Demiplane

A demiplane is a term introduced in the Planescape setting for Dungeons & Dragons. In a nutshell, it refers to a "miniature" plane, one featuring well-defined limitations as opposed to extending on to infinity in all directions, having variable gravity and time traits, etc. Demiplanes can be big - Sigil is technically a demiplane - but are usually associated with small sizes, from "big as a large room" to "the size of a mansion".

Creating demiplanes is a popular pastime for high level wizards, as it essentially lets them create their own personalized pocket of reality. With enough time and investment, a demiplane can grow into a full-fledged world in its own right.

List of Demiplanes

Sigil

While Sigil is part of the Outlands and can be seen at the top of the spire in the center, it isn't actually possible to reach Sigil from the Outlands without using a portal and it is not considered to be a layer of the plane. So it might be best described as a demiplane.

Demiplane of Dread

The Ravenloft setting is sometimes called the Demiplane of Dread even though it is large enough to be a world itself. It might be more accurate to call it the Demiplanes of Dread because it consists of many Domains of Dread with their own traits that can be completely isolated from each other by the will of the Dark Powers or a domain's Dark Lord, but then again when said Darklords are chill about it (or really, the DM is) you can outright ride a horse from one to the other.

World Serpent Inn

An entire dimension that consists of nothing but a single huge inn.

City of Union

Union is a less-violent version of Sigil that attracts a lot of epic level characters. Union consists of a large number of islands connected by portals floating in a void, with the main islands of the city also held together by bridges. It was constructed by a race called the Mercanes to use as trading hub.

Neth, the Plane That Lives

Neth is a living and extremely intelligent demiplane. It is a 500 mile wide plane of flesh crumbled into a ball. Its only exit and entrance is a single portal that connects it to the Astral Plane. Neth is extremely curious about the universe, and is surprised that anything other than itself exists, as it cannot directly see anything outside of itself. It learns by sending out Flesh Golem like minions, interrogating people who end up inside of it, or absorbing them into itself to take their memories. Neth communicates through a wall of faces of all the people it has absorbed. Most of all, Neth wants to know why it exists as it doesn't remember its origin.

The Observatorium

The Observatorium is a mysterious sphere that moves around the Astral Plane. It is difficult to reach because it moves unpredictably and most of the ways to exit it can't be used to get back. It is full of strange machinery that can be used to spy on and open one way gates to anywhere in the multiverse. However, you can't stay for too long because it has an effect of causing temporary wisdom loss to visitors that makes you more and more likely to accidently stumble into one of the exits the longer you are there.

Common Ground

Common Ground is a small plane where gods hold meetings with each other. Gods cannot harm each other on this plane and it's supposed to be impossible for mortals to enter.

Demiplane of Nightmares

Where the Plane of Dreams meets the Ethereal Plane and the Far Realm.

Plane of Mirrors

A series of demiplanes that connect to reflective surfaces. While traveling through them you may run into your opposite alignment mirror counterpart who wants to kill you and take your place.

Demiplane of Shadow

Got promoted to the Plane of Shadow.

Demiplane of Time

A weird plane where you may come out much older or younger than when you entered.

Demiplane of Electromagnetism

A plane that is slowly disappearing as it is absorbed into the quasielemental plane of lightning.

Demiplane of Imprisonment

A legendary plane ruled by horrifically powerful and evil beings left over from a time when they ruled over much of the universe before a great war where the great powers of the various alignments were forced to ally together to defeat them. This evil force probably came from the Far Realm, though this was written before the Far Realm was added to the cosmology.

The Mazes

Where people who irritated the Lady of Pain end up if she doesn't feel like killing them.

The Black Abyss

A mysterious plane that is constantly decaying but seems to be in a weird equilibrium. The outer most layer of the demiplane is a series of caverns made of white stone lit by bright lights that feed the vegetation in this cavern. As you get closer to the center of the plane, the ethereal plane breaks down and may drop you into solid stone or into a cavern with no exits if you are unlucky. The center of the plane is massive hollow area full of swirling red clouds and red lightning with white stone bridges stretching towards the very center. Time and space become extremely distorted and magic starts failing the further you travel along the bridges. Pieces of the bridges are constantly breaking off and falling into the center and yet they never completely disappear. The very center appears to be a black hole which nobody knows what it leads to as nobody has been able to safely reach it. In one of the caverns are a pair of statues with the words "TIME" and "SPACE" written on them, and an obelisk with strange writing in between them.

