Experiments Upon the Planar Substance
- A Tollish cosmological treatise, by Arryn of Tollen
Completed in DR 1727 (25 years ago)
Experiments upon the Planar Substance is the seminal work of Arryn of Tollen on the nature and magic of Limbo, the fundamental plane of chaos. In this sprawling work, Arryn catalogs diverse accounts of Limbo, many from the Great War, and develops his six fundamental principles of the action of magic in Limbo. They are:
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I. All matter in Limbo exists in potential, not form. Stone, air, and flame are distinctions of mind, not substance. Shape them by thought or perish within them. The essence of Limbo is Transmutation, the magic of shifting form, and Conjuration, the magic of shifting space.
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II. Will is the instrument of form. The stable pocket, the floating isle, the breathing shell of air, and other semi-permanent structures persist only while the shaper’s intellect holds fast. When focus wavers, dissolution begins.
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III. Motion and transmutation are one. To move an object in Limbo is to transform it; to transform it is to move it. A disciplined mind may translate thought into force, drawing matter toward or away from itself as easily as drawing breath.
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IV. Elemental distinction fails. Limbo does not burn or freeze, but both at once. Fire may bite with cold, water may cut like glass, air may harden to stone. Spells cast here often blend or invert their natures; every working risks the admixture of opposed or chaotic essences.
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V. Transmutation amplifies itself. The more an object or creature changes within Limbo, the easier further changes become, eventually ending when form itself is impossible to maintain and the object or creature decays to join the primordial chaos. Mastery of Limbo is mastery of transformation, but the line between mastery and dissolution is perilously thin.
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VI. Attention is gravity. Minds attract matter. Strong intellects draw fragments of the plane into orbit, while the unfocused drift helplessly, consumed by shifting substance.