Foreword:
Sorry for the delay, everybody. Stay safe out there- the fascists are going to be emboldened for a little while.
Multiverse Navigation 102
Good afternoon, and welcome back to class. If you'll recall, we've gone over the formal definition of a plane, and how it differs from an alternate universe. However, I think a more concrete example would be useful. To that end, I've summoned three examples of planar beings. We have a sprite, a salamander, and an imp. Who can tell me how they're all similar?
"They all have to be summoned, for one."
No, actually. Summoning is one of the more common ways to find a planar being, but not the only one. There are naturally occurring borders where other planes abut the planes we normally live in, and some crossover occurs on its own. For example, fairies, pixies, and doxies are all natives to the mundane plane, but descended from sprites that crossed over by accident. You can also summon a person, from an alternate universe. As people-who-lived, we usually experience this when a Dumbledore is trying to find someone to fulfill the prophecy, but there are other times when other people have been summoned.
"I'd say they're all elementals of some kind, but that doesn't seem true for the sprite, and there's clearly a difference between the imp and the salamander even though they're both fiery in nature."
That actually is a similarity. Note that when I say "elements", I mean the esoteric kind, and not the physical kind, such as mercury or carbon. Don't confuse the two- Parcelsus died of magical exhaustion after trying to open a portal to the elemental plane of gold, mostly because it never existed in the first place.
Now, the sprite doesn't conform to any of the classical elements, but its magic is much less constrained by rules than ours is- it's a chaos elemental. A sprite, as well as any other being from a fey plane, is less orderly than a being from the mundane plane. This can manifest as an affiliation for nature and an aversion to the symbols of technological civilization, or it can manifest as a tendency to behave in a chaotic, whimsical manner, like the poltergeist. Both the salamander and the imp are fiery, but there's more going on than just that. The salamander is almost purely a creature of fire, but the imp is a creature of both fire and darkness. Note the malicious behavior- this little bastard is so eager to attack us that he keeps rattling the silver cage even as it burns his claws. A phoenix is an example of a light-aligned creature of fire, although they've become very acclimated to the mundane plane.
Who can tell me another similarity?
"They're all magical. I'm not even sure if non-magical elemental creatures exist."
That's mostly correct. Every other plane is a magical reflection of the mundane plane, and as such magic is typically much denser there. Each plane is usually aligned towards some element or another, and they all share an inherently magical nature. That's how most of these elemental beings survive- it's impossible to make a living creature out of only water, for example. Living creatures can incorporate water into their bodies, but you can't make a living puddle without magic. There is one caveat, though. The other planes become more strongly attuned to their specific element or elements the further they are away from the Mundane plane. As such, the closer planes are fairly normal, and some nonmagical creatures do live there. It's just that they aren't restricted to one plane- They're found anywhere near the Mundane.
Now, there are several ways of traversing between planes. There are rituals that can bring planes together, as well as natural places where they touch. Those areas are called "liminal spaces", after the concept made popular by muggle paranormal investigators. Incidentally, the phenomenon they refer to as liminality can be caused by proximity to certain powerful artifacts. Goes right through our notice-me-not charms, but the muggles can't tell where it's coming from, so they just say the area is particularly spiritual.
Usually, we do a summoning spell. It's the same concept as Apparition, but instead of moving you in a direction in space, it moves something else from one plane to another. There are also a few substances that let you see or travel to other planes, but the nature of these substances is never really consistent- each one is very different, and one isn't even actively magical. The muggles usually have it classified as a drug, since it lets the user see extremely far into the Fey planes. I'm not sure how it produces a magical effect like that, but the Unspeakables did prove that it wasn't an ordinary hallucinogen by having a user read a sign they'd placed in the plane beforehand.
Let's review: A plane is not an alternate universe because it did not diverge from a parent timeline. A plane is more like a location within the same universe, although you can't normally reach another plane through directional movement. Planes typically have some kind of elemental aspect in varying strengths, although this isn't always the case. Planes are always strongly magical. Finally, planes can be accessed through the use of summoning spells, natural or artificial liminal spaces, or various substances.
Tomorrow we're going to look at a particular kind of plane, the mirror universe, as well as how they differ from both ordinary planes and true alternates. Class dismissed.