Obscure Planes

[j_spencer93]

For an upcoming quest i am trying to create list of planes, and besides those readily available in 3.5 Forgotten realms books and the dungeon masters guide, I know of few others. So I am asking for names of planes that are more obscure, and possibly where to find them.

So far I have:
Plane of Radiance.
Plane of Mirriors (anyone know more of this thing? Dont even know where its mentioned)
Plane of dreams (thought same as Far Realm but my 3.5 notes say otherwise).
Para-elemental plane of smoke, magma, ooze, lightning,
Quasi-elemental- ice, radiance, mineral, steam, vacuum, ash, dust, salt

demiplane of dreams
demiplane of nightmares

demiplane of ectoplasm
Demiplane of black abyss
demiplane of imprisonment
demiplane of time
demiplane of electromagnetism (may just drop this one, not a big fan of the idea)
The boundless
the clockwork gap
cynosure
demiplane of haven
demiplane of invention
draedenden
gloaming
imphirablau
the isle of the ape
the isle of black trees
the land of immortals
the lost citadel of magic
maelost
the maze
the mewling
Neth, the demiplane that lives
semblance
the shattered world
the timevoids
urunaland
wormscape
moil the city that waits

[arrowed]

Try the 3.5e Manual of the Planes. It has info on the planes of mirrors and dreams, as well as elemental planes of wood and cold, and a bit about the far realm. It also has a handful of demiplanes.
If you can't get access to it, here's a summary what it says on the plane of mirrors:
The plane of mirrors is loads and loads of long corridors full of mirrors, each of which leads out of the surface of a mirror on another plane. A level 5+ spell is required to access the plane of mirrors, and it is perilous to do so: passing through a mirror into the plane creates a mirror being identical to you (with identical equipment) but for a few things. It has the opposite alignment, opposite handedness, and can recognise other mirror beings on sight. While you are on the plane of mirrors, it tries to hunt you down and kill you before taking over your life beyond the mirrors. Defeating your mirror self prevents another one ever forming, and when it dies it and all it's equipment shatters like glass. Breaking a mirror prevents a being from using it to enter or leave the plane of mirrors.
I can do a bit on the plane of dreams and the far realm too if you want.

[Markoff Chainey]

I love "obscure planes" but as any high level wizard is theoretically able to create his own, I prefer to just make one up as long as it is small and unimportant enough. So every Djinn, Wizard, Angel, Demon, Fairy Princess, whatnot... could have its own lair somewhere tagged away in a reality bubble.

My party encountered two of these planes... once they had to slay an elder demon who was said by an old tome to be "sleeping". - They found an item that allowed to travel to him, but it opened a gate into his dream and they had to kill him there, right in his (demonic) dream that the had no direct control of, but his emotions could alter reality. (Or they could have woken him up, but that would have made a really bad ending of the story.)

Another one was the realm of a dead Goblin-Sorcerer who liked playing with fire and whose soul got trapped in his own realm - and so did the adventurers after entering it. The only way out is through... and their reward was their own small lava spitting world with a castle made of rock.

I would recommend to create your own... just think of who created it, with what purpose and how she intended to enter and leave it... most of this stuff is ritual magic and as those are overly complex, they are written down somewhere - and books get lost sometimes and reappear... sometimes completely, sometimes some pages are missing...

[j_spencer93]

Normally I do make my own planes, but this mission is mainly to shower my players the variety of planes in D&D so i want to stick to real planes for now. Also i have the para and quasi elemental planes (i think all of them), however i have to ask:

Is the plane of radiance (dragon magazine) the quasi-elemental plane of radiance??? it does not seem to be.

Also, thank you cold and wood will be interesting to throw in there, and it will be great to add the mirrors.

[JackPhoenix]

Are you looking for something setting-specific? Because some settings use totally different set of planes, like Eberron.

