1. Notes

Planar Conjunctions and Manifest Zones

Wiki

Summary

Sometimes scholars refer to the planes as islands in an astral sea. This is inaccurate, however, because islands don’t move. The planes—metaphysically speaking—move within their medium. A more apt analogy would be clouds in an infinite sky. As clouds drift, so do planes, although rather than moving in a three-dimensional space, they move in higher dimensions.

Remembering this makes it easier to understand that planes are sometimes closer to or farther apart from certain other planes. When two planes come close together, cosmologists call it a “planar conjunction.” Planes are continually coming into conjunction and going out of conjunction.

Planes in Conjunction:  When two planes are in conjunction, spellcasters can summon creatures from the other plane to their own with the proper spells. Likewise, creatures who draw energy from another plane can do so when that plane and their own are in conjunction. Gateways and other conduits can take a traveler from one plane to the other. Basically, it is easy (relatively speaking) to create connections between the two. Spells like commune, contact other plane, gate, ethereal jaunt, summon monster, and even rope trick require two planes to be in conjunction in order to function as described.

Some planes are in conjunction with many planes of different types at any given time. The planes in conjunction with plane A usually are also in conjunction with all other planes that are in conjunction with plane A. These become localized planar clusters and see a lot of traffic. Thus, on a particular world, when spellcasters summon fiendish dire lions, the creatures normally come from the same hellish plane. 

Some planes are in conjunction with only a few other planes, or even just one. Scholars call such realms “remote planes” because they are difficult to reach. Other planes have connections that change frequently and have earned the name “wandering planes.”