The four spheres [Planar arangement]

[thehothead]

The four spheres is a concept of planar arrangement. The basic idea is that there are four intersecting spheres, one for each of the four elements. Theses spheres intersect in a way that means there are:
4 sets of planes aligned to only one element.
6 sets of planes aligned to two elements simultaneously
4 sets of planes unaligned to a single element
1 set of planes aligned to all four elements simultaneously

Within each set, there are 9 major planes, corresponding to each of the 9 alignments. For instance, the material plane is the TN major plane for the set where all four intersect.

Alignment of planes:

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all four elements:

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CG:
NG:
LG:
CN:
TN: Material plane
LN:
CE:
NE:
LE:

Fire:

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CG:
NG:
LG:
CN:
TN: Elemental plane of fire
LN:
CE:
NE:
LE:

Water:

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CG:
NG:
LG:
CN:
TN: Elemental plane of water
LN:
CE:
NE:
LE:

Air:

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CG:
NG:
LG:
CN:
TN: Elemental plane of air
LN:
CE:
NE:
LE:

Earth:

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CG:
NG:
LG:
CN:
TN: Elemental plane of earth
LN:
CE:
NE:
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Fire and water:

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CG:
NG:
LG:
CN:
TN: Elemental plane of Steam
LN:
CE:
NE:
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Fire and air:

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CG:
NG:
LG:
CN:
TN: Elemental plane of smoke
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CE:
NE:
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Fire and earth:

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CG:
NG:
LG:
CN:
TN: Elemental plane of magma
LN:
CE:
NE:
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Water and air:

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CG:
NG:
LG:
CN:
TN: Elemental plane of mist
LN:
CE:
NE:
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Water and earth:

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CG:
NG:
LG:
CN:
TN: Elemental plane of mud
LN:
CE:
NE:
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Earth and air:

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CG:
NG:
LG:
CN: Upper Pandemonium
TN: Elemental plane of Dust
LN:
CE: Lower Pandemonium
NE:
LE:

Not Earth

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Not air

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Not water

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Not fire

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I need to assign a plane to all of the blank spots, be it an already existing one or a new one. Please help with that.

[adanedhel9]

Not to knock your idea (in fact, I kinda like it), but you do realize that that's 135 planes, right? I would guess that we couldn't even find that many specified planes if we canabalized every published D&D campaing setting.

Plus, think about usability. How many people are going to bother with planehopping anyway? How many of those people bother with all of the 20-some planes of Greyhawk? Is it really worth it to enumerate that many planes?

If you really want to fill this in, I would suggest that you just fill in just a few key planes. If your adventures happen to take you to the others, then you can add details as you go.

[I_Got_This_Name]

Well, a significant number of the lower planes (actually, probably just the LE and CE ones) should be aligned with the various flavors of fire.

You can also cannibalize layers of the various lower planes and make them into planes in their own right.

I could see Pandemonium being split, for instance, into the CE and CN Earth/Air planes.

[thehothead]

Yeah I realize it's a lot of planes. You have a point about just a few of the major ones (Like, say, figure out where the existing ones go.)

And Pandemonium is now two seperate planes to anyone who uses this.

[TheOOB]

If personally think it would work better if there was only one plane for each elemental combnation, and different areas of it where aligned to different alignments. That reduces bookkeeping and creates a situation where every plane is contested for ownership.

Also, I think either water/air or water/earth should be ice, either could make sense.

[thehothead]

That might make sense... however, the current planes would have to be entirely rewritten.

And I am partial to the idea of a elemental plane of water that actually has a bottom made out of ice.

[Maldraugedhen]

You can also have, for the triple-element planes, planes that 'read' as the opposite of the sole element they leave out, such as Frozen Earth in Water / Earth / Air, or the Parched Wastes in Fire / Earth / Air.

Plantlife'd be good to use for good-aligned Water-Earth-Air planes.

[thehothead]

Good idea. The tripple planes are now the Not-_____ planes.

[TwistedCable]

That is a damn lot of planes.
Um.. perhaps the chaotic air/fire planes could be lightning?

[Aris Katsaris]

Do you merely want some concepts that fit? I have no idea if any of the following planes have ever been used before, I'm just taking their names off thin air (pun not intended). For some lawful planes I"m using gods, as I consider lawful realms to be more likely to have "rulers". :-)

Water Neutral lawful = Plane of Poseidon
Water Neutral chaotic = Plane of Maelstroms
Water Evil neutral water = Plane of Poison
Water Evil chaotic water = Plane of Acid

Fire-air lawful good = Plane of Apollo
Fire-air lawful neutral = Stellar Plane (stars are fires in the sky after all :-)
Fire-air neutral = Plane of Plasma (smoke seems a bit silly to me, sorry)
Fire-air chaotic neutral = Plane of Lightning

Earth lawful neutral = Plane of Crystals

[thehothead]

So, general reaction so far has been: Good idea: but overwhelming.
Haven't you people ever heard of the long tail?