Hello mortals!
In this series of threads, I'll be posting the ideas that were thrown around during the Planewalker Brainstorming Session (patent pending) at GenCon. These ideas are of a fairly general nature, revolving around the metaplots that we might wish to implement, or just imply in the campaign setting work. I hope as many people as possible chime in with their thoughts and ideas.
It's time to flesh out & discuss!
For part one, I'm going to talk about the idea of a new Planar Pathway.
See, we already have several "natural" paths, such as Mt. Olympus, the
world ash Yggdrasil and the river Styx (and Oceanus). Then we have the "made" paths (or are they?), including the Great Ring (which, as pointed out during the session, is an actual road between the Gate-burgs, but not necessarily in the same category as the rest), and the Infinite Staircase, which grows out of the Gates of the Moon in Ysgard.
The idea was to bring in a third path, possibly on the lawful side (we know there are paths there, but mostly within the individual lawful planes, such as the Labyrinthe Portal in Mechanus), to satisfy the rule-of-three, but mostly to build a new plotline around.
Many ideas were sported, such as a Modron Railroad (actual or magical), or even a previously forgotten path that was brought back to life, perhaps through the research & dealings of the Planar Trading Consortium, who are definitely looking for other venues after the Storm of Portals (post-FW). Also, the color pools ("Stay thee from a color pool") might be an interesting option for someone to really take advantage of, now that the githyanki are in an uproar (see another thread).
Plenty of factions and sects might get involved, such as the Planewalker's guild (who have loads of potential to become powerful now - see next thread) and the Guvners (do the Modrons need mortals to help them recover after the Tenebrous incident? - an opportunity for a huge collaboration there).
We even discussed that the gods of travel (Planewalker gods & traveling gods) might become patron "saints" of this new path, and there would very likely be a power struggle between planar forces to seize control over this new path.
The opportunities for plot hooks and conflict this opens are endless. What we need now is to try and detail some of these ideas.
A few ideas that came to me while reading this. Firstly, so much stuff has happened recently (a relative term, multiverse-wise) to the lawful planes that adding a new planar pathway must be done carefully, despite having many options available.
Some options include
1) A previously existing planar pathway might have been covered up and forgotten when Menausus slipped into Mechanus. Were the new, less militant, Hardheads partially successful in returning the layer to its proper plane of origin, the old pathway might begin to open up again.
2) Modrons are declining in importance, while the formians are coming to the forefront. With less belief to fuel it, Primus might be losing its power over a pathway it might have been hiding/protecting/trying-to-destroy. Or, the formians have dug up or constructed a new pathway to colonize other worlds. [Personally, I think the lawful planes, especially mechanus, is mechanically oriented enough. Adding a train to it would be overkill. Law does not have to do purely with logic and technology. It also has to do with obedience. While the former is represented by the modrons (which I think are too important to kill off like WotC tried to do), the latter is represented by the formians. Think of a highly structured and very insectoid pathway spanning Mechanus, Arcadia, and Acheron (maybe other formian infested planes as well, though I can't think of any off the top of my head) like some multiplanar anthill.
3) Tenebrous'/Orcus' recent replacement of the previous Primus (and subsequent untimely Modron March) might have added a bit too much chaos into the lawful mix, staining it. The new pathway might be a result of the chaos-stain. While the lawful planes try to reorder themselves, the chaotic pathway remains, chaotically arranging (paradox intentional) a path through the surrounding planes.
Those three ideas, however, imply that the pathway is somehow grounded in Mechanus. It could just as likely be grounded in the good or evil lawful planes. Most of the River Oceanus, the Infinite Staircase, which is grounded in Ysgaard, Yggdrassil, and Mt.Olympus on the chaotic side of the upper planes. The lawful side thereof is practically devoid of pathways. In this light, some more ideas include:
1) Hardheads might be constructing, with the help of a deity or other powerful blood, a pathway from Arcadia to Mechanus in an attempt to get back Menausus. To fuel their 'war' effort, they might even extend the pathway up into Mt. Celestia to ease the transport of troops and flood Menausus with a bit more good than its used to.
2) Bytopian gnomes (or other residents) might have devised a pathway through a combination of technological innovation and magic, that goes from Bytopia, to Lunia, and onward into the rich, orderly groves of Abellio, which was their original intent. After all, both Bytopia and Arcadia are particularly preoccupied with farming, whereas the Mountian that divides them is not.
Again, I like the idea but stress that this is not a decision to be made lightly. I think its evident that this new pathway, were it to (re)appear, should balance the already teetering multiverse in the proper direction.