Concepts, Manifestations, and Archons

Let's go on a small trip down memory lane. It's been a while since I wrote something for high-fantasy worlds usable in a game like D&D. Back in June 2017 (I too am surprised how long I've been going), I wrote an article about souls. In it, I described genies as "souls lost outside of ethereal plane's reach that some element sticks to". Elements have always been a fascinating idea to me, and back then I only worried about addressing actual D&D things instead of coming up with my own ideas. In March 2018, I wrote an article about the senses. This one I admit is only tangentially related, you'll see it later. Later, in October of the same year, I wrote a cosmology article about Chained Realms. I don't think I actually played any D&D game that would explicitly take place in it, I just wanted an excuse to show off my cool new take on the elemental planes and how simple the cosmology could be. This is a crucial article for today's write-up. Last but not least, I wrote about the Tahjinn in March 2022 on Reddit. I made it because I knew that making the genasi more interesting would take very little effort.

All these things crossed paths in my brain when I read Izzy's simple question minutes into June 22nd:

Have y'all ever thought of the idea of an anti-elemental?

Concepts

Let's go from the ground level, just in case you forgot the theory written in articles from years ago. The significant part of the multiverse is covered by two transitional planes: Ether and Aether. Mortals named these, and they named these mainly because they found out about the Ether first, and then judged that Aether is its opposite. Aether is the realm that contains all of the elements: fire, water, earth, air, and spark. It also contains the mind, which is an animating force, though perhaps it can be treated as an element of sorts too.

Previously, I've said that the Ether is a realm of souls, as well as pure light and darkness. I think I've changed my mind on this, and it's time to build this up more. Let's start with a new term: Ether's realm doesn't contain elements, it contains concepts. They too have physical manifestations of sorts (listed alphabetically):

• Amber is a concept that encapsulates artistic and aesthetic ideas.
• Blood is a concept that encapsulates psychological and emotional ideas.
• Bright is a concept that encapsulates existential and metaphysical ideas.
• Crystal is a concept that encapsulates social and cultural concepts.
• Dark* is a concept that encapsulates ethical and moral ideas.

Similarly to how the mind is one of the elements technically, the soul is one of the concepts technically. An animating force is required, after all. There would be mixtures between the concepts too, but I didn't feel like coming up with those yet, because I have more exciting things to talk about. By the way, the concepts and elements would mix too, though I have no idea what would come of those unions.

I have a couple of notes on the above list, so let's talk about them.

Firstly, I've put the metaphysical and existential ideas into the Bright concept because of the senses article. Preception can be quite important to existence itself (something something quantum physics).

As for the Crystal, it refers to any kind of organized structure, not merely ice, salt, or gemstone.

Finally, I'm putting the morality and ethicality ideas under the Dark concept because I couldn't figure out a better place for it yet, and I didn't want to drop it. Sure darkness is just an absence of light, but in a fantasy context that can be ignored. Honestly, most of these are kind of placeholders, if I find something better I'm all in for replacing them.

Mystery is a strange thing. It cannot be held, yet it can be grasped. It cannot be seen and understood, for that undoes it. It is a fickle phenomenon, and yet it exists persistently throughout the universe. It is not an element, however, for it is not made up of molecules, atoms, or quarks.
Raziel, angel of mysteries, by Peter Mohrbacher

Manifestations and Archons

An elemental is a pile of elemental matter animated by a mind. Analog to that for the Ethereal planes would be a manifestation: a pile of conceptual matter animated by a soul. Angels are bright manifestations, fiends were formerly dark manifestations but now I'm not so sure. Crystal manifestations sound kind of like modrons, though I'd assume they would be more human-ish if that makes sense. Blood manifestations and amber manifestations would be just generally cool, even if I have no idea what those would entail.

When a mortal perishes outside of the reach of the Aether, somewhere in the Ether, their soul will travel wherever it needs to. That much I've made clear back when I wrote that article about souls I linked above. But what about their mind? If the souls go through a great recycling process, shouldn't the minds go through one as well? Now they do. And without access to the Aether, a mind will be stuck in the Ether. Conceptual matter will begin to clump around it, and what you'll end up with is an archon - a conceptual equivalent of a genie. I know, I know, archon already stands for a highly-ranking angel in D&D, I just wanted something that could share some sound with the word "archetype" but wanted to avoid using the label "archetype" itself for beings as numerous as genies.

Conceptual Mixtures

So let's give this a go. What could the mixtures of the concepts above be like as physical manifestations? I seriously doubt I'll get it all perfectly on the first try, but that's what happens when one treads an unfamiliar territory. It's going to sound silly, since we could map these to the already existing elements, but it is what it is.

Concept	Amber	Blood	Bright	Crystal	Dark
Amber	Amber	Paint	Glass	Mosaic	Ink
Blood	Paint	Blood	Dream	Wine	Venom
Bright	Glass	Dream	Bright	Prism	Shadow
Crystal	Mosaic	Wine	Prism	Crystal	Obsidian
Dark	Ink	Venom	Shadow	Obsidian	Dark

Following the same logic I outlined in the Chained Realms article linked above, we could thus deduce how would the different Conceptual Planes look.

• Conceptual Plane of Amber would have seas of ink and paint, with mosaic islands that have glass and amber structures on them.
• Conceptual Plane of Blood feels the most watery to me, so we could make the dreams in it a physical thing that one could stand on.
• Conceptual Plane of Bright (the closest thing to a fantasy heaven) would be made of glass lands and prismatic mountains, perhaps with liquid dreams as the oceans, but still with some shadow here and there.
• Conceptual Plane of Crystal feels the most like earth, but wine would make for an amazing ocean among all those hard materials.
• Finally, Conceptual Plane of Dark (the closest thing to a fantasy hell) would be islands of Obsidian among venomous ink, with darkness all around, and yet shadows that lurk within the darkness.

