Lessons from Literature: Nothing

A little over a week ago I started reading "The Chronicles of Narnia" to my daughter, starting with "The Magician's Nephew". (Purists will argue over the 'correct' reading order, and seem to come down in favour of publication order. However, this makes TMN a prequel, and prequels suck, so I'm sticking with chronological order.) Now it's fair to say that the Narnia stories are of little relevance to gaming for the most part - Gygax was aware of them but didn't really rate them, the setting is overly allegorical for consideration, and so forth. However, there are some things that are of some use...

Early in TMN, before even the founding of Narnia, the two protagonists find themselves transported to "the wood between the worlds". As the name implies, this is a gateway realm between different worlds (that takes the form of a great wood filled with many pools). That is, it's another Transitive Place, like the Infinite Staircase, the Astral or Ethereal Planes, and so forth. That's probably one that's worth borrowing.

The other idea that's worth lifting comes a bit later in the book, where the various characters step into a pool and find themselves in... Nothing. That is, they've stepped into a realm that hasn't been created yet, and so they aren't really anywhere. (From there, of course, the story is heading towards the founding of Narnia, but that's not important right now.)

That's got to be an intriguing notion worthy of some thought - some areas in the multiverse that are still, somehow, 'blank', and that are therefore open for a passing divinity/wizard/villain to fill with whatever they see fit. Or, to put it another way, they're demiplanes ready to be established.

D&D has lately become a game of epic quests to save the world from the latest Big Bad Evil Guy du jour. Traditionally, though, although that was always an option the game also featured such things as establishing a keep, running a kingdom, attaining divine ascension, or even establishing an entire demiplane. The quest for Nothing would seem to be a useful step in the pursuit of that last... and may be a worthwhile thing to add to the multiverse.