Mapping the Elemental Chaos

[ Elemental Chaos ] [ Mapping Infinity | Bestiary | Flora ]

The Demi-Elemental Planes

How does one map something that is, by its very nature, pure swirling transient chaos? Well cutter, it turns out that even chaos has its islands of stability—places where like-attracts-like. Some ancient myths reckon that once, before there were elements, all was chaos. And then, one day, it was not. Depending who you ask, the Primordials emerged from the Chaos; it was separated by an Overpower; the Great Machine of Mechanus sorted the churn of elements into their component parts; or any one of a dozen other stories.

Whatever its origin and true nature might be, the Elemental Chaos is the place where new elements are born and old ones come to die. However, as well as a nursery of Stuff, it can also be a prison. Metal and Wood were trapped in the Chaos for many millennia, as were Quasi-Elemental Exotic planes and other mixed proto-elements. Fact is, the long-lived cutters of the Chinese Pantheon steadfastly held out that Metal and Wood were indeed true elements all along, although most other cutters forgot about the planes long ago. And to be fair, the minutiae of how the Inner Planes are organised is of limited interest to us denizens of the Outer Planes in the first place. Interestingly, those same Chinese bloods who talk about five elements don’t count Air as a true element (and rather as an absence of matter), which perhaps suggests it might be one of the newer ones—although ‘new’ is a relative term when you’re talking on the scale of planar geology.

Such planes that exist in the Fifth Dimension are similar to demiplanes of the Deep Ethereal. They have been called many names—Elemental Abodes, Elemental Realms, Semi-Elemental Planes, but today most sages agree to call them Demi-Elemental, perhaps due to prevalent theories linking Elemental Chaos with the Ethereal Plane. Entrances to Demi-Elemental Planes are spherical, being the three-dimensional versions of portals, ethereal curtains and colour pools. Like gates though, any cutter who can find one can enter it without a key. Inside, Demi-Elemental Planes are large expanses of one element, although unlike true Elemental Planes it’s thought they’re not quite infinite in any dimension. They may have pockets of other elements inside them, although this only seem to occur one way with traditional elements impinging on the demi-elements, which means you won’t generally find pockets of metal or obsidian in other planes. The existence of Demi-Elemental Planes is held up by Sinkers as the main proof that the Inner Planes are going through continuous—if gradual—rearrangement. Although they tend to call it ‘collapse’, of course. Some of the demi-elements are husks that are slowly decaying. Others seem to be growing, patiently waiting to take their place among true Inner Planes. Some graybeards of Expansionist affiliation believe that the number of elements in the Multiverse tends to increase over time, and may even prove to be practically endless.

• Metal
  • The Plane of Metal is a truly giant metallic sphere hollowed out from the inside by rust. Far larger than a Prime world, it was one of two elemental planes locked in the Elemental Chaos for so long that even the genies don’t remember how it got there. Two archomentals vie for control over the metallic realm, while zuhra genies who’ve been trapped here all along remain cautiously neutral. Judging by the many characteristics which Metal shares with the true four Elemental Planes, graybeards surmise that Metal used to be located between Water and Fire.
  • More details coming soon!
  • Rage of Elements [PF2e] p134-163
• Wood
  • The Plane of Wood is a giant tangle of mighty tree trunks and branches. Like Metal, it too has its own archomentals, genies, veelas and so on. Chant goes that it used to be located between Air and Earth. The existence of Wood as a separate element poses a thorny question to alchemists and philosophers, many of whom hitherto believed that wood, like any living matter, is a mixture between all four elements and two energies. Some members of the Fraternity of Order are even afraid (and a bit excited) that the laws of the Multiverse will undergo a drastic change, should the Planes of Wood and Metal fully return. Whether the Plane of Wood is related to Yggdrasil, the plane-spanning World Ash, is not known, although it should be noted that Wood itself embodies all trees and none, so perhaps Yggdrasil is but a sapling which escaped. Or perhaps it was a seedling that was stolen from the Plane of Wood by a troublemaker like Loki at the dawn of time?
  • More details coming soon!
  • Rage of Elements [PF2e] p188-217