It ain't perfect, but frankly it's some cool mental imagery.

Air, earth, fire, spark, water, and mind. Five plus one elements. Amber, blood, bright, crystal, dark, and soul. Five plus one concepts. The multiverse is perfectly balanced, as all things should be. And it feels great, as long as you don't ask me what the difference between mind and soul is supposed to me. So far, I'm gonna claim it's the split between one's internal logic, versus emotional side.

Thank you for reading, and have a great day!

Describing Shadowfell

Yesterday, I was looking over some of the discord servers I frequent and stumbled upon a message on the discord server run by a YouTuber called Holstic Dungeon Master. He wanted some inspiration for the descriptions, atmosphere, monsters, and challenges of this realm. I started writing and didn't stop for a while, because it seemed the inspiration was just flowing out of me. In the end, his group ended up going to the ocean's depths instead. That's why I decided to compile what I wrote here and share it with anyone interested. I should add that these are all things I came up with on the spot, they don't necessarily fit the D&D canon.

More game design articles coming soon. For now, indulge me in the brooding moods of Shadowfell by reading on, and have a great day!

Unchanging, eternal.
A screenshot from Death Note.

Colors

All colors are less saturated in this world, including the colors of those not native to the plane, and the magic they use. Think of it like someone applying a sepia or grayscale filter partially to everything everyone sees. Grays, beiges, and other muted colors dominate the realm, though you can still distinguish the shades of formerly highly saturated colors.

Weather

It's almost always overcast. Rains are common, snow only in cold regions. Sometimes, the rain could be toxic. In some extreme areas, the rain could age anything it touches, just like in Death Stranding.

Slopes

Most of the time, you are encouraged to move downhill in the realm of Shadowfell. Going uphill without equipment is almost impossible, even if in the Material Plane it'd be easy to walk up that kind of hill. Meanwhile, Shadowfell feels deep, like one could go lower and lower indefinitely. Its depths feel just as gloomy as the surface, so it's hard to tell how high up or how low you are unless you keep track of it.

Buildings

Since it's an echo of the Material Plane, the buildings and cities could exist in this realm, but they'd be warped by the plane's influence. In this case, the buildings are a bit bigger and therefore emptier. They are big enough for their walls to be in contact. If there are doorways on the inside, or one uses the spell passwall, you could traverse an entire city without ever going outside.

Emotions

The native creatures mostly express low-energy moods here. Boredom, sadness, and hopelessness are way more common than anger, fear, or joy. Non-native creatures will have a harder time expressing high-energy emotions too.

Exit

This one is quite dark, so read at your own risk. In some places, it's possible to leave Shadowfell by taking your own life. Once you pass such a place, though, you never know if you left it for sure.

Nameless

It's normal for the native denizens of Shadowfell to not have a name. It's hard to care about such unnecessary things in a realm like that and makes passing away easier.

Hunger

Anyone in Shadowfell feels less hungry than they otherwise would, but this doesn't mean they are less hungry. One would starve themselves to death without knowing it if they were to only eat in Shadowfell like they normally would when they begin to feel genuine hunger. The natives are used to eating less, and their biology allows them to survive longer with lesser sustenance.

Plantlife and Mushrooms

The plants of Shadowfell generally either don't have leaves, or all the leaves are dead and shriveled. One could in theory grow mushrooms or even fruits in some rare places. The taste is reduced significantly though - a fantastic meal would taste okay, an okay meal would taste rather bad, and a rather bad meal would taste outright awful here. Like sand and sawdust.

Shinigami apple from Death Note.

Water

Nobody is quite sure what's wrong with the water, but non-natives should not drink it without purifying it first. Natives are unaffected, assuming they need to drink water.

Passage of Time

The time passes as normal, but psychologically it feels like the time is not passing at all. Unless one would enter and leave Shadowfell within an hour or keep track of time while inside, you could spend any amount of time there and exit feeling like you've been there only for an hour. You will always be surprised about how much time passed when you leave Shadowfell.

Sleep

The denizens of Shadowfell need to sleep more than an average creature would. It's not unheard of for them to sleep for 10-16 hours a day, unless magic powers them they need some energy source afterall.

Physical Manifestation

A non-native will reshape their surroundings subconsciously if they reside in one spot for too long. The surroundings will take shape that will remind them the most of their own past failures, guilt, and trauma.

Memories

Recalling memories uncharacteristic of this realm (joy, anger, etc.) requires actual concentration if you spend too much time in Shadowfell. After a while, it would literally break your concentration on spells and effects like that.

---

Most influences are from the Shinigami Realm featured in Death Note, with lesser inspiration from Spec Ops: The Line, Junji Ito's Uzumaki, and Death Stranding.

Anyway, yeah, that's all for now. Have a great day, and thank you for reading!

Minimalistic D&D Setting

D&D is a neat system with too many things to keep in mind. Spells, legacies (also known as races), capabilities of people, monsters and their abilities... and that's just the rules. On top of all this, there's stuff like geography, history, and so much more. If you think all of this is easy to manage, bear in mind that you're probably still thinking only about the Material Plane, and not about all the other planes of existence. While I'd love to be a DM someday, I know that I would much rather work on Runehack than on whatever world I run my D&D campaign in. Running a game of D&D in Runehack would require me to drop the vast majority of classes, my own system for games in Runehack is being worked on (with heavy quotation marks, since I keep getting distracted), … Wouldn't it be nice to have a low maintenance world to run D&D games in?

I felt creatively drained when I started to write this, but it's a subject I've been thinking about for a long time. It only makes sense for me to post it here, hopefully I get some sort of response to see what I could improve on it.

The land of million possibilities. Except it's lands actually.
Storm Wars, by Elena Konstantinova

Minimalistic D&D Setting

During the war of gods, all of the planes of existence have crashed into one another, leaving only two: Material Plane, now made up of planar remnants shaped like flying islands, and the Ethereal Plane, which was untouched since it overlaps all of the planes according to its lore. Personal name for this world is "Vestigial Itonia", but that's just for the ease of personal use.

