical, but not like the Earth; the Earth is a 2-sphere, while Tarosir’s Material Plane is a 3-sphere. That means that if you travel straight up or down (and can pass freely through solid objects or damaging environments such as magma), you’ll eventually end up back where you started. This sphere is the entirety of the plane, meaning that it is finite in size.

In addition to the continent of Tarosir, the plane contains at least one other continent, as well as a floating city of cloud giants.

The Material Plane is coexistent with the Shadow Plane, the Ethereal Plane, and the Plane of Faerie.

Plane of Faerie

The Plane of Faerie has the following planar traits:

• Gravity: Light
• Time: Flowing (1 week on the Material Plane is 1 hour on the Plane of Faerie)
• Shape and Size: Self-contained sphere, about 20,000mi or 32,000km in circumference
• Morphicity: Alterable
• Affinities: No elemental or energy traits
• Alignment: Mildly neutral-aligned
• Entrapping: Save DC 10 + number of days (only after accepting gifts)
• Magic:
  • Enhanced - arcane spells and psionics (but not divine spells) are empowered and extended
  • Impeded - deity powers are impeded on the Plane of Faerie (this doesn’t affect a deity’s normal spellcasting from class levels)

The Plane of Faerie is similar to the Material Plane, but doesn’t touch the Ethereal or Astral Planes. The only way to it is through the Shadow Plane or permanent portals. Its entrapment trait makes it dangerous to accept food or gifts from the native inhabitants.

Transitive Planes

There are five types of transitive plane: Astral Plane, Shadow Planes, Ethereal Planes, Plane of Dreams, and Planes of Mirrors. The Astral Plane and the Plane of Dreams are unique; there is only one of them. The other three transitive planes are not so unique. There are several Shadow Planes and several Ethereal Planes.

Astral Plane

The Astral Plane has the following planar traits:

• Gravity: Subjective directional
• Time: Timeless
• Shape and Size: Infinite
• Morphicity: Alterable, psionically, weakly divine
• Affinities: No elemental or energy traits
• Alignment: Mildly neutral-aligned
• Magic:
  • Enhanced - any one spell per round may be cast as a swift action, even by a spontaneous spellcaster (psionic powers are also subject to this)
  • Enhanced - any psionic power (except Genesis) whose name or description involves “ectoplasm” is also maximized and extended

The Astral Plane of the Tarosir cosmology is quite a bit different from that of the standard D&D cosmology. Distance in the Astral Plane is not subjective; the time taken to travel from one place to another depends on their relative location, rather than on how well you know the destination.

The Astral Plane is coexistent with every plane except the Plane of Faerie, the Far Realms, and the Planes of Mirrors. A few of the more powerful deities have carved out their divine realms in the Astral Plane itself.

Ethereal Planes

The general traits of an Ethereal Plane are as follows:

• Gravity: None - inhabitants move by thought
• Time: Normal
• Shape and Size: Same as coexistent plane
• Morphicity: Alterable
• Affinities: Mildly aligned towards the element or energy of the coexistent plane
• Alignment: Mildly aligned towards the alignment of the coexistent plane
• Magic: Normal

The Material Plane and each of the Inner and Outer Planes (except the Far Realms) have their own independent Ethereal Plane; no Ethereal Plane links to any other. Demiplanes connected to one of these planes are usually also connected to the Ethereal Plane of their parent plane.

Shadow Planes

The general traits of a Shadow Plane are as follows:

• Gravity: Normal
• Time: Normal
• Shape and Size: Same as coexistent plane
• Morphicity: Alterable, magical, as divinely as coexistent plane
• Affinities: No elemental or energy traits
• Alignment: Mildly aligned towards the alignment of the coexistent plane, but never good-aligned
• Magic:
  • Enhanced - spells with the shadow or darkness descriptors are maximized
  • Impeded - spells with the light or fire descriptors are impeded

The Material Plane and each of the Outer Planes (except the Far Realms) have their own independent Shadow Plane. The Plane of Faerie also shares the Shadow Plane of the Material Plane.

All six of these Shadow Planes are connected by the Deep Shadow, a separate Shadow Plane coexistent with no other plane. Thus, you can use shadow travel to visit the outer planes.

Plane of Dreams

The Plane of Dreams has the following planar traits:

• Gravity: Subjective directional (usually)
• Time: Flowing (10 minutes in the Material Plane = 1 minute in the Plane of Dreams)
• Shape and Size: Infinite
• Morphicity: Highly, strongly divine
• Affinities: No elemental or energy traits
• Alignment: Mildly neutral-aligned
• Magic:
  • Limited - spells and psionic powers that cause sleep in any form do not function on the Plane of Dreams.
  • Enhanced - The Restless¹ and Nightmare spells function, but the visions produced manifest themselves physically in the plane. As a result, everyone within the range of the spell is subject to the spell’s effects, including the caster.

The Plane of Dreams is highly fluid; even its connections change arbitrarily. The Plane of Dreams is always coexistent to any plane containing a being who is dreaming, even if that being’s physical body resides in a plane not normally coexistent to any other plane, such as the Far Realms or a Plane of Mirrors. The Plane of Dreams is also coexistent with the Astral Plane, but there is no correspondence between distance in the two planes; it’s entirely possible to enter the Plane of Dreams from the Astral Plane, travel east for two hours, then return to the Astral Plane and find yourself five hours’ travel northwest of your starting point.