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HWE Planes Primer

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In the world of HWE Kaiju, Enigma and various mythological and legendary tales are woven together to build an alternate take on Earth’s history and where it might be headed. The setting of HWE isn’t limited to Earth and perhaps not even our own solar system or galaxy. To answer the ‘place’ aspect of the ‘time and place’ question we introduce ‘Planes’.

For those familiar with Dungeons and Dragons or similar tabletop role-playing games, Planes are fantastical places far beyond the scope of medieval fantasy where their characters can reach the very limits of power, prestige and adventure facing everything from the most nightmarish hells to the most bedazzling spectacles of paradise; and everything in between. These separate worlds provided new storylines, possibilities and trials for would be adventurers and the means of accessing them is usually through magic or other supernatural phenomena like portals. The basic idea of a Plane, referring to a ‘Plane of Existence’, is that of another world that often differs greatly from our own base ‘Material Plane’ and while difficult to access is not as far as one might think.

One can think of Planes like colored glass plates that rotate around and overlap one another from time to time. Our Material Plane, the neutral melting pot of mediocrity where most mundane aspects of status quo exist, is usually in the center of this system and serves as a fulcrum for the more extreme examples in the universe. In a world without Enigma, the Material Plane in HWE would be much like modern Earth and our current understanding of our own universe. With Enigma, things like Kaiju are possible and thus so are a lot of other things that are the purview of science fiction like alternate or parallel worlds. Unlike those concepts however, Planes are not stuck describing just a ‘what if’ of Earth or just separate planets but systems that can be entirely different from our own, function on their own specific rules with their own unique flora & fauna and yet through specific circumstances make themselves as available to us as a neighbor’s picket fence. Furthermore, Planes should not be confused for a chaotic soup of STUFF that just happens to break away or form together every so once and awhile at the whims of capricious god like entities. There might be a few Planes like that (chaotic seas of stuff) but they are the exception, never the rule.

The size of any given Plane depends on the amount of Enigma that sustains it. The larger the Plane the higher the Enigma cost. Various Planes find ways of keeping this flow steady. Some have a natural source on a convergent Ley Line or artificial source. Some Planes get by with having a ‘toll’ on those with Enigma in their bodies on those that enter the Plane. Residents of a larger than average Demi Plane for example may all have to pay a tribute of Enigma to sustain the Plane or to expand it. Planes that face a shortage of Enigma or lost it all entirely may begin to cannibalize its inhabitants until it reaches a critical existence failure and fades back into the surrounding abyss that all Planes reside in that defines their borders. The only Plane that doesn’t do this is the Material Plane as it is the center and is thus universally stable through the various changes in Enigma levels. Only shrinking or growing in accessibility in proportion with the Enigma energy.

Planes come in a variety of sizes and even shapes; some being entirely spherical like a planet and others being an infinite horizon. Some Planes are designed like tiered pits and others ascending mountains. The nature and shape of a Plane is often as much a part of its character as its inhabitants which often reflect this character themselves in some way.

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Plane Types

To further explain what Planes are and how they function, we’ll run through the primary types of Planes. There are a total of 8 Outer Planes surrounding the one Material Plane. The Far Planes aren’t really Planes at all, being dying or destroyed remains of such but can still be reached the same way though it’s a crapshoot. Inner Planes are much like bounded fields in that they can’t really be called Planes unto themselves but they add an extra dimension on the parts of their host Plane they are a part of. All Planes except the Material Plane require Enigma to exist. A Plane without Enigma falls apart and ‘dies’ in a variety of ways, returning with various speeds back into The Nothing, the space between Planes. The Enigma needed by a Plane can come from several sources and sometimes multiple sources. The inhabitants, a Ley Line of Enigma, an artifact that produces Enigma/stores it, are all possible sources. No singular entity or even group of entities could ever hope to manipulate, alter or take power over a Plane unless they themselves created it or could feasibly replicate it. The only plane that can be created by an individual and thus defined by them are Demi Planes who have a finite size proportionate to the Enigma capacity of the creator and its contributing residents. Any Entity that attempts to take the Enigma source of anything larger than a Demi Plane (i.e. most Outer Planes) unto itself for the singular purpose of empowering itself would either ascend into a state of pure energy and become part of the stream or implode. In other words, there are no Planar god kings that rewrite reality within a sphere of influence the size of a planet. They cannot exist and have never existed. They are the pipe dreams of fools and sages which coincidently enough are the only kinds of people that care about such entities.