Each island is a closed system, unless it has a way of traveling to other flying islands. Islands flying in parallel trajectories are rare, but not unheard of. Each island is a microcosm of its own, taking on characteristics of a plane of your choice, or a combination of planes. All of this in mind, chances are this island hadn't been visited by anyone, or it was, or it was visited and colonized too. In order to navigate to a specific island, you need a compass made out of special rocks inside of the island the compass points to. Cardinal directions are determined solely by celestial things, like the Sun and stars.

People need to traverse the islands somehow, so there could be three broad ways of achieving that (plus combinations), consider which of these is the most commonly used one. Not all islands are guaranteed to have access to any of these. Listed in an order in which I would expect them to appear in the world history-wise, these are:

1. domesticated flying creatures,
2. magic,
3. technology.

I like for all the islands to have the same gravitational orientation (same "down"), and for the "bottom of the world" to be filled with a dark Void that the Sun goes beneath to create a day-night cycle. Since rich get richer, I'd assume there would be 1-3 big countries that are spread over many islands and try to colonize more at all times, so that could be a simple way to bring player characters together.

What do we achieve with a world like this? The lowest maintenance world I could think up.

• It's not necessary to figure out a big picture geography of the world, which makes it easier for the DM to draw maps of individual islands. No need to make the land fit a bigger environment.
• Each island can have its own history, and if it's a closed system, its history could reasonably be unaffected (and unaffecting) the world outside of the island.
• When the DM and players feel like it, they can visit all sorts of planes of existence, including nonexistent ones. Want a candy island? An island populated only by the bears? How about a mixture of Elemental plane of fire, Carceri, and Feywild? Whatever that would be like, you can just decide to have an island like that fly by, and give your players an offer to fly there. If they don't want to, you can also just... have the island never appear in the game again.
• This kind of world can support pretty much any player option that the player could want to pick. On one hand, plenty of uncommon species could be unfamiliar to the wider world, which could make general population suspicious of players who choose unusual races. On the other hand, with such a huge variety of races, they might also all be accepted equally. Both can work well, whether applied to the whole world or to the individual exceptions.
• Tying it to the previous two bullet points, does your player want to make up a corner of the world to call their own? Be it their birthplace, the island they wanted to visit all their life, or the isle where their mortal enemy sits upon their iron throne? All of this is very much doable!

… wait, is this all just One Piece but without water and with D&D's magic replacing all of the magics that are in the original story? Wait no, this world doesn't have a famous pirate announcing a race for the biggest treasure of the world that's located on an island which hasn't been finished by anyone but him and his crew for centuries. So of course this isn't One Piece!

Thank you for reading, and have a great day!

The Departed Man's Inn

Inspired by the OST of Witcher 3's expansion, a blogpost from GoblinPunch, and possibly other stuff that I forgot about.

The blog's purpose did change over the years, I figured every once in a while I could make another location you could plop anywhere in your world. Mainly when I have an idea that feels like it's worth exploring.

Note: Any similarities to real people or places is coincidental, other than Elza Beth. All of these are fictional people.

The Departed Man's Inn

Somewhere, be it just on a road between big cities, or on the crossroads where several such roads meet, stands The Departed Man's Inn. Far away from any big noteworthy city, this tavern seems to be nothing important at a glance. It's actually surprising they have any regular patrons at all. But those who look beyond the facade presented to the public will find a terrifying truth. The inn has lots of traps hidden all over the place, and it even hides a secret basement underneath the cellar. Some of the beds have mechanical spikes that spring at midnight, impaling whoever is unfortunate enough to lie on them. The subtle drainage system built in those few selected rooms lead all of the blood down beneath the inn, right into a bathtub. What's more, this place is full of highwaymen. A group of outlaws, who just so happen to be... immortal?
The Departed Man's Inn, including its regular patrons, is composed of a group of immortal people in hiding, robbing traveling merchants in their free time, because what else will they do. Each of them is immortal in their own way.

D.A.

D.A. is the goblin with a silver tongue. He managed to convince the Vile Darkness — the lord of hell itself (or another appropriate Lower Plane of your choice) — to grant him immortality. It was supposed to be a devil deal that would backfire, but D.A.'s talent of writing contracts is what has given him this immortality. It's also the explanation for his nickname — Devil's Advocate, D.A. He is the third youngest member of the group, and ultimately his goal is to overthrow the leader and manage the group as the boss.

Dorien

Because of a badly worded wish upon encountering a genie, this male dwarf has been turned into a vampire. He is a patient man, rather slow but also artistically talented, and elegant. With the time he has been given, he is capable of painting the same painting for months, sometimes even years. His life goal is to paint a masterpiece to be remembered by forever.

Elza Beth

Taking inspiration from an actual legend, this young-looking female aasimar lures into the Departed Man's Inn young virgin women to slay them and bathe in their blood. This is what keeps her youth, both in appearance and in age. Her only wish is to keep her beauty and admiration from others. She's actually rather reserved when not on the "hunt", keeping to herself

Jack Hopkins

Legends say, that those who have been denied from every single afterlife are fated to travel across the lands, cursed with eternal life. Jack is a ghost banned from any life beyond death, bound to a simple amulet. He can possess people seen by him, which he usually uses to bring in victims for Elza and Dorien to keep their eternal lives. Whenever he possesses someone, the person visibly wears Jack's amulet. Jack is an eccentric prankster, who just wants to enjoy the life for what it's worth, since he's got unlimited supply of it. Drinking, drugs, and other pleasures that would normally damage the body are of no worry to someone, who can exchange bodies with others.

