Category:Elemental Planes

The 12 planes that originate from the primordials of Earth, Fire, Air, and Water and play the role of sustaining mortal life via the necessary cycles, replenishing fresh water and causing rain, giving warmth (because Eua only gives light), causing the wind to blow and storms to form, and forming mountains.

These planes are fixed in space around Eua, roughly shaped like an orange section, with Quartus orbiting through their primary influences at the equator in turn to form the months of the calendar. Even at opposition, they are accessible via portals (both natural and artificial).

As one travels radially out from Eua, the "purity" of the elements changes:

• The orbit of Primus (~1/4 AU) represents the boundary between unified luminous aether, where all the elements blend into light and energy and the start of disjoint elements.
• Between there and just outside the orbit of Secundus and Tertius (~1/2 AU), the four classical elements reign, with only shadows of the variety found later. Here, the pure elementals reign and the planes themselves are almost purely one thing. Unless you can swim through rock, the plane of earth is unhospitable; unless you can fly forever, the plane of air is also hostile. Etc.
• About halfway between Secundus/Tertius's joint orbit (3/4 AU) and half-way between Quartus's orbit and the Crystal Shell encircling the universe itself (~1.5 AU) is the "fertile zone" , where the elements mix and create the variety necessary to sustain life on Quartus. Where the pure planes (Wind, Ocean, Stone, and Flame) blend into each other, they give rise to the other 8. Here are the dwellings of the plane-touched and plane-bound, as well as the Named. Here are the cities--the great caverns and tunnels of the planes of Stone and Coal, the black-glass monoliths of the plane of Lava, the buildings on the backs of flying whales of the plane of Wind, etc.
• Outside of this fertile zone, the elements fade into umbral silence, their variety fading into the unity of the endless dark. Little lives out there, other than strange beasts that slipped through the angels' watch. This is where the forces of the Angelic Legions patrol, preventing Those Outside from slipping through the endless night into the light and warmth of the inner planes.