D&D 5E Speculation on the missing quasielemental planes

[the Jester]

Help, Planescape people! Shemeska and any others!

All right, so to preface- in 1e and 2e, the quasi-elemental planes are at the points where the Positive and Negative Energy Planes meet up with the elemental planes. So where Positive meets Earth, you have Mineral; where Negative meets Air, you have Vacuum; and so on.

Now, in 3e's Manual of the Planes, one of the options is to treat the Plane of Time as the Temporal Energy Plane. So it seems logical that, where Time meets the Elemental Planes, there would be temporal quasi-elemental planes. So my question is, what the heck are these planes?

 

[jasper]

oookkkayyy. I have never hear of those. Following.

 

[the Jester]

oookkkayyy. I have never hear of those. Following.

For the record, here's the list:

Positive quasi-planes:
Air- Lightning
Earth- Minerals
Fire- Radiance
Water- Steam

Negative quasi-planes:
Air- Vacuum
Earth- Dust
Fire- Ash
Water- Salt

They were originally proposed by Gygax in an early Dragon Magazine (maybe somewhere around issue 80?), then were further detailed in the 1e Manual of the Planes and (more extensively, I think) in various Planescape books.

My proposed Temporal Quasi-Planes are new.

 

[cbwjm]

Time is change, perhaps all of the temporal elemental planes are essentially the elemental planes in a state of flux transitioning from the negative to the standard to the positive planes (dust to earth to minerals to dust, etc) and then back again.

 

[Guang]

Earth quasielemental - techtonics
Water quasielemental - evolution

Apply long term change to them and see what you get. I can't think of anything for air or fire. (Although under the 5-elemental system, Metal quasielemental - technology)

 

[Mecheon]

I'd say the splits no longer apply, given the elemental planes are a 'One plane' nowerdays and not the separate planes they used to be.

There are bits that, if affected, by Time, could certainly have their own splits, but the elemental plane being a big singular at the moment means they haven't truely split off

I like the idea of the earth-touched one being fossils though.

 

[Dausuul]

The Plane of Stasis lies between Time and Earth: Everything is locked in crystal, frozen in time.
The Plane of Gyres lies between Time and Water: Everything moves in cycles, growing old and being reborn and coming back to the same place.
The Plane of Dissipation lies between Time and Air: Everything disperses, losing its form and merging into everything around it.
The Plane of Detonation lies between Time and Fire: Everything plunges toward cataclysm and destruction.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Time does not meet those other four planes.

The only reason we had the quasi-elemental planes in the first place was because of the idea that the four elemental planes and the positive and negative energy planes were a "sphere" that surrounded the prime material plane. And thus only where each of the six planes that touched one another on the sphere got a para or quasi plane identified. But note that we never got para/quasi planes that were a combination of opposing sides of the sphere-- there was no water/fire para-elemental plane, no earth/air para-elemental plane, and no positive/negative quasi-elemental plane. So that shows us that this sphere was special, specific, and did not allow for additional metaphysical "connections" Only the sections that touched each other on the sphere got the special combo plane between them.

And this sphere only had those six specific planes in it, and only in that specific plane placement. The other special "inner planes"... like the plane of shadow, the temporal plane... those were unconnected to this sphere and did not touch any of them. Thus there is no "combination" plane of earth and shadow, or air and time, or positive energy and shadow, or negative energy and time etc.

The elemental/energy planar "sphere" was special. And only those specific sections of the sphere that "touched" each other got their own para/quasi plane.

 

[Shiroiken]

The easiest way to use the quasi-elemental planes is to remember that the elemental planes (like almost all the planes) are infinite in 3 dimensions. Those that move "upward" towards the positive bleed into the positive quasi-elemental planes, while those that move "downward" towards the negative bleed into the negative quasi-elemental planes. Obviously due to the way the 5E handles the elemental near edge, they probably wouldn't be accessible until one went deeper into each plane.

 

[Li Shenron]

So my question is, what the heck are these planes?

What the heck is time?