| The Other Place | |
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 ' | |
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Type |
Subplane |
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Location |
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Reaction |
Alliance Horde |
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Races |
N/A |
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Ruler(s) |
N/A |
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Alt Names |
"Another Azeroth", "The Mirror" |
"The Other Place" was the name given to a series of semi-pseudoalternate reflections of Azeroth, named colloquially by their creator, Fylariea Talvethren. By leveraging her understanding Dream metaphysics, she was able to snapshot regions of Azeroth and create a layer slightly out of sync with the real Material Plane, reflecting the region as it was at the moment of its inception, with one limited exception; no, or limited, mortal life. In all other ways, The Other Place behaved metaphysically and physically like the Material Plane. Time ran parallel to its counterpart; a minute in the Other Place was a minute in the Material.
Spellcraft[]
The Other Place, while deceptively simple in scope, was comprised of two major components that lent it stability; a region, defined arbitrarily by Fylariea's subjective understanding of her inhabited area, whether it conformed to actual geopolitical lines or not—for example, Fylariea considered Stormwind City and Elwynn Forest separate regions, and so a shard conceived in Stormwind did not extend past the gates—and a cartouche, a magical shorthand for handling multiple entities as a singular one for simplicity's sake. The spell was remarkably efficient, and sustained itself on the passive emissions of even a single person's mana.
The cartouche had to exist at least in part within the boundaries of the region, while the region limited the area of effect. If the cartouche exited the region in its entirety, or ceased to exist, so too would the reflection. Those who excluded themselves from the cartouche, or were excluded by others, would return to normal space almost immediately, as long as they were not in a 'trapper shard'.
A cartouche could, in theory, be split, but Fylariea herself had to amend the spellwork to allow this, as she needed to remake the cartouches from scratch.
A person could dissolve a cartouche, or opt out of it, in several ways. Firstly, and the easiest, was that regardless of appearance, Fylariea required the target's consent to be added to the cartouche, and so this was not a strategy that could be used on hostile, aware targets, leaving its most effective uses as a surprise strategy for those unfamiliar with it. Once a person had seen the Other Place, or learned of its existence in sufficient manner, it could simply be rejected wholesale henceforth, though Fylariea could enter and exit it herself at will. Though a few ways existed to stop this, most people were not aware of the Other Place in the first and thus did not have ready access to the counters necessary to deny access to it; as it was not arcane magic, generic counterspells failed to inhibit it, and directed counterspells relied on a knowledge of the Other Place that did not precede experiencing it oneself.
The second involved active conduct within the Other Place. The cartouche was designed to fail safe, and thus if individuals no longer considered themselves as a unit—whether because business had been concluded, or they were taking their leave of each other, the cartouche would either dissolve or stop including the departing members, whichever was less intrusive. So long as at least two people remained in a cartouche, and one of the two remained within the bounds of the initial region, the shard could remain indefinitely. When the cartouche dissolved, the spell ended, and the shard ceased to exist.
Consequence within the Other Place[]
The Other Place was comprised of a snapshot codified at the moment of the relevant shard's inception. Anything that occurred in the Material while a shard of the Other Place existed was not reflected in the Other Place until the Other Place was exited or remade. Furthermore, anything that occurred in the Other Place would not have an effect on the Material, unless that consequence was attached to a person.
For example, being stabbed in the Other Place functioned normally, but if someone were to set a tree on fire in the Material while someone slept in that same tree in the Other Place, that tree would remain unharmed until they returned to the Material, though that tree would be burnt down in all future iterations.
If someone were to burn down a tree in the Other Place, however, that tree would not be burned down in reality, and would suffer no ill effects. Furthermore, this damage would not persist between one shard to the next, or even between different variants of the same shard. In this way, the Other Place served as a sort of testing ground for dangerous spells or concepts that risked collateral damage.
Continuity of the Other Place[]
When a person returned from the Other Place, they would return relative to where they exited that shard from, not where they entered, giving the appearance of teleportation. Considering the reflection was partially engendered by Dream methods, it was true that skilled druids could leverage to a limited extent the liminal perception of self that allowed druids to teleport, fly, or walk through walls while in the Other Place, but this was significantly harder than it was in the Dream. Furthermore, the Other Place was far distant from and unconnected to the Emerald Dream in any meaningfully significant way beyond this or the ways the Material was in similar locations.
Likewise, an unsecured door could be apparently bypassed entirely, or even secured ones if enough force was applied in the Other Place, seemingly ignoring protections in the Material so long as they could be gotten past in the Other Place. This had its own dangers, however: any security measures present were also duplicated, which meant it was entirely possible for traps to kill would-be burglars in the Other Place with no chance of rescue, and furthermore for highly destructive traps to be triggered without any consequences to the surrounding area in the Material, though this was poorly understood and thus rarely exploited.
