Plane Creation

Lucien is interested in how the planes were created. It seems like this is a power not just of "They", but of their creations. Is plane creation in the realm of magic? Is making a pocket dimension, pulling some of the real world into its own plane a thing?

Polkdot would say the planes just exist, they weren't created, they just are.

Planes of existence: (Per Polk, from what he says were his explorations of the planes)
Polk puts forth that there are 12 planes of existence. Each plane is divided into 3 sections or realms. There are moments where he suggests each of the 3 realms may also have 3 realms, and so forth, until they fade into the next plane.
The Void Planes are, unsurprisingly, mostly empty.

Projecting carries with it a number of possible side effects and long term issues. Reality fluctuations can become quite a problem.

1st Plane
Level A - Nothing
Level B - Flat plane - Can not be manipulated
Level C - The Black Room - Blackness with a small edge/ledge running around it. A room exterior side is the exact length of one step more than one thinks it should be to the corner. It is a cube and the lengths will not vary. If one turns a corner and thinks it should be further, they are taken back to outside the first exterior wall they began following and it becomes the new length they thought of. If one thinks a side should be shorter, they are quickly ushered around the entire object until that distance has been covered.

2
A - Empty. Writable while there. Resets
B - Endless flat field so notably flat and the same that one can not tell if they are moving.
C - Trying to move here leaves the entity in place but moves the plane in the direction the entity is trying to move.

3
A - A vast darkness of stars
B - Nothing. It isn't dark but it isn't gray or light either. It is truly void of anything our senses can detect. It is so empty of anything that your senses can not even liken it to something. So to say it is dark is to say you could sense dark, which isn't possible, nor can you recall what dark might be to draw a comparison.
Polk gets a bit extra weird about this place and adds we know this place, that it is buried within us, each case of writer or artist's block that leaves a blank page or canvas is our mind trying desperately to recall or know this place.
C - Same as A, but in reverse, a vast light with dark points where stars are

4
A - Over World
B - You are here - Earth, The Bowl, The Clock.
C - Under dark - Polk describes this as both a plane of existence but also refers to “under dark” as a place as if it is just under the ground on the 4B plane.

5
A - The Hells
B - Polk could never reach this realm, or if he could he wasn't aware of it. Because nothing ever happened when he tried to reach it, he at one point believed it was an alternate reality of here, but now doesn't think so. He also wonders if this isn't Darconoffs workshop as he has long suspected it isn't actually in Hell.
C - Under Hells - From Polks description this sounds a bit like falling through the floor of a game.

6
A - Out of body - Here you tend to see yourself in the 3rd person with movement reversed. Things here are as you imagine them to be provided you are looking at them but even blinking makes them vanish. This can create a bit of a stuttering effect if one keeps thinking of it a certain way, otherwise it will rapidly change with each new blink and thought. Magic does work here but Polk points out the nature of the place makes working magic there to be nearly impossible.

7  
A - Empty and Writeable - Things summoned here will stay nearly the same as if summoned on earth.
B - The box - Described as a box shaped void. The box is 1/4th the size of the distance that you can see
C - This void plane encompasses everything that the box does not, including the box itself but not the contents of the box unless nothing is being seen inside the box.

8
A
B
C

9
A - The White Room - Entering this plane rips the projector apart, fragmenting them into infinite pieces.
B - Storm - This plane is a brilliant expanse of “energy tornadoes” and lightning.
C - The Vault - Magic doesn't really work here but things can be constructed here. You can see things off in the distance that have been put here but they can't be reached. They will grow closer but only by a slight amount. You also see through things here sort of. If you were to construct a shed here, from the inside it would look normal. From the outside you'd essentially be seeing "through" the shed as if there were no walls, except the visible inside interior portion. This also holds true for items inside. Polk struggles to describe what items in this hypothetical shed would look like, finally settling on "flat" things look flat. Like they are painted or drawn in the air.

These last three Polk describes as the "inner workings" and warns to just not try to go there. Also keep in mind, Polk is completely speculating on these.

10 - If there is anything here other than the So Em Ba's pit of dead and waiting rooms, Polk hasn't been able to figure it out.
A
B
C
For lack of any better idea Polk has decided Realm A is the home of the So Em Ba.
For lack of any better idea Polk has decided this is the pit of the dead, where the So Em Ba dump the spiritual bodies of the dead.
For lack of any better idea Polk has decided this is the waiting room where spiritual bodies wait and are cataloged and sorted.
For Polk this is the odd plane out. He admits there is no real evidence it is even divided up at all but if the rest of the planes are, this one must be as well.

11 - Plane of Inner Workings
Mechanism of Mantras - 3 levels but each with 9 sub levels which work in conjunction with each other to intone the natural orders of things. Polk thinks they likely appear as lands turning as a sort of CVT transmission.