Jade Hart

It is rather unusual to meet a goliath wizard. Second in leadership only to Thomas, she's the brains behind this whole tavern. Jade has several clones prepared in the secret basement beneath the inn's cellar. She's supportive, willing to listen to anyone who has a problem — patron or fellow highwayman. Reading makes her happy, and scrolls containing any spells that she doesn't have yet in the nearly complete spellbook make her even happier. Rumors between the Inn's employees say that her heart is literally a heart of stone, but nobody can tell for sure whether that's true or not.

Lapis Goldielocks Gyroscope

Thanks to her alchemical prowess, Lapis has managed to successfully create a recipe for potion of immortality, which allows her body to regenerate very fast. She's a gnome with an ambitious goal of creating her very own universe in a box. She's naturally curious about all the travelers, and a good listener since she usually pretends to be the barmaid.

Maximillion Dyson Gyroscope, or M.A.X.

Through complicated research, Maximillion has managed to develop his very own spells, akin to magic mouth or arcane lock, but with telekinesis activated by seen inputs. Afterwards, this gnome has built himself an iron golem body, cast imprisonment on himself, and through his visual commands managed to insert the gem used for the imprisonment spell into the chest of the golem. His wish is to outlast even the gods with his ingenuity, and when he's not pretending to be a bodyguard of this tavern, he's constantly working on new gizmos, under a nickname of "Mechanical Autonomous eXterminator", or M.A.X.

Queen of Aces

Bearing the nickname of a Queen is something only someone very proud of their skills would dare to do. Queen is excellent at all sorts of games, and a very fast learner. It is said that the more she plays against the same opponent, the higher her chances of beating them. This lordly gambler has challenged the death itself to a game, and coincidentally won. Ever since, she's been on a winning streak, with a goal of amassing as much wealth as possible for her own amusement.

Immortal Jim and Lilac "Steel Doll" Hemsi

These two siblings are fairly old, and blessed by the gods with skin that's as hard as steel. Both of them are immortal, but for different reasons. Jim will only take damage that's 3 or less at once, while Lilac takes damage only if it's dealt to the pinkie toe on her left foot, which she usually hides with steel-tipped boots. The two siblings care for each other, and technically aren't even immortal. Thomas took them in for their potential when it comes to being in the fight. While Jim is a bit of an airhead who gets angry quickly at even the smallest things, Lilac fills in for his weaknesses by being exceptionally good at reading people and noticing things.
They don't really get a picture, because this is a blank I'd want you to fill out on your own. Do they look like barbarians from north? Like desert travelers? Do they look like stereotypical adventurers? You tell me!

Thomas Booker O'Ville, also known as The Vile Darkness

The lord of hell (or another appropriate Lower Plane) that D.A. managed to trick. He is the oldest member of this group, the leader, and also the founder. He is a trickster, elegant on the outside but playing mind games at all times with folks. Who knows if D.A. tricked him, or if Thomas got him where he wanted to have D.A. all along. Due to being the lord of hell, he always comes back to life by emerging from the hell after his death. To the public, he presents himself as the owner of The Departed Man's Inn.
Some rumors say that he is the Book of Vile Darkness, manifested into a physical form. Which is why there's only one known way of destroying him permanently — wiping out all of the multiverse's evil.

And I suppose that's it for The Departed Man's Inn! Sure I could go into more details, like the environment, or the tavern's layout, or more detailed roles for the rest of the characters, but I would rather keep the details like that vague so that it fits into majority of the worlds. Imagine having your players start in this inn before they venture into the adventures of the world, having little to no clue as to who manages this inn until way later in the game. You can of course alter the crew of this inn by adding or removing members, editing the existing ones, or doing any other modifications you can think of.

Thank you for reading, and have a nice day!

Chained Realms

Cosmology can be a hard thing to figure out. After-all, it is not my first time trying to structure it. Sometimes, one wants something really complicated and open to new additions. Other times, one might want to go as simple as possible. Opinions can change over time, and the Great Wheel doesn't seem like the best option every time. Looking into previous editions, it's clear that World Axis has been an inspiration to me here, though I found a way to make it my own. Let's see how can I keep all of my ramblings about my own cosmology organized, shall we?

The Two Cycles of Chained Realms

The foundation of my cosmology lies in the fact that there are only two types of matter - ether and aether. These are two most basic materials you could split everything physical, and some nonphysical things too, into.

Ether is everything spiritual - the soul. But also the light and darkness. This material can be found in the afterlife planes such as Heavens, Hells, but also in the Material Plane and its echoes, and as one would expect, in the Ethereal Plane, sometimes called Ether.

Aether is what one would think of as elements - fire, water, earth, air, electricity, and their combinations. It is also what mind is made out of. It can be found in the Elemental planes, but also in the Material Plane and its echoes, as well as the Dreamscape.

Drawn by yours truly.

From this, one could picture how the planes look. It's pretty much a Venn diagram, with the circles representing ether and aether, intersection being Material Plane and its echoes, borders of intersections being Ethereal Plane and Dreamscape, and the nonintersecting parts of these big circles being afterlife and elemental planes respectively.

Then there is the space outside of this venn diagram, place outside of the cosmology, the Far Realms. Which are not part of this cosmology, it's just a nice term for "everything else". I have already talked enough about Far Realms, so I won't say much on that topic here.

When you light a branch on fire using a spark produced with a pair of stones in any of the planes in the intersection (let's say Feywild for this example), here's what happens - the spark, and the wood that's consumed travels through the Dreamscape into their respective elemental planes, to be replaced with fire and ashes. These are brought back through the Dreamscape into the Feywild. That's how the cycle of material goes.

Similarly, when someone dies, their soul travels through the Ether and into the afterlife their soul belongs to. Through the Ether the soul comes back and is reused when someone is born. Again, this is a topic I talked about in another article. Any changes or additions to that will be stated here.

The last bit of information about the ether and aether themselves is that their sum total stays the same at all times, and one can't be turned into the other. Picture this kind of like the first law of thermodynamics, except that there are two types of energy that both have unchanging amounts.

Now then, it's time to get into specifics and talk about the planes themselves! I'll start from the outskirts and then get to the Material Plane and its echoes, you'll see why later.

Elemental Planes and Afterlife Planes

Also called Elemental Planes. We all know what to expect here, right? Planes that are filled with water, fire, earth, but also other things. Well, I made some changes to how elements mix, because I wanted lightning to be an element of its own, and for any elements to mix, at least in somewhat sensible way.

	Air	Earth	Fire	Lightning	Water
Air	-	Sand	Smoke	Sound	Ice
Earth	Sand	-	Magma	Magnet	Wood
Fire	Smoke	Magma	-	Plasma	Steam
Lightning	Sound	Magnet	Plasma	-	Storm
Water	Ice	Wood	Steam	Storm	-

Then there are mixtures of elements with light and darkness. These would mostly be found in the Prime planes, but of course there can be exceptions.

	Light	Darkness
Air	Thunder	Vacuum
Earth	Mineral	Dust
Fire	Radiance	Ash
Lightning	Spark	Silence
Water	Ooze	Poison

The last two kinds of matter that can be found in the elemental planes are mind and the aether itself. Mind doesn't mesh well with the elements. Aether doesn't mesh with elements either, because it's all of them and none of them at the same time. It's usually described as thin, silk-like bright strings.

Of course, if the DM wishes to structure the combinations of elements in a different way, add or remove elements, or even if they want to make up completely different elements just for fun, they are free to do so. There could in theory even be an infinite number of elemental planes, making the Elemental Chaos into a space ripe for exploration.

Afterlife planes work in a much similar way. All elemental mixing that occurs in relation to this plane has been described above already however, so this part will be much shorter. When one encounters an angel, it's a being literally made of pure light imbued with a soul. Heaven too is made of pure light. Still, afterlife planes have space for adding more and more planes for exploration - be it from the Great Wheel (Ysgard, Limbo, Acheron, ...), or planes of your own making based on what kind of treatment one deserves. Maybe there's even space for the planes of luck and misfortune that were included in my previous iteration of the cosmology.

Ether and Dreamscape

Transitive planes are used for traversing planes. Well, sort-of. They do also have things within them, but those things aren't that easily accessible. Which is why we differ between the Border and Core, sometimes called Deep regions.

Picture standing on a glass ceiling. You can see everything underneath you (the Core), but can't really interact with it. Your interactions are limited to what's on top of the ceiling (the Border). When one travels through Ether or Dreamscape into a different plane with their body, their soul, their mind, and their equipment intact, this is kind of what's happening. You're accessing the Border Ether, or Border Dreamscape. You can observe what's within the Core, though you can't really affect it. and you can access the Core only by the purest abstract thing body has of corresponding element - the soul for Ether, the mind for Dreamscape. Getting anything more inside and outside of that would take magics of power greater than Wish itself.

One implication of these planes being required for moving around their matter is the existence of genies. I've mentioned previously in the article about souls that when someone dies in the Elemental Planes, their soul is stuck there. It gathers the ether, and eventually becomes a genie. Great thing about this is that the same logic could now be applied to the Afterlife Planes! If you die on the Afterlife Planes, your mind is stuck there. Eventually, it gathers light and/or darkness, and becomes its own being, ... which I haven't named yet. Alternatively, if you leave behind a piece of your equipment, like your teapot for example (which is of course made of aether), it eventually attracts ether, and becomes alive. Animated teapot, now where did I hear of that before...

Prime Planes

These are the planes in the intersection of ether and aether. Most familiar of these to majority of players is of course the Material Plane, but its echoes belong here too. Feywild, Shadowfell, and anything else one could make up. Or not. this depends on the DM - if they wish to go with a simpler model, they can freely omit the echoes and keep just the Material Plane. Or they might also exclude that one too. That could make for an interesting world.

Something something hot topic, something something heated discussion.
Original image is the concept art from Rift

So far simple enough, right? Well, here's another thing that made me mildly unhappy - try to imagine the elemental plane of fire. What is it made of? Of course, fire is present, but what else is there? Maybe... the ground to stand on is made of hot rocks? Maybe the air is filled with smoke and stuff? Maybe even lakes of lava. All of that... is starting to sound less and less like fire. So, my way of solving it is simple: It's not just fire, it's all the elements, but mixed with fire.

Elemental Plane	Air	Earth	Fire	Lightning	Water
Air	Air	Sand	Smoke	Sound	Ice
Earth	Sand	Earth	Magma	Magnet	Wood
Fire	Smoke	Magma	Fire	Plasma	Steam
Lightning	Sound	Magnet	Plasma	Lightning	Storm
Water	Ice	Wood	Steam	Storm	Water
Light	Thunder	Mineral	Radiance	Spark	Ooze
Darkness	Vacuum	Dust	Ash	Silence	Poison

How about a practical example? Picture the Elemental Plane of Fire being made out of smoke, magma, fire, plasma, and steam, possibly even radiance and ash. Now that sounds like something that could actually exist instead of just fire. Lakes of plasma and lava, air that's filled with steam and smoke, grounds covered with ashes and burning... things that resemble plants but are not plants... You get the idea.

Or how about the Elemental Plane of Earth being made of sand, earth, magma, magnets, wood, minerals and dust? Picture the sandy shifting sea, moving up and down like a liquid. Picture the earth that's got minerals here and there, and even some naturally magnetic metals. Picture wooden underground structures, and lava lakes, again!

How about we take this to whole another level? What if you could transform Feywild and Shadowfell into a more whimsical and more scary place? I hear no objections, so let's do it!

First and foremost, we will have to define how the Feywild and Shadowfell fit into the cosmology. I'll keep that simple, and say that they are Material Plane, but with a little bit of light and darkness added - light for Feywild, darkness for Shadowfell. Now, having those affect the entire planes could be dangerous, so I will come up with natural phenomenons to explain them - storms! Lightstorms in Feywild, and darkstorms in Shadowfell (work in progress names).

When a part of the Feywild is struck by lightstorm, you see bits of light falling from the shining clouds above. Everything that's rained on gets altered a little by them, for some amount of time. The fires turn into lightshows of color (radiance), the air carries sounds in a much more effective manner, making everything louder and more intense (thunder), the earth beneath you literally turns into precious stuff (mineral), the water turns into slime that's possibly alive (ooze, of course), and when a lightning strikes, you see it as a falling star flying down in a path that resembles lightning (spark).

For Shadowfell, the darkstorms turn the already shady place into an even worse one. The earth beneath you crumbles and feels dusty, any fires turn to ashes instantly, the water turns to poison, there is a lack of air (just... try to ignore the physics here, please), and during the storms, instead of lightnings the world is enveloped in a moment of absolute darkness and silence.

Epilogue

What makes me the most excited about all of this is that it's got a lot of potential for expanding. We can start with basic 5 elements described above, the Heaven, the Hell, Material Plane and two of its echoes, two transitive planes and Far Realms. But when we need it, we could make a hellish afterlife that's a huge prison like Carceri, a two-sided heaven like Bytopia, the Elemental Plane of Bears or even the Grigori, Material Plane's echo where time is much faster and beasts rule...

And if you run out of ether and aether? Well, you could always come up with another kind of primordial matter. I already got two in store, but don't tell my players. It's a secret.

The possibilities are endless, which is why this kind of multiverse makes me very excited as a creator. Maybe one day I'll make a cosmology that's better than this one, but until then... I'm fine with this one.

Who knows how many materials are there...
Image via BBC, I think.

On volerite, deducanos and floating islands

Confession: I am not a geologist, biologist nor physicist, so some of the terms and assumptions used here may not be correct. This is just a theorycrafting, so please do take it with a grain of salt.

It is a known fact in the scientific community of Lasklo that the gravity is not the same everywhere. There are tiny differences in gravity here and there, and it's fairly irregular. Researchers have been wondering about the reality of that for a long time, until they figured out a definite answer. It's a rare mineral they refer to as volerite. But what exactly is volerite?

Volerite (also called volitium by some, but that name never caught on in the wizardly community) is a mineral inherently magical in its nature. It is repulsed by any other material, with the sole exception of other deposits of volerite. It has a neutral attraction to itself, which allows it to cling together much as any normal material would cling to itself. Imagine like helium, but a rock - if it's not held by anything, it will just float up and away, forever to fly through the universe.This explains the irregular gravity that's present everywhere - volerite can be deep underground, but it's too weak to make any significant changes to the gravity on the surface. Well, most of the time anyway.

One note worth mentioning is that volerite's "negative mass" makes weapons, armors and objects generally made out of pure volerite... interesting. I don't feel like delving into physics, so I'm gonna move on.

Deducano

This rock forms deep underground, somewhere around the layer where magma forms, maybe slightly above it. If a volcano forms in a place where there's lot of volerite (which has a low probability to happen), there's a high chance that when a volcano erupts, it will spew volerite instead of/along with lava and ashes. Such volcano is refered to as "deducano", or "volcannon" by the commoners who think it resembles a natural cannon more than a regular volcano. When such volcano erupts, it's a sight to behold... well, if you get away from lava and ashes that is. The volerite that flies up is an interesting sight that becomes even more spectacular when some lava is attached to it. If there's too much lava, the volerite won't fly up and will instead try to force its way out of the lava before it solidifies. The rock that solidifies before that escape, trapping the volerite inside, is quite a curiosity, and not that uncommon around deducanos - it seems to be an ordinary rock, that's a lot lighter though. And it falls slower. Neat!

What's even more interesting is when a perfect mix of volerite and ordinary rock fuses together. This fusion - named “floatstone” - is apparently weightless, floating wherever one puts it. Which brings us to...

Floating islands

There's a very slim chance for a deducano to spew a nearly perfect mixture of rock and volerite, which had been fused together under the pressure even before the release. When this happens, we get what's commonly known as floating islands. Their top is covered with a layer of volerite that's trying to desperately escape the planet, and their bottom is covered with ordinary rock that's trying its best to fall. Perfectly balanced, these rocks are trying to escape forever one another, but end up just floating in the midair.

Over time, variety of things can fall onto the surface of floating islands. Water when it rains or snows, dirt and life when a tornado happens, and maybe more stuff. It's worth to mention that even though there's a layer of volerite on top of the island, the weight of the planet is too strong for all the stuff that gets caught on top of the flying island to be repulsed and thrown away. At best, it would cause the gravity on floating island to be weaker. That means that the island gets everything it should need for a life to develop. Exactly what biomes could form up there I won't detail, but I suppose the islands flying really low could have forests, while those that fly high above the clouds could have deserts because of lack of water and strong winds, arctic environment because of cold, or both at the same time.

Alloys

Since humanoids are crafty and smart creatures, they've wondered what alloys they can make using volerite. It's very hard to make a volerite alloy even for someone who is an experienced smith, especially for those that worked just on normal alloys all their life. Special tools and cooperation of several smiths is required, and only two successful alloys are known of as of now - fixite and nequitine.

Fixite

Fixite is an alloy of volerite and adamantium. Adamantium is a heavy and strong material, but also inherently magical one. When it mixes with volerite, the resulting alloy turns out to be a material that's immovable. As you may already guess, this is what infamous immovable rods are made of. But how does it actually work?

Actually, fixite is not really immovable. What instead happens is that fixite is immobile... when it gets a magical pulse of sorts. Think of it like a semiconductor - the resistance of a semiconductor decreases as much as its temperature increases. Fixite is very similar to that - it requires a minor magical pulse in order to be fixed in the field of gravity it's located in. When an immovable rod is made, this magical pulse is the button one has to press to fix it in place. It's a magical effect even smaller in power than a cantrip, and so it's useless for anything besides fixing the rod in place.

