The Planes

Apia Cosmology

Apia the continent sits on the planet that shares its name, within a system of planets that occupy a crystal sphere floating in the endless flogistum of the Prime Material Plane. This is well known. Additionally, thanks to the work of numerous wizards, druids, priests and scholars, the interactions that Apia has both with other worlds within the prime material plane and the other planes of existence have been well documented.

Apia as a planet is remarkably sensitive to planar disturbances. The arrival of both Warforged and Giff is proof of this. To say nothing of the longstanding belief that humans themselves were taken from another planet or even plane of existence. While some of these planes interact with the material more than others, all are capable of being visited by those with the magical skills, or in race cases technological ones, to find them. The issue of other planes, and those planes interacting with the material, are not up for debate. What is a matter of some speculation is what exactly the makeup of the planar cosmology looks like?

Initially, there was speculation that it resembled a “Great Wheel” with the material plane in the center and the other planes branching off from it, like spokes. However, the great Imperial philosopher Tun Xian definitively proved the existence of more than the previously accepted four elements, fire, air, wind and water, by successfully opening portals to the elemental planes of metal and wood. With this newly proven six elemental structure, the great wheel had to be discarded, as the perfect symmetry was gone. This, coupled with the discovery of the Dreamingrealms, proved once and for all that there was more than the ethereal and astral planes.

Once the “Great Wheel” was officially discarded as an idea, the popular alternative, Delorgan philosophy of “The World Tree” started to gain traction. With this philosophy, first devised by High Druid Tavish Willowaxe, the material plane served as the central point, or “trunk” of the tree, with the other planes being either “roots” or “branches” respectively. Tavish also speculated that there was a literal tree itself, guarded by various creatures who lived upon it and, by following these branches, a person could literally walk into the other planes. Obviously, this tree has never been found. While Tavish' more dramatic interpretation of the World Tree has since fallen out of favor, there are still some supporters of a more modified version, but forward by the druid Jiphamol Ashsplitter, herself a Delorgan and student of Willowaxe. She eliminated the understanding of a literal tree, but did suggest that, based on spiritual and elemental energy flowing through the metaphorical tree, there were “upper” and “lower” planes. Many still accept this as possible, though the order of these upper and lower planes is often a point of contention.

While some have begun to embrace the “Soul's Journey,” model, hypothesized by Great Priest Rikhar Cihlen of the temple of Baron Zambodi, which places each of the planes along a linear path that the souls of the dead must travel in succession before reaching their final destination, this is hotly contested, with critics of Cihlen's view noting that it leaves many confirmed planes, such as the plane of mirrors, with no clear purpose and, no connection to the journey. Still, the view has much traction in the Ten Thousand Kingdoms of Samhec, on the southern continent, where the locals firmly believe in reincarnation of the soul. They take Cihlen's model and simply “bend it” so that the cosmology is a loop with the prime material plane at the beginning and end of said loop.

Still, while the modified World Tree and Soul's Journey model each have supporters it is the “Grand Tapestry” that is most widely accepted among planewalkers and wizards. In this model various “groupings” of planes are connected one to another by “threads.” All threads eventually tie back to the prime material plane, though not necessarily directly. Each can be sorted into catagories that are roughly aligned with other planes that share that category.

The Material and Overlapping Planes

The Prime Material Plane: The center of the tapestry, mostly due to the uncanny ability for each plane to, by some route or other. While the Grand Tapestry doesn't have a center in the traditional understanding of that idea, it still serves as a launching point for all cosmological maps. The Prime Material is the standard by which all other planes are measured, used as a benchmark for deviations. It is home to most of the sentient species, has standard magical and gravity rules, time progresses in a linear fashion and the plane is roughly neutral aligned. The plane everyone is most familiar with.

The Shadowfell: