The Land of Stories

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Kaelyn's picture
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The Land of Stories

The Land of Stories

It's where all myths, legends, and even works of fiction become real.
It's where all lies are truth.
It's where we all dream together.

Once upon a time, the Land of Stories was known as Arborea. The best guess is that this is because so many stories take place in the same archetypal Dark Wood that makes up so much of the plane. However, many other environments can be found in the Land of Stories, as many as can be found in all the imagination: wild plains where the heroes of the Old West still reenact their gunfights and train-robberies, tumultuous seas where determined captains still explore lands of giants and dwarfs or try to kill elusive white whales, dark metropolises that never sleep, empires that reach between the stars themselves.

The Land of Stories is where the gods and heroes of myth reside. For a time, the inhabitants of all stories no matter how obscure, whether they're actually written down or not, can be found here. However, when a story is forgotten its inhabitants disappear from the Land of Stories forever to become lost in the dusty Waste of Forgotten Giants. When a story changes in the minds of those who remember it, the beings created from that story are also changed, though alternate versions sometimes manage to survive.

The Land of Stories is ruled by no one; it is too diverse and wild. However, the most powerful entity on the plane is known as the Queen of Stories, who rules with her consorts from her Court of Lore. There are some indications in the Waste of Forgotten Giants that the Queen was once known as Morwel... or was it Morpheus? Regardless, she is simply the Queen now, though the inhabitants of that part of the plane known as the Galaxy, high in the infinity of the sky beyond the moons and suns, call her the Queen of Stars.

Layers: The Land of Stories, the Land of Forgotten Giants

Realms: Olympus, Asgard, Vanaheim, Arvandor, Jotunheim, Hades, Hel, Kalevala, Al-Rashid, the Holy Land, Faerie, Wonderland, Never-Never Land, Oz, Narnia, Middle Earth, Fantasia, the Big City, the Dark Forest, the Seven Seas, the Galaxy, the Hinterlands.

Planar Connections

The Land of Stories connects to the Astral Plane, and it touches several other (perhaps all other) Outer Planes as well. There are many portals connecting it with the Material Plane; often these are called "rabbit holes" by Storyland natives.

In recent times, parts of the Land of Stories have been merging with the Pseudoplane of Cyberspace.

Planar Traits

Alignment: Minor Chaos and Good
Highly/Divinely Morphic: The landscape can be altered by any storyteller, to some small extent, but the big realms have their own rules resistant to any attempts to change them.
Flowing Time: Travelers between the realms of the Land of Stories sometimes find centuries have elapsed on the world they left behind, or no time at all. The realms each have their own chronologies that don't affect one another.
Normal Gravity: The worlds of the Galaxy impose their own normal gravity.
Infinite: The realms of imagination extend without limit. Beyond the region claimed by sentient imaginations - millions of miles away - the Land of Stories is unformed wilderness and then, finally, pure chaos, constantly changing elements highly reactive to the minds of any who enter. This region, called the Hinterlands, contains many tiny realms where lesser storytellers create their own fantasy worlds.

Kaelyn's picture
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The Land of Stories

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Persephone Imytholin's picture
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The Land of Stories

In many ways, I rather like this plane. I'm not quite sold on it replacing Arborea; in a lot of ways, Ysgard (or a layer thereof) feels like a better fit (complete with resurrecting petitioners).

I like the thought of tale-bleed into Cyberspace, but I'm not quite sure how to deal with it (unless the entire layer is planning to slide over). Items from the various tales should probably be mere props, useless without the sheer belief of the plane itself to power them.

There's a couple of name clashes you might want to look at, too - unless they're links to the places themselves.

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The Land of Stories

"Persephone Imytholin" wrote:
In many ways, I rather like this plane. I'm not quite sold on it replacing Arborea; in a lot of ways, Ysgard (or a layer thereof) feels like a better fit (complete with resurrecting petitioners).

I think of it as encompassing both Arborea and Ysgard's first layer, but I think Muspelheim and Nidvellir are distinctive enough to remain their own outer plane. Those two could form some kind of chaotic-industrial factory plane where the dwarves and dark elves of Nidvellir use the flames of Muspelheim as an unlimited power source.

So I guess what I'm saying is that Ysgard's first layer slid into the Land of Stories.

I know that versions of the underworlds of Hades and Hel are in the Atomic Wasteland, but it seems to me that the journey into the underworld is an important archetypal story that deserves to be represented here as well.

