The Hinterlands

The Outer Planes are created from the collected beliefs of billions of mortals on the Prime, right? [Okay, it might not be right, but for the sake of my argument, let's assume it is...]

What then of belief systems or ideas which aren't represented by the collection of mortal thoughts? Which plane do they go to?

For example: a mirror. Now mirrors aren't thought of ethically or morally, and there ain't a Power of mirrors that I've ever heard of. Does that mean there ain't a place in the Outer Planes that embodies the essence or "mirrorness"? A place where the perfect mirror exists, where reflections and diffusiona and refraction themselves exist in a corporeal form?

It'd be more fun if there was, eh?

So where would a place like this be found? Mirrors don't have an alignment, so where does that put 'em? The ethereal? Astral? Both are planes with no substance of their own. Inner Planes? They're more basic than a complex structure like a mirror. How about the Outlands? There's plenty of space out there in the Hinterlands for such things that don't fit in with the belief structure of the Planes.

Some similar Hinterlandy things: (at least, I think they might be...)

Spirals (could be a sort of planar pathway)
Colours (maybe there's an emerald city, or a tower of blue hues)
Bells (the temple of a thousand bells)

So that's what I think of the Hinterlands as: a collection of things, ideas, concepts and phenomena which don't belong anywhere else.
Physical forces personified, and Spheres of Control that no Power's yet claimed.

Maybe a planewalker could trawl around in the Hinterlands and come across some concept that's never been dreamed of before by mortal or Power...something that's natural in the multiverse but hasn't been discovered yet? That's the Hinterlands for me, berks.

So I argued that a planewalker can walk to another plane from the Outlands...but that it'd take a long time. Maybe he can. Maybe not. I also like the idea of the other Outer Planes intruding on the Outlands around the ring of the gate towns...the essence of the other planes is strongest nearest to the gates than further out in the Hinterlands.

Now here's a cool (and difficult) image to see. Imagine that the Outlands are surrounded by the Outer Planes, but they come closest to them at the gates. The Hinterlands and the Spire are furthest from the other Outer Planes...they're more "neutral" if you like. That means that the Outlands are shaped in some strange way that allows them to be distant from the other planes in the middle and the edges, but close in a ring around the centre. Can you see what I'm getting at???

The Hinterlands

See also Gianni's piece about the Magnetic Geography of the Outlands.