The Boundless

A 3000 mile wide plane of crystal islands and gelatinous oceans. The first time you visit the plane, drinking from the ocean will heal your wounds, the second time you visit, drinking from the ocean will make you younger, but anybody who visits the plane again after this is never seen again, and if you have drunk from the plane twice you will constantly run into the edge of it while on the ethereal plane, making a third visit hard to avoid. The plane is guarded by a being named Asahel, who gives a warning to anybody who approaches the plane for the first time. The warning she gives seems to imply that third time visitors are enslaved forever. Asahel refuses to answer any questions and she respawns if she is killed. While you are on the plane, time does not pass outside, and on a second visit, all evidence of your previous visit will be gone.

The Demiplane of Moil (The City that Waits)

Moil was once a city on the world of Ranais that worshiped Orcus, but when they turned away from worshiping him he was enraged and put a curse on the city that made the whole population fall asleep until the sun rose, then banished the city to a demiplane so the sun would never rise for them. The citizens eventually all died in their sleep and were later enslaved as undead by Acererak, who discovered the plane and used them to construct his fortress outside of the demiplane. The city is haunted by a being called the Vestige (no relation to the Vestiges that Binders summon), who is formed from the nightmares of all the people who died there. The plane consists of floating towers connected by bridges with a constant lightning storm above and crossing the boarder of the demiplane drops you into the Negative Energy Plane, which the demiplane itself has several of the traits of.

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  The Vestige

Maelost

A Death World of constantly shifting black stone and falling black rain. The black waters of this plane are alive and like to drag people down, and it is also populated by some nasty monsters, though somehow a tribe of humanoids manages to survive here. The plane is 120 miles wide and crossing the edge causes you to loop back around to the other side.

The Semblance

An artificial world in the ethereal plane surrounded by mists that try to disintegrate unprotected matter, created by a group of wizards called the Mhagane as a hiding place from an unknown enemy.

Wormscape

A plane that seems to be completely filled with worms except for a few pockets of breathable air. One theory is that the worms are actually just the outer layer of an absolutely massive monster that they are feeding on or are spawned from. Maybe it has something to do with Kyuss?

Edition History

1st Edition

The concept of demiplanes has been around since the earliest days of the game, but it was mostly an example of DM fiat in creating pocket dimensions for all kinds of crazy adventures. Examples include the original Ravenloft module (I6), Dungeonland (EX1) and its sequel The Land Beyond The Magic Mirror (EX2). There's really nothing substantial about these places, just the vague notion that they are created by powerful (usually long-lost) magical techniques.

2nd Edition

In the early days of 2nd edition, demiplanes still remained a DM tool; adventures like Isle of the Ape (WG6) continued in the same vein as the prior edition.

All that changed with Planescape. In The Planewalker's Handbook, demiplane seed was available as an 8th-level spell to mages. That book, and A Guide To The Ethereal Plane established that these "minor" demiplanes had to be created on the Ethereal Plane (probably because it was considered something of a proto-reality plane). The process was pretty arduous, involving a pretty pricey gemstone and 100 days of spellcasting and other work, but otherwise, it did what it said on the box: you created your very own demiplane to fill with traps, treasure, whatever you felt you needed to keep up with.

There was also a 9th-level spell called demiplane decay that could destroy demiplanes under specific conditions, but it was pretty horrible overall; anyone who couldn't plane-hop out of the place was dissolved with the rest of the plane in the very end.

Special "major" demiplanes were beyond the scope of any mortal magic and were mainly the province of divine-level beings.

3rd Edition

Demiplanes made a definite comeback, but there was a lot of weird stuff throughout the edition. The first appearance was in the 3.0 Manual of the Planes: the Planeshifter prestige class gained access to the ability demiplane seed at 10th level.

The next mention of making demiplanes was in the Epic Level Handbook, under the genesis 9th-level spell, available only to wizards or clerics with the Creation domain (until the domain was reworked in 3.5). It was costly at 5,000 XP and a week's casting time (8 hours/day), but you didn't have to take some arbitrary class to get to it; it still had to be done on the Ethereal Plane as in 2nd edition.

In 3.5, genesis was also made a 9th-level psionic power, restricted to Shaper psions, who got it for a much less stringent 1,000 XP and could be created on the Astral Plane.

Oddly, there is one final source for creating a demiplane: the 9th-level general cleric spell Word of Genesis, which had a truename component (basically, you had to buy ranks of a specific unique skill and pass a check at DC 50; yeah, it was about as well-written as the rest of the Truenamer section).