A warded door that could be broken through over time, for example, could be broken through in the Other Place, resulting in an entrance outside the door and an exit inside of it, seemingly bypassing the door entirely. An especial danger of this was that the Other Place allowed its occupants to work for an indefinite period of time without interruption or even perception. Because of the potential for misuse, Fylariea avoided teaching people how to access the Other Place, and actively avoided disclosing this use case.
Though objects were reflected precisely in the Other Place, objects from the Other Place could not be taken back to the Material, with the exception of food and drink—so long as the imbiber gave enough time to digest what they consumed first. Objects from the Material could be brought into and through the Other Place, though any objects stored in the Other Place were permanently lost if the cartouche that sustained it was closed, with the only chance of recovery being to plumb the depths of the Nether.
Another People[]
Though primarily devoid of people, some individuals did exist within the Other Place natively, usually around populated centers of activity contemporary with the current efforts. Dornogal, for example, was rarely abandoned, though far less populous. These individuals rarely acknowledged visitors, engrossed in replaying whatever event had codified them in the world in the first place, but some were more aware and verbose than others. It was exceedingly rare for them to stray from their prescribed patterns, but not impossible, meaning that the Other Place was only mostly private rather than guaranteed it.
Structure of the Other Place[]
The Other Place was comprised of several frequencies, each representing a slightly different method of snapshotting the world around oneself before the cartouche was initialized. Though there were technically many variations on this practice, there were five discrete normal frequencies that crossed over with each other, and four trapper frequencies, leaving nine total variations on the practice that could be employed.
Normal Shards[]
Most of the possible cartouche frequencies of the Other Place were functional without alteration—a cartouche kept a person anchored to the region, and when it dissolved, the shard ejected its Material inhabitants before it ceased to exist. Normal shards were described by Fylariea like 'requiring an anchor that drags you down a few feet, just out of sight of the surface.' There were five of these in total used by Fylariea, with three dedicated to her and her immediate trusted family and friends, the only ones taught how to access such places, one for exceptionally low amounts of Other People, and one spare.
Trapper Shards[]
A few of possible cartouche frequencies displayed aberrant, unreliable behavior with the fail safe intended by the spellwork. Numbering four in total, these realms were, in some way, aggressive in their retainment of Material intruders, and did not release visitors appropriately once the cartouche ceased to be. Instead, these regions effectively persisted for an indefinite period of time, where these regions replaces the normal Material regions for those once afflicted by the cartouche, and required a reverse of the spell to be actively performed by Fylariea or a person close enough to the target to drag them back to the Material plane, lest they be prisoner to it indefinitely. Though this would eventually wear off on its own, this could take hours, days, or even weeks, effectively locking the target out of a region entirely unless they understood how to get out. While initially unintentional, these trapper shards would go on to be used purposefully to avoid conflicts, usually just to distance them from the invoker but occasionally as a punitive or safety measure.
Access to the Other Place[]
Because of the risk of abuse of the spellcraft, Fylariea jealously guarded the Other Place and its methodologies, leaving only her and her immediate found family aware of or capable of imitating the technique in order to access the Other Place, though some few inevitably came to similar techniques. Furthermore, she curated critical information on her own methodology, hiding frequencies where possible and obfuscating even to her beneficiaries what version exactly they were on, though it was possible to figure out from the Other People if present.
Though access to the Other Place was designed to be discretionary and at the whim of the invoker, the Other Place could be accessed if one knew the frequency and spellcraft necessary to create their own cartouche. This was rarely done, more rarely successful, and almost never reliable, however, due to the precautions of not disclosing the frequencies in use, though technically possible. The easiest way to access someone's shard was to be explicitly invited, requiring both parties to intentionally seek each other out, which would expand the cartouche and drag the seeker in. This could also be done by one consenting party and an active, intentional seeker, as well.
Perception of the Material[]
People within the Other Place could, as a rule, not see, speak, communicate, reach, or otherwise influence or effect people in the Material Plane in any way, though various methods allowed for enough vague bleedthrough to imply population density to avoid accidentally phasing back inside of someone. The reverse was also true, with each space existing parallel to the other and neither effecting one another in the moment. In essence, they acted as completely separate planes, even if otherwise linked.
However, some methods remained effective nevertheless. Locating someone in the Other Place would allow one to locate them in the Material, and vice versa, though they would not be able to see, hear, or touch each other. Magical communication continued to function as normal, though non-magical communication did not. Using the sympathy of a person allowed one to attempt to reach them directly, though this tended to vary in its efficacy, and was primarily useful in order to rescue people from trapper shards.