05-15-2022, 05:13 PM | #1 |
Join Date: Mar 2017
Location: Brazil
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Ideas for Spirit World
I was looking for ideas for planes, and how to organize them. I want to build a Multiverse which may have several alternative worlds like in Infinity Earth, but with one general "Spiritual World". That Spiritual world would be divided in planes, with some sort of "Yggdrasil", "the world three" connecting them. Each plane would be infinite, with infinite "Realms" inside (or sub-planes), and perhaps even more subdivisions (which may or may not be infinite). Now, some of those would be sort of connected to each material world, so it would be an infinity amount of finite spiritual worlds, one for each one of the infinite material worlds. Those would be 2:
The Astral Plane (or the outer astral plane) - a plane of higher ideas. This also touches the Dreamworld The Shadowlands - the land of the (restless) dead (ghosts) So, the (outer) Astral Plane would be a positive reflection of the many material worlds and the Shadowlands a negative reflection. Both worlds are (almost) the same as the material worlds they reflect, but in the Astral Plane everything is bright and collorfoul and more alive, but in the shadowlands everything is grey and in decay. Those two planes (in their infinite aspects) are actually a part (or connected to?) to the higher and lower planes, respectively. Now, I would like ideas for a few more planes, preferably in a more generalized way, with specifics being fit into "Realms" inside of those. For example: Hells. The place where the sinners go. In Buddhism for example, one plane of existance was that of those filled with wrath. Well, that would fit one of the "circles of hell". Not a specific plane, but rather a "Realm" inside the Hell's Plane. Or the "Abyss" of Demons and "Hell" of Devils for D&D. I would also like a few "technological planes", like for example "Cyberspace" (which would only exist on material worlds with computers in it, and would be specific for that dimension/reality), "Hyperspace", "Quantum Dimension" - help me create interesting descriptions for those as well as interesting critters and places, like I dont know, 2D beings for Hyperspace like in one episode of Star Trek or "Schrodinger Beings" of some sort for a "Quantum Plane". Some planes cannot be accessed by people that dont believe in them - for example, only technomancers could acess the "Quantum Plane" - at least in theory. Also, some planes would be "Positive" ("above" the astral plane) and others "Negative" ("bellow" the shadow plane), while some goes into both poles (like the Dreamland, having "dreams" "above" the positive spiritual world and "nightmares" "bellow" in the negative), while others are out of this axis (like the Cyberspace and Quantum Dimension). Im also thinking about a "Mirror World", a third type of spiritual plane also connected to the many material worlds (so once again, one for each one of the infinite "Earths"), with a "null charge", simply a spiritual reflection of the material world neither positive or negative. So, a few ideas, help me to expand it Superior Planes Astral Planes Arcadia or Fairyland (or land of Myths) Heaven or Mythical Realms (the house of the Gods, like Olympus, Asgard, the Celestial Bureocracy, Elysius, Garden of Eden etc) Gaia (or whatever the name for a plane of Life or that holds the life energy of the multiverse) "The Primordial Plane" (help me with a better name) - the great vortex of primordial energy that is the "energy of creation". House of the Hindu God Vishnu the Creator. Also the source of all "mana", or the "Plane of Magic". Inferior Planes Shadowlands (the land of the restless dead) The Many Hells Limbo or Oblivion - a plane connected to the many infinite Shadowlands, where the souls of the restless dead are consumed should they fall in. In the Limbo or Oblivion EVERYTHING is consumed, sort like a "spiritual garbage" of the universe. The opposite of the "Primordial Plane". Represented by the Hindu God Shiva. Dual Planes (planes present in both positive and negative spiritual planes) Dreamworld - collection of the dreams and imagination of ALL denizens in the multiverse. You can find Darth Vader, Lord Sauron or Spiderman here, as well as the boogieman of your nightmares, plus infinite more stuff. Etherium Plane - collection of all abstractions of the multiverse. Representations of good and evil, chaos and order. A visitor could see a spirit that represents death as the Grimreaper for example. Non Aligned Planes Mirror World Hyperspace Cyberspace or Dataspace (a plane of pure information) Quantum Dimension Elemental Planes (Water, Earth, Fire, Air, but also metal, wood, radiation, mud, glass and countless others) The Great Beyond The Anti-World - this is the place for the "things men were not supposed to know". This is an anti-place, anti-existance, the end of the multiverse. It's the origin of Ctonic forces of the likes of Cthulhu. The Oblivion is destruction, but with a spiritual purpose of restoring balance. The Anti-World is a Black Hole of nothingness, is anti being. Pray that you never meet a creature from that place. Also, could anybody tell me the difference between the Astral and Etherium Planes in D&D? Thanks for the help8 Last edited by KarlKost; 05-15-2022 at 07:45 PM. |
05-15-2022, 07:07 PM | #2 |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: Ideas for Spirit World
I continue to like the four realms of GURPS Cabal better than any other treatment of this subject.
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Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more. |
05-15-2022, 11:24 PM | #3 |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Virginia, US
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Re: Ideas for Spirit World
One interesting question from the metaphysics of the game/setting Equinox where new "solar system" are accessed through astral space is whether they are truly different solar systems or just different planes...