Sure, it's got the basic ethereal/shadow/astral trifecta, but beyond that...

http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/eberron/images/0/00/3E_Cosmology.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20111017002155

Every Eberron plane is linked to one of its moons (and as one moon was destroyed, Dal Quor is currently disconnected from material plane). They "orbit" the Material Plane, allowing easier travel and influencing the world when they are coterminous, and becoming less accessible and fading in influence when remote, for example, when Fernia is coterminous, Eberron is warmer and it can actually be reached through volcanos and similar locations. Planes also have manifestation zones, some permanent (like city of Sharn, where connection to Syrania allows its mile-high towers to exist and where flying magic is enhanced), some temporary (often linked to the phases of planar orbit)

Daanvi, the Perfect Order: plane of Law, home to Formians, Inevitables (we haven't got either in 5e yet, though) and some angels. The plane itself seems more similar to material plane than Mechanus, but Modrons would propably fit there too.

Dal Quor, the Region of Dreams: home to dream monsters named Quori, though it is innacessible through normal planar travel after the inhabitants tried to invade the world and the connection to Eberron was severed by ancient giant empire (destroying one of the moons in process), every dreaming mortal (so no elves, warforged or kalashtar, as they do not sleep or dream) mind touches it in the sleep. Goes through periodical shifts that change the nature of Quori, current incarnation are nightmarish monsters that want to delay or stop the coming change.

Dolurrh, the Realm of the Dead: every dead soul ends up there and gradually loses memories and personality before fading away completely. It's not a reward, it's not a punishment: it just is. Undead, succubi, Nalfashnee demons and similar are native inhabitants.

Fernia, the Sea of Fire: your almost standard Plane of Fire, except with more evil bent. Besides the usual fire elementals, salamanders, etc., fiery fiends like balors and pit fiends come from there.

Irian, the Eternal Day: basically Positive Energy Plane, but more friendly to visitors.

Kythri, the Churning Chaos: just as Daanvi is plane of Law, Kythri is a plane of Chaos. Basically Limbo, up to the Githzerai

Lammania, the Twillight Forest: plane of unbound wilderness, full of beasts, various plants and monsters. Also, all kinds of elemental creatures. Most surviving lycanthropes moved there too.

Mabar, the Endless Night: Eberron's version of Negative Energy Plane. Full of undead. 4e renamed it to Shadowfell, because it had to force its core cosmology everywhere.

Risia, the Plain of Ice: cold, inhospitable and mildly evil plane, opposite of Fernia/Plane of Fire.

Shavarath, the Battleground: place of eternal war between demons, devils and archons. Not a fun place to visit, thanks to roaming swarms of flying blade.

Syrania, the Azure Sky: similar to Plane of Air, but good-aligned and inhabited by angels.

Thelanis, the Faerie Court: name says it all, Feywild before it became mainstream, also renamed to Feywild in 4e. All kinds of fey creature live there, including eladrin, ancestors of elven race.

Xoriat, the Realm of Madness: Far Realm. Daelkyr, the most famous inhabitants aren't the only ones living there, but they are the only ones interested in Eberron. Mind Flayers, Beholders and all kinds of aberrations have ties there. Currently kept away from Eberron by druidic magic after major planar invasion some 9000 years ago.

4e also added Baator, same as in core 4e, and made some changes to planar setup to force compatibility with basic system.

[j_spencer93]

Forgotten realms mainly. And planes that don't necessarily have to be setting specific. Btw, how do the quasi and para planes fit into the new cosmology? Do we even have an official cosmology model right now?

[Regitnui]

As far as I can tell, we've moved back to the basic Great Wheel. The only mention of mixed elements (something I detested in 4e) as far as I can tell are the mephits. To be honest, the mephits look like something that formed on the Material instead of between the Elemental Planes. Though I do recall the Azers still living in the "Border between EPoFire and the EPoEarth", so we may still have demiplanes of elemental salad dressing?

[NecroDancer]

There are elemental planes that are in between the 4 main elements, they are in the DMs guide.

