The Plane of Shadows and Other "Optional" Planes

I know this is far different than the norm and thus, is mostly unusable to others but just in case it helps to trigger some ideas or discussion, here is how I placed a few things:

-Shadow - I replaced the traditional "border ethereal" and placed shadow here as I felt it was a "shadowy" copy of the main world/Prime

-I created a "border astral" too which was a two-dimesional plane where the Prime and the Astral (thought) touched. When mortals dreamt, it would create 3-dimensional bubbles in this plane with each bubble holding a dreamer's "dreamscape". The bubble would burst when the dream awakens

-For the Outer Planes I created three axes and placed a total of 27 planes on them. So I had to create 10 new planes. I won't go into all the details but I split up Arborea into two planes: one for Olympus and one for the elfin/fey pantheon (and other Trickster gods)

-I am kind of learning toward Mirrors being a demiplane; but I recently read Tales from the Infinite Staircase and they had an interesting race that had lived near the Spire and retreated into a sort of demiplane of mirrors.
It also make me think of connections of the rilmani with mirrors: mirrors balance whatever is placed in front of them; the rilmani sort of have an inverted mirror relationship to the Spire (where everyone else gets weaker, they get stronger)
This in turn made me think of the early 1e (and I think 2e) concept of a mirrored neutral plane where they had originally placed the Central American pantheon. They did away with the idea; but with the thoughts above, it did make me wonder if there should be a separate parallel mirrored version of the Outlands in which the rilmani "really" live (they just visit our Outlands to restore the balance).
I haven't done anything with this yet but it tickled my fancy

I think Paizo's word, azata, is the best solution in the fourth edition era when so many people associate the word "eladrin" with a race of sidhe-like fey.

There were a couple of versions of sidhe in past editions. In the Celts Campaign Sourcebook, they were essentially elves, statistically, though more wild, tricky, and closely based on Celtic myth fluff-wise. In the OD&D accessory Tall Tales of the Wee Folk, sidhe were presented as a PC race, essentially elflike (though sometimes looking more humanlike or dwarflike), and hailing from an otherworldly faerie realm.

Blood Spawn: Creatures of Light and Shadow for the Birthright campaign remains one of the best treatments of Faerie in D&D; it was a free PDF on the WotC website forever, and it's still probably easily findable online. The sidhe-like beings in that book are simply called unseelie faeries and seelie faeries. Unseelie faeries were divided between "living evil faeries" and "undead faeries."

A discussion I've been waiting for for a long time.

Shadowfell & feywild: I like this. If I used it in a game, it would be like Palomies's, a part of the border ethereal with a negative energy twist is Shadowfell and a part of it with a + twist would be Feywild.. but I don't think dead people pass through shadowfell either. In this vein:
Shadowfell: Negative energy reflection of the world. This explains why shadow creatures are undead. Populated by spectral/ethereal undead, shadow creatures, evil fey and a few evil nature spirits. There are certain areas where the barrier between shadowfell and prime are thin, and leaks or tears exist. passages from one to the other is possible, via portals or even natural means. Also, there are areas within the shadow where it is easier to pass to ethereal. However, making a passage through shadow to ethereal usually ends up taking travelers to the vicinity of negative energy plane. (hopefully not to the negative energy plane itself). Travel between different prime worlds are possible, but are long and dangerous. Empty distances between populated worlds take the shape of virtually infinite, shadowy marshes. I wouldn't allow travel from shadowfell to outer planes, and I wouldn't allow shadowfell to exist in its normal sense in the outer planes. Certain sites and realms of Outer planes may have a shadow reflection, but it is always deliberately created by their rulers (such as the realm of an evil deity concerned wth death, undead, or darkness), and does not allow passage between different shadow pockets within the plane.
Feywild: This is the positive energy reflection of the prime world, populated by sylvan creatures, magical beasts, fey and nature spirits. It is not very welcoming to the unprepared traveler, and even those who are stunned by its beauty and liveliness, or fooled by the enigmatic and chaotic creatures living there. Wild Hunt originates from this plane. All restriction to inter planetary travel that apply to shadow apply. Moving from a Feywild to ethereal brings travelers closer to positive energy. Empty space between planets take the shape of vast oceans, though travel is deterred by storms, pirates and the occasional sea fey. Some outer planes such as Arborea have access to Feywild in some realms.

