Not long after mortals were first created they started making up fictional stories of this and that, and as the stories were passed down from generation to generation with more people knowing and retelling these tales an odd and unexpected thing happened – a place, a plane, somewhere between the Mortal Plane and the Divine Plane came to be and slowly grew as the number of mortals’ fictional stories grew. And in this place the things – creatures, beings, and locales from the stories came alive. Some of these beings were and are not quite seen or worshiped as gods, but can still be extremely powerful and immortal. This place has creatures and beings that can charm and enchant mortals and others in a way not seen in the Mortal Plane (especially in the Second Age after the War of the Gods). For those few mortals that are unlucky enough to end up in this realm it can be a place where their dreams and nightmares come to life. Most of the mortals that came back from this in between place were often mad, or deeply traumatized, and so their accounts were not taken that seriously, at first. However, once and a while a person that was seen as sane would tell of some odd place they somehow ended up in and how they were lucky enough to return with their life. As time went on and more and more accounts began to pile up of some place or places with similar, odd and frightening elements mortals surmised there must be another world, or maybe even realm or plane. This other world or plane seemed less than the Divine Plane, yet more than the Mortal Plane. Some began to call it a “demi-divine plane” as one might call beings of great power that were not quite gods demigods. Over time the “divine” part was dropped and this realm, by some, became simply referred to as The Demi Plane. It was confirmed by most gods that this other realm existed and was not of divine in nature nor not as vast as the Divine Plane or even the Mortal Plane. This undoubtedly led mortals to drop the “divine” portion of this new plane’s name.
Opinions on the Demi Plane
What mortals think about the Demi Plane varies greatly. Whereas in the First Age when the gods walked the world and had more of a presence most mortals accepted the existence of the Demi Plane. Now in the Second Age of the world where there is less a presence of the gods some fair number of mortals wonder if the Demi Plane is not just itself a myth left over from before the War (of the Gods) like so many other tales of grand things that once existed. “The gods would not allow such a place to exist. A place where all the myth and legends and stories we tell come to life? Preposterous. The Demi Plane or whatever they call it, is just some interesting story peasants tell each other because their lives are boring. Cities of dragons, places of nothing. Bah. Old men with no teeth just wanting to be young and strong again and to hold some beautiful female in their arms. Every army, mage, or other person or thing that goes missing is said to be in the Demi Plane. They just ended up at the bottom of a river or lake, or chasm, or were killed and buried by their enemies. There is no evidence that a third plane exists. Haven’t we enough to wonder over that we have to indulge in these children’s stories? Wouldn’t someone have found some actual evidence by now? None exists because this Demi Plane does not exist anymore than a pink, talking bunny on the end of my nose.”
Most Ameya (halflings) of course think differently, but some do wonder as well. (Link to the tale of The Nightstalker; Man’s Bane; the Halflings’ Revenge).
From time to time some interested sage or researcher, after hearing or reading thru centuries of accounts would mount some expedition to find some way into this other plane. Most failed. Some were never seen from again. A very few survivors of said expeditions may have made their way back – most never said what they saw for fear of being locked away.
Up Next: The Gods and The Demi Plane