Elemental Energy Planes

• Emanation
  • This energy plane is so mysterious and dangerous that few have seen it, and even fewer have lived to tell the tale. A desert of glowing radioactive sand, this place seems to bleed into the Glowing Dunes. Living creatures can’t survive here long as their bodies are burned, scarred and mutated by the weird energies that infest this place—even clockwork beings and constructs suffer from rapid decay upon exposure to Emanation. The Lower Planar metal abysium is said to come from to this dreadful place, as does the deadly xer-yib energon.
• Gravity
  • The plane of Gravity’s vortices appear like pitch-black hole, which emit no light, in fact seeming to be darker than black, as if light itself is sucked into them. Inside is nothing but a vacuum, and powerful forces that can crush or tear apart even the strongest materials in an instant. Chant goes that the wondrous items called spheres of annihilation are made from the stuff of this dangerous plane. The xob-yip energon is the only known creature from this strange place.
• Magnesia
  • This strange place appears to be an empty void on first sight, although a cutter won’t find themselves falling. Strange, invisible forces exert an influence on all objects here. Some manifest as unseen walls of force which block movement through them by repelling object. In other places, invisible forces pull objects towards them. Stronger and more fickle then gravity, these energies exert a greater effect upon metal than flesh or wood. The results is a frustrating labyrinth of nothingness, but one with invisible walls. Magnesia is called by Guvners ‘the Plane of Magnetism’, and it is said the be the element that gives the lodestone and compass their strange, but non-magical, properties. It’s also where the xap-yaup energon originates.
• Historywatch: Emanation is an old-fashioned term for radiation, as is Magnesia for magnetism (the ‘magnesian stone’ was a magnetic lodestone from the region of Magnesia in Anatolia).

Quasi-Elemental Exotica

The Big Four Elemental Planes aren’t the only ones that touch the Positive and Negative Material Planes. While the Positive Quasi-Elemental Planes (Lightning, Mineral, Radiance, and Steam) and the Negative (Ash, Dust, Salt, and Vacuum) are on most cutters maps of the Inner Planes, explorers have reported more exotic combinations of quasi-elements, where vitality and void energy have mixed with the Para-Elemental planes (Ice, Magma, Ooze and Smoke), and even the Demi-Elemental Planes (Metal and Wood).

• Blossom (where Wood touches Positive)
  • Said to be a beautiful region of budding branches, blooming flowers, and fruit-laden trees—plant-life at its most verdant and productive.
• Bullion (where Metal touches Positive)
  • This is a mythical place made mostly of gold and platinum. It is rumoured to hold infinite riches guarded by a hostile civilisation, and to be a result of the plane of Metal being touched by Positive energy. No one has found a reliable portal to access the place however, so it may very well be non-existent. Or perhaps the planewalkers who’ve been here guard the secret location jealously, for if any berk could just come here and fill their boots, precious metals would lose their value.
• Clay (where Ooze touches Positive)
  • When combined with Positive Energy, Ooze becomes considerably less disgusting clay. This plane is believed by some to be the primary source of the holy clay used by the Powers to create new life, and was hidden away in the Elemental Chaos to jealously guard it from others who might also seek to create their own version of mortals.

• Crystal (where Ice touches Positive)
  • Here the ice becomes hard like stone, and doesn’t thaw. Many strange phenomena abound in the Quasi-Elemental Crystal, and many cutters believe that eternal ice actually comes from this place.
• Frost (where Ice touches Negative)
  • Crumbling ice which has been tainted by Negative Energy makes up Quasi-Elemental Frost. This place is a swirling storm of saltwater crystals inhabited by frost wolves and blizzard dragons.
• Fumes (where Smoke touches Negative)
  • Toxic and acidic fumes are all that is left of Smoke after the introduction of Negative Energy. Only the strongest abuiration spells can protect one from such a noxious environment.
• Obsidian (where Magma touches Positive)
  • This dome-like Quasi-Elemental Plane between Magma and Positive Energy is hot and full of sharp edges and hostile natives.
• Pumice (where Magma touches Negative)
  • Mixing Negative and Magma gets you the plane of Pumice. It is riddled with holes that crumble under pressure, but is paradoxically less dangerous than either of its parent planes.
• Rot (where Wood touches Negative)
  • As the Negative Material Plane touches living wood, it withers, crumbles, rots and eventually dies. This musky plane of spores and fungal blooms is home to rot elementals and myconids.
• Rust (where Metal touches Negative)
  • While strong and sharp, metal can be corroded by negative energies, resulting in landscapes of twisted shards, oxidised patina and crumbling rust. It’s said the be original home of one of the creatures most feared by well-equipped planewalkers: the rust monster.
• Silt (where Ooze touches Negative)
  • When Negative Energy meets Ooze, it becomes the sea of silky, but nonetheless disgusting and dangerous silt. Primes from the world of Athas appear to recognise this exotic elemental plane as one of their four Para-Elemental Planes (see also the Gray)
  • More on the Athasian Plane of Silt here [off-mimir]
• Sparks (where Smoke touches Positive)
  • Positive Energy ignites the Para-Elemental Smoke, filling it with crackling sparks. This plane is as dangerous as it is beautiful.

