Elemental Planes
The five branching strands of matter that form the World Tree
The Elemental Planes are five cosmic strands by which Matter is distributed across the Universe.
Each of the five elements of matter -- earth, water, air, fire, and frost -- exists as a strand of pure matter that winds its way through the universe along a bipolar axis, forking towards the bottom and the top to produce an ever expanding branch-like formation. As the Elemental Planes stretch across the cosmos they mingle together, weaving to-and-fro, growing close in some places and more distant in others. This multi-elemental structure arranged across the Sea of Creation is known as the World Tree.
Each of the five cosmic elemental strands is a plane unto itself -- a world composed of nothing but pure matter of that element, inhabitable only by elemental and incorporeal creatures. Such creatures can, in theory at least, use the elemental planes to travel across the entire universe. The top and bottom of the bipolar axis of the World Tree where the strands of matter split and branch out are referred to as the branches and roots of the tree.
Below: Graphical representation of the helical spiral of elemental planes.
by CraniumBeaver
Multi-elemental planes
When any Elemental Planes lie close to each other, they can cause matter to "bleed" into the space between them. This happens by the same mechanism of attraction that makes the Elemental Planes spiral across the cosmos in a helical structure; there is a kind of gravitational force that pulls the Elemental Planes to one another but also can cause loose matter to be loosened from the planes and become drawn into the Sea of Creation; such loose matter can then become suspended there, caught at the exact middle point between two cosmic strands where the pulling force of both is equal. The accumulation of matter between the Elemental Planes in this way can cause spherical worlds to be formed out of multiple elements -- sometimes two elements, sometimes more -- shaped into terrain that mortal creatures can inhabit and traverse. Practically every world of the universe is a multi-elemental world besides, of course, the Elemental Planes themselves.Hybridization
There are many places in the universe where the elemental strands of the World Tree grow so close to each other that they not only bleed matter between each other (described above) but appear to almost touch. It is with such extremely close proximity that the the Elemental Planes can become hybridized. This means, for example, that the Plane of Fire -- which normally is comprised of nothing but heat -- can also contain varying amounts of the elements of air, earth and water. This would produce natural terrain within the Plane of Fire: soaring mountains, breathable air, and steaming lakes -- but everything would of course be tinged with the overbearing presence of suffocating heat and raging fires. Molten lava and volcanoes would be commonplace, steam would rise from oceans and lakes, while scintillating scirocco winds would roar about, eroding the landscape.Navigate in Universe
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Below: Core principle behind the World Tree structure, starting from the middle and expanding outwards.
by CraniumBeaver
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