Outer Plane: A stable, self contained existence/world that while nearly impossible/difficult to access through conventional means such as space travel, can be accessed through portals, gates, and other phenomena on criteria based basis. A true ‘Outer Plane’ is at least the size of a planet though they have the potential to be much larger or even infinite in scale in that their horizon has no end. A Plane can have physics and natural laws very different from what we understand or see as normal. Planes are kept stable and anchored into existence via a stable source of Enigma which permeates the entire Plane. If this source is shut down or destroyed the Plane likewise crumbles and ceases to exist, winking out of existence. Planes in general grow in proportion to the amount of Enigma they regularly receive, the larger the Plane the more Enigma is needed to fuel its existence. Outer Planes tend to have ‘different’ life forms on them than the Material Plane does but are often recognizable in some form due to the Outer Planes being closest to the Material Plane and thus having more cross planar exposure.

Material Plane: AKA our universe. A Material Plane has all the basic laws of physics and natural laws we’ve come to expect. It is usually considered the largest type of plane being that it acts as the fulcrum or center for every other plane that connects to it. Material Planes function differently from Outer Planes in that an Enigma shortage doesn’t trigger a critical existence failure. It is the center and thus is never entirely reliant on Enigma to exist. Material Planes periodically go through cycles of Enigma ebb and flow. One could consider the Outer Planes as tides and the Material Plane to be the Moon that influences those tides. The various celestial bodies (planets, stars, suns, moons, etc) contained within a Material Plane effect how other Outer Planes interact with it; some becoming unreachable and others overlapping certain parts of the Material Plane and causing Planar Merges (more on this later). There is only one Material Plane per universe and thus alternate universes have likewise alternate Material Planes which have alternate Outer Planes and so on.

Far Plane: These are ‘Planes’ on the very fringe of the universe and thus produce the most alien and bizarre of locations. The laws of nature are in constant flux and go in directions that would drive most insane in a matter of days if not hours. The things that live in these Planes are spoken of in low whispers or better yet not spoken of at all. Because they are so far removed from the Material Plane, they are the hardest to reach and vice versa. Enigma is running wild through Far Planes and while each one tends to have a specific type of ‘organized chaos’, there are very few things that are ever sedentary in a Far Plane and the kind of things that most assume are only in dreams can be found in the flesh among these bizarre expanses. Far Planes are the castoff remains of dead, stillborn or dying Planes as they gradually bleed into The Nothing. As such the Far Planes can’t really be considered Planes at all but chaotic garbage that still somewhat functions. The entire collection of them forms a cast off ring along the edges of the Outer Planes.

Inner Planes: A Plane that does not exist on its own but ‘piggybacks’ on other Planes, overlapping them and never moving. One could think of an Inner Plane as painted plastic wrap over a particular Plate. The Material Plane has at least three of these with Outer Planes having one or two. Inner Planes do not commonly have physical structures or landscapes unto themselves, instead revealing another side or perspective to that same location or object on the Plane in question. A rusted ruin in the Material Plane might look like a fully intact shining castle in the Inner Plane or the grove of trees and woodland that used to be there before the castle was ever built in another or a darkly insidious and semi dilapidated tower in yet another. Inner Planes are the easiest to reach providing you know where to look due to their proximity. Things that live within Inner Planes are fond of disappearing and reappearing between Planes at whim and are consummate planar travelers. Inner Planes are also the most sensitive to Enigma disruption as they reflect what occurs on the host plane in often a magnified manner. In a lot of ways, Inner Planes function a lot like Demi Planes except that they can be accessed by everyone almost anywhere. That is with the exception of Kaiju, due to the extreme amount of Enigma in any given Kaiju it is supremely difficult for a Kaiju to penetrate an Inner Plane as it just falls apart around them like wet tissue paper due to the Inner Planes Enigma sensitivity.