Plane of Mirrors: I love the concept, but I have a hard time visualising it. The "plane of mirrors", and the "mirror-multiverse" are two separate things. I like the idea of Rilmani using a "plane of mirrors" to travel between the real multiverse and the "mirror-verse". But this still doesn't answer just what is the plane of mirrors. Better than a hallway of mirrors, I propose we visualise it as an still, silvery lake; characters walk or fly over this lake and seemingly the only illumination is from their reflection on the lake. When they contact the lake, they can pass through the small ripple they create to the other side of the lake. This is where they meet their anti-person. At this point, if a character uses a spell or portal to leave the plane of mirrors, he will find himself in the mirror multiverse. This said, I don't wnt to completely ditch the idea of a hallway of mirrors and a race such as Nerra. I would say they are natives of the plane of mirrors, existing between the real and mirror-verses. They build huge fortresses or cities, on or above the lake, where mirrors dominate all rooms and hallways. These places, easier to reach by magic, are where the planewalkers usually come, and as such, they mistakenly thought that the entire plane of mirrors is like this. If I used the Plane of Mirrors in the way I described it here, I would rule that it is only accessable from the base of the spire. Only other method to reach the plane is to use a mirror to get into a Nerra enclave, fight your own reflections (which the Nerra use as guardians), fight your way off the place, and finally tou are out on the silver lake. I would expect Rilmani to roam the plane searching for disturbances. (The more I wrote about this, the more I am inspired. I stop now, but I would love to discuss this further.)

Plane/Region of Dreams: Another plane I love, but also hardest to fit. If its a region, I see astral plane as the better place. I would prefer people in all planes to be able to dream/create dreamscapes. This is easier to implement in a cosmology where the astral surrounds all planes. As an astral region, I see it as instantly appearing and disappearing bubbles of mental energy, scattered randomly around a plane wth sufficient dreamers on the astral. This is because we know that dreams last mere seconds. But if you can detect the mental energy collection in the astral before it forms an astral bubble, it is possible to enter the bubble, live the dream, and leave before it explodes (the dreamer awakens). Exploding dream bubbles leave an astral residue, useful for one spell or other. Question is, do dreamers create silver cords to move inside the dreamscape? Well my region of dream in astral plane is like this; but honestly, I would prefer to see it as a separate plane with connections to astral and ethereal. Perhaps the region between astral and ethereal, if such a thing were possible?

Far Realm: An infinite number of theories can be made for this plane, including asking if there is a single far realm, or a number of different planes/multiverses that completely defy "normal" logic? Since all answers are correct and incorrect, I don't see use in discussing it.

I'll also add the fabled Plane of Time to the list. Just what and where is it? How does one go there? How does is it work?

and what about the legendary Ordial Plane? I mean, we know where it is supposed to be, but does it even exist?

The second edition sourcebook Chronomancer defined the plane of time (Temporal Prime) as a "pseudo-reality" present on every plane of existence. There may be a demiplane of time as well.

There was a thread on the wotc boards on new Far Realm layers. I should post some of the ones I came up with here.

There may be a demiplane of time as well.

There is. It's one of the demiplanes in Guide to the Ethereal.

Here's the Far Realm layers thread on the WotC message boards.

1. Personifications of nature/living things. This is the most obvious one, and totally fits for creatures like nymphs, treants, satyrs, petal faeries, actaeons, and so on. In this case they're really sort of "elementals of the material plane," and it doesn't make a lot of sense for them to be from a plane other than the Material Plane. However, Faerie need not be their plane of origin; it can be the plane they retreat to as the wild force of Nature is conquered and tamed. This works especially well in a campaign where Nature and Technology/Agriculture/Urbanization are at odds. So the fey slowly retreat into the Undying Lands, leaving behind the worlds where they first formed when life first took hold in the earliest days. Faraenyl in Beyond Counteless Doorways is very much a "retreat" plane rather than an "origin" plane (and it's a demiplane, since it's artificial and finite).

2. They're the original natives of Pandemonium. See this article on A Tiefling's Exultation. This option is totally out of left field, of course, but it makes them a planar race who only adapted to the mortal world and nature, rather than forming from it. In this scenario, Elfland is a demiplane that Corellon Larethian created in which to imprison his unrepentant Pandemonic kin (Lolth's exile came later). Although, note that while this article uses old faerie myths to flesh out the elves, and has them originally ruled by the Queen of Air and Darkness, the Seelie Court is separate and apparently originally unrelated to the elven Pandemonians. So they must come from somewhere else, although it wouldn't take much work to create a variant myth where elves and fey had a common origin in Pandemonium.

3. The fourth edition method. From the FR wiki: "The Feywild, also known as the plane of Faerie, was created by the Primordials, beings of power comparable with the gods. Finding some things of the Prime too "bright" or too "dark," the Primordials split the Prime into three nearly identical worlds: the Plane of Shadow and the Feywild." So the fey are essentially the positive-energy-infused ("bright") versions of humans, dwarves, giants, and other "natural" races, while the shadow races like dark ones are negatively-infused versions of them. And Faerie and the Plane of Shadow are "parallel planes," which is similar to 3rd edition's transitive planes.

