Foreword,
I would like to dedicate this short analysis of the planes to the drow Takari with whom I had a pleasant discussion concerning the nature of the planes as well as to a fire genasi who through insults and thinly veiled threats tried to shove his religious and illogical points down my throat. Without the wit and pleasant discussion from Takari and the brute manners of the fire genasi (Umpurri of the city of brass) this would never have made it so far. So thank you both.

There are planes beyoind number when the truth of it comes out to it, so how can I in justice write a treatise concerning the nature of the planes? The truth of the matter is that I cannot, so as such my treatise will be limited to describing the nature of the prime material plane, and the relation the plane has with the other planes, I will not be delving into specific exceptions to the rule however. For the purpose of this specific work I shall be using Aber-toril as a work, though several other primes would have sufficed as well.
Now, a certain methology is required when dealing with such a broad and diverse subject as the nature of the planes, and as such I shall first have to define what a prime elemental plane is, and why this is the offset of this treatise. Secondly, I shall have to position the other planes, as composed to the primes, and finally, I shall have to explain the fallacities and problems of doing such in the third part of this paper where I touch upon the multiplanar problems.

The prime material,
This type of plane is also called ”the material plane” the phrase is somewhat misleading as it would seem to indicate that the other planes are somewhat less than solid, the phrase is more correct in that it is on the prime material planes that you find aspect of all other planes upon it to a nearly equeal degree.
To clarify this point, I am not meredly speaking upon physical aspects of the world, for though the prime material for example appears to have a roughly equeal list of elemental qualities wether these be fire (as in volcanoes and the molten core of the prime for example), water (no example needed), earth (no example needed) or wind. Each affect the prime to a substantial degree, and while one might claim that say the element of water has more to it than the element of fire, then one would forget the thousands of torches, forestfires and not to mention the influence the fire has on the prime, and when dealing with planes, as I shall show in part three, this is the part that truly count.
The second aspect of this, beyoind the physical, is the belief of the mortals upon a prime material world, most worlds will align towards one axis of belief or another, the Baator for example are lawful and evil while the realm of Arborea is chaotic and good (I write this for the sake of ease, not to go into a debate of what good and evil actually is, let us leave that philosophical headache for another time).
The prime material, in opposition to both Baator and Arborea is having an equeal number of both types of people, people on a prime is as likedly to be selfish as they are likely to be good, they are as open to freedom as they are to law, with variables in races tending this or that way obviously, for example dwarves tend to be more oriented towards law while elves tend to be more oriented towards freedom.

Now, I understand that some would question the above, and they should offcourse be free to dismiss this statement of mine, though they are free to go out and do the research themselves, they will find that my statement is true. After all, one of the identifying traits of humans, as opposed to other races, is that a human is as likely to go one way as the other in terms of how he or she believes.

Why is this? That is, why is the prime material so different from other planes? This is best described in part two of my treatise, the placement of the planes of existence.

Part two, the prime material and other planes.
Imagine a ball, this ball is the prime material, nothice how each side of the ball is alike? Nothice how each part of the ball is as easy, or hard, to influence as the rest of the ball? Now imagine that the ball in truth is a perfectly round sponge, wich can suck up the influence from whatever is around it.
Now, imagine say the plane of fire as a ring, put it around the ball, do the same thing with the other elemental planes, let these ”rings” swirl around the ball so that the ball gets equeally influenced by all parts of the swirling rings? The prime material is like this physically, it is a place equeally affected by all physical planes, and not just the four classic elements, it is also influenced by the places where the elemental planes overlap, such as the plane of fog, or the plane of smoke. The prime material is defined by having it all.

Now, as many would point out at this point there is more to the prime material than meredly the physical energies, there are other more intangible areas too which I shall endavour to explain as best as I may, firstly there are the intangible elements of law and chaos, represented by Mechanus and Limbo. Anyone who have ever dealth with a Githzerai or a modron will know why these affect us, and affect us greatly, as both seeks to influence their surroundings, you could almost say that there is a constant war going on between the two aspects (and there actually are, it is called “the blood war” but that is a different subject), in a similar way there is a conflict between the so called powers of good and evil. I do not truly need to argue this apart from giving meredly a few examples, the strive towards self as well as the strive towards others, the strive towards freedom and the strive towards order. Our world, any prime, is rife with examples of lifestyles that promote this or that form of belief or ideal.

These concepts are much harder to describe though, as they wane and grow depending on the everchanging cyclus of the blood war and other concepts, however only a fool ignores it, and only a fool tries to become a part of it. As mortals we are blessed, or cursed, with being able to pick our own path, this is why we are at the center of the conflict, without actually being in the conflict. This also is why powerful artefacts often end up on the prime materials. This section should then cover the basics of the relation between the other planes to the prime material, but to sum it up:

The prime material is a case study of the influence of the other planes around it, each prime material is so to say, in a pocket where the other planes are all around it, affecting it nearly equeally (there are offcourse variants from prime to prime, but you get the gist of it), the prime material is as such defined by being influenced by all other planes. And its relation is as such as a congreation point between different types of planes. You can also travel from a prime to practically any other plane for this reason. This leads to the third and final part of this treatise, the multiplanar problem.

Basically the problem is as follows: If there are multible primes, as we know there is, while there is no such thing as multible planes of elemental fire, and no multible planes of shadow either, and that we know that, especially in the plane of shadows, that it also reflects the nature of the plane it is connected to, then how can they be both places at once? It does not matter if you move from Greyhawk to the plane of shadow or from Aber-Toril to the plane of shadow, in both cases it reflects the plane from which the traveller originated. And yet, it is the same plane of shadow.

The only reasonable explanation is that the planes are transcendent, the plane of shadow to use that as a case study, is infinite, as such it will be equeally suited to reflect whichever part of a prime it comes from, this also makes it, in theory, possible to traverse to a different prime from other means than the astral plane. But this also means that every plane would have a similar direct connection to the Astral plane, which explains why some would call it the glue, the plane of thought, the plane that connects all other planes.

Or you could put the astral plane down as an afterthought of Sigil, since Sigil has an infinite space, but also an infinite number of aspects of chaos, law, good and evil, you could put sigil down as a prototype plane of all prime material planes, some might even theorise that the prime material planes are meredly aspects of sigil that appear to the viewer as their own seperate entity. This would show why such a being as Her Serenity (or “the Lady of Pain” if you prefer that term) is able to bar gods from any prime, whatsoever, from entering Sigil with any power, whatsoever.

This is my own, tentative stance, I would explain Sigil as a plane of planes, Sigil is as such not meredly a meeting point between planes, it is not a prime material. It is *the* prime material plane in all aspects, that the prime material aspects appear seperate to us, is meredly a reflection of our lack of perception, or the mortal limitation of viewing all things connected, as needing to be connected by something physical.
The layers of hell are not, nor are the aspects of the Abyss, I see no reason why Sigil would be any different.

/Nathra Zurn