I am of a third school of thought if you will. I believe that the Inner Planes(Elemental, Para, Quasi and Energy) are only the "core", and that an unknown number of other Elemental Planes and possibly energy planes also exist somewhere beyond the Core Sphere of Elements.
In my theory, Shadow is in fact a Para-Energy Plane, and that the passageways connecting it to any shadow doesn't make it a unique Inner Plane in that regard, because I've heard of Wizards and other beings who can use Fires anywhere in the Multiverse to travel anywhere else.
My theory fits in nicely with the Ordial Plane, because according to the Rule of Threes, which I believe applys everywhere(But is certainly not the only rule), there are only three Transitive Planes. The Shadow, Fire and other Elemental "Portals", utilize all three Transitive Planes, Astral, Ethereal and Ordial, in a manner not totally understood. Also, there is a theoritical Neutral Energy Plane, which has no border with any of the other inner planes, and the Paraelemental planes some have said do in fact intersect with the energy planes, producing the Quasi-Para or "Quasi Exotica". Also included are two Elemental planes which exist in cultures often called "Oriental" but are not recognized elsewhere for whatever reason. It stands to note that while unlikely, there may be Opposite-touched inner planes(such as a combination of Earth and Air creating Sand for example) or Paraelemental planes created by bordering paraelemental planes, or Quasi-elemental bordered by other Quasielemental planes. Ever Quasi and Para elemental combinations may exist. This means the Inner Planes may be in fact, Unlimited.
Under this new approach, the Inner Planes look something like this:
Core Elements: Fire, Earth, Water, Air, Wood(See Planeswalker), Metal, Shadow.
Para Elements:
Magma, Ooze, Ice, Smoke, Paper, Coral, Soil, Pollen, Slag, Coal, Quicksilver, Sound, Ore, and the Shadow-Elemental Planes(See Planeswalker).
Quasi Elemental Planes:
Dust, Vacuum, Salt, Ash, Lightning, Radiance, Minerals, Steam(Mist).
Energy Planes:
Positive, Negative, Neutral.
Quasi-Exotica
Check out Mimir for these)Silt, Clay, Obsidian, Pumice, Fumes, Sparks, Crystal and Shards.
Since the Paraelemental planes linked to Wood and Metal are lvl 2 theorical, no attempt as of yet has been made to deterimine what form energy-touched para-elemental planes would take.
Elemental Plane: Metal
Metal is a smooth plane of metal which is liquid-like in appearence in shape but very solid. It is metal in its most primal state, unscupted or unmarred by earth or human hand. Conditions on the Plane are livable, as the temperature is actually slightly cool, and never approaches uncomfortably warm temperatures unless one approaches the Para-Elemental Plane of Slag. Gravity is like that in Pandemonium, pointed towards any solid surface. Unless on Pandemonium however, the vast metal tunnels of Metal lack a strong breeze of any kind(unless you happen to be near the Paraplane of Sound.)
The most common inhabidence of this plane are called "Living Steel" elsewhere(on the Prime and on Magma, where they also can be encountered). These beings are in fact, Metal Elementals, living beings of metal which can scupt themselves into many other forms should they choose to. The Metal Elementals are in fact quiet and peaceful for the most part, and will leave others alone unless they are attacked. They can sometimes be reasoned with but most often attempts by organics to speak with them are ignored. It is unknown why the Metal Elementals choose to sometimes shun organics.
Other inhabidants include conscruct-like creatures made of metal of various forms. Rust Monsters(Which can reach terrififying sizes here) can be encountered here in large numbers(they aren't in fact native but imported likely accidently from the Prime). Unlike on other planes they will leave travelers alone, as they are quite content on eating the plane itself. More dangerious are the Metal-Mytes, magicly created relatives of the Prime Termite. They live in large colonies and are known to attack intruders into their terrories. Unlike Termites they are quite intelligent for insects(around 8 maximum). Like Rust Monsters they readalily devour metal, but do so far more agressively. Areas of the plane pocked with holes are a sure sign a blood is in fact entering Metal Myte territory. There are likely many other monster and animal types here not covered.
It is known that the Celestial Bureaucracy maintains quite a large pressence here, with fortresses, cities and even entire puppet countries threwout the plane(there are also many oriental communties not affiliated with the Bureuacracy).
There is no known variety of Genie-kind on the plane, but they could exist somewhere.
