There planer are home to many para-elementols, and they can be reached In the some monnerr the Elemenmi Planer can be reoched.
InnerPianes t t toucher only the PnmeMoterial. combat ore explomed later.
The Ethereal Plane
The Outer Plmor of Alignment
The Ethereal Plane surrounds, toucher and permeates 011 of the inner Planes and the endless porollel worlds of the u n i v e m without being (I part of them. The Ethereal Plane is basically inrubrtontial, and few “real” creo. tures octuolly live there (though there are rumors of floating islands of solid ether, populated by exiles. which drift about the Ethereal Picme). To creatures on the Ethereal Pione. obiects on the Prime Material Pione (or any of the Inner Piones) appear as incorporeal phantoms. Ethereol creatures may pass through these phaniomr with no difficulty, although a person being ”passed through” might experience L) chill down the spins. Ethereal beings or things are ”real” to eoch other, however. Note that the Ethereal Pione doer not extend to the Outer Piones. SO it is not possible for cremtwes on thaseplanesto”go ethereal”. Ethereal travelandcombdare explained later.
There planes ore the homer of the deities and the source of alignment (religiour/philo,ophical/ethical ideols). There is an exact correrpondence between olignment and the Outer Ploner. Figure 4 and Figure 5 can be used to viwolize this more clearly. Note that the olignment positions on the Character Alignment Graph match up exactly with the Outer PIones ot ideniical alignment. There are nine baric olignmenh, and nine ploner which correrpond to thore alignments. There ore also eight other planer bstween the nine which represent “border1ine”alignmsntr.
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Fig. 3. Astral travel ond
As Fig. 4 shows, olignment 1s D matter of degree rather than obrolute definition. Thus, (I lawful evil character who tended towards neutrol evil would probably end up in Gehenno rather than Hodes or the Nine Hells. TheseventeenOuterPioner are osfollows:
The Plom of Shadow
TheSeven Heavens of absolute lowful good. The Twin Porodirer of lowful/neutral good. The layers offiysium of neutral good. The Happy Hunting Grounds of chooticineutral good. The layers of Oiyrnpvs of absolute chaotic good. The loyers of Giadrheim (Argard. Vanoheim, etc.) of neutral/goad choatics. The layers ofLimbo of neutral (absolute) chaos. The layers of Pandemonium of neutral/evil chootics. The 666 layers of theAbysr of obrolvte chaotic evil. The loyersof Tortervs of neutrolichootic evil. Hodes”7hree Glooms” of neutral (absolute) evil. The furnaces of Gehenna of neutralilowful evil. The Nine Hells of obrolute lawful evil. The nether layers ofAcheron of neutral/evil low. Nirvana of neutral (absolute) law. The layen of Arcadia of neutrol/good law. The plane of Concordant Opposition of true neutro16.
The Piane of Shadow co-exists with the Prime Moterial Plane. and is o result of the interaction of that plone ond the Positive and Negotive Moterioi Plones. The Negative plone provider the darkness, and the Pmitive plone the light; there meet at the Prime Material Pione. which casts the shadow. Thus the Plane of Shadow is a place of dirtorted and mutable shadow-creoturer, of white, block and all shades of gray.
THE OUTER PLANES
Tho A d r d Plan. This plane radiates from the Prime Moterid to LI non-spoce where endless voriices spiral lo the porollel Prime M o t e r i d Plones, and to the Outer Planes os well. This plone con b e uied to travel to dirtont worlds, to porallel ploner, or to the Outer Planer ihemaelres. Note that the Anrol Pione toucher only the upper layer of eoch of the Ovkr Piones, and of the ‘14