or, Homeostasis versus Transeostasis
Often I hear the objection that Law is still, and Chaos active. I refute these claims thus: do the cogs of Mechanus not move? Has Limbo changed its ways in all of history? On many worlds, the stars are the symbols of the cosmic order -- I have heard that in the Cathedral of the Modrons there is a great Orrery, in constant motion echoing the planes. The Doomguard know that the most disordered state, purest entropy, is one in which all is without useful energy, still and silent. Expand your conceptions. Consider an archetypal example in debates over law, the foul and tyrannical empire: such despotisms can be of radically different characters if they seek paranoic isolation and desperately cling to idealized ancient ways, or seek to bring about a utopian vision of purity, and force it on every neighboring land!
Why have we not seen planes for beliefs which differentiate themselves based upon this axis? Simple -- we have. They are those Outer Planes that to date, at least in mortal memory, have been found in between those Outer Planes that more forcefully exemplify this or that moral and ethical alignment: the interstitial planes Arcadia, Pandemonium, and so on. The eight major alignment planes, I think, represent the neutral status of the Dynamic axis, heterostatic, changing within certain metaphysical limits -- the turning cog, the incessant turbulence, the conflict of Good and Evil.
Just as the moral and ethical axes are balanced between their respective poles, so too the Dynamic axis favors neither of its poles. Let us name these poles, for lack of a previous common usage, the Static and Active: if the arrangement of planes were static, this would favor one end of the axis in an unbalanced way, as would a situation in which these planes were always in transit. The balance between the two is struck by oscillating between periods of stillness and rearrangement. During still periods it is necessary that the planes remain balanced with respect to the Dynamic axis, and so during such times they are collapsed temporarily to the neutral position, mixing their essences.
I believe we are beginning to see a period of transit. Perhaps these planes were created separately, before recorded history on the Outer Planes; or perhaps this is the first of the great splitting or transit epochs. With the recent rumblings from Nemausus I think we are due for a period of planar rearrangement; the interstitial planes will be shifting their alignment balances and more forcefully presenting Static and Active aspects. They will, I think, split in two, each pair moving to new positions relative to their nearby planes on the Great Wheel, at the end of this epoch returning to quietude. This resting place may be between two new planes. Each split half might even mix with half of what was previously a different plane. Finally, we may see the birth of appropriate new exemplar races as the admixed essences distill.
As you can tell, from this point I reach into deeper speculation, leaving behind the evidence I have accumulated for my main thesis (and am happy to expound upon further, should any of my audience wish to schedule a more in-depth session). However, for the benefit of adventurous planewalkers, I offer the following commentaries and speculations on the various possible changes. Confirmation of these would lend support to the theory, and in many cases put the confirming party in a knowledgeable position ahead of planar developments, which would be advantageous to the pursuit of whatever motivations they may have.
One general prediction is that Static and Active planes will almost certainly be strongly defined by the trait currently known to us as a plane's "morphic" nature, that is, the ease with which it can be altered. A Static-aligned plane would surely be what we now refer to as a static plane of any type: very difficult to make any significant change upon, while an Active plane would be in constant flux and likely very responsive to manipulation. I would be obliged if my fellow academic researchers on the various Outer Planes would run the widely-known simple tests on the morphic traits of their locales of residence and work, and communicate to me their findings: if the collected data show trends of change in these traits, especially tendencies away from the average and toward intensification of unusually resistant or pliable morphic natures, that would neatly provide evidence for the theory and would, of course, be interesting and possibly useful data in its own right. Please see me after the presentation if you are interested in joining a network of researchers I am organizing for the purpose.
Neutral, Lawful: We begin our survey of particular planes with the most obvious change. Mechanus itself will in the end be relatively little changed by the affair; the cogs will continue to spin for whatever purpose drives them, in their patterned motions. Momentarily, the plane has been disturbed by the arrival of a layer of Arcadia, and I understand that a struggle is underway whereby well-meaning natives of Arcadia are seeking to return the layer to its previous home, and the natives of Mechanus seek to retain their acquisition. I submit that neither is entirely in the right, but the modrons are closer -- as you might have suspected my sympathies would lie, being of the Fraternity. I think Arcadia is due to become, not part of Mechanus, but two new planes entirely: each of pure Law, itself neither good nor evil, but one of crystalline perfection, an incarnation of immutable and eternal Order; the other, an unending progression of intricate timing and arrangement, growing and changing, as precise as the stars of the heavens or the clockwork of time itself... ... ...ah. Excuse me. I was momentarily enraptured. At any rate, if you would be in the business of anticipating opportunities in this arrangement, you might seek to assist the modrons in their efforts; to learn more about the nature of the planes involved, one could do worse than to seek the resources of the investigators of my own faction and the Mathematicians.
