Planescape Primalshard: other "echo" plane.

[LuisCarlos17f]

The Feywild and the Shadowfell are two new planes added in the last editions to the D&D cosmology, and these are wellcome, but sometimes I miss something more. I have interested in the plane of the mirrors, but this works better for stories type gothic horror. Some time I imagined a remake of "Council of Wryms" where "Io's blood" islands were demiplanes within the elemental chaos working like the dark domains (Ravenloft) or the domains of delight(Witchlight) but ruled by overlord dragons.

The inspiration for the phase of "storm of ideas" may change radically. Then I wanted something more linked with the elements, but not too hard for low-level PCs, and with some touch of post-apocaliptic "hyrborean-punk" as dark-sun. This place would be the home of giants, elemental beings of all type, genies, and some dragon. And I also remembered the "spirit plane" of "Kara-Tur", and the "wasteland" from the videogame "Death Stranding".

Then the image in my mind was a ravaged land, but not by the defiler magic from Dark Sun but because elemental magic is too hard for ordinary vegetation. After the damage the recovering is usual, and faster with primal magic for healer effects, and it can be damaged again easily.

Not all it is totally desert, because when some kami or spirits are "atunned" with certain zones, then the local vegetation can stand better the damage by elemental forces. Then zones are true treasures for the local population who needs farming to eat, but any spirits don't like the forestal zones the forest area where they live are cut down to build settlements, and when they away the attunement with that zone is lost, and vegetation lose the previous resistance against the elemental damage.

The "kami" or spirits can "be born" from elements in the landscape like a tree or a waterfall. This can be detected by spellcasters because they have a special aura, and later the vegetation starts to stand better the elemental forces. Then some evil spellcasters "gather" those "unborn spirits".

Zones of civilitation can be found, but the origin of most of these isn't easy to be explained, because really they are "shards of broken time spheres". A "time sphere" is like a "wildspace" in Spelljammer, but based in alternate timelines. When time-travelers cause troubles about paradoxes or rewritte History then some "time spheres" are "broken", and the "pieces" are special demiplanes with the name "time shard". The ultimate fate of these demiplanes floating within the space-time continium is "landing" in the "primashard" plane. Some "timeshards" are sent intentionally to the "Primalshard" by deities or geat powers because these have got a great value to keep the space-time, for example to allow the birth of a legendary hero or to fix some possible time-paradox.

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What do you think? I know you may say it is a crazy idea, but sometimes you have to start with the crazies ideas and keeping working with these to develop something better.

 

[Quartz]

It's weird. It's wild. It's wacky. It's an interesting concept. Go for it!

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Thanks.

Now I am thinking about other type of transitive plane: the Timeghyll, a mixture of time-loop, purgatory, backroom and "hollow earth" (style Julio Verne's title and Mystara's spin-off).

If the time is a river then the uchronic demiplanes are the "aqueduct" and the timeghylls are like ravines created by diverted and later returned a river. When the History or the timeline is rewritten (but later corrected) by time-traveler and chronomancers...(TEFERI ASOKA, I AM WATCHING YOU, AND BECAUSE I DON'T LIKE TO POINT BECAUSE IT IS NOT POLITE!) a "trace" or imprint remains in the space-time continium. In the beginning they seems "dreamlands" what later merger with the Feywild as domains or special regions. Some time-dragons and chronomancers use the timeghylls as "raw material" to build (uchronic) demiplanes. Maybe the main clue to recognize a timeghyll is because they are totally dessert, like a city evacuated hours ago, or the population behove like nPCs of a old videogame (really bad social interactions). But there are some native with soul, people who would be born only with the alteration of the timeline (because their parents married other people and things like this). Also feys like to visit, explore and live here.

Some timeghylls are rebuilt by great powers to punish or hold/contain certain sinners or menaces. For example there is a timeghyll where the kingpriest of Istar is the supreme deity, but the world suffers a planar invasion of elementals, constructs and plant monsters, with the irony the sacred champions were too specialiced to fight undead and infernal outsiders. In other timeghyll lord Soth is allowed to be with his wife and son, but with a trick. Sometimes these are replaced by his first wife and son (a half-orc), or the shape, or the soul, or both. Both children, the half-orc and the half-elf, hate each other.

