::Date: Fri, 21 Jul 2000 07:24:55 -0400
::From: "d.k. tetreault"
::Subject: [GREYTALK] Life, the Multiverse, and Everything (VERY Long!!)

Was "Paladins and Intolerance Question", believe it or not! Mostly NGC, but I think there is a brief mention of Greyhawk near the bottom. :-)

Apologies to all for the length of this, and for cross-posting it to Greytalk also (this started in Greyhawk-L), but as I say below, I'm in the mood to punish the world. :-) As what follows is so far-reaching in nature, people are free to repost this (unedited, in its entirety, with credit) to other lists that may find it interesting. Please forward me any interesting discussions that may follow.

:From Josh Raup...

> Missed the point. My question was, which came first, the prime
> material, and all its denizens, or the outer planes? Which begat
> which? It could be argued either way, legitimately, and thus indicates
> which concept you tend to lean towards. If the outer planes are a
> result of acts on the PMP, then relativism (as used), is the way to
> go. If the PMP is a result of the outer planes, then you can have
> absolute definitions.

Well, that's an interesting question. One that isn't answered in the rules, thus up to the individual taste of each DM. Everyone has their own opinion and ideas for their own campaigns. Personally, I truly hope that this aspect of the campaign multiverse is NEVER defined in canon, so that we are left to indulge in our own twisted imaginations. As a result, we can all argue until we're blue in the face. But, out of politeness, I'll assume that everybody else agrees with my views. Otherwise they'd be wrong. And I wouldn't want to assume that anybody was wrong. :-)

What all this is really getting down to is a DM's Ultimate Creation Myth. We've had innumerable posts over the years on Greytalk list (and I'm sure on all the others as well... FR list, SJ, PS, DS, general D&D lists, etc.) on creation myths. Alas, even though in many ways "BigPicture(tm)" is my middle name, they've invariably been thoroughly uninteresting to me. They are usually small-minded, and follow the same pattern over and over again.

Anthropomorphic God A pops into existence out of the firmament. (Here I stop reading). God A gets lonely and creates God B, either by budding, or shaping out of clay, or "poof... God B", or some other tired cliche. God A pops God B, producing children Gods C, D, E and F. They fight amongst themselves, pop eachother, divvy up spheres of influence, create planes for homes, create mortals, perhaps produce another generation of young gods. The End.

All these gods have names we recognize.

Until now, I've resisted inflicting upon people my own creation myth. IMC, the Athar got it right. Powers (gods) are the top of the recognizable foodchain, but are not the beginning and end of existence. And the ones that are around now are *certainly* not the first, certainly not responsible for creating the Multiverse, and certainly not the last.

> Like the age old philosophical question; "Did God create man, or did
> man create God?"

In my campaign, the answer to that is no. And yes, I realize that it was worded as an either/or question. :-)

> If you look at the outer planes as areas of asociation (and not as the
> sources for ideas/philosphies/theologies, as per Deities), then things
> make a bit more sense. Then you have broader regions, defined by
> those that congregate in those areas. I dunno. I've never liked the
> absolutes existing on the PMP. It denys a certain aspect of free
> will, which is import IMO and IMC.

I agree, yet disagree. Warning. This is gonna get far, far worse before it gets better. :-) I agree that the outer planes are areas of association, partially defined/formed/altered by those who congregate there. That is, things are feeding into it. But the flow is also in the other direction. Ideas/philosophies/theologies that form on the OP feed back into the Prime (and other planes as well). Its all a complex system of feedback loops within a firm (but not rigid) framework.

> The last thing about this, is that it supplants the Gods. really, it
> does. It means that there is some sort of power above them,

Yes.

> that passes judgement and determines things.

Ummm, lets see... No; and sorta yes (in a "setting the framework" sort of way). :-)

> Of course, this makes the Gods utterly pointless,

Nope.

> unless you take them as avatars of an aspect of that higher power.

Avatar implies a direct "appendage". Which I strongly disagree with. There is no unity of existence or continuity of intelligence/awareness. But Powers (gods) are connected to the "greater existence" as I am connected to our universe by being composed of atoms of various types.

> And that just makes the case for a single, montheistic religion valid.
> Why not just skip the middle guys and go straight to the top? Why
> follow the strictures of a particular religion, only to find yourself
> someplace you don't "deserve to be" (according the strictures of your
> religion?