Para-or Demi-Element	Touched by Positive	Touched by Negative
Ice	Crystal	Frost
Magma	Obsidian	Pumice
Metal	Bullion	Rust
Ooze	Clay	Silt
Smoke	Sparks	Fumes
Wood	Blossom	Rot

The Gray / the Mists

A strange-within-strange region of Elemental Chaos which warps the dimensions like a lens or a mirror. It envelopes certain cursed Prime worlds, cutting them off from the rest of the Material Plane, and warps their connections to the Ethereal and Inner Planes. In this way, configurations of elemental planes appear different inside the Gray as different facets are projected like the colours of light that emerge from a prism. The semi-legendary world of Athas is one that is apparently encircled by the Gray. There, the four main elements of Air, Earth, Fire and Water are projected, but the way they mix is warped. Instead of Ice, Athasian cutters see the plane of Rain. Instead of Smoke, they see Sun, and instead of Ooze, they see Silt. Another trapped world, who some call Ravenloft or the Demi-Plane of Dread, is thought to suffer a similar fate, although information on this place is even more scant. Barmy chant talks of elemental planes of Blood, Grave, Mist and Pyre—which sounds all too morbidly possible to me, and access in and out of these awful places is controlled by the whim of beings known only as the Dark Powers. One can think of the Gray or the Mists as something similar to the curtains of the Ethereal, which further suggests that two planes are linked.

• Blood (a dark reflection of Water)
  • An endless sea of red human blood. Other than the Blood Elementals, and various bloated insects and the vampiric clots found here, there isn’t much in the way of inhabitants. As a cutter approaches the border with Water, the blood begins to thin and dissipate, but as with all of the dark reflections, due to the nature of the Mists, one cannot simply journey to Water unless the Dark Powers that control the Mists allow it.
• Grave (a dark reflection of Earth)
  • This place is composed of endless fields of graves ranging in size from normal to gargantuan, composed of marble, slate, rocks, granite, wooden pyres and every imaginable grave material. Its said that the names of all who lived and died in the Domain of Dread are engraved here, and that the spirits of those unfortunates haunt the Grave because it is impossible for them to journey to their true Outer Planar afterlife. If one approaches the border with Earth, the gravestones become less and less distinct and become mingled with normal rocks. The only native creatures are the morbid Grave Elementals and oracular ravens which feed on the despairing cries of the spirits trapped here.
• Mist (a dark reflection of Air)
  • The plane of Mist nature couldn’t be more different from the Quasi-Elemental Plane of Steam. The mists here are cold and clammy banks of endless roiling fog. Sometimes they shapes themselves into monstrous and sinister forms. Most of the time this is a harmless, if terrifying, feature of the plane, but if your’e unlucky, you’ve encountered one of the natives. This place is home to mist ferrymen, mist horrors, vampiric mists, crimson deaths, and mist elementals—to name a few. The least hostile of these is the mist ferryman, which occasionally will guide visitors back to the Demiplace of Dread, for a small price (of a soul or two). The closer one gets to Elemental Air, the more transparent the Mists become.
• Pyre (a dark reflection of Fire)
  • Islands of cool stone float above a sea of endless fire. The flames below seem alive, seeking to burn creatures of flesh that enter the cursed place. Some of these flames however, are also intelligent: these are the pyre elementals. They don’t appreciate visitors, and will usually attack them on sight. The islands become rarer and rarer the closer one gets to the border with Fire, and the flames become hotter, but less actively-hostile.
• Rain (a primal reflection of Ice)
  • One of the Para-Elemental Planes of Athas. When Water and Air mix, according to the folk of that burning world, the result is rain, not ice. And frankly, who can blame them for thinking that?
  • More on the Athasian para-elemental plane of Rain here [off-mimir]
• Sun (a primal reflection of Smoke)
  • One of the Para-Elemental Planes of Athas, the plane of Sun is very similar to the Quasi-Elemental Radiance, but even more turbulent and vastly hotter.
  • More on the Athasian para-elemental plane of Sun here [off-mimir]
• You can read more on the Gray here [off-mimir]

Planar Husks

This is the category of bygone planes that are slowly bleeding away through rips in reality—thought to have been caused by entropes. These planes have unstable portals and are riddled with dimensional tears and pockets.

