The Formation of Planes and the Elements

The following feels like crackpot mind vomit. I tried to have as original a take as possible, while also addressing some gray areas. Your thoughts will be greatly appreciated in shaping this up to... well, not feel like crackpot mind vomit. This also calls for the creation of a ninth elemental plane, the Elemental Everplane that's basically a connector to each of the individual planes and is most open to the astral plane.
I should probably also add that everything here is OOC, though it should be obvious.


As the universe began to form, existence itself was divided up into different planes. The first two occurred nearly as twins, the Corporeal and the Spectral. The Corporeal took the most energy, and began to drain the Spectral, leaving it desolate and empty. The Elder Gods were born with these planes, and could exist omnipresently between the two.

Then were born the elements. Just as the Elder Gods were born with affinities to Chaos or Order, so too were born the elements with such affinity. Nine planes were born, eight housing an element each, with the ninth acting as a domain that all were connected to, and could pass between each other. First born was the Earth, which filled its own domain, and began to spread into the others. Next was Air, which quickly fought against Earth, and filled the planes with a myriad of gases. Water and Fire were born as twins afterward, finding their planes already near full with Earth and Wind. They dominated the elements in their owns planes who had trespassed before their birth. As each element began to assert its dominance against one another, the pure elements came to be, farther away and more isolated save for the relative closeness of their less refined forms.

The elements slowly split themselves and their want to dominate all other elements into lesser fragments, forming constructs of their respective nature. These agents populated the planes, able to route or dominate whatever remnants of opposing elemental power there was. Domination was most effective in cases where the opposing elements were not polar to one another. For example, fire could melt earth into magma, and fed off of the air to continue burning. Whatever water was left would simply be boiled, which would later condense elsewhere only to be found and boiled again.

Their jobs done, the constructs began to flood into the Everplane, whose composition was already a conglomerate of all elements. The pathways into each of the elemental planes was closely guarded, and the area around them was dominated. Only so much influence could be had in the Everplane, as each element’s power waned with the distance.

Effectively reaching a stalemate, the elements turned their attention elsewhere, seeking out an advantage. They quickly learned of the astral plane, and planes beyond it. Earth, being the eldest and most powerful, was the first to learn this and first to approach the more distant planes. It would be difficult to extend one’s arm that far, leaving their dominion in the Everplane vulnerable. It had to be done, but it could not be done rationally using the pathways that already existed.

And so Earth, in a gamble, used its power to tear a hole through the invisible boundary between itself and the Astral, and from there straight to the corporeal. The effect was not as what was intended: Many pathways were cut across the corporeal plane rather than one single large pathway, likely due to interference from the astral plane.

Satisfied, although surprised, with this result, Earth poured its influence into the corporeal plane. Chunks of rock and soil began to spontaneously form in the corporeal realm out of the torn portals. The other elements, sensing the sudden weakness of Earth, began to move in on its territory in the Everplane until they finally took notice of what the element was doing. One by one they followed suit, desperate to make up for Earth’s leading influence in the corporeal plane.

The corporeal plane was filled all the substances that we find today, though the elements were still at war. Conglomerate groups of mass formed, battlefields where the elements fought to dissipate or dominate on another’s power. The Elder Gods quickly took notice, and began to study this new phenomenon in their domain. They could exert their overwhelming power at great difficulty to manipulate elemental manifestations while it was still under the element’s power, but the hold of each element on any given group waned over the course of time with so much infighting.

The Elder Gods set forth on their own and took advantage of this, quickly cutting the ties that bound whatever material to the elemental planes, and began shaping the universe to their liking. Solar systems were formed around suns that brought light to existence. Closely grouped clusters of these solar systems resulted in expansive galaxies. The Elder Gods forged creation on the failed attempts of their foolish cousins.
The elements, originally unaware of the Elder Gods, were angered at their unwarranted attacks, but ultimately knew that conquest of the corporeal plane was for naught. The elements pulled back their influence, leaving only a shred of their presence at the various portals that they created. Content that the elements had mostly withdrawn, the Elder Gods did as they pleased, whether it was to study the interaction of the elements, continue manipulating the elements, or to declare dominion of a region and sow lesser creations for their entertainment.

Shortly after the birth of the elements, the plane of Expanse and Void was created, completely empty yet limitless in its size, open to the Elder Gods’ power. The final plane, the Astral, had lain over all others, allowing connections to form between each of the planes, although some more difficult than others.


There's an alternate idea I had that cuts out the whole "Elements tear holes in the astral plane because they can and because they are greedy," and replaces it with "The elements, at their birth, encompassed the corporeal plane and the elemental planes." Basically, the fight in the elemental planes/everplane still happens so each element gets their own home after fighting, but they also all have distant presences in the corporeal plane that caused everything to form.

Comments, suggestions?

Ok I'm going to assume the everplane is another name for the expanse.

And if not I'm a little confused as to what it is...

That being said, I like this...I suppose it works to fill in some gaps in the canon if nothing else.

I'm still advocating that the void be made to hold evil immense things beyond even the elder god's comprehension. Because that would be awesome...

I mean demons could still reside there I suppose...they'd just have to keep a low profile. Which wouldn't be too hard considering how insignificant they would be in comparison to the things already dwelling there...

Your assumption is wrong and was pointed out in the beginning:

This also calls for the creation of a ninth elemental plane, the Elemental Everplane that's basically a connector to each of the individual planes and is most open to the astral plane.

That could be a good idea about the void. As the Elements are somewhat the cousins to the Elder Gods, there could be entities that hold dominion of the Expanse, which is limitless in size but ultimately empty, and neither group would know about them, or at least know very little. The parts of the expanse that they hold dominion over would be labelled the Void.

Sounds good to me.

I'd imagine they would be the biggest chunks of the beginner, or whatever we call the first guy, who retain the thing's disdain for existence.

They're powerful, but in general they are just too big to have any kind of proper perspective on the universe.

Probably just something to save and use for ammo later...

You could always write your own article about it...

Also upon further review, having both the astral plane and the everplane seems a bit...redundant...don't you think?

Maybe I'm not getting the difference here, but the astral plane is the plane that connects all the other planes, and the everplane is the plane most connected to the astral plane...

Just I mean...seems a bit unnecessary is all.

The Everplane is the most connected to the Astral plane out of the other elemental planes, as in, going straight from Elemental Plane of Xelement to the Corporeal is harder to do than doing it from the Everplane. The Everplane is directly connected to each of the Elemental Planes, and from there to the Astral, although each Elemental Plane is only slightly connected to the Astral. Make sense? It's kind of like a gate plane.