Maelstrom

Maelstrom, the Plane of Thought is one of the eight planes of existence that make up the Great Prism cosmology. It is a plane composed of pure psychic energy, given shape by the thoughts, fears, dreams and memories of every sentient creature on the Prime Material Plane.

Characteristics

The plane of Maelstrom represents the collective unconscious, a repository of psychic energy produced by the thinking minds of all sentient creatures. Because of this, Maelstrom has no defined "shape"; instead, its form constantly shifts and changes to reflect the thoughts and emotions of the creatures that unconsciously feed into the psychic repository. A visitor from the plane might casually stroll through a stranger's childhood memory, eavesdrop on an imagined scenario, or find themselves lost in a literal nightmare. Some spells, such as the dream spell, allow individuals to transport their consciousness to this plane directly; likewise, creatures with natural psionic or dream-weaving abilities, such as Mind Flayers or Night Hags, are particularly attuned to Maelstrom and may even be able to exert a limited control over the plane under the right circumstances.
The plane is referred to as a "maelstrom" because, as a plane of raw emotion, it is naturally (and understandably) highly turbulent; sufficiently strong emotions from an individual or group have the ability to transform localized parts of Maelstrom into violent psychic storms, which can become particularly dangerous when combined with proximity to a Convergence Zone on the Prime Material Plane. In extreme cases, this can sometimes result in the creation of psychic aberrations (see below).

Inhabitants

While Maelstrom has no "native" residents in the conventional sense, circumstances may sometimes lead to the creation of entities born from the psychic energy of the plane. When sufficiently strong negative emotions congeal within the psychic plane, the end result is the birth of monsters that embody the emotions that manifested them: Beholders, Sorrowsworn and other strange and unsettling monsters are all examples of creatures born from the plane of Maelstrom.

Type

Dimensional plane