Because the "top" is not a physical being with normal existence or presence. Living beings require something real, something substantial, something familiar, something physical and definable to wrap their feeble minds around. Anything higher then a Power is incomprehensible. It would be like RealWorlders worshiping the Universe (but not as a physical entity).

> No problem there. As I said in my first post on the topic, what you
> do in your own campaign is your business. Do what works, as I'm just
> putting forth my 2 bits.

Ok, so far I've deftly avoided actually answering the Great Question for my campaign, and have been "saving up" for a reason. I've had a uniquely terrible week at school, so I feel like punishing the world by inflicting upon it the most Unspeakably Villainous Heresy ever to spring from my pen (past, present or future!!). But fear not, as the Balance must be satisfied. Soon will be revealed a significant project I recently completed of the most wonderous Canon. :-) I cannot emphasize enough that what follows is IN MY CAMPAIGN! Again.... IN MY CAMPAIGN!!!
Now... Everybody duck!!

*****************************************************

Maldin's Grand Unified Theory of Life, the Multiverse and Everything
--------------------------------------------------------------------
by Denis "The BigPicture(tm)" Tetreault

:From Nothingness springs All. The Big Bang (not our RealWorld Big Bang, of course, but another) produced the existence that would eventually evolve into the Multiverse as we now understand it. It's been stated by RealWorld physicists that there is no reason for The Rules (physical and otherwise) created at that time of a Big Bang to be the same as The Rules we see in our RealWorld Universe. The (future) D&D Universe (and it was Uni-) that formed could not be more alien.

Picture the chaos of Limbo - a constantly changing plane of two Variables (in the mathematical sense)... Matter (earth, air, fire and water) and Physical Energy (cold, heat, light). Now multiply the complexity by many orders of magnitude. This ProtoUniverse was a seething soup of matter and physical energy, yes, but also of many other variables. And these variables could interact, merge, change. Not only within the field of the variable, but also between variables. For example, the merging of Heat (Physical Energy) and Earth (Matter) produced magma. The merging of other variables are perhaps not comprehensible to our limited minds. What may be incomprehensible to mortals is the very real nature of these Variables... an existence as real and tangible as a chunk of matter in our own universe (hence my capitalization of them in the text that follows). Some of these variables are (but not necessarily limited to)...

1. Matter and 2. Physical Energy.... everybody understands these clearly enough, I think.

3. Magical Energy - not magicially produced energy like magical fire, but the actual intangible magical energy that wizards tap into to produce those effects.

4. "Life" Energy - or Vitae for lack of a better word. Not life in the biologic sense, but think Positive-Negative material planes (which didn't exist yet).

5. Dimension - imagine space-time itself (and gravity as an Einsteinian warpage of space-time) as much in motion as everything else, constantly folding upon itself, breaking apart, rejoining, slowing, speeding up, being created and destroyed.

6. Ethos - law, chaos, good and evil as real as matter and energy, and mixtures/gradients as much in motion as matter and energy is in Limbo.

7. Scariest of all.... Sentience - not physical individuals, but as a force unto itself. As it changed and merged, parts of the many variables (and combinations of variables) were sentient in an unimaginably alien way. Yes, regions could become sentient (parts of the Dimension variable) and parts of Matter could become sentient (something that is easily understood, perhaps), and of course because everything was in constant change, the sentience was spontaneously appearing, growing, combining with others, fading, and disappearing again. But also other variables could interact with Sentience. Parts of Ethos could become sentient. Parts of Magic. Parts of the "Life" energy. And combinations of elements of different variables.

Side note: Some philosophers would group 1. Matter and 2. Physical Energy, 3. Magical Energy and 4. "Life" Energy, and 6. Ethos and 7. Sentience as natural pairs, related to one in other in some way.

Can you picture the shear scope of this alien, chaotic universe yet? :-)

Nobody/nothing knows how long this phase lasted. For one thing, Time (as part of the Dimension variable) was a constantly, unevenly changing element throughout the ProtoUniverse, so you couldn't measure it anyways. It was forever and it was in no time. :-)

One can imagine that nothing could progress for long (again, disregard your gravitation towards any fixed-time references) without being destroyed or changed.

There came the meeting of several Sentients. These realized that they could not exist for long in the present state of things, and besides, it was damn uncomfortable (for reasons to become clear). No doubt they also had other incomprehensible motivations. Working together, a plan was devised to bring stability by pulling apart some of the aspects of the variables. Of course, the composition of the Sentients determined their preferences for the existence they were about to shape.

