Musings: The Planes, Part II: The Other Planes

So, as I stated before, the Plane in which Deminar rests, usually called the Material or Prime Material Plane sits in the middle of an infinite Astral Sea (yes, that's physically and mathematically impossible, but the planes don't conform to Newtonian Physics now do they?), however, the Plane doesn't not sit there alone. The Prime Material was constructed out of the six Fundamental Elements, Fire, Earth, Water, Wind, Positive Energy, and Negative Energy. These six Planes surround the Plane in which Deminar sits, with the Positive and Negative Energy one being on the top and bottom of a metaphysical sphere and the other four surrounding and encasing it. The sun the people of Deminar see is nothing more then the planar tear to the Elemental Plane of Fire used to ferry material into the Material Plane, Deminar's two moons are the Elemental Plane of Fire's reflection off the planar tears into the Plane of Earth and Water, and a tear exists into the other three Elemental Planes (Air, Positive and Negative Energy) but those cannot be seen. In theory, if one could travel far enough off the surface of Deminar's islands, they could pass through these tears and into the Elemental Planes (and indeed, many elemental creatures have passed through them), though they are all pretty hostile to most life that came to be on the Material Plane, as they consist of one type of elemental instead of the mix of all that most Prime Material beings need to function. Even the Positive Energy Plane would fill a creature so full of life energy they'd explode into a ball of radiance, and the Negative Energy plane would quickly suck the life force out of anything that resided in it for too long.

The Prime Material is not alone, however, for existing in the same space, yet in another Plane is the Ethereal Plane, a sort of "planar echo" of the Prime Material. Here, the world looks much as it does on Deminar, however most things are muted and gray. Not everything that exists on Deminar exists here, there are no copies of living things, for instance, but anything that hold particularly strong emotional resonance appears in the Ethereal Plane, even after it may have disappeared on Deminar. An old building that touched a lot of lives may have a pale echo on this plane, or a nonliving semblance of a forest that was particularly important to a clan of Halflings may stand in the Ethereal whereas it was cut down long ago on Deminar. No living thing leaves a true living echo on the Ethereal however, no matter how important a King or Warrior was revered, he, nor an echo or nonliving semblance ever shows up on the Ethereal. However, some people, who felt that, even after death, still had a strong emotional attachment to something on Deminar will find their souls roaming the Ethereal as ghosts instead of passing to a Domain. These beings sometimes find a way to manifest partially back on the Material Plane, allowing for the ghosts many people see on Deminar. Rumors of other intangible creatures being from the Ethereal and manifesting on Deminar (such as the Phase Tiger), much like ghosts is also a theory some scholars have. The biggest feature about the Ethereal Plane is, however, the fact that the gods can in no way manipulate or even send envoys to it (which is why they don't simply puck up all the souls of spirits and ghosts and get them to their proper Domain.) This intrigues the gods to no end and they believe that the Ethereal Plane is a subconscious shared construct of all living things and they work tirelessly to figure out a way to turn that power to themselves and their own advantage.