To be sure, there is the argument that the loss of Nemausus to Arcadia is a dimunition of the strength of the Upper Planes, and something that men of good conscience should seek to rectify. This is a powerful argument, especially if I am wrong. But there are, after all, reciprocal changes that will balance out the loss, and these would provide opportunities of Multiversal improvement for those interested in such achievements.
Evil, Neutral: Jumping forward on the Ring momentarily, I introduce my second piece of evidence, namely the presence of the General of Gehenna. Why has this exemplar of pure evil made himself at home away from the plane that bore him? Much speculation has been launched upon this question. I suggest that he has traded one plane for two -- that he prepares his ground for the day when the Four Mounts will fly even further apart, the cold depths sinking to the deepest frozen uncaring pits of evil, and the furious volcanoes of the nearer layers rising to spew their vitriol from above the Blood War's battlefields, and he with stronghold on both sides. Indeed, the researches of the yugoloths might be aimed at triggering this event. While the split of the plane may be unavoidable, a daring military action might, just might, be able to thwart a yugoloth presence from doubling in its grip on the planes by ridding even part of Gehenna of that dark influence. I regret that I lack sufficient funds, or courage, to finance such an expedition.
Evil, Lawful: In between these two, we have the warfare of Acheron. Perhaps the one thing its eternally struggling armies could agree on would be a forcible sundering of the plane itself in some paroxysm of violence, leading Thuldanin and Ocanthus -- homes of that strange force which petrifies visitors, and Wee Jas' Wall respectively -- to manifest themselves in their rightful place as a plane of lawful evil in its awful rigidity, while the strategists on Avalas and Tintibulus continue their intricate dance of pain.
Evil, Chaotic: Carceri already manifests as a series of disconnected orbs, so it would be no great difficulty, much like Gehenna, for these to separate further and arrange themselves as independent planes of activity and stasis exemplifying chaos and evil. The deeper layers simply collapse inward to grip their lawbreakers in even tighter embrace, while the outer layers shatter -- yes, I suspect that the cause of this planar slippage would be an escape attempt, probably a successful one. If that concerns you, I suggest you cultivate some information sources on the plane, before the lowest-security layer of the Red Prison becomes known as the Broken Prison, trumpeted in propaganda as a symbol of Chaos' triumph over confining Law. And yes, Revolutionary League, I especially accuse you of being capable of doing such a thing: loosing uncounted criminals upon the Multiverse, not to mention any number of living inhabitants of that realm lost to the void, in some mad attempt to shatter the structure of the plane. I only hope that my devotion to academic openness has not, indeed, given you the idea of doing this thing.
On the other hand, on the whole it might be a blow for Good, moving the prison ever so slightly away from Evil; perhaps on balance the worst prisoners would be held more securely, at the cost of the lesser being freed or unjustly assaulted. Still, it is a terrible price to contemplate.
Neutral, Chaotic: Let us turn to more pleasant realms. Limbo, much like Mechanus, will be little altered by these events. The turbulent soup of creation will continue to create and destroy and create, in relative long-term balance. But Pandemonium... ah, now this is an interesting counterpart to Arcadia for those interested in making a drastic change upon the Planes for the forces of Good. What if that plane of madness could be healed? What if irrationality could itself be neither good nor evil, simply a weird paradox of nature? I am not, personally, inclined to less-organized ways of knowing, but I respect that there are intelligent and... sometimes... coherent Xaositect philosophers, as well as adepts of the Transcendent Order, who speak approvingly of intuition, instinct, and passion, without regards to straightforward reason.
I put forth a few suggestions and cautions for the venturesome interested in making such a drastic change to the Planes. An attempt to shift Pandemonium away from the Lower Planes will require or at least result in blocking Styx access to its waters, and this will surely be opposed by the marraenoloths who make of it part of their livelihood. Substantial healings of the many madnesses on the plane must be undertaken, and I think a deeper understanding of insanity as a natural disease of living folk, as well as acceptance and understanding of ways of intuition and emotive valuations, must be promulgated to shift belief regarding nonrational thought. This must be done at least partially motivated by honest concern for the well-being of the mad and sincere attempt to more fully embrace legitimate sane modes of thinking, for no naked power grab will successfully shift any plane toward goodness. There are also said to be places deep within Pandemonium where certain evil creatures of great power are imprisoned. I am not one of that elite band of planewalkers who would have any firsthand knowledge of such things, but if it is true, the preservation of their imprisonment is surely something of great concern. The plane is likely to split roughly elementally, into the Winds coursing relentlessly without anchor above Limbo, and the stone Labyrinth winding courselessly below. Care must be taken that any imprisoned entities remain trapped in that labyrinth, rather than being thrust into Limbo or the Winds.