First off, I dislike any theory that involves the Ordial Plane on general principle. :P
Second, I thought everyone already knew the Inner Planes were unlimited? And by unlimited I mean infinite in size; if you mean infinite in number, then I'd call it a stretch. Yes, you could go on endlessly mixing energy, elements, paraelements, and quasielements, and call these intersections "planes". That doesn't mean you should.
In addition to the lost (2E Planescape) quasiplanes, I would gladly accept Metal and Wood, since these are based on RW mythology; likewise the Dark Sun planes. But planes of Paper, Coral, Polen? Of Coal, Ore, Sparks, Pumice? A plane of Neutral Energy
? Why bother?Does every relatively homogenous chunk of matter deserve to be called a plane? Does anyone need these? Is there anything even remotely interesting there that couldn't fit into the existing set of planes? Shouldn't the effort be instead put into developing the existing planes into interesting, playable locations?
Practical for adventuring? Probably not. Although I could see a DM wanting to run an adventure through a very particular kind of gem plane, or a silt plane if he was so inspired.
However, as a metaphysical model, it is intriguing. It is kind of like a fractal multiverse. In that, no matter how you subdivide the cosmos, you find smaller and more narrowly focused planes within. Like an infinite string of matrioshka planes.
Potential problems I see are:
1) The more you balkanize the inner planes, the more boring the planes get. I mean, what's going to live on the silt plane? Pretty much just silt elementals, or creatures with some sort of elemental silt template. Having narrowly focused planes means lack of variety. And variety is essential to good adventuring.
2) A DM can have any of those regions now without having to change the cosmology. The two options would be:
a) make it just a large region of the parent elemenal plane, for instance the sea of silt, or the Clay Nation, or a planet-sized ruby geode within the Elemental Plane of Earth.
b) make it a demiplane attached to either the ethereal or the parent plane. Such as a demiplane of silt that is coterminous with the Elemental Plane of Earth.
Well, truth be told, it's been done to death already. But here:
First off, I dislike any theory that involves the Ordial Plane on general principle. :P
Second, I thought everyone already knew the Inner Planes were unlimited? And by unlimited I mean infinite in size; if you mean infinite in number, then I'd call it a stretch. Yes, you could go on endlessly mixing energy, elements, paraelements, and quasielements, and call these intersections "planes". That doesn't mean you should.
In addition to the lost (2E Planescape) quasiplanes, I would gladly accept Metal and Wood, since these are based on RW mythology; likewise the Dark Sun planes. But planes of Paper, Coral, Polen? Of Coal, Ore, Sparks, Pumice? A plane of Neutral Energy
Does every relatively homogenous chunk of matter deserve to be called a plane? Does anyone need these? Is there anything even remotely interesting there that couldn't fit into the existing set of planes? Shouldn't the effort be instead put into developing the existing planes into interesting, playable locations?
All of those are Para or Quasi representives of Paper and Wood. And Pumice, Sparks and those others have been detailed already in Mimir. Btw the Ordial is canon now...just not detailed yet(but I will soon fix that). And you can never have to many inner planes...
Gray Richardson: 3rd edition rules with regards to the inner planes suck(textbook terms such as Contermious for example). Its about rules, not imagination, that is why 2nd edition will always be superior with regards to everything but the rules itself. No offense. Ignore every published 3rd edition product when it comes to the Planes, none of them apply to Planescape. (34d edition monster entries also suck when compared to 2nd edition. If you ever read one of the Planescape Monstrious Compendiums you will know what I mean)
How about some conscructive comments rather than stuff like "Its unnessary". I spent the time to write this and comments like that make me feel like crap.
Coral is situated between Wood and Water. It is more similiar perhaps to Water than to Wood. As far as Para-Elemental planes go, only Ice can rival Coral when it comes to influence.
Coral is a vast sea of Coral reefs of various sizes. Most are standard sized, however, the standard sized reefs actually grow on continent-sized coral, almost like microscopic growth in comparison. The entire Plane is a maze of coral, gravity, while weak, is present and is oriented downwards like on the Prime. This creates a clear up and down, but does little else.
The inhabitants of the Plane include fish native to reefs on the Prime(likely non-native, coming from an elemental gate from the Prime itself). There are also of coarse, representive Elementals. Coral Elementals come in various forms and no-two are alike completely. They long ago lost a war to the Sharuagin over dominance of the Plane and now lurk in isolated communitys or alone. They occasionally trade with Marids but other than that interact little with the outside world.