Sentient 1 was mostly composed of Ethos, with just enough Dimension to stabilize it.

Sentient 2 was a composite of Matter, Physical Energy, and Life Energy, also with a stable nature because its 3 variables just happened to be in equal, balanced parts.

Sentient 3 was mostly composed of Dimension, with a large helping of Magic and a small portion of (homogeneous) Ethos .

Part of their motivation for creating stability in the Universe was because they themselves had more elements of stability then most other Sentients forming/changing around them. Instability was uncomfortable to them. Everything wants to shape its environment to its own end.

In the ProtoUniverse, sentients were continually forming and fading away. As the 3 began to alter their environment to suit their own specific existence, fewer and fewer new sentients formed, and more and more of them faded away (because the environment was becoming increasingly hostile to anything but the 3). Eventually there were only the 3 left.

It is possible, however, that a few others escaped to other universes, return now impossible. It is also possible that a fragment of one or more early sentients still exist in some dark, remote, protected corner of the Multiverse - think along the lines of the "fragment" of Kosh that remained in Sheridan in the Babylon 5 plotline. Except, of course, a mere mortal creature could never hold even a tiny fragment of an early sentient... but maybe a remote demiplane could. Perhaps the Demiplane of Dread? :-) I don't know enough about the concept of the Dark Powers (or whats behind them) to consider something as huge as a Primordial Sentient Fragment as responsible.

So, what pattern did the 3 Sentients use for the new shape of the Multiverse? From the starting point (lets call it the ProtoUniverse) parts were segregated off to help stabilize the whole, yet still anchored to a center point embedded in the ProtoUniverse.

A stable 6-point (non-uniform) matrix of Matter, Physical Energy and Life Energy was spun off (the proto-Elemental Planes). Over time, border zones (the quasi and para-elemental planes) formed on their own.

A region of uniform Ethos and Dimension (with bits of everything else) was created (the first Prime Material Plane - singular).

:From the remains of the ProtoUniverse, the extremes of Ethos were spun off (Chaos, Law, Evil, and Good). Over time, these extremes interacted with themselves, eventually fragmenting into the regions of CE, NE, LE, LN, LG, NG, CG and CN. With more passage of time, buffer zones spontaneously formed between these also (much as what happened to the Elemental planes), forming the ring of Outer Planes as we know it today.

All that was left behind of the original ProtoUniverse was a region of non-uniform Magic, that lacked extreme Ethos, and still contained the "anchor" for the whole of the (now) Multiverse. This region is now called Concordant Opposition (or the Outlands)... and the anchor? Often seen differently by different beings, it is most often called the Spire. Only the 3 Sentients can exist within the Spire. (Side Note.. Is the Lady of Pain one of these? No. She's more of a "pet", hence some of the special privileges she seems to enjoy.)

Buffer zones (the Astral and Ethereal) were created between the various segments both to prevent them from rejoining, and from flying apart and separating permanently. Time was stabilized across the whole by shattering it, and fixing it at different rates in different segments (preventing it from fusing again into a malleable spectrum).

Thus became the Multiverse as we now understand it. The work of the Sentients was so incomprehensibly brilliant, that the framework has been stable for 100's of millions of years. Part of the reason is a plasticity of the parts that prevent planar tension. Studies have shown, for example, that the boundaries between the Outer Planes are not fixed, but can move and change under a variety of conditions. Also, spot-eruptions or concentrations of any Variable Fragments can be released as safety-valve-like bubbles. These get deposited as demi-planes tethered to the Ethereal (hence the truly bizarre nature of many of those demiplanes). Even though the source of the "irregularity" could be anywhere in the Multiverse, the sudden formation of the demiplane in the Ethereal (the safety-valve-bubble) gives the impression that its point of origin is the Ethereal. Having said that, some of them could also be legitimately due directly to natural processes occurring within the Ethereal.

Just as The Rules of the RealWorld define what is possible in our universe, so does The Rules (the interaction of the Variables) define the Multiverse. Magic, time travel, interdimensional space, elementalist theory, non-biologic sentience, all exist because of these Variables... the original Rules set at the creation of the ProtoUniverse.

