Archive:Elemental Planes

This article is currently only a proposal

The features or design guidelines described in this article are only a proposal made by one or some persons. It has not been evaluated or accepted by the core development team yet. Feel free to add your personal opinion about them or make counter proposals.

The Elemental Planes are parallel dimensions, which exist coterminously to the Mana World. Each of them is a reflection of the mana world, but with their image altered to exemplify a single element, with traces of other elements. In addition, these places are home to many strange creatures, all of which are tied to the elemental nature of the plane they live on. Some of them are alternate versions of creatures normally found in the Mana World.

Appearance

Each of the elemental planes look just like the Mana World, but with a number of big and small differences based on the plane's dominant element. For most areas, the elemental planes use the same maps as their Mana World equivalents, but with alternate tilesets. As well some areas might be very different and so will need different maps. For example, the location of Hurnscald in the Mana World might instead be a coral reef at its corresponding location in the Plane of Water. Or, what might be an empty snowfield in the Mana World might be a thriving Ifrit city in the Plane of Fire.

Access

Normally, the Elemental Planes are difficult to access, but there are a number of means that would allow a person to enter them.

• On rare occasions, a portal to one of the planes will form in an area where the element of the relevant plane is strong.
• A planar rift to an elemental plane may be created by continually using high-powered elemental spells at a single spot in a short period of time.
• Some monsters may have a spell which can throw a player to the plane.
• Some places in the Mana World may have permanent gateways to an elemental plane. A few of them may require payment in order to be used, especially if they are in or near a civilized area.
• Some players might be able to learn a spell that can transfer themselves and/or others to and from a plane.
• A player with a strong tie to an element might have an easier time reaching the element's plane, while the reverse will be true for a player with a weak tie to the element, or a strong tie to an opposed element.

Attributes and Magic

Creatures with strong ties to a the element of a plane will find that they become stronger while in the plane, gaining a bonus to some stats and quicker recovery of health and magic, while the opposite would be true for someone with strong ties to an opposed element (the element that the plane's element is weak to). As well, spells tied to a plane's element will be strengthened while on that plane, gaining increased damage, range, or duration (depending on the spell). The opposite is true for spells of the opposing element.

Plane of Air

This plane is perhaps the most hospitable of the elemental planes, as it has no hostile features, aside from strong winds and volatile weather. A person can easily live out their entire life on the plane of air without any difficulty.

• Terrain Changes: Those visiting the plane of air wouldn't be able to tell the difference between it and the Mana World (aside from the addition and absence of some cities and manmade structures) until they reach a place where their should be an ocean. Instead of finding that, they find empty sky below, as all of the land in the plane of air is composed of floating continents and islands. Rivers still exist, but they pour off the edge of a continent instead of into an ocean.

Plane of Earth

This plane consists of a massive subterrainian chamber, along with many caverns. Like the plane of air, visitors will find the plane of earth relatively easy to live in. The local cuisine consists of mushrooms, bugs, and blind cave fish.

• Terrain Changes: Grass will be replaced with gravel, while all the other vegetation will be replaced with mushrooms (some of which are tree-sized), and some freestanding objects might be replaced with clusters of crystalline growth. Rivers and lakes need no change, but should be relatively clear and still.

Plane of Fire

This one would perhaps be the least hospitable of the elemental planes as the temperatures are high enough that a normal person could perish quickly. Anyone venturing to this plane must have at least some resistance to fire in order to survive for any length of time.

• Terrain Changes: The ground is made of volcanic rock, the deserts are fields of glass (which is sometimes molten or partially molten), the forests are made of burning trees that derive nourishment from fire, and the rivers, lakes, and seas of the plane are filled with lava instead of water. Wooden structures are generally replaced with stone and metal ones.

Plane of Water

The plane of water is an underwater world, so the ability to breath underwater or store oxygen is a must for visitors from the Mana World. The ability to swim is also a must. For a Triton, this isn't really a problem.

• Terrain Changes: What would be grass in the mana world is sea grass, trees are replaced with coral, and lakes and rivers are replaced with deep pits and chasms. Places of extreme heat or cold in the mana world will have equivalent temperatures in the Plane of Water, making such areas more dangerous than their Mana World equivalents because of how well water conducts temperatures.

Sub-Elemental Planes

In addition to the four elemental planes, there are four sub-elemental planes. They do not border the Mana World like the elemental planes do, instead lying in between two of the elemental plans, and are composed of a mixture of the two planes (much how the sub-elements are a mixture of the main elements). Another difference between them and the elemental planes is that they are not reflections of the mana world (not being coterminous to it), and instead will have their own maps. I haven't really thought up of a concept for the general appearance of the sub-elemental planes, so I'll leave them blank for now. If anyone has ideas or suggestions, please write about them on the discussion page.

• Plane of Lightning: ...
• Plane of Ice: ...
• Plane of Metal: ...
• Plane of Wood: ...

Comments

See also the Forum topic.

I think a slight twist to this would be better. While trapped in the crystals, the Spirit/Gods Tried their hands at creation again, but this time separately. Within each crystal a new world was created, made entirely out of a single element (the element of the spirit in the crystal). When the crystals shattered, The planes escaped with the Gods, causing the damage to the landscape. As they continued to spread (away from the world) and encountered each other, the other four planes were created and the original planes were altered so they each had some of the other elements in them, but were mostly their original element. — Jaxad0127 16:27, 28 December 2007 (CET)