There are species of intelligent coral here as well, such as giant sized Brain Coral. Continent sized Brain Coral are said to have the intellgence of gods, posessors of vast amounts of knowledge, these beings are best left alone.
Many of the same monsters that can be found on the plane of water also live on Coral. However there are a few dangerious natives of Coral that are both unique to the Plane and are feared by natives and visiters to the plane alike. The first is the Giant jellyfish known as Jalkala. These creatures rival dragons in size and have a horrible poison which causes permanent pain to its victims, trapping them in a lifetime of white-hot agony. Jalkala young(which are about a foot in size) are like standard jellyfish and are much more common than the feared adults. They also carry the only antiidote to the adult's poison. Far more insidious than any other native of the plane is the Silasktratil, a small blue starfish like creature with a single red eye in its center. These creatures are similiar to Puppeteers, a insectlike species native to the Prime, in that they take over other creatures and use their bodies. However, unlike Puppeteers, Silasktratil are capable of absorbing the essence and genetic material of the host, allowing it to metamorphise into a creature combining aspects of the host's species with its own. Silastratil are capable of storing this absorbed essence and imparting it on others as well. In their orginal forms, these creatures aren't particularly intelligent(4-8, smart animal to dim witted human), however the race as a whole seems to desire to absorb the forms of every creature it encounters. Some suspect the race has a leader somewhere which has a body formed from the essence and genes of absorbed millions of different creatures. Such a thought is terrififying to say the least.
Finally the Sharuagin are an agressive race bent on the completely domination of Coral. They are a race which combines the humanoid form with the aspect of many different species of shark. They were created by the infamaos Shark god worshiped by the Prime race known as Sahaugin or "Sea Devils" relatively recently in planar terms. They quickly spread threwout the Plane, their quickly growing armies overwhelming the ponderious Coral Elementals on their own homeplane. Since then they have built magniefient coral cities in many locations, living areas which they use to raise their young, future additions to the ever growing Sharuagin force. It is known that the Sharuagin court the evil Elemental Princess of Water for an allaince, woe to the Inner Planes if they succeed..
Also, they don't all have to be elemental/energy planes, they can be elemental wannabe demiplanes
Your description of Shadow as "para-energy plane" seems to show you think of it in a similar way. Do we need two neutral para-energy planes?
What of the plane of the elemental plane of Cities? Or the elemental plane of Food? The elemental plane of elementes! Letters and Christmas and Baatezu and Tanar'ri and Fish!
You're encouraging him, pikeit!
Report to your divine LN alter ego for well deserved smiting.Ryltar Thamior: In the Orient, there were five classic elements: Fire, Earth, Water, Wood, and Metal. Metal and Wood should be there to represent those places. Coral is the Paraelemental Plane between Water and Wood...
You don't have to use Metal as Plane though, I have Wood as either a Elemental Plane or a demiplane(which is close to the Inner planes and has seven demiplanes which border the Elemental Planes), you could do the same with Metal. The Painter: Have to be formed via a combination of any of the six elements, or a combination of element and energy plane. :D Any of those could be good Demiplanes though...
Quasi Elemental Plane:Blight:
Where Wood meets the Negative Energy Plane, Blight is born. The Quasielemental Plane of Blight is a foul place, rivaling certain lower planes in that regard. Full of a foul green mist, black thorns crawling over every surface, and dead plantmatter, if Wood is a druid's dream come true, than Blight is that same Druid's worst nightmare.
Blight is hostile to almost every form of flora in the multiverse. Only plants such as Razor vine are capable of surviving the blight.
Despite being not very hospitable to visiters, Blight does nevertheless have some interesting locations. One is the "Hengemaze", an enormious 3-diamensional maze of thorns and briars. At the center of this maze is the fabled Palace of the Queen. It is said that visiters are transformed into children and each room of the palace serves as a personal heaven for each child.
Perhaps the most infamaos place in the plane is the vortexs, a region where the blight swirls into maelstroms with hurricane-strength winds. Here it is believed that several large earth pockets lie somewhere above the center of the storms, and are home of powerful evil wizards who may have orginaly created the region long ago. It is known that even the natives of the plane fear this region.
