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The World Tree cosmology model was introduced to the Forgotten Realms with third edition D&D and offered little in the way of continuity with the Great Wheel cosmology model used in first and second editions. In the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting 3rd edition, players learned of the treelike shape of the multiverse and an almost completely new set of Outer Planes with no reason, explanation, or calamitous event given for the change&mdash;effectively retconning the entire cosmology. In game time, third edition FR began in 1372 DR, the Year of Wild Magic, and lasted until fourth edition which began in 1479 DR, the Year of the Ageless One. However the World Tree cosmological model was invalidated by the Spellplague in 1385 DR and the decade that followed, during which the Elemental Planes collapsed into the Elemental Chaos, the Ethereal Plane and World Tree were destroyed, and the Outer Planes that survived became drifting dominions in the Astral Sea as described by the World Tree model's successor, the World Axis cosmology model.

Basic Structure
The Inner Planes, also known as the Elemental Planes plus the Energy Planes, made the transition from Great Wheel model to World Tree model almost intact. The major difference being that they were connected to the Prime Material Plane via the Astral Plane instead of the Ethereal Plane. The Outer Planes underwent extensive rearrangement, increasing in number from seventeen to twenty one (in third edition) to twenty six (in 3.5 edition, see ), and severing nearly all interplanar connections except those to the Prime. Thus the connection map could be said to resemble a tree, with the Prime Material Plane being the trunk with roots "descending" to the Inner Planes and branches "ascending" to the Outer Planes. No longer arranged strictly by alignment, the Outer Planes were grouped into three categories based on being predominantly Good, Neutral, or Evil, regardless of the influences of Law or Chaos. The three categories were the Celestial Planes (good), Neutral Planes (neutral or unaligned), and the Fiendish Planes (evil).

Two more planes were added that also connected to all the Outer Planes: Cynosure and the Fugue Plane. Only deities could pass through the astral portals from their realms to Cynosure and back to their home plane. The Fugue Plane was where the souls and spirits of the dead congregated, awaiting judgment or transport to the domain of their primary deity. Only divine, demonic, or devilish servants of the gods could use the portal from their realm to the Fugue Plane for the purpose of guiding, stealing, or bargaining with souls to take them back to their eternal reward.

The Plane of Shadow was upgraded from a demiplane to be coexistent with the Prime Material Plane, touching it at all points just like the Ethereal Plane, allowing rapid travel between distant destinations on the Prime. It was believed that the Shadow Plane also connected the Prime to other Material Planes such as Oerth for example.

An adventurer's journey to another plane of existence was typically accomplished by means of an astral projection, plane shift, or gate spell. Astral projection was considered the safest mode of exploring because your physical body was left behind in a (hopefully) protected location while your astral self traveled through the mostly barren Astral Plane to a color pool that was the door to your destination. Upon arrival a new physical body was formed out of the materials of the destination plane and this new body was therefore immune to any pervasive environmental hazards. (On the Elemental Plane of Fire a body might be formed out of elemental fire, magma, and brimstone, for example.) In contrast, gate and plane shift transported your body and possessions directly into possible peril.

Travel between one Inner or Outer Plane and another without passing through the Material Plane was either difficult and dangerous or impossible without involving the mercurial gods and their servants. Deities could maintain astral portals between their realms and those of other agreeable powers, but these were usually not for mortals to use. Two cross-planar features existed that could be used to journey between some of the Outer Planes. First was the World Tree itself, a sentient "tree" on a cosmic scale that joined all of the Celestial Planes together, much like Yggdrasil the World Ash connected Gladsheim to Hades in the Great Wheel cosmology model. The World Tree did not tolerate intruders unless they had a good and noble reason for using it as a celestial shortcut. The other feature was the River of Blood which coursed through all the Fiendish Planes except for the Supreme Throne and the Demonweb Pits in a fashion similar to the river Styx which flowed through all of the Lower Planes in the Great Wheel model. All manner of evil creatures swam in the river, lurked on the banks, piloted craft on the surface, or patrolled the skies above the River of Blood looking to catch anyone brave or foolish enough to navigate the deceptively smooth waters. And just like the Styx, any mortal immersed in the river immediately lost all memories.

Outer Planes
The terms Inner and Outer Planes originated with the Great Wheel cosmology model when the structure of the cosmos was seen as a series of somewhat concentric spheres and the names continued to be used in the World Tree model. The Outer Planes were divided into three distinct groups mainly based on the Good, Evil, or Neutral alignment of their inhabitants. Some of the Outer Planes had multiple layers that were coterminous with their neighboring layers, usually at very high or very low elevations giving the impression that they were stacked like tiers. The Astral Plane connected to all layers of a plane if there was more than one (however, see House of the Triad and Nine Hells below), whereas the plane shift spell always targeted the first layer of the destination plane.