Demi Planes: Also known as ‘Pocket Planes’, Demi Planes rarely occur naturally. Most Demi Planes are instead created by Magus, Kaiju, or objects containing various degrees but uniformly steady Engima. Demi Planes work just like all planes do in that they need a source of Enigma to stay intact. Demi Planes differ in that they rely on the Enigma of their creator or an object created to serve in place of the creator in order to function. This greatly reduces the potential size of a Demi Plane and usually the size of one is directly proportionate to that of a single dwelling for the creator to live comfortably if not a single room. The natural laws of a Demi Plane are decided by the creator at the Demi Plane’s creation. So Demi Planes are very individualized locations and often with very specific reasons in mind. Some serve as Magus Workshops, others ‘portable holes’ with which to store an entire warehouse of goods, and yet others serve as prisons. Just about any reason one can think of for a personal sanctuary hidden away from prying eyes is what Demi Planes get used for. Sometimes, crafty individuals try to anchor a Demi Plane to a source of Enigma shared by another, non native Plane. This is called ‘leeching’. It’s a dangerous practice as while it can make the Demi Plane bigger and thus more expansive in its size and influence, it is also more unstable as its constantly struggling with the native Plane for Enigma which can either destroy the other Plane outright by starving it into critical existence failure or cause the Demi Plane to implode; both of which present a rather nasty moral event horizon for such creators and plenty of collateral damage. In terms of access, Demi Planes are both difficult and easy to enter depending on whether one knows the ‘key’.

Arbiter Planes: An anomaly of sorts on the Material Plane where an Earth Hollow becomes a Demi Plane by connecting to a ‘Ley Line’ of Enigma coursing through the resident Planet. In most cases this is Earth. Arbiter Planes are protected and defined by their resident Arbiter Kaiju who thus have stamped them with their personal aesthetic. All Arbiter Planes exact a minor Enigma toll on its residents that is gradually adapted to.  This allows the Plane to expand in proportion to its residency, the larger the population of life forms within the Arbiter Plane, the larger it becomes to accommodate them. Arbiter Planes are nicknamed ‘Arks’ for this phenomena and each Arbiter Plane lives up to this name by keeping populations of animals and plants that were only around during specific time periods and eras of Earth’s history, acting as a sanctuary and refuge for them through modern times. There are only as many Arbiter Planes as there are Arbiters, process that comes only once an era with each evolutionary jump or mass extinction.


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Planar Travel
A fundamental rule of Planar Travel is that you need Enigma to do so. Furthermore there must be enough Enigma in a steady quantity enough for the size of the voyaging party to create the accommodating entry way while holding it open for a crossover. The second major rule is that if you wish to reach your destination you have to know the coordinates to get there, even just an accurate visualization is better than jumping in blind. Not having the coordinates leads to jumping into The Nothing which if not a nightmarish abyss of casuality is a self correcting phenomena that will rectify itself in the most graphically violent and horrific of ways. One does not Planar Travel by ear, not even Kaiju do this. In this way one needs a sort of ‘native code’ to access one of the other Planes. The final rule is that one cannot travel from Outer Plane to Outer Plane directly. One can only reach another Outer Plane by using the Material Plane as an intermediary. Much like how a cross continental flight might require you to make multiple stops or take two different planes to ultimately reach your destination. Outer Planes likewise have to use the Material Plane to go to any of the other 8 Outer Planes. In other words, one can leave their native plane and come back to it in a round trip but they can’t take a detour straight from their destination. This is the reason why the Material Plane and Earth by extension is a hot bed for Kaiju and interplanar activity. Whoever could control access to the Material Plane would be a very powerful position.