[arrowed]

The DMG shows the elemental planes as having borders (earth to fire, fire to air, air to water, water to earth), but other than that I think Great Wheel holds. But do we not all yearn for the Gastronomic Planes to be added? :smallwink:

[Falcon X]

This is unofficial content, but that was always the nature of Planescape material. It's all rumor and heresay until you actually witness it. Then you have to get people to believe you.
Especially read the Cordant Planes and Quasi Elemental Exotica.
Check it: http://mimir.net/mapinfinity/index.html

[j_spencer93]

The Para and Quasi elementals predate 4th edition by a large margin. Also I noticed they got a quick mentioning but not much more then that in the DMG. However, i have mangaed to dig up a decent amount of info on them from older additions. One thing that makes me think Quasi no longer exist though is that fact that the positive and negative planes fell into the elemental chaos, and apparently are no longer thier own plane.

[Toofey]

Is concordant opposition still a thing?

[pwykersotz]

If you're going with obscure planes, you can't forget about the Temporal Prime! Or...you can because it's obscure...or something. :smallsmile:

[j_spencer93]

Sorry if i missed the joke...but temporal plane???

[Naanomi]

There are three 'time planes'... the Temporal Prime, the Demi-Plane of Time, and the Temporal Energy Plane. Only the first is anywhere you might want to be.

The Plane of Mirrors is inhabited by the original Neutral Outsiders; who abandoned the outer planes for fear of being 'infected' with other alignments' influence.

There are several 'semi-transitive planes' that seem to connect many planes at once... the World Tree, The Infinite Staircase, The World Serpent Inn

There are also many notable Demi-planes; The Demiplane of Dread (ravenloft); Neth; the plane that lives, the imprisonment plane, the plane of rest

Of course there are lots of interesting Prime worlds out there, and spaces between them

There is also a vaguely defined 'Spirit World' where shamans get their powers from, which may be the Ordial (the theoretical transitive Plane that directly connects the Outer and Inner planes)

[j_spencer93]

Um where can i read about any of those?

[Naanomi]

The two 3.5 planes books are a good place to start; some of that is just in old adventures and never really compiled anywhere. If you have enough time, tons of info can be gleaned from Afroakuma's planar info threads on this pages 3.5 forum

[Regitnui]

Don't forget about the demiplane of elemental ranch dressing.

[j_spencer93]

That would be a terrible plane. I dont like ranch. lol

[JackOfAllBuilds]

How do you guys feel about Sigil? Or is the famed City of Doors too similar to the Plane of Mirrors?

[j_spencer93]

They are different planes. Although similar, Sigil is a city, not a glass world with mirror door ways. However, my player's seem to not like Sigil and idk why. Really I can't particularly find anything about obscure planes worth adding.

Spirit World- I am not sure how to add this to the game, but since it talks place in faerun and kara-tur then its canonically part of it. How the hell does this world even fit in?

[Segev]

Here are some obscure planes (http://www.popularmechanics.com/military/g1420/17-bizarre-aircraft-we-love-and-the-stories-behind-them/) for you! I'm not sure they will actually fly at your table, though.

[j_spencer93]

lmao. Well those certainly are obscure planes.

I remembered a Demiplane of Nightmares, thought from a Dragon Magazine, but the Forgotten Realms wiki page is sort of lacking. The dragon magazine used as a reference is about the Diaboli, not the plane.

Demiplane of Extoplasm! How did i forget that one.

[Willie the Duck]

How do you guys feel about Sigil? Or is the famed City of Doors too similar to the Plane of Mirrors?

I personally find it kind of lame, but that's a personal opinion. If it makes sense to you on a universe-building level, go for it.


The easiest plane(s) to forget is the Alternative Prime Material planes. It is absolutely part of cannon to run a Sliders/Alternate Earth campaign (or just a Buffy-esque World-Without-Shrimp).

[j_spencer93]

Oh i know its canonical for alternative prime material planes. However, I am looking for ones I can have sources too. Going to run a campaign with newer players that are interested in the cosmology, so thinking a planar hoping campaign will be cool.