Celestial Planes
The Celestial Planes were the home of deities and beings that were fundamentally Good in nature, word, and deed. Each of the Celestial Planes were connected to the Prime Material Plane by a branch of the Astral Plane. Additionally, each of them was coterminous with at least one "neighbor" via the World Tree, which could be used as a "back staircase" with the Tree's permission or tolerance. The roots reached into Arvandor and Dwarfhome from the trunk which touched Brightwater, the Golden Hills, and the House of Knowledge. Extending from the trunk were branches to Dweomerheart, the House of the Triad and Green Fields with the top of the Tree terminating in the Gates of the Moon.


 * Arvandor
 * Formerly known as Olympus in the Great Wheel model, Arvandor was the home of the Seldarine and their cousin drow goddess Eilistraee before her death. Arvandor was filled with natural beauty: a druid's paradise. Known portals included passages to Brightwater, Dragon Eyrie, the House of Nature, and the Gates of the Moon.


 * Brightwater
 * Brightwater was the home plane of Lliira, Sharess, Sune, Tymora and Waukeen. Similar in beauty to Arvandor but less wild and more gentrified, Brightwater was a thriving community full of revelry and rollicking fun. Connections were known to exist between this plane and Arvandor, Green Fields, and Heliopolis.


 * Dwarfhome
 * Dwarfhome was the home of the Morndinsamman, except for the exiled Deep Duerra and Laduguer. Dwarfhome consisted of one mountain big enough to swallow worlds and a smaller second peak called Mount Clangeddin, both of which were full of industrious activity, expert craftsmanship, and astounding artistry. No portals were known to exist on this plane.


 * Dweomerheart
 * A beautiful city with structures only magic could create, Dweomerheart sat on the highest plateau above a warren of caves, caverns, and more plateaus, appearing like a shining university for the study of magic. Mystra and Azuth, as well as their subordinates Savras and Velsharoon, made their home here. No known portals to this plane existed, requiring visitors to travel astrally or successfully placate the World Tree for passage.


 * Gates of the Moon
 * Selûne was the primary resident of this plane at the top of the World Tree, along with Finder Wyvernspur and Shaundakul. A sea of iridescent water surrounded a stony island mountain topped by Selûne's silver palace, all bathed in perpetual moonlight. One portal to Arvandor was kept here by some eladrin but no others were known. However, the mysterious Infinite Staircase would appear during the full moon and was rumored to connect Selûne's realm to every city on every plane.


 * Golden Hills
 * Seven bucolic hills formed this plane, each one the home of a member of the gnomish pantheon. The only member not present was Urdlen who was allowed to live in Hammergrim. Everything on this plane was either a golden hue or tinted, highlighted, adorned, trimmed, or plated with gold. The only known portal in the Golden Hills connected to Gond's realm in the House of Knowledge.


 * Green Fields
 * Very similar to the Golden Hills except more natural colors and cultivated fields, this plane belonged to the halfling pantheon who mostly shared the plane rather than carve out personal realms. The plane of Green Fields was a rural paradise of small, non-permanent settlements where the inhabitants alternated hard work with enjoying the fruits of their labor. Somewhere on this plane was a portal to Tymora's realm in Brightwater.


 * House of Knowledge
 * Oghma, Gond, Milil, and Deneir shared this plane, with its ancient oak forests and spring-fed pools occasionally interrupted by buildings which formed the Library of All Knowledge. In these buildings were the records of every field of academic study: spells and magic items, songs and music, science and alchemy, history and prophecy, writing and language. The only known portal to and from this plane was held by Gond and it connected his workshop to Flandal Steelskin's realm in the Golden Hills.


 * House of the Triad
 * This plane was composed mainly of three large mountains surrounding a central gigantic mountain called Celestia. (See ) Mount Celestia had seven layers, each connected by portal from the highest point of one layer to the lowest point of the next higher layer. Only the lowest layer of Celestia was accessible from elsewhere on this plane or the Astral Plane. The gods Ilmater, Torm, and Tyr each had a realm atop one of the lesser mountains while Helm and Siamorphe maintained realms around the bases of the four peaks. No portals to or from the House of the Triad were known to exist but all color pools and temporary gates were guarded by Helm's watchtower and a powerful guardian. Bahamut had a palace made of gems and precious metals that wandered about the lower layers of Celestia. After the Spellplague, Celestia and its surrounding peaks were set adrift in the Astral Sea.