The most thrilling aspect of the existence of Planes is of course traveling to them. However, conventional means are largely useless in this regard as Planar Travel is decided mostly by either knowing the right ‘address’ or knowing the right time and place travel between two particular planes becomes possible. Skilled Magus have long discovered methods of Planar Travel and residents of said Planes occasionally make their way across the cosmos using a combination of personal effort, a third party and instinctual navigation. Not knowing the address/coordinates of a given Plane when attempting to travel there leads to going into The Nothing. The Nothing is the abyssal span between Planes. It has many names and many monikers but in general it is not advised to go Planar Traveling without a specific and known destination in mind as a traveler can find themselves sailing randomly to a different Plane or into The Nothing where one can end up clear across time and space, not come back at all, or come back as flesh confetti.

Portal: The simplest form of Planar Travel, Portals are the most efficient of personal methods for reaching other Planes. One has to but exert enough Enigma to create an opening big enough for them and they can slip through the barrier between Planes. The most obvious form of this happens to be a rippling ‘hole’ in space that closes as soon as the creator has jaunted through it. Others can be literal tears in the fabric of reality that leaks energy until entered at which point it closes shut. A subtle variety is to simply ‘phase’ through the barrier and into the other plane, effectively ‘disappearing’ from sight like they had walked through an invisible door. Portals are not a ‘sustained’ form of travel meaning they cannot be held for very long, only a few moments at best. Same Plane Portals, i.e. Portals that simply reach another location on the same Plane, can be held so long as the creator has the patience/energy to keep them up. Plane to Plane travel meanwhile has to be more precise and deliberate. Thus most creations of Portals are to places the creator has already seen, knows about extensively or has painstakingly researched beforehand. Basically if you can visualize the location then you can probably make a Portal there.

Gate: The more utilitarian form of the Portal. A Gate is a stable ‘wormhole’ between two Planes that can be of a variety of sizes though most are at least large enough for a group of people rather than just one. If one were to form an ‘expedition’ to another Plane, it would be best advised to use a Gate. Gates have various means of operation and power supply ranging from multi Magus rituals to artifact activation. Both sides of the Gate must be intact in order to sustain the Gate’s operation. A failure on either side short circuits the wormhole and either leaves the traveler stranded on one side or the other or causes those caught in the middle of the wormhole to fall into The Nothing. Keeping a Gate open requires a steady amount of Enigma and a correct series of coordinates. A failure in either of these two things can have unfortunate consequences for the would-be traveler. Powerful and highly advanced societies are fond of using Gates both for off world travel and on world travel alike.

Planar Tide: When a Plane overlaps with another Plane during certain times of the year, when certain planets align, when a certain number of years have passed in succession or some other specific event has transpired, a Planar Tide can roll in. Much like an ocean tide, a Planar Tide comes in and goes out; taking whatever was in the area of the tide with it. Such strange locations like Lost Woods, certain ‘Triangles’, and other phenomena where people go messing are often the result of a Planar Tide. Planar Tides can be much larger than a Gate, sometimes displacing entire towns over night or very small, taking only a single child. Planar Tides are a favorite tool of the mercurial Fey who take advantage of the opening to dart in, whisk away lives, things and people and then depart for another specific amount of time when the next tide rolls in. Planar Tides can be useful for those desperate to escape their own Plane but it’s a one way trip for shorter lived races as the time between Planar Tides can be anywhere from the next month to the next 10000 years. A Planar Tide is recognized by landscapes or entrances appearing where there weren’t any just moments ago. Sometimes through a veil of mist, a whirlpool, storm or other obscuring natural event that if entered will allow the traveler access to the overlapping Plane. One cannot force a Planar Tide to come, they come periodically and only when certain conditions are met.