But where are the gods? Nowhere. Yet. Before the ProtoUniverse could be stabilized into the Multiverse, nothing could evolve (and exist for long). Now that things had stabilized, things could evolve on the wide variety of planes now in existence. With the strong element of Magic (and in many regions, Chaos), evolution could occur much faster then it did in the RealWorld. As different classes of organisms and beings evolved, so did the the physical nature of many of the individual planes. Accidents and leakages sometimes spontaneously created subplanes - including the pinching off of new Prime Material planes, demiplanes, etc.

Creatures that evolved were normally composed of the common elements available in their plane of formation, plus a fragment of Sentience. Some of the beings that evolved were composed of Matter (such as the Prime creatures), some were composed of Matter and Physical Energy (Elemental creatures), and some were Matter tainted by Ethos (Outer Planar creatures). Under certain conditions (such as death, in the case of PMP creatures) the fragment of Sentience can be freed (sometimes called the Soul).

But some beings had large components of Life Energy, Magical Energy, Ethos or even Dimension. This class of organisms were the Powers... the Gods. Evolving simultaneously and independently from the non-Powers (interestingly though it is possible for a Power, or other source, to imbue a Prime Creature with fragments of non-Matter Variables, thus creating a new Power, and for a Power to lose that component and become mortal). Depending on its composition, a Power can exert some control over its "sphere of influence"... one imbued, for example, with Light, or Negative "Life" Energy, or Evil, or Time, has some control over those elements. Powers, though they exist on their own, can also be parasitic on other forms of creatures in a variety of ways... but that discussion is for another time and place. :-)

The First Powers existed 10's or 100's of millions of years ago and are all long gone. Although their lifespans tend to be incredibly longer then other classes of beings, there have been countless generations of them. Many (particularly ones imbued with Dimension) altered the Multiverse in small ways, such as the modification or creation of demiplanes or Prime Material Planes. Somewhere out there in the Multiverse, however, still exists THE original Prime Material Plane. What secrets it still holds is anybody's guess. Some of the Powers of prehistory have, along the way, also manipulated the evolution of lesser beings.

At some point, in a matter for another discussion, a certain new Prime Material Plane was created millions of years ago, consisting of a large crystal sphere containing a planetary system (the First Crystal Sphere described in the Spelljammer novel series) floating in a material known as the phlogiston. The Powers of the time (again, those are all gone now) used a variety of tools (one of which was the Earth Stone) to create many more crystal spheres. One of these was what we now call Greyspace. (Told you it would be a brief mention!) Most :-) of the Powers of Greyhawk have come into existence since the time of the sphere's creation.

I can hear you all shouting.... "But WHERE is the CODEX??!!!! You MUST mention the CODEX!!" Well... umm.... ok. I'd hate to disappoint. :-)

Sentient 1 is perhaps the only one that has been named. It is often refered to as simply "The Balance".

Sentient 2? Some scholars postulate that it exists simultaneously with all the Elemental Planes, making those planes almost alive. Others credit it as the conduit through which elemental energy can travel to the other planes. The UberPower that elementalists unknowingly tap into.

Finally, could a two-dimensional being ever hope to interpret the shadow of a simple cube as a 3-dimensional object? A 5-dimensional object? A 15-dimensional object? No. Similarly, Sentient 3 casts a sort of "shadow" into the few dimensions we can experience. What do you think we see in our paltry, simplistic existence? For now.... a book. :-)



Questions, and my responses to discussion on Greytalk arising from the above post.

::Date: Fri, 21 Jul 2000 12:25:20 -0700
::From: Philos Sophia
::Subject: [GREYTALK] Life, the Multiverse, and Everything

[d.k. tetreault]
"Because the "top" is not a physical being with normal existence or presence. Living beings require something real, something substantial, something familiar, something physical and definable to wrap their feeble minds around. Anything higher then a Power is incomprehensible. It would be like RealWorlders worshiping the Universe (but not as a physical entity)."

I would say that it's rather like RealWorlders worshipping the 'framework upon which' the universe is structure. This is even more alien because it's worship of something that can never be conceived.

"If the universe were like a goat's bladder, then all that is, was, and shall be is the goat's blatter," said the sage to her burgeoning apprentice.
"What's outside the blatter?" he asked. "Nothing?"
The sage frowned a bit and pedanticly said, "No, not even nothing. There is no 'outside the blatter.'"
"Ah," said the boy, "So its empty! Just lots of space!" He was happy he was catching on.
"No no," the sage retorted. "There simply is no such thing as 'outside the blatter.'"
The apprentice slumped in his seat. This was going to be a long excercise.