Fiendish Planes
Deities and entities of the Evil persuasion inhabited the set of planes known as the Fiendish Planes. Separate branches of the Astral Plane connected each of them to the Prime Material Plane and most of them were also coterminous with one or two neighbors via the River of Blood, the only exceptions were the Demonweb Pits and the Supreme Throne. The River of Blood was thought to originate in the Abyss and flow in order through Blood Rift, the Nine Hells, the Barrens of Doom and Despair, Clangor, Fury's Heart, Hammergrim, Nishrek, and the Deep Caverns before cascading into the Fated Depths.


 * The Abyss
 * More layers than all the other planes combined, the Abyss was practically a universe of chaos and evil unto itself, overflowing with endless hordes of demons ruled by tyrannical demon lords. Every type of landscape and climate imaginable could be found here, as long as it was tainted, touched, or tortured by evil. Visitors arriving via the Astral Plane could enter any layer and portals did exist between the various layers but they were neither constant nor consistent. The shifting nature of this plane brought new layers in conjunction with the River of Blood, so travel by boat was also different each time. Known portals existed between the Abyss and the Barrens of Doom and Despair, Clangor, the Demonweb Pits, the Fugue Plane, and Hammergrim. Intermittent connections also existed to the Fated Depths and Deep Caverns.


 * Barrens of Doom and Despair
 * Just as the name implies, this plane was nothing but deserts of various sorts, from sandy wastes to rocky badlands to diseased swamps to icy tundras&mdash;vast expanses of terrain inimical to life, under a sunless red sky hidden behind black clouds. The only landmarks to break the monotony were the River of Blood and the rare tower or citadel marking the realm of Bane, Beshaba, Hoar, Loviatar, or Talona. Portals existed to Hammergrim and the Abyss and occasionally the Blood Rift would connect to this plane allowing the combatants of the Blood War to escape or pursue each other across the border.


 * Blood Rift
 * This unusual plane was the main battleground in the Blood War because it was coterminous with both the Nine Hells and the Abyss along the River of Blood. The terrain was similar to parts of the Barrens of Doom and Despair which some cosmologists believed was because the Blood Rift had broken off from there and became a floating plane, anchored between the homes of the demons and the devils but able to occasionally make contact with other Fiendish planes. In addition to the Barrens, the Blood Rift was known to have connected to Clangor, Deep Caverns, Demonweb Pits, Fated Depths, Fury's Heart, Hammergrim, Nishrek, and the Supreme Throne at some point in history. No deities where known to make their home here but all manner of yugoloths lived here and played roles on both sides of the Blood War, perhaps for their own mysterious agenda.


 * Clangor
 * Clangor was a plane that facilitated a never-ending cycle of war by rapid healing, regeneration, and full resurrection for all combatants every sunrise. (See .) The terrain was made of solid iron, rusting iron, and rust dust which was constantly kicked up by battle and colored the sky blood-red. The sound of marching feet and the clash of weapons echoed loudly throughout the plane, the sound carried to even the far corners by the solid iron ground. In addition to the River of Blood, portals to the Abyss and the Nine Hells existed but they belonged to the goblinoid deities Maglubiyet and Hruggek and the kobold deity Kurtulmak. The only "cities" were warrens of caves carved in the iron crust, itinerant villages based around a single temporary structure, or the rare armed fort.


 * Deep Caverns
 * This plane was similar to the Elemental Plane of Earth in that it was solid stone with no light or sky. An endless maze of tunnels, caves, fissures, and chasms riddled the rock like worm-eaten wood, accommodating the creatures attracted to the plane and the petitioners of the beholder, mind flayer, and troglodyte races. Each of the primary deities, the Great Mother of the beholders, Ilsensine of the illithids, and Laogzed of the troglodytes, controlled a region of the plane widely separated from the others and could command the stone under their control to open, close, or take shape at their will. Portals existed between this plane and many others, but most lead to the Abyss.


 * Demonweb Pits
 * The sundering of the Demonweb Pits from the Abyss corresponded closely with the advent of the World Tree cosmology model which was formulated to explain the new order of the multiverse. Instead of spider's webs, Lolth's new plane was woven of matter itself with great strands spanning the void, forming bottomless pits between them and disallowing the River of Blood to pass through. Most of the drow pantheon (Ghaunadaur, Kiaransalee, Selvetarm, and Vhaeraun) had realms here that were like beads on the strands of the Demonweb, but Lolth kept herself aloof. Portals back to the Abyss were known to exist, some fixed, some random.