Researchers believe that there must be some way to mix the two materials to make what they call "perfect fixite", a material that will stay fixed in place without requiring a magical pulse. However, nobody has been able to produce that yet. Some artificers have begun to suspect that it may be just a false speculation.

Nequitine

Nequitine is an alloy of volerite and mithril. Mithril is light and easy to manipulate material, and - just like adamantium - mithril too is magical by nature. When it mixes with volerite, it too becomes a semiconductor-like material, but when one activates this one, it instead does not stop moving. Similarly to fixite, there is also a speculated "perfect nequitine" that would move indefinitely, never stopping and never requiring a magical pulse either.

Some of the uses for nequitine are evermoving rods, that allow ships to move indefinitely, arrows that fly at all times (until they are stopped by something sufficiently strong or break), and sources of energy.

You may now think that we've gotten to an age-old question, a paradox of sorts. "What happens if an unstoppable arrow hits an immovable rod?" Well, you see, no alloy of these metals is perfect. The answer thus depends on the smith, quality of alloy, and lots of other unseen factors. One of the two would break or otherwise give way, that's definitely given. That is also a reason why wizard society thinks that only one of the two speculated “perfect” volerite alloys can exist - because if both existed, a paradoxical state would emerge.

Oxeye

After several days of walking, I arrived at what seemed to be a normal hamlet. Surrounded by oak forest and a field, I curiously walked in, absorbing the smell of grain and quiet atmosphere. Most of the population consisted of humans, but I saw several elves here and there and at least one half-elf. Since it was late evening, my goal was to find an inn to rest in. Most buildings, however, looked the same, and so I asked one of the villagers. The old woman looked at me with surprise, and after a while she said with a voice much raspier than expected: "Over there, newcomer," pointing with shaking finger at the building in the middle of this hamlet.

I walked into the inn, being welcomed by a surprising emptiness. The half-elven barmaid was cleaning a glass while talking to a depressed-looking muscular man sitting at the bar. In the corner, there was an old-looking woman with a crystal ball placed in front of her, excitedly waving at me. As I walked in, I saw how the barmaid started to fill the glass with dwarven ale, just as a young farmer walked past me. He placed several coins he was clutching in his hand in front of her quietly, taking his ale and sitting next to the depressed goliath.

---

Location	On a road between a large city and a shore, or another large city, surrounded by oak forests and fields.
Population	48
Majority Races	human, elf, half-elf
Majority Languages	common, elvish
Popular Gods	forests, agriculture
Government	under the local kingdom, in case of no kingdom the mayor
Leader	the mayor
Culture	quiet, commercial
Economy	income from travelers buying their products and staying in their inn
Abundant Resources	wood, leather, grain
Secret	The citizens of Oxeye don't talk to each other. Unusual weather conditions and natural occurrences are considered normal around the settlement. Farm animals rise from dead on some nights.

History

Oxeye started as a simple inn on the important road from one big city (or possibly coast) to another. Soon, more and more people realized that life there could be profitable, which is why they relocated there and started selling their products to travelers. And besides these people, there was a sorcerer who settled in this small village.

If the players ask elves about the sorcerer and don't have a bad reputation in the settlement, they will be willing to talk about him. His name was Jo Goldworthy, a halfling who always held his wand in his left hand and wore his dark blue pointy hat everywhere. He was an impatient fellow with a wild magic obsession. He was social but humble, never even needed to build a tower for himself. One day, he discovered a terrible secret that was hidden underneath the hamlet–in a naturally-formed cavern, there was a floating crystal of wild arcane powers. After he discovered it, he hired several men to barricade the original entrance to the cavern and dig a new one, coming straight from his home's cellar. He dedicated his life to protecting and studying this stone.

Since then, 251 years have passed. This crystal led to several weird occurrences, most notably the telepathic bonds of everyone in this village. Every resident can read the mind of any other resident, which is why they don't talk to one another. But this telepathic bond doesn't affect anyone unless they settle down to live in Oxeye. Snow storms are pretty common in the summer, forest fires are usual in winter, and zombie farm animals rise from the dead, a phenomenon that is unusual but well-known by local farmers.

Locations

The inn is the oldest building, located in the middle of Oxeye, near the main road the village was built around. It has been renewed several times and always was the center of village life. There were even times when it was a building more important than the mayor's house. Lesatha, the half-elven barmaid, can be found there at all times, along with Iuchra, the fortune teller, and Arno, the sad Goliath. There are other men who stop by, mostly farmers and woodcutters. The inn has a ground floor where tables, bar, and kitchen are located, an upper floor where there are four bedrooms with three beds each, and a cold cellar where food and drinks are stored, accessible through the kitchen.

Jo's house is located on the edge of Oxeye, far from the main road. It has been abandoned for the last 50 or so years, until Everynn–the female half-elf who seems adventurous–moved in last month to guard it. There wasn't that much inside anyway–most stuff had already been sold to travelers, and the hidden entrance to the cavern beneath the hamlet has stood hidden for a whole 50 years. Everynn knows how to enter it and regularly checks the crystal.

A barred cave entrance can be found outside of Oxeye, about two hours of walking to the northeast. Surrounded by forest, it has several signs placed around it, warning everyone not to enter in the common, elven and halfling languages. Goblins usually reside around it, occasionally trying to pry the old planks open and stealing animals from farmers in order to survive.