Jamie

::Date: Thu, 27 Jul 2000 08:23:11 -0400
::From: "d.k. tetreault"
::Subject: Re: [GREYTALK] Life, the Multiverse, and Everything

On Mon, 24 Jul 2000, Marc Tizoc Gonzalez wrote:

> An interesting read. Some commentary/questions follow:

Thanks! I was beginning to think that it wasn't so heretical afterall. The Greyhawk-L list seems to prefer flamewars about gamebook prices. And they complain about us. :-)

>> 4. "Life" Energy - for lack of a better word.

> Motivation? Impetus?

Hmmm... That wouldn't really tie in to the positive/negative material planes. I'd call it "biological energy", however in a fantasy universe "life" is not necessarily biological in origin. Its likewise more then psychic energy. Its certainly not tied to sentience. Its whatever is drained by undead that drain. :-)

>> There came the meeting of several Sentients.

> Analogous to a perfect chord.

Yes

>> Everything wants to shape its environment to its own end.

> ??? This sentence strikes me as dissonant with the entirety of the
> piece. Aren't the three Sentients distinguished from whatever other
> sentient amalgams by this very quality/motivation/desire?

Yes, true enough. I was actually thinking that when I was writing the article (hey, thats part of the reason for posting, so that I can get comments and hone the article before it goes up on the website). The other Sentients were either happy with the chaos (and didn't want to change it), couldn't imagine any other situation (so didn't think to change it), or couldn't co-operate with enough of the others (so didn't have the power to change it).

>> Time was stabilized across the whole by shattering it, and fixing it
>> at different rates in different segments (preventing it from fusing
>> againinto a malleable spectrum).

> So then, Time was distinguished ("born") out of more general Dimension
> and then "shattered and fixed?"

Well... stable time, anyways. Time must exist as a flavor of Dimension from the start, just as Evil is a flavor of Ethos. It just wasn't constant, or homogenous. That is, standing in one place, time could change speed, and if you moved through space, you would encounter regions where time flowed differently then adjacent regions (Star Trek: TNG had an episode like that).

Breaking it into different pieces at different rates is like hammering nails into a vibrating rope to stop it from moving around. And gives me an excuse for the different rates described in the MotP and PS. :-)

>> Under certain conditions (such as death, in the case of PMP
>> creatures) the fragment of Sentience can be freed (sometimes called
>> the Soul).

> Does this system distinguish Spirit from Soul? Aren't they both
> subcategories of Sentience? Does the former consist of a greater
> admixture of Matter? Is the latter a purer form of Sentience?

Sure, I'd call them both part of Sentience. I just wanted to tag a familiar name to the "sentient fragment" within beings. If you are referring to Spirit as a ghost or spectre, say.. then yes there is still a portion of Matter still attached, albeit a smaller portion then the beings original form. When a (PlaneScape) petitioner forms on the outer planes, the sentience fragment merges with matter from the outer plane.

>> The First Powers existed 10's or 100's of millions of years ago and
>> are all long gone. Although their lifespans tend to be incredibly
>> longer then other classes of beings, there have been countless
>> generations of them.

> Again, it interests me that Time is so young as compared to the
> RealWorld universe.

Yes. As a paleontologist, I'm intimately familiar with the very long course of our own evolution. However, since this theory contains the elements of life from the beginning (Sentience and "Life" Energy), it doesn't take billions of years to develop it from scratch, as on our world. Also, I've always been of the mind that the magic (and not to mention Chaos) of the fantasy multiverse would serve as the ultimate mutagen. Species would then evolve much faster then the RealWorld. Then there is the mucking about of the Powers over all this time! All in all, I think this would greatly compress the length of time necessary to get the D&D multiverse. Besides, trying to explain whats been going on for billions of years, theoretically with Powers around, would be a real pain. :-)

> At the risk of being heckled or even stoned, I'll hazard the question
> of how the EEG or Tharixdun fit into the scheme? Are these merely
> "relatively old" godpowers? Do they contain/consist of Dimension such
> that they are "closer" to the primeval Prime Material Plane and hence
> to the ProtoUniverse?

Then Sander wrote...
> Wouldn't T be the one who wants to restore the original 'primordial
> soup'?

Then Rasgon wrote...