 * Fated Depths
 * This plane was similar to the Elemental Plane of Water except that the endless depths were completely dark and filled with brackish unholy water exclusively. The River of Blood ended its long journey from the Abyss here, dumping the pollution and effluvium collected along the way and fostering a feeding frenzy among the foul fish and fiends who lived here. Blibdoolpoolp of the kuo-toa and Sekolah of the sahuagin made this plane their home. The Elemental Plane of Water and layers of the Abyss that were water-dominant or that had wide or deep bodies of water were connected by portal to this plane. A portal to Umberlee's home in Fury's Heart was also known to cosmologists.


 * Fury's Heart
 * Violent weather wracked this plane almost constantly, the only respite was beneath the surface of Umberlee's Blood Sea or occasionally in Malar's Land of the Hunt. Talos and Auril also had realms here, equally inhospitable in their own way. The terrain was much like that found in the Barrens of Doom and Despair but many creatures managed to eke out an existence and petitioners often took the form of primeval animals upon arrival. Umberlee kept a portal to the Fated Depths and the River of Blood flowed through Malar's demesne and had a tributary to the Blood Sea.


 * Hammergrim
 * Known for its master weapons- and armor-craftsmen as well as its joyless, depressing attitude and atmosphere, the gargantuan fortress of Hammergrim was the afterlife for the vast majority of the duergar. The plane itself was a windowless citadel with outer walls so thick it would take a normal human fifteen minutes to run from outside to inside. Deities Deep Duerra and Laduguer each had a realm in Hammergrim while the evil gnome deity Urdlen tunneled in the ore-rich crust below. There was a connection between Urdlen's realm and the Abyss, and portals to the Barrens of Doom and Despair frequently opened, much to the dismay of the duergar petitioners. The River of Blood flowed lazily across this plane as well.


 * Nine Hells
 * The home of the devils was a layered plane, only the first of which (Avernus) was accessible via the Astral Plane. Each layer except the bottom was punctured by a huge hole perhaps tens or hundreds of miles/kilometers across that dropped a few miles/kilometers to the next lower layer. The holes were roughly concentric and progressively smaller, forming a nine-tiered pit of gigantic proportions. Avernus was also coterminous with the Blood Rift and portals were known to exist leading to the Barrens of Doom and Despair and Clangor. The River of Blood not only flowed through Avernus but had tributaries and cascades on every layer. No deities made their home here, but each layer was ruled by a powerful archdevil, each of whom answered to Asmodeus, the ruler of the ninth and lowest layer.


 * Nishrek
 * Similar to Clangor, this plane also had a minor positive-dominant trait that constantly healed the wounded and resurrected the dead every sunset. Home of the orc pantheon led by Gruumsh, orc petitioners from every tribe continually demonstrated their prowess in nightly battle, hoping to win his favor. Nishrek had very little flora or fauna and was an infinite plain with numerous battlements, trenches, and fortifications created or destroyed over the years. No permanent portals were known to exist, but the River of Blood flowed through Nishrek and the roving Blood Rift frequently became coterminous, causing havoc with battle plans on all sides of both conflicts.


 * Supreme Throne
 * Once just a realm in the Great Wheel plane of Limbo, the Supreme Throne became its own plane in the World Tree model, although completely isolated except via the Astral Plane. The Mad God Cyric eventually chose this place as a home base, placing his decrepit and decaying castle on an otherwise featureless, desolate plane that was constantly swept by howling winds. All laws and features of the Supreme Throne bent to the mercurial whim of Cyric.

Neutral Planes
There was also a group of planes whose inhabitants did not adhere strictly to either good or evil, or tolerated the presence of opposing alignments. The Neutral Planes, sometimes called the Unaligned Planes, were connected to the Astral Plane in the usual fashion but were host to neither a branch of the World Tree nor a channel of the River of Blood.


 * Dragon Eyrie
 * This plane consisted of one colossal mountain, from dark roots to a snowy peak, on, under, and about which the draconic pantheon maintained realms of appropriate habitat for their petitioners. No settlements except an occasional hermit were known to exist on this plane, as dragonkind guarded their solitude fiercely. A portal to Arvandor was maintained by Hlal but there may have been temporary connections as each deity wished. Tiamat lurked in a dark cave deep below the mountain and had a portal to another realm in Heliopolis.


