Tome of Magic - Word of Genesis. Huh.

[Wycen]

I was given a copy of Tome of Magic from someone who got an extra copy for Christmas and I just started looking through it.

I found one thing that struck me as not quite right. The spell Word of Genesis creates a demi-plane.

Problem is, this spell apparently works on the astral plane. While I don't know if any source explicitly states no demi-planes on the astral, that is really what the deep ethereal is for.

Any previous work that talks about using demi-planes any place other than the ethereal?

 

[I'm A Banana]

Deep Ethereal doesn't exist.

Demiplanes have a home in the Astral now, IIRC.

Ethereal is only "ghosty plane."

 

[Shemeska]

Demiplanes have always been defined as nascent little bubbles of solidified ethereal protomatter, literal froth on the sea of probability. At some point 3e seems to have disregarded (intentional or not) the earlier body of lore on demiplanes and started putting demiplanes in the Astral as well, though given what they were this doesn't entirely make sense. Still, be that as it might, the vast majority of demiplanes are still in the ethereal in 3e.

Of note, demiplanes on the Astral in 3e had to this point been a result of the psionic genesis power, which I suppose you could handwave away as being not true demiplanes, but solidified thought brought into existance by the will of a powerful psion, crafted out of ectoplasm rather than ethereal protomatter.

Personally I keep the more detailed, more self-consistent definition of demiplanes as being formed exclusively in the ethereal.

 

[hong]

Screw the earlier body of lore on demiplanes.

 

[Sound of Azure]

Screw the earlier body of lore on demiplanes.

You really like to "hit" the books, don't you hong? IYKWIM,AITYD.

 

[Wycen]

I see that the Genesis psionic power does indeed mention the astral plane, but any good Planescape fan knows the ethereal, (deep or not, yes I reread the MoP and the deep is now optional) is where demi-planes exist. I could agree that the astral would seem like an acceptable place for a psionically created realm to exist.

Strangely, this makes a certain homebrew campaign setting work better.