Energy Planes¶
"The Positive and Negative energy planes are built from opposition. Good and Evil. Creation and Destruction, Happiness and Misery." — Terrun Cosmology (S421)
The Energy Planes are the two planes of raw power, Positive and Negative, that the archive cosmology set among the inner planes beside the elements. "Travel to the energy planes via any known mechanism is impossible. They are planes of raw energy which fuel existence on the Material Plane, as well as natural cycles. They are often tapped by beings as a power source" (S421). They are the wellspring of Light and Darkness magic and the pool from which the gods and their disciples draw. The 2026 Cosmology Revision (S001) does not list them, and no source says what became of them; this page records what the older documents say.
Positive Energy Plane¶
Also called Light. "A pool of energy for good and neutral gods and their disciples. Associated to positive emotions." It connects to the other Energy Planes, the Elemental Planes, the Material Plane and the Astral Plane; "no known forms can visit energy planes" (S421).
Negative Energy Plane¶
Also called Dark. "A pool of energy for evil and neutral gods and their disciples. Associated to negative emotions." Its connections are the same as its twin's (S421).
The fuel of life and divinity¶
"These extremes are what generates power in the positive and negative energy planes. Priests, Clerics, Paladins and some Mages have learned to tap into these power streams. The Clergy have especially have learned not just to tap into it, but to help form it, which is why Holy sites are often found to have the very highest levels of this energy" (S421). The rules of the same period call this stream Divine energy and say the clergy "build conduits to help form it" and reach it through Astral Shards (S395). The oldest magic document assigns the Living sphere to these planes, "the sources of life": necromancy "directly manipulate[s] the dark energies of the negative energy plane" and life magic "the energies of the positive energy plane" (S371). The arcane colleges called Light and Darkness are the Terrestrial domains that manipulate the "two of the intertwined Energy Planes: Positive and Negative" (S304, S208), and the Faerie Plane is said to bind them along with the four elemental planes (S279, S208).
The Sea of Souls shows their mark: souls there "appear as clouds of energy with various colors (depending on the emotions and connections with negative or positive energy planes)" (S421); see Netherworld.
Where the planes stand¶
The Compendium lists "The Energy Planes (Negative, Positive)" with the Elemental Planes under Inner Planes (S372, S384), and the archive cosmology gives them a group of their own between the Elemental Planes and the Material (S421, S389). The newest magic notes still mirror them: the focuses of magic are sorted so that the "Inner" row holds Positive, Negative and Abyssal (S205). The Mithis Energy Plane, which the archive cosmology set beside them as the place "where the other Energy Planes form a bridge between Material, Astral and Elemental Planes", has its own page: Mithis Plane.
The archive cosmology also uses the planes to explain where magic fails: the Shadow Realm and the Sea of Souls admit no magic "due to the lack of connections with any energy plane", and divine magic does not function in the Abyss "because of a lack of a connection to the Negative or Positive Energy Planes" (S421).
Gap
The 2026 Cosmology Revision (S001) and the 2022 Cosmology (S013) omit the Energy Planes entirely. No source says whether they were dropped from the scheme, folded into another plane, or simply not mentioned. Nothing describes what either plane looks like from within, since nothing can go there.