 * Heliopolis
 * Heliopolis was a vast sandy desert baked by an intense sun and cut by a great river of holy water called the River Isis. All lands along the river were lush and fertile and provided habitat for Mulhorandi petitioners. The entire plane was home to most of the Mulhorandi pantheon who gravitated around huge pyramids, temples, and stone monuments built in their honor along the riverbank and out into the desert. No portals were known to connect to Heliopolis except for Tiamat's closely guarded gate, likely somewhere in the evil Set's dark domain.


 * House of Nature
 * This plane was an unspoiled natural wilderness encompassing the climates and habitats of most natural creatures without any buildings or trappings of civilization. Many nature-oriented deities resided here, including Chauntea, Eldath, Gwaeron Windstrom, Lathander, Lurue, Mielikki, Nobanion, Shiallia, and Ubtao as well as a great number of guardinal paragons and the deities of sentient creatures such as centaurs, all coexisted in relative harmony according to the laws of nature. A shared portal to Arvandor was maintained by the deities who had interests there. It was known that Nobanion kept a permanent portal to Gulthmere Forest.


 * Jotunheim
 * Another vast plane of wilderness but on a scale to match the deities in the Giant pantheon, Jotunheim was a land of extremes. Everything was bigger, grander, or harsher than normally found on the Prime Material Plane: trees, plants, animals both natural and magical, buildings, caverns, rivers, mountains, volcanoes, and even climates. This plane was host to both a fire-dominant and a cold-dominant region (the realms of Surtr and Thrym respectively). The only known portal to this plane connected Surtr's domain to the Elemental Plane of Fire.


 * Warrior's Rest
 * The ironically named Warrior's Rest was another plane where battles constantly raged, similar to Clangor and Nishrek. However, chaos reigned here and the landscape, which was mainly rocky desert, mesas, buttes, and badlands, slowly morphed in a fashion similar to the Great Wheel cosmology plane of Limbo except not as severely or rapidly. Beings with sufficient wisdom could alter the terrain in their immediate vicinity by exerting their will. There was also a large body of seawater for naval battles. No portals were known to exist on this plane. Tempus was the overlord here, but he allowed other deities of war and strife some autonomy in their realms.

Cynosure and the Fugue Plane
Unlike the rest of the astral dominions, Cynosure and the Fugue Plane were not arranged within the branches of the World Tree but instead lay on opposite sides of it, like stones flanking its trunk. The Fugue Plane lay to the "left" whilst the Cynosure lay to the "right." This kept them isolated from all the other gods, thereby preserving their presumed neutrality and maintenance of the "Balance," as defined by Ao. In no major ways did they differ from their nature in the post-Spellplague years.

Inner Planes
Travelers no longer had the capability of moving through the Border Ethereal before selecting an entry point. Instead they viewed their destination through a color pool in the Astral before passing through it to arrive on the new plane.

Because the Elemental Chaos did not yet exist the elemental and energy planes were as neatly organized as the astral dominions, though they lay at the bottom of the World Tree, acting as the roots that fed into the Prime Material Plane and the Transitive Planes. Known together as the planes of power, these realities were incarnations of the basic buildings blocks of the universe. Each of the planes was very inhospitable to all but native or the most adaptive creatures of the plane.

It is not known for sure but it is likely that the planes of power were the result of the primordials' banishment from the local cosmology by Ao during the sundering of Abeir-Toril. Before this cataclysmic event the planes of power were likely blended together into an earlier version of the Elemental Chaos much as they are currently muddled together. Differences at the time in which the World Tree cosmology was the dominant model are listed below.

Elemental Planes
The elemental planes, which lay directly below the energy planes, embodied the four of the five basic elements in nature, air, earth, fire, and water, with an elemental plane of storm being oddly absent. The planes were extremely inhospitable except for natives of the plane, such as elementals, genies, mephits, and others. Each Elemental Lord, at the time believed gods rather than primordials, also made their home in the elemental planes. Several quasi-elemental and demi-elemental planes also exist, sitting at the junctures between the elemental planes such as the Elemental Plane of Cold, which lay between the Planes of Air and Water.

The primary Elemental Planes are listed below.


 * Elemental Plane of Air
 * The primordial Akadi ruled the Elemental Plane of Air, home also to air elementals such as djinns, lay furthest to the "left" of the elemental planes, next to the Elemental Plane of Water. After the Spellplague the Elemental Plane of Air collapsed into the Elemental Chaos, except for fragments such as the elemental realm of Sky Home and a few djinn motes.