> No. It's the Elder Elemental God that wants a return to primal chaos.
> Tharizdun wants chaos to die as well, returning everything to void.
> EEG=gooey pre-creation
> Thariz=endless darkness

I hadn't actually given much thought to any individual Powers, as they are relatively insignificant in this Grand Unified Theory (even Big T!). But this works well! If the EEG and Tharizdun are "old powers" (still much less powerful and much younger then the three Sentients), and they have unusually large helpings of Chaos and Evil as flavors of the Ethos Variable (I'd say more Chaos to EEG and more Evil to BigT, and perhaps BigT's "endless darkness" is part Negative "Life" energy, or even perhaps the destruction of Dimension), they could well be insane enough to want to return to the primordial state. Or their faulty belief in what it was. I say insane because not even they could survive in the Primordial environment.

::Date: Thu, 27 Jul 2000 14:04:07 -0400
::From: "d.k. tetreault"
::Subject: Re: [GREYTALK] Life, the Multiverse, and Everything

On Thu, 27 Jul 2000, sander wrote:

> IIRC You said that shards of sentients from the original big soup
> could remain, but they could not be contained in something as small
> as a mortal body. What about immortal bodies?

Hmmm... I guess if the shard was small enough, and the original god was powerful enough.

> Could big T be an old god infused with a shard (back when it formed,
> I guess) - who was imprisoned by other gods to keep 'it' from taking
> this particular piece of PMP as it's body?

Interesting. Kinda like the crystal containing Diablo's spirit from the first comp game (haven't finished enough of D2 to know whats going on yet) being carried by the worthy hero (at the end) to "keep him contained"? Sure, I'd be willing to entertain such an interesting proposal. Perhaps the original Tharizdun was a powerful god of Goodness and Pure Light, and took on this terrible burden voluntarily! :-) Perhaps somewhere on some remote plane there is evidence of Tharizdun's goodness and ultimate sacrifice. That would sure be an interesting twist on things! :-)

::Date: Mon, 31 Jul 2000 14:54:06 -0700
::From: Marc Tizoc Gonzalez
::Subject: Re: [GREYTALK] Life, the Multiverse, and Everything

Just some more consideration of Maldin's theory.

>>> 4. "Life" Energy - for lack of a better word.
>>
>> Motivation? Impetus?
>>
>Hmmm... That wouldn't really tie in to the
>positive/negative material planes. I'd call it
>"biological energy", however in a fantasy universe
>"life" is not necessarily biological in origin.
>It's likewise more then psychic energy. It's
>certainly not tied to sentience. It's whatever
>is drained by undead that drain. :-)

Okay, I appreciate that the concept is beyond me. However, I like the Latin word _vitae_ (of life) and suggest it to denote the fourth Variable.

> Breaking it into different pieces at different rates is like hammering
> nails into a vibrating rope to stop it from moving around. And gives
> me an excuse for the different rates described in the MotP and PS. :-)

Yes. I really like the image and appreciate its consonance with the perfect chord analogy. (I love Tolkien's creation myth!)

Regarding the subcategories of Sentience, my question about the Spirit/Soul divide referred to the oft-cited _Deities and Demigods_ distinction, and again I am charmed by the elegance with which the Theory explains what otherwise seems arbitrary or a matter for the learned theologian.

Finally, I definitely like the young time of Oerth's multiverse. Isn't Lendor then another of those Elder Gods. What of Cyndor?

It seems that the distinction Greater/Lesser god might also be explained using Maldin's Theory. Is it greater invesments of a Variable that makes a Greater god? Is it the time since the founding of this "Sphere?"

Weighty matters, indeed.

Marc Tizoc

Concluding comments...

By application of my "Grand Unified Theory", one can collect together all the seemingly disparate, arbitrary and often contradictory elements of the D&D game and campaign worlds and tie them up in a neat, internally consistent bundle. The physical structure of the planes, the origins of mortals and immortals and their relationships, the laws of magic, the different natures of planes (such as the varying effects of magic and time) and how they change and interact, the imbuing of sentience without the need for complex brains (such as simple organisms, objects, and even planes), the palpable nature of good, evil, law and chaos on so many levels, the twisting of time and dimension impossible with our own RealWorld physical laws... ALL can be explained.

Everything from the Creator UberBeings to mortal souls, from the purpose of the "Spire" (on Concordant Opposition/the Outlands) to the existence of portable holes and intelligent swords.

Yes, weighty matters indeed. :-)