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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Yaarel" data-source="post: 9573939" data-attributes="member: 58172">In the Astral Plane, the answer is 3. All groups are equally correct.The aster is a collective mindscape. Something is "nearby" because it is similar and associates semantically. It reminds one of it. Something is "far" because it is different and doesnt relate semantically. It doesnt come to mind.The floating islands in the Astral Sea can be larger on the inside, even infinitely so, because, like a dream, there are no actual material distances. The feeling of distance is itself a subjective symbol associating with some idea, or some memory.This is why the Spelljammer Helmet is necessary magic item to "navigate" the mindscape. It creates an illusory sense of sensorial persistence. Otherwise it would be bewildering to travel the mindscape, and only certain "regions" of the mindscape would be familiar enough to interact with meaningfully.In the Astral World, actual "objective" matter is nonexistent.In the Astral Plane, most of it is "possibilities", the infinite open universe of the mind, the Astral Sea. Cultures form floating islands, dominions ordered meaningfully by cultural assumptions and values. Cultures can be vast ethnicities sharing a language, or perhaps as few as ten persons forming a culture together. The hopes, fears, dreams of a culture are as real as a mountain is in the Material Plane.The Astral Dominions are cultures − semantic structures, symbols. They arent "personally" subjective. They are "culturally" subjective. Each language and each collective conversation is an objective fact. So it is possible to enter the Astral Plane and experience the dominion of Neverwinter, or enter the Astral Plane and experience the dominion of Menzoberranzan. Fellow Astral travelers may or may not think to travel with each other.These regions of the Astral Plane dont occupy physical "space", just like dreams dont take up physical space. Entire universes fit inside ones own skull. What determines the experience is what system of language, culture, symbols, and structuring paradigms come to mind.Traveling to a different plane within the Astral Sea is via one aspect of plane that reminds one of something similar in the other plane. These mental similarities are "whirlpools" and "portals", like a dream shifting from one scene to a different but cognitively associated scene.So, the arrangement of planes within the Astral Plane can appear in any configuration, whatever sorting code one chooses to organize the thoughts. This is what a Spelljammer Helm does, offers a persistent way to organize thoughts. Organizing the planes ethically, by alignment, is a common way. As Good differs from Evil, Evil is far, far, away. But Good that is slightly Chaotic and individualistic is nearby often sharing the same rooms.All of the configurations are equally true, the Wheel, the 4e Axis, the FR Tree. Whatever sorting code works, to access this kind of informational data.The Astral dominion is a cultural fact. It is more than one person. It matters that it is beyond a single person, because it objectively exists, and persons from other unrelated cultures can visit it.The error here is the error of Nietzsche, assuming that reality is selfish.There is more than one person that comprises a reality. Those other persons EXIST. Those other persons are inescapable facts of reality. Reality is something that is inherently shared.Reality is a language, an ongoing conversation about what is meaningful with each other.</blockquote>

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