 * Elemental Plane of Earth
 * Ruled by Grumbar, the Elemental Plane of Earth lay furthest to the "right," adjacent to the Plane of Fire. Home to earth elementals such as the dao the Plane of Earth collapsed almost entirely into the Elemental Chaos during the Spellplague except for Root Hold, Grumbar's realm.


 * Elemental Plane of Fire
 * Kossuth, the mightiest of the Elemental Lords, ruled this fiery landscape that was paradoxically both the most lethal and the most prolific in native life of all the elemental planes, home to the highly successful efreeti. The Plane of Fire, which lay between the Planes of Earth and Water at the "bottom" of the World Tree, was mostly dissolved during the Spellplague like the other elemental planes although the City of Brass and the Undying Pyre both survived its destruction.


 * Elemental Plane of Water
 * Istishia ruled this water-filled realm, which lay between the Planes of Fire and Air, at the so-called "bottom" of the World Tree's "roots," and was home to water elementals such as mereids. After the Spellplague most of the plane was destroyed, although Istishia still rules over its successor plane, the elemental realm known as Cresting Spires.

The Energy Planes
Sitting just "above" the elemental planes were the energy planes, which were no less extreme than their elemental counterparts. During the Spellplague the two planes collapsed, for the most part, into the Elemental Chaos. The energy planes were home to very few lifeforms and neither any deities nor any primordials make their home in either of the two planes, which are described below.


 * Negative Energy Plane
 * A dangerous realm from which the negative energies that helped to fuel undeath flowed the Negative Energy Plane lay to the "left" of its neighbor, the Positive Energy Plane. During the Spellplague it fell mostly into the Elemental Chaos, but not before the goddess Shar folded part of it into the Plane of Shadow, forming the Shadowfell.


 * Positive Energy Plane
 * The opposite of its neighbor, which lay to the plane's left, the Positive Energy Plane was a realm filled with intense radiant energy. No less lethal than the Negative Energy Plane, the Positive Energy Plane eventually collapsed into the Elemental Chaos. Also known as the Plane of Life.

Parallel Planes
Prior to the Spellplague the nature of the parallel planes was unknown. The Feywild was all but forgotten and the Plane of Shadow, the world's dark echo, was considered a one of a kind oddity. However the parallel planes did exist in much the same manner as they have since the Spellplague, though in a more elusive and unknown manner.

Faerie
Prior to the Spellplague, the Feywild was almost entirely unknown. Well-read scholars did know, however, that the Tel'Quessir were not native to the Prime but rather outsiders who had arrived in the distant past. This realm was known to scholars of the time merely as "Faerie" or perhaps the "Plane of Faerie" and was thought of a twilight land lush with forests, home to the fey and their Seelie and Unseelie Courts.

Sildëyuir
Likewise, most scholars were not aware that the "demiplane" of Sildëyuir was merely an echo of the Yuirwood in Aglarond, considering it a separate plane of existence. It was best known at the time as the place of origin for the star elves.

Transitive Planes
The transitive planes differed little prior to the Spellplague to how they operate now, though the Elemental Chaos had yet to form and the Shadowfell was still divided into the Plane of Shadow and Negative Energy Plane. During the years prior to the Spellplague the term transitive plane was also used more commonly than it was afterwards.

The major differences of the transitive planes are outlined below.


 * Astral Plane
 * The former name of the Astral Sea, the Astral Plane's nature as a fundamental plane was unknown prior to the Spellplague. Likewise, just as the dominions were wrongly believed infinite the Astral Plane was wrongly believed infinitesimal, when it was in fact, infinite in size. The few bits of matter scattered throughout the vast plane were mostly portals leading to every plane in the cosmology.


 * Ethereal Plane
 * The Ethereal Plane was a misty continuum that coexisted with the Material Plane. Individuals within the Ethereal Plane could see into the Material Plane, but not vice versa. It was accessed by spells such as etherealness and ethereal jaunt, as well as various portals scattered through the planes. The Ethereal Plane was destroyed during the Spellplague, though its exact fate is unknown, perhaps being folded into the Astral Sea, Shadowfell, or both.


 * Plane of Shadow
 * The Plane of Shadow, prior to its transformation into the Shadowfell, acted as a transitive plane. The most common way of accessing the plane is through spells and abilities like shadow walk, most often used for covering great distances on the Material Plane undetected and unhindered. Mask and Shar both made their homes within the Shadow Plane and it was through Shar that the plane was later remade into the Shadowfell.