Planar Merge: The more catastrophic and longer version of the Planar Tide. A Planar Merge is what happens when two overlapping Planes become ‘stuck’. Either through design or accident, the two Planes cannot escape each other and are pinned at the location a Planar Tide would have normally taken place. This is normally the result of a severe Enigma disturbance. A Planar Merge in contrast to a Planar Tide is not subtle. It is a bleeding of the two Planes into one another and escalates the longer it goes on. Sometimes this can result in one Plane becoming an Inner Plane with one becoming dominant over the other. Other times it results in Assimilation where both Planes lose dominance and become one Plane with traits of both yet not really either anymore. This is a world ending event bar none. In the best case scenario, the Merge is temporary and both Planes eventually move past each other. During the Merge however, Planar Travel while chaotic and hazardous is quite easy. One merely makes their way toward the environment that looks utterly different from the native Plane. The likelihood of Planar Merge is thankfully extremely rare though many deranged entities and Magi have attempted forced Planar Merges with disastrous results.

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The Nothing

Also known as The Abyss, The Black Ocean, Abzu, The Void, The Warp, etc, The Nothing is the inky lightless ether that all Planes sit in. It acts as a buffer and border around the Planes. All Outer Planes, Inner Planes and Demi Planes that lose their Enigma source are drawn back into The Nothing. This process of Planar death can be immediate or take dozens of years as the last remaining bits of Enigma gradually fade. The Far Planes show this process as they have lost any support or structure that holds them together and like a memory will eventually fade even as more bits and pieces are added. As mentioned a few times already, The Nothing is the defacto destination for those who don’t have a destination or attempt Planar Travel blind or with inadequate means. What happens to those that come in contact with the nothing varies but in all cases it’s never something one returns sane from and often never alive. The Nothing has effects on those that encounter it that appears to be corruption and entropy made manifest. Severe mutation, mutilation, mental trauma and death are some of the tamer things that one can expect. Sometimes the results are more…’creative’ like travelers getting fused together or turned inside out, assimilated into their own vessels, turned into a collage of random species as genetic information is corrupted and accelerated; so much as looking into The Nothing  is not advised in the slightest. The abyss has a habit of looking back and finding its observer wanting. It is theorized the reason The Nothing inflicts this kind of horror on those that contact or enter it is because it is performing a necessary function in returning all loose matter back to its fundamental essence. Energy is never destroyed, simply rerouted and thus The Nothing does not destroy so much as return everything to its most basic and essential of existences. If Enigma is the source of miraculous possibility and change, then The Nothing is its counterbalance that snuffs out, composts and processes these possibilities so that more can be made elsewhere. The sentient mind however finds this essential function ‘horrific’ and in the face of its inevitability goes irreversibly mad from the revelation. This is what makes The Nothing the largest and greatest threat to the Planar Traveler but also the one simplest to avoid. A good deal of proper planning an knowledge does wonders for avoiding the horrors found waiting within The Nothing’s silent depths. The horror of The Nothing is not all encompassing, which is a small comfort. The Nothing only exists as the space between Planes and thus only exists where Planes are present. Because Planes require Enigma to exist, The Nothing likewise requires the presence of Enigma to exist. Worlds that do not have Enigma are not accessible and likewise cannot access The Nothing, left in safe secluded ignorance.  

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Known Planes

Inner Planes:

Ethereal Plane - A type of Inner Plane that appears sporadically across the Material Plane, specifically Earth and is connected to areas where great death or tragedy occurred, wherever a haunting or other ominously supernatural place appears, it’s usually a manifestation of an Ethereal Plane. The consciousness of the dead can take on semi stable forms in an Ethereal Plane, allowing them to interact with the site of the Plane which often results in a haunting and why such ‘Ghosts’ often refuse to leave. Ethereal Planes can get quite large depending on the number and intensity or ‘Ode’ of the spirits within the Plane.