 

[Quartz]

If the time is a river then the uchronic demiplanes are the "aqueduct" and the timeghylls are like ravines created by diverted and later returned a river.

I think a better analogy might be oxbow lakes - remnants of meanders - for the timeghylls. But I'm not grokking aqueducts and uchronic demiplanes.

Anyway, this is seriously cool stuff you're creating.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Thanks. English is not my first languange, and to find a right translation for "rambla" hasn't been too easy.

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Now I have been thinking about something like realm of dark faes, close to the concept of the Hedge from Changeling: the lost, and with a lot of thorns.

Thornmaze.

A lot of time ago there was a pantheon who were worshipped in several worlds, and to travel between these they created a cosmic tree as a planar bridge, but a day a meteor fell, and this caused a plague of horror and abominations. To stop the unholy spread this "tree" had to be pruned. Eons laters this plane was rediscovered by dark faes, although there are still some horror, mixture of plant monster and clockwork construct, but these weren't too hard to be defeated by the brave explored. Too dangerous to create permanent sentlements or to be used for travel trade it could be used as prison or a hidding place.

Today the look of this plane is like a maze by ciclopean thorny hedges. Within this sometimes buildings or dungeons can be found.

The local flora is mainly spiny climbing plants, with a dark blue color instead the classic green. Only some fruits can be eaten. The wildlife is mainly creatures what mix plant and animal traits, but there is also a lot of giant vernims. Some populations within special domes have been possible, but the links between the different towns aren't easy at all, because the terrain isn't static. Hills or rivers appear and disappear in a different place without warning. Other times a mountain start to float and fly for months or years until to land in other place. The sky isn't too dark, like a cloudy day before sundown, but farming is not easy. To grow farmers need special lanters.

The biomechanical horrors are dangerous, but not too much to allow the rebuild of the civilitation, and today these are hunted to collect a special "oil". The dark faes using their own version of reverse engineering have created their own biomechanical horrors, but these are under their control, and they can be identified by their runes (or runic tattos). Explorers have discovered some groups of biomechanical horror fight against each other, and some arcane investigator tell some biomechanical horror are under the control of some spirit.

 

[jgsugden]

In my setting the Shadowfell is a Transitive Plane to the Negative Energy Plane, the Feywild is a Transitive Plane to the Positive Energy Plane, the Ethereal is a Transitive Plane to the Far Realms, ... and I have three more transitive planes that have never been discovered, much less visited, by any PC. They've been there for a long time ... but just not been relevant to any storyline.

The first is a Transitive Plane between the Heavens and the Prime. I just have one plane with many regions for Heaven, and this Transitive Plane is a 'highway' and 'rest stop' that divine agents use to reach mortals.

The second is somewhat of a counterpart to the Heaven Transitive Plane - but it is more of a playroom for Fiends. My Hell Transitive Plane is a place that is primarily reached via nightmares, and it allows dark and fiendish creatures to reach into the minds of those on the Prime Material plane and mess with their heads. It is a dangerous place, though, for Fiends and both Demons and Devils can use it and if they die there, they die forever.

The last is somewhat like the OP's - a Transitive Plane to my Elemental Plane (again, I only have one for all elements and paraelements). It is the realm of Elementals (the creature type). They are born there, and then migrate to either the Elemental Plane or the Prime Material Plane eventually. It is a realm of elemental spirits.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Phantomrift.

One morning you wake up, open the eyes and every thing is silent, too silent, but a strong wind. See through the window and it is a cloudy and dark day, as if it was just to start a storm. In the begining you don't worry too much, until the moment you notice you are alone.... then you start to suspect something has to be wrong, and you go to the town to ask help, but the streets are totally empty. What happened? Then when the storm clouds start to disappear and the sky to be clearer to find you couldn't imagine in your life: there are lots of earth-masses (with building on one of the surfaces) floating in the air. What is happening?

The phantomrift is really strange place. In the begining they look like unpopulated urban zones, like an evacuated city after the warning of a natural disaster. It don't seem a dangerous zone but the classic plagues in the cities, like the rats. Theorically the settlement of new inhabitants shouldn't be too hard. There are lots of zones where the farming is possible.

