On Planes: Faraway

It was estimated by the grand Magi of Tarr that the exact number of planes is somewhere in the thousands. Lay knowledge claimed only a couple of these, with spurious rumours of others which the Magi doubted exist. 

The thinking has somewhat changed over the past couple years, with disastrous experiments to measure the circumference of the world. The Professors in the Academy have devised a new theory, one which makes stuffy Magi huff and puff in annoyance. 

It is the idea that the Planes are one plane. One, impossibly large, and possibly infinite realm wherein all the possibilities of the material exist. They have named our region the Mundane, but as the urban legend would tell it, after overhearing a confused conversation by students high on Isle Zgentil 'shrooms, dubbed the rest "The Faraway."

Academy Professors are entirely correct. In fact, the Plane teems with life, personalities, and of course, the City. Many names exist for it, all of them entirely correct.

Chaos and Law are the winds, or currents, across this Plane. Think of the hairy ball - Chaos is that which cannot be combed flat. 

The Bureaucracy of Daey

The Nine Dukes rule this massive, impossibly large bureaucracy. An opulent Jade palace with numerous demon accountants and committees, the Dukes living in opulent penthouses. Intensely non-euclidean in the most frustratingly bureaucratic manner possible.

This sprawling administration of souls is a gigantic pagoda, built on an island of amber, harvested from those Aster Whales. Burnt to keep the smell of the putrid acid sea away.

Madness

The maelstrom of thaumic currents. Matter has no say, thoughts have their way, fears come alive. Apprentices not versed in planar elocution find their energies inevitably drawn into it.

Fey and Fell

Reflections of the Mundane, most say, but more probably either the flotsam and jetsam of the Mundane, or that which give the Mundane its depressive or joyful elements. Both are considered extremely dangerous.

They can be understood in many different ways. Where the Mundane is normal growth, Fey is cancer, Fell is wasting. Where the Mundane is a sine curve, Fey is an erratic line which breaks the axes, Fell an imperceptible line infinitely close to the x-axis.

Ahi

Otherwise known as the Eyrie. Home of the celestial Dragons, corresponding to the Elements; Water, Earth, Air, Fire, Metal.

A peak, reaching to the heavens, or so they say.

Elemental Planes

So pure, as to immediately destroy all Material around it. Water is pure, so is Earth. These are not to be messed with. As Madness is Chaos, this is Order.

Apsu

The Deep sea. The primordial. From its depths come those that no man will ever conceive or ever know.

(I like to think of this as the Immer from China Mieville. Just as endless/timeless. Those who travel to Apsu, or the surface thereof, find themselves in a cavern drip-dripping with dark water.)

Kur, or, the Forgetting

Every thing in the Plane has a lifespan, and eventually, these things slowly get eroded over time. If not remembered by those that can see, they are forgotten.

This is where those that are dead or in the process of being forgotten, are. Go deep enough into the earth or sky and you will find yourself there. A grey sky, dust for miles, and ruined buildings with strange people that stumble and grope in dim memory. They eat dust, never to be filled.

The Sky

Where the Mundane is below, Apsu is...somewhere, and the Mundane is "above" them, the sky is above the Mundane. Go far enough out, and things do not make any sense. Suns stand still in the air, stars wink out, air becomes solid. It is possible to travel through here using those ships of the ancients to the other lands, faraway.

The Sun, Moon & Stars

It is frighteningly confusing. In some cases, people land on small balls of earth in an unbreathable climate. In others, the land below winks out, to be replaced by a coloured country. Travel far enough, and you end up back in the Mundane. Are they part of the planes? Are they portals? Gods? In some cases they are, in others not.

Questions

Where the hell are the Gods?

I do not know, but I'd like to think of them as emanations of the Universal Current. Self-Aware (if that is even close to the right term) hyper-consciousnesses, like a 11th dimensional bird swarm.

If they are emanations of the current, then technically they are planes. This does mean you can travel "into" a god.