Sigil isn't overly unique to me, or even a place I like. Actually it makes no freaking sense in big picture (gods created everything...except this tiny place. No one touches that place, why? because a non-deity will destroy them)

Sort of want to show them the diversity of what people have officially created before throwing in anything of my own. Also, asking again, what is the spirit world?

[Naanomi]

The Gods didn't create the cosmos, there was a big period of history before any Gods appeared, Sigil is a mystery from those times

The Spirit world is an overlapping plane (like the ethereal or feywild) where Shamanistic spirits dwell; and how it exactly fits in the cosmology is a matter of in-game scholarly debate; some saying it is manifestation of a direct mixing of astral and ethereal, others saying it is the only way mortals can understand the Ordial (the theoretical plane connecting the Inner and Outer planes), and others say it is an 'in between' medium underlying all the planes

[arrowed]

We could make some up, that'd be as obscure as it gets. What about the plane of perception? When you enter this plane, you see strange, ephermal rock formations in the cold, clinging mist that covers the plane. With a bit of imagination, you can almost see creatures and objects in them. A creature can make a wisdom check against DC15 to try and bring what they can see into being. On a success the rock turns into whatever they visualised as long as they maintain concentration, as if on a spell. If they fail it turns into a hostile thematic monster (like an animated sword if they tried to make a sword) for 1 minute. While in the plane creatures begin to look more like how they perceive themselves, although a creature aware of this effect can make a DC10 wisdom save to negate the effect. Add more features at your leisure.

[j_spencer93]

Actually, the creation timeline is a little screwed up.
AO creates crystal sphere, then creates the win goddesses.
Ao is a god that created the crystal sphere, thus he created this universe, however in this very universe we have stories that take place before any gods....odd. And doesn't really make sense. Unless "before gods" simply means before the gods/titans got their own planes.

And ok. I know the spirit world seems to tie closer to Kara-tur the faerun. That was all i really knew.

[Reaper34]

Check out the old 2e planescape source books. maybe spelljammer too. they have a few good ideas.

3.x manual of the planes is good too.

depending on how many prime material planes your universe has you could homebrew all manners of planes. asgard, hel, elesia, tarterus pits, ect. myths are a great place for ideas.

anything on the abyss is also a good idea to look at.

you could also take the idea of the elemental plane of wood and change it a bit. what about the plane of serpents, or spiders, or fungus/mushrooms. plane of crystal.

or for real horror the plane of clowns.

[Naanomi]

Ao created the crystal sphere of Aber-Toril, he had nothing with making any other Prime worlds, the outer planes, or anywhere else. Over-Powers are in charge of their Prime world only, not any other Prime or plane. There may or may not be 'luminous beings' above Overpowers that had a greater role in shaping the cosmos, but even they have no influence over The Far Plane or Alternate Cosmologies reached via the Deep Shadow

[Willie the Duck]

Any of the game worlds that merge different other worlds (Planescape, Spelljammer, Ravenloft) have problems with combining the creation myths.

[j_spencer93]

At least in Forgotten Realms there is a deity (or being) above Ao. Its directly revealed at the end of the time of troubles. And yea, mixing cosmologies does create problems.

[Regitnui]

I prefer the World Serpent Inn for my plane-crossing needs. No need to reconcile creation myths, just that the Inn can touch whichever realm it likes. The back corridors extend to whichever plane the front room has touched before. A warm corridor with dust building up might contain a door-portal to one of Athas' city states, or a finely-appointed corridor with magic lanterns may have a door opening onto the streets of Sharn, Eberron.

[Naanomi]

Yes but from a planescape perspective all the other creation myths are just that: myths told by backwards primes that only apply to their own Prime world (if even that!), whereas planar scholars know more about the greater history of existence.

Of course even then there a lot of unknowns around the origins of Overpowers, the nature of their 'bosses', the places existences outside of (the far realm, other cosmologies) or predating the current cosmology, the nature of some of the weirder places on the planes (where are vestiges?) that even the Gods and oldest forces in the universe are clueless about

[j_spencer93]

I would like to see the binder brought back for 5th edition. I really liked the vestiges of 3.5 and the class itself was flavorful enough.