Random thought. |
05-16-2022, 06:43 AM | #4 | |
Join Date: Mar 2017
Location: Brazil
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Re: Ideas for Spirit World
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In fact, those "Enlightned Scientists" dont even believe in that "superstitious nonsense" about "Spirits" AT ALL, rather having a bunch of (irl pseudo)scientific technoramblings about quantum alternate vibration existances, based on string theory, that generates parallel universes upon which some even have different natural laws etc (yes, it's a bunch of pseudoscientific mambo jambo irl, but it is real in game, or at least it works or is an "alternative truth", since the mystical interpretation of Gods and Spirits and the connections of planets with zodiac symbols and so on also work). So, at least in the view of these guys in my game, there's no fundamental difference between the "material plane" or the world of the dead for example, it's just a matter of the "wavelenght of the quarks" that generate different laws of physics. So the same would apply for any "parallel Earth". In a sense, althought those technomancers are probably wrong, they're also probably right... |
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05-16-2022, 07:19 AM | #5 | |
Join Date: Mar 2017
Location: Brazil
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Re: Ideas for Spirit World
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That's why I would prefer some more... "Unified Field of Spirit Sciences" approach for the "other realities". Some that could be used by Merlin, Baba Yaga and Spock, perhaps with each of them seeing just a piece of it, probably having a flawed or incomplete picture of even the small pieces they manage to grasp, and then having it all submitted to their own worldviews. So, for example, a Catholic Priest "mage" could probably visit Heaven and Hell in the flesh, while an aborigenal Dreamspeaker that believes that the entire Creation is a Dream dont even believe that you can enter the "Deep Dream" with the "illusory matter", thus they believe that the Priest misenterpreted the signs, having his own mind be tricked into believing they were in a world of flesh, while a materialist scientist think that "Heaven and Hell" are just Jungiang archetypes, and that thus all the "spiritual jorneys" of mystics are just landscapes of their own minds or alternate quantum realities. This "Unified Planar Camp" is something for me as the GM to know to have a "base architecture" which dont even need to be truly straightforward. Just to make sense, and possibly manageable, so that it can be prone to different interpretations (that may all be true at the same time even when they are absolutely mutually exclusively). |
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05-16-2022, 07:19 AM | #6 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: Ideas for Spirit World
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Then there's the theory of Roger Penrose that the neural substrate of consciousness is microtubules small enough so that quantum mechanical processes dominate what happens in them, leading to an argument for free will. That's always sounded to me like a revival of Cartesian dualism, making consciousness not an ongoing interaction between an information processing system (the body) and its environment, but a hidden other realm. I'd add that quantum entanglement of separated particles could be handwaved toward the Law of Contagion in traditional magical thought. (On the other hand, many worlds quantum mechanics seems to avoid this tendency to mysticism. It resolves the whole problem of when we change from probabilistic description to deterministic single values, or when the wave function collapses, by saying that it never collapses. In the Schrödinger's cat Gedankenexperiment, it's not that radioactive decay either does or doesn't happen, or that it is or isn't detected, or that the poison is or isn't released, or that the cat lives or dies, or that the observer sees either a living or a dead cat, or that other people learn that the cat lived or died; it's that the uncertainty continues to propagate through all those domains, ultimately giving you two "worlds" where the two different things happened. Though the price of that one seems to be that rather than "free will" letting you make the right or wrong choice, you always make both the right and the wrong choice, in parallel. So it's kind of hard to have a concept of agency in such a worldview.)
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Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more. Last edited by whswhs; 05-16-2022 at 07:24 AM. |
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05-16-2022, 10:06 AM | #7 | |
Join Date: Mar 2017
Location: Brazil
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Re: Ideas for Spirit World
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That's the one phylosophical debate that may end up breaking the Technocratic Union apart (in my game). I love that. I love having those secret "magic" societies fighting not only because of power or influence, but MOSTLY fighting because they cant decide what is the "sex of the angels". The scenario itself is the "Ascension War", upon which ALL the Awakens or "Enlightned" (mages) fight each other primarily to decide which of their personal "truths" is the ACTUAL truth; the "Ascension War" is the ultimate war over the fate of REALITY ITSELF. |
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05-16-2022, 10:09 AM | #8 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Shoreline, WA (north of Seattle)
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Re: Ideas for Spirit World
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The caveat here is that I've never played a campaign where this actually came up, so for all I know it's a purely "on-paper" problem, not one that impedes play. |
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05-16-2022, 10:38 AM | #9 | ||||
Join Date: Mar 2017
Location: Brazil
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Re: Ideas for Spirit World
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They do have the "Theory of Antropic Field" to explain counciousness in a Quantum Level (please, dont talk to me about souls!), which is an important component of their "Dimensional Science" "Field" (Translation: "Spirit Realm Magic") Quote:
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In this setting, magic is a matter of BELIEF, and reality is formed by the "Consensus", the "Collective Inconscious" of ALL beings... So yes, the positioning of the stars define the fate of a person depending on if that person were born under Scorpion or Aquarius, while at the same time everything is the result of the will of the "One God", but also a consequence of a purely mechanical "Big Bang". Truth in this game is a matter of perspective |
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05-16-2022, 10:54 AM | #10 | |
Join Date: Mar 2017
Location: Brazil
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Re: Ideas for Spirit World
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But I guess the easiest option in a cognitive way would be to fly up, so I would say that this is the prefered method at least for those not very used to travel in the Astral Plane. |
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