One other location of note is the Black Desert, a vast region of black sand somewhere in the plane with regions disturbing similiar to those on Pelion, the third layer of Arborea.
For inhabidants, the Plane has numerious Unseelie Fey, Needlemen, and other evil plant-based monsters with thorns. Creatures of rot and decay also call the plane home, such as Blight Quasielementals.
For instance, to the lower planes one might add the Plane of Jealousy, the Plane of Misogyny, the Plane of Sadism, Plane of Racism, etc: or one might choose acts instead of attitudes: Plane of Murder, Plane of Embezzlement, Plane of ****, Plane of Malicious Rumor-Mongering, etc.
Personally, though, I'd rather see segments of broader, more easily categorized planes manifest such specific instantiations of the broader element or philosophy they represent.
For example, maybe you'd find very racist communities of petitioners on Acheron, to the extent that the community becomes a perfect Platonic representation of racism at its essence. This is, after all, what the planes are about. That doesn't mean that every "Platonic form" needs its own plane, though.
Or you'd find a section full of wood in the inner planes, to the extent that that section basically embodies the ideal form of woodiness, but it would be part of a larger plane.
Note that these subsections of other planes could still be very large, even infinite, while still not being their own planes. There are infinitely many rational numbers for every integer, yet there are still infinitely many integers as well.
Remember that the Outer Planes are about Alignment, as each plane represents a particular alignment. In between the 9 pure alignment planes are planes such as Acheron, which is pure law tainted towards evil. On the Mimir site, they came up with a bunch of new Outer planes which fill in the gaps created by a lack of True Neutral influenced planes, that is, the dark side of True Neutrality, or the lighter side, or the more chaotic side etc. Similiar to how Pandemonium is pure chaos leaning towards evil. They came up with some interesting new planes with some potencial. Basically they are hidden and not easily accessed like the well-known Outer Planes.
I think that there doesn't need to be a plane of True Neutrality with Lawful and Evil tendencies. Rather, if you want neutrality with mild lawful evil, you step outside of the Spire's neutrality zone and go a bit toward Ribcage, where you find villages and towns that are mostly neutral with a mildly lawful evil bend. You get nearer and nearer to ribcage, with things getting more and more lawful and more and more evil, until you get to Ribcage itself, which is lawful evil, but neutral enough to stay in the outlands. You want more LE? Step through the flame portal into Baator. You find yourself in Avernus, which is really lawful evil. Not LE enough for you? Go down to Nessus, or Minauros, or Maladomini. Basically, I think that with the outlands, combined with the gate towns and their environs, combined with the planes themselves, and their different layers, there's no need for seperate planes of "magnitude of alignment:" only "direction in alignment."
Chaotic Neutral Evil: Pandemonium etc.
What the Mimir planes added was Lawful Evil Neutral: Pergatory, for example.
Wood and Metal are elements in the Oriental classical elements, instead of Air, interestingly enough. My intention is to add them into the Inner Planes, along with their Paraelemental and Quasielemental counterparts. You can also use Wood and Metal and their Paraelemental and Quasielemental counterparts as Demiplanes which exist very close to the iNner planes, enough to create Demiplanes like the Paraelemental Demiplane of Blight(Wood mixed with Negative Energy). In fact Demiplanes are a interesting alternate way of doing things because they add variety without having to do any work altering the cosmology(some people are bothered by doing that). If you check out my articles on Planeswalker, I did the Ravenloft influenced Demiplanes, which are Elemental demiplanes tainted by the influence of ravenloft that share a one-way border with the Inner Planes.
Remember that the Outer Planes are about Alignment, as each plane represents a particular alignment. In between the 9 pure alignment planes are planes such as Acheron, which is pure law tainted towards evil. On the Mimir site, they came up with a bunch of new Outer planes which fill in the gaps created by a lack of True Neutral influenced planes, that is, the dark side of True Neutrality, or the lighter side, or the more chaotic side etc. Similiar to how Pandemonium is pure chaos leaning towards evil. They came up with some interesting new planes with some potencial. Basically they are hidden and not easily accessed like the well-known Outer Planes.
i'm just a caveman unfrozen from ice...your crazy 3rd edition ways scare me...what is a feat check? some sort of preventative fungal ritual? i don't know...but what i DO know is...
