On Fri, 12 Jun 1998, darkstar wrote:

> I was just reading through the BOP the other day and noticed that all
> the Cerilian gods had domains within the same outer planes that are
> avalible for the forgotten realms etc. So I decided to come up with my
> own idea for the Cerilian Outer planes instead, one that I will be using
> in my own campaigns, but was interested to see what everyone else
> though, or if anyone had similar ideas or concerns with the way it was
> currently arranged.

I have had vague thoughts in that direction, but never worked out
anything concrete, so it was interesting to see your version.

> So anyway here is what I propose instead, in order of innermost plane,
> to outermost.

I assume that you are refering to concentric "spheres" in the sense of the
crystal spheres of Ptolemaic astonomy, at least in a metaphysical sense,
if not literally.

> 1. The Elemental Plane of Fire
> 2. The Elemental Plane of Earth
> 3. The Plane of Positive Energy Aebrynis
> 4. The Etheral Plane
> 5. The Plane of Negitive Energy The Shadow World
> 6. The Elemental Plane of Water
> 7. The Elemental Plane of Air
> 8. The Land of the Dead Dominion of the Cerilian Gods
> 9. The Astral Plane Passage to other worlds/dimension etc not related
> to Cerilia


Your realm descriptions were pretty good. Most of the problems I have with
this schema are right here. I like your elemental planes in a concentric
sphere arraingement. Does this mean that earth and fire elementals are
easier to conjure than water and air elementals? The thing I DON'T like at
all is your identification of the "prime materia" with the plane of
positive energy, although I will admit that it makes a certain amount of
sense to have the Shadow World then be the plane of negative energy.
However, I just don't care for it. I personally prefer to do completely
away with the whole concept of positive and negative energy planes in
Aebrynnis, since the "power" for spells here comes from the natural
meghveil of the land (and besides, I think the whole concept of positive
and negative energy plane is pretty silly).

Does your formulation indicate that Aebrynnis was once a more typical
crystal sphere system (like Faerun) but at some time in the remote past a
great cataclism befell within the prime materia, sundering that plane and
collapsing it into the two energy planes, giving each more solid, constant
froms. The fusion of the positive and the prime creating the realm of
Aebrynnis, and the fusion of the negative and the prime creating the
Shadow World.

Mark VanderMeulen
vander+@pitt.edu