Astral Plane – This type of Plane is often quite rare as purposely accessing it requires a level of mental cognition that many people do not possess. An Astral Plane is connected to the mind and some say the soul. One has to be open to actually seeing it in order to access it. Many do not physically travel to an Astral Plane, they instead project their living consciousness into it and thus travel, connected to their bodies. People do this subconsciously in the form of dreams and the Astral Plane is thus a place where dreams manifest as it is product of higher consciousness at work. Magi are capable of quite a bit within an Astral Plane and accessing an Astral Plane of one’s own making is considered a simple Magi tradition. The reason for this is that one can more easily develop mental abilities and realizations within an Astral Plane. Thus those that obtain enlightenment likewise access an Astral Plane and sometimes leave a strong enough impression to leave a residual imprint of it at the location they achieved it. While it’s even more difficult, invading someone else’s Astral Plane without permission and with the intention to do harm is a violation that has few equals in this world. Magi capable of such are complete monsters by necessity; as it is through the Astral Plane that one can access someone’s mind and memories. Astral Planes are generally more intense places than other Inner Planes. As they are the territory of dreams and visions, they can be as beautiful or horrific as any dream or nightmare. A danger of an Astral Plane is what happens within the Astral Plane via intentional interaction, also happens to the body or if one projected their entire being into the Plane, everything at once.

Shadow Plane – A Shadow Plane is not as uniformly sinister as one would guess form the name alone. Shadow Planes come into existence where opposite forces meet and contrast. An oasis in the middle of a desert for example could hide a Shadow Plane just as easily as the dark side of the moon. Enigma plays on this contrast to create a ‘pocket reflection’ of sorts that those with enough know how in Planes or arcana can access. Shadow Planes are divided into varying extremes with one force being blown out of proportion in grandeur and the other nearly falling apart. An oasis like before could house one and within that particular Shadow Plane  the lit areas could be a vibrant paradise of clear cool water, fresh fruit and friendly wildlife while the areas in the shade are rotted, decaying, buried in dead animal bodies and the water turned into boiling tar. The stronger the contrast of the forces at work, the stronger the intensity of the reflection within the Shadow Plane. It just so happens that Shadow Planes make wonderful places to hide things, a fact that Magi have been aware of for thousands of years; creatures that lair in Shadow Planes are often just as extreme or muted as the Planes they come from.

Arbiter Planes:
There are currently 11 in existence on Earth, scattered about the world and guarded by their resident Arbiter. The collection in total equals the combined history of all life on Earth and perhaps even more than that.

Outer Planes:

Fey Plane – The native Plane of the mysterious, mercurial and often playfully cruel Fair Folk, it is a place of dynamic contradictions and subtle sophistry. The Fey are enigmatic and powerful, ruling over a majority of the Plane. The Fey Plane is separately primarily into four courts, each reflecting a season and leader who embodies the nature of that season. Those four courts are likewise separated into Seelie and Unseelie with two being Seelie and two Unseelie. While  much of the particulars of the Plane are unknown save for what is referred to in myth and folktale on Earth, the Fey make sojourns and ‘Wild Hunts’ to Earth in pursuit of everything from entertainment to resources, to ‘darker’ forms of entertainment. The Fey court the Material Plane often through Planar Tides as their impossibly long lives make planning around these events a matter of due process. They are notorious for stealing from and toying with humanity and have a long and vicious history with Magus as they are known for helping as much as they hurt and often torture those they aid for purely their own benefit. The Plane itself is a rather enchanting place right out of medieval fantasy; save for that just as some parts are enchanting others are outright horrifying and everything in the middle is maddeningly alien and nonsensical.

