Finding the Path: Storm, Fire and Shadow

Paizo recently announced that the next 'season' of the Pathfinder Society will be called the Year of the Stolen Storm, and will feature many trips to the various elemental planes (air, water, fire and earth). The geniekin races linked to each plane will also be playable character races. This gives me the perfect opportunity to do a blog post full of pictures by my favourite freelance artist, Jesper Ejsing.

But what exactly are planes in Pathfinder, and how do they work? It is fairly complicated, so let us start at the beginning.

A djinni of the Air Plane. Illustration by Jesper Ejsing.

What we would define as reality - the world around us, and the material objects that exist or live in it - is called the Material Plane in Pathfinder. You could say that the Material Plane is in the middle, and the other planes are found around or above it - but not in a directional sense, as you can't point and say 'that way to the fire plane'. You can usually only travel to the other planes using magic.

But even that is a simplification. The Material Plane is only one half of the 'middle'. The other half is a place called the Shadow Plane, a sort of darkened reflection of the Material Plane, sharing it's geography, but with muted colours and sounds, different nations and cities, and populated with a worryingly large number of undead things. This makes sense, as the Shadow Plane is actually powered by a small plane called the Negative Energy Plane which sits at it's centre, and is the source of unlife. Conversely, the Positive Energy Plane is the source of life, and is in the centre of the Material Plane - though, again, these are figurative rather than physical centres.

Sometime in the past, a number of humans found themselves trapped on the shadow plane. After generations of exposure to the planes unusual umbra, they have changed to the point that they are now a separate race to humanity - known as the fetchlings, their skin and hair are various tones of grey, and their pigment-less irises are pale yellow.

A marid of the Water Plane. Illustration by Jesper Ejsing.

The Material and Shadow Planes are connected together by a third plane - the Ethereal Plane - which is not really a full plane, as it overlays the other two and has no geography as such. In Pathfinder, the Ethereal Plane is the place your mind goes while you are asleep, and dreaming people reshape the plane around them subconsciously.  Spellcasters also make use of the plane - spells like blink, for example, can partially shift the caster into the Ethereal Plane, causing weapons to pass harmlessly through their form. Alternately, it's overlapping nature can be used as a means to travel between the Material and Shadow Planes.

Around this core of Material-Ethereal-Shadow are the four elemental planes - Air, Earth, Water and Fire. Each of these planes have unique geography - the air plane is composed entirely of sky with no true land - unique inhabitants, and even entire civilisations. The most well known elemental inhabitants are the outsiders known as genies. There are four kinds - one on each plane.

Air is home to the djinn, the most well known of the four, and the only kind that are good-aligned. Djinn famously have the ability to grant wishes to those of the Material plane. Like many other outsiders, djinn have mixed with humans, giving rise to an elf-like geniekin race called the sylph, lithe and clever but carefree humanoids, with an affinity for air magic, and a penchant for spying and eavesdropping, which they do not out of maliciousness, but from sheer curiosity about everything.

An efreeti of the Fire Plane. Illustration by Jesper Ejsing.

Fire is home to the evil efreet, also known for wish-granting, though wishes granted by them often have a way of going awry, leading to the famous phrase 'be careful what you wish for'. Their humanoid descendants, the ifrit, are often mistaken for tieflings, as they often have horns, fiery hair or black-scaled skin on their arms. They tend to be passionate about everything, and fiercely independent.

Unlike djinn and efreet, realtively little is known about the marid of the Water Plane, or the shaitan of the Earth Plane. They are generally neutral, not taking sides in the battle between good and evil. They also have humanoid descendents - the undine, who look very similar to the legged merfolk of Magic: the Gathering, and the stubborn and stony oread who, it is said, only get along well with the dwarves.

All the planes I have mentioned so far make up what is called the Inner Sphere - there are actually another nine planes termed the Outer Sphere, which is where things like angels and archons come into the narrative. But I have gone on long enough. I will just mention that the planes have been a slight problem in adapting Pathfinder to Magic, as the term 'plane' has a very different meaning in Magic. It's not quite as easy as just saying 'there are no ethereal or elemental planes', as a lot of mechanics make reference to these planes - including the spell blink making you shift rapidly between the Ethereal and Material Planes, and the large group of beings called outsiders that are very tied to the planar mechanics. It is something I am still working on moving across.

A shaitan of the Earth Plane. Illustration by Jesper Ejsing.