It should be noted that you don't really have to use such powerful magic to get yourself a little pocket dimension, at least temporarily. Rope trick has long been regarded as an infinitely useful "rest area" spell in dungeons, and Mordenkainen's magnificent mansion is even better, giving access to plenty of food and space for various tasks (along with a very long duration at the time you get access to it). In fact, there is a somewhat obscure reference in Complete Scoundrel to a permanent mansion effect (the headquarters of the Blind Tower criminal organization); given that the permanency spell even mentions that you can research certain spells to be made permanent, and that it costs a pretty pinch of XP to make any high-level spell permanent, it's not a far-fetched notion for a DM to approve such a thing. But there is a downside: the thing can be dispelled, causing all the contents - and guests - to spill out of it, so be advised.

Pathfinder

When Pathfinder was a 3.5 setting it added the Genesis spell, which was pretty much the psionic power of the same name as a spell, exclusive to Clerics of the Artifice domain. When Pathfinder became a setting, it ignored all off the previous methods, even though all three were OGL, and even created a new version of the artifice domain without Genesis in the core rulebook.

This would be rectified in Ultimate Magic. Printed in that book was the spell Create Demiplane alongside its lesser and greater variants. Demiplanes now come online much earlier than they did before, requiring only 7th level spells and a cheap focus to create. On the downside, a demiplane now has a limited duration unless you cast permanency it, ensuring only Wizards and Clerics of an obscure subdomain get access to permanent ones. You are also limited to what traits you can select for your plane, so some of the cheese is off limits.

5th Edition

Yeah, they're still around, if a bit neutered. You can still create a demiplane with the appropriately named Demiplane, an 8th Level Conjuration spell that opens a spooky door to your brand new demiplane!... An empty 30ft. x 30ft. x 30ft. room made of stone or wood. Yeah... But anything placed inside (including creatures) remain inside the room indefinitely, even when the spell ends and the door vanishes. So... not exactly Mordenkainen's place, but it's serviceable if you need a decent-sized off-plane hidey-hole. Oh, AND if you know of another demiplane's existence and makeup, you can get into it by using Demiplane or Planes Shift and pull an 'All your... modest studio apartment... are belong to us!'

Demiplanes For Fun And Profit

Even as early as 2nd edition, one can use a demiplane for all kinds of fun stuff.

The most basic use is to make your own private homestead or farm: the bottom of the demiplane is the ground, the top is the "sky". Give it a nice, moderate temperature good for crops and livestock, normal day/night cycle, basically the most ordinary environment you can. You want access to spells like control weather and plant growth to kickstart your first few years of crops, but if you keep careful control of the demiplane's environment, you automatically bypass several problems farmers contend with: various diseases and blights, pests/vermin, poor weather, natural disasters, etc.

Another option is to run a big ol' business out of the place. This is a great option in big cities where real estate is at a premium. Buy a small, cheap property, and install portals going to the demiplane where you put in all your manufacturing or services for your business. Now, most folks know this option is how a lot of wizards run their wizard towers, where the outside is smaller than the inside, but don't let yourself be limited to that old cliche. Imagine a little shack that runs the city's biggest tavern, inn, brothel, and casino, a vast pleasure palace.

All of this is enhanced with additional magic to provide labor and resources. For example, if you can summon up a djinn, even for just a short time, you can create permanent plant-based materials; while this stuff could theoretically be dispelled (a nuance that comes up in 3rd edition), that still means you can conjure up firewood, which by itself is a big fucking deal. (Why? Because you don't have to chop down trees for it now. This curtails a lot of effort to acquire fuel, as well as making a LOT of side folks like druids, elves, and sylvan creatures happy that you aren't cutting down their forests.) You can use permanent image to create decorations; in 2nd edition, these are difficult to change, but in 3rd edition the caster can change them at will, allowing for redecorating for special occasions.

Throw in some choice magic items, constructs, and other permanent effects, and you have a real piece of work to call home. Best part is, this provides a luxurious place for your favorite NPCs to come hang their hat. Any cohorts, followers, and loyal hirelings can be given room and board, either for some work on your behalf, or possibly even just to spend the rest of their days enjoying life.

Now, before you get super excited to try any of this, note that all this falls on the DM to approve of, and some may not want to bother with the whole thing. Having said that, if you are a DM, then this is a pretty good way to motivate your players to go on adventures to acquire the treasure needed to pay for all this kind of stuff. Nothing like a spare dragon hoard to fund the ultimate retirement plan, after all.

The most attractive feature of the demiplane is the fact that it's damn hard to find out about. All but the most powerful divination effects can't cross planar borders. Only a few effects can take you there (unless there's a portal somewhere); you can theoretically wander the Ethereal or Astral Planes looking for curtains/pools that lead to the right demiplane, but even if you find one, the chances you found the correct path to the correct demiplane are worse than the chances of a "good" result of using a rod of wonder. Security like that is at a premium at the higher levels, and can be stacked with other effects to make it even better.