The Planes of The Universe

The Cosmology

The universe that Zlotkar finds itself within adheres to the Great Wheel Cosmology, or at least a version of it. The following more properly describes how the planes relate to one another, and how the universe is percieved.   First, we must discuss what is commonly known as, The Astral Sea, or to some, Space. This Astral Sea surrounds everything, and is the space between the different planes, as well as beyond them. It's size is incomprehensible, and not even the Divines of this world could ever truly map it out completely. The Astral Sea is not like a plane, and it obeys not the laws of other planes. None truly know or understand the nature of the space inbetween, or where it came from.   There have been figures who have speculated that far far beyond our planes there could be another set of planes, perhaps inhabitated different divines and creatures. In ancient times, during the Age of Chaos, attempts were made to explore beyond our wheel of planes, but none ever returned from such expeditions.   Now that we have established what everything exists within, we can truly begin to speak of the Great Wheel, the one which all known life exists within.   The first part of the wheel is the outer "shell", and it's made up of the planes collectively known as the Outer Planes, a collective then divided into the negative and positive Outer Planes.   These planes are as follows:

• Mechanus - neither positive nor negative
• Arcadia - positive
• Mount Celestia - positive
• Bytopia - positive
• Elysium - positive
• The Beastlands - positive
• Arborea - positive
• Ysgard - positive
• Limbo - neither positive nor negative
• Pandemonium - negative
• The Abyss - negative
• Carceri - negative
• Hades - negative
• Gehenna - negative
• The Nine Hells - negative
• Acheron - negative

  In common speak the negative planes are often called the Lower Planes, with the positive ones being called the Upper Planes. These planes are importantly where most people are reborn upon their deaths. Since the Divine Age, when The Divine Sovereigns claimed ownership of our universe, they have controlled the flow of souls after the demise of their mortal shells.   The Raven Queen is the one in charge of this handling of souls. Put simply, when a person or creature whom possesses a soul dies, The Raven Queen will collect said soul, and then move it onward to the Outer Plane most fitting for the soul, unless the soul has been claimed by another plain or creature before its mortal shell's demise. In this sense The Raven Queen is sort of a manager of the dead. She works based of a number of rules and "guidelines" produced by The Divine Sovereigns and The Renounced in the wake of their war thousands of years ago.   The Divine Sovreigns grant souls to the planes of The Renounced for two distinct reasons; First, they wish to keep the peace, and this was a compromise done in order to maintain relative peace between the divines of the universe. The threat that your soul may end up in the hells is a strong tool to use against mortals.   The truth of how the afterlife is handled is well known, though disputed by many. There are also exceptions to this system for the dead. For example, if a soul leaves it's shell within the land of Zycius's Domain, then Zycius is able to consume said soul, all in order to grow his own power of course.   Moving on from the Outer Planes, we find ourselves with the, fittingly named, Inner Planes. First here comes the so called Ethereal Plane, which some consider to simply be a part of the Astral Plane. The Ethereal Plane is the space between the inner planes. It is within this that you first find what most people know as the Elemental Chaos.   The Elemental Chaos is the outer part of the Ethereal Plane, or border of The Inner Planes, and it's a sea of pure elemental energy. Though none, if any know it, the Elemental Chaos was created at the only occurance of a Total Planar Meltdown ever, when one of the Elemental Planes, the lost fifth element, was destroyed and erased from all existence. Most people believe that it was created by The Divine Sovreigns as a way to limit planar travel, and make it even more difficult, an idea they are most happy to endorse and agree with.   Beyond the Elemental Chaos lies the Elemental Planes. The Planes of Air, Water, Earth, and Fire. These are all representations of all the different Elements of the Universe, and if one of them was to cease to exist, so would all instances of said element.   Beyond the Elemental Planes comes the thinest part of the Ethereal Plane. Here the Ethereal Plane is filled to the brim with stars, it even houses two moons. Most importantly though, the plane is "thinner", which in practise means that travel through it is far easier. Hence why it is much easier to traverse between the planes within it. It also means that these planes effect one another mpre   Finally, within this part of the Ethereal Plane lies the the Material Plane, as well as its two mirror planes; the Shadowfell and Feywild.  

The Nature of Planes

What a plane truly is something few, if any, truly know. Here is an attempt to describe to the utmost of my ability, and in accordance with what even the most knowledgable beings within our universe know.    It is common to believe that a plane, or plane of existence to be specific, is only just the landmass of a large globe. However, this is incorrect, for several reasons. First, not all planes of existence contain globes. They are not planets, but something much more. They are made up of what is sometimes called an their atmosphere, though this term is missleading and oftentimes outright wrong. Most planes of existence contain many, or at least a few, sub-planes, whom all have their own landmass. Thus, each of these landmasses have their own atmosphere, and they are incapsulated in what is more properly described as a planes area.   So, what separates these sub-planes from their primary plane? Well, here is where we move to the more complex areas of planes, and fittingly, the areas we know less about. See, planes can not be created, or at least none, whom are alive, know how to. They seem to be intrinsic to certain "ideals", or rather, a certain "alignment". Planes are representative for something, with the exception of the Material plane, unless you consider it to be the representative of neutrality. In most societies alignment is defined as Good - Evil, and Law - Chaos, creating a spectrum with these four corners. However, in certain circles, and other socieites, it's more common to use the terms Positive - Negative instead of Good - Evil, and sometimes even Upper - Lower is used.   Continuing; this alignment of the plane is enforced on its sub-planes, though typically with some level variation. Importantly, sub-planes have a tendancy to die and can be created. Before the Divine Age, and the Hunt of Divinity, there would be countless sub-planes that were created by dieties who saught a home of their own. They would rule their own plane, and these sorts of sub-planes are known as demi-planes. They are much rarer in modern times, though a number still exist, though most are hidden away or newly created.   Travel between a plane and its sub-planes/demi-planes is also very different from interplanar travel between planes. It is much safer to perform travel between inside if you stay within the plane. Furthermore, it's common to find so called "planar-gates" that ease travel inside the plane. The origin of these planar-gates is unkown, and there are records of them sort of growing from the plane itself, without any intervention from the inhabiting creatures. They can sometimes allow just about anyone to travel planes, though such "powerful" gates are rare to find.   On some planes followers of The Divine Sovereigns have hunted these gates, doing their best to close them. Though as mentioned, they seem to reappear at their own discretion, making this task seemingly fruitless.