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Message: <blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 8694318" data-attributes="member: 6790260">For my current game: This is not possible at present, and the players are currently working on finding out why.Something I established as part of the cosmology known to academia in this setting is that there are exactly three planes that are known to exist:<ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">the mortal world (Al-Duniyyah, "that which is near" or "the place of examination"), which the Spirit World (Al-Barzakh, the "barrier" or "separation") is a subset of, where dead souls linger before passing on to whatever fate the dead go to meet;</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">the elemental otherworld (Al-Akirah, lit. "the other world," where the genies retreated many centuries ago), which is much more magical than the mortal world but as a result also much more dangerous;</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">and Hell/the Abyss (Ja'hannam, "the place of sin and darkness," more or less), which is where demons and devils come from; according to Safiqi doctrine, they were banished there by the One after they waged a War in Heaven against Their will.</li> </ol>Official Waziri cosmology* states that no other planes exist, period. The party has conclusively proven this false, as they have adventured in the artificial perpendicular plane of Zerzura, the Garden-City. While inside Zerzura, they came across a "Polyplanetarium," which contained powerful (and dangerous) objects that could display either the night skies or surfaces...of other worlds. The implication from this is that there isn't just one other plane, but possibly an enormous number of other planes, but for some reason the wizards of Al-Duniyyah cannot even observe them, let alone travel to them. This is a weird mystery, and the party is slowly but surely discovering that that mystery may be a heck of a lot more important than they ever realized.(*The Safiqi believe one other plane exists, Jannah, True Heaven, where the souls of the righteous dead go at death, but only the righteous may enter and none may leave once they do, so it is inaccessible to mortal prying eyes. This is their explanation for why certain dead people cannot be resurrected, even if the spell is cast immediately after death.)In a different game that had had no pre-established reason why this couldn't happen: I would do my best to embrace the players' desire, but, depending on their level and the various commitments/connections they've made, would try to make clear exactly what the difficulty and consequences of such a choice would be. E.g. if the characters are literally level 1, fresh-faced adventurers with only a little experience, it's gonna take a while; travelling to a totally separate setting is a Big Deal for someone just starting their adventure. They'll have to build up to it, perhaps hunting down rumors of otherworldly travellers or researching the components necessary to conduct a ritual. Higher-level characters could get it done more quickly, but have many more entanglements and connections to deal with--leaving your entire world behind is a lot for any character to do, so there will necessarily be consequences, and probably people who aren't entirely happy about the character doing that. (E.g. our party Bard has a loving family and is in a dedicated relationship with a single person; if he were to leave for a whole other world entirely, his girlfriend would definitely be bothered by that, and his family would be concerned for his well-being.) Allies who have trusted them in the past would probably feel hurt that they're leaving them behind, and those with official duties (like our Battlemaster, who is still officially part of the Sultana's Army, just on special assignment from her as an adventurer) would likely see such an action as dereliction of those duties.In a certain sense, I have already told my players that I would let them do something like this; I expressly told them that if they decided one day that they just weren't interested in this story anymore, that they wanted to chart a ship off into the Sapphire Sea and never return to Al-Rakkah, that I would absolutely let them do that. I would feel very disappointed in myself, because it would mean that I had failed to make something that was sufficiently interesting to warrant their continued attention, but I would absolutely support their choice and do my best to respond to it.There would be consequences for this choice, however; they would essentially be abandoning their friends and allies to whatever fate awaits them, so after a while (probably 2-3 months after the party left) they'd start hearing rumors about stuff that had happened in the Tarrakhuna. It would never be more than that--just the occasional rumor of some major event or other. A dead leader, a disease or disaster, upheaval, something like that. And such rumors only last for a relatively short while, sailors being who and what they are, so it wouldn't even be more than an occasional mention. I would strive to avoid making those rumors into guilt trips, but rumors of Bad Things happening "Back Home" is really the only major consequence that could befall the party if they chose to do this, should they choose to travel far enough away.Fortunately, my players are troopers. They appreciate that they do have the freedom to go wherever they want, if they should choose to do so, but freely choose to stay in the Tarrakhuna and adventure there, because (a) what I have offered them remains interesting enough to explore, and (b) they feel attached to the characters, organizations, locations, and mysteries of this place, even though they may also feel a desire to explore other places too.</blockquote>

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