12 - Plane of Inner Workings
Polk speculates these 3 realms serve as a sort of wrapper around some or all of the other planes.
He thinks the mid level (B) is where "The Gates" are located but he can't be sure. If so then he believes the gates must connected to the lower level (C) where the They are. He notes "The Gates" he believes are unnatural gates and maybe only manifest to us as gates being that we are familiar with the concept of gates. If the They are on the lower realm this would mean, Polk believes, that "The Forest" is also there.
The Forest according to polk is just that, a forest, that stretches on forever. A They hides behind each tree. Each person has a path through this forest and every hurdle in life is manifested here as some sort of physical barrier be it some thorns sticking out, or a large fallen tree, etc.
According to Polk you can get off the path and just walk through the forest but this upsets the reality which eventually will make you pay for straying from your path.

Note: Polk talks with a certainty about it, but it also comes across as really wishy washy and maybe even sounding a bit more like he is recalling a dream he had. He's also weirdly specific about these forest paths being for people where normally he uses the word entity so as to encompass all things.
Note 2: Polk claims to have traveled to all of these either through the use of magic or by having the So Em Ba carry him. So hearing things like, you are torn to bits here, should sound odd.

"Pocket Realms" --- 2am, I'll come back to this.

Polk: The thing to remember is mantras are the root. The runes sit on top. There are several possibilities. One is Darconoff was not aware of all the mantras. Another is he intentionally left some inaccessible or at least inaccessible to us. Another possibility, as we close in on creation is only They know about them, or they are impossible to make into runes.
Darconoff's runes also are in a sense simplified to the mantras. The mantras require everything to be defined. So if we say the mantras required to make stone are 1,2,3,4,5,6,7. Then Darconoff merged all 7 into a single rune for stone. On the mantra level though 1 might be to make something called stone, 2 might be a color, 3 might be setting how solid it is, 4 assigns a weight, etc etc. From a mantra point of view you could possibilities create a weightless stone. From the Runes however, this wouldn't be possible, you'd have to make a stone, and then manipulate the space around it.

Some of these planes, runes won't work but it could be because you simply can't write within them, or empower them. But Mantras may work.

But if you just mean to bring materials into these realms, it is possible, but results may vary or things may not last like you might expect them to. But it has been done before.

"Is there any knowledge of the mantras themselves that humans or any creation has? Or is all of our magic based on Darconoff's runic system?

"Basically, other than writing (and what the witches do, and what necromancers do), is there any other type of magic system?

"And basically another way of looking at it is, to look at it another way. If mantras are underlying all the runes, is there anything that might expose unknown mantras, and is there a system for converting them to runes? (Basically, how can we add to magical knowledge in a non-witchy, non-necromantic way)

"Is there something special about runes that keep them from being... corrupt like witch power? Is writability more of an attribute, something that darconoff added to planes, or did the They add it to certain planes? For example, is there a plane where necromancers are far more powerful and runes have no power (not writable)?

"So maybe my original question is, is there a way to carve a portion of writable plane out to make a more or less hidden space? Or at least, a place where you could, let's say, build a building or a room, even if that meant hauling wood and stone from this plane?

"Also, if you are going to visit any of those planes anytime soon, I'd be interested in going on a field trip to them.

1. " is all of our magic based on Darconoff's runic system?" Yes, and no. The runes are what we have that is the most accessible. There are, such as the methods the witches pursue, other ways of achieving the same end. But the runes are more complete, and predictable.

2. "Basically, other than writing..." It is possible to use the runes through concentration. However this takes a lot of practice for even a rune or two since you have to hold its image in your mind, and empower it, and any others you have written.

3. "Is there something special about runes that keep them from being...corrupt" Corrupt comes from here. (He points and waves his hand a bit indicating "within." I suspect all that mangling, self destruction, trial and error, the numbing to it and sense of power is what invites things into the witches and compounds their internal senses and causes their corruption.

4. "Is writability more of an attribute, something that darconoff added to planes, or did the They add it to certain planes? " It seems to be the nature of the planes. I suspect They could no more alter a plane than we can. They likely searched them, and found one they could create on.

5. "is there a way to carve a portion of writable plane out to make a more or less hidden space? Or at least, a place where you could, let's say, build a building or a room, even if that meant hauling wood and stone from this plane?" Secret, depends what you mean. Security through obscurity. There are few that search the planes. But to your second question, yes, I believe you could, but as I said results may vary or things may not last like you might expect them to. But it has been done before.

6. " if you are going to visit any of those planes anytime soon." My days of searching of the planes are over. It is dangerous, and tiring, and there is nothing really to see.

3) "Is there anything we can do to reverse the corruption? Like yoga, mind tricks, helping the homeless? I mean, both Percival and I had attachments, and I'd rather not jump into a pit every time I feel icky."

Polk laughs.
"There's corruption and there is corruption and you are confusing the two. You're a magnet and things are going to keep finding you, but don't worry, you'll be ok. By the time you're not you notice. And...well one day you'll realize you made every decision up until the moment you didn't. But you want to check out, there's the proverbial door. What's the old witch saying, "pay three fold." Get a move on, keep your head down, in three years maybe you'll ....demagnetize. ...and don't worry about having to jump in a pit cause you feel "icky," that doesn't keep working that way. That chasm will consume you."