Then only living for a time the truth about this place starts to be understood. When a visitor who creates some emotinal link with the place starts to sense unknown sounds, shadow and lights... and later he encounter the rest of original inhabitants. Because some strange reason these are invisible, incorporeal and inaudible for visitors, but they aren't really ghosts or other type of incorporeal undead. Almost always after the initial mutual surprise the new "neighbours" are wellcome. The secondary effect is the newcomers also "becomes a ghost" for the rest of visitors and explores, but if there is some link with somebody. Fortunately the process is reversible, but if you don't like to find a stowaway in your skyship. The irony is the pillage should be very easy but it is practically imposible, because when material properties are valued by the owners, then these can "become ghosts", or magically these are returned to their original place. But the collecting of things from this possible if are objects found without current owner (this is usual in dungeons) or voluntarily ceded (as gift or by trade). The "populated" zones usually are safe place, but others are more dangerous to be explored. Here there is a thick fog, and shadowy creatures, but there aren't nor feys neither undeads, but elementals, maybe some subtype of air elemental, but some scholars teorize these are some type of shadow elemental.

 

[Quartz]

I'm not grokking the Phantomrift. The inhabitants would need to move around, trade, eat, sweep the streets, harvest, and so on, so PCs would see that going on.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

The inhabitants of the Phantorift, (let's call them "ghostouched") aren't ghosts really. They are alive, and they can eat, sleep and other biological actions, but they don't know they need it, or at least their biological needs are littler. They can trade with people from out, but some illusory magic is necessary for diplomatic for comercial interactions. The streets are clean and that type of things but newcommers need special magic for social interaction. On of the secrets is some of the inhabitants really are ghosts, but nobody knows it, not even themself.

There are some hostile creatures, but these are invisible and incorporeal for the natives, practically hurtless for these, but still dangerous for the newcommers. Some natives can sense those creatures, but usually they are tagged as crazy by the rest.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

This time I was thinking in the Krynnspace, and how the Greygem created a lot of troubles in Krynn. But what if the Greygem created a demiplane? Or the Krynnspace we know are the remains of the destruction by Chaos in the Krynnspace.

Other idea is a demiplane working as a planar firewall to avoid a planar invasion from the Abyss or the Far Realm. And now it would be something like a "rear yard with okupas". Theorically this should be a wastelad conquered and controlled by the evil deities of Krynns, but the catastrophic dragons don't agree. And in the middle of the battle the genies, whose origin was ordinary mortals slavered by the catastrophic dragons as cannon fodder and vassals. These couldn't rebel against their tyrants, but after defeating several failed invasions by giants and titans they found a way to hide their aura and fake their death in the battlefield against the giants.

Rottenbreak.

Old legends tell about pagan people who worshipped elemental titans and dragons as gods. This is partially true, but not true deities. When those souls were sent to the afterlife were too innocent to suffer the eternal agony of the Abbyss, but too tainted to enter into the Dome of the Creation, at least not without of penance or purification. These souls couldn't die again, but their existence in Rottenbreak was a constant agony until the hunger pushed to eat some elemental plants. In ordinary circusntances these would be toxic for most of living beings, but this was a special case. After their discovered they learnt to use them to farm, and to craft tools, and later as material to build. They created a new civilitation. Centuries laters their tried the primal magic, and they discovered the reincarnation spell. Because the life in Rottenbreak was so hard their new bodies needed special traits, and like this they used the reincarnation spell to become "genasies". Time later the first generations started to dissapear, because their penance had ended and they were allowed to enter into the dome of creation. And when the new generations lost their mentors, other type of troubles started. With the arrival of traders also missionaries preaching about the deities the genasi society never was the same again. The clerics of the true deities taught new knowledge, but not all were preachers of the true deities, not even of the evil gods. Some leaders of secret cults really were agents of the linnords, acting in the shadow. And when it was too late to stop the caused damage, the people nor even realised what was happening behind de curtains. Simply some planar gates were opened, and then armies from Abbyss started the invasion. Of course this was not easy, neither totally complete. And really the true reason the invasion stopped was because the catastrophic dragons, with their own armies of titans and elementals, appeared from other planar gates.