Good, Chaotic: Less, I suspect, needs to be said about the Upper Planes, whose inhabitants are more likely to be congenial as changes occur. If Ysgard splits, I venture that Nidavellir's quiet darkness will embody the static mysteries of good chaos, the freedom inherent in privacy, while the eponymous Ysgard and fiery Muspelheim will launch above Arborea as the active home of the fiery passions and the planar highway of the World Tree. Now, the process might be rather disruptive of Yggdrasil's links, which could well be of concern to planewalkers who would want to keep track of these things. A survey undertaken now with an eye toward locating signs of changes in those links would not only verify the theory, if those changes were found, but also put the surveyor who found them in possession of perhaps useful trade information.
Mind you, the Norse pantheon might not be quite so eager to rub closer elbows with the Greeks, though perhaps improved relations would be the trigger for the move itself. Closer links to Yggdrasil can hardly do a bad turn for businesses on Arborea, though perhaps if some of those links dip a bit too close to Hel it might be somewhat disturbing. I also understand elves can be a bit touchy when their social hierarchies and conventions are altered, especially as some visitors to Nidavellir aren't quite the type that are frequently welcomed deeper into the Upper Planes... but of these things I have not studied much. Perhaps the Sensates or the Ring-Givers will have more local information on these things.
Good, Neutral: Now, the Beastlands have three layers, all of which, I am reliably informed, positively thunder with primal energies. However, I think we can safely say that stillness and quiet are at a far greater premium in the half-light of Brux, and the darkness of Karasuthra fully under Noctos, while the bright light of Selera in Krigala is a place of greater activity. On the other hand, this leaves Brux in a dubious place. Perhaps the split will not be by layer, but by the nature of the ecology dominant in a given region. There are, after all, natural places where conditions vary extremely little, such as in deep caverns, where life nevertheless thrives, and vice versa conditions of rapid and extreme changes to which life has adapted famously.
Good, Lawful: The last change of the Great Ring is the easiest. Bytopia would simply become the individual planes of Dothion and Shurrock. One is fairly passive if somewhat tempestuous of weather, unstinting of natural resources waiting for those who will work to claim them, and the other is a hub of activity and conditions for growth, that encourages production and industry. I have every confidence that the inhabitants, should the need arise to shift their plane in order to preserve the stability of the Great Ring, would be able to organize themselves and proactively undertake the necessary work as swiftly and painlessly as possible for their planes. I have seen the campfires of Bytopia at night, and it is a lovely sight I would regret losing; still, I imagine the sight of the foundations of Mount Celestia, or a view of Chronias from unimaginably far away, would be similarly impressive.
True Neutral: Finally, the Outlands have no such interstitial planes at present, of course. Whether this plane shall split -- and if so, whether it shall split into two, leaving the center a void, or three, so that it forms two new planes in addition to the current Outlands -- I am not at all certain. Its unique neutrality may be retained whole. On the other hand, perhaps Sigil itself, and the Spire, are harbingers of new neutral Dynamic planes: the Spire a plane unto itself, of pure Stasis, and Sigil of pure transit. This is more highly speculative than even the other hypotheses I have ventured. I do think that the Great Ring of gate-towns will suddenly find itself triplicated! This may happen in one of two ways.
If the Outlands remains at the purest center, unsplit, then its skies and its subterranean realms will harbor the new gates, and those who stake sound claims in these regions will be well-positioned to profit from the new gates. Already, as you know, there are floating paladin-castles in the skies above Fortitude, which I think may find themselves playing a new role in the new arrangement. One wonders whether the lords of these castles were privy to a similar theory. Likewise, the gate to Gehenna is in a similar position of altitude, which may be suggestive of influence the General has already had.
If the Outlands do split, then we may find that the gate-towns lead to the major planes we know now, while new gates to the active planes arise either in Sigil or in a new pure-Active plane, and new gates to the static planes are to be found in a new pure-Static plane. It may be that such gates are already on the edge of forming, somewhere in the Outlands. If you have proposals for where these might be, I would be interested in hearing them and possibly funding exploratory expeditions.
Other comments are also welcome. Thank you for coming; we will turn now to a question and answer session.
An Academic Reply
by Lu Ree the Impending, Fraternity of Order
My learned colleague of the Fraternity has advanced a very interesting hypothesis, which in large part I find convincingly evidenced. I would challenge, however, certain of her speculations regarding the rearrangement of the Planes that is getting under way. Namely, I think that she overreaches in her construction of new planes, and is rather too profligate of fine shades of belief. We have quite enough planes at the moment to answer the theory without adding eight or ten more to the seventeen present.
