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 Posted: Sat Jul 07, 2007 9:12 am
Fantasy worlds sometimes involve other planes of existence. This is a big thing in Dungeons and Dragons for example. I think that different planes of existence is a relatively new addition to the arsenol of fantasy, and bleeds over a bit from science fiction. This is because the theory of different planes - or dimensions - is the product of 19th and 20th century physics. Nevertheless terms like The Astral Plane have become staples of many fantasy genres. So what do people think? Does a theoretical physical model of the universe developed in the last couple of centuries have a legitimate place in the cannon of fantasy?
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Posted: Sun Jul 08, 2007 2:18 pm
I've a fair idea about how I think of the planes of existence work (from my own perspective), and what some of them are. Right now, however, it's getting late so I'll save the longer post for when I'm awake rather than half asleep.
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Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2007 4:17 pm
Cool! This thread lives again! lol
Seriously now, I'm running out of time and I still got one more guild to check out so I'll come back later. I hope that's ok...
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Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2007 4:06 pm
It depends entirely on how far back you are willing to go.
The planes of existence are a development on the principle settings of many of the worlds myths and legends.
Asian mythology, has an upper world, underworld and the middle kingdom.
The Norse had Asgard and Midgard (I forget what their underworld was called)
The Greeks had the Elyssian fields for the truly good souls, limbo for those neither one nor the other, and Tartarus for the evil.
It can be argued that while these planes principally existed for when you died. Many of the myths and legends revolve around them being living existing places in their own right. Odysseus. Izanagi and Izanami. In many religions there are examples of stories where a man (or woman) takes a spirit or dragon lover, and visits them in their glorious palace, but are forbidden from returning home or making themselves known to their loved ones, and when they try to do so discover that decades or centuries have passed.
In many tales myths and egends there are tales of 'gateways' where the living could pass through into the other realms at certain times when the links between the world was strong. In celtic mythology it was usually the four solstices.
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Posted: Sat Jul 28, 2007 8:47 am
So even ancient cultures had some idea of parallel planes it would seem. I guess it's not just a product of 19th century physisc as I said earlier. They just refined the details I guess - as scientists tend to do to age old knowledge.
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Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2007 7:19 am
As the Astral or Spirit Plane. Whichever you wish to call it, does actually exist for those that didn't know. Many planes can simply be accessed by your mind and the use of your horn or third eye. Theses planes are like a higher conscisness. (sp?)
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Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2007 7:53 am
fariyroc As the Astral or Spirit Plane. Whichever you wish to call it, does actually exist for those that didn't know. Many planes can simply be accessed by your mind and the use of your horn or third eye. Theses planes are like a higher conscisness. (sp?)
I'm making a thread in the Fantasy Conference & Museum about this subject, so refer to that thread for more in-depth conversation on that.
I get the impression that people who have lived before may give us some kind of sense of their memories, like a part of them living on in the material world after they've left it. Do you think that would be a part of our connection to the astral/spiritual plane?
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Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2007 10:37 pm
Posting the top half in the other forum.
I'm really not sure what you mean by,
I get the impression that people who have lived before may give us some kind of sense of their memories, like a part of them living on in the material world after they've left it.
If you mean spirits or ghosts. Yes, I believe in that as well. But, thats not exactly a way to the Astral plane. Its a higher conscnious/ frequency.
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Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2007 10:03 am
Oh, you meant a way to enter the astral/spiritual plane?
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Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2007 4:26 pm
You can access it, yes. Above I was just saying that it did actually exist and that you could go there if you wanted to.
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Posted: Fri Aug 24, 2007 8:53 pm
Wizards of the Coast published a Manual of the Planes to accompany their Dungeons and Dragons roleplaying franchise. I haven't read it all the way through, but it has some interesting comments about the topology of various planes. Some are infinite, and others wrap around so that if you went straight long enough you would end up where you started. Still others like the elemental plane of air, have no ground and no specific point of gravity. It is quite strange, yet very intriguing. It makes me wonder if parallel planes could really do that (I actually already believe that our real physical universe wraps around as I mentioned).
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Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2007 2:45 pm
Well as for the origanl question I beleive that the planes could be looked at as soley a magical existence rather than a scientific analogy of dimensions.So I'm quite okay with planes of existence being in fantasy books as there own.
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