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Dimension of Myth

by James Mishler

Here is an excerpt from the article that I'm working on concerning Mystaran Planes and Dimensions; as the whole thing has ended up being rather longer than expected, I will send it on to B1Bard for the netmag, rather than posing it piece by piece (hopefully this one, maybe the next, as I'm still less than half done and I'm already over 12 pages). This excerpt is only part of the rough draft... The Dimension of Myth

From the CotI page 125: "An alternate dimension that has been visited by Immortals and high-level mortal adventurers on several occasions, and one which strongly resembles the multiverse, is called the Dimension of Myth.

"The world corresponding to the Known World in that dimension's Prime Plane is very much like our own planet Earth as it was in the Middle Ages; each nation and culture corresponds very closely to a nation and culture of Earth. However, in that dimension magic works and magical creatures that are merely mythical here are very prevalent. This is the world where the households of Sylaire and Klantyre (the d'Ambreville and McGregor families and their dependents) came from before they settled in Glantri on the Known World...

"As a general rule, this dimension is populated by worlds, creatures, Immortal beings, and themes which strongly resemble the mythologies of our Earth. However, these elements, instead of being blended together as they are on the Known World, are kept separate according to their real-world cultural backgrounds; for instance, characters will see pegasi and dryads in the worlds of Greek myth, but never in the worlds of mythology where winged horses did not appear".

There are several lesser-known Immortals who may or may not originally come from the Dimension of Myth. These include Chiron, Maat, Sinbad, Tyche and Wayland. A number of the Elder Immortals believe that they might have originated in the Dimension of Myth, taking into account the similarity between many cultures found therein and their own natures. These include Faunus, Hel, Ixion, Korotiku, Odin, Thanatos, and Valerias. Of course, the Immortal known as Rad originated in this dimension as a mortal being and later gained Immortality in the Multiverse Dimension.

This dimension has its own ranks of Immortal-like beings which are known as Gods; they are, like the various worlds found in the Prime Plane of this dimension, much more in tune with their specific cultural background than the Immortals of the Multiverse. Unlike the Immortals, who have different "aspects" for different cultures, the Gods of this dimension have only their singular nature as revered by a specific culture on specific worlds (though within that culture they may have numerous spheres of influence). Thus, Zeus of Greek myth is only Zeus, not Jupiter of the Roman type culture of a nearby world; there is a separate being known as Jupiter who is revered by the Roman peoples. Needless to say, this makes for a lot of confusion for visitors, as there may even be *several* different Zeuses, all similar in nature, but revered in different ways by the slightly different peoples of different Greek worlds (for example, there is the Achaean Zeus, the Classical Zeus and the Hellenistic Zeus, among others). There is no Council or Hierarchy among the different pantheons like there is in the Multiverse, leading to even more confusion.

Each Outer Plane of this dimension is host to a single pantheon of related beings, though each pantheon of each separate mythic cycle may have more than one Outer Plane as host. For example, the core group of "Norse" gods of the Dimension of Myth have several Outer Planes all connected through the INTERDIMENSIONAL Gateway that manifests itself as Yggdrasil, the World Ash. There are Dimensional Nodes connecting to Yggdrasil found in the home planes of the Norse Immortals of the Northern Reaches (Odin, Hel, Thor, Loki, Frey and Freya); Yggdrasil has nodes that allow travel to all the various variants of the Nine Worlds and the several Midgard Outer Planes, both in the Multiverse and Myth Dimensions (as well as to the Dimension of the Great Wheel). It can get to be quite loud at the parties where the dozen or so Thor's all get together...

And that's what I have so far on the Dimension of Myth... but neither this entry, nor the article on Planes and dimensions is complete...