Planetalking

“Planetalking”
By Hejon Murr,
Interpreter of the Planes

What is “planetalking” you ask? Glad you ask, for this article is meant to try and explain it. First of all, it is not a misspelling of planewalking, berk. It’s something entirely different. How so? Have patience and an open mind; both will help you tumble to the dark of it…

You see, the planes are alive. I don’t mean in any esoteric sense, like they seem alive. They, honest-to-goodness, think and feel and everything a living being might do. Of course, it is miles different in a lot of ways. They are planes, for Lady’s sake! They move and communicate much, much slower than a body’d understand. Planes don’t think in terms of days or hours or even years; they think and act in terms of millennia. This scope is even beyond those of the fiends, and powers know how long they’ve been around. We’re talking “from the dawn of time” stuff here. But enough about that. How in the multiverse does this matter to mortals like you (or paramortals or whatever you are) and me? Well, where do all known living beings live, from insects to deities? That’s right, berk: in one plane or another. So, in a number of ways, directly or indirectly, this kind of chant may be of use to a body, somehow. But keep listening! This isn’t even the best part yet!

Even though the planes work on monstrously long timescales, sometimes they concern themselves with the goings-on that takes place within and among them. Usually, this is in answer to some threat or another, but it could be anything. Who can fathom the motives of such things? Perhaps the powers have a little better clue than we do, which is why they’re the powers. The plane and the power get along really well on some level, so the plane is more accommodating to them. Or perhaps they know just how to dominate and order the plane around somehow. I suppose it depends on the plane and the power involved…

That brings me to another point. The planes, by and large, possess their own personality. This can somewhat be fathomed by just how the plane behaves (more on that below). Why this is is a bit hard to really tumble to. Do the mortals inhabiting them, through belief or other association, invest the plane with the characteristics the plane exhibits? Or have the planes always possessed these traits? How did they get there? Whatever the answers to these, they aren’t saying.

What’s that? Yes, they say things, and you can pick up on it, if you learn how to listen to them. They all have their own voices. Often it is hard to decipher, since their way of communicating can take eons. Sometimes, though, they can be coaxed into speaking more along our own timeframe, if they care to. That’s what I do. I talk to the planes. See? That’s what makes me a “planetalker.”

Of course, all of this usually leads to more questions. I humbly admit that I can hardly begin to answer any of them. The planes usually don’t care to share the darks of their existence to gnats such as we. Sometimes, though, they can get what can only be described as “bored” and get a little chatty. Sometimes, you can convince the plane to do other things for you. Only really rarely does this work, so don’t go staking your life on whether or not you can get the planes to help you out of a scrape; more often than not, you’ll hit the blinds and end up lost.

A canny blood might next logically wonder, “What about Neth, the Demiplane That Lives? How does it fit into the whole picture?”

I’ve got a couple theories on that too. First, the simplest explanation would be that Neth isn’t really a plane at all, or even a demiplane. It is a living organism, albeit one of immense proportions, that happens to live in the Ethereal Plane. There’s only a few things that might actually classify it as a demiplane; most notably the fact that it has a Border area rather than just floating around within the Deep of the Ethereal. Neth also seems to operate more or less in our timeframe. Perhaps it is “immature” and therefore does not quite see things on the grand scale the “real” planes do, out there. Judging by its curiosity, it may also be searching for an identity of its own. Did all the planes start off this way? Did they all eventually “find their place” through ages-long soul-searching? Some have suggested that they were indeed mortals at the beginning of time, climbing up the ladder of existence, and becoming part of the plane is the evolution even above and beyond powerhood or petitioner. I’m not sure about that, though.

Well, that’s it for now, I think. I will be sure to follow up with some notes I have taken on the various planes describing what I have found out about their personality, voice, and relationships. Good luck, cutters! Wherever you go, you'll now have a companion.