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The Land of Stories

A pretty cool take on a modern version of Arboria.

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The Land of Stories

The Big City

The Big City is all cities: it's New York, London, Singapore, Bombay, Mexico City, Detroit, Sigil, the City of Brass.

The Big City is also none of them, not in the way they ever existed. It is Woody Allen's New York, the London of Charles Dickens or Neil Gaiman, the Sigil of Jeena Ealy.

It's a place of looming skyscrapers and stinking sewers. It has many faces and many aspects. It is one archetypal place full of beaten-down private dicks, neurotic socialites, warring newspapers, loose cannon cops, and orphans who make good.

It looms large over the Land of Stories, far bigger than its size would warrant, and its size is incalculably vast.

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The Land of Stories

Doesn't jibe, sorry. Straight ideas were always the domain of the Astral, and, frankly, Arborea seems a much better fit for that slot on the Wheel anyways.
If it's got to be part of the Outers, maybe make it some "area" of the Outlands. After all, it's infinite. Plenty of room for a huge-as-all-hell(or infinite) area filled with stories-made-substance(even considering the huge amounts of highway the rilmani constructed), and the Outlands are already the most diverse of all the planes.
Or you could just add a single layer to one of the planes. That'd sure piss of the Doomguard.

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The Land of Stories

Well, the idea of a Storyland is good, but how is it different from the Land (plane) of Dreams already on the Astral? You're cramming a heckuva lot of myths and stories into this place, but it would need a lot more specifics if anyone was actually going to play Planescape on this plane.

How would arcanaloths fit into Oz or the Blood War into Narnia? As a stand-alone plane it's good, but it doesn't really fit into Planescape, at least not without a lot more explanation. Either you're dealing with mythic archetypes (the Dark Forest, the Empty Desert) or you're fusing together Earth novels like the Chronicles of Narnia with some weird stuff. How would Terrans react if Narnia *was* real? Probably not a question that UPS can handle well.

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The Land of Stories

"Krypter" wrote:
How would Terrans react if Narnia *was* real? Probably not a question that UPS can handle well.

Well - there's is always Arslan*cough* I mean Talisad... Eye-wink

It could be that Narnia and many of these stories are given form by children's belief and as folks grow up - take on other forms that are more easily recognizable. Perhaps the strength of a place like Story Land grows as the fiction of Earth spreads into the Planes? After all - the idea of a fiction novel is a relatively recent one... I'm not sure how popular what we would call 'fantasy' is in the Planes or other less technological Primes. (It's hard to get the time to read fluff books when you're working on the level of substinence farming.)

Perhaps that was one of the things from Earth's culture that spread like wildfire elsewhere - this idea of people *writing down* stories to share instead of pestering the bard for another song. The printing press alone would be enough to propogate books... based on that, as a new techonology and new form of communication, StoryLand may be a good bridge between Astral and Cyberspace actually.

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Bob Dylan's 49th beard

"Erik" wrote:
Straight ideas were always the domain of the Astral

Yeah, thoughts are the domain of the Astral. When the thoughts manifest as landscapes and entities - usually because a critical mass of souls believe in them - they become part of the Outer Planes.

Admittedly, allowing individual storytellers to manipulate the landscape like one would manipulate Limbo is a bit of a stretch. I was hoping the coolness factor would allow people to give it some slack. Also, the Hinterland area basically is Limbo, at least in part.

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If it's got to be part of the Outers, maybe make it some "area" of the Outlands.

Why the Outlands in particular? The passions that inspire and are inspired by stories seem at least a little chaotic and good to me. And I've always seen Arborea as the plane of stories, more than a little inspired by this article from the Mimir.

"Krypter" wrote:
how is it different from the Land (plane) of Dreams already on the Astral?

In the Ethereal, you mean. Dreams are born on the Ethereal, like all possibities. They go to the Astral to die. If there were a region of living dreams in the Astral it would become part of the Great Ring, but the Great Ring's a more appropriate place for archetypes and dreams shared by many thousands of people at once, not for individual dreamers (yeah, I admitted that letting individual storytellers make tiny realms in the Land of Dreams was a stretch - but it's kinda Limboish, one of the reasons I wanted the plane to be chaotic).

It's different from the region of dreams in the Ethereal Plane because it's not where dreamers go every night - it's just a place where coherent, recurring stories inspired by dreams might form.