I propose the scenario that each of the four pure alignment planes will gather to itself the two bordering interstitial planes. The resulting arrangement of planes would be best envisioned, perhaps, as a cube or lattice, with the Outlands at the center, the single-trait planes (Good/Evil, Law/Chaos, Active/Static) at the center of the faces, and the admixed planes, such as Good/Lawful or Good/Active, at the centers of the sides. My colleague has also populated the corners, requiring this talk of new planes and planes splitting and the like. My scenario, on the other hand, might manifest as little more than a rearrangement of the gate-towns into the skies and caverns of the Outlands, though the spellcasting characteristics of the planes involved would be affected. To wit:
That Mechanus has absorbed part of Arcadia, and may continue to do so, is a given fact. I suggest that if adventurers are afire to do noble deeds in rearranging the Planes, they seek to affect Acheron similarly, pushing it not toward Baator but toward Mechanus. These two planes would shed their good and evil characteristics, and instead become the static and active incarnations of otherwise pure Law: Arcadia a plane of perfect organization, carved in marble, not a hair out of place, and Acheron's geometric forms tumbling in choreographed dance intricate beyond mortal comprehension. The means to do this is difficult almost beyond imagining, of course. I expect the conceptual purification of that war-torn plane would, at a minimum, require physically rerouting many cubes into organized processions (which would enhance Law and reduce the painful consequences of collisions), and an armistice between ancient enemies and their Powers, overseen by scrupulously fair-minded peacekeepers, upholding a delicate balance in the face of enormous tensions. With deepest respect to the honored Alisohn Nilesia, I suspect her faction would need to undergo a radical internal reorganization before it were prepared to take on such a responsibility, though the benefits of integrating one's faction with the nature of a plane have long been realized by my own Fraternity of Order and pursued with even more intense vigor by our academic cousins the Mathematicians.
The presence of the General of Gehenna is certainly suggestive of a possible anticipated centrality of that plane in the future definition of evil. Carceri's imprisoning nature, however, is far more suggestive of stasis than activity, and I suggest that the General has taken what will in upcoming eras be the high ground, the active oversight position from which pure Evil, untouched by Law or Chaos, can employ its manipulations. Meanwhile, Carceri will sink even further, its metaphysical walls becoming higher and thicker. Time may be running short for any planned escapes there. Also, if it is true that the Anarchists possess a stronghold there, they may wish to vacate for safer ground. I personally suggest they all jump into the Gehennan void, but this is simply a friendly recommendation. More to the point, my theory would suggest that any attempt to shatter the outer layers of the Prison Plane would not have the momentum of history on its side, and could be thwarted by those would seek to prevent disaster upon the Planes.
We agree on both the value and the dangers of a possible attempt to shift Pandemoniom Limbo-ward, but I think my colleague underestimates the passions of Ysgard, or the unpleasantly evil nature of the wind-madness. If Pandemonium were shifted simply with an eye toward preserving the labyrinth while cutting off the Styx (thereby, indeed, enhancing any prisons might possess in the lower layers) and quieting the wind, the underlying static irrationality of the Labyrinth would predominate, and be balanced with the active growth and transportational nature of Ysgard and that living planar highway, Yggdrasil.
A brief aside. One notices that in this arrangement the three non-Lawful segments of the lattice possess planar highways: Oceanus, Yggdrasil, and the Styx. Sigil, were it the Active neutral plane, would also have this trait, though I certainly cannot assign any such characteristic to the Spire. Perhaps a different hub of planar travel would exemplify rigid pure Stasis. Such highways might be a characteristic of the non-lawful realms, or, I suggest, a new planar highway might arise -- perhaps a predictable train of Acheronian cubes or detaching/docking gears of Mechanus that regularly visit bordering planes. Such a highway might be in the borning now: if an intrepid explorer would like to seek Acheronian cubes or orbiting gears that could be directed off-plane and back, someone who found such a pathway and learned its schedules would have a foot in the door of a magnificent trading route.
Finally, there is the matter of the Dynamic versions of the good planes. Both the Beastlands and Bytopia seem to be places abuzz with life and energy, but the Beastlands is strict about its insistence upon preservation of its primitive mode of existence, and likewise Bytopia is insistent upon the value of work and production. These two planes would probably change very little, slipping into place with barely an alteration, as suits the cooperative nature of the Upper Planes.
In conclusion, this scenario has the advantage that we most likely need to create no new planes, at most two pure-Dynamic planes. The Rule of Threes is well satisfied. There would be three good, lawful, and active planes: Elysium, Mechanus, and a new plane or perhaps Sigil. There would be three intermixes of these: the good and lawful Mount Celestia, the good and active Bytopia, and the lawful and active Acheron. Only if a tertiary admixture arose, such as a good, lawful, active plane, would we need to expand the list of planes so drastically. Parsimony makes its own case.