The Planes

The Shadowfell: What if?
The shadowfell is that most terrible question given form; what if? The shadowfell exists because there are things that don’t happen. The world is; that is true, but what of all the other possibles? Simply, the Shadowfell is them.

The place is known as a dark and murky place because the different possibilities pile atop another confusing an observer. The distinguishing feature of the shadowfell, rarely remarked upon, is that big things remain crystal clear while minutia blurs out. A mountain was never not going to be a mountain. A single house though, could be so many things if only slight chance had differed; clean, worn, empty, busy, razed. Sometimes the effect combine in close proximity for instance leaves on a tree are a chaos of motion while the trunks usually remain clear and defined.

Some people willingly enter the shadowfell, these persons are most often remarkably brave and skilled travelers. The The nature of the plane lets skilled navigators cross great distances at unnatural speeds by riding the the best possibles. A traveler in shadowfell would best avoid its many traps and carry forward, never forgetting their goal.

The Ethereal Plane: I believe that
The ethereal plane is a reflection of the world not as it is but as minds believe it to be. Imagine a bakery, it is popular and well regarded. In the Ethereal that place is inviting, clean and the paint shows no age. Now imagine that a vile rumor circulates against the bakery such that people stop going because they believe it unclean and decrepit. The representation in the Ethereal would then be a disgusting, condemned building pulsing with vermin. Through all of this the bakery has changed in no particular way, only the general perception of a place.

That is what the ethereal does, it shows what people believe to be true and as such it is murky, confusing and malleable. An interesting case is when no consensus exists, when multiple groups each scream and claw that their worldview is proper. In those cases, be they buildings, borders or bedrooms, the ethereal snaps between its different states exposing any travelers to each distinct danger.

Magicians use the ethereal plane as a way to jump between places by willing themselves into their destination. The process works well for short jumps but becomes exceedingly inaccurate at larger distances.

The Elemental Planes: Worlds apart
The material world is whole. The elemental planes are the subdivided pieces existing across the plane of shadow; each as a possible place with harmonies of the real.

Fire: The world of eternal and relentless sun, incredible jungles hide within scorched deserts.

Air: Cities, made inside spinning rings that ride above and through eternal storms

Earth: An entombed world that might actually be alive

Water: A glistening jewel in the cosmos. None have fully plumbed its depths

The Feywild: Where average is not the most likely
The material was not the first world, the Feywild was. The next question would seem to be why then does the material plane exist? Maybe the answer is why why children have siblings.

The Feywild is a world that is the best/worst of all things,  it is a place without restraint. It is a place where single trees are larger than towns and desert heat can boil water. It is the land of Titans and Titan killers. Any being the can survive the feywild either remains in the safety of its own demesne or is hardened and lucky traveller. If you can survive the fey it is an incredible place that will make you rich in spirit, body and purse… otherwise it will kill you.

The Astral Plane: The space beyond
Past the material stretches the astral plane, where body and mind are one. A sea of stars and limitless travel is the reward to any astral travellers. The astral is how a soul gets from the material, and its echoes, to the rest of the multiverse; domains of gods, demons, and the unexplored. The astral is vast and truly the final frontier.

Gods and the Hierarchy of Divinity
There are essentially two types of divine. Ones whose power is derived from a place and those whose power comes from souls.

Abyssal Lords and Empereyal Agents gain power from their home planes which are reflections of them even as they influence their home planes.

The pantheon of new gods are ones who require belief and sacrifice from followers to sustain themselves.

The old gods are beyond followers, they do not require devotion to exist.