• Rainbow (the orphaned twin of Shadow)
  • This mysterious plane used to be a mirror of the Plane of Shadow back when it was nothing more than a demiplane (if you believe that, of course). Now, while it lost its twin, the Demi-Elemental Plane of Rainbows still just about exists as a wonderful place of lights and colour, and one that is not nearly as dangerous as the Quasi-Elemental Radiance.
  • Dragon Magazine #321, p64. Canonwatch: In the Dragon article it is called the Plane of Radiance, presumably because 3e had by this point done away with the quasi-planes.
• Shadow
  • The Demiplane of Shadow is the place were all shadows end up, rather than the place that shadows come from. Shadowstuff itself is called a semi-element by some sages, who claim it is a weird mixture of positive and negative energy, somehow stabilised by ether so it does not instantly annihilate. Now you’d be forgiven for confusing this plane with the Shadowfell (also called the Netherworld), which itself is a dark reflection of the Prime Material Plane, infused with Negative Energy. No, that place is a sinister twin of the Prime, whereas the elemental Shadow plane might be dark and even spooky, but it is a plane of semi-darkness, not death.
  • Dragon Magazine #213 [2e] The Demiplane of Shadow p22-30; Dungeon Magazine #35 [2e] Twilight’s Last Gleaming p8-25; A Guide to the Ethereal [2e] p47-49.
• Steam
  • This is a plane of hot and steamy clouds of hot water vapour, scalding geysers and humid sauna-like haze. “But wait”, I hear you say. “There already is a Plane of Steam, and it’s chilly and damp.” You are correct, of course. But what you aren’t taking into account is how the Inner Planes are not set in stone—well, one of them is perhaps. Chant goes the planes of Water and Fire used to be adjacent, and where they overlapped the Para-Elemental Plane of Steam was found. But Steam is hard to contain, and Water is slippery. As the planes realigned, the current chilly Quasi-Elemental Plane of Steam condensed instead at the border of Water and Positive Energy. The old, hot Steam plane still exists, although it is bleeding away and dying. The mephits were the first to abandon it, moving instead to the new, cool plane of Steam—and that, dear reader, is why there are Steam and Mist mephits in that Quasi-Elemental Plane.
  • Inner Planes [2e] p104

Sources: The Plane Below: Secrets of the Elemental Chaos [4e]; The Alternative Elemental Planes of Athas here; Dragon Magazine #321, p64 (Demiplane of Radiance, renamed and reshuffled here into the plane of Rainbows); Player’s Guide to Immortals and DM’s Guide to Immortals (Immortals, diaboli, Nightmare Dimension and the Vortex); this post.

Other Sources: Margarita, Jon Winter-Holt. Canonwatch: The Elemental Chaos wasn’t introduced to the canon until D&D 4e, where it was a mash-up of Elemental and Lower Planes. D&D 5e reverted planar cosmology back to the Planescape 2e setup, except it killed off the Quasi-Elemental Planes and rebranded them as Elemental Chaos instead. That seems a huge shame, as the structure of the 2e Inner Planes was elegant. Given the canon itself has little respect for the Inner Planes, we thought we’d reimagine the Elemental Chaos yet again, in a a way that adds to the 2e Planescape canon rather than throwing it out. Drawing from the original BECMI D&D lore, we’ve brought in the Immortals and some of their nemeses from the Immortal Rulebooks. Pathfinder 2 canon, since the Rage of Elements, has six main elements—adding in Wood and Metal which Chinese Wuxing elementalism holds as two of its five elements, alongside Earth, Water and Fire. Pathfinder presents Wood and Metal as recently ‘returning’ to the Inner Sphere—but returning from where? And how to incorporate all the other alternate ‘elemental’ planes from Dark Sun, Ravenloft and so on into the cosmology? We propose the Elemental Chaos as something outside, but somehow also surrounding, the Inner Planes—where the pure elements bleed into each other and mix, while new elements condense and evaporate. Let us know what you think!