Inner Planes

The Inner Planes were a subset of the known Planes of Existence in the Great Wheel cosmology model and the World Tree cosmology model. They were the source of the fundamental building blocks of matter and energy for the entire multiverse.

“ Believe what you want―fire still burns and wind still blows. ”

— Common saying among inner-planar natives.

Description

The Inner Planes contained environments that were among the most hostile in the multiverse. Unlike the Outer Planes, which were built on belief and thought, the Inner Planes were the manifestation of central aspects of physical reality. As a result of this intense concentration of reality, everything in the Inner Planes, including its inhabitants, felt more vivid and intense, while at the same time more indifferent.

Cosmography

The term "inner" referred to the placement of the planes at the center of the concentric spheres that made up the Great Wheel model. It was also an allusion to the planes' central role in providing the raw stuff that nurtured the multiverse's existence. They could all be reached from the Prime Material Plane by traveling through the Ethereal Plane.

Great Wheel Cosmology

There were a total of 18 Inner Planes, which were subdivided into two main groups: six major planes and twelve minor, also called lesser, planes.
The six major Inner Planes included the elemental planes, which contained the four basic types of matter that constituted the materials of every other plane, and the energy planes, which consisted of the two main types of energy that governed life and death.
The six major Inner planes were:

Elemental planes

• Elemental Plane of Air;
• Elemental Plane of Earth;
• Elemental Plane of Fire;
• Elemental Plane of Water;

Energy planes

• Positive Energy Plane;
• Negative Energy Plane.

The twelve minor Inner Planes were located at the intersection between major planes. They could be divided into two main groups: the para-elemental planes, or "paraplanes", which were located at the intersection between elemental planes; and the quasi-elemental planes, or "quasiplanes", which intersected an elemental plane and an energy plane.

Para-elemental planes

• Fountains of Creation, or the Plane of Magma, between Fire and Earth;
• Swamp of Oblivion, or the Plane of Ooze, between Earth and Water;
• Frostfell, or the Plane of Ice, between Water and Air;
• Great Conflagration, or the Plane of Smoke, between Air and Fire;

Positive quasi-elemental planes

• Quasi-Elemental Plane of Radiance, between Fire and Positive Energy;
• Quasi-Elemental Plane of Minerals, between Earth and Positive Energy;
• Quasi-Elemental Plane of Lightning, between Air and Positive Energy;
• Quasi-Elemental Plane of Steam, between Water and Positive Energy;

Negative quasi-elemental planes

• Quasi-Elemental Plane of Salt, between Water and Negative Energy;
• Quasi-Elemental Plane of Dust, between Earth and Negative Energy;
• Quasi-Elemental Plane of Ash, between Fire and Negative Energy;
• Quasi-Elemental Plane of Vacuum, between Air and Negative Energy.

Some versions of the Great Wheel cosmology maintained that the elemental planes and paraplanes were surrounded by the Elemental Chaos, a turbulent plane in which all elements merged together, located in the farthest reaches of the Inner Planes. Those same versions placed the energy planes in a category of their own, where they were seen as enveloping the entire cosmology.

Inhabitants

The regions of the Inner Planes that were, in a cosmic sense, closer to the Prime Material Plane were inhabited by creatures that either originated in the Prime or could survive well there, such as Aarakocra, azers, dragon turtles, gargoyles, genies, mephits, salamanders, and xorn. The more distant regions, which were dominated by the raw forces of each plane, were increasingly hostile and were only inhabited by Elementals and spirits that bore less and less resemblance with creatures found in the Material Plane. These distant regions were also believed to be inhabited by the archomentals.
As a result of the raw elemental intensity of the Inner Planes, many of their inhabitants spent most of their time focused on survival, not caring much for philosophical or metaphysical discussions about their nature and the nature of their homes. Moreover, since each Inner Plane strongly opposed all others, inhabitants of one plane were constantly at odds with the inhabitants of any other plane.
Some inhabitants specialized in guiding travelers within and between Inner Planes. The most competent elemental guides could lead a group to a bordering plane from anywhere within their home plane in less than four days, and were capable of guiding a group to any location within the plane in just over a month or less. The need for these services resulted from the the infinite size of the Inner Planes, which could result in unaided travelers traveling forever without reaching anywhere. The prices practiced by the guides, however, were extremely high. They often charged exotic items instead of currency.

Map of the Planes

Open full size

Type

Plane of Existence

Location under

Material Plane

Included Locations

• Elemental Chaos