4. They're descendants of the leShay. The leShay are elflike beings from a previous, now-destroyed multiverse. They became the original fey of this multiverse, one of the "creator races" as the Forgotten Realms campaign calls them. They either created or gave birth to all the other races of fey. The Plane of Faerie could be where they first arrived on when they came to this cycle of existence, in which case it could be a planet or crystal sphere (like Faeriespace in Spelljammer's Crystal Spheres accessory). Or it could be a demiplane they created to be their "home base." It could even be an elemental plane, something like a Plane of Wood, which the leShay conquered and molded into their own image. In this scenario, the fey aren't really personifications of anything, innately. They're just descendants or creations of an ancient race. It's possible that the leShay enslaved various nature spirits and transformed into their present, elfy-looking forms, though, in which case they could be both spirits of nature and leShay creations.

5. Fey are from the Plane of Dreams (which might well be the same as the Curtain of Vaporous Color in the Ethereal Plane). Some are dreams of nature, and others are dreams of other qualities: blood, death, life, sorrow, passion. This story is told best in Orroloth's article.

6. In the Mystara campaign, faeries are reincarnated Immortals from a previous cycle of the Multiverse. They were banished and imprisoned in fey bodies because they would not side with either the Sphere of Life or the Spheres of Death in their great war. They reincarnate endlessly as fey in this cycle until the Multiverse is destroyed again and they once more take their place among the Immortals. This idea is very close to the background of the leShay. Also see this dimensional explanation of Faerie.

7. They're personifications of magic. This is what genies are (according to Secrets of the Lamp). Dryads are personifications of the magic of trees, sea sprites are personifications of the magic of the sea, and so on. Faerie would be some sort of Plane of Magic. Perhaps the Plane of Magic is the Vortex described on the old Mimir site.

8. Green Ronin's The Book of the Righteous explains that the div were a primal race. Originally they were supposed to be a god, but the fruit from which they were going to be born was corrupted, so they were born as ten thousand lesser div instead of a single deity. They were servants of the gods for a time, and the angels were created from their number. Later, the first devils were also created from their number. They rebelled against the gods and, losing the war, were forced to either renounce their immortality or to renounce their free will. Those who renounced their immortality became elves. Those who renounced their free will became genies or fey.

Peri and div are are races in Persian mythology intermediate between gods, mortals, and fiends (devils/demons, primarily demons in the Persian mythos): Gods are nobler and purer than peri, who are purer than mortals, who are purer than div, who are purer than demons. The div are also known as the daeva, which are used in a totally different sense in the Planescape cosmology, of course. Historically, they appear to be the gods of the region prior to Zoroaster, as the devils of any given religion often are.

The peris were fallen, but repentant. They could return to Heaven when they had done penance. "Paradise and the Peri" is the story of a peri who gains entrance to Heaven after succeeding in various quests. I'm not sure what made the divs any better than the general run of demons. They appear to embody various unpleasant concepts.

If they're intermediate between mortals and celestials/fiends, then here's a thought: they're transitive creatures, like the Ordial. Angels and fiends of various types are how Outer Planar entities deal with mortals. Geniekind are the intermediaries between mortals and the elements of nature. And perhaps fairies are so odd to us in their raw natural strength because they're not really positioned to interact with mortals; they're the original races that divine beings created in order to interact with elementals and the forces of nature, an Outer-to-Inner connection that bends the planar boundary rules like a priest's elemental spellcasting. They're older than us, but less central to existence these days now that Creation is older and gods can also deal with the elements via mortals. Faerie is a bridge realm, a deliberately constructed transverse through reality which touches the Material Plane mainly at support points, where the forces of nature are strong. Its endpoints in the Outer and Inner Planes are the main reasons it exists.

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Paizo has some interesting things to say about this; their First World beings are creatures of light and magic, but distinctly troublesome, not at all pure. Given the placement of the azata (yazata in the original Persian) as good exemplars in Pathfinder, peri and div make perfect sense as good and evil fairies. With the First World beings in mind, one might suggest that fairies are the cast-off aspects of concepts that are heavily associated with pure Good and Evil: embodiments of the evil aspects of things like light and family, food and drink, love and happiness (illusion, dependency, gluttony, addiction), and the good aspects of things like darkness and solitude, hunger and fear (sleep and dreams, motivation, the fear of the Lord). That would, however, turn the Seelie/Unseelie relationship upside down, or at least in odd directions.

However, this doesn't explain why Faerie would be older, or the First World, so it would be more in the nature of a replacement than an explanation, I guess.