Planes of Existence

The Planes of Existence are a set of dimensions in which all events in the campaign take place. It is conjectured by Belaros that they are directly related to the artifacts.

## Basics

There are seven dimensions in a set of planes. Each one has its own unique properties, and corresponds to a unique note on the C major scale; if you have the tuning fork that corresponds to that note, you can travel to that Plane of Existence.

### Plane of Air - A

The Plane of Air is the origin of wind energy, and appears to be inhabited only by clouds with different properties. Ham and Julian (1) briefly explored it during arc 5, in which they met a friendly cloud man.

### Material Plane - C

This is the plane of existence most of the events of the campaign happen in. It is also the plane of existence the Book of Truth can see the history of.

### Ethereal Plane - D

This is the plane of existence magic originates from and exists in. It is also the plane of existence ghosts exist in, and where ghosts appear when a mortal dies. It appears to be used as a sort of intermediary space for deities and spectral entities, such as Chance (1), Order (4), Lectern, Mauder, and Death.

### Astral Plane - G

The plane of existence souls go after death, and a meeting place for gods. There is an Astral Cathedral in the middle of the plane. Does not have a 1:1 correspondence with the other planes of existence (for more info see next section).

## Octaves

Every dimension in Debt/Malice has a corresponding frequency. This includes demiplanes, Portable Holes, and the dice shrines, who have frequencies that are off from the C major scale.
In the context of music, when the frequency of a note is doubled, the result is the same note one "octave" higher. In the context of the planes of existence, when the frequency of a plane of existence is doubled, the result is the same type of plane, but with a completely different history and set of rules (for example, the difference between Chadwick's Material Plane and the Material Plane of the Malice campaign). The term "octave" is used to refer to a set of frequencies separated by a power of 2, specifically encompassing every type of plane of existence.

Travelling between two octaves ("inter-octaval travel") is harder than travelling between planes within the same octave ("inter-planar travel"), and it is implied that the typical rules of Plane Shift will not work when attempting this. A special type of tuning fork is required such as the Mythical Longsword of Adjudication.

### Numerical Examples

The plane of existence that most of the Malice Campaign took place in corresponds to the frequency of 512 Hz. This is also referred to as 2^9, because 2 to the power of 9 is 512 Hz. Because every octave is separated by a power of 2, it is common to refer to an octave by the power of 2 its Material Plane resides in. Thus, the term "2^9" can refer to both the specific Material Plane and the set of all dimensions in that Material Plane's octave.

### 1:1 Correspondence

Dimensions have a spatial relationship with each other. This can be visualized as though each dimension were a sheet of paper; if you stack several sheets on top of one another, someone living on a sheet would have an x and y coordinate understandable by someone living on another sheet. If someone wanted to travel through each sheet of paper, they would do so through the same x and y coordinate but only changing the sheet they are living on.

As a more concrete example, consider the relationship between the Ethereal and Material Planes. Entities in the Ethereal Plane have a physical location understandable to creatures in the Material Plane; for example, when Mauder is a ghost, he still exists in a physical location in the Material Plane. This relationship between dimensions is referred to as 1:1 correspondence. When travelling into a dimension that does not have a 1:1 correspondence with the previous dimension, there is no immediately obvious location the traveler ends up in, so they enter the destination dimension in a random location. This is a major reason The Fogged One's actions are so bad; when they cast necromancy on bodies, they rip creatures from the Astral Plane into the Ethereal Plane, and this causes them to end up in a random location with no way to find other ghosts or get home.