Occupants

Common male names: Lanty, Tyward, Wilston, Lantern, Cantor, Gotart, Jecourt, Tennance, Jonston
Common female names: Sterla, Ainkella, Stibira, Noora, Kazandra, Roseta, Awelia, Arfinna

1d100	Profession
1-33	Farmer
34-50	Woodcutter
50-66	Merchant
67-80	Tailor
81-90	Child
91-93	Hunter
94-100	other

1d10	Problem
1	Cows, pigs and rabbits return each night to eat the crops off the fields. When approached, they prove to be dangerous and they keep returning. Closer inspection reveals that these are in fact zombie animals*.
2	A sleuth of bears has moved to the edge of the forest where woodcutters are currently working. One detail about this, however, seems to be off... they are polar bears.
3	A merchant asks for help with... a debt. After he describes the person who owes him some money, this person can be seen exiting his house and running as far from the shop as he can.
4	The tailor needs some of her precious silk which can be collected in the forest, but she is afraid of going there by herself, because the creatures near the silk have grown to become giant frogs.
5	A small child runs around screaming for help because his dog is different now. Turns out the beast has over night turned into an aggressive blink dog.
6	Local hunter needs help hunting down an animal not usual for this region–a woolly mammoth.
7	One of Oxeye's guards can be seen in the Inn, looking for help in catching a thug.
8	A meteorite strikes the Inn. Seeing several memphits coming out from the meteorite itself, the least of townsfolk's troubles right now is repairing the Inn.
9	Another group of adventurers passes by, staying in the inn for a night or two.
10	A temporary portal to different plane of existence has been opened in Oxeye, and there are invaders coming through!

* Zombie animals have stat blocks identical to ordinary farm animals with added Resistances to poison and necrotic damage, and Undead Fortitude trait (see Zombie stat block).

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Wild Magic

Underneath the village is a large cavern that hides floating crystal from the world above. Range of its effects is 1 mile; they last until the next Wild Magic Surge and they are centered on Oxeye unless noted otherwise. The Surge gets triggered whenever a spell of 5th level of higher is cast within range, when the crystal is moved or at midnight. Additional rolls can be done under DM's discretion.

1d100	Wild Magic surge
1-5	Snowstorm.
6-10	Rainstorm.
11-15	Sandstorm.
16	All the fire, both magical and non-magical, within the range is rainbow-colored, and deals radiant damage instead of fire.
17	The area within range is under the effect of Reverse Gravity spell.
18	The area within range is under the effect of Antimagic Field spell.
19	A temporary portal to different plane of existence opens for 1 minute.
20-27	Random creature within range changes its skin color. The effect lasts even after next Wild Magic surge, and can be removed with Remove Curse or a stronger spell. 1d8 Colors 1 Red 2 Orange 3 Yellow 4 Green 5 Blue 6 Violet 7 Magenta 8 Pink
28	Lightstorm.
29	Earthquake.
30	Everyone within range is immune to being intoxicated by alcohol.
31	Nobody within range leaves footprints.
32	Every creature rolls a Wisdom Saving Throw upon finishing a long rest (DC 12) or be too lazy to do anything.
33	A single dog that's within range turns into a blink dog.
34	A single spider that's within range turns into a phase spider.
35	A single shrub that's within range awakens.
36	A single bear that's within range turns into a boar.
37	A single bear that's within range turns into a polar bear.
38	A single wolf that's alone and within range turns into a loan wolf.
39	A single wolf that's within range turns into a winter wolf.
40	A single wolf that's within range turns into a worg.
41	A swarm of bugs that's within range turns into a bag, large enough to fit a book.
42	A swarm of bats that's within range turns into 1d8 wooden clubs.
43	Every humanoid within range rolls a Constitution Saving Throw upon finishing a long rest (DC 10) or they get hiccups. These interrupt spells requiring Verbal components and can be spread by touch. Each creature affected by hiccups can repeat their Saving Throw at the beginning of their turn.
44	Birds can't lay eggs for the duration.
45-50	Every creature within range thinks its name is (1d8): 1 Jeff 2 Fine 3 Hungry 4 Notsorry 5 Harold 6 (name of the PC to your left) 7 (name of the player to your right) 8 Wolfeschlegelsteinhausenbergerdorff
51	There appear to be additional moon.
52-60	Nobody in the range can pronounce letter (1d8): 1 R 2 L 3 S 4 M 5 N 6 V/W 7 T 8 G
61	Every humanoid is invisible until it makes sound or until next Wild Magic surge (whichever comes sooner).
62-65	The humanoid closest to the crystal gains a monkey tail.
66-75	Every humanoid that's within range rolls a Wisdom Saving Throw upon finishing a long rest (DC 15) or they can't help but sing and dance as if they were a part of musical. All singing humanoids are singing to the same melody and can't help but know lyrics as if they had it all practiced.
76	Rockstorm.
77	Fishstorm.
78	Bloodstorm.
79	Solar/Lunar eclipse is visible from Oxeye.
80	A meteorite strikes within 1 mile of Oxeye.
81	Spectacular lights in the sky are visible above Oxeye at night.
82	A rainbow is visible above Oxeye.
83	The moon seems bloody red when viewed from Oxeye.
84	A tornado arises near to Oxeye.
85	All the flames that are as large as campfire or smaller are extinguished and can't be lighted up.
86	1d6 dead beasts that died within last week rise from dead.
87	1d4+2 animals become giant versions of themselves.
88	Whenever two humanoids touch, they both get a static shock.
89	Whenever sleeping, all humanoids have nightmares about rabbits.
90-95	All the animals can speak and gain human level of Intelligence.
96	Bark of all trees within 100 feet become hard as steel.
97	Loud music starts playing whenever anyone attempts to cast a spell with Verbal component.
98	Everything appears black and white.
99	The female closest to the crystal at the time of Wild Magic Surge appears as beautiful as nymph.
00	Oxeye ceases to exist. All of its citizens are moved to locations they'd logically reside in, and everyone (including beings outside of range) believes that Oxeye was gone at least for the last 100 years. This effect is permanent and affects everyone inside and outside of range, except for the ones who were in the cavern with the crystal.

Update: Added more Wild Magic Surges, added link to the stat block for the Loan Wolf
Update 2: Fixed stylistic mistakes