This plane is of a transitive nature, as stated in the great Manual of
the Planes.
Working with this axiom I will now try to prove that this plane actually
doesn’t exist. There isn’t any place in the multiverse that the plane of shadow
exists on, because it is a place of denied belief. It’s a place in the soul
where people deny the things that exist. It’s a place of banished facts and
truths. A place where no one wants to be, and no one actually is on.
It’s a lie.
This might seem vague and hard to grasp, that a place that is doesn’t
exist, but within these words are simple truths.
Imagine you don’t want something to be true. Imagine this to be a memory
of abuse from your father. To banish this memory you try to place it deep down
in the bowels of your mind. The place no one knows and where you don’t
associate anything with it. A place you don’t want to exist. When you do this
your mind touches something that isn’t, it touches the shadow.
But this doesn’t cause you to actually banish your father, but the
memory of your father is so banished, until something happens that wakes the
shadows back to life.
But to see the actual effects of the shadow plane on the multiversal
structure, one has to consider tools much more powerful and versatile then the
simple workings of a single mind. One has to consider powers beyond
description, and limitless space too vast to speculate. Consider societies of
millions of minds working together to form one coherent belief, and the gods to
govern them.
I will also try to bind the different thoughts of the multiverse into
one, guided by the simple fact that they are all bound together by this strange
place that exists, but still does nothing to state this fact.
Take an example like a prime world that is called Athas. Athas is a
place long considered to be separated from the rest of the multiverse by a
strong planar abnormality called the Black. The black envelops Athas and denies
it access to the rest of the worlds. When encountering this place on the Plane
of Shadows you can only see a large, spherical force of impossibly strong
Darkplace (described in further detail by the MotP). Despite all my magical
efforts I have yet failed to enter this world, but I have visited strange,
savage elves on Arborea that seems to have some tribal memory of this place and
through these facts and other consultations by fellow planewalkers I have
divined some of the secrets of this strange world.
Athas is a nearly dead place, and it is very old. I’ve never encountered
something that cannot be dated back to some long-forgotten place in the degree
that Athas seems to be in.
I digress. This place has no gods. It has a strange magical working that
reminds me somewhat to a group of halflings I discovered in a forgotten layer
of the Abyss, and there are powerful dragons that rule every aspect of this
place. But there are no gods. They have no concept of other places except for
the Black and something strange they call the Gray, which is a layer underneath
the black. They have however some of the inner planes in their mythology. These
elements are worshipped as gods. It is a possibility that some of these
elements once were gods, which were reduced to more primal forces later in the
history of the place, loosing the intelligent cultural influence as they
corroded. (maybe a connection to the Elder Elemental God)
It is however possible to find this place in the Shadowplane, as
previously mentioned. This leads me to speculation, but let us broaden the
evidence before we draw further conclusions.
On the other hand we have Faerun. This place needs little introduction,
as it is one of the Prime worlds most opened up to planar influence. What
strikes me as peculiar however is this world’s reluctance to acknowledge the
Great Ring as the organization of the multiverse, and instead cling to the
great wheel that is an older and less comprehensive philosophy. This is,
however, a lesser concern.
Seeing how these two worlds are totally different in their view of the
multiverse can easily lead to the conclusion that they are indeed separated
into different cosmologies as newer ideas on the multiverse speculates in, but
let’s take on the Sigillian thoughts of the multiverse before any further
conclusion is drawn.
Sigil proclaims itself as the center of outer planar belief, or the
center of the wheel in faerun thoughts. Any of these suffice as basis for
further speculation.
Sigillians organize the different planes according to differences in
ethics and morality. The “good” planes, dominates the upper portion of the
ring, and the “evil” planes dominates the lower portion. To either side is
organization and anarchy, respectively.
In the middle we find the Outlands that claims to be the absolute
balance, and in the middle is Sigil. This is well known, but it is only one way
to see the whole it would seem.
Athasians do not believe in anything, and thus their world is
constrained within a gigantic lie.
All these visions are correct. The many different ways of seeing the
multiverse is as correct as any other. If some ysgardian wants to see it as the
Great Three, or some Stygian wishes to see it as two rivers, or a Wanderer
wants to see it as the Great Road, it doesn’t matter. The Plane of Shadow
allows for everything.
Here is the conclusion I would draw:
The Plane of Shadow limits and allows. It separates and collides. It
merges and diverges. It is, but cannot be.
If the driving influence in you childhood told you there where only two
place one could find himself after death, this being Mt. Celestia and Baator,
these places exists within your mind and they are the only places that exist.
If you become a powerful spell-slinger after your childhood and transcend this
place, the only places you would visit were the places that your mind told you
existed. If you wanted revenge of your abusing father you would have to go to
Baator. If wanting explanation for some forgotten memory from your mother you
would go to Mt. Celestia.
Now comes the difficult part. The people and sites you visit exist
simultaneously on all the different belief-structures of the multiverse. When
you meet a person talking about Bytopia on Mt. Celestia, your mind can do two
things:
Lie, and include Bytopia as just another secret place within Mt.
Celestia (or Baator), or if you’re opened minded, or easily influenced, your
belief has just been adjusted accordingly and allowed Bytopia into your belief.
This must be the reason many of the natives of the planes are vague and
cryptic in answers when dealing with primes. Too much information creates too
much confusion.
The force behind these barriers is the ShadowPlane. It keeps things in
the dark. It hides and separates. It’s the thing that denies us knowledge to
everything. It’s our collective bag of forgetfulness. If you see something that
doesn’t fit, it hides it and keeps it from you. It’s the mother of lies, the
place of ultimate deceit.
For all I know, this place I live in called Sigil, might only be the
inside of a bracelet, worn by a peasant girl. It might be the inside of a
cosmic wheel, with all the planes just underneath it’s ground, it might be that
all the houses in Sigil is shadow houses that have their counterparts on the
material and all the other places in the multiverse.
It might even be that the Lady is only a little girl stabbed to death
with multiple daggers, trapped between life and death, forever dreaming of this
city and it’s inhabitants and it’s many vices!
The Plane of Shadow is not transitive like the Astral and Etheral. It is
the opposite. It is the denial of everything. It’s the force that wishes us to
be small and insignificant, but maybe also guards us from ourselves, and the
many others out there.
Whether it is a force for good, or a force for evil, yet remains to be
seen.
With this variant, any mortal that comes over something that seriously
challenges her view and philosophy suffers from a new taint called the
Shadowlie. This taint creeps into her mind and makes it choose between truth,
lie or madness.
Roll a Will save and refer to this table, when a belief is contested:
|
Examples |
Madness DC |
Truth DC |
|
|
A small addition to the truth like discovering a new plane or a very
powerful outsider that conflicts with your beliefs |
5 |
10 |
15 |
|
Seeing a belief-structure such as a mass of communities worshipping a
strange deity or demon, where the worshippers have widely different looks and
behavior in addition to using strange and unfamiliar supernatural effects. |
10 |
15 |
20 |
|
Someone with intelligence debates your entire belief-structure, making
you reconsider your faith. |
15 |
20 |
25 |
See also The Deep, and Silvery Thoughts.