Elemental Plane ‘Animus’ – A Plane that is a roiling, screaming, roaring, rumbling bed of primordial fury. Animus is a place where the forces of nature have no master and are constantly competing for space. The Plane is largely flat in shape but has four primary layers. The atmosphere is dominated by storms, tornados, hurricanes, tempests and lashing winds that scatter everything caught in them. Beneath it is a realm of oceans and lakes, separated only by constantly eroding earthen cliffs shoved above the breakers and boiling fissures of molten lava. The waters becoming frozen into hard caps at the poles but even these are always breaking and moving, causing ear shattering groans and grinding as the crashing chunks break upon one another. Beneath the waves lies a subterranean realm of living crystal, stone and metal. While more stable than the other three layers by far, it is still unpredictable with cave ins, poisonous vapors, rivers of sludge and being utterly without light across a majority of it. Finally deep within the center of the plane lies at its molten heart. Fire, lava and things that swim in fire and lava dwell here in a constant state of tempering change and cannibalistic consumption. Pressure within the core builds to such magnitudes that skyrocket to the surface and even into the stratosphere, causing massive upheavals and geographic reordering; anything that doesn’t love fire that tries to enter the inner levels spontaneously combusts; even more so if it does. There is a type of ‘life’ here that is usually too extreme to exist anywhere else and it appears wherever forces are strongest. These ‘Elementals’ are life forms that seem to be forces of nature given will and form by raw Enigma alone. Magi have summoned such creatures from their native environments in the past and the practice has a history of causing unbelievable destruction when not handled with skill and respect. In more proactive forms, Magi have learned to channel the forces of this Plane and thus being able to influence the environment of Earth.

Toho Plane - This plane was once rather inert, if tranquil and safe for human habitation thousands of years ago. During that time it's gray and mutable surface was inhabited only by strange blue glowing orbs we know today as Hitodama. The Magi of the lost civilization of Shangri La, discovered the Plane and created numerous anchors to it throughout Asia. The plane has had a close relationship with Earth and the main Material Plane ever since. However, due to the attempt to channel the Hitodama, which turned out to be human souls, a plague of thousands of Enigma Mutations occurred, creating what we know today as 'Yokai'. These Yokai ultimately forced humanity out of the plane and attempted to rampage over the Material Plane but the largest gate into the plane was closed and thus the Toho Plane became something of a distant and somewhat symbiotically predatory sibling to the Material Plane. The Yokai have since made the Toho Plane their home and residence of choice, escaping into the Material Plane when Enigma in locations in Asia reach abnormally high levels and allowing a Planar Tide to occur among other smaller scale moments of Planar Travel. The primary reasoning for this is that Yokai require humanity to exist as that is what they were made from. They are intimately tied to the fate of mankind itself and thus Yokai frequently take opportunities to travel to the Material Plane and 'stock up' when they are able. The Toho Plane itself resembles something straight out of Asian folklore. Larger than life misty peaks, giant lotus blooms, eternally blooming Sakura Trees, bamboo forests as tall as any city skyline and golden fertile fields with loam covered hills and even larger deep forests. Trees reaching nearly a dozen stories in some locations. This is the sort of 'paradise' the Magi thought to build but just as it has idealistic pastures it has equally hellish and dark places of torment and gloom. The infamous eight boiling pits, the Sanzu River and a place that only be referred to as 'hell' exist in the Toho Plane. As do other nightmarish and twisted places, many of them found with increasingly frequency to the North West; the direction of ill omens. To describe the Toho Plane is to describe a world where nature not only survived but thrived and created even more fantastic and deadly natural marvels; many of which are neigh supernatural in nature. The Moon for instance is habitable in the Toho Plane and an upper atmospheric level commonly called 'The Heavens' is also to be found within the Toho Plane. Though rarely seen or entered, these realms can still be traveled to without the aid of spacecraft or special considerations to one's health unless the residents decide to make such issues felt. Similarly, very powerful residents have dwellings within the Toho Plane that likewise can drastically alter the area to their liking. Due to the close connection and heaviness of Enigma in the Toho Plane, Enigma mutations and entities that are likewise created from such, appear very frequently compared to other Outer Planes, to an almost alarming degree. Human habitation is technically possible and indeed humans could thrive in the Toho Plane...if they could survive the residents who are all too happy to kidnap, devour, torture, slaughter or simply toy with any human they come across. This isn't to say that all encounters with Yokai in the Toho Plane would be lethal but Yokai represent the wide extremes and varied temperaments of human nature and as such their intentions are routinely at odds with humanity as a matter of course.
A basic guide to understanding how Planes (as in planes of existence) work in The Hollow World Enigma. Not as intense or super structured like with most D&D cosmology but this should give members an idea as to what the guidelines for dimensions and such are.
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