A) - the inner planes themselves ARE nuetral. they are not about good vs. evil (despite the presence of some evil-/good-aligned archomentals) they are rather about the RAW POWERS OF CREATION (que thunder, lightning, ominous musical crescendo). which, to all intents and purposes are neither good nor evil, but simply necessary...or double-edged...with both an up-side and a down-side. water brings life, but it can drown a sod who normally breathes air....fire keeps you warm, but it can char broil you in an instant...positive energy heals, but too much will make you explode...etc.
B) - those clueless sods on the prime have no idea about the real dark of the planes...inner, outer, or anywhere else for that matter. those addle-cove primes on athas think there is a plane of obsidian, and a plane of sun. that's just plain barmy as any greybeard would tell you. so wood? metal? pretty much the same thing, just a bunch of clueless sods trying to imagine something they have no concept of...
despite, that's not to say that locations such as wood, or obsidian, or sun, or metal DON'T exist...but that's just it, they're locations...not entire planes. obsidian is probably somewhere in the paraplane of magma, sun probably located in radiance, wood somewhere near water and air, metal near earth, etc. to a clueless prime a location like obsidian, that may only be planet-sized, would still seem mind-bogglingly immense. they may even be islands floating out in the deep ethereal...but entire planes? that's just a load of screed.
then again, that's assuming you're speaking of THIS multiverse and not some strange hyper or hypo or parallel or perpendicular multiverse...it could be completely different. there was this poor sod down at the gatehouse who said he saw one of these alternate multiverses...well...between hour long, screaming tyrades on reality and such gibberish...anyway, he said that the paraplane of steam was between the planes of fire and water if you can imagine THAT...swore to the powers that he woke up in the wrong multiverse!
it'll all be something argued by sages and greybeards until the end of everything...
oh...and what in the name of the Lady is the "Ordial Plane"?!?!
Obsidian happens to actually exist, its the plane that is formed when Magma meets Positive Energy(see the Mimir).
The Inner Planes favor the Western view of elements. Adding Wood(where do you think the Shad came from?) and Metal balances things out quite a bit.
The Ordial(which is canon now, though still undetailed), is the plane which links the Inner and Outer planes toghether, like the Ethereal does the Prime and the inner planes, or the Astral links the Prime and the Outer Planes.
Nobody seems to like having new planes to explore. How very sad. The unease people have at my ideas only show a general lack of creativity.
The Ethereal DOES have Demiplanes, and they can be nearly infinite in size..
What this is a new system which basically adds in the Mimir planes, and in addition, the Wood and Metal Elemental Planes, in addition to their accompaning Para and Quasi planes. You can also use them as Demiplanes, which border the inner planes to create new para and quasi demiplanes.
1) - first and foremost, is a new plane NECESSARY to my campaign?
2) - if so, then WHERE does this plane fit into the cosmology? is it a plane of thought? of belief? of matter? time? is it transitive? etc.
3) - is there another plane ALREADY in existence that describes the fundamental nature of the plane i'm creating?
4) - does it need to be an ENTIRE plane? or would it be better off as a demi-plane or larger location in an actual plane or even as an already existing undiscovered plane, like the 667th layer of the abyss for example?
5) - HOW MUCH will it be used? if it's just for one adventure, then maybe it's best set at a smaller scale...a demi-plane for example.
6) - how will its existence, or the discovery of its existence, EFFECT the rest of the multiverse? an entire plane of belief will create entirely new pantheons of powers that exist and live on that plane, what prime worlds are connected to them? how many prime worlds connect to them? what do the other powers think of them? what are their relationships, etc.?
for me there is an incredible amount of thought that goes into the process of...well..."planography". an entire plane will have a gigantic impact on the multiverse. portals to the plane; powers, denizens, creatures that inhabit the plane; prime worlds that connect to the plane; and other such mechanics must be taken into consideration. why an entire elemental plane of wood simply because one setting mentioned it in it's cosmology? that means that all settings must share that elemental plane as well. so athas, greyhawk, and such would also have elemental planes of wood, metal, algae, coral, and more attached to them. instead i choose to relegate wood and the others as locations inside other already existant elemental, para-elemental, and quasi-elemental planes. to me it seems excessive, but that's just my own opinion, and my own style of gaming. i certainly don't hold anyone to it save for myself.
to me there is an already incredible wealth of areas to explore in just the original PS releases alone...2 infinite transitive planes (astral and etheral), 18 inner planes (2 energy planes, 4 elemental planes, 4 paraplanes, and 8 quasiplanes - not to mention the borders of each of those), several planar pathways (astral, ethereal, ygdrissl, styx, river oceanus), 16 outer planes each with 3 or more layers (all infinite), the outlands, the city of doors, AND an uncountable number of prime worlds, demi-planes, and islands of matter!! *phew*
i'm still catching up on what the community at large has released since the final publications of PS. i'd imagine i have a lot of reading ahead of me. but like any of the other settings i've been reading up on - i'll take what i like, alter what needs to fit my own style and campaign, and toss out what i think doesn't work.