It's different from the dead dreams that blow in the Astral thoughtwinds because they're not just thoughts in wind form - they're seemingly living characters and solid landscapes that characters from the Material Plane or elsewhere can interact with as if they were real.

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How would arcanaloths fit into Oz or the Blood War into Narnia?

I don't know, but it's fun to speculate. The Land of Stories is going to be, to some extent, protected by eladrins and other celestials (one of the reasons to put it in the Upper Planes), but as I said it was connected to all the Outer Planes, yeah: there's going to be some evil forces from without. Because the laws of the various realms are nearly impossible to break, fiends will have to use existing characters in order to do their dirty work, taking control of the Witch of the West or Glinda or the Wizard himself and using these characters as pawns.

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How would Terrans react if Narnia *was* real?

I'm not sure what you mean. How would their reaction be different from finding out that Hell is real, or elves are real, or that elementals and faeries are real? They'd be surprised. There might be calls to ban works of fiction. Eventually, they'd adjust.

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The Land of Stories

One thing I would be concerned about is the fact that once Dr. Doom (from Marvel comics) became aware of the Planes, he would find a way to escape the Land of Stories.

On the other hand, that might prove amusing.

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The Land of Stories

Heh. Forget Dr. Doom. Imagine a very bemused John Constintine in the Outlands.

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The Land of Stories

"Clueless" wrote:
It could be that Narnia and many of these stories are given form by children's belief and as folks grow up - take on other forms that are more easily recognizable. Perhaps the strength of a place like Story Land grows as the fiction of Earth spreads into the Planes? After all - the idea of a fiction novel is a relatively recent one... I'm not sure how popular what we would call 'fantasy' is in the Planes or other less technological Primes. (It's hard to get the time to read fluff books when you're working on the level of substinence farming.)
*Is reminded of The Storybook from "Disney Villains' Revenge"*

And couldn't this just be a new layer in the general CG region of the Wheel, rather than replacing an existing plane?

Persephone Imytholin's picture
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The Land of Stories

Hence my earlier thoughts that it'd make an interesting layer for Ysgard, since stories and tales are the modern kind of honour and glory.

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Re: Bob Dylan's 49th beard

I like, much. Not sure how well this fits into urban planescape, but the idea is great. Regarding the Big City bit, you should've mentioned Jeff Vander Meer's Ambergris.

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... finding out that Hell is real, or elves are real, or that elementals and faeries are real? They'd be surprised. There might be calls to ban works of fiction. Eventually, they'd adjust.

This is very interesting. Something like that happening on Earth would be a sight to see. I don't have time to work on the idea now, but I would love to see someone pursue this. Rip? Anyone?

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Re: Bob Dylan's 49th beard

"Nemui" wrote:
Regarding the Big City bit, you should've mentioned Jeff Vander Meer's Ambergris.

Yeah, I should have. And the Borges Bookstore. And Cinsorium and the gray caps.

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The Land of Stories

So is this going to eventually make it's way over to Urban Ps on the website? Or is it still holding on revisions? I'd love to see it get finalizaed up there. Eye-wink (Perspeh?)

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It seems fairly well received, and I wouldn't mind seeing it in the edit queue (maybe with a couple more of the generic realms added in).[/subtle]

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The Land of Stories

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The Land of Stories is where the gods and heroes of myth reside. For a time, the inhabitants of all stories no matter how obscure, whether they're actually written down or not, can be found here. However, when a story is forgotten its inhabitants disappear from the Land of Stories forever to become lost in the dusty Waste of Forgotten Giants. When a story changes in the minds of those who remember it, the beings created from that story are also changed, though alternate versions sometimes manage to survive.
For the individual hero to disappear, does it require that every remembance in every mortal mind be forgotten?

I would imagine that some bards of extraordinary talent and ability might one day pass into the Land of Stories. For what is a simple story without the grand recitations of a master storyteller at the height of his or her skill...

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The Land of Stories

I think any earther would just about pay to see the petitioner known as Geoffery spin a tale...

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The Land of Stories

How about this for an idea: Modern Arborea would consist of three layers, the first one being the domains of different gods, like the Norse, Elves and Olympians, with Asgard still the resting place of heros. It would also be home to many "mythical" elemants and creatures. The second layer would be or based on the Land of Stories, with fictional stories and the third one, would be similar to the layer in the standered Planescape setting.

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The Land of Stories

I'd prefer the 2nd layer waterworld? Smiling

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The Land of Stories

Actually, I think the third layer is like some sort of desert.

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