The intention of these, is that they are to be interduced when the players think they already have the multiverse figured out, that theive been to every single inner plane, only to discover that there are Inner planes almost nobody knows about. The enterprising adventuror would have to provide proof, not just be running around shouting "I found a new plane!" and fall into the addlecove catagory.
Some planes are just there as curiousitys, take the example of Quasi Exotica Fumes or Pumice for example. The plane is so inhospitable, that nobody would want to visit it, sort of like many of the layers of the abyss nobody goes to. Its sort of like Antartica in our own world, or the other worlds in our solar system.
The Ordial Plane, is like the Holy grail, the fountain of youth, or the El-Dorado of planar explorers. Since it connects the Inner and Outer planes, it would be the place where belief gains form and substance, the orginator of souls, and perhaps the place gods are born.
Sorry, a Nodwick moment from Dragon. :P
1) What's the Ordial plane?
2) How can you have a plane of Coral? Coral's a living creature, or would in be similar to Neth?
1) What's the Ordial plane?
The Ordial Plane is the third transitive plane, allowing the transitive planes to correspond to the Rule of Three. It is the hypothetical transitive plane that links the Outer and Inner Planes. The Ordial is, IIRC, a fan-created idea and has had no official support.
That said, I think you might have misunderstood my point on your view that there should be weakly aligned outer planes. (i.e., the plane of neutrality with lawful and good tendencies)
I'm not against the concept, but I think that existing Planescape cosmology covers the concept. The Outlands are not a plane of strict, exclusive neutrality. They have weak alignment tendencies, just like those you want to have in seperate outer planes, in the form of the gate towns and environs. Any combination of alignment, both degree of alignment (how far from neutral you are) and kind of alignment, can be covered by a linear combination of law/chaos or good/evil. In other words, add a certain amount of law or chaos to an alignment, and add a certain amount of good or evil, and you'll have every possible alignment under the 2-dimensional alignment system covered.
Let's say that you
Now, the question is, is there a place in the outer planes for every possible 2-dimensional alignment? You seem to think not. Taking alignments in parenthesis as weak, "tendencies" alignments, there are planes for N, NG, (C)NG, CG, CN(G), CN, CN(E), CE, (C)NE, NE, (L)NE, LE, LN(E), LN, LN(G), LG, and (L)NG, but not N(G), (C)N(G), (C)N, (C)N(E), N(E), (L)N(E), (L)N, or (L)N(G).
This is a reasonable view. One might say that there should be such "tendencies" planes. After all, if the main purpose of a plane is as a home for petitioners, outsiders, and powers, then there are certainly petitioners with only tendencies toward alignments, and powers and outsiders too, probably.
However, I disagree with it, because I believe that such weak, tendencies alignments are already covered by the outlands. Near the spire, the outlands are the plane of pure neutrality, but the further from the spire you get, the more non-neutral the neutrality of the plane becomes. When you get to a gate town, you find that things are really on the border between neutrality with tendencies and actual non-neutral alignment. For example, Sylvania is right on the border between (C)N(G) and CG. If you move from Sylvania toward the spire, things will get less CG and more N.
Here's an illustration of my point.
If you want to run a campaign with a (C)N(G) plane, then go for it, but I'd personally rather see more development of the outlands, and its representation of the shades and ideas of neutrality. Especially, I'd like to know more about the petitioners of the Outlands, and what their lives are like.
In short, you if you give me any combination of law or chaos, or good or evil, I can already place that on the one of the seventeen outer planes, which is what I'd do if I were running a Planescape campaign. Your mileage may vary. If you want to create the nine "missing" outer planes, for a full 25 (weakly aligned and strongly aligned on each axis), go ahead. I just don't think that there's a gap in the outer plane system that you believe that there is. I understand your perspective, but I disagree.